128 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



July 



I 



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Dear Brother Hill: 



" Perhaps it is a sin 

 For me to sit and grin 

 At him here," 



But, notwithstanding that, I am going to 

 write you a little homily on bee journals, 

 and if the shoes pinch you — well, reform. 

 Some of the papers need at their head 

 that firm orthodox old parson who put a 

 binding screw in the weather vane so it 

 wouldn't shift with every vagrant 

 zephyr. Writing of weather reminds me 

 that many of the publishers need a good, 

 old-fashioned "Almanack,'' not to tell 

 them to go in when it rains, but to let 

 them know when the first of the month 

 arrives. The "Old Reliable" is about 

 the only one ever out on time. 



Hast thou ever noticed that when an 

 article starts off or ends with a touching 

 eulogium of somebody, that article is 

 sure to be full of the hardest kind of 

 raps for that very person. Now and 

 then some one gets real mad and writes 

 hot thoughts in plain English. Ah I but 

 It is refreshing, only don"t you let the 

 parson know I said so. In the ncit far 

 distant past some of the young bloods 

 have spoken right out. and one — and he 



not frciin the biggest state in the Union 

 —got quite impertinent to some of us 

 gray beards. However, though "twas 

 unpleasant it seems to have done soiih' 

 good, and we are waking up to tln' 

 changed conditions to find that we veter- 

 ans are not the whole thing after all. 1 

 surmise the rest of the boys object to the 

 opening of new fields for much the same 

 reason that I do; which is, that unless we 

 would be left out. it means husth. 

 HUSTLE, HUSTLE. (Just say those 

 "hustles" with a "Tiaspirated /laitch"). 

 And to think of the quiet, gentle, placid 

 Eambler urging strenuosity. Oh dear : 

 oh dear! and he no chicken either! 



What a lot of half truths are afloat. 

 They are most emphatically dangerous 

 because of the two-thirds of untruth 

 mi.xed in. Also what a lot of anciently 

 dead things: are filling up good space; en- 

 trance blocks for instance, when a hand- 

 ful of sand or a bit of sod suffices as well. 

 Turn some of us old war horses out to 

 pasture and give the youngsters a 

 chance. Ifs funny how Chicago ex- 

 pansiveness att'ects a man. One editor 

 there has so far expanded that he has 

 entirely lost sight of townships, and now 

 all his correspondents hail from count- 

 ies. "Twill be just plain •■Earth" bye 

 and bye. A little paragraph in the 

 Britluli Bee Journal anent stings recalled 

 to my mind the " sting trowel " joke of 

 that reverend Canadian, and of the way 

 the "boys" bit. Ah! but that was rich! 

 Jog their memory lest they forget, and 

 forgetting, wax wise in tlieir own 

 conceits. 



A man in La Salle, N. V., has discov- 

 ered three kinds of colonies: The know 

 they will; tie know they wont; and the 



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