1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



339 



as to what the case contained, as a fraud; and, 

 from your own story, yo/t would have been the 

 fraud unless you sold the honey for such as it 

 proved to be after you had opened it. Am I 

 not right?." 



He admitted that I was. This is as near as 

 I can tell of a matter that happened some 20 

 years ago. When I sell a thing, stating it so 

 and so, if I misrepresent, then I am "lying," 

 as Mr. Whitney well says. But when I ship a 

 thing on commission, the commission man 

 does the selling, and sells the thing for what 

 \t proves to be, unless I tell him he need not 

 open it, as I guarantee it to be so and so. In 

 this last case he sells it on my guarantee, so is 

 in no way responsible in the matter. So I 

 repeat again, " that I see nothing dishonest in 

 the matter of facing buckwheat honey with 

 XXX clover honey, but doubt the advisability 

 of doing so," for the reason that the retailer 

 who bought a case of honey fixed that way 

 would expect to get it for enough less to pay 

 him for all sorting and trouble in the matter. 

 If honey, not guaranteed to be of a certain 

 quality (or apples, peaches, potatoes, etc.), is 

 sold without any investigation regarding the 

 matter (simply by the looks of the barrel, 

 bale, box, case, etc.), then I must have been 

 wrongly informed in these matters. Where 

 no guarantee is made, the looks of any single 

 article which is in sight speaks only for itself, 

 not for what is out ot sight ; and the out-of- 

 sight one says, "Here am I," when it bobs 

 up; " sell me for what I am worth." I think 

 this explanation will cause Mr. W. to roll 

 down his sleeves and regret having waded 

 through the mud all the way to Borodino 

 unless he proves to be somewhat like little 

 Eddie, who thought to vindicate himself thus : 



A few evenings ago little Eddie, whose other 

 name is not necessary to the purpose of this 

 narrative, astonished his mother by informing 

 her that he had met a bear while returning 

 from the drugstore, whither he had been sent 

 upon an errand. 



"Why, Eddie!" exclaimed the astonished 

 mother, " you know that isn't so. You didn't 

 meet a bear." 



"Yes, but I did," Eddie persisted. 



"Eddie," said Mrs. Blank, "I am very 

 sorry that you are so naughty. You know 

 that it is wicked to tell such stories. This 

 evening, when you say your prayers, you must 

 ask God to forgive you." 



Next morning Eddie presented himself at 

 breakfast with a determined expression on his 

 face; and when his mother asked him if he 

 had prayed to be forgiven he replied : 



"Yes, mamma; and God said he saw the 

 same bear." G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



[It is true I wrote Doolittle that I did not 

 care to take a hand on either side of this dis- 

 cussion, and that I would leave him to have it 

 out with friend Whitney; but since reading 

 the cold print over two or three times — that 

 is, that sentence taken from Doolittle — in Mr. 

 Whitney's second paragraph — I have conclud- 

 ed that I had better come down off from that 

 fence, and get on Whitney's side. The sec- 



ond reading of the sentence or sentences in 

 question seems " worser " than at first, and I 

 don't believe friend Doolittle himself really 

 intended to stand by what his own words 

 really imply. It seems to me the point is 

 right here: No matter whether the shipper 

 sa} s any thing about the contents of his cases 

 of honey, aud no matter whether he puts any 

 trademark or grading on them, the general 

 public would naturally assume that the /a eing 

 of the cases was at least of the same kind of 

 honey, and of very nearly the same grade 

 (perhaps not quite) as that in the center. 



While I acknowledge there is nmch truth 

 in what Mr. Doolittle says above, yet the real 

 question hinges on this: What do buyers ex- 

 pect ? If it is the rule and not the exception 

 to have buckwheat honty stuck into the cen- 

 ter of cases having facings of white-clover 

 comb honey, Doolittle's idea u/ay be all right; 

 but if it is a general rule in the trade that the 

 center of the cases should be of the same kind, 

 and very near the same quality, as the facing 

 of the case, then Doolittle is all rcrong. If I 

 am any judge, the trade expects no buck- 

 wheat or other dark honey in the center of a 

 case faced with nice white clover; therefore I 

 am ferninst Doolittle, and with Snyder, Mil- 

 ler, Whitney, el at. 



But here is something to the point. — Ed.] 



FACING COMB HONEY NOT HONEST. 



Is the "They all do it" a Good Rule? 



BY F. X,. THOMPSON. 



An important feature of the discussion on 

 " facing " comb honey has been recently over- 

 looked; viz., to apply the "golden rule" and 

 see how you come out. I bought a barrel of 

 apples last winter. The commission man did 

 not remove the top ones to show me the cen- 

 ter of the barrel; indeed, I question whether 

 that is often done in selling to a private cus- 

 tomer. It would have suited me much belter, 

 when paying the money, to feel that a glance 

 of the eye at the top of ihe ban el told me all 

 I wanted to know about the whole barrel. 

 There is no rule to tell me whether the cen- 

 tral apples are only a little less choice than the 

 upper ones, or greatly inferior; and the prac- 

 tice which leaves the customer in that uncer- 

 tainty is, it .seems to me, reprehensible. 



Those who buy to sell again may approve, 

 or even desire, this state of things. But I 

 have generally heard consimiers refer to the 

 " facing " of fruit, potatoes, etc., in somewhat 

 disgusted tones. I wonder why; for humor- 

 ous effect, is it? I should say the practice is, 

 on the face of it, of a piece with all the rest of 

 that looking out for number one which makes 

 the relation between buyer and seller such a 

 hard, pitiless affair, which a person of any 

 sensibility, forced to engage in mercantile life, 

 must continually deplore. It is surely a mis- 

 take to suppose that those to whose interest it 

 is to know the truth abowt what they want to 

 purchase, at once, and thorough!}', can lend 

 their sanction to the practice by " demanding " 



