ILLINOIS STATE BEE KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



193 



Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, at that 

 time — in 1895. But I never blamed 

 the rest of my good Canadian breth- 

 ren for the mistaken kindness of that 

 one of their goodly number. For he 

 was much in the condition of a man 

 whose good wife said to him, "Now, 

 Jim, when you're full, instead of ask- 

 ing for more beer, why don't you ask 

 for sarsaparilla?" 



"Well, by jove," he said, "when I'm 

 so full as that I can't say sar-sa-pa- 

 ril-la!" 



All who have made a practice of 

 attending these gatherings of bee- 

 keepers know how seldom we ever see 

 one of our crowd smoking, and now 

 never drinking. When the Convention 

 was held here about 25 years ago, we 

 had to pay $40 rent for the hall in 

 the third story of a building. The 

 owner of the building kept a saloon in 

 the basement, and oh, how bitterly he 

 t?>Iked when he was paid his rent. He 

 said, "If I had known what kind of a 

 set of fellows you were, you would 

 never have got that hall for that 

 money. Not one of you has been in 

 my saloon!" 



At the hotel opposite, where most 

 of the convention members stopped at 

 that convention, the boy at the cigar 

 counter was heard to say, "Queer 

 crowd this. Do you know, I have sold 

 them just three cigars!" (And I 

 should say, that was just three cigars 

 too many.) The fact is, that the name 

 "bee-keeper" is almost synonymous 

 with "temperance." And I rejoice in it. 

 We can all help to hasten the dawn- 

 ing of the blessed day when there 

 shall not be a saloon or drunken man 

 on the face of this beautiful earth of 

 curs. 



Temperance and prohibition have 

 made such rapid advances during the 

 past few years, that to-day some forty 

 million people of the United States 

 live under "a stainless flag," so far as 

 the open saloon is concerned. And I 

 truly believe that before another ten 

 years shall have passed, there will not 

 be a legally open saloon beneath fair 

 Columbia's flag of fredom. 



But we will have to settle this great 

 liquor question among ourselves. And 

 this '•eminds me of a story I once 

 heard. It occurred in Alabama. A 

 colored msn had a little pig he wanted 

 to sell. A white man came along in 

 the morning in his wagon and bought 

 the pig for $3. He drove away, but 



somehow the little squealer managed 

 to get out, and ran back home to its 

 little pen. About the time it arrived, 

 another white man came along who 

 also wanted to buy a pig. He bought 

 it, and paid the colored man $3 for it. 

 He had not gone far until he met the 

 man who first bought the pig, and was 

 asked where he got that pig. "Why, 

 I just bought it from the colored man 

 up the road." 



"Well, that pig is mine," said the 

 man who bought it in the morning. 

 "I was driving along and somehow it 

 got out and must have returned home. 

 Let's go back and see that "nigger" 

 and find out why he treats us in that 

 way." 



Arrived at the' negro's cabin the 

 first man asked, "Didn't you sell me 

 that pig this morning for $3?" 



"Yes, sah, ah did," said the darkey. 



"And didn't you sell the same pig 

 for $3 to this man a little later?" 



"Ah did, sah,"\was the answer. - 

 "Well, what kind of treatment is 

 that?" 



Whereupon he gave the following 

 reply in_ a self-satisfied manner: 

 "Well now, gentleman, can'd you do 

 'way by youaselves and settle dat lit- 

 tle question?" 



It is up to us all to settle among 

 ourselves the question of the liquor 

 business. We can't shift the responsi- 

 bility as the colored man in Alabama 

 tried to do. 



Referring again to the tobacco ques- 

 tion among bee-keepers, which is real- 

 ly the temperance question in another 

 direction, I am reminded of an inci- 

 dent that occurred in Chicago when 

 Newman & Son were in the bee-supply 

 business and I was in their employ. 

 A bee-keeper called to get some sup- 

 plies, and, after buying several things, 

 Mr. Newman, Jr., said, "And now 

 wouldn't you like a Smoker?" mean- 

 ing, of course, a Bingham bee-smoker 

 in those days. Very promptly came 

 the reply from the bee-keeper, "No, 

 thank yow, I don't smoke." 



I think it was in Philadelphia that 

 a bee-keeper of the temperate kind 

 was employed. As he was about to 

 change to another position he asked 

 for a recommendation from Ws old 

 employer. He was grantel his request, 

 the testimonial reading: "The bear- 

 er, Mr. Beeman, is industrious, hard- 

 working, faithful and sober," etc. 



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