310 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



confinement of a merchnnt's life is 

 not to his taste. But the matter 

 of money stands first in considera- 

 tion, and he decides in favor of 

 mercantile life. 



My young friend, you are mak- 

 ing a mistake. In the first place, 

 it is by no means certain that you 

 will be one of the successful mer- 

 chants. But suppose you are, and 

 that you make double or ten times 

 as much money as you could at 

 beekeeping. You go on at your 

 business, looking forward to the 

 time when you can retire, and en- 

 joy life. There are events tliat may 

 hinder the realization of your ex- 

 pectations. You may not live long 

 enough. If you do, you will find 

 that your tastes have somewhat 

 changed, and that the life to which 

 you have for years looked forward 

 with bright expectations is mainly 

 a disappointment. On the other 

 hand, if you follow your inclina- 

 tions, and adopt the pursuit of a 

 beekeeper, there is no necessity for 

 looking forward to a certain time 

 in the future for your enjoyment 

 of life. 



You can take your enjoyment as 

 you go — mixed, it is true, with 

 pain and toil, but still a life of en- 

 joyment. You have one important 

 advantage over the merchant ; your 

 out-door life gives you a physical 

 vigor he cannot enjoy. He has 

 poorer food than you, even if he 

 eats from the same dish, for he has 

 not the same hunger to spice it. 

 The mere fact of existence is a 

 pleasure to a perfectly healthy an- 

 imal, be he man or beast ; and the 

 man who eats his food with a thor- 

 ough relish is the better man for it, 

 physically, mentally, and perhaps 

 morally and spiritually. 



HIGH versus low salaries. 



There is another view that is 

 worth taking, and it applies to all 

 callings — beekeeping or what not. 

 Compare two positions in life. A 



man in Chicago has a salary of 

 $2,000, and his brotlier in a coun- 

 try village has one-half as much, 

 $i,000. Which has the better 

 place ? Perhaps the Chicago man ; 

 perhaps not. 



Throwing aside all otiier consid- 

 erations, and taking just a dollar- 

 and-cent point of view, if the coun- 

 tryman's annual expenses are $600, 

 and those of the city man's $1,700 

 (and tliere may be that difference, 

 even when each seems to be living 

 equally well) the result will be that 

 the country man will lay by one- 

 third more annually than the city 

 man, in which case the $1,000 sal- 

 ary will be better than the $2,000. 

 Suppose, however, that the annual 

 expense in the city is $1,500 and 

 $600 in the country. In this case, 

 $500 is annually saved out of the 

 $2,000, and $400 out of the $1,000. 

 Is the salary that clears the $500 

 one-fourth better than the salary 

 that clears the $400 ? And it is to 

 this particular point I want to call 

 the especial attention of the j-oung. 



Nine out of ten of the young will 

 be dazzled by the larger salary ; 

 and when to this is added the lar- 

 ger annual saving, the question is 

 definitely settled in their mind. If 

 they think far enough ahead, they 

 may find a factor they have omitted 

 from the problem. When the time 

 comes to retire from service — it 

 may never come, and it may be 

 forced upon one before he desires 

 it — when this time comes, the city 

 man will be so fixed in his habits 

 and mode of living, his family in 

 their social circle, that he must 

 continue his same life and same ex- 

 pense of living. Even if he had 

 thought of going back to his for- 

 mer country life, he will now find 

 it impracticable ; the rule is, men 

 do not. 



Now let our two men be com- 

 pared afrer the same number of 

 years of service, say fifteen j'ears. 

 In that time the one saving $500 



