100 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER, 



April 



MRS. HAMLET'S SOLILOQUY. 



To bloom or not to bloom, that is the qaeetion. 

 Whether 'tii nobler in the mind to suffer 

 The slinga and foldings of outrageous skirts 

 Or take up arms and lej?s against our troubles, 

 And by oppoaing end them I To scorch, to race 

 No more, and by a race to say we end 

 The heartache and the thousand natural shocks 

 That modesty is heir to. "Tis a consiunmation 

 Devoutly to be wished. To scorch, to race — 

 To race! perchance to fall— aye, there's the rub, 

 For in that blooming fall what rents may come 

 To mar my outer garments. There's the re- 

 spect 

 That makes calamity of so long life. 

 For who would bear the whii)s and scorns of 



style, 

 TbB oppressor's wrong, the loud girl's con- 

 tumely. 

 The tangle of despised skirts, the lingerie dis- 

 play. 

 The indifference of dudes and then the spurns 

 That patient merit of the unworthy takes 

 When she her.si if might a compromise make 

 With a pair of leggings? Who would petticoats 



wear, 

 To grunt and sweat under a weary life. 

 But that the drcud of some untold mishap. 

 The unfelled seam, the unsubstantial cloth 

 Which tailors use, puzzles the will 

 And makes us rather wear those clothes we 



have 

 Than fly to others that we know not of? 

 Thus modesty makes cowards of us all. 

 And thus the native hue of resolution 

 Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, 

 And enterprises of great pith and moment, 

 With this regard, their currents turn awry 

 And lose the name of action. 



—Louisville Courier- JoumaL 



FINGER RINGS. 



'What to Wear and on WTiicli Fin|rer Yo« 

 May Wear Them. 



While for many years diamonds and 

 other jewelry liave been pronounced bad 

 form for street wear, it being permissible 

 for them to make appearance with dinner 

 and evening gowns only, rings of every 

 variety are allowable from morning until 

 night. 



The wcariiu; of a ring on the second 

 finger went out of fashion long ago, and 

 even the hand.soniost of jewels worn there 

 is considered a mistake, stamping the 

 wearer as, to say the least, decidedly pro- 

 vincial. 



Thumb rings have been attempted very 

 often, but the fad has never had many fol 

 lowers, one reason perhaps being that it is 

 a very uncomfortable practice. 



The first finger is as bad as the second, 

 as far as fashion decrees, and to the third 

 and little fingers falls the entire responsi- 

 bility of wearing these jeweled circles. 



The idea of the third finger of the left 

 hand being reserved for engagement and 

 wedding rines still holds good, but as 



many other rings as can find pla(* on Chat 

 finger are also permissible. 



Some women give evidence of considera- 

 ble artistic taste in the artistic way In 

 which they order their jewels set. The 

 marquise rings are always favorites, for 

 they make the fingers look long and ilen- 

 der. Three large stones, two diamonds 

 and a ruby, emerald or sapphire make a 

 ring which is very popular. 



Turquoises In every shape, but always 

 encircled with diamonds, are very fash- 

 ionable and extremely becoming to the 

 hand. 



Very rarely is any single stone, unless 

 It be a diamond, set alone. 



The fad of wearing a birthday stone is a 

 well known one, and almost every woman 

 has a ring sHt with the stone accredited to 

 the month in which she was born. 



If the stone, as is generally the case, be 

 not one of those classed as precious, it is 

 generally set deep in a small gold band 

 and worn so that it does not show forth 

 very prominently. — Vogue, 



Animals That Never Sleep. 



According to observation by scientists, 

 there are many creatures which live with- 

 out sleep. This is the case with some 

 members of the insect tribe, such as the 

 mayfly, which only lives for a limited 

 number of hours and spends its short 

 term of a single day's existence in flying 

 over the surface of some stream, never 

 pausing to rest or sleep, with some fishes 

 and with the animalculae. These last, 

 which increase in division and subdivision 

 so rapidly as to make their numbers al- 

 most past belief, are in ceaseless motion, 

 never resting, and sleep in their case 

 would seem to be entirely out of the ques- 

 tion. Fishes are not generally supposed to 

 enjoy sleep, although many species do 

 periodically rest for about a couple of 

 hours at a time. Experiments have shown 

 that the salmon, pike, goldfish and angler 

 fish do not sleep at all. Fishes have no 

 eyelids, like the higher mammalia, and 

 their brain is very small in proportion to 

 their size. Animals which have no real 

 brain cannot be said to enjoy true sleep, 

 the chief feature of which is the cessation 

 of automatic activity of the brain. On the 

 other hand, there are some animals which 

 obtain an excessive amount of sleep, such 

 as snails, which have been known to sleep 

 for four years at a time. — Brooklyn Eagla 



The Raven. 



Many birds seek the protection which 

 the presence of man affords against furred 

 and feathered foes when the breeding sea- 

 sou approaches. Not so the raven. Its 

 distrust of us is profound, and its nest is 



