THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



19 



best, but Mr. Hast^-'s "condensations," 

 giving the cream of all the bee journals, 

 is surely excellent. I cannot suggest 

 any improvements, but then, I am not one 

 of those persons who knows how to run a 

 paper better than the editor does." 



"Say, W. Z. , do you know that as I read 

 that little item about your consigning the 

 old tjpe to that old box, and bidding it a 

 final farewell, the tears moistened my 

 eyes, and my voice faltered as I read the 

 last sentence. It was not so much on 

 account of the old type as it was the flood 

 of .sympathy that went out in your be- 

 half." 



"In design and beauty of finish the 

 Review compares favorably with the 

 magazines of immense circulation. When 

 we recall the bee-keeping of forty-five 

 years ago, who would have thought it 

 possible to attain such a high standard of 

 literature?" 



"When I first .saw the December Review 

 it was strutting along holding up its nice 

 new dress so it wouldn't get in the nmd. 

 Whew, how nice ! \\'hy, it's a-a<jHlty 

 nice I Well, without any joking, it is 

 better. Your man Taylor has given us 

 the best thing on foul brood that I ever 

 read. " 



" I like the Review for its tj'pe, so com- 

 forting to the eyes, for Ijeing so well- 

 stuffed with a solid .stufiiin', for its Hasty 

 puddin' so well-seasoned with good will 

 toward all men and the rest of the world, 

 and because the editor does not shut him- 

 self up in a glass house and doesn't go on 

 stilts, and I like it becau.se it's your baby. 

 I don't like it because it hasn't more ads. 

 — I don't want any of my friends to go to 

 the poor house. This is strictly confiden- 

 tial, and not to be mentioned outside of 

 the family — of the Review." 



"The Review in its new dress was wel- 

 comed to day, and had so much of inter- 

 est in it that, being brought in at dinner 

 time, my dinner was cold when at last I 

 sat down to the table. ' ' 



" We take about all of the best maga- 

 zines, and think that the Review is now 

 the equal of any of them. If there is 



any criticism to make it is that the writers 

 in the Review .seem to feel their dignity, 

 or their responsibility, and are so very 

 staid. Can't you get them to limber up, 

 so that your subscribers will feel that thej- 

 are listening to some of their own num- 

 bers instead of to scientists? ." 



"The December Review seems a great 

 improvement. My eyes are not strong, 

 and I appreciate the clearer type. The 

 added pages, someway, seem pleasing. A 

 small man be just as strong or intellectu- 

 al as a larger specimen, but, for the life 

 of me, I always feel sorrj- for him. It is 

 a luxury to have a journal so full of good 

 reading with so little, or none, that is not 

 worth reading. I saw only one thing to 

 criticise, and that is the ad. on page 335, 

 of patent medicine. While it may be all 

 right in itself, it belongs to a class that is 

 decidedly objectionable. Having been 

 miich of an invalid during my life I have 

 come to know something of these adver- 

 ti.sements. The one before us appears to 

 be all right, as it offers to send a sample 

 bottle free by mail. But, alas ! That 

 sample bottle is the decoy that is to get 

 our money, and perhaps health and mor- 

 als, too. Mo.st of these medicines con- 

 tain a large percentage of alcohol, and 

 not always of the best qualit}-, either, 

 which is cjuite likely to make most per- 

 .sons in ixxir health feel ' improved, ' 

 especially if not accustomed to its use. 

 Other poisons will produce the same effect 

 for a time. Hold on, now, I guess I 

 have said enough; but, don't you think 

 the Review would look better without it?" 



Perhaps the criticism that did me the 

 mest good, or that will do the Review 

 the most good, came from an old friend 

 that is proof reader on a prosperous jour- 

 nal. I presume that most of you are 

 aware that I have had only a common 

 school education, neither was I brought 

 up in a printing ofiice, but picked up my 

 knowledge of the business .since beginning 

 the publication of the Review, hence .the 

 suggestions of this friend in regard to the 

 use of rules, hints about the spacing out 

 of lines, the iise of punctuation marks, 



