57i 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



top of your building, with letters on it ten 

 feet long. 



It is not only business houses and man- 

 agers, shops and factories, that fail to avail 

 theDQselvesof these wonderful gospel truths, 

 or fail to explore this great broad unexplor- 

 ed region, but it is common laboring people 

 —those who work for wages. The quality 

 embodied in our text is so rare and so val- 

 uable that he who has got hold of the key, 

 and who has discovered the secret, shoots 

 up in his attainments, ability, and value so 

 as to call forth remark. Now, do not un- 

 derstand me to say that such qualities do 

 not sometimes fail, for a time at least, of 

 appreciation. The one who commences to 

 serve Christ by loving his fellow-man better 

 than himself will have crosses to bear. 

 Like Moodv in his first boyish attempts to 

 serve the Lord, he may find himself put 

 down to crackers and water for his rations, 

 and a hard bench to sleep on at night. But 

 the reward is sure and certain, if he shows 

 a reasonable and constant devotion to the 

 interests of his fellow-men and to Christ 

 Jesus. 



You may ask why Christians do not get 

 greater wages for their services, compared 

 with worldly people, than they do at pres- 

 ent, take them right through. My reply is, 

 that their Christianity does not strike deep 

 enough, and is not put sufTiciently and di- 

 rectly into practice. Let me now give you 

 another practical application of this same 

 spirit. I am afraid it may give pain to 

 some good friends of mine ; but even if it 

 does I am sure it will prove a lasting help to 

 them in the end. 



June 12 we received an order from Mrs. 

 D. B. Crumbaugh, Augusta, Ky., for a lot 

 of hives, frames, etc. Tha goods were ship- 

 ped June 24, twelve days after the order 

 was received, which was not so very bad for 

 an order in June. The goods, however, did 

 not get along in due time, so she wrote us, 

 complaining, telling how great was their 

 need. A tracer was sent as usual, but this 

 did no good, apparently. Another com- 

 plaint was sent and a second tracer. The 

 card calling forth the second tracer we give 

 below : 



Please send a tracer from your depot after the 

 things. I gave the bill of lading to our agent, and 

 he said, send to you. I see your letter is to Brecken- 

 ridge Co., instead of Bracken, which mistake you may 

 find is the cause. 1 know if I had thought it would 

 have been so long and so much trouble to get you 

 to fill an order for me I would not have bothered 

 you to do so. Mrs. D. B. Cbumbaugh. 



Augusta, Ky., July 3, 1890. 



You will notice the italics in the above. 

 The writer did not emphasize this portion, 

 but our clerk who opens the mails always 

 reads every thing and underlines all matter 

 of special importance. This was underlined 

 to indicate to the book-keepers to look up 

 this matter and see whether the goods were 

 properly addressed. I want to put in a plea 

 in behalf of the book-keepers. They were 

 so overcrowded at this date that even im- 

 portant matters were crowded over for the 

 next day, and a great mass of communica- 

 tions did not receive the careful attention 

 they perhaps would at any other season of 

 the year ; therefore the matter in italics 



was overlooked entirely. As a dozen or 

 more tracers were sent every day for goods, 

 I presume they had got into a mechanical 

 sort of way, without giving much thought 

 to it, only that more goods were to be trac- 

 ed or hunted up. The tracers were sent in 

 a sort of routine way, and the kind appeal 

 underlined on the card was overlooked en- 

 tirely, and the postal card distributed. Of 

 course, an answer was made, as we always 

 make an answer, but it was only a printed 

 one. We have been obliged to use printed 

 answers quite largely during this past sea- 

 son, simply because they were better than 

 no answers at all, and because we could not 

 find anybody who could answer intelligently 

 — that is, no one who could do it until he 

 had some acquaintance with the business, 

 and experienced hands were already over- 

 worked. Finally there came a letter that 

 fell into my hands. Here is the letter, with 

 postscript : 



Mr. Rout:— Ag&in I write to say nothing has been 

 heard of the supplies. I ordered the goods marked 

 forwarded promptly; and if marked correctly, and 

 in that way, it seems to me that the railroad offi- 

 cials ought to be made responsible to a certain de- 

 gree for my loss. Here have been our hives minus 

 frames, all during the honey season. As I wrote 

 you before, the man working with the bees said our 

 loss in honey was from 300 to .500 lbs.; besides, if 

 goods ever come I am bound for them all, as, not 

 coming in time, he has no use for them another 

 season. I do not know what Mr. Crumbaugh would 

 order done with them if ever found— returned to 

 you or sent on to me. I shall have to leave that 

 with you. Our honey season is over here for this 

 year, and he does not think he will be here again 

 next season. The 30 days from shipment expires 

 to-morrow, but I usually, in my own business, re- 

 ceive goods before sending remittance. This, to 

 me, has been the most worrying order and business 

 I have ever attended to in 19 years' experience. 

 Mr. C. will, I think, be home during August, and 

 will then write to you. Mrs. D. B. Crumbaugh. 



Augusta, Ky., July 23. 



P, S.— When you find them I think you will find 

 them directed to Breckenridge Co., to which I called 

 your attention before, but there is no town of Au- 

 gusta in that county. 



After reading the postscript I penciled at 

 the bottom of it: "How is this?" Then 

 was unraveled the whole shameful story. 

 The postal card with the underlined part 

 was brought to light, and the book-keepers 

 were obliged to admit that no attention wa& 

 paid to the suggestion that the goods had 

 not been directed right. Going back to the 

 original order we find that our friend wrote 

 plainly, Bracken Co. The pen hadn't mark- 

 ed quite plainly, however, so it might have 

 been considered Brecken instead of Brack- 

 en. Well, the one who draws off the orders 

 and simplifies them for the packers, making 

 sure that the address is exactly correct, took 

 it into his head that this was an abbrevia- 

 tion of Breckenridge, and so added " ridge " 

 to Brecken, sending the goods to a county 

 that had no Augusta in it at all. For sever- 

 al years, at the bottom of page 3 of our 

 price list is the following in large black 

 type : "In one case we had to pay $131 for sup- 



