— EXHIIUTS'OF HONKV. 



I'.Mi 



EXHIBITS OF H()NF>Y. 



THB A. I. KOOT COMPANY'S EXHIBIT AT THE OHIO STATE FAIR. 



Announcement sliould be'made from out- 

 side of the cage that, duiiug certain hours, 

 an operator, bareheaded and barearmed,will 

 perform some wonderful stunts in handling 

 bees. "When the performance begins, the 

 people will i^urge around tlie stands, and 

 that is just what is desired in order to sell 

 honey at the other stand a few feet away. 



The operator begins his performance by 

 stepping inside the cage of live bees, and 

 shutting the door behind him . He then tells 

 tie crowd that he is going to handle live 

 bees, every one of which is armed with a 

 sting ; and if any one doubts it to come for- 

 ward and he will furnish the '"proof.'' He 

 then proceeds to take off his coat and 

 vest and roll up his sleeves, take off his 

 collar, and tuck down his shirt-band. It 

 will then be necessary for him to put on 

 Iticycle pants-guards, or slip his trousers into 

 his stockings. The crowd will quickly 

 a; pieciate this part of the performance, 

 l)t'cause the operator tells them the l)eeswill 

 >ting if they get inside of his clothing. 

 \\'ith a lightedsmoker he opens uj) tlie hive. 

 After i)uning out the frames he shows 

 the tjees and queen on the comb; then he 

 calls out for everybody to wait and see the 

 next stunt, for he is going to make a swarm. 

 With a large dislipan, which he has previous- 

 ly provided, lie shakes two-thirds of the liees 

 (iff the combs into this pan. Then lie 

 takes it up and turns to the crowd, saying, 

 '• The bees are not real mad yet, so I'll begin 

 to sliake them up to make them so."" The 



people wonder what he is going to do, seeing 

 him barearmed and bareheaded. He keeps 

 on shaking until he has the l)ees all in one 

 big ball, and to the uninitiated it lools as if 

 they would sting him to death. But, no! 

 the continual shaking is the very thing that 

 makes them gentle instead of cross. He 

 now runs his hand under the ball of bees, 

 pushing it under gently, being careful not to 

 pinch any. The movement must be very 

 deliberate— so slow indeed that the hand 

 scarcely seems to move. He piiks up a 

 handful and holds them up for the crowd to 

 look at. If he has good nerves he can shake 

 the handful on top of his head, and in the 

 mean time pick up another handful. 



At the next performance there will be 

 big crowds around to see the work. While 

 the man is doing his stunts with the bees he 

 tells what honey is, saying that it is a whole- 

 some sweet, and that there is no such thing 

 as manufactured comb honey, and that he 

 will pay $100 for a single sample of it; then 

 he draws attention to the fact that he has 

 some good honey at the stand opposite or in 

 the building yonder. The crowd will then 

 go round to the stand and buy the honey. 



The preceeding illustrations shoAV the 

 exliibits of bees and honey, the exhibit of 

 the live bee cage, and the crowd that assem- 

 bled around it, both at the Ohio State Fair 

 held at Columbus, and the Minnesota State 

 Fair. 



After the exhibitor gets his questioner in- 

 terested, he can hand out one of his adver- 



