192 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1. 



good, to insist upon a reply of some sort. The 

 example of such men is bad. If he has some 

 arrangement in mind whereby he expects to 

 pay friend Smith, let him tell us of that ar- 

 rangement, and we will give it the same pub- 

 licity we have done in showing him up ; and 

 when he pays the account, or any part of it, 

 we will also publicly give him credit ; and the 

 sooner it transpires that every man who plans 

 to swindle bee-keepers understands that he 

 will be promptly shown up by the bee-jour- 

 nals, the sooner will such swindlers hesitate 

 before they undertake a thing of this kind. 

 Another thing, we want to do away with all 

 of that stripe of commission men who can not 

 afford a postal card to write to their customers, 

 and tell them what progress they make in sell- 

 ing their honey. The commission man or deal- 

 er who solicits honey, and then waits a long 

 while before he says any thing after he has re- 

 ceived it, should also be shown up. Of course, 

 every person should be given every opportu- 

 nity in the world to defend himself before 

 giving him publicity. There is no nobler 

 work in this world for any one to do than to 

 discourage selfishness and selfish greed in ev- 

 ery way in his power. Let us use mild mea- 

 sures first. Let us exhort and entreat. But 

 when neither of these avails, then let us use 

 law as well as gospel. 



There is another point I wish to take up be- 

 fore closing. Average humanity seems to 

 have a dislike to writing letters or even postal 

 cards. Oh how many troubles would have 

 been saved if somebody had just used a postal 

 card and a pencil, and told us long ago what 

 he finally told at great length after we had 

 sent his account for collection, just because 

 we could not get any scrap of information 

 from him otherwise ! 



Most of our readers know that Gleanings 

 is continued without orders until we are told 

 to stop it. We do this because so much the 

 larger part of our readers prefer to have us do 

 so. Just think of it! between 200 and 300 have 

 had Gleanings right along for 25 years. 

 Should we stop sending our journal to one of 

 these friends without orders to do so, there 

 would be a protest in a hurry. Some will say, 

 " What did you stop my journal for?" another, 

 " I would thank you, sir, to keep my journal 

 going until you have orders to stop it. You 

 have money to my credit on your ledgers, and 

 you know it. ' ' It happens, however, that the 

 subscription clerk does not " know it," unless 

 the person tells her that such is the case. 

 Well, we have again and again decided that it 

 was far less trouble all around to keep it go- 

 ing. One good reason is, it is such expensive 

 business to take out the address that is correct- 

 ly set up in type, and then put it back again 

 without making any mistake when the person 

 renews as soon as he finds his journal stopped. 

 Besides, we give everybody four plain and dis- 

 tinct notices before we send in his account to 

 the collection agency. If you refuse to take 

 the journal from the office, postmasters are 

 expected to inform us of the fact. Unfortu- 

 nately, however, very few of them do this. 

 A great many bee-keepers move away without 

 telling us of the fact, and let Gleanings 



go to the old postoffice sometimes two or three 

 years. A good many times somebody gets hold 

 of them who values them enough to pay us — 

 that is, after we get hold of the state of affairs. 

 But what I wanted to speak of particularly is 

 this fact: The collection agency seems to 

 have a plan for making people talk; and, oh 

 what pitiful letters we do get ! I have had 

 several this spring where it would almost 

 make one shed tears to read them. The 

 writer will often wind up by saying something 

 like this: 



•' Now, I can not for a moment believe that 

 my old friend A. I. Root, who writes the 

 Home Papers, ever authorized any such pro- 

 ceedings as this." 



Perhaps the writer tells of poor honey sea- 

 sons, of floods or drouth; of sickness and 

 death in the family; but he did not tell us a 

 word about it until he and the dear wife, and 

 perhaps the children also, were greatly pained 

 and distressed by a harsh businesslike letter, 

 because nohody had looked after Gleanings. 

 A postal card, saying, "Please keep Glean- 

 ings going, if you can afford to; we have had 

 sickness and lots of trouble; but we want 

 Gleanings for the encouragement it gives; 

 and if you can wait a while we will surely 

 make it right, ' ' would make all clear. In such 

 a case the subscription clerk notes the circum- 

 stances, often referring to myself, for I keep a 

 careful oversight over the whole subscription- 

 list ; and if misfortunes continue to come, so 

 it is going to distress the poor friends, or so 

 the party absolutely can not pay, we drop it 

 without any hard feelings. Over and over 

 again I have been obliged to say something 

 like this: "Rest assured, dear friend, that 

 The A. I. Root Co. never asks for a copper 

 from any one for something he did not order 

 and did not want." A great many times I 

 leave the matter in this way : After we have 

 got hold of the person, and succeeded in mak- 

 ing him talk, I close the correspondence by 

 saying: " And now, my good friend, if Glean- 

 ings has been worth something to you or to 

 your family, during the past two or three years 

 that it has been sent without orders, we leave 

 it entirely to you to say how much that some- 

 thing is, or whether it is any thing at all." 



A great many parties give as an excuse for 

 continuing to neglect writing, that they felt 

 ashamed to say any thing until they had some 

 money, and hence did not say any thing. 

 Now, please do not do that. If you can not 

 do any better, tell one of the schoolchildren 

 to write a card to Uncle Amos, telling him 

 they want Gleanings kept going, and that 

 they will pay after a while. I like to get let- 

 ters and postal cards from the children. It in- 

 dicates that they are helping papa and mamma. 

 Why, I know lots of energetic go ahead bee- 

 keepers who let the children do almost all the 

 w 7 riting. They can just as well write business 

 letters as to make pot-hooks in school that do 

 not mean any thing. Perhaps some of the 

 children will think it is a long time since Un- 

 cle Amos went to school. And, by the way, 

 it pleases me to see how the children get the 

 hang of the telephones. When Howard and 

 Leland, one or both, had the grip, they used to 



