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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15. 





Perhaps the friends who are perfectly well, 

 especiaUy those who never have any trouble 

 -\vith their digestive apparatus, had better skip 

 this. In fact, you are each and all of you at 

 perfect liberty to stop whenever you feel so 

 inclined. This talk is mainly for those who 

 are among the sick and the suffering — those 

 who have dosed themselves with pills and 

 other drugs in the vain hope of getting relief 

 from their aches and bad feelings. With this 

 preamble I am ready to tell you my storv-. 



I told vou something about my seasickness, 

 in our last issue. Well, I was just as sick, or 

 a little more so, coming home ; and while I 

 suffered more or less almost every hour during 

 that trip of 4S hours, I also learned some ven.- 

 valuable lessons, and made some i at least to 

 me I important discoveries. By the way, did 

 it ever occor to you that God tt aches us some 

 of our most precious and wholesome lessons 

 through aflaiction, pain, and suffering? For 

 the first two hours, while the boat was wind- 

 ing among the coral reefs. I enjoyed it ver}- 

 much. Finally, as we approached the great 

 open sea, I asked a passenger what it meant 

 to see so many white sails away off in the 

 horizon, that appeared for an instant and then 

 disappeared. 



"White sails? Why, those are not sails: 

 they are the white breakers, fully ten miles 

 awav. glistening in the afternoon sun." 



' • Whv, do you mean to say that it is going to 

 be rough like that when we get away off out 

 of sight of land when it is so still and quiet 

 here ? ' ' 



I soon found out he was right. By the 

 time we had covered the ten miles I began to 

 be sick. I braved it for a while, but was 

 finallv obliged to remember my little text, 

 "Be still, and knew that I am God."' In 

 anticipation of similar troubles I had secured 

 an upper berth on deck. I lay down as before, 

 with mv head no higher than the rest of my 

 bodv. opened the port-hole so as to get the 

 breeze, and stayed right there for almost 4S 

 hours. For quite a long period I could not 

 bear even the mention of food. The stewards 

 on the boat were very kind, and came around 

 at each mealtime, even when I did not ring 

 for them, and asked if there was any thing 

 thev could bring me. answered my questions 

 pleasantly, advised and suggested in regard to 

 the matter of seasickness. In the hotels, you 

 know, they usually require extra pay where 

 refreshments are sent up to one's room: but 

 on the Trinidad I was told they never think 

 of extra pay, and it is not customary to fee 

 the waiters. "When I asked my own particu- 

 lar steward in regard to the matter he said : 



"This is our business. We are paid to wait 

 on vou, and to make you just as comfortable 

 as we possibly can. This is what we are for." 



On one occasion I called for some beef-tea 

 between three and four o'clock in the morn- 



ing, and it came promptly, nice and hot. and 

 it '■ hit the spot "' too I tell you. Now. then, 

 in regard to my discoveries. 



I very soon decided this would afford me an 

 opportunity to compare the lean meat as a 

 diet %vith one of vegetable and starchy foods. 

 In fact. I heard the passengers discuss the 

 matter, in a group. One man recommended 

 orange juice when one can not take any other 

 nourishment. Some said this. that, and the 

 other. Just one person ventvued to recom- 

 mend a nice beefsteak, without fat or butter; 

 and as soon as I was able to swallow any thing 

 at all, I took the beefsteak and got along very 

 well. Only once did the steak "come up." 

 But I ate it this time, when nature revolted 

 against food of any sort. I forced down the 

 steak to see what effect it would have, and 

 managed to keep it down two or three hours; 

 but when it finally did come up it was just as 

 sweet, fresh, and good, as when I swallowed 

 it. Please remember it had been exposed to 

 the feverish heat of the stomach all this period 

 of time, and not changed in the least. Only 

 one other article of food, and that was not 

 food either, stood the same test. I drank a 

 cup of tea, took it hot, thinking that, perhaps, 

 like hot water, it would do me good. I kept 

 it down about an hour, but it came up just as 

 I drank it. The digestive apparatus had not 

 taken from nor added to it a particle. 



Now. it is not very pleasant to tell how 

 other things worked : but I want to do it 

 nevertheless, to demonstrate a valuable scien- 

 tific fact. When I first got on the steamer at 

 New York it so happened I was unable to get 

 a meal of beefsteak. In fact, I had only time 

 enough to get my last meal, before going 

 aboard, at a lunch- counter. I got a nice piece 

 of chicken and a cream puff. When I became 

 seasick, old father Neptune just had fun with 

 that cream puff. When it came up it was the 

 most bitter, acrid, nauseating concoction that 

 the very spirit of evil could conjure up, as it 

 seemed to me. Orange juice came up con- 

 verted into a horrible stuff almost as bad; and 

 so with every thing in the line of starch, sugar, 

 or fruits. Plain toast came nearer to the 

 beefsteak than almost any thing else. Tea 

 and coffee were all right pro\4ding I refrained 

 from adding the least particle of milk or sugar; 

 and I could hardly make the stewards under- 

 stand that I wanted my weak tea with tio thing 

 in it. They would either put in a lump of 

 sugar, or bring three or foiir lumps, which I 

 always requested them to take right back. If 

 you can get some good soft water, and drink 

 it hot, it is about the best remedy I know of. 

 Of course, it will come up. but let it come. 

 Several rinsings of that sort are a most excel- 

 lent thing for one with weak digestion. 



^\'hile at Bermuda, in conversation with 

 Gen. Hastings i whom many of you may re- 

 member as a prominent figure in war times i, 

 he told me he was almost invariably seasick 

 going to or from New York, and that he always 

 took advantage of it to get his digestive 

 apparatus thoroughly cleansed by drinking 

 water and letting it come up. He said it does 

 not distress one very much after he has ' ' got 

 used to it;"' and I was agreeably sm-prised to 



