GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



jAiT. 



keeping bees, in lieu of making overalls at five cents 

 a pair, and darned lace at famine prices, and you 

 raise the hue and cry, that it is " too hard for wo- 

 men." I should hove expected that the men, in- 

 stead of women, would have raised this din, in order 

 to keep us out of the business, for they have always 

 preferred the soft places, such as preaching, and 

 marrying people at tive doUai'S a head. What 

 would you have women do to support themselves, or 

 even make a little spending money? Many women 

 have a home to keep, young children, and an invalid 

 husband to care for, and either no income or an in- 

 fiufticient one. What can she do easier than to keep 

 bees? Go out to wash, or make shirts at tifty cents 

 per dozen, eh? 



We opine, that the author of that saying, "too 

 hard for women," never earned a dollar in her life. 

 She may have worked around home in a general 

 way, but never was dependent upon her own exer- 

 tions for a living or clothing. 



Is it any harder to climb a tree, and get down a 

 swarm of bees, than it is to gather cherries, cr wash 

 n window? to put on boxes, or take off honey, than 

 to make bread, or wash? I'm not strong enough to 

 carry a heavy-laden hive " up stairs, down stairs, or 

 into my lady's chamber," and I don't do it. I let 

 them stand where they are ; if I wanted them carried 

 around, I can make money enough at the business to 

 hire men to do it for me— men who have not intelli- 

 gence enough to keep bees either. 



It is hard work, and plenty of it, to make bee- 

 keeping a success; and what can we do, and make a 

 success without hard work? Some people are al- 

 ways on the alert to get something for nothing, and 

 are the class who get humbugged. 



Peoria, 111.. Dec, 1883. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Well done, my good and tried friend. You 

 and I agree tirst rate on all this ; but in be- 

 half of the imaginary culprit you have so 

 severely taken to task, I would say that no 

 one said, in Gleanings, that bee-keeping 

 is " too hard," but a sister simply asked for 

 your opinion in the matter; and not only 

 has she got it, but I imagine that pretty 

 nearly all of us now understand you. 



TROHBliES WITH THF: RAILROADS, 

 AGAIN. 



WHAT SHALL WE DO? 



SN Gleanings for Nov. and Dec. you ask what 

 ought to be done with the trunk-smasher. Let 

 me narrate my first experiences with the rail- 

 roads of this country. 



Before my arrival from France at New York, 20 

 years ago, I had been insti-ucted by a friend of mine 

 to come west via Altentown, in order to avoid 

 changing cars between New York and Pittsburgh— 

 the change of cars, especially at night, being very 

 difiBcult for a stranger unable to speak English. Ac- 

 cordingly, In company with a countryman who re- 

 sided in New York, I hunted for the designated rail- 

 i-oad, and visited all the railroad offices on Broad- 

 way. None of them could tell me where to find this 

 line. All offered me their tickets. Their railroad 

 was the shortest, the fastest, the cheapest, that I 

 could find. At last, after several hours of search, I 

 concluded to takea ticket viaPhiladelphia. On my 

 return to the hotel, the landlord told me where the 

 cfflce of the desiriod railroad was, but it "Was too late. 



since I had paid for my ticket. This talk of veracity, 

 unknown in Europe, where the companies don't 

 compete with each other, is a bad show tor a stran- 

 ger. 



1 reached Philadelphia at ten on a dark and rainy 

 night in March. The conductor of the train, who 

 had been asked by my countryman to help me in 

 changing cars, did not care for me, and the connect- 

 ing train was gone before I had been able to find 

 somebody to understand me. My hotel expenses 

 amounted to two dollars. At Fort Wayne my trunk 

 was hurled from the car, and missed the kind of lad- 

 der used for a slide, and, falling on the ground, was 

 burst open. While I ws,s gathering my scattered 

 goods, and grumbling some French words of indig- 

 nation, the baggage-man continued gaily his work, 

 whistling and iaughing. Yet to keep my trunk shut 

 was, to me, a problem to solve. Fortunately a Ca- 

 nadian, able to understand a few French words, 

 asked me for 25 cents, and went to a store to get a 

 rope. When the repairing was done, the train of 

 the Toledo, Wabash & Western was just gone; and 

 as the next day was Sunday, my too -small pocket- 

 book was lightened of two dollars again, for my ho- 

 tel and traveling expenses. 



Such circumstances, and worse than that, are of 

 every-daj' occurrence. I have, as employe, a coun- 

 tryman who, desiring to go from Davenport, Iowa, 

 to New Orleans, was sent to Chicago, thence to Cin- 

 cinnati; and would be yet on the way had he not 

 met a man who put him on the direct road. Last 

 summer I saw a poor woman, with two young chil- 

 dren, weeping for having been sent over a line 

 which did not connect directly with the designated 

 station. She was compelled to wait a whole night 

 while her husband was wailing at the station, ten 

 miles from his home. 



You say that the railroads are subjected to shame- 

 ful losses from the farmers, who order goods 

 thoughtlessly and then refuse to take them fmm 

 the ofHce when charged more thaa they expected. 

 Let me say a word about that : — 



At several times I have noticed that, when a pack- 

 age goes through three lines, the intermediate line 

 profits, by being outof reach, by increasingltsrates; 

 and sometimes to such an extent that the third line 

 refuses to take the goods, fearing that they are not 

 worth the exorbitant charges asked. Such was the 

 case with the carload of fence-posts, of which I 

 spoke in my article in your Nov. No. This carload 

 was weighed by the Wisconsin Central; when it 

 reached the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy, the 

 weight of 26,500 lbs. was increased to 36,000 lbs.; at 

 Bushnell, the agent of the Wabash, St. Louis & Pa- 

 cific refused, at first, to take it, on account of the 

 exorbitant charges. Then, after a few days, this 

 last railroad took it in spite of our refusal, and 

 asked its I'ates on the fictitious weight, althoutrh we 

 had proved that the posts had been trt-ice weighed. 

 Their answer was, that they had the right to do so. 



Now, suppose that your grocer had sold you some 

 sacks of flour and other articles, and that, when you 

 settle with him, he charges 150 lbs. instead of 100, 

 and increases the weight of every article in propor- 

 tion. Do you not think that it would be your right, 

 and even your duty, to have him fined and sent to 

 jail, in order to stop such a brazen stealing? 



But, you can not have the railroad owners sent to 

 jail, for the railroads have no personality. They 

 steal openly, impudently; and as their attorneys 

 are paid by the year, they don't care for lawsuits. 



