202 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



wis l):n to do soaiethimj for the boys in our 

 town, lik^ this one." I c m only remember 

 tliit I afterward took particular pains to 

 speik to him kindly, wtien I passed him, 

 bnt nothin:jf more, until he a few days aj?o 

 ace ).sted m.i as 1 w.is coming from dinner 

 as follows : 



'•Mr. Root, don't yon think you coiUd give 

 me something to do in your shop?" 



'"Well, I would be very glad indeed, S. to 

 give you work, but there is a ditliculty. 

 You knovr how much you swear, and I 

 could not have swearing, among all my girls 

 and boys." 



I was prepared 1 1 hear him promise not to 

 swear, if I would give him work, but I con- 

 fess, I was a good deal astonished, when he 

 spoke again. 



••Mr. lioot, that is just the point; I want 

 to stop swearing, and to be a good boy. and 

 if you will give me a place, I will work 

 steadily and won't swear, and I will come to 

 your Bible class every Sunday morning." 



You may be quite sure we struck a bar- 

 gain, and my young friend has been with us 

 r! waeks, and is as good and obedient a boy as 

 I ever had in my employ. This was not all ; 

 the very lirst morning of the Jiible class, he 

 came and brought another boy with him; 

 other boys followed his example, making 

 like promises, until I began to be frightened 

 at the number I had promised employment. 

 It was God"s work, and to him I went in 

 pi'ayer, to show me what t should have all 

 iliese boys do. Our scejitical friend whom 

 1 have mentioned meeting in the jail, be- 

 came intoxicated still another time, and in 

 my last talk with him, he, too, said if I could 

 give him work, he thought he might get to 

 be a sober man, but unless something were 

 done, he feared there was no hope for him. 

 He had lost all cou'ddence in his own ability 

 to break off the habit, and he would accept 

 or do anything, if he could only have a 

 chance. Although more hands were al- 

 ready' at work than I liad room for, he w;is 

 offered a place, and now he, too, is as busy, 

 and I hope happy, as the rest. It was onlv 

 lasi l^'riday night, that he, with several of 

 the rest of the boys [ felt so doubtful about, 

 worked all night and all day, too, because 

 they knew tliat orders were pressing. I 

 have been ast(inished at almost every step, 

 to hnd these boys that I felt sin-e would 

 swear and be rough, nrove so faithful, well 

 behaved, and industrious. May God bless 

 them all. 



Of course, there are a number of saloons in 

 our town, as well as in other places, and our 

 boys sometimes get intoxicated. (3f late a 

 verv bad fashion has been inaugurated, of 

 getting drunk on the Sabbath. In spite of 

 temperance lectures, and all that Christian 

 people have done, the evil seems on the in- 

 crease. At one of our Sunday evening 

 prayer meetings, the matter was mentioned, 

 and I advised that we go and talk with the 

 salooix keepers in regnrd to tlie matter, and 

 see« what the power of kindness might do. 

 Who would do it? Almost before I thought, 

 r volunteered to take upon myself tlie task. 

 When Sand'iy moi-ning came, and I thought 

 of what I had promised to do, to be frank 

 about it, I actually caught myself thinking 



of some excuse whereby I might evade the 

 duty. "No sir 'ee, old fellow, when you 

 make promises, you must keep them," said 

 a better voice, and after asking God to bless 

 even my blunders, I sallied forth, at just 

 half past eight in the morning. Before 

 starting, I had ])rayed that the Lord would 

 pave a way before me, if it was his will that 

 I should thus invade peoples homes, but 

 when the tirst saloonist talked kindly and 

 pleasantly, and promised to give up selling 

 beer entirely, if I would secure him board- 

 ers enough so he could pay his rent, besides 

 keeping closed doors on the Sabbath any 

 way. I felt a little astonished to think my 

 prayer had been so fully answered. I can- 

 not tell you all about my morning visits, but 

 at no place was I met micoiu'teously, and in 

 no place did they fail to thank me for call- 

 ing their attention to the matter. In two 

 places, they gave me a kind invitation to 

 call at any time, when I saw or heard of any- 

 thing disorderly about their establishment. 

 At the second place, and where I felt most 

 inclined to pass by without calling, I was 

 met by a singular request, from the old 

 woman who kept the establishment. As 

 soon as she found out who I was, she took 

 me by the hand, and jilead most earnestly, 

 that 1 would do something to save her son 

 from a drimkard's grave, and from the de- 

 lirium tremens. She, a saloon keeper, and 

 her son a saloon keeper in a neighboring 

 town, siie, pleading that I would save him! 

 how inconsistent is humanity! I told her her 

 duty as well as I could, and promised to help 

 him, if ])Ossible. Said I, 



•'Where does he live." 



"In Abbeyville." 



••In Abbeyville? near our mission Sab- 

 bath school?" 



"Yes, near your mission Sabbath schooL''' 



"I hear they have started up the old brew- 

 ery in Abbeyville ; do you know anything 

 about it?" 



"Yes, and that is where you will find my 

 son Simon, I expect, for I 'hear that he is 

 away from his saloon and is spending most 

 of his time there." 



I went away musing. The school in Ab- 

 beyville had rather dwindled away of late, 

 and one by one, some of the most regular 

 scholars "had begim to drop off. This 

 woman had just told me of the brewery, and 

 it began to dawn into my mind that I had 

 better get a little outside of that brick 

 school house, and go over to the brewery. 

 Should I sit calmly in the new cane bottom- 

 ed chair (that the scholars have just pur- 

 chased for me to rest myself in, after my 

 long walk) and let Satan trHdo'allmy work;a 

 great deal faster than 'I could do it, just 

 over in that brewery, less than a quarter of 

 a mile from the scliool house? 



No ! no ! no ! May God help me to invade 

 all the breweries in the land, if I can accom- 

 plisli any good by so doing. Our school 

 that (lav seemed dull ; dull to the scholars. 

 and dull to me, until I dropped the lessons, 

 and told them of my work among the sa- 

 loons of the morn in :c- When I closed by 

 telling them I was re;idy to visit the saloons 

 of Abbeville, and the brewery too, they 

 were most thoroughly awakened, and warm 



