1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



889 



for certain purposes. I have cakes and balls 

 of it, reserved for future use. They have all 

 become nearly black. Take one of them, pull 

 and work it as you would taffy, and, like taffy, 

 it will assume a light color. This, I think, 

 proves that the dark color is not due to foreign 

 admixture, 



Propolis is dear to the heart of Deborah. 

 The varnisher with her brush and liquid pro- 

 polis is busy everywhere. Nothing inside the 

 hive escapes her. Combs, cracks, frames, in- 

 terior walls, and even the exterior, when the 

 bees cluster out, receive her attention. This 

 varnish blackens with age, and this is "trav- 

 el-stain " — at least I think so. A. 



THE "REFORMED" SPELLING. 



I have only commenced taking Gleanings, 

 but notice you are thinking of changing the 

 spelling of the English language, which 

 change is said to be " reformed." Surely this 

 is a misnomer; and as we find it in the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal it is deformed spelling. We 

 read, not by spelling each letter in a word, but 

 by the general appearance of the word, just as 

 we recognize our friends — we do not stop to 

 analyze them, but know them by their general 

 appearance. When deeply interested in an 

 article by Dr. Miller, Doolittle, and others, 

 and to run up against one of those hideous 

 malformations, miscalled "reformed," the 

 reader has to stop and study out what it may 

 be intended for. By this time he has lost the 

 thread of the story, and a large share of his 

 patience; wishes the editor of that paper had 

 had in his younger days the advantage of a 

 common school education, and not been com- 

 pelled to pick his learning out of Josh Billings' 

 Almanac. How do you think the word of 

 God would look if edited in the office of the 

 American Bee Journal, while the editor has 

 this bee in his bonnet? P. M. Hamlin. 



Binghamton, N. Y., Nov. 10. 



[We had not proposed to go as far as the 

 American Bee Journal in its reform, but only 

 to make a very slight change — so slight that 

 it would hardly be noticed. We have for 

 years used the short forms, program and cata- 

 log, and now it was proposed to go one little 

 step further. We are still waiting for expres- 

 sions from our readers; and if there are enough 

 to protest, the "reform" will not be inaugu- 

 rated. vSo far there are about seven who have 

 voted against, to about 100 for it. — Ed.] 



REFORMED SPELLING CONDEMNED. 



Dear Mr. Root: — I admire you and your 

 paper as an authority on bees; but when an 

 editor of any periodical with a circulation of 

 only a few thousand copies published once a 

 month anticipates, better say contemplates, 

 the modification of the English orthography, 

 then he must be laboring upon the borders of 

 " swellheadism." Good old Webster is good 

 enough for me, and the rules therein are what 

 this generation should adhere to. There is 

 one bee-journal that makes a horrible attempt 

 in this direction, and that should suffice. You 

 remarked that you had not received an objec- 



tion, etc. Well, put me down as an "object- 

 or." Go ahead and modify spelling, and 

 then eliminate yours truly from your list. 

 Confine yourself to bees and bee-questions, 

 and you have a perpetual subscriber in 

 Yours truly, 



George N. Wanser. 

 Rahway, N. J., Nov. 10. 



[You are the seventh person out of the 100 

 and more that have voted for the reform who 

 has objected to the proposed slight changes. 



Gleanings with its nearly 11,000 paid-up 

 subscribers is not a very big concern, it's true; 

 but the New York Independent, one of the 

 greatest metropolitan weeklies ever published, 

 has been carrying into effect for years just the 

 reform that has been proposed for us. It has 

 lost neither prestige nor influence. 



You say, " Good old Noah Webster is good 

 enough " for you. Have you forgotten that 

 Webster was a spelling-reformer — that he 

 eliminated u from such words as labour? and 

 that he adopted other shorter spellings ? Why, 

 Webster went as far as we propose going. 



Your position would leave no chance for 

 progress. We should have a regard for the 

 rising generation, and the foreigners who come 

 to this country, if not for ourselves. 



But you ask, " How about those who have 

 not voted ? " I have assumed that those who 

 have not expressed themselves have no prefer- 

 ance. He who stays away from the primaries 

 has no right to kick afterward if things don't 

 go to suit him. You say that, if we inaugu- 

 rate the change, we may drop your name, even 

 though the great majority is against you. 

 Do you really think that a threat of this kind 

 is in good taste ? and do you believe that the 

 loss of one subscriber or dozens of them would 

 deter us from carrying out a policy that we 

 thought was for the general good ? and does it 

 not almost " border on swellheadism " to im- 

 ply that we would be influenced by the action 

 of one subscriber irrespective of the expressed 

 opinion of hundreds of others ? Now, don't 

 jump to the conclusion that we are going to 

 make the change. There is no hurry ; and, 

 besides, we wish to get the fullest expression. 

 If there are enough " objectors " we will con- 

 tinue on as we have been. In the mean time, 

 don't get the idea into your head that we pro- 

 posed going as far as the American Bee Jour- 

 nal. The change proposed by us would hard- 

 ly be noticed, even if it were carried into ef- 

 fect.— Ed.] 



THE ECONOMIC SIDE OF SHORTER SPELLING. 

 Please accept my thanks for your kind re- 

 ception of my plea for shorter spelling. It is 

 interesting to note that advertisers are begin- 

 ning to appreciate the advantages of shorter 

 spelling. In a recent issue of a family story- 

 paper I counted a dozen advertisements em- 

 ploying the word catalog, and less than half 

 of them spelled it with tie. In a paper like 

 Youth's Companion, where advertising space 

 costs $4.00 per agate line per insertion, ue 

 would cost in agate type $8.32 per year, or in 

 nonpareil about $10. Please record this as a 

 vote for the shorter spelling. 

 Addison, N. Y. E. B. Thornton. 



