1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



265 



globe. California gets ahead a little, when 

 they have a booming season, but I do not 

 believe she does much, year after year. 



ANOTHER CHAPTER IN REGARD TO 

 SAYING THINGS WERE NOT THERE. 



LEARNINO HOW TO DO BUSINESS SO AS TO AVOID 

 MISTAKES AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS. 



TT^R. ROOT:— You sent me only fifty wooden- 



j¥M corner frames. You owe me fifty frames. 



"^Inirrr ^ P^* frames together to-day, and found 



■*■ '""*■ out you had sent only .59 Instead of 100 



frames. I hope you will make thlng-s all 



right. The other things are all right. I am pleased 



with them. A. B. Ozi.er. 



Grecnspring, Pa., March 12, 1885. 



I do not know any other remedy for these 

 troubles tlian to keep this department stand- 

 ing until the friends learn by these illustra- 

 tions how to be careful in "opening goods. 

 With the above letter our friend incloses 

 also a caution sheet on colored paper. This 

 caution label reads as follows: 



CauHon.'— When unpacking goods in this package, 

 please be very careful not to throw out any piece 

 with the straw. In many cases where goods have 

 been reported short, missing articles have been 

 found in the straw. Also h^ok in all the boxes; for 

 we often crowd small articles inside of others. 



The matter was traced up as usual, and 

 our head packer was the one who put tliem 

 up, so we wrote to our friend that he must 

 be mistaken. Well, here is the reply: 



Your letter is this evening received. I Ijave 

 found the frames. I will tell you how it happened 

 that I made the mistake. I was putting the frames 

 together in the evening, and one lot was carried to 

 the cellar, and 1 did not find them till to-day. My 

 wife sent me to the cellar to get a bucket of coal, 

 and I found the frames there, and they are all 

 right. A. n. Ozi.er. 



Greenspring, Pa., March 20, is,sr>. 

 Now to be brief. Within the past few 

 days we have received the following letters: 



Well, Laura, you were right about those other 20 

 rabbets wrapped up in i)rinted paper. There were 

 ;} bunches of 20 each in the bo.\ of tin separators for 

 the wide frames, aud 3 bunches of 20 each in one of 

 the big crates, making the 120 in all, correct. Now 

 for the " wherefore." Eight of the hives I got were 

 for my brother; he lives K mile closer to town than 

 I, and when wo got home with the goods he said he 

 would take off from the wagon one of the big crates, 

 and so we did; but after a few days he hired me to 

 set up his hives (and, as I said before, one of the 

 crates was broken, so he took that one), so I went 

 after the crate; but before I got there he took out 

 one bundle of the rabbets and never said a word to 

 me about them until after the other 20 came, then 

 he could say there were 20 down at his house, and 

 he knew all the time I was short 20. Brother R., 

 don't accuse your clerk for not putting up the 

 goods right, for he did his work all O. K. It was my 

 brother that caused all of the trouble. 



Coal Vale, Kan., Mar. 31, 1885. S. C. V. 



In the above case you will notice that the 

 goods had been unpacked and •' carted 

 around " quite a little before our friend com- 

 plained. And then he did not scruple to 

 say positively that the things were not there. 



A few days ago one of our boys came to 

 me, saying a lot of pocket-knives were miss- 

 ing in a valuable shipment. I asked him to 

 tell me the circumstances, and he said he 

 opened the box out in the shed, and some- 

 body called him away. After a while he 

 went back and linished checking them off, 

 and he found so many were not sent. I ask- 

 ed liim how he knew' somebody did not steal 

 four or five boxes. He said he did not knmt 

 positively, but he did not believe they did. 

 I told him I should never dare to send any 

 claim to a manufacturer when goods had 

 been impacked in that shape; tliat valuable 

 goods especially should under no circum- 

 stances be unpacked in the *' shed.*" I told 

 him to bring the whole of the goods into the 

 store. He made excuse, that they were 

 '' awful heavy." To be sure, they were 

 heavy, for there were several hundred dol- 

 lars" worth of valuable pocket - knives. 

 When he had got the box into the store on a 

 clean counter, I told him to pile up the 

 packages four wide, live long, and five high. 

 This would make just the number there 

 ought to be. and there could not be any mis- 

 take or miscount, for any one could see at a 

 glance, if there was not a complete and 

 scpuue ])ile. Vou see, we made tlie goods 

 prove themselves. And you can often do 

 this, friends, when the goods will pile up so 

 that, by nndtiplying. tlie precise quantity 

 is knovvn at a glance. After they had done 

 as I said land it really required much less 

 tinje than to count the packages. 1, 2, H, A, to 

 see if the goods are all there) they drew a 

 long breath of relief. 



Here are some friends who declared their 

 goods never reached them. We sent a tra- 

 cer ; and tlie express company, after con- 

 siderable trouble, returned us the i)apers 

 juoving that the goods had been delivered 

 long ago. We asked what it meant, and here 

 is tlu'ir reply : 



I'pon receipt of yours of the 5th inst. we were as 

 much puzzled as yourself, until we madeathorough 

 search and found the missing box, which was over- 

 looked when received, aud placed with other goods 

 reeieved at the same time, hence we were all the 

 while looking for them to come. 



The H. F. Moki.i.er Mko. Co. 



Davenport, Iowa, Mar. 9, 1885. 



And still another. 



This day I happened to open the bo.x entii'ely that 

 contained the envelopes you sent me, and to my 

 surprise 1 found the two handkerchiefs I said you 

 had not sent. Well, I beg pardon; I thought when 

 I opened the boxes of goods I should be sure to find 

 every thing there was in them, that you would not 

 have to tell me to look the goods over again, as you 

 have often told others to do; but I got caught this 

 time, and every thing is all right now. 



ClarksviUe, Tenn., Mar. 23, 1885. A. Snvder. 



You will notice, friends, that the same 

 caution label was inclosed with the above 

 order also, and yet friend S. wrote us the 

 goods were not there, when he had not even 

 looked into his box of envelopes. 



And still another. 



The fork I wrote you about being missing, aft«r 

 looking over the straw again T found it. I hope it 

 has not made you any trouble. C. D. Duvall. 



Spencerville, Md., Apr. 4, 1885. 



