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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



^ The Home Circle. ^ !^ 



Conducted bu Prof. ft. J. Cook, Glaremont, Calif. 



OUR VENICE. 



Time and money spent in welding all the home influences 

 and attractions and loves and sympathies, are well spent. A 

 year ago I was driven along the " Mountain Boulevard " which 

 leads from Santa Barbara to charming Montecito. This drive 

 of seven or eight miles is one of exceeding beauty, it seems to 

 me of almost incomparable beauty. As we sped along look- 

 ing now upon the beautiful ocean, now skirting some beetling 

 •clifi, now plunging into some bower of green that seemed to 

 block our way, I said over and over, "Oh, that the others of 

 the home were here I'' I said, " Before a year goes by, they 

 shall, with me, enjoy this bit of Nature's finest tracery." 



The year has been a brighter, happier, better one, as the 

 memory of the charming landscape has given added charm to 

 my life, and as the prospect of all of us of our home circle 

 making that beautiful circuit together has been ever before 

 me, I have been in a sort of perpetual sight-seeing with the 

 dear home loved ones the year through. But the far summit 

 of this pleasurable experience was only reached when last 

 Saturday we all actually en.joyed together that *onderful bit 

 •of landscape. It was a red letter day in our family.. 



Santa Barbara has been called the Venice of America. I 

 have hever looked on Italian landscape, tiut I am sure it suf- 

 fers no wrong in the figure. While there is not the thrift and 

 •wondrous beauty in its entirety that «e so ranch prize and 

 admire in Redlands, yet here one of the finest hays of the 

 world lays its inexpressible charm before us. Many neauti 

 ful homes attract us as no other section of California can or 

 does. I have never seen such a wealth of adornment in 

 shrubs, trees and flowers, as this section has to offer. As 1 

 come to visit these lovely homes each year — and I never i^ass 

 them by — I feel that I have a real ownership in them. The 

 graceful cocus palms, the incomparable bamboos, the delicate, 

 exquisite tree-ferns, and countless other vines, shrubs and 

 trees, fill one with delight and admiration. 



Montecito, the wonderful suburb, has some of the finest 

 homes and the best adorned residences to be seen any where. 

 As one drives along among the hills, shaded by live-oaks, he 

 is ever and anon coming to a place where wealth, taste and 

 Nature have combined to paint a picture that one loves to 

 hang perpetually on memory's walls. I am glad when wealth 

 gives to us such marvels of beauty as lovely Montecito so 

 proudly exhibits, and I am more glad that Wealth does not 

 keep them to herself, but seems pleased to share them with 

 others of us that else would know them not. Surely, no one 

 will come to California without 

 feasting on the rare, exquisite 

 beauties that make Santa Bar- 

 bara and its lovely suburb so 

 famous the world over. 



TWO FORTUNATE WOMEN 



" Ventura by the Sea " is 

 the county-seat of the county 

 by the same name. It is only a 

 few miles from our American 

 Venice. Scarce more than an 

 hour by cars, which connect 

 the two cities along the sea and 

 give one a ride that is never to 

 be forgotten. Here two women 

 live that I am proud to know, 

 proud to honor, proud to in- 

 troduce to our readers. One of 

 these women is Mrs.(iould. who 

 has produced petunias that 

 have startled the world. The 

 other is Mrs. Shepherd, who has 

 been equally happy in adding 

 to the world's wealth of choice, 

 incomparable begonias. If there 

 is anything in the way of floral 

 loveliness that outvies Mrs. 

 Th. Gould's petunias, it is Mrs. 

 T. B. Shepherd's begonias. If 

 there are flowers and foliage 

 any where that rival Mrs. 



Shepherd's begonias, they are in the not distant garden of her 

 neighbor, Mrs. Gould. The whole world is enriched by the 

 fond efforts of these two women. We have rarest, richest 

 beauty that else we should not have known, for they would 

 not have been. 



Again, two women have done this beneficent work. We 

 expect new, rich, rare developments from men. We have not 

 usually found our grand women stepping to the front in such 

 realms. We glory all the more when such strides are taken. 

 I wish every home in the land could enjoy Mrs. Shepherd's 

 begonias, and every househould know more of God and pleas- 

 ure because Mrs. Gould's petunias were daily compani ms. I 

 know of one home that is so blessed, and its inmates are very 

 grateful. 



HOME FLOWERS. 



I know of an orange orchard, ten acres, which recently 

 sold for $L'2,| '0'). I thought it a great price, and so asked 

 the recent owner how he was so fortunate in his sale. He 

 replied: "My roses and palms did it." His entire place is 

 skirted by great fountains of green in the magnificent Phoenix 

 palms, and alternating with these are most lovely roses, which 

 grow and bloom as only California roses can do. Why can 

 not every home rejoice in such loveliness ? 



I know that next to wife and the dear children, nothing 

 so weds us to home as the flowers. I heard a lecturer say, a 

 day or two since, that it was his business a few years agone to 

 visit all the homes of a certain region. He said he found the 

 home yard and porch the most certain index to the refinement 

 and courtesy that would greet him in the home. He said he 

 fancied that even the dogs in the flower-decked homes were 

 more kindly in their reception. I believe it. Flowers i^eget a 

 kindly, genial spirit, and every dog even is quick to feel and 

 sure to be mellowed by such* spirit. Were the flowers to be 

 taken from our house, porch and yard, we would all wish to 

 go with them. 



THE ANT=UON. 



A queer insect ! What strong, sharp jaws I What a 

 fierce, dating temper '. A very rat-terrier among its kind. A 

 unique home is his. He always dwells in the loose, shining 

 sand. Above him is only space, for he rests at the very bot- 

 tom of a funnel in the fria le earth. His threatening jaws 

 are alone visable ; for all else is covered ny the sand. Above 

 hira the side walls of his funnel are so steep that even the 

 quick, wary ant passes its margin at its peril. Once our eager, 

 daring, fearless ant-lion feels the tell-tale, falling sand, and 

 he knows that another victim has had the temerity to brave 

 the lion in his lair. He at once throws a harsh shower of 

 sand, which surely brings the intruder down to the very jaws 

 of death. No sooner has he the luckless wanderer in his 

 merciless jaws than the latter is shaken as never a rat-terrier 

 shakes his prey, until the poor victim has daylight and life 

 shaken from him. 



Thus these ant-lions are our good friends, for they take 

 their often meals of insects that would else feed on our fruit 



APiAHY OF .1. \\. TrcKEB & soK, OF JEFFERSON' CO., PA. — See page 6iS. 



