18.^0 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



573 



In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better 

 than themselves.— Phiij. 3:3. 



The world says, ''Look out for No. l.'' 

 The Christian religion says, '• Not so." But 

 it even goes so far as to say, in the language 

 of our text, that we should " esteem other 

 better than ourselves." We have all heard 

 this enjoined ; and daring these hot sum- 

 mer days, when we sit near the pulpit and 

 listen to the good pastor who exhorts us 

 against selfishness, we assent in a sleepy 

 sort of general way. If somebody should 

 take us by the shoulder and shake us and 

 ask us what we think of such a doctrine we 

 would likely respond, " Oh, yes ! that is all 

 right ; that is what we ought to do. In 

 fact, that is what I do or try to do as well 

 as I can." And I am afraid we let it drop 

 right there, without any particular idea of 

 applying it in a practical way to the busi- 

 ness of every-day life. And yet this world 

 is suffering and going to ruin for the want 

 of a practical application of the religion 

 that most of us profess. Let us see how 

 our text fits to actual business. 



It is quite customary for newspapers and 

 periodicals to give testimonials from their 

 advertisers. In fact, among our " Kind 

 Words " we have put in quite a few headed 

 something like this: "Gleanings as an 

 advertising medium." I believe, however, 

 especially of late, they have all been tlatter- 

 ing reports. For some little time I have 

 had a sort of uneasy feeling that it was not 

 fair to encourage people to send us adver- 

 tisements without giving the discouraging 

 reports as well ; so I think we will have one 

 of them right here : 



A. I. Boof :— Find inclosed $1.60 to balance my ac- 

 count. I failed to get a single answer to my adver- 

 tisement. Walter J. Hussey. 



Mt. Pleasant, O., July 24, 1890. 



Now, that is a pretty bad showing for the 

 value of Gleanings as an advertising me- 

 dium. May be, however, the nature of the 

 advertisement may have had something to 

 do with it. Let us look it up and see. It 

 came out in the July 1 number, so it had 

 been before the people almost a month 

 when our friend reported. Here is the ad- 

 vertisement : 



PHOTOGRAPHY AND BEES. 



One hand camera, 4x5 pictures, and one Scovill, 

 5x8. with tripod, etc., !?10 each. Also a few stands 

 of Italian bees, which have averaged 100 lbs. of 

 honey per stand, in Root's Simplicity hives, with 

 wired combs, St.OO each. Send for particulars. 



W. J. HussEY, Mt. Pleasant, O. 



I do not know much about the average 

 price of instruments for photography, but I 

 should think the above was reasonable. The 

 price of Italian bees is certainly very low. 

 They must be good Italians or they would 

 not have given 100 lbs. of honey each. But 

 we must confess the fact that not one per- 

 son among our 10,000 readers took any no- 

 tice whatever of the exceedingly low price 

 of bees, l^robably the greatest reason for 

 this is, that few people wish to buy bees at 

 all after the season for honey is over. It is 

 ike goods that must be kept over for anoth- 



er season. Some beginner who has the bee- 

 fever bad might possibly invest in July ; but 

 there do not seem to be very many such 

 now among the readers of Gleanings. 



One other obstacle in the way of purchas- 

 ing bees is, that it is a very expensive mat- 

 ter to ship them any distance, and a good 

 many have been discouraged from buying 

 bees in July, because of having combs bro- 

 ken down, etc., therefore we have gathered 

 two or three good morals from friend II. 's 

 report. Ikit how about the $1.60 that has 

 been paid to us that has never given our 

 customer any profit whatever? \evy likely 

 friend II. is perfectly satisfied to drop the 

 matter and call it all right ; but / am not. 

 When my religion is bright and clear 1 nev- 

 er feel right in taking money for something 

 that has never done any good whatever. 

 Friend II., the $1.60 is placed to your credit 

 until further orders ; and if any other 

 Gleanings advertisers have sent us like 

 advertisements that have brought them not 

 a single application there will be no charge 

 for said advertisement. If, however, we 

 should tell you when the advertisement is 

 sent in that we fear it will not pay you, and 

 then you should say, " Let it go in and I 

 will take the chances," I should feel all 

 right— that is, tolerably right, if you will ex- 

 cuse the expression, even if it gives you no 

 profit. What application has all this to our 

 text? Why, this much : AVe should feel 

 just as sorry for somebody else who invested 

 money without getting any returns as if we 

 had done it ourselves. Most of us know 

 exactly how one feels after such an experi- 

 ence. Nay, further : that faithful and de- 

 voted follower of Christ Jesus, our good 

 friend Paul, says we should esteem other 

 better than ourselves. Now, I presume a lot 

 of good friends of mine will protest at this 

 way of doing business. They will say. "• We 

 can not live by it." Oh how glad I am that 

 I can tell you you are making a mistake and 

 a blunder'l No man ever failed in business 

 because he was too honest or too self-sacri- 

 ficing, or had too much real love for the in- 

 terests of his fellow-men. In fact, it is 

 quite the contrary. Nothing in this world 

 can advertise a business or build it up like 

 getting the spirit of our text into your 

 hearts. Some one may smilingly suggest 

 that perhaps this is the very "dodge" 

 that I am up to now; that it is another 

 scheme to advertise A. I. Boot ; but I do 

 not believe that any of you think so. Some 

 of you mav talk that'way when you are pro- 

 voked with me ; but you know I have dem- 

 onstrated in these years that are past that a 

 business can be built up with wonderful ra- 

 pidity by putting in practice just this sort 

 of teaching. There is nothing in this world 

 that so provokes and disgusts a customer as 

 to see tl>e man or firm he is dealing with 

 showing disregard for his interests. The 

 spirit of our text is a comparatively unex- 

 plored region. It is so rare to see a man or 

 a business house put it in practice— that is, 

 looking out for tlieir customers" interests 

 better than they look out for their own- 

 that when anybody does it it creates a sen- 

 sation straightway ; and it makes a bigger 

 advertisement than would a sign over the 



