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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Nov. 13, 3902. 



warm scraps, and I thought you were getting up one for 

 my benefit, so that as a stranger and sojourner I might see 

 just how j'ou do it ; but I suppose that is one of the neces- 

 sary adjuncts of being a bee-keeper, that you learn to push 

 your stinger out once in awhile and stick it into someljody 

 else. [Applause.] I think it is done good-naturedly ; iu 

 fact, I never had a bee sting me but what I thought it was 

 in fun, but sometimes it hurts just the same. I used to be 

 quite a bee-keeper when I was j'oung, and didn't know any 

 better. My father was a nurserj-man and horticulturist, 

 and, incidentally, a bee-keeper in a small way, and when- 

 ever he got stung on the right elbow his left eye was always 

 swelled shut. He was a Sunday-school superintendent, 

 and it didn't look well to have him in that condition, so if 

 we were doing anj-thing with the bees on Saturday he let 

 me do it ; I could sta3' at home on Sunday and get fixed up. 

 [Laughter.] 



I am here to say something with regard to the Univer- 

 sal Exposition to be held in St. Louis in two years from 

 now, and in which we want the co operation, as we are very 

 sure we will have it, of this organization, which is so strong 

 an institution among the bee-keepers. 



I find about the first thing I have to do, in speaking 

 with people about the Exposition, is to start a kindergarten 

 for two or three minutes, and get down to first facts as to 

 what we are going to have. An old friend down in Ne- 

 braska, where I used to live, wanted to know if we were 

 hoping to have as large and successful and expensive an 

 Exposition as they had in Buffalo. I said I hoped so, be- 

 cause we have got about ten times as much money to spend. 

 They were about 53,000,000 behind, and proportionately we 

 would be $30,000,000 in debt when we get through. I shall 

 attempt to collect mj' salary on the first of every month, so 

 that they won't owe much of that 330,000,000 to me. 



Here is one thing which will perhaps illustrate the scale 

 on which that Exposition is being built. The department 

 of agriculture, which comes within my charge, has for its 

 reception under preparation a building the ground area of 

 which will be nearly 25 acres; it will be the largest build- 

 ing ever built in the world at any Exposition for the recep- 

 tion of a single department. So far as I know, there have 

 never been but two larger constructed ; one of those was to 

 contain two of the large and important departments in 

 Chicago, the other was to contain the entire Exposition in 

 Vienna, in Austria, in 1873. The agricultural building is 

 much larger than the one in Chicago. The same is true of 

 the building for horticultural, the same is true of practic- 

 ally every department ; there are none of them housed in 

 buildings smaller than those in Chicago, and a number of 

 them in buildings from a little to a good deal larger. I 

 speak of that not to disparage Chicago, because that was 

 the most beautiful thing that has ever happened up to this 

 time, and it would be preposterous for us to claim we are 

 going to have a more beautiful Exposition than that. When 

 we get through, and have gone on record, and you have all 

 been there and seen it, if you are able to say we have had a 

 larger and better Exposition scientifically, and from every 

 point of view, we shall be happy ; if that is not that case it 

 will not be because we do not try. 



As to what we are going to do for bees and bee-keeping: 

 In this building of agriculture, covering 25 acres, will be 

 brought together all of the agricultural and allied exhibits. 

 By that I mean agricultural implements, dairy foods and 

 their accessories, and those things which have, in some 

 other Expositions, been put off in separate or lean-to build- 

 ings. This is all first floor ; there are no gallery spaces ; 

 you will not be put upstairs nor down cellar, but on the first 

 floor, where you will be just as well situated as the man who 

 puts up a million dollar exhibit. If that does not bring out 

 from you splendid installation and splendid material and 

 sufficient quantities of it to make the best exhibit that has 

 ever been shown in this country, I will leave it to you as 

 honest men and women, whose fault will it be. It won't 

 be ours. We wish to make the portion of the building as- 

 signed to apiculture precisely the sort of building that you 

 want, and if there are any suggestions as to the way in 

 which it should be allotted or done, or in the form in which 

 you want those, so far as they are reasonable and consistent 

 and fitting in accordance with those things which concern 

 them, to that extent they will be accepted and used. I don't 

 say that exactly the propositions that you bring can be in- 

 corporated exactly as they are brought up, but they shall 

 have most respectful and careful attention, with the wish 

 to make exactly what you want out of the portion of the 

 building assigned to you for exhibits. The exact way in 

 which the details of that will be handled I don't know, and 

 I don't suppose that it is necessary to know. 



I should be very glad, indeed, to have some expression 

 from this organization, either directly or through its offi- 

 cials, the executive committee, president, secretary, or 

 anybody else who is officially ordered by the Association to 

 do it. I would be glad to have suggestions from them, and 

 if any occur to any of you that are here, I would be glad to 

 have them either at this time or through the proper channel 

 in due time. 



It is our business to house the exhibits, nothing else ; 

 we furnish the roof and the floor, and the air for you to 

 breathe — we don't charge you for any of them — and the 

 other things you supply yourself. There is no space 

 charged for State or individual exhibits as there has been a 

 many other Expositions ; there will be no charge for the 

 amount of floor-space which you need ; you will have to 

 put up your own installation, or if we put up special instal- 

 lation for honey and honey exhibits you will be expected 

 to pay for your proportion of the construction, that is all. 

 But so far as the building and floor and all that is con- 

 cerned, it will be absolutely free. That means, if you come 

 there and want a large amount of space I shall ask you very 

 frankly how much money you have got, and how many peo- 

 ple back of it to cover it. I will be down there in Missouri, 

 and you have to show me. If you come and ask for a large 

 space you will have to have a lot of honey, and a lot of 

 money, and a lot of good people. If j'ou ask for a modest 

 amount, and have a modest amount of money, and have a 

 modest amount of backing, and can keep it in that shape 

 during the Exposition, you will get it. We are trying to 

 handle it in a business way, but in a fair way, so that you 

 will be satisfied to have come there. 



I have spoken to the point, or have tried to, because, 

 having gone through a number of Expositions, having 

 given between five and six years now to this work, and 

 nothing else, in Expositions held in Omaha, in Buffalo, and 

 now in St. Louis, a continuous service entering upon its 

 sixth year, I appreciate it is the facts you want to know. I 

 shall leave it to the papers and literature to tell you the 

 artistic side of things, and the other facts than those which 

 relate to your own work. 



We are laying our plans upon an enormous scale. We 

 hope to have space enough for supplying a reasonable 

 amount to every exhibitor who wants to come there with a 

 good exhibit which he proposes to put up in first-class shape, 

 and can take first-class care of all the way through ; we 

 don't want any other kind ; and if there is any way to help 

 we want to get their advice. We want an exhibit properly 

 classified ; we want everything done as scientifically and 

 carefully as would be required in any of the departments 

 at Washington or any university ; we want things so placed 

 they will be able to be found, and when you find them, so 

 labeled you will know what they are. If you will pardon 

 me for having spoken frankly to that particular point, and 

 if you will believe me, we wish to do everything that we pos- 

 sibly can that it is consistent and possible for us to do, then 

 I shall be very glad indeed to have met you. And I am 

 glad, anyway. 



Dr. Miller — May I be allowed to ask Mr. Taylor a ques- 

 tion ? I learn from good authority that your father was a 

 Sunday-school superintendent, and from the pleasant flow 

 of language I suspect that his son may have had some little 

 practice in speaking pieces before the Sunday-school. 

 There are some Sunday-school superintendents amongst 

 the bee-keepers, and I believe I speak for a good many of 

 them when I say we are interested to know what will be 

 the final decision as to the opening of the Exposition upon 

 the Sabbath day. Will you tell us what is the present ex- 

 pectation ? 



Mr. Taylor — Under the congressional law, which 

 granted to the Exposition the $5,000,000 of Government 

 aid, the largest amount ever given to any Exposition, it is 

 specifically provided that the Exposition shall not be opened 

 on Sunday. I know of no possible way that the law should 

 be evaded, if it was desired to evade it, or of any possible 

 way in which it could be changed except through the office 

 of the law ilself, that is, through Congress. I have heard 

 nothing from the officials of the Exposition except an ex- 

 pression of their intention to comply with the law. I am 

 free to say for myself, I sincerely hope the Exposition will 

 be closed on Sunday, not only from the moral side of it, but 

 because all rny life I have been able to get all the work I 

 wanted on six days out of the week, and sometimes more, 

 and I find for myself and my associates it is a great drag 

 to have to trot around there on the seventh day. I don't 

 like to do it, and I don't believe it pays from any point of 

 view. That is my personal opinion and standing : but the 

 legal question of it is such that I see no possible way, if the 



