1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



471 



This was an expensive thing to do, of course. Tlie 

 clerks would come to him and say tliat such and 

 such a customer had called for tobacco, and was s" 

 dissatisfied because he couldn't gut it thiit they were 

 afraid they would lose his trade entirely. When- 

 ever such a case was reported to him, the store-keep- 

 er would go straight to the disgruntled man and 

 talk somewhat as follows: 



" See here, Will, does your boy John use tobacco?" 



"No, he doesn't." 



"Do you want him to?" 



" No, Ed, I don't." 



"Well. I'm working for your boy John. What 

 will he think of me if he sees me selling it?" 



And the answer was pretty likely to be, " You're 

 all right, Ed. Keep it up; I'll trade with you." 



As a boy, young Kdward Warren had had an ex- 

 perience with drink and saloons that was a healthy 

 one. He was brought up in total abstinence, of 

 course; and he was given 'his first position in the 

 country-store because he did not drink, his prede- 

 cessor there having gone to the bad because of it. 

 But the saloon Influence was strong among his com- 

 panions, and they drank beer freely. He made an 

 attempt to keep away from the sa'oon which most 

 of his friends frequented, and where the ball-and- 

 bell game was a popular attraf-lion in that day; but 

 it was not easy to stay away, though when he was 

 urged by the others to drink with tliem. as he con- 

 stantly was, he always declined. The saloon-keep- 

 er himself, knowing Ed as a boy of standing and in- 

 fluence, took his part when the pressure grew piet- 

 ty strong, and told them to " leave Ed alone." He 

 even went so far as to keep oranges there, so that 

 the boy might have them instead of beer. 



But one evening when the usual crowd were to- 

 gether. Ed's friends had been drinking so much 

 that they determined to have their way with him. 

 He declined all urging, as usual. Then the crowd 

 took him in hand. Stretching him out on the floor, 

 which was covered with sawdust and tobacco stains, 

 four of them took charge of his arms and legs, and 

 a fifth poured beer as well as he could between his 

 closed teeth, and copiously down his collar and 

 neck. 



That did not win Ed to the liquor habit, and it 

 broke him of the saloon habit. He found that he 

 and the saloon did not have enough in common to 

 justify his making it even a visiting-place, and he 

 never went there again. Not only that, but some 

 fifty years later, during the first decade of the twen- 

 tieth century, that same village of Three Oaks has 

 had no saloons where this sort of outrage could be 

 worked. The reason is that that boy, now grown, 

 has made it his business to get his village rid of 

 them. First he made it hot for the few saloons that 

 were there by prosecuting them for every breach 

 of the law that they committed, such as Sunday 

 opening and selling after hours. In this way he 

 crowded them down in number from three to two, 

 then to one. Finally, he offered to pay to the vil- 

 lage board, if it would shut out that last saloon, the 

 two hundred and fifty dollars annual license sum 

 that it was afraid it would lose by going dry; and it 

 accepted his offer. He agreed to give them notice 

 anytime he got tired of the arrangement and want- 

 ed to stop, so that they might go wet then if they 

 wished. But that has been going on now for about 

 ten years, and he has not given notice yet. 



Poultry Department 



By A. I. Root 



THE " KELLERSTRASS WAY." 



On page 400, June 15, I mentioned the 

 way in which Kellerstrass copied from an 

 old almanac without giving credit. Not- 

 withstanding, I supposed that he had real- 

 ly taken premiums right and left all over 

 our land for his superior Crystal White Or- 

 pingtons; that is, I took it for granted that 

 he had, by some means or other, produced a 

 very superior strain of fowls that our judges 

 acknowle'lged were ahead of every thing 

 else in this country or even any foreign 



cotintry. If, however, he did not scruple to 

 mislead in his great claims for his book, 

 why should he scruple about misleading in 

 other ways? See the following: 



I have been reading your Home papers for a num- 

 ber of years, and am particularly interested at pres- 

 ent in what you have published regarding Mr. Er- 

 nest Kellerstrass. It is my opinion that his cus- 

 tomers .are so* well pleased because they believe he 

 really has given them the best that can be obtain- 

 ed. During the past two years, more or less, the 

 advertisements of Mr. K. contain this clause: 



" As to their fancy quality, they won first at Mad- 

 ison Square Garden, New York, 1905, 1906, 1907. and 

 1908, and also at Crystal Palace, London, England, 

 and Chicago and Boston." 



I am quite sure that, were those customers to as- 

 certain the fact that Mr. Kellerstrass had no erhibit 

 whatever at New York in 1905, 1906, and 1907, and 

 that, in my opinion, he was beaten badly in 1908, 

 and that he has not exhibited at IJoston during the 

 six years prior to 1910, it would be a safe proposition 

 that they would not be so well pleased. Tliese are 

 facts easily proven; and if one would take the trou- 

 ble it could be easily shown, I think, that the gen- 

 tleman never erhihiied at the Crystal Palace. 



At the bottom of page 15 of the book " The Keller- 

 strass Way " we find. " I have snown them that my 

 chickens are all right for the showroom. Now I 

 am going home," etc. . . . "Just as soon as the 

 poultry-journals will show me that there is a breed- 

 er who has made as good a record as I did you may 

 rest assured that I am going into the showroom, 

 and I will beat him. If 1 don't I will quit the poul- 

 tr.v business." 



As the gentleman had an exhibit of 24 entries in 

 his four classes of White Orpingtons at Madison 

 Square Harden during the past winter, conditions 

 must have existed which demanded his presence 

 again in the showroom. He did not win, obtain- 

 ing but one first prize with his 24 entries against 3 

 firsts won by the Owen Farm on 8 entries. Will the 

 gentleman now quit the poultry business? 



Lake Roland, Md., .lune 20. Benj. B. Jones. 



Now, if there is any mistake in the above 

 statement, and if Kellerstrass has really, by 

 hard work, produced a strain of fowls of 

 such superior excellence that it is a good in- 

 vestment to pay not only $2.00 an egg, but 

 even SlO.nn, to get the very best in the world, 

 we shall be very glad to give him space to 

 explain. If he has not won all these prizes 

 it is certainly time that the poultry-journals 

 and the agricultural papers should sto]) ac- 

 cepting his advertisements, and all unite in 

 lending a hand to show him up in his true 

 colors. 



POULTRY SECRETS AND POULTRY FRAUDS 

 IN GENERAL. 



On page 648, Oct. 15, last year, I mention- 

 ed sending a dollar to W. R. Curtis & Co., 

 Ransomville, N. Y., for a valuable book 

 telling how they raised 25,000 chickens with- 

 out losing more than 5 per cent. The book 

 contained only about 12 pages besides the 

 advertisements. At the same time, I sent 

 $3.00 for a lampless brooder. They claimed 

 it was &, fir el ess brooder; but after I got it I 

 learned that the chicks "needed heat of 

 some kind for the first week or two." The 

 brooder was a rough and poorly made box 

 that should not have cost a dollar. At the 

 time I showed them up, a good many of our 

 readers thought strange of it because they 

 were "such a big concern, " etc. That valu- 

 able book, "The Dollar Hen," gives the 

 Curtis Brothers credit of raising 20,000 chick- 

 ens a year, but they say the Curtis tireless 

 brooder costs only about 15 cents. Well, 



