May 31, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



345 



" Doolittle Queen. Cell Cups by the Peck" is the soinc- 

 wliat sensational heading of an editorial in the last num- 

 ber of Gleanings in Bee-Ciilturc. But there seems to be 

 good ground for the sensation when we are told that such 

 progress has been made that the Doolittle cell-cups can now 

 be turned out at the rate of 2 000 in an hour. The man who 

 has achieved this is W. H. Pridgen, who has clearly put 

 a lot of brains into the thing. Instead of making the cups 

 one by one. a number of pegs are fastened to a stick, and at 

 one dip each peg gets its portion of wax. Instead of the 

 whirling that each cell had to have to make the was uniform 

 on all sides — which whirling could hardly be done with 

 more than one cell at a time — Mr. Pridgen finds that a little 

 jerk to throw off the superfluous wax is all that is necessary. 



The outcome of this wholesale sort of production will 

 probably be that Doolittle cell-cups will be listed among 

 regular bee-supplies at such price that no bee-keeper can 

 afford to make them for himself. In view of such 16 to 1 

 steps in advance, who is ready to say that no further ad- 

 vance in bee-keeping need be expected ? 



Bitter Sweet — the engraving on the first page — is 

 kindly loaned us by Mr. James G. Moulton, whose fine art 

 galleries are found at 45 East Jackson Boulevard, Chicago. 

 Visitors in the city are always cordially invited to inspect 

 his large stock of art productions ; and then, of course, he 

 will not object should the visitors select one or more paint- 

 ings to take with them for the adornment of the walls of 



their homes. 



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Mr. Harry S. Howe, of Cuba, wrote us May 15 as 

 follows : 



" The rainy season is on here, but we still get some 

 swarms between showers. Yesterday one came out in a 

 heavy rain. There are four of us American bee-keepers 

 near here, and all are just going to do it next season !" 



Mr. Howe says that he is just out of the hospital, and 

 intimates that too much bicycle, etc., in a climate like Cuba 

 is bad for weak hearts. We trust that he may soon recover 

 and be able to make a success of bee-keeping in his new 



location. 



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Post-Check Money. — Gleanings in Bee-Culture has 

 described this new form of "money" so well, and also 

 pointed out the great advantages to be derived therefrom, 

 that we may as well quote what its publishers have saidi 

 as we concur most heartily in all they say in regard to it : 



Our attention has been called to a system of currency 

 called "post-check money," which consists of fractional 

 bills of denominations of 5, 10, 15, 25 and 50 cents of small 

 size, and 1, 2 and 5 dollars the size of ordinary bills. These 

 are to be used for ordinary currency in passing from hand 

 to hand, but on one side are arranged blanks for affixing a 

 postage stamp, and writing in the name and address of the 

 party to whom you wish to make a remittance. Sign your 

 own name and address. The bill then becomes a check for 

 safe transmission thru the mails. When the party to whom 

 it is sent receives it he acknowledges the receipt of payment 

 in a blank provided, presents it at the post-office, and re- 

 ceives a fresh one in its place, which may be past as money. 

 The advantages of this system will be very apparent to one 

 who examines it. It makes it very convenient to send a re- 

 mittance of a small amount in a way that is safe. To in- 

 close an ordinary bill in a letter is considered rather risky. 

 If the latter is stolen, the money contained may be used by 



the one who gets it, and can not be identified; whereas, 

 with post-check money, one of these bills filled in as pro- 

 vided becomes as safe as an ordinary bank check or draft, 

 and is not subject to the usual charge for collection that 

 banks make on checks, nor to the inconvenience of going 

 to the post-office to obtain a postal money order. The gov- 

 ernment still retains the revenue feature by stamps affixt 

 when these bills are written upon and remitted thru the 

 mails. 



The foregoing paragraph appeared Jan. IS, and then 

 May IS this : 



In the Jan. 15th issue of Gleanings in Bee-Culture I 

 called attention in this department to a proposed form of 

 currency called " post-check " money, briefly describing it 

 and calling attention to a few of the advantages that would 

 be derived from its use. A bill was introduced March 16, 

 1900, in both houses of Congress, under the title, " A bill to 

 prevent robbing the mail, to provide a safer and easier 

 method of sending money by mail, and to increase the pos- 

 tal revenues." 



We are constantly annoyed by losses of small amounts 

 remitted to us in the mail by present methods. Very often 

 during the warm summer weather we receive postage- 

 stamps all stuck fast to the letter accompanying, or to each 

 other, and it is about all they are worth to soak them off, 

 regum, and use them. If you could appreciate one-tenth as 

 much as we do the great convenience and saving this 

 post-check money would secure to the great mass of the 

 people who have to transact some of their business by 

 mail, you would sit down at once and write a letter to your 

 United States Senators, urging the importance of passing 

 at an early date Senate bill No. 3643. And you will write 

 another letter to the Representative from your district in 

 Congress, urging his support of House bill No. 9632, the 

 " Post-check " bill. In order that you may become more 

 familiar witli the bill and the post-check money it proposes 

 to provide, the great convenience it will furnish the mass of 

 the people, send a stamp to C. W. Post, Battle Creek, Mich., 

 with request for pamphlet on post-check money ; ask for 

 several if you can place them in the hands of those who 

 will be interested, and would be likely to urge the passage 

 of the bill by a personal letter to your Representatives in 

 Congress. Do not put this off, but write at once. Remem- 

 ber that the interests of the express companies in the fees 

 from their money-order business may induce them to work 

 in opposition to the bill, and the active support of the peo- 

 ple is required, not only to offset this opposition, but to 

 bring such pressure upon your Representatives as will make 

 them feel that the people are back of this measure, and de- 

 sire its enactment into law. It may also assist the cause to 

 write to Postmaster-General Smith, and to the Secretarj' of 

 the Treasury, Lyman J. Gage, requesting them to use their 

 influence in support of the post-check bill now before Con- 

 gress. 



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R. HoRNiK, a merchant of Beuthen, Upper Silesia, had 

 in stock 1,300 kilograms of honeyed syrup, which he sold ' 

 for pure. Taken before a tribunal he was fined S75 for 

 violating the law concerning adulteration of food. In 

 Schleswig-Holstein the inspectors have taken not less than 

 eight samples of honey adulterated with sugar syrup. The 

 editor says, speaking for his own country, Belgium : 



" We have also a law designed to repress the adultera- 

 tion of honey ; but the eye of the inspectors seems to be 

 obstinately closed in regard to the introduction into the 

 country of a lot of mixtures that have no honey about them 

 but the name." — Gleanings in Bee-Culture. 



The Transvaai, and Orange Free State Govern- 

 ments have prohibited, under severe penalties, the sale of 

 anything, not the natural product of the bee, under the 

 name of honey. Syrups may be sold as such as long as 

 they are not called honey. — Gleanings in Bee-Culture. 



Belgian Hare Breeding is the title of a pamphlet just 

 publisht, containing 10 chapters on " Breeding the Belgian 

 Hare." Price, 25 cents, postpaid. It covers the subjects of 

 Breeding, Feeding, Houses and Hutches, Diseases, Methods 

 of Serving for the Table, etc. It is a practical and helpful 

 treatise for the amateur breeder. (See Prof. Cook's article 

 on page 292.) For sale at the office of the American Bee 

 Journal. For $1.10 we will send the Bee Journal for a year 

 and.the 32-page pamphlet on " Belgian Hare Breeding." 



