654 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



bird, about the size of a sparrow, striped, and 

 called the Cape May warbler ( Dendroica 

 tigrina), has a long sharp needle-like beak. 

 It will alight on a bunch, and about as fast as 

 one can count the grapes will puncture berry 

 after berry. After his birdship has done his 

 mischief he leaves, and then come on innocent 

 bees to finish the work of destruction by suck- 

 ing the juices of the pulp of the berry, finally 

 leaving it dry and withered up. While the 

 birds are scarcely ever " caught in the act," 

 the bees, ever present during all the hours of 

 daylight, receive all the credit for the mischief. 

 Grapes broken in handling will be visited 

 by bees independently of any tampering on 

 the part of the feathered tribe ; and at such 

 times bees do very often prove to be quite a 

 nuisance ; but it may be said, on the other 

 hand, that broken grapes are unsalable any- 

 how, and therefore this damage is slight if 

 any, and the real mischief or harm done is 

 simply the annoyance caused by the fear of 

 being stung while handling over the bunches 

 in the basket. For particulars in regard to 

 this grape-puncturing bird and its habits, see 

 pages 790, 827, for 1896, and page 22 for 1897. 



ROBBING BEE-KEEPERS. 

 In our issue for July 1 appeared the follow- 

 ing advertisement : 



WANTED.— To introduce my golden Italian and 

 Carniolan queens into your apiaries. Price, tested, 50 

 cts.; untested, 35 cts. Satisfaction guaranteed. 



F. T. Luptom, Warners, N. Y. 



This advertisement was received in my 

 absence or it would not have been accepted, 

 on account of the exceedingly low price, and 

 also because of "golden Italians," " Carni- 

 olans," etc. Our people here noticed the 

 low price, but sent at once for samples of his 

 queens, and, of course, the samples were very 

 satisfactory, and the man wrote as if he were 

 honest and straight. He wrote about having 

 queens killed by leaving the cages outdoors 

 right in the hot sun, and asked questions as if 

 he were a beginner. 



Not very long after the advertisement ap- 

 peared we began to receive complaints, and 

 our good friend Paltridge sent us a communi- 

 cation which he had received from the post- 

 master at Warners, which reads as follows : 



Stephen Paltridge, Ardonia, N. Y. 



Dear Sir:—V. T. Luptom does not live here. He 

 comes about twice a month and gets his money on 

 money orders. His letters are forwarded to Syracuse, 

 N. Y. Duane La Du, Postmaster. 



Warners, N. Y., Aug. 9. 



On receipt of this last I knew at once we 

 were swindled, and wrote to the postmaster, 

 requesting to have all mail for Luptom stopped 

 as quickly as possible. I also wrote to the 

 manager of our branch house at Syracuse, 

 Mr. F. A. Salisbury, in regard to the matter, 

 and it is largely due to his untiring energy 

 and push in the matter that Luptom was not 

 only pretty soon hunted up but landed in the 

 lockup. We have thought best to submit to 

 our readers the following, clipped from a 

 Syracuse paper : 



Postoffice Inspector Kyle was notified, and went to 

 work on the case. He learned from the postmaster at 

 Warners, that on July 15 a young man about 22 years 

 old had money orders cashed there to the amount of 



a little over 815, and secured two registered letters 

 containing 50 cents each. He gave his name as Lup- 

 tom, and left orders to have all future mail forwarded 

 to Syracuse. At this postoffice he ordered his mail 

 sent to Locke, Cayuga County. 



East Thursday Inspector Kyle went to Locke and 

 found that mail to the amount of seventy letters was 

 waiting for Euptom, and had not been called for. 

 From advices received it was learned that they con- 

 tain money orders to the amount of Sltior $18. Pay- 

 ment on these has been stopped, and under the ruling 

 of the postoffice they will be returned to the offices 

 from which they are sent, and repaid to the remitters. 



There being no calls for Euptom's mail at Eocke, it 

 was difficult to locate him. The most interesting part 

 of the story is the manner in which he was caught. 



Yesterday afternoon F. A. Salisbury, who keeps 

 bee supplies at No 1635 West Genesee St., went to 

 Inspector Kyle's office in the Postoffice Building and 

 said that he was the agent for Gleanings, and want- 

 ed to know if something could not be done to head off 

 Euptom. He said that that afternoon a young man 

 with a smooth face had walked into his store and 

 asked him if he knew any thing about this Euptom 

 who advertised queen-bees so cheap. He said his 

 father had sent him some orders, and never heard 

 from the money. 



Mr. Kyle questioned Mr. Salisbury closely as to the 

 man's appearance, ai d found that it tallied exactly 

 with that given to him by the Postmaster at Warners 

 and by Adam Metzger. general delivery clerk of this 

 city. The fellow had told Salisbury his name, and 

 that he worked for Charles Mills, of Fairmount. 



Mr. Kyle, accompanied by United States Deputy 

 Marshal Spaulding and Adam Metzger, drove out to 

 the Mills farm and found the young man sitting out- 

 side stemming elderberries at 5:30 o'clock. Kyle 

 immediately accused him of the crime, and the lad 

 turned pale and made a complete confession. 



The young man was arrested, and brought to this 

 city. 



We are fortunate this time that no great 

 amount of money was invested or required. 

 There is a great moral to it, however. It 

 ought to impress every young man — yes, and 

 old man too, for that matter — that to succeed 

 in the swindling business requires a great 

 amount of very hard work ; in fact, one can 

 go to work at almost any thing and make 

 more money honestly than he can get, even if 

 he succeeds in his dishonesty ; and, besides, 

 the way things are managed nowadays, no 

 matter how ingeniously the guilty one lays 

 his plots, he is pretty sure to be caught in a 

 very little time. 



Later: — To-day, August 28, we have just re- 

 ceived a letter from the young man who called 

 himself Luptom (admitting that Luptom is 

 not his name), begging piteously not to have 

 his real name appear in Gleanings, and prom- 

 ising to send queens to all who have lost their 

 money, from some reliable breeder. There is 

 just one thing in his letter that does not sound 

 honest. He says : " I am the victim of foul 

 play." Now, the man who takes an assumed 

 name, and has his mail sent around to differ- 

 ent offices, as in the above newspaper state- 

 ment, is, I should say, the "victim " of his 

 own rascality, instead of foul play on the part 

 of some one else. I have written him that, if 

 he will return all money that he has secured 

 by his swindling scheme, we will keep his 

 real name out of print. Unless he does this 

 we i-hall show him up as he deserves. If he 

 does not make good those who have lost by 

 sending him money in response to an adver- 

 tisement in Gleanings we will try to make it 

 good ourselves. He requests us to send him 

 a list of those who have sent him money and 

 received nothing. A. I. R. 



