1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



no matter whether its possessor be white or 

 black. 



Just then I was admonished that, if I did not 

 get into some warm building, I should be chilled 

 to such an extent that there would hardly be a 

 vestige of the work left of what the beefsteak 

 diet has been doing in the last few months. 

 We went into Electricity Building; but while 

 it glittered like the northern lights, with 

 shining metal and scintillating dynamos, it al- 

 so seemed to me like the cliUl of the northern 

 lights away up to where they are tied up in 

 bundles around the very north pole itself. I 

 cut loose from the crowd, and told them I 

 should have toget warmed up. regardless of any 

 thing else. I saw a notice, "Japanese tea, a 

 nickel a cup." A couple of pleasant young 

 ladies were presiding: but the cold was so great 

 they had hardly "'thawed out" the tea. I 

 drank one cup, but it was not very warm, and 

 asked for another. This was tendered with 

 some crisp wafer crackers, and all for a nickel. 

 I should have preferred the hot water alone; 

 but I ate the wafers out of courtesy — not be- 

 cause I wanted them. I do not know but they 

 felt sorry for me; and, to tell the truth. I sup- 

 pose the people were all sorry. They were very 

 kind and courteous, and every thing 1 asked for 

 was very reasonable indeed. 

 P^bomebody told me just about this time that the 

 T'lorida building was always warm. They had 

 exotic plants there that could not he allowed to 

 get cold, so I spent a great pnrt of my time 

 there, reviewing the familiar scenes of last 

 winter. I have told you about the shell mounds 

 of Florida. Woll, the Fiorina building is one 

 immense shell mound. The very sight of it 

 made my heart throb with pleasant recollec- 

 tions. About half way to the tor) of the mound 

 there is a sort of jog in the incline, and a band 

 of windows passps clear around on one level. 

 The embankment of parth to elevate the mound 

 keeps out the frost, and a dozpn steam-radiators 

 make the building verv comfortablp. There I 

 saw. in large raised maps, the whole topog- 

 raphy of the country I passed ovpr last winter. 

 The shining lakes that are sprinkled almost 

 like snowflakes over almost the whole of the 

 State are represented on the map by pieces of 

 glass. The Florida friends pointed out to us 

 where they lived and the good honey localities: 

 and a thousand other things we have read 

 about, but could not reallv understand, are very 

 plain as you see them on the raised map. 



In the afternoon the weather moderated so I 

 got out with the rest. We had a brief session 

 of the congress in the auditorium: but it was 

 Ohio day, and the Ohio people are a little too 

 demonstrative for anv other meeting than 

 their own to be much of a success, in even a re- 

 mote corner of the auditorium. 



In blundering around, by some means I found 

 myself in the broad street of Midway. There 

 was the Ferris wheel (or, at least, a smaller 

 one), sure enough. I wanted to take a ride on 

 it: but the way the wind made the people 

 shiver warned me I had better look out. The 

 managers of the fair assured the crowd that it 

 was not cold a hit away up high in the sun- 

 shine; but the crowd did not seem to be very 

 well convinced. There were, however, enough 

 tough and hardy ones to keep the boxes pretty 

 well filled. I was looking for some place where 

 it was real warm, without so much regard to 

 the wonderful sights or the expense. I noticed 

 ouite a crowd around one grotesque-looking 

 Turkish building: and a voluble man was urg- 

 ing evervbody to " come in and get a glimpse of 

 a real Turkish harem. Come and see the 

 oriental beauties in their native costumes, espe- 

 cially arranged to display their wonderful ' lov- 



liness.'" I don't suppose that is Jiist what he 

 said, but it comes near enough. I instantly 

 grasped at the probability that these women 

 would have to be kept warm, and here I should 

 find a warmer apartment. Some gentle-faced 

 women were urging their husbands not to go to 

 see the wicked institution; and before I knew 

 itLwas pushed along in a crowd of— well, it 

 seemed to me as if they might call them wicked 

 hushanfls. Just as I was passing in, something 

 seemed to say, '* Look here, old fellow, how is 

 it going to look if some of your bee-friends or 

 some of your Florida acquaintances should say 

 that they actually saw A. I. R. paying out his 

 money to go in with a crowd of roughs to see a 

 public display of the interior of a Turkish 

 harem."" By that time, however, I had got 

 inside. Well, the room was not warm at all; 

 in fact. I rather think it was the frozen ground, 

 just like that outside. The only women to be 

 seen were photographs of statuary, and I 

 should think the statuary was very cold at the 

 time the photographs were taken. You look 

 through a series of big magnifying-glasses to 

 see them. A fellow near me. who had invested 

 his money contrary to his wife's advice, looked 

 through one of the lenses, uttered a vehement 

 " Gosh ! swindled again I "and pushed for the 

 exit, without even deigning to notice the twen- 

 ty or thirty other places to be lonked into. I, 

 however, took my time and went the rounds, 

 and thought I would see how much there was 

 so very had. even in Midway. Thpre was not 

 anv thing worse than you see in exhibitions of 

 marble statuary in almost any of the fine-art 

 buildings. The propriptors of Midway made 

 capital by pretending they had something that 

 was really wickod, when they hadn't. In other 

 words, they made eveybody believe they were 

 going to see live wompn instead of just pic- 

 tures of women in marble; and T don't know 

 but this part of Midway is teaching mo^ikind 

 some wholesome lessons after all. 



Yes. there was a veritable bull-fight adver- 

 tised as going on all the time the very day I 

 was there. It cost .50 cts. to see it: but if you 

 looked carefully there was one line of fine print 

 that said there would be absolutely no blood- 

 shed, neither would anybody's life be endanger- 

 ed, even if the bulls irere the wildest and fierce- 

 est that could be captured from the wild herds 

 of the plains. CD <^; 



My teeth were chattering by this time, and I 

 mixed in with a motley crowd that was trying 

 to squeeze in around a bonfire made of pine 

 boxes. When they got in, however, the fire 

 was so hot they were in as much of a hurry to 

 squeeze out again. 



As it was getting toward night. I decided to 

 go home on the electric cars that time, hoping 

 they would be quicker if not warmer than the 

 steam-cars. We had the same flapping curtains 

 that might be beautiful during a warm day, 

 but they did not fill the bill just that afternoon 

 — at least to me. I longpd for the radiator in 

 my room at the hotel. When I stepped from 

 the car it was night. I asked somebody to 

 show me the shortest cut to Hotel Jackson. 

 Three or four persons stopped and took pains 

 to givp me the fullest directions: and. by the 

 way. I found this cheerful, ready spirit all 

 through Atlanta. Everybody, almost every- 

 where, was ready to stop and look after a 

 stranger, and show him all the courtesy he 

 could ask for. When I was down in Mississip- 

 pi I told you of a queer expression one hears. 

 When some one points out a direction you are 

 to take, instead of saying, "Go that way," as 

 we do here in the North, he says, "Go that a 

 way." In fact, the word " way " is so general- 

 ly preceded by that queer little vowel a, that I 



