187G 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



5S 



«OllP' mpHlO W» 



[In this department I beg to be :ilk>\ved to lay aside the 

 editorial "we,"and havea friendly chatand feel "at home."] 



CHAPTER XI. 



For where envying and strife is, there is confusion 

 and every evil work.— James, 3: lU. 



ET may be that some of you who have known 

 me long, and in fact I do not know but 



that those who have only known me for a 

 short time, have observed a strong ambition to 

 — 1 really do not know how better to express 

 the exact idea, than to adopt the language 

 used in spelling schools, and say, to "get uj) to 

 the head," or to "spell the school down." Now 

 this is a very commendable trait to be sure, 

 and what parent is there who would not be 

 pleased to see in his child the development of 

 a disposition to stand at the head of his de- 

 partment V I am talking of myself again, and 

 I do not know how I can tell what I wish, 

 without borrowing illustrations from real life 

 somewhere. As I wish to severely censure 

 some of the motives that actuate humanity, 

 and as I do not feel at liberty to take my fel- 

 lows for such illustrations, will you not excuse 

 the frequent repetition of that little pronoun 

 "I." Since the time I earned the silver quarter 

 as capital with which to connnence the poul- 

 try business — see page 45, Vol. II — by getting 

 to the head the most times in the spelling 

 class, I cau look back and sec that, mingled 

 with my ambition there has always been more 

 or less of a feeling of rejoicing at the failures 

 of others, if they happened in the least to stand 

 in my way ; to express it fairly, a sort of in- 

 ward "chuckling." Yes, I do feel ashamed to 

 own that such an element exists in my nature, 

 and perhaps the very best way to get it out, is 

 to conftss. I do not mean to say that I would 

 at any time have done anything to bring their 

 failures, but that when they had not studied 

 as hard as I, perhaps because they had not 

 the same desire to "beat," I looked anxiously 

 for the failures that I felt sure would come ; 

 and when they did happen to have a good les- 

 son, I did not rejoice in their progress as an 

 unselfish person wotxld. If I had no personal 

 interest in the matter, I of course was always 

 glad and even anxious to see progress, for 

 among my other fe.tilts, there seems to have 

 been little of the "dog in the manger" spirit ; 

 the only unpardonable sin — inwardly, for I 

 was ashamed to have it known- — was to have 

 some fellow-being attempt to compete for the 

 prize that I had determined should be all my 

 own. Where competition was open to all, of 

 course others had the same right as I, and if 

 anjr could in a fair and honorable way outstrip 

 me, I certainly ought pleasantly to have given 

 waj', for I i)ushed ahead of others, if I could, 

 without scruple. As I became older 1 saw the 

 inconsistency of this, but I am afraid that my 

 labors were directed more to keeping the de- 

 formity out of sight, than toward cultivating a 

 real love toward my fellows, — by the way, this 

 chapter docs begin to look a little at variance 

 with the last one; if that one was not inirenu- 

 ous I will try to be so in this. During 

 the past week, it has, for almost the first time 

 begun to dawn on my mind just liow far that 



same feeling still hangs about my life, and I 

 verily believe it hurts me more than it doe^ 

 any body else. 



There are three other Bee Journals in our 

 country, and if any one should ask me if I 

 were anxious that all these should prosper, of 

 course I would not do else than say yes, for 1 

 should be ashamed to answer otherwise, but a 

 voice keeps saying "Is this radly the truth 'i If 

 it is, why do you, when each new Journal 

 comes out, clearly showing that its owners 

 have spent much care, pains and anxious solic- 

 itude in its getting up, why do you read it with 

 such a critical eye y Why do you, instead of 

 feeling genuine sorrow at something you hap- 

 pen to have had an opportunity of knowing 

 to be an error, come pretty near feeling that 

 old wicked disposition to "chuckle" over it? 

 Why not take a much more manly way, and if 

 you, without doitbt, know the editor to have 

 made a mistake, write and tell him in the same 

 friendly way that you would an own brotli- 

 er if he were making a mistake in building a 

 house, or in any other business tliat did not 

 concern youV" Of late this voice lias been say- 

 ing : "These other Journals are all very kind 

 and pleasant to you, but even suppose they 

 were not, have you not been discoursing on the 

 beauties of returning good for evilV Have you 

 no faith in the promise given those who 'cas-t 

 their bread upon the waters V If you should 

 speak well of your cotemporaries, and lend a 

 helping hand at every opportunity, and from 

 the bottom of your heart rejoice at their pros- 

 perity, would it injure your own paper in the 

 least i Na}% further ; if after you have strain- 

 ed every faculty to its utmost, you should tiud 

 that one or all of them were more in public fa- 

 vor than your own, should you not bow in 

 humble and pleasant acquiescence to the voice 

 of the people, and be content to do all the 

 good you cau in your own way and thankful 

 that you have even such a place in this busy 

 mass of liuman brotherhood T 



Now my friends have any one of you such 

 feelings toward those who are in the same line 

 of business as your ownV If you keep a store 

 and the children get a habit of feeling a little 

 jealousy toward your neighbor's children 

 whose fatlieris a little more — or it may be a lit- 

 tle less — prosperous in the same line of business 

 do you always take pains to discourage such a 

 feeling at once? And do we aZ««i/.s, all of us, 

 discourage every word that comes up that 

 would foster a spirit of rivalry or jealousj^? 

 A few days ago a lady directly after she had 

 got home from church, began to say that she 

 thought jNIr. A. far ahead of Mr. B., as a min- 

 ister. Not long after a similar remark was 

 made by one of our children, and to impress 

 on their minds the injustice of such a way of 

 speaking, I asked how they would feel should 

 they overhear papa or mamma, making a re- 

 mark to the efiect that they liked one of their 

 children much better than the other 'i 



"lint we are both your children, ' said they. 



And are we not to feel that our iellow-beings 

 are all brothers and sisters, and should not l)e 

 compared with each other in a critical way ';* 

 How would you feel should tlie person you 

 Have been speaking slightiugl}^ of, happen 

 around a corner unexpectedly? Plow pained 

 they must feel to think they had been so un- 



