152 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



THE UNITED STATES WEATHER BUREAU AND 

 HICKS. 



Siuce what was said on page 26, one person 

 lias ordered his journal stopped, saying that 

 "Hicks is more accurate than the Weather 

 Bvireau." 1 wonder if I can not make this 

 matter a little plainer. Just before the cold 

 wave (of zero wtalher for three nights in suc- 

 cession), we had a week of weather almost 

 without frost, and that right in the month of 

 January. The Weather Bureau gave prompt 

 and correct notice two days ahead, right along. 

 Just before the severe cold spell the following 

 warning appeared in all the papers: 



Shippers of perishable goods should take notice of 

 the approachitig cold in making shipments in any di- 

 rection during the next day or two. 



Now, who can compute the saving that ship- 

 pers all over the I'nited States have made by 

 stopping potatoes and other perishable prod- 

 uce in accordance with this two days' notice ? 

 On the night of Feb. 2d and morning of the 

 3d, the meicury went down to 10 below zero. 



Once more: A few days ago the following 

 telegram came to our office from the Weather 

 Bureau : 



Jan. 2S, ID o'clock. — Threatening weather and light 

 snow to-night; fair Saturday; warmer Saturday morn 

 ing ; colder by night. 



Please notice the complexity of this predic- 

 tion. Well, the above was exactly according 

 to prediction. They hit it on temperature, 

 both up and down, about as well as an oliserv- 

 er could have described the weatlier<i;/?fr?ca;c/. 

 Now, then, how about Hicks, who, as our sub- 

 scriber claims, has been more accurate than 

 the Weather Bureau? Did Hicks ever notify 

 the nation of a cold wave so it could stop ship- 

 ments, etc.? Did he ever say, in eflfect, "In 

 the middle of Janttary there will be a long 

 warm spell; in some localities a week or more 

 when it will not even freeze nights (in the 

 Northern States) but on the 1st, 2d, and 3d of 

 February the weather will be near zero most 

 of the time " ? Now, do not be in a hurry, 

 friends. I am ver}- well aware that Hicks 

 often says, " Look out for something very un- 

 usual about this time; " but he does not say 

 what the "unusual" will be; therefore his 

 readers can interpret it as an unseasonable and 

 warm spell or the opposite, or it may be a ter- 

 rific windstorm, or a great depth of snow or a 

 flood. Any of these would fill the bill aboitt 

 the great things that he predicts will happen 

 about such a time. Still worse, and the sad- 

 dest and most disgraceful part of the whole 

 affair, is that he claims he gets his informa- 

 tion from that old heathen institution known 

 as astrology, and actually gives pictures of the 

 planets, and poses before the people who will 

 listen to his hypocrisy as a scientific man and 

 astronomer; and this man claims at the same 

 time to be a Christian .' Of course, his state- 

 ments in regard to the po.sitions 6f the planets, 

 etc., are true. This information he probablv 

 gets from accurate scientific sources; but from 

 this he rehearses the same rigmarole that the 

 gipsy fortune-tellers do — that the "conjunc- 

 tion of certain planets " will be favorable to 

 "marrying a rich man," or something of that 

 sort, except that Hicks applies it to the zveatli- 



er instead of a silly girl's fortune. If the po- 

 sitions of the planets influenced the weather, 

 our United States Weather Bureau would cer- 

 tainly have published the fact years ago. 

 Their carefttl scientific records show constant- 

 ly that even the moon itself — ottr nearest plan- 

 et — has no effect r n the charge of the weath- 

 er whatever, although, of course, the moon 

 does produce the tides. It does not need very 

 much intelligence to sift out sense from )ion- 

 sense, or, from what is worse still, hypocrisy 

 and fraud . 



ELECTRIC BEETS, ETC. 

 The following newspaper clipping was mail- 

 ed to us by one of our subscribers : 



Here's a pointer from an exchange in case the elec- 

 tric-belt fakir visits you. An examination was made 

 of some electric belts sold by a .street fakir. It v as 

 found that, beneath a strip of gauze, was a layer of 

 dry mustard. When the wearer perspires a little the 

 mustard becomes moi.stened and causes a burning sen- 

 sation, and the deluded victim believes a current of 

 electricity is passing through him. The mustard 

 probably is just as good ; but when one buys mustard 

 he ought to know it. 



Well, this thing is certainh' ahead of the 

 Electropoise, for there is some sense — or, if 

 you choose, soisalioti — attached to it. While 

 speaking of electric belts it is gratifying to 

 see that the thing is almost played out, anj' 

 way. We notice advertisements reading some- 

 thing like this: "Just think of it ! A $25 

 electric belt for only $3. 98." No doubt the 

 same kird of belt has been sold for $25. My 

 own brother paid an enormous price for one 

 as much as -10 years ago. After he had worn 

 it a while he wts Yankee enough to pull it to 

 pieces, and it was not even as good as the mus- 

 tard plaster so far as any benefit was concern- 

 ed. It was made of alternate links of zinc 

 and copper covered with silk; and where they 

 are made in quantity, in a factory, one might 

 get rich by putting up the whole thing for 25 

 cents. In the first place, the thing used ac- 

 cording to directions does not generate elec- 

 tricity — at least, not enough to be felt. Sec- 

 ondly, if it did, no phy.sician would think of 

 recommending it for every ailment, as the 

 venders do. Thirdly, even if a $25 belt is 

 sold for $3.98, there is even then $3.50 profit 

 in the transaction. Any one of good judg- 

 ment should be able to satisfy himself of all 

 the above points by pulling one of the things 

 to pieces. 



THE GRANDCHILDREN AND THEIR WHEELS. 

 You see, we had an order for a carload of 

 crates for crating juvenile bic}-cles ; and it 

 seemed no more than fair, after having got an 

 order for a whole carload, to take some of 

 their goods in return. vSo we ptirchased a 

 small-sized bicycle for each of the grandchil- 

 dren, Howard and Leland. Now, these wheels 

 are no toy. They are built just as well as 

 big ones. Of course, the boys could not do 

 very mttch with them in the winter time ; btit 

 when a warm sunshin}' day came, then there 

 was fun out on the stone flagging in front of 

 our residences and the factory. The flagging 

 is fotir feet wide, and as the boys ( aged re- 



