1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



933 



and I do not know that I ever enjoyed mj-- 

 self more in my travels anywhere. 



Now, friends, in winding up this account 

 of our Michigan trip I am painfullj' aware 

 that we ran by perhaps a dczen friends 

 who gave us an invitation to call. I felt 

 pained to skip them; but I was alreadj' 

 booked for a place in that carload of bee- 

 keepers going to California. As it was, I 

 was obliged to start off for California al- 

 most immediately after reaching Medina; 

 but I enjoyed that Michigan trip so much 

 that I am planning another one on the au- 

 tomobile next spring as soon as the roads 

 are fair, and I expect to take in most of 

 those we passed by on the above trip. 



CALIFORNIA TRAVELS. 



While in Chicago, business called me to 

 the advertising agencv of the Frank B. 

 White Co. I had become somewhat tired 

 of the din and racket of the great city. I 

 had many times looked up at the great sky- 

 scraper buildings, and felt a desire to visit 

 one of them; so when I was told by the ele- 

 vator bo}- that this agency was away up, 

 if not clear up, on the uppermost floor, I 

 felt rather glad. When I was ushered in- 

 to the office of President Long he seemed so 

 full of business I hesitated a little about 

 asking him to leave his work to serve me in 

 a personal matter. When told, however, that 

 I represented Gleanings in Bee CuLxrRE 

 he excused himself through the telephone, 

 and asked those in the otrice to call again a 

 little later; and then he surprised me bj'^ 

 saying that, while I was alreadj' there in 

 their place of business, he would like to 

 show me around a little. This firm devotes 

 its whole time to agricultural advertising — 

 that is, advertising for the agricultural pa- 

 pers, rural industries, seedsmen, etc. Thej' 

 have a wonderful S3'stem of dividing the 

 business up into departments. Each de- 

 partment has an office by itself; and as they 

 are away up above the other buildings (I 

 might almost say they are above the smoke 

 as well as above the racket), each ofhce has 

 a large broad window, affording not only 

 plenty of light but plenty of better air than 

 one gets in the streets below. The view out 

 of these windows across the city, taking in 

 the green parks and a beautiful view of the 

 lake, was of itself to me inspiring. It was 

 pleasant to find that the occupants of each 

 office knew about Gleanings. 



I confess it was a pleasant surprise to me 

 to see what the agricultural advertising of 

 the I'nited States amounts to. This firm 

 makes a business, not only of writing adver- 

 tisements in an attractive form, but they 

 have very much to do with this modern fash- 

 ion of putting in some kind of picture to ar- 

 rest the attention, and perhaps make j-ou 

 laugh. Trul)', successful advertising at 

 the present day is one of the fine arts; and 

 this establishment includes a great varietj' 

 of artists. I do not know that they make 

 seed catalogs, but they furnish designs for 

 the covers in all the beautiful colors we no- 

 tice with the advent of each new year. 



After I had looked the offices all over, and 

 had a brief talk with the occupants, Mr. 

 Long very kindly went down to the office of 

 the Santa Fe Railway with me. I told him 

 what I wanted the railroad companj' to do 

 for me, and he said thcN' were exceedingly 

 willing to accommodate' But the railroad 

 men had been swindled so many times they 

 were verj- cautious about granting favors to 

 strangers. We had been doing some adver- 

 tising for the Santa Fe road, and I wanted 

 some accommodations on m}- route home 

 that they had not exactlj' agreed to 

 grant. 



Let me sa^- a word in favor of the railroads 

 just here. During the G. A. R. encamp- 

 ment all the roads had granted a very low 

 rate of travel. In fact, these tickets were 

 sold at so low a rate that one might sell his 

 return ticket alone, while in the far West, 

 for more money than he paid for the whole 

 round trip from Chicago; and the red tape 

 we have to go through with in buying a tick- 

 et, and using it, is to prevent these same 

 swindles." I once had a ticket offered me at 

 a very low rate to some place I wanted to 

 go. But the broker explained that I would 

 have to sign the name of some other person 

 than mvself; that is, I would have to pre- 

 tend I was "the other man." When I 

 protested against that method of doing 

 business he said, in an off-hand wax*, 

 "OhI that's nothing; it is a common every- 

 day occurrence. Nobody thinks anj' thing 

 about its being out of the way." 



Now, I hope, dear reader, this statement 

 is not true. God forbid there should be 

 many men in this land of ours who are will- 

 ing to pretend they are some other man, 

 and sign his name to it in order to save a 

 few dollars. When the railroad people un- 

 derstood I was one of the editors of (Clean- 

 ings they very cheerfully granted my re- 

 quest, without a word of objection; and I 

 was exceedingly well pleased with my treat- 

 ment during m^- whole trip on the Santa Fe. 

 In the first place, the whole road-bed is 

 oiled from Chicago to the Pacific coist, so 

 we had no dust on that whole trip occupj'- 

 ing nearly a week. There was not dust 

 enough to prevent having the windows open 

 every da_v, and night too, for that matter, 

 with the exception of about half an hour 

 when we were running through a small 

 dust-storm on the desert. In the extreme 

 West the en^^ities all burn oil, so there are 

 no cinders flying, even if you do put your 

 head out of a window to get a better view 

 of something. 



In passing through Kansas next morn- 

 ing I caught sight of an apple-orchard that 

 seemed to be almost a mile long, right be- 

 side the railroad. I asked somebody if it 

 were possible that those were all apple-trees. 

 He replied, "Oh, j'cs! that is a big apple- 



* On both the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific, wlieti 

 I wished for a " stop over " I was obligeo to leave uiy 

 ticket with the depot ageni; and thisaijeut is under 

 orders to hold said ticket until thirty minutes before 

 the train leaves. This is to prevent the holder of the 

 ticket from selling it while he is around where "scalp- 

 ers" are. 



