1892 



(^JLKANlNCiS IN HKE CULTURE. 



579 



b('(>n known to ('liter iiiuisid i-liiniiioys ami all 

 imai:iiialilt> spaocs. larsjf and small. It was 

 durimr siu'li a season thai Mr. I'hasc. who came 

 to IviviTsido with little nu-ans. went around 

 takinjr these nuisances out of houses, and giv- 

 iuii them hives. Tiiis |»ian. and imttins up 

 decov hives, soon put him in possession of an 

 apiaiv of ItX) swarms. Thi^e were iuereas(>d to 

 •J(Xi. and sold for .*UKX). Here was a ease of 

 tilntoxl somethinsr from iioihiiii;. and such cases 

 can he multiplied all over Southern California. 



Kvery year hundreds of nondescript boxes of 

 various sizes are put among the rocks in the 

 foot-hills and among the willows, with good 

 results. 



If the cilv is noted for its motley population, 

 the country is fully as interesting from the 

 queer characters we meet. About every other 

 rude cabin we encotmter has a lone occupant. 

 .Such a person is a "bach."" and his luethod of 

 living is called "Imcliing it.*' To show what 

 proportion of bee-keepers live in this way. I 

 would say that, during the convention in Los 

 Angeles. spv(>n were grouped around the Ram- 

 bler in the St. Elmo hotel, and one remarked 

 that he was baching it. I passed the remark 

 around, and they all contributed the fact that 

 they were in the same condition. There are a 

 few benedicts, however, as you have before 

 learned. 



hamhler's dog-.story. and tiii<: moi;.\i.. 



While perambulating across the mesa, about 

 four miles from Riverside. 1 was passing one of 

 these rude cabins, when a man made his ap- 

 pearance at the door. He seemed anxious to 

 speak, but was evidently debating as to wheth- 

 er I was a tramp or a book agent. I startled 

 him by shouting. "The top of the morning to 

 yezl"" He answered. "Good mornin'," and at 

 the same time cast his eyes eastward over his 

 cabin, evidently expecting to see the top I men- 

 tioned. Says he. "It's cold this mornin'.'" Says 

 I. "It's hot this morning;"' and with my right 

 forefinger I squeezed the sweat from my brow. 

 We had a little further conversation in relation 

 to the varying conditions of the body w-hen in 

 action or when passive. Coming to an agree- 

 ment we entered the cabin. My nose arrived 

 first, as it usually does, and it sent back this 

 brief but significant dispatch: "There's some- 

 thing rotten in Denmark." To my eyes there 



A F.\MII.Y OK MEXICA-N IxXiS. 



was revealed a very disorderly room. A broom 

 was n"ver wielded by the occupant, and the 

 only bare spot was under the treadle of a sort 

 of drilling-machine. This man was a jeweler, 

 and he made scarf-pins in various styles, from 

 the shells of the Pacific. I accepted the proffer- 

 ed chair and a proffered orange. The latter 

 was in a clean paper bag: but that smell haunt- 

 ed me. and the first morsel of orange I swallow- 

 ed wanted to come back; but I swished down 



another piece, and after that I bid detiance to 

 sntells. I was on the lust quarter of the orange 

 when there was a movenuMit in a mysterious- 

 looking box al)out !>; inches square, and out 

 came one of those liairless Mexican dogs. My 

 nose and I agreed right otT that we'd found the 

 source of the smell. Tiie smell grew louder. 

 Then another hairless varmint canu' out: then 

 anotlier: and just as I had conclud<!d that I 

 had found Pandora's l)()x of evils, the hfth and 

 last attenuated specimen of a (nuidruped cam(! 

 out. At this titue the smell was very loud, and 

 I had linished eating oranges. The ijroprietor 

 said that rearing Mexican dogs worked in well 

 with his shell jewelrv. Many ladies purchased 

 them for pets, and lie readily realiz(id *10 each 

 for theiu. Th(> poor things were shivering, 

 even on that mild morning, and he proceeded 

 to blanket his pets. 



A hairless Mexican dog, when his fancy 

 blanket is off. is the color of an angleworm. They 

 are narrow-chested and consumptive looking. 

 They are very transparent. You can see 

 through them, except in the region of the 

 stomach. They never bark unless the temper- 

 ature is above 10().° and just one bark exhausts 

 them for a whole day. Like true Mexicans, 

 they are born tired, and are useful only for 

 ladies with perverted tastes. They always 

 smell bad, and fleas will have nothing to do 

 with them. Fleas love decent dogs. Ladies 

 use highly scented mixtures to keep down the 

 smell, and spend much lime in dressing their 

 pets in fancy blankets, and also make little 

 four-legged trousers for them, and a striped 

 socket, tipped with a tassel, for its dear little 

 tail. The moral I draw from the above infor- 

 mation is, that that Mexican-dog worship is a 

 luost heinous sin; and any one owning such a 

 dog should be labored with in season and out of 

 season, as St. Paul says. The best labor, how- 

 ever, would be to destroy the id,ol by killing it. 

 I admonished the man on the error of his ways, 

 and went my way. wondering what sort of 

 character would next meet the Rambler. 



[After our artist had read Rambler's dog- 

 story with a moral to it he was moved with 

 compassion, and this is what we find penciled 

 at the bottom of the last page of Rambler's 

 manuscript:] 



Don't kill the hairless dog; only cut his fancy 

 tail oflf close behind his ears, or get some patent 

 hair-grower, and turn him to use by making a 

 mat of him. Cork the smell up and sell it for 

 Lubin's Extract. I suppose if these lazy Mexi- 

 cans should by any accident do two days' loaf- 

 ing in one it would be fatal. 3fo7V(f.— Encour- 

 age the accident. M. 



CANADA. 



CLOVER A failure: prospects from bass- 

 wood GOOD. 



Rain. rain, rain, is still the order of the day. 

 These tw^o days it has either poured or come in 

 inoderate showers a great part of the time; and 

 for some while back, rarely have 34 hours passed 

 without more oi'«less of the watery element de- 

 scending upon the devoted earth. Hay and 

 straw are consequently in luxurious growth, and 

 field crops generally are in excellent condition, 

 save that the straw is so heavy somewhere that 

 the wheat is beginning to lodge As for our 

 own particular industry, there seems little that 

 is roseate in the horizon, save that the basswood 

 is literallv tilled with blossom, and promises 

 well for its own season; but as far as present 

 acquisition is concerned, the clover, though 



