AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



633 



to arrive at the exact truth I have 

 judged as fairly as I am capable of doing. 



Until swarming has once begun, the 

 hiver has apparently a strong tendency 

 to restrain the swarming fever, but 

 when a swarm once issues, if the old 

 queen is killed, the fever will generally 

 persist till all the young queens but one 

 are destroyed or otherwise disposed of. 



Before a final determination as to the 

 utility of the hiver, further tests must 

 be made, and it is hoped that such fur- 

 ther improvements may be made as may 

 render the circumstances of future 

 trials more favorable. 



Lapeer, Mich., Aug. 16, 1893. 



i3ff~ Do not write anytbinir tor publication 

 on the same sheet of paper witn business 

 matters, unless it can be torn apart without 

 interfering- with either part of the letter. 



Getting' Best Working Colonies. 



The answers to Query 895 show that the 

 question was misunderstood, unless I am 

 greatly mistalien. The latitude (Minn.) 

 shows that iiu colotiy of bees could be win- 

 tered on 5 pounds of honey. Probably the 

 question meant two healthy colonies, one 

 lacking the larger amount necessary to 

 successful wintering, and the other the 

 lesser amount on account of natural stores. 



Several years ago, when interchanging 

 frames to get my bees to rear brood in the 

 spring (the season for flowers being late), 

 I overdid the matter, and had to feed some 

 colonies. May 30th found one colony starv- 

 ing, with plenty of brood in all stages. The 

 feeding was continued for two or three 

 days until they were able to take care of 

 themselves. My record at the end of the 

 harvest showed that this colony had been 

 the most profitable one in the apiary. 



The nearer the stores are used at the be- 

 ginning of the harvest, the better ; and if 

 feeding has to be done, it is better still, is 

 my experience, J. H. Andke. 



Lockwood, N. Y. 



Infidelity and "Reason" Speak. 



On page 552, in referring to the death of 

 Mrs. Chas. C. Van Deusen, the editor says 

 among other things : •" Ah, scoffers at the 

 true Christian's' faith, hide your heads in 



shame," etc. It seems to me that the ser- 

 mon he preaches, and the point he attempts 

 to make against infidels, are wholly out of 

 place in a journal which " is here to furnish 

 purely bee-literature," as he declares on 

 the same page. But since the editor has 

 gone out of his way to draw a moral from 

 that horrible affair, which is wholly un- 

 warranted by the facts, it is my purpose, in 

 this letter which he will doubtless 7wt pub- 

 lish in his " valuable paper," to show that 

 the true moral is that Christians, not infi- 

 dels, should hide their heads in unspeakable 

 shame. 



What are the facts ? That a Christian 

 woman was slowly roasted to death in plain 

 view of hundreds of her fellow Christians 

 who were driven nearly frantic by the sight 

 of her unspeakable agony; that she prayed 

 to her God for deliverance from her tortures. 

 Did He heed her cry ! JS^o. Has He ever 

 heeded the cries of his children in their 

 hour of need ? Xo. The long record of the 

 horrible deaths which He has inflicted upon 

 His " children " by fire and flood and storm, 

 by starvation and plague, answers No, a 

 thousand times NO. Did this poor woman's 

 pitiful prayer drive God frantic as it did 

 the crowd ? Does this not prove that man 

 is less cruel than God, or that God is a 

 myth, and prayer futile ? 



Let us suppose that those gathered about 

 could have saved Mrs. Van Deusen, but 

 would not. Christians and infidels alike 

 would have denounced them for their 

 heartlessness. Yet, if the editor's doctrines 

 are true. God could have saved His servant, 

 or rendered her insensible to the flames, 

 but calmly and coldly refused to abate one 

 iota of her suffering. What has the editor 

 to say of his God's criminal neglect ? Will 

 he denounce Him as he would have de- 

 nounced men '. Xo, but he will admonish 

 infidels to " hide their heads in shame " 

 when a cannibal would denounce the cruelty 

 of his God in sending one of his children to 

 such a doom. 



The editor assumes that only an abiding 

 faith in Christianity enables "martyrs to 

 bear up under persecutions." He forgets 

 that other faiths, hostile to his own, have 

 had their martyrs who hestitated not for 

 an instant to suffer persecution, torture, 

 and death, rather than renounce their be- 

 liefs. I might even name infidels who have 

 rendered their names immortal by glorious 

 sacrifices for the cause of truth. But why 

 waste further time? For " to agree with 

 one who has renounced his reason, is like 

 giving medicine to the dead." And one 

 who can see in the case in question any 

 moral in favor of Christianity, has most 

 certainly renounced his reason. 



Salida, Colo. R. Wheeler. 



[Now, Bro. Wheeler, you didn't think we 

 would publish your letter, did you ? But 

 really it was too good an opportunity to 

 aid the cause of Christianity, not to publish 

 it, so we have put it in. We don't believe 

 there is a sincere infidel in existence to-day ; 

 and so, just to show the innate weakness 



