1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



353 



bees. It went perhaps a rod, then stepped, 



kicked a little, and dird. There were over .50 

 stings in it. F. W. Humphrey. 



Oronoque, Ct., Mar. 28. 



CATFISH WANTED, ETC. 



Can you give me any information as to where 

 I could get catfish to stock a tlsh-pond? What 

 kind would be most advisable to get? We had 

 carp in our pond, and last winter they were all 

 killed, the water being too low. We like carp 

 well, but one great objection to them is the 

 many small bones they have. I have been 

 thinking of trying catfish, and should like to 

 learn all about them I can. 



My bees wintered well,, losing 2 out of 84, and 

 a few others were queenless. 



Levi A. Ressi.er. 



Nappanee, Ind., April 14. 



[Can any of our readers answer friend R.'?J 



TOTAL DEPRAVITV. 



A few days ago I was in the office of the 

 Clemons-Mason Com. Co. After a pleasant 

 greeting, Mr. demons remarked that he had 

 something to show me; and, stooping down, 

 took from under his table a stone weighing in 

 the neighborhood of 1~' lbs., which was one of 

 two taken out of beeswax, the two weighing 21 

 lbs. He exonerated the bee-keeper of whom he 

 received it by saying that, upon tracing up the 

 matter, he found that he had bought it of a 

 man traveling in a wagon; so the identity of 

 the guilty party is lost. We have heard of 

 individuals whose souls were as small as a 

 lady's thimble; but whoever did this, I am 

 afraid, had even smaller souls. However, 

 while some one would suffer financially the 

 weight of the stone, I think 1 would rather buy 

 it with a stone in it than tallow. Joeing igno- 

 rant of this latter kind of adulteration, we 

 melted and dipped into sheets a hundred pounds 

 of wax, and tried to make it into foundation, 

 only to fail, after weary hours of hard work. 

 Every soul tempted to adulterate or cheat in 

 any avenue of business ought to read and pon- 

 der Ezekiel 18: 30. 31. Mrs. Milton Cone. 



Kansas City, Mo., Apr. 10. 



[We thank you for your kind closing words, my 

 good friend; and as it will save our readers a 

 good deal of trouble in hunting up their Bibles, 

 we give here the passage you refer to.] 



Tlierefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, 

 every one according to liisways saith the Lord God. 

 Repent, and turn yourselves from all your trans- 

 gressions; so iniquity sliall not be your ruin. Cast 

 away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye 

 have transgressed; and malse you a new heart and 

 a new spirit; for why will ye die, O house of Israel V 



PHCENIX, ARIZ.; A GOOD WORD FOR THE COW- 

 AN EXTRACTOR. 



I am more than pleased with the Cowan ex- 

 tractor. Mr. A. J. King examined it, and he 

 pronounced it very good, and he, as you know, 

 is competent to judge. By the way, I am liv- 

 ing at present in his house — the same where 

 you visited him last winter. We came to this 

 sunny clime one year ago last December, 

 through the instrumentality of that letter writ- 

 ten by Mr. A- J. King (and published in Glean- 

 ings), in search of health, more especially on 

 my daughter's account, who had been greatly 

 troubled with rheumatism for over six years, 

 being at times so bad that she had to use 

 crutches for six months at a time; and I wish 

 to add that she is much improved, and we en- 

 tertain fond hopes that, through the agency of 

 this genial climate, she may be restored to per- 

 manent health. Mrs. M. N. Stanley. 



Phcenix. Ariz., Apr. 12. 



YELLOAV CLEOME AS A HONEY-PLANT IN AR- 

 IZONA. 



1 herewith inclose some seeds of the yellow 

 cleome, which proves to be so valuable a honey- 

 plant in this vicinity. It is extremely hardy, 

 and grows without irrigation, in which respect 

 it is like the mesquite, and, in fact, next to the 

 mesquite, is my best source of honey. There is, 

 however, nearly or quite a thousand acres of 

 alfalfa within my range; but as it is grown for 

 hay it is cut as soon as the bloom appears, and 

 the bees get in very little work on alfalfa. This 

 plant grows very similar to the mustard, 6 to 12 

 it. high, and stalks one to two inches through. 

 Stock will not eat the plant while in bloom, but 

 do eat the seed-pods when ripe, or after frost 

 time. It blooms from the 1st of June till frost, 

 and the bees work on it freely night and morn- 

 ing. The purple variety, or Rocky Mountain 

 plant, is not so hardy, and will not thrive well 

 without irrigation, or in a springy place (ciru- 

 ega land, we call it). 



I am anxious for you to test the growth of 

 this plant in your State. If it grows as well 

 there as here, it will be a boon to bee-keepers if 

 sown on waste land. F. E. Jordan. 



Camp Verde, Arizona, April 2. 



WHEN EDISON WAS YOUNG. 



The following is an extract from Practical 

 Elect rlciti/. ■ 



" 1 was an operator in the Memphis office when 

 Tliomas A. Edison appfied to the manager for a 

 position," said A. G. Koclifeller, a member of the 

 Reminiscence Club, St. Louis. " He came walking 

 into tlie office one morning looking lilie a veritable 

 liayseed. He wore a hicliory shirt, a pair of butter- 

 nut pants tucked Into the tops of boots a size too 

 large and guiltless of blacking. ' Where's the boss? ' 

 was liis query as lie glanced around the office. No 

 one replied at once, and fie repeated the question. 

 Tiie manager asked him wliat lie could do for him, 

 and the future-great proceeded to strike liim for a 

 job. Business was rushing, and tlie olfice was two 

 men short; so almost any kind of a lightning-sling- 

 er was welcome. He was assigned to a desk, and a 

 fusilade of winks went tlie rounds of the office, for 

 tfie 'jay' was put on tlie St. Louis wire, the hardest 

 in tfie office. 



" At this end of the line was an operator who was 

 chain ligfitning, and knew it. Edison had hardly 

 got seated before St. Louis called. Tlie new comer 

 responded, and St. Louis started in on a long report, 

 and lie pumped it in like a house afire. Edison 

 ihrew his leg over the arm of his chair, leisurely 

 transferred a wad of spruce gum from his pocket to 

 his mouth, picked up a pen, examined it critically, 

 and started in, about 200 words behind. He didn't 

 stay there long, though. St. Louis let out another 

 link of speed, and still another, and the instrument 

 on Edison's table hummed like an old-style Singer 

 sewing-machine. 



" Every man in the office left his desk and gath- 

 ered around the 'jay' to see what he was dciing 

 with that electric cyclone. Well, sir, he was right 

 on the word, and was putting it down in the pret- 

 tiest copperplate hand you ever saw, even crossing 

 his t's, dotting his i's, and punctuating with as 

 mucli care as a man editing telegraph for 'rat' 

 printers. St. Louis got tired by and by, and began 

 to slow down. Edison opened the key and said, 

 ' Here, here ! this is no pruner class ! Get a hustle 

 on you !' Well, sir, that broke St. Louis all up. He 

 had been ' rawhiding ' Memphis for a long time, and 

 we were terribly sore; and to have a man in our 

 office that c-ould walk all over him made us feel like 

 a man whose horse had won the Derby. I saw the 

 ' wizard ' not long ago. He doesn't wear a hickory 

 shirt, nor put his pants in his boots, but he is very 

 far from being a dude yet." 



There are several things in the above ac- 

 count that please me. Edison depended on his 

 ability, and not on starched collars nor good 

 clothes. Where one has not the ability, how- 

 ever, it may be well to make up for it in some 

 other way. Another thing: When he saw that 

 they proposed to croivd him a little, he did not 

 begin feeling for some tobacco, but simply put 



