190" 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1033 



ItOMLS 



byA.LROOT 



Mr. Hoot: —July Gleanings has just arrived, and 

 I n^tc what you had to say to Wm. A. Scheiffer, and I 

 will say he voices my sentiments in regard to bee cul- 

 ture and religion— separate them. I have kept bees 

 for half a century, and have never found a place where 

 I could use anv of that orthodox nonsense called relig-- 

 ion. One would think by readinfi your article that you 

 stopp-^d in the middle of the road some fifty years 

 aso, while the procession had kept ri^ht on. You 

 are certainly fifty years behind the times. Prohibi- 

 tion is not temperance, but the worst kind of intem- 

 perance. Where did you get the rijiht to say whether 

 I should take a drink or not? Where did you get any 

 right that I have not y You ought to have lived in 

 Salpm, Mass , 200 years ago. They were just your 

 caliber Did you not know that the Christian religion 

 was dyiiig just as fast as it could'r Your churches 

 are partly filled Sundays with well-meaning children 

 and ignorant men. Very few intelligent men go to 

 church any more. Of course, you have a perfect 

 right to print what you please, and under present 

 laws I have the right to reject or accept as I see fit; 

 and I hope for the benefit of generations yet unborn 

 that no changes will be made in these rights. I sup- 

 pose you have heard the story of the two men who 

 were going down the street. One saidto the other, 



" Let's take a drink." 



The other replied, " No, I don't drink." 



'■ Well, take a smoke." 



" No. I do not smoke." 



" Well, then, eat some hay." 



" No, I don't eat hay." 



" Well, good by then. You are not a fit companion 

 for man or beast." 



I am not a very good hand to put my thoughts on 

 paper; but if it should be my good luck to meet you 

 at some future time we will have a frinedly chat on 

 the subject. I think I can convince you that some 

 very good people differ with you. Give us the latest 

 on bees and chickens if you like, and let religion and 

 prohibition go to the garret with the bats and owls 

 and other anticiuities Wishing you health and hap- 

 piness I remain respectfully yours, 



Henderson Mich. Wm. Kohlmeybr. 



Well, my good friend K., even if wq do 

 see things so very differently I think I can 

 thank you for the very kind and genial 'way 

 in which you take me to task. No'w, I do 

 not know but I shall have to agree with you 

 that somebody has stopped in the middle of 

 the road while the "procession has gone on " 

 for the last fifty years; and I think I shall 

 leave it to our readers to judge whether you 

 are the one who kept still while the proces- 

 sion went on or whether it was your old 

 friend A. I. K. By the way, let me tell you 

 that your letter came in a great heap of ap- 

 plications for the Stainless Flag; and in this 

 heap of letters and postal cards were some 

 of the kindest and most encouraging words 

 I ever received for my Home papers. Your 

 letter was the only one in the lot that object- 

 ed; and it is the only one I have received 

 since our last issue, with one exception. 

 The applications for the Stainless Flag have 

 gone away up into'the thousands, and kind 

 words accompany almost every one of them. 

 Now, don't you think that the procession you 

 alluded to, that is marching on continually, 

 embodies the tempei'ance sentiment that is 

 now sweeping all over our land / The papei's 

 ^re so full of it that you certainly must know 



what is going on. A few years ago there 

 was a sort of political prohibition (some of 

 the friends will excuse me if I say third-pai'- 

 ty prohibition) that might have been some- 

 what open to your charge of intemperance. 

 Yes, many of the good friends threw it into 

 my teeth that I did not vote as I prayed; but 

 may God be praised, the Px-ohibition party 

 and the Anti-saloon League and the Christian 

 churches are now getting into line and work- 

 ing with such harmony of purpose that noth- 

 ing, can stand before us. . 



Friend K., I have never assumed the right 

 to say what you shall drink in your own 

 home, providing said drink does not make 

 you crazy and induce you to abuse your own 

 wife and children. If you do that, I hope 

 every neighbor you have will interfere. In 

 fact, if I am right you would interfere 

 yourself if a neighbor would abuse his 

 children because he was crazy with drink. 

 The papers tell you about these things, and 

 so we need not discuss it. The Anti-saloon 

 League does not interfere or quarrel with 

 any man who keeps liquors in his own home 

 and drinks them in moderation. Of course, 

 we reason and remonstrate with him, but 

 we do not undertake to forbid it by law. 



' ' Where do you get any right that I have 

 not?" you ask. Surely, friend K., I have 

 never thought nor presumed that I had any 

 right that you have not; but where people 

 differ as you and I do, is it not the sentiment 

 of our country that the majority shall I'ule'/ 

 Well, all the Anti-saloon League asks is that 

 the majority of voters be permitted to decide 

 whether a town or community shall keep 

 open saloons or not. That is right, is it not? 

 Now, my good friend, towns, townships, 

 cities, counties, and States all around us are 

 voting on this question. Some go wet and 

 some go di-y. Let us draw a line in your 

 neigborhood, or any other neighborhood, and 

 let all the friends of the saloon stand on one 

 side of that line and all opposed to it on the 

 other. Which crowd do you wish to be with? 

 You can look the crowd over jusft as well as 

 I can. On one side we have all temperate 

 people, our ministers, professors in our col- 

 leges, our teachers, and all whQ love right- 

 eousness and hate iniquity; and, of course, all 

 the women and children will stand with them. 

 I declare I almost dread to mention the class 

 on the other side. Of course, you will have 

 all the drinking men, all the gamblers, all 

 the liquor-dealers, all the criminals, highway 

 robbei's, pickpockets, midnight thieves, etc. 

 Can y(iu consent, after carefully looking over 

 both crowds,, to go over and stand with the 

 latter class? If you have a wife and children 

 (and I hope you have) may God forbid that 

 you should take any such steps. 



But in discussing this matter of prohibition 

 you overlook the object of it entirely. You 

 may have as good a right to take morphine 

 as i; but if any druggist in Henderson should 

 presume to sell it promiscuously, as he might 

 tartaric acid, that druggist would be imme- 

 diately confronted with prohibition of a very 

 stringent character. You may lire your pis- 

 tol ]iromiscuously on the wide fields of Illi- 



