THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION 



227 



<|uainted ^vith the iiUcresiinj^ (|neen. 

 Among our recent prominent visit- 

 ors, perhaps none had less acquain- 

 tance with bees, or were more afraid 

 of them, than two parties, one coming 

 about the first of August and the other 

 a few weeks later. On a beautiful Au- 

 gust day we received a telephone mes- 

 sage from Stamford from Dr. George 

 F. Kunz, the expert mineralogist of 

 Tiffany & Company, New York City. 

 He said that he and his daughter 

 would like to visit ArcAdiA and eat 

 their lunch in the Agassiz Grove. We 

 of course cordially invited them not 

 only to do as they suggested but to 

 inspect the entire premises. Dr. Kunz 

 said that he should like to see every- 

 thing and get acquainted with every- 

 thing except the bees. He wanted to 

 keep as far away from them as pos- 

 sible. I told him that he need not 

 hesitate to come to ArcAdiA on ac- 

 count of the bees, for we have a long 

 ladder and a good field glass so he 

 might climb a tree in the Agassiz 

 Grove and view the apiary from a safe 

 distance. That seemed to assure him, 

 since about ten minutes later he and 

 his daughter arrived. After they had 

 attended to the contents of mysterious 

 little packages and Thermos bottles, 

 they were invited to the apiary. They 

 thought they would not go near unless 

 they could be provided with sheet iron 

 gloves and veils of wire netting. I 

 explained that these bees are different 

 from others. They are not the kind 

 that believe in peace by preparedness, 

 but in peace by good will on this part 

 of the earth. It was further explained 

 to the famous expert on diamonds that 

 these honeybees wore glittering jew- 

 els in their head, large, bulging, com- 

 pound eyes and three, little, simple, 

 single gems on the top ofthe head, 

 and only by leaving ofif gloves and 

 veils would it be possible to see such 

 beautiful jewels. I also explained 

 that the customs at ArcAdiA must not 

 be confounded with those of a New 

 York drawing room for here full dress 

 means shirt sleeves rolled up and the 

 absence of hat and coat. Dr. Kunz 

 believes, as any good scientist should 

 believe, in adaptation to environment, 

 and when he learned that that was the 

 custom here, ofif went coat and hat and 



up went shirt sleeves. A little jolly- 

 ing met with the desired result, and 

 Dr. Kunz resolved to do if he died 

 in the attempt. Like the brave man 

 that he is, he responded to the call, 

 went immediately to the front and 

 soon forgot what he had read about bee 

 stings in his delight in the close ex- 

 amination of the dainty, little features 

 of the queen and in pointing them out 

 to his daughter. You will see in the 

 accompanying illustration that he has 

 the small queen on the tip of his index 

 finger and is manifesting as much en- 

 thusiasm as I have seen him show in 

 Tiffany's store when he put his finger 

 on the $100,000 diamond and said, 

 "Isn't she a beautv?" 



But the students of the jewels of 

 the earth are not the only ones who 

 search for treasures in our beehives. 

 A few weeks ago came that master 

 mechanic and enthusiastic astronomer, 

 Mr. Worcester R. Warner of Tarry- 

 town, New York, well-known as the 

 senior partner in the firm of The War- 

 ner & Swasey Company, Cleveland, 

 Ohio, builders of the largest telescope 

 mountings in the world. In his yard 

 he has an exquisite gem of a Warner 

 and Swasey mounting with an objec- 

 tive by that master, John A. Brashear, 

 Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Here Mr. 

 Warner is accustomed to gaze at the 

 Praesepe, the Beehive of the skies. He 

 peers at the Pleiades and talks about 

 "fireflies tangled in a silver braid." 

 He looks at the condensation of six- 

 teen hundred suns in 13M Hercules 

 and facetiously says that he has dis- 

 covered the Pussy Foot in one of the 

 twin clusters of Perseus. He is per- 

 fectlv at home in the swarms of suns 

 that glitter in the Milkv Way. He is 

 an expert on beauty of any kind and 

 he enthusiastically told how he can set 

 his movable right ascension circle to 

 find that queen of beauty, Venus, in 

 the davtime. It was with no little de- 

 light that that master of the swarms of 

 the sky and the beauties of infinite dis- 

 tance was welcomed at ArcAdiA. 



"But. no, ';ir," he said. "None of that 

 for me. I will stick to Job's Coffin 

 rather than be stung to death bybees." 

 An old saving is that there is safety 



