GI^EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



859 



often arraiii^t'incnts can he made to their mu- 

 tual advantajjje to have him away. 



Now, there is another point I wish to touch 

 on where you may think I am selhsh and 

 looking on only one side of the ma'.ter There 

 are two ways of j^etting away from a job. One 

 is to tell the boss that you h ive .i,'(V to be away 

 for the afternoon, and then go off and leave 

 him before he has had a chance to explain to 

 you the situation of the work. Another is to 

 say, "Mr. A. I should like to get off this af- 

 ternoon, if you can manage to get along with- 

 out me." This latter way is getting permis- 

 sion, while the other way is simply giving no- 

 tice that you are not going to work. Some 

 people think it is stooping to ask permission 

 of an employer to be away. Now, I will tell 

 you how I look at this. If the President of 

 the United States should contract for some 

 work,* and then something should turn up 

 that he did not want it, I should expect him 

 to get permission of me to cancel his order ; 

 and that is the custom in all other business 

 transactions, except that of employing labor. 

 When a man wan'.s to be released from a con- 

 tract he asks to be released. 



On my wheelrides I have frequently called 

 on bee-keepers. They are almost always reli- 

 able men, and men of property ; yet when 

 they change their plans of work to give me a 

 day or half a day it has pleased me to see 

 them go around and get permission to put off 

 work they had planned. When I visited Mr. 

 Hugh Vankirk, and he wanted to go with me 

 over to the oil-wells he put a lot of tools into 

 his buggy. Then he drove out of his way to 

 where he was to do a job of masonwork out in 

 the country ; and he asked for permission to 

 put off building that chimney, or something 

 of that sort, until the next day, explaining the 

 circumstances. Now, I suppose the good 

 housewife had got her carpets all up, and 

 every thing arranged for the new chimney ; 

 but in a pleasant and neighborly way she said, 

 "Oh, yes! go ahead; we can g- 1 along one 

 day more, any way." She may not have used 

 those very words, but it was something like it. 

 Suppose iie had started off and left them and 

 the house all torn up, just because it was a lit- 

 tle trouble, and made our drive a longer one, 

 to go around and get a release. Do you see 

 the point ? What is for 3-our employer's inter- 

 est is for your interest. Almost everybody 

 nowadays can, if he tries, not only secure a 

 permanent job, but most of us can look for- 

 ward to an advance in wages ; but, my dear 

 friend, you can not hope for any advance 

 when you annoy and perplex your employer 

 in the way I have indicated. Why, high- 

 priced men in every calling expect to give no- 

 tice when sickness or accident prevents them 

 from being at their accustomed places. Our 

 engineer once sent his wife up before day- 

 light, in the winter time, to let us know that 

 he could not be on hand to fire up. It really 



* We have not as yet had an order froin tlic Presi- 

 dent of the United States; but we did have one from 

 the government at Washington, and the carload of 

 goods went yesterday. If we were not on hand, and 

 up to the times, we certainly should not thus he hon- 

 ored by the head of our nation. 



seemed to me almost too bad when I .saw the 

 woman coming .so early, but it was really the 

 only thing he could do consistently. 



C5ne thing more right here before closing : 



I have l)een greatly annoyed because the 

 boys who have been with me all through the 

 forenoon would leave word with somebody 

 else, without .saying they wanted to be away, 

 and then "somebody else" would forget to 

 say any thing about it. vSometimes I say, 

 "John, why didn't 3^ou tell vie, instead of 

 telling somebody else ? I was right with you 

 just before dinner." John hangs his head, 

 and does not say a word. Sometimes I hear 

 that a certain man had told his companions 

 that, if he did not " feel better" after dinner, 

 he did not think he would work. Now, when 

 his boss or employer passed him several times 

 during the day, he did not say any thing to 

 him about it. He simplv mentioned it to 

 somebody who was working with him, and I 

 do not often find out about this imtil I have 

 spent considerable time in asking if anybody 

 knew why this man was not in his place. Do 

 you say it is too much bother or trouble ? 

 Then, my friends, you must work for lower 

 wages, perhaps all your life, or you must be 

 out of a job every little while. When we are 

 discussing as to which ones to keep through 

 the winter, the man who is not to be depend- 

 ed on gets left out. Even if he may have un- 

 usual skill, if he annoys his employer in the 

 way I have mentioned his skill couns for lit- 

 tle or nothing. I have known of a man who 

 had the key to the warehouse in his pocket to 

 stay away without notice, and when we would 

 send a boy after him he could not be found, 

 and we had to break the lock and put on a 

 new one. 



If, owing to ill health or some other circum- 

 stance, you want a place where you can go and 

 come without notice or warning — why, make 

 a bargain that way, and have it understood, 

 and work for low wages accordingly. 



Now, if in this little talk I have helped any 

 man, woman, or child to get a permanent sit- 

 uation or better pay, I shall be glad ; and I 

 know that every one who hires help will say 

 amen to the position I take. Reliability and 

 promptness help everybody and every thing. 

 If order is h aven's first law, I think that reli- 

 ability and promptness must have been the 

 next one. 



THE SCIENTIFIC APPLICATIONS OF ELECTRICITY 

 TO THE INDUSTRIES OF THE DAY. 



The Place it will Probably Take in our Homes. 



BY A. I. ROOT. 



A few days ago a good friend wrote to me, 

 lamenting that I had no faith in electricity as 

 a curative agent. I hastened to correct his 

 mistake. What I have .=aid in regard to Elec- 

 tropoise, Oxydonor, and Electrikure, has had 

 no bearing on electricity at all, because there 

 is no electricity about them — never was, and 

 the men who manipulate them and sell them 

 to the suffering sick well know that not a 

 particle of electricity- can be detected abotit 



