1604 



L;..i:ANli\GS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



maid. Satan commenced again: "That black 

 girl with the baby is mussing up the seat 

 you ' bought and paid for,' and it will smell 

 too. Even if they are porter and maid, they 

 should not be allowed to occupy the seats 

 designed for white people — " Here I ab- 

 ruptly shut off Satan again; but he had got 

 agoing, and then he started oft' on another 

 tack. "They always pick at you and snub 

 you. In the buffet car they filled orders for 

 other people, given long after yours was 

 handed in; and, after all this waiting, your 

 hash was almost cold, and no butter with 

 your bread." 



I had been standing all this time, but final- 

 ly ventured to sit down by a man who had 

 been uncivil in the morning (or at least I im- 

 agined he was). When I quietly asked per- 

 mission to occupy a part of his seat he said 

 something I could not hear, and moved his 

 coat-tails so little that I could scarcely avoid 

 sitting on them. 



Yes, dear reader, it is true that your old 

 friend A. I. Root, whom many of you have 

 learned to love, felt for a few hours that 

 day that not only did no one want to talk to 

 him, but no one seemed to want to give him 

 a seat when he was weary of standing. 



Perhaps I should mention that, in the 

 morning, when some one said he lived in 

 Georgia I suggested that his State was the 

 center of discussion just then He replied: 



"Do you mean in regard to prohibition? 

 It is the biggest blunder that any State ever 

 made, and there isn't a business man in At- 

 lanta who voted for it." 



I said no more, for 1 decided that the 

 average Pullman car is hardly the place to 

 find friends of temperance, or, as a rule, 

 friends of Christianity, and this may ac- 

 count for my uncivil seatmate. Had I de- 

 manded my rights I could have had a seat 

 at any time, but I am glad I did not. When 

 I remembered that the dear Savior at one 

 time did not have " where to lay his head " 

 I began to feel happy. The porter, after 

 his refreshing sleep, began to dust oft" the 

 car; and when he saw I was preparing to 

 take my "after-dinner nap" he brought me 

 a nice clean pillow; and when I thanked him, 

 and he smiled, I decided he was a real good- 

 looking young colored man. I could hon- 

 estly admire his strength and skill as he 

 made up the berths with such dexterity. 

 Then I looked at the colored maid, and she 

 too had changed. She was a bright pretty 

 girl, even if she was black. Had all the 

 people in our car changed suddenly? or was 

 the change in my own heart after I said, 

 "Get thee behind me. Satan" ? May God 

 forgive me, and I will ask our colored 

 friends to forgive me for the unkind thoughts 

 I permitted to creep into my heart. There 

 wasn't the least trace of a smell on my over- 

 coat, even if the young man did sleep with 

 his face on it for over an hour. Our porters 

 are, as a rule, a bright clean set of men ; 

 and I believe the colored people generally, 

 if they take jyains, may be as sweet-smelling 

 as white people In a recent editorial the 

 Sunday School Times said the man who is 



always demanding and insisting on his rights 

 is any thing but a happy man.* I believe 

 this is largely the clasi who commit suicide. 

 The person who goes through the world 

 giving up his rights for the good of his fel- 

 low-men finds so much happiness in so do- 

 ing that he not only will never think of self- 

 destruction but will never be impatient in 

 awaiting God's call. 



It may be true, and it probably is true, 

 that there are people who do not appreciate 

 or understand the spirit of self-sacrifice when 

 they see it. Such people take advantage of 

 it, and the patient Christian may be tempted 

 to think he is only "casting pearls before 

 swine;" but let him be patient, and remem- 

 ber who said, "Blessed are the meek, for 

 they shall inherit the earth;" and "Whoso- 

 ever shall lose his life for my sake and the 

 gospel's, the same shall find it." 



RUNNINa AWAY FROM KKIENDS. 



In Our Homes for Nov. 15 I mentioned 

 the case of a young man who left suddenly 

 without giving anybody any reason for his 

 sudden disappearance. I lament that this 

 thing seems to be getting to be a fashion 

 nowdays. Not long ago a young man left 

 his home without even saying good-by to his 

 mother or anybody else. He took pains to 

 cover up his exit so perfectly that nobody 

 ever discovered how he got away, let alone 

 his reason for going. Nobody knows the 

 anguish that that mother suffered until she 

 heard, a year afterward, that he was away 

 off in another part of the world. There was 

 no apparent reason for his doing this. He 

 had said nothing about being dissatisfied. 

 He left his book open where he had been 

 reading, and said he expected to be back in 

 a few minutes. Since then not only boys 

 but girls, vien, and women have been sud- 

 denly missing. Perhaps some excuse might 

 be offered in the case of a young person, for 

 thinking it a fine thing to stir up a whole 

 neighborhood or set community in general 

 hunting all over the country to find a trace 

 of the missing one; but if any one who 

 reads these pages feels any temptation in a 

 similar line I beg him to consider a little be- 

 fore undertaking it. What would you think 

 of a boy who would deliberately pick up a 

 club and hit his mother a cruel blow when 

 there was no excitement or reason whatever 

 for so doing? Yet no blow can be so cruel 

 and torturing as the one I have mentioned. 

 We have no right to do things of this kind 

 any more than we have to indict pain, or to 

 steal money belonging to somebody else. 

 God forbid that this fashion should be on 

 the increase. 



* Here is the item from the Sur^ day School Times: 



Nothinff hurts a man more than a continual effort to (jet his 

 rights. •' Tliat man always manages to get a seat, no matter 

 how crowded the car." one man was heard to say of another 

 who apparently had just demonstrated his ability. The man 

 thus described may have called it good managing; those who 

 know his practice would call it bad. If there is no stronger 

 reason for insisting on our rights than merely tlie fact that 

 they are our rights, we bad better let them go. 



