1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



679 



" stand ill " with, and make yourself " solid " with, the inspec- 

 tor; and then you are safe and no mistake, and your yard 

 will be cured and no mistake. Neither would it be safe to be- 

 head the surplus drones in the brood-chamber when the in- 

 spector is around. It is a mistake, however, to behead the 

 drones, inspector or no inspector. That is not the proper way 

 to get rid of them. The way to get quit of them is not to 

 have them. 



It is a mistake not to get the irispector promptly into your 

 bee-yard if your bees have foul brood. 



Among other mistakes of bee-keepers — and those who are 

 not bee-keepers— is tbe habit of standing to tight belligerent 

 bees, and knocking tbeir hats to pieces, when unexpectedly 

 attacked without any other armor of defence. The proper 

 thing to do is — with hat well down and hands over the most 

 tender parts of the face — to make off iiistiviUer., and into the 

 nearest building, or under cover of some kind away from the 

 colony or apiary, and there defend yourself, which will be 

 easy, as very few bees will follow you in your retreat. When 

 you stand to fight them where you are attacked, re-inforce- 

 ments of the enemy will pour rinht in on you, and you will 

 suffer for your foolish mistake. I have noticed that 19 out of 

 2U persons who come around a bee-yard will, when attacked, 

 only go away a few feet and begin a wild and futile fight with 

 them instead of dodging away instantly under cover as sug- 

 gested above. Of course the bee-keeper himself is not sup- 

 posed to run away from his bees except under the direst 

 necessity. With the heroism of a stoic, and the affected cool- 

 ness of a philospher, he will take a good many stings before he 

 will beat a cowardly and iuglorious retreat in the presence of 

 his company. His pride will stay his legs, and, unlike Mark 

 Twain, will hold back the terrible yell of pain he feels like 

 giving. 



By way of parenthesis: — As the distinguished Mark was 

 one day walking the streets of a rural town in England, in the 

 company of a celebrated divine, he suddenly felt an irresisti- 

 ble impulse to yell — without bees, wasps, hornets, earth- 

 quakes, or any other objective cause in sight. He told 

 his companion of his impulse, adding that he "mitst yell." 

 The divine made no objection, saying it would not harm him 

 any. With that, Mark stepped back a little and gave such an 

 Indian war-whoop, or yell, as could bo heard for miles around. 

 The astonished denizens of the neighborhood quickly gath- 

 ered around the strangers, asking what was the matter. 

 Twain replied that there was " nuthin" the matter — that he 

 wanted to yell, and yelled, and that was all there was to it. 

 Now, the difference between the droll Mark and the aforesaid 

 bee-man, is that the one yelled because he wanted to, and the 

 other didn't yell because, though he wanted to, yet he didn't 

 want to. 



The gritty bee-keeper (who is a " true grit ") neither runs 

 away from his bees nor yells, and saves his prestige and 

 credit. But his " best holt " is to be prepared on occasions for 

 contingencies, by having a well-charged smoker at his side, 

 and a handy veil and mittens in his pocket. In most cases the 

 smoker will be sufficient, but in a desperate strait he can whip 

 out his veil and gloves, put them on, and stand his ground to 

 the last. It is certainly a mistake for the bee-master himself 

 to run away from his bees (or yell) except to save his life. 



We now come to the bee-journals — to the editors, indeed, 

 for of course a bee-journal is largely what its editor makes it. 

 It's a pity we have so little time and space left forour friends, 

 the editors. Still, they do not need much, as they speak well 

 for themselves — and of themselves — an' wi' hirplin lear an' 

 clishmarlaver they speed their glaikit quills. That they are 

 great men in the kingdom of beedom nobody will deny. Still, 

 and for all that, they do make mistakes like the rest of us, not 

 only outside in the bee-yards (when they happen to see one), 

 but inside — in that inner .sriiictitm sanctnrum, sacred to all 

 editors, where they play Sir Oracle, and grind out all manner 

 of bee-paragraphs, and bee bonmots, and bee-editorials, as well 

 as homilies, exhortations, sermons, and other literary curiosi- 

 ties too numerous to mention— where they cast out Into the 

 waste-basket whatever doesn't suit them, and print what does 

 suit them — where they curtly decide to shut down on the dis- 

 cussion just as it is becoming interesting to their readers, just 

 as the sparks of truth and light begin to fly out from the 

 friclion of minds and the clash of thoughts — in short, just 

 when "the fur begins to fly" — where they decide that this 

 discussion has gone far enough, and that it must be stopped 

 "right here" (with emphasis) — all because the editor, in his 

 superior wisdom, thinks it ought to be stopped, whether any 

 one else thinks so or not; — where they soft-soap this 

 "brother," and gush over that "friend," but "sit down "on 

 the other fellow, and deny him a hearing — in that inner re- 

 treat where these erudite editors correct the bad spelling and 

 bad grammar of sundry correspondents, who, like Josh Bill- 



ings, " have talent but can't spell," and where they likewise 

 correct good spelling and good grammar and make bad out of 

 it (no joke that, but an actual fact which indicates an amount 

 of self-complacency and self-sufficiency which hardly anybody 

 but a bee-editor could carry gracefully). 



Still, these editors are mostly good and clever fellows, and 

 " know the side of a barn," or of a bee-house, when they see 

 it, and we may well have philosophy enough to overlook their 

 follies and foibles — their conceits and their mistakes. No 

 doubt they do as welhas they can, and ira some cases that is 

 saying a great deal, while in others it is not saying much. 



I do not wish to pick any quarrel with or unduly dis- 

 parage any of these editors. Far be it from me, for "are 

 they not all honorable men?" Still, I ask no quarter from 

 any of them. I would certainly like to see them with a little 

 more editorial courage and independence, and with less pro- 

 vincialism and less fear of Mrs. Grundy before their eyes. 

 With one or two exceptions they are evidently afraid to criti- 

 cise each other as occasion may demand, and profess greatly 

 to love each other, and no doubt they do, for "two of a 

 trade," you know, always agree (over the left). 



When an editor allows his own whims and prejudices 

 (which ought to be strictly personal to himself and private) 

 to influence him as an editor, he makes a mistake. When he 

 coolly draws his quill through the sentences which do not suit 

 him in the raanusript of a correspondent who is quite re- 

 sponsible for his own utterauces, and knows, perhaps, as well 

 as the editor, what he ought to say in the premises and what 

 he ought not to say, that is a mistake. When he attempts to 

 correct a grammatical sentence and succecis in making it un- 

 grammatical, that, too, is a mistake. 



But we all make mistakes in one way or another, and all, 

 perhaps, live in "glass houses." Nevertheless, fire away your 

 stones. I am particularly partial to the intellectual en- 

 counter^the friendly clash of arms — and am, I think, wide 

 open to correction and conviction on every question outside 

 the hard figures of arithmetic and the grim facts of math- 

 ematics. 



The bee-journals and reviews are, on the whole, doing 

 useful and excellent work, and, some of them giving treble 

 value to the ordinary bee-keeper for his money. Furthermore, 

 we must give the apiarian editors credit for great industry 

 and perseverance. They work without let up — perhaps for 

 small profits — and do their best as they see it. None of us 

 can do more. 



This paper, essaying, as it does, to point out many mis- 

 takes in others, may itself,from the stand-point of this one and 

 that one of you, be full of mistakes, the principal one of 

 which is, I hope, the length of it. I thank you for your 

 patience. Allen Pringlb. 



Pres. Holtermann — There is a spirit running through this 

 essay that all must admire. 



Wm, F. Clarke — There are two things that ought to be 

 tabooed at our conventions. They are party politics and re- 

 ligion. I wish Mr. Pringle would consent to cut out what he 

 said about the world being a mistake. It is a slur upon the 

 Creator. I think that he is correct about the editors. If they 

 allow a discussion to begin, it should not be cut off until it has 

 been exhausted. 



Mr. Pringle — I do not think that there is another man in 

 this assembly that would put the construction upon that sen- 

 tence that Mr, Clarke has put upon it. It was more of a joke 

 than anything else, and it was supposed that it would be so 

 taken. 



Geo. W. York — I watched closely while the essay was 



being read, and I could see nothing in it at which exception 



could be taken. I consider it one of the very best essays read 



at this convention. I want the pleasure of printing it in full. 



(Continued on piige 693. 



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