1M04 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



85 



a wonderful trip in an automobile of his 

 own manufacture; and he made it on Sun- 

 day', taking' his wife along. Let me di- 

 gress. 



Mrs. Riot has for several years lamented 

 that we are so far from town and from 

 church; and she has even asked the ques- 

 tion if we could not, as we got older, have 

 a residence nearthe church, markets, stores, 

 etc , and live there, at least in winter. Just 

 now we are more than half a mile from 

 church and Sunday-school. Well, the auto 

 has solved the problem. For the last two 

 months the children (and grandchildren) 

 have all understood that, if they wanted to 

 make father (or grandfather) happy, they 

 just had to tell him they would like to be 

 taken up street at such an hour or minute. 

 This gives me the open air in all kinds of 

 weather, and I never fire of running my be- 

 loved vehicle. 



One moraing recently I carried four loads 

 of people from " Rootville" up to the church. 

 We usually take four at a load; but we can 

 easilj' carry five when the roads are good, 

 and six or seven if part of them are chil- 

 dren. Of course, I would not think of run- 

 ning my auto on Sundays just for the fun 

 of it, frightening horses, perhaps, when 

 there is no particular need of it. The way 

 I manage, however, I seldom frighten a 

 horse; but sometimes it is a little annoying 

 to the drivers. I have learned so that I can 

 slow up to a speed not faster than a per- 

 son can walk, and with the machinery so 

 managed as to make almost no noise. Then 

 by talking to the horses I get by without 

 any trouble. 



Something comes in just here that re- 

 minds me of the dear friends who have crit- 

 icised because they feared I was getting to 

 be a little loose on the question of Sunday 

 observance. By offering to take them on 

 the auto I got several people to go to church 

 who might not have gone otherwise; but if 

 you should question me closely, and ask me 

 which was the inspiring motive, to get peo- 

 ple to go to church or to have an excuse for 

 running my beloved auto on Sunday, I am 

 afraid I ini_e,ht have to plead guilty to the 

 latter. I for one would be exceedingly glad 

 to see all the automobiles used to enlarge 

 instead of decrease church attendance. Be- 

 tween church and Sunday-school a lot of 

 our people want to be brought home; and 

 after Sunday school there are usvially two 

 trips more; and in order to get all our 

 people out to hear the excellent sermons we 

 have Sunday evening, I have the same pro- 

 gram over again. After dark I enjoy the 

 fun of lighting the lamps and seeing every 

 thing work to its fullest perfection. Why, 

 in the drill I have had in working with and 

 manipulating that auto I can detect the 

 slightest sound or vibration of the machine 

 when it get a little bit out of order. When 

 others can hear nothing at all I am follow- 

 ing out and locating the slight imperfection. 

 Since I have been on this drill, and acquir- 

 ed a trained mechanical ear. it arino}-s me 

 to hear a door opened when the hinges need 



oiling; yes, and when somebody grasps a 

 doorknob where the interior of the lock is 

 grinding for want of oil, I feel an almost 

 irrestible impulse to get my neat little screw- 

 driver and equally neat oilcan, pull the 

 lock to pieces, and give the parts timely at- 

 tention that are going to ruin because of the 

 need of oil. 



Well, I shall have to confess that, in go- 

 ing to and from church, my mind and all 

 my sensibilities are keenly on the alert in 

 watching and enjoying this new hobby; but 

 when I get inside, I doubt if our good pas- 

 tor has many hearers who listen more de- 

 voutly and intently than I do. I have heard 

 him say that no other one of his hearers 

 questions, asks for further information, and 

 sometimes criticises, as much as I do. Ex- 

 ercising all my faculties in using that auto- 

 mobile Sunday morning wakes me up and 

 prepares me to take in the sermon much 

 better than I could otherwise. 



A word here about leaving the auto stand- 

 ing out in the cold during the sermon. Af- 

 ter much investigation in reading the auto 

 journals I have discovered that, if we add 

 to the four gallons of water in the tank, ten 

 per cent of glycerine and 3 lbs. of calcium 

 chloride, the liquid or solution will not 

 freeze. In fact, I keep a saucerful stand- 

 ing outside of the auto-house all the time to 

 be sure thjit the liquid in the coils can not 

 get frozen up. 



Now to the question, "Is it a piece of ex- 

 travagance on my part to pay $650 for such 

 a machine, or is it a good and sensible in- 

 vestment?" While I like horses in a cer- 

 tain way, I do not enjoy caring for them. 

 I do not like the smell of the stables, I do 

 not like to be obliged to clean a horse every 

 morning, and I do not like to hitch one up 

 in winter. I dislike ploddinaf around in 

 the snow, handling an icy harness. Per- 

 haps I might have a warm stable— one that 

 is always warm, like my auto-house; but I 

 should not enjoy it even then. It takes time 

 to hitch up a horse; but the auto is ready to 

 start off in an instant. It is never tired; it 

 gets there quicker than any horse can pos- 

 sibly do. A skillful operator will back up, 

 twist around, run in and out of intricate 

 places, in much less time than any horse 

 could be manipulated. I can take the wo- 

 men-folks up town, bring them back, do er- 

 rands, and manage it all with mv overcoat, 

 and with thick warm mittens on my fingers. 

 The heat of the enirine keeps the vehicle 

 warm to a great exte it, and a comfortable 

 robe does the rest. Yesterday a pretty fair- 

 sized wagonload of bee-jnurnals was to go 

 half a mile to the postoffice. The horses 

 were not hitched up, and the driver was 

 helping in the lumberyard. I said I could 

 take allof the mail sacks nicely at two loads; 

 but we finally piled them all on at one load. 

 It was a little trouble to keep them from 

 falling off: but I got them to the postoffice 

 much quicker than could have been done 

 with horses. 



When the machine is in perfect order, the 

 time required for it is very little indeed. 



