74 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



March 



NEED OF AN ENGAGED GIRLS' CLUB. 



DifficVilties of liOTemakiug: In the Parlor 

 of a Boarding^ House. 



"If yon want to start a real fetchiog 

 philanthropy, '■ reiiiarked the retired 

 bachelor maid, "just please found a 

 clubfor engaged girls that live in board- 

 ing houses. The object of course would 

 be to provide some private, perfectly 

 nice retreat, where said engaged girls 

 could entertain their sweethearts. 

 You've no idea of the need of such a 

 place. As things are now, nearly every 

 'bespoke' bachelor maid in New York 

 city is obliged to receive the dearest fel- 

 low in the world in a boarding house 

 parlor, unless of course she is flatting 

 it, in which case the presence of the 

 three or four other bachelor maids who 

 lire flatting it with her is anything but 

 pleasant. 



"Take my own case. At the time I 

 decided to renounce the pomps and vani- 

 ties of the girl bachelor world I was liv- 

 ing in a boarding house. I leave you to 

 imagine the trials and tribulations that 

 Harry and I underwent during the peri- 

 od of our engagement. We had abso- 

 lutely no place in which to spend our 

 precious evenings together except the 

 public parlor, where we were liable to 

 interruption at any moment." 



" 'By Jove, I can't stand this!' cried 

 Harry one evciiing after a tortured half 

 hour of decorously sitting on opposite 

 Bides of the room and conversing about 

 Shakespeare and the musical glasses. 

 'This is worse than hades. I'll hire a 

 hall if there's no other way.' 



"We finally settled it by going way 

 up town each evening to some friends 

 of my mother's, who kindly lent their 

 drawing room for the purpose of our 

 lovemaking. It was very inconvenient, 

 however. Otherwise, though, all our 

 courting would have had to be done aft- 

 er marriage. There are more oases like 

 ours in New York city than you might 

 suspect. It's dreadfully hard on sweet- 

 hearts. Yes, if some public spirited in- 

 dividual wants to immortalize himself 

 in the name of matrimony, let him or 

 her found 'The Engaged Girls' club, ' 

 to whose house all the betrothed young 

 people that live in boarding houses may 

 resort. Depend upon it, it's a charity 

 that would take. Thousands of suffering 

 boardina house counlesall over the citv 



would rise up and call any such philan- 

 thropist most blessed indeed." — New 

 York Sun. 



"" THE SPRIGHTLY SMELT. 



A Game Little Fellow and Popular on the 

 New England Coast. 



The smelt is a bright and friendly little 

 fellow and as delightful a companion on 

 the hook as in the mouth. In fact, he 

 swallows it as readily as he is swallowed 

 himself. Fishermen pronounce him both 

 gamy and toothsome, and more than thia 

 could not in reason be asked of any fish 

 that swims. His is a salt water habitat, 

 but ho possesses the sagacity to run up 

 streams and lakes at night to spawn, get- 

 ting swiftly back to liis familiar ground 

 long before the earliest call to breakfast. 



He is of shining brightness among the 

 finny tribes, wearing a stripe of silver on 

 either side from head to tail, like the tin- 

 sel that decorates the trousers legs of a 

 got up miltiary man. The smelt is a 

 sharp biter at tliis season and makes bri.ik 

 sport in the early morning. He affects 

 the New England waters above all others, 

 and in his present lively state offers good 

 sport to the angler with light rod and 

 line. The tideways and creeks are his fa- 

 vorite haunts, for it is in these that he 

 finds the diminutive shrimp in plenty and 

 snaps then; up without stopping to work 

 at a problem of enumeration. Boys are 

 not more fond of capturing him than lull 

 grown men are, counting it as the rarest 

 sport as the sun conies up over the smoky 

 water of a frosty morning. 



With the wire spreader rig used in his 

 capture, two hooks being attached, it is 

 usual when the fisli run in plenty to take 

 two fish at one and the same haul. Greedy 

 old waterlogs who work for tlie market 

 find tackle fishing much too slow for their 

 purposes and go after nets that scoop them 

 in by thousands. They are likewise cap- 

 tured by the wagon load through holes in , 

 the ice in winter, and a good day's work 

 not uncommonly nets SOOand 800 pounds. 

 Fried in njcal and hot lard or oil, they 

 make a dish tor a true epicure. From No- 

 vember on is the best time to go smelting. 

 — Boston Courier. 



TAMING A BUTTERFLY. 



Followed His Hypiiotizer About the Room 

 For Three Weeks. 



The following extraordinary history is 

 told by Mr. Gould and is, says the Lon- 

 don Gentlewoman, worth repeating: 



On a cool October day, while walking 

 in the park, I saw a large black and 

 orange butterfly apparently dead. I put 

 it in an cnvcl.oDe. carefully and took it 



