DECEMBER 15, 191V: 



809 



Straw hat. These are very effective in their 

 way. No self-respecting' bee would be seen 

 near one, and no beekeeper can see any 

 thing: that he wants to see through one. 



Then there are the kinds made of near- 

 black netting, sewed to the rim of a once- 

 vas felt hat. Crown and rim form a cone 

 very suggestive of the classical dunce's 

 cap, and one does not wisli to meet his best 

 girl when he is arrayed in it. Incidentally, 

 hat and net have a musly, toiiib-like odor, 

 and through one's mind there drifts all the 

 stories of the fatalities from stings. 



Then there are the dinky little pocket af- 

 fairs which are too small to go over your 

 hat brim, and which blow softly against the 

 back of your neck, while a few dozen vicious 

 hybrids take the occasion to roost there. 

 Perhaps you have had a few exj^eriences 

 like that, so you buy one of those bird- 

 cages built on to a pretty brass collar, and 

 after you have stretched the net over it you 

 laj' it down on a convenient hive top while 

 you light the smoker. When that is well 

 going you hurry into the veil, only to have 

 the bras^ band, which has been quietly 

 heating up in the sun, raise a lovely red welt 

 on the side of your neck just where it will 

 show nicely above your collar at the recep- 

 tion this evening. 



But you will make one of wire cloth, and 

 he rid of all those troubles. After you 

 have dulled your wife's best scissors cut- 

 ting out the wire, have pricked and scratch- 

 ed yourself with its sharp points, you final- 

 ly get her to sew it together for you, and to 

 fit into one end a disk of white cloth, and 

 on the other end attach a petticoat to tuck 

 under your collar. There! That is fine! 

 But a glance into the mirror dispels some 

 of the joy, for you look as if you were in 

 a short section of aerated stovepipe. Any- 

 how, it will keep the bees off. Um, yes, it 

 does, on the off side, but the "nigh side" 

 of it has tipped against j^our ear, and an 

 alert bee has jiiereed the lobe, and ear-rings 

 have gone out of fashion for men, except 

 with a few ancient mariners. 



Oh ! well, make another then. Ti-y a 

 shorter tube, and sew it to the stiff brim of 

 last summer's straw hat. Ah, that is fine. 

 "Is that a swarm 'way up there?" You tip 

 your head back and see — the inside of your 

 straw hat. 



Darn a veil, anyhow ! 



But there are veils and veils, and it is 

 not necessary to make one's self look like 

 a scarecrow or some oger-dispelling }non- 

 strosity devised by a superstitious heathen, 

 nor to subject one's self to sundry tortures 

 and annoyances. 



Many years ago the writer adopted a type 



Bees in wire-rlotli hat, neiktio, and artificial limb. 



of veil which was the result of slow evolu- 

 tion, and which has, in its many years of 

 lise since, proved itself as satisfactory as 

 any bee veil can ; for mere man will never 

 enjoy a veil for a veil's sake. The foun- 

 dation, which is at the top, is a duck "beach 

 hat," white or brown. Theoretically, white 

 is cooler, but brown — "kahki color" — does 

 not show the dirt so easily. To the rim of 

 this is sewed a strip of wire cloth, and de- 

 pending from the lower edge of this is an 

 ample skirt of brown cambric or silesia. 

 Tills sort of cotton cloth is used in prefer- 

 ence to the commoner and more fuzzy kinds, 

 a? bees do not catch their toes in it and 

 trip and fall and lose their temper. But 

 the wire cloth part of the hat is really the 

 "whole thing" — at least it m.ay seem so until 

 Aou try to use some other sort of hat as a 

 foundation, or some other sort of cloth for 

 the skirt. 



First, buy your hat — it is better to buy it 

 than to borrow it or steal it, and of course 



