280 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



October 



ation was held in the city of Toronto 

 Canada, September 4 to 7 and was 

 voted to be a very interesting and 

 successful meeting by those who were 

 in attendance. The writer had never 

 before attended a " bee convention " 

 and IS consequently unable to judge 

 by comparison, but has often wonder- 

 er of what interest or benefit these 

 annual meetings could be to those 

 who attend or in fact, of what benefit 

 membership in the association could 

 be to anyone. We attended the re- 

 cent convention expecting to hear and 

 take part in some deliberations of 

 more than usual importance but it is 

 needless to say we were very much 

 disappointed. We consider our time 

 and money little less than thrown 

 away, for excepting the fact that we 

 had the pleasure of meeting a few 

 of the more prominent bee-keep- 

 ers of this country and Canada, any- 

 one can find fully as much to interest 

 them in almost any single copy of 

 any of the beepapers as was heard 

 during the entire convention. 



The convention was but a gathering 

 of the more prominent bee men, 

 which included Bee-keepers, Editors 

 and Manufacturers of supplies, for 

 the purpose of exchanging their pet 

 theories and having a good time 

 generally. 



Of course there are always present 

 at these conventions a fair represen- 

 tation of local beekeepers who live 

 near the place where the convention 

 is held, and but ver}' few of these are 

 members of the association. 



At the recent convention the Cana- 

 dians were greatly in the majority, 

 and at one time things assumed the 

 appearance of a session of the Onta- 



rio Beekeepers Association with a 

 strong tendency to politics. Almost 

 an entire session was taken up with 

 an argument over certain local mat- 

 ters by Messrs. McKnight, McEvoy, 

 Clark and others, of no possible in- 

 terest to the Americans present, and 

 it should not have been tolerated by 

 the President of the Convention. 



Taking everything into considera- 

 tion we do not think the N. A. Bee- 

 keepers Association amounts to much 

 as far as general usefulness goes, and 

 if it is consolidated with the Beekeep- 

 ers Union the latter will gain ver}' 

 little. 



ROADS IN EUROPE. 



The laudable efforts now being made in 

 some parts of the United States to improve 

 our pour highways have turned attention to 

 the general excellence (if those of Europe. 

 At such times it is occasionally remarked. 

 ' But we cannot hope h)v many decades to 

 attain this same state of perfection, for these 

 Old World roads were begun generations 

 ago." riiis is a mistaKe. in some Conti- 

 nental countries men scarcely in the decline 

 of life can recall tlie time when they were 

 surrounded wiiii roads no better than those 

 that abound in all parts of our Union It 

 may encourage the American laboiers in this 

 good cause to know thi.s hid. —Theodore 

 Stanton,, in October Lippixcott's. 



The Matter of Wine at Dinner. 



Mr. .Tcro]ii(> K. Jerome once gave a din- 

 ner and discussed the matter of wine with 

 the head waiter — a kindly, fatherly old 

 man — before the guests arrived. He was 

 a man of experience and knowledge, and 

 they went over the wine list together. 

 "Well," said the waiter, "if you take my 

 advice, you will give them a good cham- 

 pagne to start with, let's say Ueutz and 

 Gcldermann 1878, and let that go round 

 twice. After that, sir— well, here's a very 

 good wine that I always recommend, at 5 

 shillings the bottle, and then, if I were 

 you, sir, 1 would finish up with this," and 

 he pointed to a modest little brand at 

 three and six. "And dou"t j'ou think, " 

 said Jerome, "that they will notice the 

 diflferencel'" "Lor' bless .von, no, sir," said 

 the man. "We generally do it that way. 

 I wouldn't undertake to tell the difference 

 between champagne at 16 shillings and 

 chaniuasne at 5 after the first two trlasses." 



