616 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



|§^ '%rctd(4ru" 



This department is to be kept for the benefit of those who are 

 dissatisfied ; and when anything is amiss, 1 hope you will ' ' talk 

 right out. " As a lule. we will omit names iiud addresses, to 

 avoid being too personal. 



MR. A. I. ROOT:— Several weeks ago I wrote 

 you an order for your ABC book, inclosing 

 ' $1.25 to pay for the same, which I am pre- 

 pared to prove, if necessary, by the man who works 

 my farm, and by the P. M. where the letter was 

 mailed. The book came; and soon after it came, 

 your card, saying that I owe you SI. 25 for the book. 

 Now, before paying for the book the second time, I 

 wish to ask you a few questions, and shall expect 

 you to give me an unequivocal answer to each one. 



1. Did you send the book in obedience to ray 

 order? and if not, by what authority did you send 

 it? 



3. If you sent the book in obedience to my order, 

 how did you get the order without getting the mon- 

 ey, as both were inclosed in the same envelope? On 

 page 3 of your price list I flud the following: " Cash 

 must accompany cocry order, unless we have some 

 personal acquaintance with you." Now, 3, do you 

 pretend to say that in this case you so far departed 

 from your published lule as to send the goods to an 

 entire stranger without the cash, or even without 

 being ordered? I should have said, iu the fore part 

 of this letter, that the book did not come as prompt- 

 ly as [ expected, and I wrote you a card telling you 

 that I had sent you the money with the oi-der, and 

 the book came a few days after. 



And now, my dear sir, I do not wish to accuse you 

 wrongfully; but truth compels me to say that I am 

 fully satisfied, in my own mind, that the order and 

 money were both received at your place of business; 

 but what happened to it afterward, I am not pre- 

 pared to say; but every circumstance goes to prove 

 conclusively that the money was received, and was 

 probably overlooked by careless clerks. I await 

 your reply with some little interest. 



Yours truly, W. S. G. Mason. 



Morenci, Mich., Sept. 34, 1883. 



Friend M., there is jnst one word in your 

 letter that seems unnecessarily unkind. It 

 is the word ^inequivocdl — as though you had 

 reason to suspect that, in my reply to you, I 

 would probably try to equivocate, and try to 

 excuse myself for keeping your money, and 

 the goods you had paid for also. Perhaps I 

 had better answer your questions without 

 ^ equivocating," as you desire. We did not 

 send you the book in obedience to any direct 

 order; but we did send it because of the 

 card you allude to, and this card was the 

 liist, and, in fact, the only thing we ever re- 

 ceived from you when we sent the book. We 

 publish the card below, and by so doing ans- 

 wer your No. 2 : 



Some three weeks ago, or perhaps a little less, I 

 sent you $1 25 for your ABC book. Now, I do not 

 wish to hurry you at all, but I begin to fear that my 

 letter may have failed to reach you, as I have heard 

 nothing from you. W. S. G. Mason. 



Morenci, Mich., Aug. 31, 1883. 



You see, the want of an ABC book is oft- 

 en of much more moment than the value of 

 it. On this account we often deviate from 

 our regular rule, and send goods without a 



direct order. [ do not know that it is really 

 deviating, after all ; but it is this way : In 

 our price list we tell our customers that we 

 do not send goods without cash in advance ; 

 but where we find a brother in great need of 

 something, and where we have reason to think 

 the delay might cause him inconvenience, 

 we take the liberty of sending it right along, 

 to save him time, as we did in your case. 

 Also, we feel a little anxitnis to do more than 

 we agree, for anv one who has lost money 

 through the mails, although we distinctly 

 declare we can not be responsible for money 

 sent in aii unregistered letter. You see. we 

 may depart from the letter of our established 

 rule, but not from the sjnrit of it. 



Now, friend M., there is another very im- 

 portant point which, it seems to me, you and 

 others thoughtlessly overlook or ignore, as it 

 were. Even if I were a selfish and dishonest 

 man, which I am sure I am not, 1 should 

 hardly be likely to take your money and keep 

 your book. Please note this : The ABC 

 book has been the greatest work of my life ; 

 in fact, it is the best I ever did on anything, 

 for it lias been the work of years, and I ex- 

 pect to devote more years to it. But it is no 

 sort of use to me, unless it is put into the 

 hands of the people. The book is no kind of 

 value to me to lay on the shelf. The sole 

 end and object of its existence (if you will 

 allow me so to speak) is to have it in the 

 hands of the people, or the hearts of the peo- 

 ple, if you will excuse me. I ought to know 

 pretty well what the book is by this time, 

 for tiie thousands of kind words that keep 

 coming thick and fast assure me that I have 

 not labored in vain. Do yon not see that, in 

 view of this, I take pleasure in handing over 

 the book to every one who orders it ? I feel 

 this pleasure because I have learned to know 

 beforehand how pleased my customer will be 

 when he reads it. I am speaking strongly 

 here, and, some of you may think, boasting- 

 Iv ; but I have earned the right, so to speak. 

 Now, keeping this in mind, can you not see 

 how it hurts me when any one intimates that 

 I have kept the book when I have received 

 the money V 



You speak of my clerks. Now, I am sure 

 my clerks share with me in this enthusiasm 

 in regard to our work and our ABC book. 

 We may be careless, it is true, for sometimes 

 people by carelessness wrong their very best 

 friends; but surely, friend M., we do not 

 equivocate on such a matter — not one of us. 

 Where we receive the money for an A B C, 

 and it is lost on the way, we replace it with- 

 out charge ; and where any trouble comes up 

 in getting the book into the hands of one 

 who has paid for it, we would much rather 

 give it away than to have any ill feeling; 

 therefore I will freely cancel the charge 

 which we have against you, if yon feel any- 

 wise hurt or unpleasant about it. I have 

 just interviewed the clerk who wrote in ans- 

 wer to that card which we have given above, 

 and I find she wrote you as follows ; or, at 

 least, it is the copy of what we supposed was 

 written when the bill was sent you : 



Friend M., after a careful search we do not find 

 your order for ABC. Will mail you one to-day, 

 however, which, in order to keep matters straight, 

 we will charge to account; and if order comes to 



