187T 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, 



277 



ur %€mi' 



But even the very hairs of your head are all num- 

 t)ereci. Fear not tliereiore; ye are of more value than 

 tuany sparrows.— Luke 1"2 ; 7. 



/'j^HE Sabbath school I have several times 

 Jl spoken of, continues to flourish, and I be- 

 — ' lieve to the mutual advantage cf both 

 scholars and teachers ; at least it has the ef- 

 fect of making my Sabbath afternoons, very 

 pleasant ones. I wish to tell you of another 

 one, because some of the incidents connected 

 with its starting, seem to illustrate just what 

 I wish to say in regard to the labor question. 

 About 5 miles distant from the school men- 

 tioned, there is a small settlement on the rail- 

 road, consisting principally of three beer sa- 

 loons, and secondarily of various shops and 

 iiouses grouped about them. About }^ of a 

 mile "out of town," is a small red bchool 

 house, where all public gatherings are held, 

 that are for any reason deemed uusuited to the 

 accommodations of the aforesaid saloons. 



When the matter was discussed of pushing 

 the Murphy temperance meetings into this 

 place, we were told that they had no religious 

 meetings of any kind in the town, and that 

 therefore no one went to meeting at all on the 

 iSabbath. I afterward found that a circuit 

 preacher held a meeting in the school house 

 every Sabbath afternoon, but as his flock con- 

 sisted of only four members, the people in town 

 had u-evtr attended, because they had probably 

 uever heard there was a meeting. Well, we 

 had a temperance meeting one Sabbath al'ttr- 

 aioou, and the house was not only well tilled, 

 but many corgregated on the out side, arouiui 

 the doors and windows. These were invited 

 to come in, but as they kept up a running 

 comment while the speaker was talking, they 

 were doubtless more at their ease outside. 

 Quite a goodly number of names was obtained, 

 and for the accommodation of all, it was de- 

 cided to hold another meeting in a grove near 

 by, two weeks from that time. 



The time came, and when I arrived, rather 

 late, for I could not neglect my Sabbath 

 f^chool, I found a large gathering, but they 

 were scattered about the wood in little groups 

 and as before, kept up a regular buzz of talk 

 among themselves. They reminded me of a 

 good sized colony of bees that had been for 

 isome time queenless. It mattered not who 

 was the speaker, they seemed to have but lit- 

 tle respect for his feelings; flcally a very plain 

 outspoken one of our number ventured to re- 

 monstrate with them, and a group of large 

 boys barefooted and in their shirt sleeves, 

 talked back to him rather defiantly. I felt a 

 little troubled at this, for I had pretty well de- 

 cided in my own mind, that a Sabbath school 

 was just what was needed in the community, 

 and was almost the only thing that would get 

 hold of these well meaning, yet uncultured 

 brothers and sisters. After the speaker men- 

 tioned, the mayor of our town, v/ho was with 

 «s, ventured on some remarks ; this speaker al- 

 though an earnest temperance man is not a — 

 well I believe he belongs to the class who call 

 themselves modern sceptics, and of course had 

 no pai-ticular love in his heart for the:C beer 



drinking people, such as one who has bren en- 

 gaged in mission Sabbath schools, and who 

 has seen the power of mild and gentle means, 

 would be most likely to have. The major 

 therefore, commencee a scathing reljuke to 

 the barefooted six footers who confronted 

 him, and told tlu in that boys of their size who 

 would come to a reiijiious meeting barefooted 

 and with dirty shins on— their shirts I after- 

 ward saw wtre clean, but as they were of a 

 checked ina-.erial that was somewhat faded, he 

 was some /.'hat excusable, for his hasty asser- 

 tion — were a ?hame ai,d distract' to any ueish- 

 borhood, and that it was the duly of the com- 

 munity to take them in hand. 



Now, these boys had been drinking, and it 

 is very likely that they had been furnished 

 with it on purpose that they n;ightgo to the 

 temptrance nuetiug ai:d make a disturbance. 

 This L luoked upon as one of Satan's plans, and 

 I felt that it was our duty as a Christian peo- 

 ple, to consider the boys more as objects of 

 pi:y than blame. Of course a bretze v^as rais- 

 ed at once, and a flght was the very thing that 

 a large porton of the audience, doubtless, would 

 have liked to see. Our minister who was pres- 

 ent, approached the boys with several others, 

 and succeeded in partly piicifying them. 



Among their number v/as one in particu- 

 lar, whom the mayor had very aptly dtsigta- 

 ted as the lion of the crowd. 'This lellow was 

 a powerfully built broad shouldered specimen 

 of humanity, and with his face flushed with 

 the drink he had taken, it seemed as idle to at- 

 tempt iniiaiidatiug him by threats, as it would 

 to try to drive a two-story hive of hybrids 

 without smoke. With us was a lady who 

 had had considerable experience with "public 

 schools, as well as some in the Sabbath 

 schools, and to her our minister appealed ; anel 

 then told the boys he had promised that she 

 should have respectful attention. This she did 

 have, so long as she spoke, and then the meet- 

 ing broke up. 



Meanwhile, I made my arrangements for a 

 Sabbath school that very afternoon, and felt 

 somewhat embarrassed upon coming before 

 the principal trustee of the school house, to 

 find that he was barefooted also. At my first 

 remark, he looked at his feet and seemed to 

 feel ill at ease, and I then felt that I would 

 not have him for the world think I thought 

 any the less of him on that account. We had 

 forced ourselves into the presence of these peo- 

 ple, had invaded their neighborhood, as it 

 were, with the ostensible purpose of " doing 

 them good," and yet we were reproaching and 

 finding fault with them on account of their 

 manner of dress. 



The house was at my disposal at once, just 

 as long as I wished it for such a purpose, with 

 a hearty good will that somewhat surprised 

 me. I went back to the boys, anel invited all 

 hands to come to Sunday school. The juven- 

 iles came along with but little urging, al- 

 though one of them did venture, 



"Don't b'lieve yer got any carels with pic- 

 tures on 'em!" 



"Very well, but you will try me once will 



you not? I am a stranger, anel you can not 



tell whether I tell the truth or not, but will 



you come and see?" 



Of course he came, and he and his mates 



