1877 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



221 



|Mf teiim. 



Seest thon a man diligent in his business ? he shall 

 etand before kiuRs ; he shall not stand before mean 

 e<i('«.— Proverbs :Ji; 29. 



^Y^fOW somo people are naturally ingenious, 

 J^vJI others ai-e naturally patient, still others 

 "" are very accurate, without, an eft'ort 

 seemingly; but all these people have faults in 

 some other directiou probably, for no one in- 

 dividual ever possesses naturally all these de- 

 sirable qualities, I believe. What shall be 

 done? yhall we follow entirely the bent of 

 our own inclinations, or shall we try to make 

 up up by cultivation, what we lack, naturally? 



When I was a lad, music was one of the ex- 

 ercises of the school I attended, but in spite of 

 all my kind teacher could say, I almost dog- 

 gedly refused to take part in the exercises. I 

 knew I could not sing, and I did not want to 

 try. After a time, when I saw what progress 

 my mates were making, and how they seemed 

 to enjoy the work, for work it was most as- 

 suredly, I began to wish I too was one among 

 them, but the same foolish pride stood in the 

 way, and I could not think of going to my 

 teacher, and telling her I was sorry and would 

 like to be permitted to join with the I'est, and 

 have my education a well balanced and sym- 

 metrical one like the rest of the pupils. It is 

 true, I did not feel the loss of not understand- 

 ing the notes very much, for many years, but 

 when I took the Sabbath school work, O how 

 many times, has memory gone back to the 

 time when I would not acquire the knowledge, 

 I now needed so much. It was much the 

 same with grammar — perhaps more than one 

 of my readers have divined as much already — 

 and I argued the matter with my parents un- 

 til they were somewhat iuclined to think 

 grammar was not perhaps so very essential, 

 just because I liked mathematics and some 

 other studies better. I saw my mistake later 

 in life, and partially made amends, but the 

 penalty has to be paid now, when I am very 

 anxious to give you my friends a journal that 

 js at least respectable. 



Some years ago the editor of our county pa- 

 per made the remark that if one had good 

 common sense, grammar was of comparatively 

 little importance. I thought this a very wise 

 saying at the time, but after having carefully 

 studied the subject, and satisfied myself by ac- 

 tual trial how difficult it was to produce com- 

 position even tolerably free from errors, I 

 came to the conclusion that I should be very 

 poorly satisfied with the degree of perfection, 

 judging by his paper, he deemed was all that 

 was really needed. I would not have it un- 

 derstootl that a person should excel in every 

 thing, by any means, but if we are going to 

 fill any position creditably, if we are going to 

 demand high wages and have our services 

 eagerly sought for, we must have a good gen- 

 eral education to start with. I do not mean 

 the education to be obtained at schools and 

 colleges alone, but good common sense, and a 

 faculty of being handy any whore. When I 

 see a college graduate undertake to dnve a 

 nail and unhesitatingly turn the point in such 

 a way that it is sure to split the wood, I feel ] 



that his education has been of a nature that, 

 has not taught him how to make it practically 

 useful. 



One who is ambitious to command high wa- 

 ges, should be ever on the alert ; there can 

 hardly be a place where circumstances may 

 call him, where he has nothing to do, for there 

 is always something being done, that it will 

 be worth his while to study. If you are wait- 

 ing for a train, look about and see if there are 

 not mechanics at work; while 1 would not en- 

 courage impertinence, I would adyise to be 

 Yankee enough to talk with your fellow trav- 

 ellers. In making a trip to visit a bee-keeper, 

 I rode a few miles with a man who proved to 

 be a market gardener. He had made tomatoes 

 a specialty and his little history of his trials 

 anil successes told in his simple way, was full 

 of interest. He came to our shores a poor 

 man, having every thing to learn, but willing 

 to work. He had bad luck, failures and dis- 

 couragements, very much like those we bee- 

 keepers have to deal with, but he conquered at 

 last, and the smile of pride with which he 

 pointed out to me his own neat little home 

 with its smiling gardens, all the fruits of the 

 tomato business, was worth more to me than 

 the last chapter of some thrilling romance, or 

 the closing scene of some grand play at a the- 

 atre. The tomato story, had given me much 

 useful practical knowledge, but the gas-lights 

 and fiction that I used to think I enjoyed so 

 much, left not one valuable idea comparatively. 



Have you no taste for tomatoes and rural 

 industries, driving nails and working in the 

 hot sun ? I have known people who had no 

 taste for work of any kind, and yet I am very 

 sure they had a taste for things that had cost 

 others hard toil and labor. Were they happy 

 in idleness and selfishness? If I am not mis- 

 taken, an idle person is always a selfish one ; 

 at least when I am idle — sitting still when 1 

 do not need ^est, I am sure I am acting selfish- 

 ly. It seems to me it is a kind of foolish self- 

 ishness too, for one who will not work, gets 

 very little for himself, of anything that is de- 

 sirable. 



It is pretty diflicult for a physician to make 

 any progress in curing a patient before the 

 patient will admit himself to be ill. And if 

 we who are working for somebody else, un- 

 hesitatingly decide that the fault is all with 

 our employers, and none of it with ourselves, 

 that we do not get better wages, very likely 

 nothing can be done in the way of improve- 

 ment. I do not mean to say that employees 

 are the only ones who need educating, by any 

 means, for we are all of us employers more or 

 less, as well as employees. If we are conscious 

 of our need of improvement, or even if we are 

 only conscious of having a need of more mon- 

 ey, we are ready for work, that is if we have 

 decided to i)ay the price, of "more money." It 

 may be that after having done every thing in 

 your power, your efforts will be apparently 

 unheeded, and your pains will all l)e like cast- 

 ing pearls before swine. Be of good cheer my 

 friend ; you are by no means the first one who 

 has become weary in well doing, and won- 

 dered whether it were really any use trying 

 to melt hearts of stone. Your reward will 

 come in due time, and it may come in a way 

 (luite unexpected. 



