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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. l.a 



First we Lad to wait for tlie cars to start. 

 There was no warm depot lo wait in as we 

 have here at the North, and the cars them- 

 selves were simply open summer conveyances. 

 Of course, there were some very loose light cur- 

 tains flapping in the winds; but these only 

 served to make one more chilly. By tlie time I 

 reached the exposition I was chillerl through 

 and through. Somebody said JVlachinery Hall 

 would be the warmest place early in the morn- 

 ing; but the weather was unexpected to most 

 of the people, and a good deal of the machinery 

 seemed to be frozen up. One might get up near 

 the great engines, and warm up one side while 

 the other got chilled. Perhaps I had better 

 call a halt right here or I shall be complaining 

 before I know it. People with much vitality, 

 and strong, jobust constitutions, where they 

 were exceedingly well clothed, perhaps did not 

 mind the weaihei- very much; although lam 

 inclined to think that many others suffered as 

 well as myself; for wherever there was a warm 

 place, even if it were only a big camptire in the 

 open air, I saw rich and poor, little and big, 

 white and colored, huddling up close together 

 to get warm, forgetting all imaginary lines of 

 caste and social standing. Since getting home 

 I am told that some of the friends from Florida 

 caught severe colds, just as I— came pretty near 

 doing. 



There was enough in Machinery Hall alone 

 for one to study a whole day, and so with doz- 

 ens of other buildings. One of the first things 

 that attracted my attention was a new device 

 for raising water. The way you get the water 

 out of the well is to pump air down to the bot- 

 tom; and by an ingenious contrivance the com- 

 pressed air is made to go under the water, and 

 shoot it out of the top of the well, bringing 

 sand, gravel, dirt, and every thing else up. There 

 were several things accomplished by this device. 

 First your windmill, engine, or other power 

 that works the air-pump, may be at any con- 

 venient distance from the well, for you can 

 send air through iron pipes laid right on top of 

 the ground, without any danger of freezing. 

 There are no valves to clog and stick up and 

 wear out. The water pours forth in a steady, 

 constant stream, so long as the air is forced 

 down into the well. 



Pretty nearly all the varieties of automatic 

 machinery we saw at the World's Fair were at 

 Atlanta; and some things of later date than 

 the World's Fair times. An automatic ma- 

 chine turned out corkscrews by the bu^hel, ton, 

 or carload. All it wanted was wire, and power 

 to move it. Speaking of automatic dt^vices re- 

 minds me that 1 have always been greatly in- 

 terested in devices whereby machineiy might do 

 the work of buying and selling. Hold on I J do not 

 believe 1 ever saw a machine that would make 

 purchases, and drive sharp bargains; but we 

 do now have quite a good many machines for 

 selling various commodities. At the World's 

 Fair, you know an automatic machine sold 

 Waukesha drinking-water for a penny a glass. 

 Well, at Atlanta, stationed all over the grounds, 

 we saw solemn-looking machines proclaiming 

 to passers-by," Ice-cold orange cider for a nickel 

 a glass." 



The "ice-cold" was rather a burlesque on 

 that particular day. If the machine had said 

 hot coffee or hot water, the former would have 

 struck the crowd more favorably, and the latter 

 would have hit rne exactly. Other beverages 

 than orange' cider were also served by auto- 

 matic machinery. I do not know how much 

 they were patronized, or how well the appara- 

 tus did its work; but it seems to me as though 

 there might be a great future in developing 

 this matter of having machines to receive 



money and deliver goods of certain staple kinds. 

 The machines themselves certainly would not be 

 guilty of running off with the money, cheating 

 in change, nor giving scrimp or scant mea- 

 sure; at lea^c. if it scrimped to one individual 

 it would SCI imp to all. so there would be no 

 partiality or favoritism. Perhaps I might 

 mention here that hot tea and coffee were sold 

 all over the grounds for a nickel — that is, 

 where the apparatus was not frozen up. 



Friend Danzenbaker had a stand in Agricul- 

 tural liuilding, where he explained the wonder- 

 ful advantages of his hive. I asked one of the 

 bee-friends if he kept there right along; and 

 when he nodded assent 1 said, " Why, how does 

 he keep warm in a building that has no ar- 

 rangements for heating ? " 



The reply was, " He keeps warm by talking, 

 of course." 



Lest 1 be accused of sarcasm I want to say 

 right here that friend Danzenbaker is certainly 

 a well -posted bee-keeper. His ideas — at least 

 most of them — are sound, and he is doubtless 

 doing a vast amount of good by explaining 

 things to crowds, and directing bee-keepers into 

 better and more improved channels of work. 



Somebody suggested that Electricity Build- 

 ing would be warm, and so we started over 

 there. On the way one of the crowd said: "O 

 Mr. Root! you must take just one glimpse of 

 this building here, even if you are cold." This 

 was the industrial department for work of the 

 colored people, and it was indeed a surprise. 

 Had no one told you, you might have mistaken 

 it in many respects for an average exposition 

 building. Not only in the products of the soil, 

 but in almost all the industrial arts, there were 

 samples of work that would compare favorably 

 with almost any thing we have; and, best of 

 all, there were ?amples of their school work — 

 writing, drawing, composition, kindergarten 

 work, and every thing else to show what the 

 colored schools of the South were accomplishing. 

 Best of all, there were excellent photographs, 

 taken, of course, by colored artists, of the educat- 

 ed and inielligent colored men and women. My 

 eye caught a glimpse of Booker Washington, 

 and then quite an array of excellent pictures of 

 ministers, lawyers, and doctors, among the col- 

 ored people. Well has it Innii ^aid that the 

 crop of boys and girls are the most important 

 crop that any farmer ever undertook to grow. 

 But it takes more tliaii one summer — yes, or a 

 decade of summers— tu grow a crop of educated 

 men and women. The idea burst upon my in- 

 telligence with wonderful power, that the first, 

 or almost the first, crop— matured crop— of col- 

 ored people, the work of educating the freemen 

 of the South, was just now coming before the 

 world. 



A colored lady stood near the entrance, to 

 welcome visitors. Notwithstanding her fea- 

 tures showed almost pure African blood, there 

 was an air of gentility, self-possession, and re- 

 finement that nothing but education can give; 

 and when some vulgar and uncourteous white 

 people who were uassing by looked her in the 

 face with a bold stare, and said, with a coarse, 

 unfeeling laugh, " Well, that is pretty good for 

 niggers, any way," our colored friend had not 

 only education enough, but grace from the 

 Lord Jesus Christ, to reply with gentleness, 

 and even with a pleasant smile, to those rude 

 sallies. Education and Christianity can not, it 

 is true, make a dark skin white; but they can 

 change the coarse low mind into one of gentle- 

 ness, purity, and truth. I do not know just 

 how to solve this problem of the colored people 

 and the whites living side by side; but I do 

 know that the spirit of intelligence and meek 

 Christianity should be recognized and respected. 



