GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



to erupt. It will often start up and throw the 

 water thirty feet high, when it has no notion 

 of going up the whole hundred feet at all. It 

 has the largest cone of any in the whole 

 region. You can easily walk up to the sum- 

 mit; and the tinted and colored pools of boil- 

 ing water that you meet all the way amply 

 pay for the time and pains. It goes oS at inter- 

 vals of from eight to thirty hours. Sometimes 

 it makes believe five or six hours before it 

 goes off. When it does erupt, it often runs 

 short of material, so far as water is concerned, 

 and then it spouts out steam until it makes 

 night hideous with the sound. There are 

 some of the most brilliant pools close by Castle 

 Geyser. One of them is called Castle Well. 



Perhaps it would be well to wind tip with 

 Old Faithful, so called because it has never, 

 in the memory of man, disappointed a cus- 

 tomer. You can go and hang around Castle, 

 Giant, and ever so many others, thinking they 

 are going off very soon, until you get tired of 

 waiting. But Old Faithful is as regular as our 

 best-appointed railways. Every 60 minutes, 

 day and night, winter and summer, the ex- 

 hibition is sure to "come off." People may 

 stand and hold their watches, and tell you 

 when the first act in the drama will begin. 

 Small spurts begin five or ten minutes a"ead 

 of time to let everbody know what is coming. 

 The guidebooks say, " a column of hot water 

 two feet in diameter " is thrown from 125 to 

 150 feet, straight up. I should say the dis- 

 tance is all right, but it did not seem to me 

 that the stream was so large. The crater is 

 on the summit of a littte hill about twelve 

 feet above the level of the ground. The 

 ground slopes off gradually with the usual 

 pools of water, clear as crystal. 



Let me give you an idea of the amount of 

 water that is thrown out by some of these 

 springs. Chittenden's book on Yellowstone 

 Park says than an average eruption of Old 

 Faithful throws out more than a million gal- 

 lons of water; and such a quantity of water 

 every hour would be enough to supply a city 

 of 300,000 inhabitants. Now, then, think of 

 the combinations of heat and water exactl}' 

 united so as to keep this wonderful display 

 going on, day and night, winter and summer, 

 for not only a thousand years, but perhaps for 

 many thousands. Well may we exclaim with 

 the Psalmist, " O Lord, how wonderful are 

 thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them 

 all." 



OUR 



HOMES, 



BY A.I. ROOT. 



If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peace- 

 ably with all men. — Rom. 12: 18. 



When I was on my way to Yellowstone 

 Park I stopped over during the day in Chica- 

 go. I mentioned trying to rent a wheel in 

 the morning, and what the policeman said. 

 Well, I did not find one to suit me until I 

 called at the ofl&ce of the Atnerican Bee Jour- 



nal; and the editor then kindly placed his 

 wheel, almost a brand-new one, at my service. 

 After giving me some directions, the wheel 

 and I started off together. Just as my foot 

 struck the pedal, however, I discovered the 

 crank was bent. I got off, and was going to 

 ask Mr. York about it, but he had turned the 

 corner. I called at the first n p lir-shop, and 

 asked them to straighten the crank; but they 

 explained that the material was of such fine 

 steel, and of such very high temper it would 

 be quite sv;re to break; and when told it was a 

 borrowed wheel they said I had better not do 

 any thing with it. 



I started out for Lincoln Park, bvit at first I 

 thought I could not possibl}' get along with a 

 wheel in that condition. At every half- turn 

 of the crank I was obliged to shift my heel, 

 first one way and then the other. I thought 

 of going back to tell friend York that I could 

 not ride it in that way. Then I thought of 

 going to another repair-shop. But I finally 

 decided not to take liberties with a borrowed 

 article, and concluded I would go out to Lin- 

 coln Park and back in some way, anyhow. 



It was not very long before I found out that 

 my heel was learning the crook so it did it 

 with very much less trouble. A little later I 

 rode quite comfortably, and before noon my 

 ankle grew so familiar with the rocking of the 

 crooked crank that it accommodated itself to 

 the unusual twisting motion without shifting 

 the heel at all. After dinner I rode just as 

 well, or very nearly so, as with a crank per- 

 fectly straight. This illustrates the wonderful 

 way in which these bodies of ours adapt them- 

 selves, and very quickly too, to unusual de- 

 mands, or new circumstances and conditions. 

 I have read in some scientific work that this 

 wonderful thing which wheelers call " second 

 wind " comes about largely because, after a 

 certain set of nerves and muscles has been 

 required to do a certain work over and over 

 hundreds and thousands of times, they get so 

 they work in a sort of automatic way. They 

 go through the motions as a matter of course, 

 without any exercise of the will, and compar- 

 atively little weariness of muscle. Of course, 

 outdoor air, and a large amount of oxygen, 

 have much to do with it. 



In the afternoon I took a ride on the same 

 wheel down Jackson Boulevard, going many 

 miles, and without a thought of a crooked 

 crank. Friend York explained to me, after I 

 got home, that he had forgotten to mention 

 the matter, and tell me that, if I would keep 

 right on, in a little while I would not notice 

 it. Now, I wonder if that is a trick our good 

 editor has of keeping a wheel that nobody 

 would want to borrow. I am sure, though, 

 he was very glad indeed to accommodate me 

 in the way he did. The reason I did not use 

 my own wheel in Chicago was because it was 

 packed in a wheel-trunk, and checked clear 

 through to Cinnabar, Montana. On arriving 

 at the latter place I unpacked my wheel, put 

 my extra clothing, etc., back in the trunk, 

 and started to explore the wonders of the park. 

 Now, a very singular thing occurred right 

 here. I got on to my wheel to see that it was 

 all right, with proper adjustment, etc.; but 



