100 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



carry up only 30 or 40 people at once. Ernest 

 could not wait their slow motions, and so he 

 with several others went up on foot. The cost 

 of the monument was $1,300,000. It takes 9 

 minutes for the elevator to go up. and 8 minutes 

 to come down. I went up with the women- 

 folks, but they packed us in so tight I decided 

 • to go down oh foot with the boys: and it did 

 not tire me a bit, either. You see, they have 

 lots of nice new milk there in Washington, as 

 well as here in Ohio. That is why I was not 

 tired. The weather was very cold; and after 

 we had got pretty well chilled, up at the top of 

 the monument, among the crowds of people 

 that are there all the while, somebody found a 

 corner where there was a stove. I can not tell 

 you how one feels when looking straight down 

 more than a tenth of a mile. One of the first 

 things to surprise me was to see a lot of fish- 

 ponds belonging to the hatchery, right close up 

 by the base, while I felt perfectly certain there 

 was no such thing there when we started up: 

 and then friend Danzenbaker explained that, 

 as you go up in the air, things seem to swing up 

 close to the point from where you started. I 

 happened then to look at a little lake that I 

 had not noticed before. 



" Why." said I, " friend Danzenbaker, why in 

 the world do they let such little bits of children 

 go out on the ice?" And then he told me 

 they were not children at all— they were big 

 people. Why, as they moved to and fro they 

 reminded on6 of swarms of bees; and they 

 scarcely looked any bigger than bees. 



I am now going to find fault with just one 

 thing I saw in Washington, and I am going to 

 talk plainly too. It is not Washington I am 

 going to find fault with, however, but it is 

 Uncle Samuel's children. A great lot of them 

 ought to be treated as children, no matter how 

 old they are; and if Uncle Samuel would take 

 them across his knee and give them a right 

 smart spanking — every mother's son of them — 

 I think it would be a blessing to our nation. I 

 told you I went down from the top of the mon- 

 ument on foot. I am very glad indeed I did. 

 There are 8'.»8 steps and 50 landings. At each 

 landing you walk on a level floor about 25 feet. 

 This rests you for the next stairway. Com- 

 mencing at the 30-foot landing there are 199 

 memorial stones. These stones are beautiful 

 pieces of marble, furnished by the different 

 States in the Union. Many of them are fur- 

 nished by different organizations and different 

 industries. They are not only the finest con- 

 tributions in the way of beautiful stones, but 

 the carving and statuary are specimens of the 

 finest workmanship from each of the different 

 States. These stones, with their various in- 

 scriptions, are a museum of themselves; they 

 also ought to be a source of pride and admira- 

 tion to each of the different States. Well, now, 

 what do you think we saw? Why, simply be- 

 cause those who planned and built this monu- 

 ment, that cost over a million and a quarter of 

 dollars— because these good people did not see 

 fit to put water-closets at convenient points on 

 these long stairs, our American people have 

 been making a water-closet of almost every 

 corner on those fifty landings; and this disgust- 

 ing liquid is running from top to bottom of this 

 whole great monument, staining, defacing, and 

 making disgusting these beautiful marble me- 

 mentoes of the contributions from all over our 

 Union. Perhaps one reason why it passes un- 

 noticed is because people of wealth and influ- 

 ence, as a rule, go up and down on the elevator; 

 but if nobody else has yet lifted up his voice in 

 protest against this piece of vandalism, I for 

 one feel like taking upon myself the responsi- 

 bility of saying that, if the rest of the States in 

 our republic can stand it. the State of Ohio can 



not — at least, there is one individual who is not 

 going to stand it any longer and keep still. I 

 do not know that I ever undertook to speak 

 for my native State before; but I do it now. 

 Just one thing more: 



In the Treasury department there is a beau- 

 tiful park, with trees, shrubs, statuary, etc. All 

 of the trees are named in both plain English 

 and Latin. It seems to be a collection of the 

 forestry found in the United States. I have not 

 time to describe it any further now; but in this 

 beautiful park there is a fine water-closet, for 

 the use of gentlemen. Running water, that 

 even in zero weather pours into marble basins, 

 in order that every thing may be kept clean 

 and sweet, is provided for visitors. How do 

 you suppose they are used? Why, Instead of 

 appropriating the marble basins, made at so 

 much expense for the very pui'pose of teaching 

 us cleanliness and decency, the great, public 

 have been making the floors of this little build- 

 ing so nasty that one can not find a place to set 

 his foot, should he attempt to reach these nice- 

 ly arranged conveniences. I walked on the 

 heels of my overshoes as I went in, and then I 

 afterward cleaned them off' on the grass as I 

 went out. Shame on you, ye men and boys of 

 America! I have taken up this subject once 

 before, and there has within a few years been a 

 great reform on the gi-ounds of our State fairs 

 as well as our county fairs; and our exposition 

 buildings and other places are now generally 

 well managed. 



In the Smithsonian Institute, which I can 

 not stop to mention here, there were beautiful 

 rooms for the accommodation of both men and 

 women. The guideboard read something like 

 this: "Gentlemen's apartment for public com- 

 fort." In the inner rooms were plain directions 

 and requests, so that it hardly seems possible 

 that anybody who presumes to be half way 

 civilized should be guilty of such things as I 

 have mentioned. I believe it is true at the 

 present time, that no hotel can make any pre- 

 tentions to being first-class unless this thing is 

 kept in bounds: but I have been told that, in 

 many places, they find it necessary to hire a 

 man to watch people constantly, and insist that 

 they behave themselves like educated and in- 

 telligent beings, instead of like dumb brutes, 

 that can not be expected to know any better. 



Dear reader, you may think that I am more 

 vehement in this matter than I need to be. But 

 please remember that the cholera is now at 

 our doors, and diphtheria has already left its 

 blighting tracks in many a home. Another 

 thing: Filth and indecency are one of the first 

 steps toward immorality and crime. Cleanliness 

 is next to godliness. Let us be more careful than 

 we have been, and let us carefully watch our 

 children, and train them in the ways of decency 

 and order, while they may yet be trained. 



High-pressure Gardening. 



The outlook for high-pressure gardening at 

 the present time is very favorable. Potatoes 

 are high, and. in fact, almost all sorts of root 

 crops are bringing good prices. Every thing in 

 garden culture is promising a wider iield than 

 ever before; and the Spanish King onions are 

 now readily bringing from three to four dollars 

 a barrel. Yesterday a man came in to inquire 

 about the price of seed, etc. He attended a 

 farmers' institute two years ago, where I gave 

 them a little talk on raising onions. He went 

 home and drained a cat-swamp near his home, 

 that had been an eyesore to himself and neigh- 



