GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15 



"it is done every day by all sorts of peo- 

 ple." Just one thing- more in closing: 



People in all kinds of business offer spe- 

 cial barg-ains, or special low rates, provid- 

 ing 3'ou comply with certain conditions. A 

 good many times an outsider can not see 

 what difference it makes whether you com- 

 ply exactly with the letter or not; and per- 

 haps it might take considerable time to 

 make the thing plain to customers who want 

 something a little different. I might give 

 one illustration right here. A man wants 

 a hundred hives; but he does not want them 

 exactly like the regular run. He explains 

 to me that the change he wishes will be 

 really less work than the regular goods; 

 but when I tell him they will cost him more 

 money made that way, even though I admit 

 it requires less work on the hives, he can 

 not or will not believe I am honest, even 

 when I explain it will cost us quite a liitle 

 more than to have him take the regular 

 goods. The trouble is, he fails to recognize 

 that we have to stop a busy factory, or throw 

 things out of joint, more or less, to make 

 something out of the regular routine. Now, 

 it is the same way with our railroad com- 

 panies. Whenever I have a chance to look 

 into their methods of management I find 

 reasons for their "red tape, " as we call it, 

 that I could not understand when I stood 

 outside. 



SOME REFLECTIONS (?) IN REGARD TO THE 



CLERKS WHO HAVE CHARGE OF OUR 



SUBSCRIPTION DEPARTMENT. 



Every little while some of my good friends 

 of former years get a notion in their heads, 

 perhaps quite naturally, that, since their 

 old friend A. I. Root has dropped out some- 

 what from the active part of our business, 

 things are not attended to as they used to 

 be in the "good old times." Below is a 

 sample of what we get once in a while — not 

 much of a sample, after all, because I do 

 not know that we ever before received any 

 thing quite so "strenuous." I have no 

 scruples about printing it, from the fact 

 that he has particularly requested it, as 

 you will notice. 



The A. I. Root Co.: — What is the matter with you? 

 For ten successive weeks I have asked you to change 

 my address as above. Gleanings does not come. I 

 got a few stray back numbers that I succeeded in 

 whipping out of you. My former postoffice was Mid- 

 daghs. Pa. Send me Dec. 15 Gleanings at once. I 

 will stoop no lonser to your injustice through careless- 

 ness. I have wasted postage enough on you. You can 

 return my subscription money, and then I will expose 

 you in the other bee papers as a warning to others. 

 Dear old Gleanin-s! Must it come to this? For 

 twenty-seven years I read its pages; and has it now 

 become the child of ineflfi'^iency. so far as I am con- 

 cerned? Don't go to wri)<gling, and say you have many 

 satisfied friends. Wasn't I a satisfied friend a-, long as 

 you treated me right? Make a new resolution on New 

 Year's day, or must it be good bj? 



Print this, so A. I. can see it. 



Bangor,' Pa , Dec. 26. John H. Johnson. 



Of course, the above came right into my 

 hands the minute it was taken out of the 

 mail; and I called a halt among the clerks, 

 and, I was going to saj', demanded — but I 

 think that is not quite the word — I qui- 

 etly asked for an immediate investigation. 



Before I tell you what I found, I want to 

 say that common prudence or good sense 

 should have indicated to our irate friend 

 that there was some fault somewhere besides 

 with the A. I. Root Co. Just now I glance 

 over the card, and notice that both the first 

 and last names are exceedingly common. I 

 suspect that somebody else of the same 

 name or a similar one has been getting his 

 mail and carelessly kept it. We have had 

 many such troubles in years past. This 

 might account for somebody else getting 

 his Gleanings; but how about his letters 

 and postal cards for "ten successive 

 weeks " ? I confess this is rather a stun- 

 ner, and I am almost forced to conclude our 

 friend was so stirred up that he used a lit- 

 tle exaggeration. In hunting up all the 

 correspondence from him we find he re- 

 quested us to change his address as above, 

 Oct. 17, and we did it promptly. No reply 

 was made, because we usually do not ans- 

 wer such letters. But the printed number 

 on every number of Gleanings since then 

 shows that the change was promptly and 

 correctly made. Just one other postal card 

 has come to our office. It reads as follows: 



The A. I. Root Co.: — This is the third time I write 

 you that you owe me the October 15th Gleanings of 

 1903. Plea.se send me a copy and oblige, 



Bangor, Pa., Nov. 24. John H. Johnson. 



It was received Nov. 27, and the number 

 asked for was promptly mailed.* I do not 

 think he succeeded in "whipping" us out of 

 any other back numbers, becauie no other 

 request had reached us for any of them. 

 Now, friend Johnson, are you not a little 

 rough when you say, "I will ,stoop no long- 

 er," etc.? In regard to exposing us in the 

 other bee- journals, I have not a bit of ob- 

 jection, f If there is any thing about our 

 company that needs exposing, let it come 

 out; and even if it is a mistake, I for one 



* I can not find that the young lady who has charge 

 of our subscription-list was in any way at fault, except 

 that she should have wiitten you. in reply to your 

 postal saying that you had not received the number 

 asked for, and tell you the missing number was 

 promptly mailed. I shall have to admit, perhaps, that 

 the average clerk is tot usually quite as leady to in- 

 vestigate such a complaint, and to write to the party, 

 as perhaps A. I. R. himself would be likely to do. 



t Since the above was wiitten we have something 

 further from friend Johnson. We find our suDsctip- 

 tion clerk did abbrev ate in writing the name of his 

 county. Instead of writing it Northampton she wrote 

 it " North'," which stands just as much for Northum- 

 berland as Noithampton, and both of those counties 

 are in Pennsylvania. This may have delayed his 

 journal I did not know that our clerks were doing 

 this, and I just gave orders all over the oflSce not to ab- 

 breviate counties to such an extent as to lead to possi- 

 ble confusion, as in this case. 



Friend J. siys further he suspects that one of our 

 cletks got his complaiuing cards, and, finding his ad- 

 dress had already been changed, " threw the cards in- 

 to the fire." Let me say to one and all. there are no 

 " fires " in our whole establishment except under the 

 boilers. Our rooms are all heated by steam. Further- 

 more, postal cards or letters from anybody on awjv sub- 

 ject are never put into the waste-basket. Kvery writ- 

 ten communication from any live man, woman, or 

 child, is saved for future reference. Of course, we do 

 not save /r/«/frf letters, or letters that are "make-be- 

 lieve " that they are written by somebody. All these 

 communications are kept on file so we can get hold of 

 them instantly whenever some occurrence like the 

 above demands every scrap of correspondence that can 

 be produced. 



