60 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



February 



Argentina Ants. 



A cominou way of destroying the ants 

 in Argentina is by meuns of a small 

 metal cylindrical furunce half filled 

 with any kind of dry, inflammable rub- 

 bish, and in the top a pan suspended 

 containing flowers of sulphur. Wlien 

 lighted, a lid is screwed down over 

 this, so that the smoke can only issue 

 from a bent metal tube, which conducts 

 it to the ant hole. A pair of bellows, 

 worked by a handle, is attached to the 

 iower part of the furnace, thus making 

 the fire burn and forcing the sulphurous 

 imoke along the ant passages. Th3 

 whole apparatus is suspended on wliecls 

 and can thereby be conveniently moved 

 from part to part of the quinta. With 

 this instrument such volumes of sufl'o- 

 cating smoke can soon be produced that 

 it will often be issuing thickly from 

 holes 200 or 300 yards distant. So you 

 may imagine the ants have a somewhat 

 lively time of it — or, perhaps, rather, a 

 deadly one. 



In spite, however, of waging war 

 against them they multiply so rapidly 

 that it is only where the gardeners fight 

 them very energetically that they can 

 be kept down, and the amount of dam- 

 ago they do is often appalling. When 

 up country, on the border of the Grand 

 Chaco, where, of course, these insects 

 work their own sweet will, the writer 

 once discovered a deserted wooden hut. 

 Incautiously leaning against the struc- 

 ture, he was surprised to see the whole 

 of it collapse. But on examination ho 

 found the reason to be that every por- 

 tion of the woodwork had been perfor- 

 ated and undermined by the ants, and 

 only required a very slight touch to 

 crumble into ruins. The inroads of the 

 ants had probably been the cause of 

 abandoning the hut. — Temple Bar. 



Carlyle ReproTed. 



An amusing and characteristic anec- 

 dote of Thomas Carlyle is given in Mrs. 

 Ross' "Early Days Recalled." Mr.s. 

 Ross, the daughter of Sir Alexander 

 and Lady Duff Gordon, enjoyed from 

 her earliest years the privilege of meet- 

 ing many distinguished persons under 

 delightfiil conditions. Her mother's 

 beauty and wit, as well as her father's 

 social and official rank, attracted men 

 and women eminent in art, letters and 



politics to their home. The only visitor 

 whom little Janet cordially disliked 

 was Mr. Thomas Carlyle. She says: 



One afternoon my mother had a dis- 

 cussion with him on German literature. 

 Her extraordinary eloquence and fire 

 prevailing, Carlyle lost his temper and 

 burst forth in his Scotch tongue, 

 "You're just a windbag, Lucie; you're 

 just a windbag!" 



I had been listening with all my ears, 

 and, conceiving him to bo very rude, 

 interrupted him by saying, "My papa 

 always says men should be civil to wom- 

 en," for vvbich port remark I got a 

 scolding from my mother, but Mr. Car- 

 lyle was not offended, and, turning to 

 her observed, "Lucie, that child of 

 yours has an eye for an inference." 



Bogus Diamonds. 



Some curious stories can be told 

 about the thousands of false diamonds 

 sold yearly in London. As a working 

 goldsmith I have seen a good deal of the 

 trade in imitation stones. People of all 

 ranks buy them. A nobleman is in im- 

 mediate want of cash and must find it 

 somewhere. He will perhaps turn to 

 his family diamonds. Possibly £10,000 

 could be raised upon them. He takes 

 the jewelry off to the false diamond 

 provider, has the real stones removed 

 and the false ones put in and deposits 

 the actual gems vfith some one as a se- 

 curity for a loan. No one is a bit tho 

 wiser. His wife appears in her jewefs 

 just the same as usual. If she didn't, 

 her husband would be made bankrupt 

 by his creditors the next week. A large 

 amount of business is done in this way, 

 and you may depend upon it that the 

 false diamond merchant has many a 

 chuckle when he reads in his paper 

 about Lady So-and-so's "magnificent 

 diamond bracelet" and the Countess 

 Bareacre's "superb tiara. " — AshtouRe- 

 TJorter. 



Builded Better Tlian He Knew. 



Mrs. Jackson — I thought you told me 

 you trimmed that hat yourself. I'm 

 sure it is just as stylish as if it had been 

 done by a liigh priced milliner. 



Mrs. Jolm.son (complacently) — Yes, I 

 think it has a stylisli look myself. You 

 see, my huLsband sat down on it acci- 

 dentally after I had got done and gave 

 it exactly the right twist. — Boston 

 Courier. 



