201 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



will bo rescinded." Now the spirit of this orde is 

 that the queens must be put up in such a manner 

 that they do no harm, and we can very easily follow 

 the spirit and yet have water in the cages; and, to 

 my mind, the best way of doing- this is with a small 

 tin tube filled with water, or else a large tin tube 

 containing a sponge saturated with water. 1 should 

 be the last one. however, to wish to do anything to 

 forfeit the privilege granted by the postoffice de- 

 partment, as, if we can do no better, we can send 

 queens short distances by mail and long distances 

 by express. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



llogersville, Genesee Co., Mich. 



iii:i:i)l,i:ss correspondents. 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT DISHONEST ONES. 



MY friends, while we are working to the 

 very uttermost to serve you, you can 

 ~ not think what an annoyance it is to 

 us, as well as to yourselves, to have you do 

 business in such careless and awfully "slip- 

 shod" ways as many of you do. It is not be- 

 cause you are ignorant and do not know any 

 better, but because you let things slide with- 

 out looking to see whether you are blindly 

 blundering or not. Will you not, when wri- 

 ting letters, and especially when sending 

 money, look over your letters just before 

 sealing, and see whether you have given 

 your name and address, and your express 

 office as well as post-office. I will give you 

 a few of your own letters. 



Mr. Root:— I have sent you $5.00 to pay for . 



Pay freight or return balance in letter. I want 

 one gross of Mason's glass jars, self sealing, assort- 

 ed sizes, from 1 2 gal. down. Let me know price and 

 I will send the pay. Da. J. E. Mobley. 



No. 9, M. & B. It. It., Ga., April 3, 1880. 



This man, as you see, is a doctor, and yet 

 he has sent his money, and given an address 

 that is of no earthly use. In fact, we carried 

 his goods over to the express office, to see if 

 they could not send them, with such direc- 

 tions. The express companies have had 

 their share of losses, growls, and perhaps 

 abuse, and they therefore wisely, perhaps, 

 have decided to receive no package, unless 

 the count)/, as well as the town and state, is 

 given. On the man's envelope we found 

 "Lumber City," but this only shows that he 

 posted his letter at that post-office. If that 

 Should be his residence, we have got to hold 

 his goods until we get a reply. A great 

 many of these orders are for seeds, and by 

 the time the matter is hunted up, the season 

 for sowing them is past. Here is another, 

 for seeds, too: 



Mr. Boot:— I send you the stamps for a peck of 

 your best buckwheat, and I want you to send it as 

 soon as you receive this. Some of my neighbors 

 want some, and are afraid to send for it. If you 

 send me mine, you can sell to them. I hate to doubt 

 a man until I test him. No more at present. Direct 

 your letter to Hayborough, Pamlico Co., N. C. 



You see this friend is testing us, to see if 

 Ave are honest ; very likely he will decide, 

 that "that Root, with all his home talks, is 

 a thief and a swindler after all." We have 

 several times, long afterward, heard from 

 those who omitted their name, and never 



wrote afterward, taking it for granted that 

 everybody was dishonest except their poor 

 selves. If you do not get a reply, as a gen- 

 eral thing, in a week, send us a postal with 

 your name and address on it, and see if that 

 don't bring a reply. The friend above takes 

 time to say "No more at present," and to 

 tell us where to address our letter (V), but 

 even then does not give his name. Below is 

 another which contained a dollar, but not a 

 scrap of writing, except what we give: 



Moundsville, W. Va., April 12, 1880. 

 Mr. A. I. Root:— Send as follows. $1.01 enclosed. 



If I have made any mistake in postage, leave out 



something. 



1 Glass Cut! er 14 



1 Magnifying Glass 26 



3 Inks, red, blue, and green, 20 



1 Chamois Skin 13 



1 Rule, 1 foot, pocket ll 



1 Brush, paint 26 



99 



Whatever does ail you, to do things in this 

 way! Here is one more: 



A. I. Root:— Herewith I send you P. O. order for 

 $ , for which please send mo by express the fol- 

 lowing goods: — — 



Canton O., April 10, 1880. 



P. S.— I here give you the size of my hand, which 

 you see is pretty large. E. H. W. 



You see this man adds a postscript, and, 

 at the end of that, puts his initials, or at 

 least two of them, and then makes a scrawl 

 for the third, that may be either a " W," 

 a "K," an "N" or something else. Do you 

 wish to know why we care so much about 

 that last initial? I will tell you. If we can 

 find the town, we go to the subscription list, 

 and see what subscribers we have there. 

 Then we hunt up those subscriber's letters, 

 and compare the handwriting. If not alike, 

 we write to our subscribers of the same 

 place, or to the P. M., asking if they know a 

 bee-keeper who would be likely to send us 

 money. If we have the name, or even the 

 initials we consult our ledgers containing 

 from 3,000 to 4,000 names, then our distrib- 

 uted files of letters, often going back a year 

 or more in the search, and occupying so 

 much time, by a careful skilled clerk too, 

 that it more than spoils the whole profit on 

 the transaction. In fact, in deciding how 

 low I can sell you goods, I often have to 

 compute the expense of looking after these 

 — shall I say "pests" of business? A rubber 

 stamp will save all this, or even having your 

 address printed on your envelope, but how 

 few comparatively will take even this 

 trouble? 



In the March No., one of our number pro- 

 posed, in a little advertisement, to help you 

 in this matter; see what encouragement you 

 have given him: 



ADVICE WANTED. 



Friend Root:— I am in trouble. That little adver- 

 tisement of mine, in March No. of Gleanings, 

 brought me some work. Well, you say "That is 

 what I wanted." But wait a moment. The first re- 

 spouse was a postal asking me to print to order an 

 envelope with the writer's business card, then if he 

 found it satisfactory he would "order" some. The 



