518 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Aug. 15 



Nazarene. Just as soon as I accepted him as 

 the Son of God and began studying the New 

 Testament to see what it said about hun my 

 eyes were opened. A new and heretofore 

 unexplored region, to me, was opened up, 

 and I comprehended for the first time what 

 it meant to hve for humanity and not self; 

 and one who thus lives and starts out to live 

 shall most surely "never die." '' Believest 

 thou this?" 



Poultry 

 Department 



By a. I. Root. 



A COMPLETE CHICKEN-FACTORY FOR ONLY 50 



CENTS, AND SOMETHING ALSO ABOUT 



OTHER "GREAT BARGAINS." 



For several years past I have been show- 

 incT up, every little while, the "Natural-hen 

 Incubator." In the first place, the adver- 

 tisement in the poultry papers and other 

 periodicals is deceptive and misleading. It 

 IS not an incubator at all, and they have no 

 incubator for sale. They simply describe on 

 a sino-le sheet of paper how to make an ar- 

 rangement for a lot of sitting-hens, with a 

 little dooryard for each, and call it an incu- 

 bator They claim to have some sort of pat- 

 ent on it. Perhaps they have; but the whole 

 thino- has been described in our farm papers 

 and "poultry books for years past. They 

 claim it will enable one to make a sitting hen 

 stick to her business when she does not want 

 to This is not true. Just as I write I am 

 having trouble in getting a sitting hen to 

 stay on her nest instead of gadding about in 

 the little dooryard. The chicken-factory they 

 offer for sale at such a bargain is worth $5.55; 

 but in order to "make it easy for poor peo- 

 ple " they put the price away down to $2.00. 

 If the prospective customer does not send 

 the $2.00 they follow him up after a while 

 with a circular offering to let him have the 

 whole outfit at half price if he will order at 

 once They have been exposed so many 

 times, however, that I suppose they are not 

 having much business; for in to-day's mail 1 

 got the following: 



OUR SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFER 



Is a lo?s to US at first; but in order to get our new im- 

 proved natural-hen-incubator plan introduced right 

 ouick. and to see if you mean business, ^ye will send 

 you our whole complete chicken-factory, listed at i>o.o5 

 all for the small sum of only 50 cts., and even this small 

 amount will be returned if, upon receipt of the same, 

 you are not highly pleased. Can any thing be more 



^Do not ask how we can do it. We simply do it in or- 

 der to get our natural-hen incubator introduced in 

 your locality before the season advances too far. 



Los Angeles, Cal Natural-hen Incub.\tor Co. 



Please notice in the first sentence the words 

 " is a loss to us at first." How can there be 

 any loss when they get even the small sum 

 of 50 cents for some printed sheets of paper 

 that do not cost them one cent? In fact, we 

 should like the job of duplicating their print- 

 ed matter for one cent each if they will 



take a lot of them. It is the old story of 

 charging the price of a good-sized book, and 

 furnishing only a single sheet of paper. So 

 far as I can discover, not a single poultry 

 journal has helped to show up this thing, 

 and I guess the biggest part of them accept 

 without question the advertising of the 

 "Natural-hen Incubator." They sign them- 

 selves "Yours for up-to-date methods." I 

 should think it was "up-to-date methods "— 

 methods for getting money from simple and 

 unsuspecting hard-working people. Some 

 of you may urge that they agree to return 

 the 50 cents if you are not satisfied. Yes, I 

 know they do that; and this may be some ex- 

 tenuation for their manner of doing business. 

 But, notwithstanding, they are getting the 

 money from people who do not know that 

 everybody has a perfect right to make hens' 

 nests with little dooryards, without buying a 

 patent right or a secret.* 



While I am about it I wish to say some- 

 thing about an ear-drum adveiiisement along 

 this same line. The price of the artificial 

 ear-drum is $5.00; but in the anxiety of the 

 proprietors or promotors to relieve human 

 infirmity they will let you have the whole 

 outfitfor just $1.00, with the understanding 

 that you send the other four dollars if you 

 are satisfied. Well, there may be som.e peo- 

 ple who are satisfied; but their ear- drums 

 did not help my deafness a particle, and so I 

 returned them, but in this case no dollar 

 came back. Now. these little ear-drums, 

 made of rubber, are so light that they weigh 

 hardly more than a postage-stamp; and if 

 made in quantities I should not wonder if a 

 two-cent stamp would pay the cost of them. 

 I suppose that something that would help 

 the loss of hearing would be worth $5.00 to 

 me, or a good deal more: and perhaps we 

 ought not to grumble, even if they did not 

 cost more than a nickel to make it. But I 

 protest against this whole business of charg- 

 ing $25.00 for something that cost only 25 

 cents. You remember, doubtless, about 

 electropoise and oxydonor that 1 believe 

 were first exposed in Gleanings, and how 

 some of the victims abused me because I 

 said the humbug toy never did anybody a 

 particle of good except through imagination. 

 Where are electropoise and oxydonor now? 

 When the Rural New- Yorker turned in and 

 backed me up, people began to sit up and 

 take notice before they invested their $25.00, 

 so as to avoid the necessity (?) of ever call- 

 ing a physician into their home. 



While I am on this subject I wish to say a 

 word about the celebrated Wonder berry 

 from Luther Burbank. When we were 

 down in Florida, Mrs. Root read the adver- 



* I know quite a few who have invested in the natu- 

 ral-hen incubitor, thinking it a good thing— at least 

 their testimonials read that way. Now, even if this is 

 true I still insist that the man who sends 50 cts tor a 

 secret or system should get some sort of book for his 

 money The proprietors could have well afforded a 

 neat little book describing their method of using the 

 silting hen, for the $2.00, $1.00, or even 50 cts. that ihey 

 get from those who answer their e.xtravagant adver- 

 tising It just now occurs to me that Gleanings has 

 given them quite a little advertising in the past, and 

 they got it also absolutely free of expense. 



