1881 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



403 



unrleistand the letter he refers to was iu- 

 teiided for print. I am sure they were in no 

 waj" marked as such. Our friends all know 

 my practice of publishing almost any thing 

 against myself. Of course, I can not say 

 how many bees were shipped in the month 

 of July ; but as I had asked all who had 

 complained, that I might, if possible, make 

 abetter report for Burch, and all had re- 

 plied they had received nothing, I so stated 

 It. I do not think I have made any mistake, 

 for I watched every letter carefully, in my 

 anxiety to see that you iccre filling your 

 orders, friend Jkirch. It never occurred to 

 me to write to your express agent, and I 

 confess I do not think 1 should have taken 

 the trouble if it had. I made inquiries at 

 your bank, as I do of all my advertisers who 

 do very much business. When so many let- 

 ters of complaint about you began to come 

 in, I asked one of the girls to lay them out, 

 that we might mak-e a sort of summing-up 

 of them, before the journal went out. Of 

 course, these parties wished the letters pub- 

 lished, denouncing you as a humbug and 

 swindler. I thought I was very lenient in 

 making only the brief notice I did. Tlease 

 remember, friends, I do not open my letters 

 or answer them ; it is impossible, with our 

 business. I asked the clerk who had the 

 heap of letters, to give me names and 

 amounts of those who had sent for bees and 

 goods, and received nothing. It now ap- 

 Itears that the first man on the list was one 

 who had received his goods, or a portion of 

 them, but complained to us that the goods 

 were not at all what he ordered. This letter 

 Avas badly mixed up, and the clerk was 

 somewhat excusable for not noticing that it 

 did not belong in' the list. One other was a 

 claim for damages on goods he had received. 

 Some of the writers sent us receipts for the 

 money, and some did not. In the remainder 

 of the letter nuoted, the lady explains it all. 

 and assimies all blame. It is true, we did 

 have correspondence in regard to the first 

 name in the list, but with the sea of names 

 before us daily, we have little chance to re- 

 member names at all. I am sure 1 have 

 never refused to correct any thing that ever 

 appeared in Gleanings, and this is the first 

 I remember of any complaint of the matter 

 referred to. 1 shall be very glad indeed to 

 see supplies sold cheai)er, and I am sure I 

 have not the sliglitest wish to monopolize 

 any thing. 



Dear friends, I am sorry to have l)een 

 obliged to waste so much space on a matter 

 of so trisial a nature, when the reallv sad 

 fact stands before us. that about 100 bee- 

 keepers, altogether, have sent money to Mr. 

 Burch in sums of from one up to one hun- 

 dred dollars and over,— money amounting, 

 in the aggregate, to over one ihousand seven 

 hundred dolhirfi* The money has been sent 

 by young and old women and children, and 

 gray-haired men. ^lany times the money 

 was borrowed, with no other way to get it 

 back except by the honey crop of "this season. 

 The greater part of it was from those who 

 had lost their bees in the spring, and were 



*This is up to Aug. 2Tth, ami mnre complaints aro 

 coming every mail. 



well nigh broken up in spirit as well as 

 pocket. It is true, there ma)/ be some who 

 claim they sent him money who did not; 

 but as by far the greater part of them re- 

 ceived the postal card given, stating that I 

 would pay his debts, there can not be anv 

 very great mistake in the amount. These 

 same postals were sent to parties who never 

 took Gleaninos, and hardly know of its 

 existence. Several asked if I was tlie com- 

 pany in the firm. Of course, no one expects 

 I am to pay (in case Mr. H. does not) all the 

 debts he owes in the world, just because he 

 had a card in Gleanings. Several who 

 saw his advertisement in Gleanings have 

 written it would be a great favor if I would 

 pay back the money in case he had secured 

 me, but that if it was to come out of my 

 pocket, they would never touch a copper of 

 it. May the Lord bless these friends ! Oth- 

 ers have written very bitterly because I 

 would not at once hand over the money be- 

 fore it had been proven whether it could be 

 collected or not. I have advised that it 

 should be collected by law, exactly as T ad- 

 vised that the young man who robbed our 

 mails a year or two ago should be sent to 

 the State prison. , I do not know but that he, 

 too, thought I lacked charity because I 

 would not save him from his fearful doom. 



You know, the most of you, that I am free 

 to use money when I think it will do good. 

 Lest you think I have ample means. I will 

 tell you that I am paying interest on over 

 $7,000.00 now, while my property does not 

 invoice at much more than four times that 

 sum. There is abundant need of my using 

 economy. When I advertised to be respons- 

 ible for my advertisers, I simply intended to 

 make good any loss that should result from 

 a bad man getting in by mistake, or that, 

 when our customers saw bees advertised 

 very low, as they do now, they would not 

 need to send strings of postals, asking if 

 they could depend on the advertiser. Mr. 

 Burch was a responsible man when his ad- 

 vertisement was inserted. He did not ad- 

 vertise bees in Gleanings at a very low 

 sum. All these low offers were made "in his 

 circular, which he sent out in great quanti- 

 ties. The money was sent him in response 

 to offers in this circular. It is a tangled-up 

 matter in any case, and I should assuredly 

 be in error if I commenced paying these bills 

 before it is ascertained that it can not be re- 

 covered by law from ^Mr. Burch. ^\.fter this 

 is determined, I will abide by the decision of 

 any intelligent committee that may be chos- 

 en. My niind often reverts to friend Cook, 

 in these times. He helped us when in 

 trouble about sending queens by mail, and I 

 have a sort of feeling he might help us now. 

 For my part, I would gladly abide by bis 

 decision in the matter, if he will tell the 

 friends what they have a right to demand of 

 me, and what I ought to do. 



Again: This state of affairs, if it be drop- 

 ped without any action, will be a bad prece- 

 dent. The idea of receiving money and pay- 

 ing it out, when you have not the wherewith 

 to fill the order, and no means of getting it 

 back to return it. is a fearful one. There is 

 quite a good deal of it in our midst. It 

 threatens a danger to the whole interchange 



