940 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



but from careful observation for the past 14 years, 

 I fail to find any thing pointing- toward such a con- 

 clusion; but if any really feel that such is the case, 

 Mr. Betsinger's new wire-cloth separators will re- 

 raovo all such objections. 



Why I have written this is because 1 believe we 

 have been trying to make a move in the wrong 

 ilirection by this non-separator business; and I 

 hope all will talie an interest in seeing that good 

 prices in our markets can be maintained only by 

 putting upon it that which is as nearl.\- pprfcct as 

 possible. G. M. Doolitti-k. 



Borodino, N. V. 



" THERE IS LOTS OF HUMAN NATURE 

 IN FOLKS." 



Mas. CHAUDOCK'S OPINION OK UTMAMTV. 



fES, that is so. We like ])Cople better after 

 getting ac(iuainted — in'(/i xomc i.vcr))ti()ii!<. I 

 know people like me a good deal better tluin 

 they used to. 'i'wenty-three years ago 1 was 

 a schoolteacher and book-agent combined, 

 and folks didn't seem to like me very well. Their 

 affection for me was of the mild type that doesn't 

 make a man lay down his life for a friend. In com- 

 pany with a girl-friend I canvassed most of the 

 time during vacation, and T tliought then that 

 folks were iiuneciffsaiily vmil toward book-agents, 

 though at some houses we were too warmly receiv- 

 ed—the women giving us a luece of their minds, 

 and one man said he would set the dogs on us if we 

 came inside his yard. 1 lived through it all. 

 About fifteen years ago people began coming to 

 me to apologize for the way they talked to me 

 when I used to sell books, and they keep on com- 

 ing. Only last week I mot a wonmn in a store, and 

 she said she wanted a little private conversatioii 

 with me; and when we were alone she said, " I 

 want to ask your pardon for the way I treated you 

 over twenty years ago when you came to our house 

 selling books. I was ashamed of it as soon as you 

 were gone, and I'\e been ashamed ever since, and 

 have often thought of telling you so, but could 

 never get up courage enough. I h()i)e you will 

 forgive me." 

 " 1 do," said ] ; ' I forgave jou hMig ago." 

 "Oh: then perhaps you did not care much for 

 what I said," said she. 



"Yes, I did," said 1; "I cared^a great d(,'al; so 

 much, that I laid awake and cried all night about 

 it." 



"Well, Jm sorry," said she; "and I didnt mean 

 what I said; I just got started, and you seemed so 

 astonished that I felt encouraged, and said all I 

 thought, and a good deal more." 



But the man with the dogs made the most abject 

 apology of all. He waited only leu years, and he 

 was humble enough to eat fried grass. I forgave 

 him. Then about two years ago a wonuui said to 

 me that she served me a mean trick once. She 

 said that once when I wanted their school, and her 

 husband was school-director, and was going to 

 hire me, she would not let him; she said she guess- 

 ed she pretty nearly told him a lie to keep him 

 from hiring me, and she had felt sorry about it al- 

 most ever since. One thing that made her sorry 

 was, that the teacher they hired was a. in>or excuse, 

 and they turned him otf, and the ehildrcu had to 

 stHA- at home all the rest of the \vint(M-. Then she 



said she felt bad about the way she had treated me, 

 and sent her husband the next winter to hire me; 

 but I had a school somewhere else, and she had not 

 seen me very often since. I told her that I wished 

 she had not told me. She said she /i«rf to tell me; 

 that she had got religion a short time before, and 

 she was going to own up to everybody all the 

 mean things she had ever done to them. There's 

 lots of hunum nature in folks; and if we all live 

 long enough e\ery thing will be straightened out, 1 

 suppose; but with my impatient disposition I can't 

 see why folks will go on, year after year, with 

 their consciences on the rack, when a few words 

 will end it all. And I am very sure that I like folks 

 better than I used to. I like all the folks in the 

 world better, and 1 take more time to get acquaint- 

 ed with the people I meet. When I used to work in 

 the fields all day, and do m.\' washing and baking 

 after night, and before daylight, I was cross ami 

 seltish, and it tired me to talk to folks. 1 thought 1 

 was smarter than they, and that they were not 

 worth wasting time on. But I've found out, of 

 late years, since I've had time to listen, that al- 

 most everybody knows .something, " specially bee- 

 keepers." and it keeps me busy trimming my lamp 

 and pouring in oil, not to be entirely extinguished 

 by some of them. Mahala B. Chaduock. 



Vermont, 111. 



It seems to me that oue moral to your lit- 

 tle story, my good friend, is, that book- 

 agents are not needed in any community ; 

 and I do not believe I would ever encourage 

 any kind of business which Inought the ill 

 will of so many good people, then the ne- 

 cessity of such apologies as you mention 

 would have been spared. It is well enough 

 to peddle honey that you raised at your own 

 home ; Ijtit book-agents and book-peddlers 

 are so universally recognized as nuisances 

 that it seems to me that we had better give 

 up that kind of l)usiness. 



CALIFORNIA. 



BY ONK WHO IS ENTHUSIASTIC OVER THE HE- 

 SOUKCES OF THE COUNTKV. 



flilEND HOOT:— Should you come to Pasadena. 

 Cal., in early spring, as I did, you would have 

 to confess that neither tongue nor pen could 

 give you an idea of the loveliness of the place. 

 I left (Jambier, O., April 5. There was si.x 

 inches of snow on the ground; weather was cold, 

 and was snowing hard. We were snowed in at Chi- 

 cago for .5 hours the night I left home. After eight 

 days of varied cool and snowy weather, imagine, if 

 you can, what it is to suddenly drop down, as it 

 were, off the mountains into the San Gabriel Valley 

 one afternoon, where every thing is green, and 

 see the orange-trees hanging laden with golden 

 fruit, with their dariv-green foliage, and their wa.xy 

 l)lossoms filling the air with their I ragrance, min- 

 gled with that of the calla-lilies. 



I came here to go into the bee-business in South- 

 ern California. I have not done much at it yt't— not 

 because I did not find that business as good as T 

 expected, but because I found other businesses so 

 much better than I expected. Nice white-sage ex- 

 tracted honey is retailing here at 5 cts. per lb.; 

 white 1-lb. sections are selling at 10 cts. Bees are 

 almost idle now. as this is tli?ir Natation, with theii- 

 hi^ es so full and heavy as to be not easily lifted. 



