186 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



•will bridle your Tin ruly tongue iu yillifying both 

 my bees aud myself. I will help you without 

 stirring from this very spot. Understand me 

 well, madam. You behold in me a veridical 

 professor in Thaumaturgy, who is willing to 

 convince you of ids miraculous powers. You 

 also behold that old black stocking lying pros- 

 trate before you. Reach it hither, inadame, and 

 observe — I here drop three drops of this en- 

 clumted " liquiditip'' uron it; I hang it upon this 

 bean-pole; take it, hinry home, aud stick it iu 

 the si'rouud in front of your bee-stand, and that's 

 all.'' 



b^he turned as if attracted by a magnet toward 

 her home, and on reaching the outskirts of her 

 orchard, her fugitive bees began to gather from 

 all directions, impeding licr furtlier jirogress. j 

 She thrust the bean-pole into the ground, when, i 

 presto! her truant bees '■'' unaiiimously'''' c\\\s- \ 

 tered upon the enchanted stocking, which she i 

 carried home in triumph, where she hived them | 

 without further trouble. Meanwhile the hub- i 

 bub iu her yard had ceased, and the bees which i 

 before built comb 'Everywhere but in the I 

 middle^ stopped from building hehind and be- j 

 fore. 



Next day, important business demanded of | 

 me to pass her dcror, when out she flew, iu pre- | 

 cipitation, exultingly relating to me the mirific 

 success of my incantation, dilating upon the 

 ease with which she secured her fugacious 

 bees. 



" Oh," said she, "my dear, cliarminrj Pro- 

 fessor, do come up and see them aud my demi- 

 circlar-hive I made for them; they be a-doing 

 wonders; they be a-workiug day an' night with 

 all their might." She fairly dragged me along 

 with her before her bee-stand. "Juss look at 

 them, and what a nice home I made for them. 

 You see I'm very poor, and can't buj^ them new 

 fashion skeps, so I went a-sawing some old 

 hoops of a flour-barrel in two, an' nail them 

 strips 'cross each lialve of 'em, and then hang 

 'em, like yours, in this here old cider-barrel. 

 The empty place up there, you see, cum very 

 handy to stick iu honey-boxes, and when I take 

 'em away, I can poke in a dried turkey to keep 

 'em from starving over winter." 



Here, then, parsimonious reader, is a hint for 

 you. Go aud do likewise in these days when 

 lumber is so dear, aud every good thing for the 

 beesis "^)ai'.6?i'ed," '■'' substantially in the manner 

 and for the puri)oses set forth.'''' 



This converted woman, next day, madeither 

 especial business to publish the jiowers of this 

 wonderful "Bee Charm" in every household on 

 the Island, beseeching the inmates thereof 

 never to say another word in derision of my 

 operations, for, said she, "a man that can keep 

 her bees from flying to the woods, and bring 

 three swarms Avhich she saw fly away with her 

 own eyes, with three drops of suthin, could 

 surely kill every bee on Coon Island with less 

 than a gill o' the same kinder drops.'''' 



This " Bee Charm" is a first-rate thing for 

 man and beast. I have been obliged, on ac- 

 count of occasional fits of scientific biiuduess, to 

 wear spectacles iu my inicroscopial operations, 

 till, wheu last season, a diop of the " Cliarni^' 

 was spilled, in a provincial manner., into my left 



eye, wlien, presto ! both were made as clear as 

 a silver bell, aud I have not been under the ne- 

 cessity of wearing them ever since. No doubt, 

 three drops of it, spilled in the same manner 

 into my right ej'e, would be sufficient to dis- 

 pense with the microscope altogether. 



The only instance on record in.my Apistological 

 Annals where this "Bee Charm" has tempora- 

 rily failed to do what is claimed for it, by its 

 immortal originator, Prof. Flanders, is the fol- 

 lowing : 



On making the last artificial swarm duriug 

 the past season, the rose of the sprinkling-can 

 would not work satisfactorily. In a fit of philo- 

 sophic dismals, I abstracted the movable rose 

 from the can, and stamped it under my foot. 

 The can itself I suspended by sticking its tube 

 through the knot hole of a board-fence enclos- 

 ing my apiary, aud threw the towel over its 

 larger opening to dry. 



The "Bee Charm" during this paroxj^sm of 

 rage mysteriously disappeared, and having 

 made the swarm witliout it, to my sorrow, 1 

 decided, in the words of Prof. Plandei', page 

 43 of his ISweet Home., on a hasty retreat, as a 

 "military necessity." I durst not approach 

 that swarm again during that whole week. Ob- 

 serving, however, soon after, that the bees of 

 this irate swarm had left for parts uukuown, I 

 lost all interest in them, till, when late iu the 

 season, it became necessary to unite two weak 

 families. 



During this operation, and in absence of the 

 "Charm," I thought it advisable to sprinkle 

 the bees with scented sugar-water; but behold, 

 wheu on endeavoring to take down the sprink- 

 ling-can from the knot-hole, it was found to be 

 n. fixture ; it could not be moved. I iimmedi- 

 ately removed the towel, when, to my utter 

 coufusiou, then- was found sticking to it a drip- 

 plug new piece of honey in the comb. A new 

 light now began to shine in upon my practical 

 apiculture, iilumiuatiug the mystciy of the ob- 

 streperous rose-less sprinkler. It was filled with 

 houey from top to bottom. I called together 

 the whole neighborhood to witness the pheno- 

 menon. 



Now, as chance would have it, the following 

 day was the Fair- Day of our Agricultural So- 

 ciety, and my neighbors gave me the assur- 

 ance that I would of a certainty obtain the first 

 premium for the best bee-hive, should I be so 

 condescending as to exhibit it at their Fair. 1 

 did so; aud how can I repress my exultaiiouin 

 informing your readers that it did not only take 

 the first premium over Langstroth's Rabbit- 

 Hutches, Townley's Trigonometric Premiums, 

 King's Side-openers,HarL)ison's Curtain Stand?, 

 Kelsey's Illustrious Renovators, and Professor 

 Flander's leaf-less Book-Hive, but I also ob- 

 tained the first premium for best box of honey., 

 because, as the Committee on Bee-Hives said, 

 it was stored in the handiest manner for car- 

 rying it to market. 



I sold the honey on the spot for fifty cents per 

 pound. There were of it just 100 pounds, and 

 when the last co.mb was cutting out, what do 

 you think I Ibuud V My dear sir, it was the 

 'missing bottle of Prof. Flander's "Bee Charm," 

 which — who can doubt it V — attracted the bees 



