1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



355 



is so great it is an easy matter to have it run a 

 water-wheel, and this water-wheel works a 

 pump that pumps from shallow wells or cis- 

 terns into a tank to be used anywhere on the 

 premises. At Ormond we saw more or less 

 orange-trees containing fruit right out in the 

 open air ; and, by the way, the past winter 

 has been the mildest one known since the big 

 freeze of six years ago. Many of the Florida 

 people are beginning to have faith that they 

 are going to have a series of winters no worse 

 than they had for several years before the big 

 frost. 



On my former trip I spoke of the beautiful 

 town of Daytona. Instead of stopping at Or- 

 mond to see the doctor, we went on to Day- 

 tona where we spent the night. This is one 

 of the handsomest places in Florida. Resi- 

 dences, stores, streets, and every thing, are 

 models Although it has more than 3000 in- 

 habitants, there is not a saloon in the place, 

 never has been, and many of the people declare 

 positively there never shall be. There is no 

 drunkenness there ; and as you go about the 

 town at any time of day you see no roughs or 

 toughs. You hear no cursing, and it seemed 

 to me there was but comparatively little to- 

 bacco used. Driving out the saloons, you see, 

 also drives away the tobacco habit, or at least 

 a large part of it. Am I not right ? 



Daytona has her streets, walks, and every 

 thing else beautifully adapted to the use of 

 wheels ; and somebody told me that, with a 

 population of only 3000, they at one time 

 counted up i^oo wheels owned in the place. 

 As a consequence, you see not only boys and 

 girls going everywhere on wheels, but old 

 men and old women seem to ride with much 

 ease and enjoyment. 



Let me go a little further, and tell you there 

 are four automobiles in the place, used almost 

 constantly for carrying passengers. In order 

 to save time I wanted to get over to Port 

 Orange very early in the morning, only five 

 miles away ; and as the liverymen wanted 

 $1.50 to carry me there, I asked what it would 

 cost me by automobile. The reply was that 

 it would be 30 cts. if I waited till they had 

 five passengers ; but I wanted them to start 

 by 7 o'clock so as to catch Mr. Case before 

 he went off to any of his out-apiaries. Now, 

 $1.50 is a pretty big price to pay for being car- 

 ried only five miles ; but I had never ridden 

 in an automobile, and it occurred to me it 

 would be a rather fine thing to swing around to 

 my friends' home early in the morning in an 

 automobile. The landlord did not think they 

 would get out their machine by 7 o'clock, even 

 if they did promise to ; but it was up before 

 the hotel right on the minute, and then friend 

 Brown and myself took our seats. I do not 

 know but the driver guessed I was a Yankee 

 before we made the five miles, which took us 

 just 22 minutes. When about half way to 

 Port Orange we met a man driving a white 

 horse. He reined up by ♦^he fence in order to 

 let us pass. Now, Mr. Brown says he told me 

 that the man looked like Mr. J. B. Case, but I 

 did not hear his remark. In fact, I was so in- 

 tent on watching that automobile, and in ask- 

 ing questions, that I did not notice the coun- 



try round about, nor any thing else. In due 

 time we were at Port Orange. We went up 

 to a store and inquired for the residence of 

 Mr. Case. Pretty soon we were the center of 

 an admiring group of juveniles, and some old- 

 er people as well, who followed us to ihe Case 

 residence. After Mrs. Case had extended .to 

 me a kindly welcome she looked troubled, 

 and explained that her husband and daughter 

 had just gone to Daytona. Friend Brown 

 here interrupted by saying : 



"Why, Mr. Root, that was Mr. Case we 

 passed. Don't you remember a man with a 

 white horse, with a nice-looking girl by his 

 side in the buggy ? As we passed them I told 

 you I thought that was Mr. Case, but I guess 

 you didn't hear me." 



"Why, friend Brown, I saw a white horse 

 and somebody driving, but my mind must 

 have been entirely occupied by that automo- 

 bile, for sure, for I did not see the driver nor 

 (strangest of all) any girl at all." 



Well, the automobile was awaiting my com- 

 mands. I had hired it for an hour. I asked 

 the man if he could catch the rig with the 

 white horse before they got to Daytona. He 

 replied that he could catch any horse that 

 " ever made tracks " before it could go half 

 that distance. So friend Brown and I got 

 back into the carriage, and we started on a 

 race with a man who had two miles the start 

 of us. The driver undertook to turn too short, 

 or else he imprudently ran into a bank of 

 sand. The automobile balked. Friend Brown 

 and I got out, but still it balked. By lifting 

 on the wheels we finally got it out of the sand;, 

 but about that time something else happened; 

 but before telling about it I wish to digress a 

 little. 



Some time last summer when the grand- 

 children and I were out in front of our home 

 I thought I would show them some " tricks " 

 I learned when a boy, of a sleight of-hand 

 performer. I tossed into the air a rather 

 heavy enameled basin. This I caught on the 

 point of a stick, and soon had it spinning like 

 a top. Then I said to the boys, " Now, boys, 

 I am going to show you a trick that is very 

 difiicult. In fact, I have seen but one other 

 man in all my life who could do it." 



I then threw up the basin, intending to 

 catch it on the point of my stick as before. 

 But something went wrong, and it struck me 

 on the nose. It came pretty near knocking 

 me down. I dropped the basin and stick, and 

 started for the house. One of the boys went 

 off giggling. The other one afterward ir form- 

 ed his mother that he " shouldn't wonder if 

 God let the basin strike grandpa on the nose 

 as a punishment for bragging." Now, I did 

 not think I was bragging when I told the boys 

 I had never seen any person except one besides 

 myself succeed in spinning a plate in the way 

 I could do it, or at least used to do it when I 

 was a boy, but I guess my young grandsons' 

 reproof was a rather just one after all. Even 

 grandfathers should be careful about brag- 

 ging. 



Well, when I rode into the town of Port 

 Orange on an automobile I do not know but I 

 felt a little proud — not, surely, of myself — 



