40 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 21, 



GEQRCE; W. YORK, . Editor. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 

 IIS Mioliig-an St., - CHICAGO, //./,. 



$1.00 a Year— Sample Copy Sent Free. 

 [Bntered at the PoBl-Offloe at Chicago as Second-Class Mall-Matter. 



Vol. niVIl, CHICAGO, ILL, JAN. 21. 1897, No. 3, 



Editorial Con)nfcr)i^^ 



• Ciriiniilated Alfalfa Honey — Last month we shipt 

 five cans of beautiful alfalfa honey to a purchaser in a West- 

 ern State. It was received in due time, but it seems the young 

 man who bought it was not familiar with the fact that nearly all 

 pure extracted honey will granulate. So he forthwith wrote us a 

 sharp letter, intimating that we had sold him sugar that was " as 

 hard as a brick," and that he had tried to sell it, but couldn't, etc. ! 



Of course we were surprised not a little at the ignorance dis- 

 played, and took the time to write to our young friend a long 

 letter telling him of his mistake, and just how to liquefy the 

 honey, when it would be all right. 



Now why have we mentioned the foregoing case ? Simply to 

 show that there is a vast amount of educating that needs to be 

 done by bee-keepers— those who know the characteristics of honey, 

 and can intelligently explain them. It might be well to write a 

 short article for your local newspaper, giving a few of the inter- 

 esting facts about both comb and extracted honey. We believe 

 the editors would be pleased to publish them, especially if accom- 

 panied with a good-sized sample of the genuine article to "sweeten 

 them up a little." Don't forget the " bait" if you want to do any 

 "fishing," though really it oughtn't to be necessary in this case, 

 as every local editor should be pleased to publish anything that will 

 be of interest to his readers. 



Why not begin the campaign of honey education ere another 

 season is here ? The winter is just the time to write out what you 

 wish to have publisht, for then you have ample leisure to do full 

 justice to the subject. 



.»-»-^ 



'I'lio I\atioiiaI ICce-Keepers" UmIoii.— The 13th An- 

 nual Report (for 189G) of the General Manager of this Union 

 reacht ourdesk Jan 11. We give on page IJO what is reported as 

 " The Work of the Year." The whole document occupies 12 pages, 

 nearly half of it being devoted to the New Constitution and Amal- 

 gamation. 



On Jan. 4, 1807, we received the following from Dr. Besse, 

 whose sweet clover case we mentioned last week, which is also 

 referred to in the Union's Report: 



Mh. York:— I wrote to Mr. Newman, asking him what 1 

 sliould do in the case, when after some time he wrote me tUat my 

 case was in the hands of the Advisory Board, and they were 

 divided in opinion, and bad come to no conclusion. Since that 

 my attorney has written several letters to him, hut can get no 

 reply. Now, I have been a member of the National Bee-Keepers' 

 Union ever since its organization, and have always supported Mr. 

 Newman for its General Manager, and I cannot help feeling sore 

 over the treatment. 1 have commenced suit against the trustees 

 in our court, for damages, and shall prosecute it single-handed and 

 "'ooe. H. Hesse, M. D. 



We have always held that the Union should help defend its 

 members when they get into trouble of the kind in which Dr. 

 Besse is now. But we cannot harmonize the General Manager's 

 Report with the Doctor's statement as above. 



Again, the recent troubles of Mr. Tbeilmaun are mentioned in 



the Report on page 36. But here is what that prominent Minneso- 

 ta bee-keeper says in a letter to us, written Jan. 13, 1897: 



Friend York:— With this morning's mail 1 received the 12th 

 Annual Report of the Union ; also voting blank. I see on my case 

 Mr. Newman gets out very cheap, by simply saying it was not 

 deemed wise for the Union to interfere in such a complicated mat- 

 ter. Is that not the very time we need assistance more than any 

 other '. We have no use for a Union when everything goes 

 smoothly. Did I not pay in my dollars promptly ever since the 

 Union was organized, though I never expected to get into a posi- 

 tion to call for help from the Union ? but now that I did get into 

 trouble. I have to depend on myself, alone. It is very cheap to 

 talk and put things in a good light on paper, but to get help when 

 we need it most is another thing. What good to me is the money 

 in the treasury of the Union, or to other members, if we don't get 

 any good of it, and it is withheld by just one man saying: I do 

 not deem it wise, etc.? If this is the construction of the constitu- 

 tion of the National Union, then the sooner we join the New 

 Union the better, even if there are some faults in the New Consti- 

 tution, as Mr. Newman sees them. He doesn't tell us anything of 

 the incongruities and faults in the old constitution, because some 

 articles which should be there are absent altogether. The old say- 

 ing is: " Better a louse in the kraut (cabbage) than no meat at 

 all." 



When I askt the Union for help in my case, it was nearly four 

 weeks before I got an answer, and that was all I got. 



C. TlIEILMANN. 



One would think from the foregoing letters that the old Union 

 needed something or other in order to make it of real use to its 

 members. It would seem that there are some "incongruities " in 

 its constitution, or management, or somewhere about it; and as 

 one of its humble members we think we are on the right track 

 when we endeavor to get it to adopt a constitution that will per- 

 mit it to help its paying members when they are in lawsuits in 

 which the whole bee-fraternity are much interested. 



Honey lor Curing: SniaII-I»ox.— Several of our read- 

 ers have sent us clippings from the newspapers mentioning the 

 cure of small-pox with honey diluted in water. Here is one of the 

 items, having been sent out from the city of Mexico, Dec. 38, 1896: 



Experiments made with small-pox patients in Oaxaca show 

 that by administering honey diluted in water to small-pox patients 

 the pustules of the worst variety disappear, and the fever is im- 

 mediately diminished. The matter attracts much attention. The 

 remedy was accidentally discovered by a young girl who was down 

 with the disease, who secretly refreshed herself with honey and 

 water with the astonishingly curative results, and it was then tried 

 on soldiers sick with the disease. 



We shall be glad to have any corroborative reports from any 



of our United States physicians who have experimented in the 



matter. 



't-*-^ 



Anialganiatlon an<l >'NeM- 'I'nion' Sclienie." 



— With the same mail that brought us the 13th Annual Report of 

 the National Bee-Keepers' Union, also came the Progressive Bee- 

 Keeper for January. In perusing its usually clean pages, we 

 came upon the following scurrillous contribution from W. D. 

 French, of San Diego Co., Calif. : 



THAT SEW "union" SCHEME. 



I have just read in the American Bee Journal, on page TflO, a 

 most dastardly attack on the General Manager of the old " Union." 

 The writer has not manhood enough to sign his name, and so calls 

 himself " Union." The scheme no doubt is to break into the Union 

 treasury, and appropriate the money it has accumulated for the 

 defence of its members, in their lawful rights, and as they think 

 that the present Manager stands in the way of their "scheme," 

 they attempt to assassinate him — morally. 



After having manfully stood by the bee-keepers for 12 years, 

 and won every case defended by the Union in the courts of the 

 land, it is shameful to persecute him the way Mason, York, and 

 Root are doing. It is simply contemptible. 



The idea that he must now be pitcht out of office at their insti- 

 gation, simply because he pointed out the weakness and incom- 

 pleteness of the Constitution adopted at Lincoln. Nebr., is a dis- 

 grace to bee-keepers. They cannot point to anything he has done, 

 except to his credit, and so they make a subterfuge of the matter 

 that he is now living in California, and not in Chicago. Do they 

 not know that about one-fourth of the members of the present 

 Union are located in Califoruia ? 



Ji/j lite leiuj, I reineiiiOer that urer a yetcr (U/u the Amcrieatt Jiee Jour- 

 iiat sutji/ested that Mr. Keimnnji should rjo to Vatlfornia^ the laud of 

 ^^ eliniate and Jlwvers,^^ for ins health and that of his faintly. Was it 

 desired to <jet hiin auuvj froin < 'hieai/o for the purpose if makintj the present 

 exeuse f 



The most cruel stab of all, is the reflection upon the honesty 

 of the General Manager — by suggesting that the votes must be 

 prevented from passing through his hands (as usual) to be counted 

 by the Returning Board. It seems not to be enough to insinuate 

 that he must not be any longer trusted with the funds of the 



