GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1. 



The bicycle may provfi a great blessing, 

 even to us clumsy chaps that never risk our 

 necks on them. Never was there any such 

 interest in having good roads as now exists, 

 and I suspect it's mainly owing to the wheel. 

 If th*e roads are put in .proper order for bike- 

 riders, it will make wagons and carriages last a 

 tbird longer. Success to the movement. 



Bai.ky colonies that will not start work in 

 sections are thus treated in extreme cases by 

 Doolittle, as given in StoChmayi. Drum or 

 shake from the combs the larger part of the 

 bees and the queen, and put them in a box or 

 hive; and when they commence to build comb 

 nicely put them back where they came from, 

 using the white combs they have just built as 

 starters in the sections. 



LANGSTKOTH'S REMINISCENCES. 



MOKE ABOUT SLAVERY. 



For reasons which will soon appear, I have al- 

 ways taken a deep interest in the colored race. 

 My maternal gran imother was a large slave- 

 holder on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. 

 When she was a rich and fashionable widow, 

 the converting grace of God came to her through 

 the ministrations of the Methodists, and she 

 joined their church, although to connect herself 

 with them was almost to lose caste with many 

 of her associates. She had always been a kind 

 mistress to her servants; but under new and 

 better influences she became increasingly so- 

 licitous for their welfare. I have often heard 

 my mother say that she never thought of strik- 

 ing one of her mother's slaves, any more than 

 our children would presume to strike one of our 

 white domestics. But this, I believe, was rath- 

 er exceptional, and children were often accus- 

 tomed to strike and abuse the colored servants, 

 almost at will. What a training for those soon 

 to become citizens of a professedly republican 

 country! 



At that time a constant terror to the slave 

 population was the dread of being sold and 

 carried off to the Georgia plantations. Parties 

 from the South traveled from plantation to 

 plantation, until they had bought enough slaves 

 to suit their purposes. One day some of the 

 colored servants came running to my grand- 

 mother, to tell her that a woman who had es- 

 caped from her new owner had just come to her 

 premises to hide herself from pursuit. In a 

 storm of seeming anger, my grandmother drove 

 the informants from her presence, commanding 

 them under pain of severe punishment not to 

 speak to her another word. The owner of the 

 fugitive woman soon appeared, to make known 

 his mission. In very few words my grand- 

 mothf^r told him that she knew nothing at all 

 of where his woman was hiding, and that, if 

 she could have her own choice, she would have 

 him driven at once from her place: but as the 

 law allowed him to search for her, she could 

 not prevent it. His search was in vain; and 

 a week or more after his departure, the woman 

 made her appearance. She lived as a free 

 woman, and was always called Georgia Jane, 

 and no one ever disturbed her. It must be 

 remembered that, in those days, there were no 

 telegraphs, railroads, steamboats, or even stage- 

 coaches; and the persons who made up those 

 gangs could seldom afford to come back to hunt 

 for a fugitive. 



My mother's grandmother had been a very 

 worldly woman. One day word came that she 

 had been converted. A pious old negro woman. 

 When told of it, dropped down on her knees to 

 thank God, and vowed that she would not rise 



from them again that day. Mother says she saw 

 her walking on her knees with vessels of milk, 

 to and from the milk-house, and doing all her 

 work in the same way, for the rest of the day. 

 If there was something of superstition in this, 

 surely there was much more of the outflow of a 

 simple heart, full of love to Jesus, and thank- 

 fulness that her old mistress had found her 

 Savior. 



Long before she died, my grandmother liber- 

 ated all her slaves. She had done all that she 

 could for their welfare; but the doctrine taught 

 by John Wesley, that slavery was the sum of 

 ail villainies, had sunk deep into her heart, and 

 her conscience was never at rest until she had 

 set them free. To the men and women who 

 were able to take care of themselves, their lib- 

 erty was given without any restrictions. The 

 younger girls were bound out until they were 

 IS years of age, and the younger boys until they 

 were 21 years old. For the sick and aged a 

 suitable provision was made for life: and my 

 grandmother, from being a wealthy widow, had 

 only enough for a moderate competency. 



An uncle told me, that, on a visit to the old 

 homestead, one of grandmother's former slaves 

 said to him, " Massa Jim, you know that they 

 always used to say, that, if a nigger was set 

 free, he was of no account any more, but would 

 only laze about and steal. Now, Massa Jim, do 

 you know of any of old missis' servants, that, 

 after they got free, went to the jail or the poor- 

 house ? ". My uncle could only say. that, to the 

 best of his recollection, none had ever done so. 

 "Now, Massa Jim," continued the old negro, 

 "kin you say as much for the same number of 

 white people, that had as good or even better 

 chances than we had?" "and I could only re- 

 ply," said my uncle. " ' No, Jim, I can not.' " 



As my mother had a sister still living there, 

 she occasionally visited her old Chestertown 

 home. This house was near the steamboat 

 landing, and her heart was often deeply pained, 

 as she listened to the wailings of poor slaves 

 sold away from home and friends. It was often 

 said, by the apologists of slavery, that such 

 separations of families were rare; but this was 

 far from being so. As in all the border States 

 little or no profit could be made from slave 

 labor, the breeding of slaves for a southern 

 market was quite common; and we all know, 

 even if we have never read tJncle Tom's Cabin, 

 what this implies; and, further, in the settle- 

 ment of estates it often happened that families 

 were cruelly divided. It has been said, that 

 the colored people felt such separation for only 

 a short time, as the cow and the calf that the 

 butcher parts. If this were so, and slavery had 

 trained God's creatures to be no better than the 

 brute creation, what a terrible indictment must 

 lie against it! It need hardly be said in how 

 many cases this charge against such an affec- 

 tionate race was the basest of calumnies. 

 G Although the law strictly forbade the teach- 

 ing of slaves to read, my dear mother, when 

 visiting among her old friends, could never 

 bring lierself to respect it. A slave who had 

 passed the middle age was trying to learn from 

 her how to read. His progress was painfully 

 slow, and he was kept in the little words of the 

 spelling-book so long that he begged that she 

 would teach him from the big words, further 

 on. He could be reconciled to more lessons 

 with little words, only when he learned that 

 the great General George Washington had to 

 learn the little words before he came to the big 

 ones. 



The following incident was once witnessed 

 by my mother: A colored boy was dragging his 

 little master in a small go-cart, when one of the 

 wheels came off and the little boy tumbled to 

 the ground. As soon as he could recover the 



