424 



Gteanines in Bee Culture 



made for her convenience. She works on 

 the salvia and the nasturtium with the 

 same cheerfuhiess that she works on the 

 clover. She struggles with the jewelweed, 

 and finally succeeds with a buzz of satis- 

 faction. All is grist that comes to her mill. 

 Moreover, she is not fickle. If she is gath- 

 ering pollen from the poppies she does it 

 without a glance at the pansies; if she is 

 working on the larki)sur she does not see 

 the honeysuckle. She lives up to her side 

 of the bee bargain with llowers; and that is, 

 to work on one kind steadfastly while she is 

 working. Then, too, she learns to bear dis- 

 aster when she can not prevent it. How 

 many times it has been demonstrated dur- 

 ing that barbarous performance of taking up 

 a bee-tree that the little citizens of the bee 

 commune, overcome and overwhelmed, and 

 convinced that there is no use of fighting, 

 have broken open the cells and have filled 

 themselves with honey in an attempt to 

 save what they might, and in a last effort to 

 sweeten adversity to the best of their abili- 

 ties! I fear too many of the womenkind of 

 our own commune are given to tasting to 

 its depths the bitterness of misfortune. 



Of course, industry is a virtue, and the 

 bee has been a shining example set up for 

 human emulation from time immemorial. 

 She begins her labors with the dawn, and 

 continues them until the dark. But it is 

 the ready quality of her industry that ap- 

 peals to me. She does what there is to do. 

 If she has to feed the chiklren she does it 

 cheerfully. If she has to hang up and 

 make wax, she turns herself into a chemical 

 laboratory with speed and dispatch. If she 

 has to stop cracks she gathers the glue and 

 goes at it. She shows no preference for any 

 special duty. She does not stop to pick and 

 choose, and she does not sulk because her 

 work is disagreeable. All work is honorable 

 and pleasurable in her eyes. 



As a corollary to this i)ower of labor she 

 knows how to rest. If the day is rainy she 

 does not fuss and fume because she can not 

 go out. She stays at home peacefully, and 

 recuperates so as to be ready for the strain 

 of labor when it comes. I have known 

 many women to wear thenaselves out trying 

 to rest. I think they might learn the secret 

 of this great blessing if they would watch 

 their bees. 



The bee is also a creature of resources. 

 She does not have to follow the same path 

 forever. I have seen her working with mad 

 intensity on the scarlet sage in the autumn, 

 for she feels it is her last chance to get nec- 

 tar, and she makes the most of it. The 

 scarlet sage is not a bee-fiower. Its tube is 

 long and narrow, and it has no doorstep; 

 but she climbs in some way, buzzing and 

 remonstrating because of the narrow i)as- 

 sage as she goes. But some of the corollas 

 of the fiowers have fallen off, taking their 

 nectar with them, and she works at these 

 on the ground, taking the nectar from the 

 end of the fiower-tube where it was devel- 

 oped — a far more convenient way for her. 



Right here 1 wish to diverge from my topic 



of educating women by means of bees, and 

 pay a little side tribute to the teacher. Dur- 

 ing the past two years I have been spending 

 much time watching the bees working upon 

 fiowers, and I believe that the story of the 

 partnership between bees and fiowers has not 

 yet been half told. Man thinks the earth 

 was created for him. ^^'hy? Because he 

 has had the ability to use the earth and the 

 fullness thereof. It is only when cyclones 

 and earthquakes occur, when floods or 

 drouths devastate the land — only when the 

 mosquitoes or the housefly brings upon him 

 a plague, or when the gypsy moth defoliates 

 his forest, that he questions for a moment 

 that the earth was really planned for his 

 own pleasure and profit. His own achieve- 

 ments have confused his mind. Instead of 

 saying that the earth was made for "me" 

 he should say, "I was meant to use the 

 earth so far as I am able." Now, it is the 

 same way with the bees. They are so clev- 

 er and enterprising, they are such efficient 

 opportunists, that "they use many things 

 never meant for them. Many of our long- 

 tubed flowers were specially developed to 

 satisfy the long sucking-tongues of moth or 

 butterfly, or the long beak of the humming- 

 bird. But does it deter the bee? Nay, ver- 

 ily! Watch her working on the nasturtium, 

 the columbine, or the nicotiana, and then 

 dare to say that she has not the triumphant 

 power so honored in the human race. As a 

 matter of fact, most of these long-tubed 

 flowers develop such an abvmdance of nec- 

 tar that their tubes are more or less filled 

 with it, and the bee gets what she can by 

 squeezing in as far as she can. And the 

 beauty of it is, she pollenates these flowers 

 quite "as efficiently as do the insects for 

 which the flowers were developed. This 

 readiness to make the most and best of ev- 

 ery thing is certainly one of the qualities we 

 should attain, even through long striving. 



But perhaps equal-suffrage woman has 

 most of all to learn from the bee, for the 

 bee republic is governed by the laws femi- 

 nine, and what a wonderful republic it is! 

 There the citizens do all the governing 

 without voting; there the kings are power- 

 less, and the queen works as hard as and 

 longer than any of her subjects. Surely 

 the pages of human history contain no ac- 

 count of a republic as wonderful as this. 

 The first thing of all which characterizes 

 the bee republic is the rule of the majority 

 with no minority rejiorts, with no rebellions 

 nor secessions, and the reason for this una- 

 nimity is because every citizen in the com- 

 munity is doing what is best for that com- 

 munity, and thinking about nothing else. 

 The bee citizen surely exists for the sake of 

 the bee republic; and, reciprocally, the bee 

 republic exists for the bee citizen. It is my 

 own conviction that my equal-sutt'rage 

 friends have a most important lesson to 

 learn at this most critical moment when 

 their demands for the ballot are so likely to 

 be granted, and nowhere can they learn this 

 lesson so surely as from the citizen bees. 

 We Americans who love our country have 



