354 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



but of this great invention just coming out at 

 the dawn of the present century ; and had 

 Howard been present when we were getting 

 that automobile out of the sand I do not know 

 but he would have said again, " May be God 

 thought best to punish grandfather for want- 

 ing to ' show off.' " 



Well, I was not trying to show off at the 

 time I got my punishment, but perhaps I was 

 a little in that line, just before. Two years 

 ago, as some of you may remember, I got a 

 "crick " in my back while lifting an iron pipe, 

 and then stayed out in the mud and rain until 

 I caught cold. Well, when I lifted on the 

 wheels of that automobile, all at once I got 

 another crick right in the well-remembered 

 spot. But we got the machine started ; and I 

 thought that, if I kept real still, may be it 

 would not last very long. We put after the 

 white horse ; but we had lost some time, as I 

 have explained, and then we lost some more 

 time in making inquiries. Although we made 

 the five miles in 18 minutes we did not see 

 Mr. Case and his white horse. We went all 

 over the town and looked everywhere, and 

 finally gave it up. So my $1.50 was gone and 

 here I was still in Daytona. I had been long- 

 ing for a bicycle-ride over those beautiful 

 streets, and so I got a wheel and was soon (in 

 spite of the "crick " ) back again in Port Or- 

 ange. The wheel cost 50 cents, and it cost 55 

 cents more to express it back : so you see my 

 short cuts to get ahead of the railway were 

 pretty expensive (82 55) after all. 



Well, after I had had a good nap, the white 

 horse, with my friend Case and his nice-look- 

 ing daughter by his side, got around. Miss 

 Case helps her father with the bees ; and they 

 two together rear not only more queens than 

 anybody else in Florida, but I think their 

 queens give about as good satisfaction as any 

 reared in Florida or any other State. It was 

 a bright warm day, and I enjoyed looking 

 over the bees and watching them bring in 

 their immense loads of variously colored pol- 

 len. 



Before I dismiss the automobile, permit me 

 to say the owners of the four machines are 

 making arrangements to make regular trips to 

 Daytona and surrounding towns. They issue 

 coupons. Below is a copy of one of them. 



THE DAYTONA TRACTION CO. 



CASH FARE COUPON. 



Good for One Mile or any portion thereof. . 

 Not Good if detached. No. 291. 



These coupons are good for one mile, and 

 cost 5 cents each. If one of the machines 

 passes you anywhere in the country, and you 

 have a coupon in your pocket, you can ride a 

 mile or as many miles as you choose, at the 

 uniform rate of 5 cents a mile.* 



* Oh, yes ! about my punishment. When I was rid- 

 ing a wheel or walking along the street the trouble in 

 tny back did not amount to much ; but when I sat 

 down, for even only a moment, I found it next to im- 

 possible to get up without limping and making a wry 

 face ; and I was obliged to explain to the friends for 

 some days afterward the cause of my malady, and 

 apologize to them for getting up and starting out with 

 such great deliberation. S:me of you may ask why I 



In a garden in Port Orange we saw beauti- 

 ful strawberries full of buds, blossoms, and 

 ripe fruit. In the same place I saw some ex- 

 ceedingly ornamental foliage-plants. I be- 

 lieve they call it Chinese mustard. It is grown 

 as a sort of salad. 



My next stopping-place was New Smyrna. 

 I started down the street to find a wheel to 

 hunt up my bee-keeping friends, when some- 

 body who was riding past on a wheel sang out, 

 "Hello there ! " 



I stopped and replied, " Well, what is it? " 



"Oh! nothing, " said the stranger ; "but I 

 wanted to speak to you a minute." 



Then I thought his voice sounded familiar. 

 It was our irrepressible friend J. Y. Detwiler. 

 If you do not know friend Detwiler, just get 

 into his neighborhood and you will know him 

 pretty soon. He peremptorily bade me come 

 right along with him. He rides a wheel when 

 on the land, and when on the water he rows a 

 boat, taking his wheel along with him in the 

 boat. His own little girl and two others were 

 with us in the boat. Just before we embarked 

 the obliging keeper of the refreshment stand 

 near the landing gave the children a pineapple 

 that was getting to be a little overripe. They 

 thought it was not a very good one ; but when 

 a slice was passed to me just then and there, 

 I should have pronounced the pineapple the 

 greatest gift God ever gave to man in the way 

 of fruit. I was just getting over my sickness 

 enough to appreciate it, and had begun to re- 

 gain my appetite. I suppose you know /am 

 a great talker. Well, Mr. Detwiler is some- 

 thing oi a talker himself (I can imagine a 

 broad smile on the faces of his friends and ac- 

 quaintances when they read this). 



Mr. D. is not so much of a bee keeper just 

 now, because he has another hobby. Most bee- 

 keepers are given to hobbies more or less. 

 Well, his present hobby Ksfish ; and his special 

 theme is to give the great wide world more 

 fish and better fish than it Las ever had before 

 in any stage of human history. The State of 

 Florida has already appointed him State Food 

 Commissioner ; and the United States itself 

 has entrusted to his care millions of little 

 fishes already (this is a true story, and I mean 

 just what I say) to be entrusted to waters both 

 salt and fresh that are outside and inside of 

 Florida everywhere. While we were crossing 

 the water he began explaining to me the val- 

 uable qualities of different varieties of clams; 

 but I cut him short by telling him I tried to 

 eat clams once when I was down east — (clear 

 down to "Bosting," in fact); but, although I 

 admired and enjoyed almost every thing 

 around the Hub of the universe, I did not en- 

 joy or admire clams. Friend D. did not say 



did not have some pain-killer liniment ("arnica" 

 or " witch-hazel " ) with me. Well, I have tried all of 

 these things so highly recommended by almost every- 

 body ; but, to tell the honest truth, I can not see that 

 they have any effect whatever one way or the other. 

 The rubbing, of course, does good ; and if the medi- 

 cine is strong enough to raise a blister or even a slight 

 counter-irritation, of course that helps for the time 

 being. But my opinion is that hot water, as hot as 

 you can bear it (or a little more so, perhaps) , is just as 

 good as any liniment ever invented. If I make a mis- 

 take, and these bottles of stuff in the drugstores pos- 

 sess real virtues, may God and my fellow-men help 

 me to sec my mistake. 



