1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



829 



president; Frank Benton, secretary; Dr. A. B. 

 Mason, an ex-president. In other parts of the 

 room are the faces of prominent bee-keepers, 

 but they will scarcely be recognized, as they 

 happen to sit in such unfavorable positions. 



Mr. VV. Z. Hutchinson, of Flint, Mich., owns 

 the negative from whicli this photo was made, 

 and he will supply mounted prints of it at 50cts. 

 each. He also photographed himself (by the 

 way, he is a tirst-class amateur photographer) 

 and all of the principal honey-exhibits, a print 

 of any one of which will be sent for .')0 cts. The 

 question may be asked whether we ourselves or 

 Mr. H. will reproduce the photograph above 

 mentioned. As for ourselves, we would say 

 that the picture is not ours to engrave, even if 

 it would come up well in half-tone. 



TRAGIC DEATH OF TWO YORK-STATE BEE- 

 KEEPERS. 



One of the greatest enjoyments at the Chica- 

 go convention (as it is in every convention) 

 was to greet old - time faces — faces of those 

 whom we have either met before or have known 

 quite intimately from their writings. Little 

 did we think, however, when we shook the 

 hand of that kindly old gentleman, Mr. J. Van- 

 Deusen. of J. VanDeusen & Sons, manufactur- 

 ers of flat-bottomed foundation, of Sprout 

 Brook, N. Y., that he was so soon to meet with 

 so great a sorrow as that of the loss of his son 

 and main stay in the business — C. C. VanDeu- 

 sen— and his estimable daughter-in-law. The 

 worst part of it is. they suffered death in a ter- 

 rible railroad accident at Battle Creek, Mich., 

 on the morning of Oct. 20. The accident was 

 tfie result, as perhaps most of our readers know 

 by this time by the press reports, of a terrible 

 collision of railway trains. Among the 2.5 or 

 30 who were killed are included the names of 

 our two bee-keeping friends. Mr. VanDeusen, 

 it seems, was injured, and died shortly after 

 his wife. His wife was pinned between the 

 telescoped cars, and at first had no doubt of her 

 escape; but as the wreck took fire it began to 

 be evident that she was in danger. Before 

 she could be released by the strong men, the 

 flames had claimed their victim. We clip the 

 following from the Cleveland I-eatter; 



" You sha'n't burn, we'll get you out," cried the 

 men lieroically, as they wrestled frantically witli 

 the splintered timbers. There was a lull of speech 

 for five minutes. The rescuers had become giants 

 in strength and madmen in desperation, and they 

 struggled wildly with the tangled mass of wood and 

 iron. The woman was silent, and gazed imploringly 

 and inquiringly into the faces of the firemen. 

 A martyr's strength. 



"My God! O my God!" suddenly burst from the 

 lips of one of the heroic workers, and in that de- 

 spairing heart-cry tlie lielpless woman read her 

 death-warrant. She gave one agonizing wall, and 

 then her woman's weakness gave way to a martyr's 

 strength. 



" I can die— oh, yes! I can die if I must," she said 

 soothingly to the strong men who were weeping in 

 their impotent efforts. Again they struggled 

 breathlessly to the rescue, but the flames were en- 

 circling tliem. " I am a Christian," she said resign- 

 edly, and a moment Inter lier voice was raised in 

 prayer. The flames completely encircled the help- 

 less victim, and the firemen were driven away. As 

 the blaze caught her arms, and as she fought to 

 keep the flames from her face, she told her name 

 and address, and left messaKcs of love to her Inis- 

 band and family. Tlie closing minute was a pathetic 

 struggle against the inevitable; but it was tlie flesh 

 that fouglit, and not the spirit. The white face of 

 the woman gazed heavenward, and her lips moved 

 in prayer. Even the fury of tlie flames that wreath- 

 ed her limbs and blistered and curled the white 

 flesh of her artns, was powerless to provoke a 

 scream. Suddenly there was a swaying and surg- 

 ing of burning timbers around her. A wild groan 



burst simultaneously from the lips of the spectators, 

 and strong men wept. Through their tears they 

 saw the flames sweep around the face of the mar- 

 tyred woman, and her lialr burned wildly for a 

 moment. Tlie liead diopped to one side; as the vic- 

 tim itdialed the flames, the praying lips were stilled, 

 and the soul of Mrs. VanDeusen had passed beyond 

 the fury of the elements of earth. An hour later 

 the husband, for whom she had left a loving mes- 

 sage, it)ined her in the world to come. 



In one sense the story above is awful, and in 

 another it is most beautiful. Bee-keepers all 

 over our land maybe proud to know that, in 

 their ranks, was once a woman who could die so 

 heroically and bravely such an awful death, 

 and yet without fear and without a scream. 



Our business acquaintance with the VanDcu- 

 sens has been exceedingly pleasant. Mr. C. C. 

 VanDeusen, the one who died, was the bee- 

 keeper of the lirm, and our back volumes years 

 ago show that he wrote a number of valuable 

 articles. Along about this time a very pleas- 

 ant correspondence sprang up, and it was evi- 

 dent that both our friend and his wife were 

 earnest Christians. May the story told above 

 so graphically, show that there is something in 

 the life beyond to sustain one in the terrible 

 hour of physical torture. We would not give 

 the details as above, except that they teach a 

 beautiful lesson. 



Trade Notes. 



PERFORATED ZINC. 



THE EXACT SIZE THE PERFORATIONS SHOULD 

 BE, ACCORDING TO DR. TINKER. 



A short time ago we wrote a letter to Dr. G. 

 L. Tinker, of New Philadelphia, O., asking his 

 opinion with regard to the size of perforations 

 as discussed editorially on p. 723. He has kind- 

 ly replied; and as the article is a valuable one 

 we commend it to the careful consideration of 

 every one who is interested in keeping queens 

 out of the surplus apartment of the hive. 



Friend Root:— Your kind favor concerning 

 an editorial on page 723 is at hand. I had only 

 just read it, and shall be pleased to give what 

 information I have on the subject. 



The sample of zinc through which one of Dr. 

 Miller's queens passed was tested by my steel 

 gauge, and the perforations were found to be 

 smaller than in my zinc, proving beyond ques- 

 tion that the queen was not a fully developed 

 one. I am aware that such undeveloped queens 

 can be easily reared in full colonies, and it can 

 be done as follows: Select a time during the 

 season when little or no honey is coming in. 

 Remove the queen from a strong colony and let 

 them rear a queen. The usual number of cells 

 will be started, but, without exception, every 

 one of the young queens will be small or unde- 

 veloped—not intich if any larger through the 

 thorax than a worker. These queens will also 

 prove short-lived and comparatively unprolific. 

 They are generally super.seded the second sea- 

 son. I once reared a lot of queens in the man- 

 ner described, and had eight of them in one 

 colony in queen-rearing chambers. I soon 

 found" that they could all go anywhere through 

 the zinc like the workers, so that all were killed 

 but one. Queens reared by the usual approved 

 methods, or by natural swarming, were always 

 safe in these chambers unless they flew out 

 and entered the wrong place. On one occasion 

 I had 30 of them in o\w colony. The zinc work- 

 ed perfectly, and not a single queen passed it. 



