CLEANINGS IN BEE CULTCTliE. 



Oct. 



want to see liow well J can scdUI, just take 

 tli;(t nice light wiicelbarrow , belonging to 

 the mail-boy. AVlien the mails are very 

 heavy, lie takes a horse and -wagon. 



.Vnd now we come to one of the short- 

 hand writers. He is a brother of tlie proof- 

 reader, whom I have several times mention- 

 ed, and, like this l)i()ther, picked up short- 

 hand ot his own accord, and became quite 

 expert before hardly anyl)ody knew it. He 

 has not been long enough in the ottice to 

 get as much ac(|uainted with the ottice 

 ways as the girls have: and there has al- 

 leady been some discussion as to whether 

 any man would ever l>e able to manage our 

 otrice business with as much care and neat- 

 ness as the women-folks. 1 believe these 

 discussions have, however, always been of 

 a friendly nature ; for although our women- 

 folks belong to various churches, and have 

 various opinions of their own, I don't be- 

 lieve we ever had one real live woman's- 

 rights woman in our establishment. 



The man sitting on the railing surround- 

 ing the opening that communicates with 

 tlic counter store below, is Ernest. lie is 

 dictating to the shorthand writer who 

 signs herself '' N. -I. " She has for a great 

 while written the greater part of our cor- 

 respondence by means of the caligraph. 

 She has ])een a great many years in our em- 

 ploy, and is perfectly famifiar with almost 

 every department of" the business. She is 

 remarkal»ly (luick and accurate; but she is 

 not physically able to endure as much fa- 

 tiguing braiii-work as a good strong man. 

 In these friendly discussions in regard to 

 the alnlityof the two sexes, this question 

 has also been discussed : "' Has a woman 

 the endurance that a man has for hard la- 

 bor with mind or muscle V Well, even if 

 she has not, J have sometimes thought that 

 a woman's (juickness and intuition more 

 than make up for her lack in strength ; and 

 even if such is not the case, I feel strongly 

 incHned to gi\e them the preference, other 

 things being equal. I like to see our busi- 

 ness piosper, and prove a success tinancial- 

 1> ; but a hundred times more do I wish it 

 may succeed in being helpful to my fellow- 

 meii and fellow-women. I believe, my 

 friends, the latter have alread> demonstrat- 

 ed that woman is fitted for' many places 

 tiiat she has not heretofore tilled ; and when 

 my woi'k is done here, I shall be glad to 

 hiive it said of me that I had helped women 

 to eai 11 a livelihood where they were not 

 situated so as to be able to help themselves. 



Now, this room of which I have given 

 you a view is a much longer one than it ap- 

 pears in the picture. The opening, through 

 where the counter store may 1)6 seen below. 

 is about twice as long as it aitpears in the 

 cut; and through this opening we call to 

 the clerks below, and they call to us above. 

 As the view is gi\ en 1i.>ni the northeast end 

 of this room, the east end is not seen at all ; 

 but for all that, a very important part of 

 our business is located in this east end. It 

 is the tiles of all our correspondence, that I 

 have described before. The cleik who has 

 charge of this department has been many 

 years in the business, and we call her Kittle. 

 She is expected to be able to jiroduce any 



letter that anybody ever sent us— that is, 

 within three or four years back : for we sell 

 our letters for paper-rags, after they are 

 that old. Another clerk near Kittle takes 

 charge of the express business, very much 

 the same as ''('.K.'' has charge of the 

 freight departnreiit. 



There is just one other individual I have 

 passed by, and that is the little chap light 

 under the oitening, under tiie wire railing 

 around the ledgers, and this is Our four- 

 year-old Iluber. I presume he is asking 

 the ladies if an.\ of them can tell where his 

 pa is ; and I presume he is smilingly ans- 

 wered, as many another has been, over and 

 over again, to the effect that the where- 

 abouts of your humble servant is one of the 

 problems "" hard to lind out." Sometimes 

 they tell visitors, " If you look all over the 

 grounds, and don't find liim. you might go 

 through all the different buildings; but as 

 he is continually on the move, the chances 

 are you will tire yourself out, and not get a 

 glimpse of him, even then." 



BEE-KEEPING IN CONNECTION WITH 

 OTHER PURSUITS. 



C. Mll.r.KK CONSIDERS AND SUCiGKSTS IN KE- 

 (iAKD TO THE MATTER. 



§H()ULI) bee-keeping' be made an exclusive 

 business, or should it be pursued in eon.june- 

 tion with some other business? 'I'his <iues- 

 tioM can be best answered after oonsiderinK 

 some ot the pursuits that may be eombined 

 witli l)ee-lteepin{!:. I am competent to si)eak of only 

 a few; and it it seems really desii-able that therr; 

 shall be a combination, perhajjs otho-s may be call- 

 ed out. Perhaps 1 may arouse Bro. fi. M. Doolittle, 

 by saying- that I think he has made one ot the worst 

 combinations possible in combining- bee-keeping: 

 with small-fruit raising-. I think there is a some- 

 what g-eneral impression that beekeeping- and rais- 

 ing- small I'ruits g-o nicely tog-ether. There is this 

 much to say in favor of it— that the man with the 

 right taste for bee-keeping is apt to have the rig-ht 

 taste for a fruit-raiser; and if successful at eithi'r 

 he would be successful at the other if he should 

 turn his attention to it. But a business to be com- 

 bined with bee-keei)ing- should be one that would 

 re(]uire the attention of the bee-keeper mainly at a 

 time when his bees require no care. So far as my 

 experience g-oes, the small-fruit business re<iuires 

 the closest attention at the vevy time the bees de- 

 mand it. As soon as spring has fairlj' opened, there 

 is work to be done at the bees, and so there is at 

 strawberries, raspberries, etc. As the season ad- 

 vances, the bees become more imperati\e in their 

 demands, and so do the berries. In the height of 

 the picking season, when the eyes of the fruit-rais- 

 er must 1)6 everywhere to see that piekei-s are mak- 

 ing- good work, to settle disputes, to i))ake sure that 

 berries ai-e promptly sent to their proper destina- 

 tion, and not allowed to lie o\er and spoil— at this 

 time, when the fruit-raiser, unless i>ossessed of a 

 very cool head, is about half crazy, the bees alone 

 are enough to make him go distracted when a doz- 

 en swarms may come out at a time. In a.word, the 

 busy time for each comes at the same time;, and 

 what .is wanted is somclliing to occupy the limiir 

 time of the bee-ker^per. 'I'eaching school, I think, 



