J 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Jan. 



[These pajes should be read only after read- 

 ing the real of the Journal, especially Ouk 



UtOIES.] 



USEFCL ARTICLES FOB A LITTLE 

 MONEY. 



ONE OF MY JANUARY TALKS. 



f BELIEVE I told you once before, ray 

 friends, that I generally got talkative 

 ' about the first of the year, say January or 

 February. I dou't really know why it is ; it 

 can not be on account of a January thaw, for 

 we have almost zero weather this morning. 

 After I had put two more leaves in Our 

 Homes, it seemed as if there ought to be two 

 more leaves here in the fore part of my "Bee 

 book," or it would not balance; and 1 want 

 these two leaves to contain something useful, — 

 something useful to you, as well as myself. 

 You have noticed that, for some time past, I 

 have had much to say about money, especially 

 about money so far as it would contribute to 

 our happiness and well being. There has been, 

 as it were, a great burden on my mind in re- 

 gard to furnishing those who want to earn 

 their money, something to do. Boys and girls 

 are coming to me, and writing to me, for 

 something to do. Many would gladly work 

 for the smallest wages, if they could have some 

 work they could do at home, and thus be em- 

 ployed, and out of mischief and danger, while 

 they earned the money to pay for their daily 

 bread and clothing. My wife told me of an 

 old lady who would be glad to get carpet rags 

 to sew, if she only made ten cents a day at it. 

 I certainly would rather have something to do 

 at ten cents a e\?f , than to be idle, but very 

 likely some of you wouldn't. I should want 

 the work to be something that was very pleas- 

 ant and nice, perhaps, but — come to think of it, 

 I guess 1 will take another start. 



A PENNY SAVED IS A PENNY EARNED, 



Franklin said, and where one has good 

 wages, say a dollar a day, or $5.00 if you like, 

 it is a very important matter to save time, as 

 well as to save pennies. I have known folks 

 to come into a store (I used to keep store you 

 know), and if they wanted a pound of honey, 

 it would take the best part of a half hour to go 

 through all the preliminaries and ceremonies. 

 Their movements were so slow, and many of 

 them so utterly unnecessary, it seemed to me 

 as if they would not find the day long enough 

 to buy their family groceries, if somebody 

 should furnish the money free. When I used 

 to go to the post office (7. never go now, a boy 

 does it) I would get so tired with the people 

 that stood in the way and moved so slowly, 

 that I felt just like giving them a good shak- 

 ing; good naturedly, of course. Well, since I 

 have come to hire many hands, these slow 

 movements have eost me right out, in cash, 

 hundreds of dollars. What shall we do to 

 save this great waste of both time and money? 

 Often we cannot do a great deal ; but we can 

 keep an eye on these leaks and wastes, and by 

 bringing the right forces to bear, we can some- 

 times accomplish much. Setting hands to 

 work by the piece will often accomplish won- 

 ders in making them quick, as well as teaching 

 them the value of time. In our home here we 



have made great progress of late, in this way, 

 and hands that used to be ready to ,stop and 

 look at everything that came along have got 

 to be so cartful of their minutes that they even 

 argue abi ur, who shall stop long enoughto re- 

 plenish the fire. You see they are assuming 

 responsibility. 



It takes a good deal of time to make change, 

 and I often stop to make purchases when I 

 happen to have the exact coin that will pay 

 for the article, whereas, if I was obliged to 

 wait for the store keeper's slow movements in 

 changing a bill, I would rather go without it. 

 It takes time to keep accounts, and to settle 

 up, at the end of — when? This is one great 

 reason for paying cash down. In fact, it is 

 oue ol the fine arts, to so arrange one's busi- 

 ness, that he can sell a large amount of goods 

 in a short tfme; to tell them so that slow cir- 

 cumlocutions may not eat up all the* profits. 

 I can bring this idea before you so that you 

 will get it fully, by remarking that some of 

 our friends say they would rather sell a barrel 

 of honey, all in a lump for 10c. per pound, 

 than to retail it for 20c. Some of you, doubt- 

 less, who have a natural tact for retading, 

 might sell a barrel of honey and make wages 

 at it, at a profit of 2c. per pound ; but to do it, 

 there must not be many mistakes and blunders, 

 or much daubiug, or any kind of false motions 

 that waste Ume or honey. Grocers sometimes 

 sell sugar at a profit of one half cent per 

 pound"-" but to do it, they have to learn to lie 

 sipry and active, they do not have their sugar 

 barrel at one end of the store and their scales 

 at the other, nor do they spill very .much on 

 the counter or on the fioor. 



Well, the world has discovered how much it 

 costs to sell things at retail, and how few there 

 are who can or will do it economically, and 

 this is why there is such a broad difference be- 

 tween the price that consumers pay, and the 

 price that manufactures get. I will illustrate 

 it. The one foot pocket rule which I sell you 

 now for 10c, I used to sell when I was a retail 

 dealer, at 25c. they then cost me .$2.00 perdoz. 

 By buying 12 gross at a time, I now get them 

 for 1.00 perdoz., or 8} 3C. each. I wanted to 

 furnish them to you, for an even 10c, and to 

 be sure the time occupied by the clerks did 

 not cost more than the If c, I went over the 

 ground carefully. I found that the clerk who 

 mails them was in the habit of wrapping up 

 each one, as she got an order for it. To do 

 this, she had first to get the rule from a distant 

 100m; then she got a pair of shears, cut a piece 

 of paper the right size, went somewhere else 

 after twine, tied it up, put away her things, 

 went to another drawer for the postage stamp. 

 (12c by mail you know) and then she was 

 ready to sit down at her desk and address it. 



I told them I would start a better way, and 

 directed that a half gross of rules be tied up 

 at once. When I came round again, they were 

 still cutting out the papers one at a time with 

 the scissors. I directed that a large pile of 

 papers should be cut just right, at the large 

 paper cutter in the next room, where they trim 

 the A B C's. Then I found that they wound 

 the twine a great many times around their 

 knives and rules, before tying them. This was 

 a waste of both twine and time. After the half 

 gross was done, they were all taken to the 



