EFEir 



VOL. lil. 



FLINT, MICHIGAN, NOfflBER 10, 1890. 



NO. 11. 



Advice — Wise or Otherwise. 



E. E. HASTY. 



""OLl are likely now. friend Hutchinson, 

 to be advised to steer the Review 

 toward every point of compass in the 

 whole circle of the box. If jou can 

 stand the distracting experience it will be 

 fun for us correspondents — so here goes. 



Have the articles shorter, about two inches 

 long, so the average man can read one 

 through without getting asleep. Have the 

 articles longer — would you set a threshing- 

 machine, and fire up the engine, and then 

 stop as soon as you had threshed a peck V 

 Have the articles broader, and written by 

 broad men who know all the 'ologies. Have 

 the articles narrower, and brought right 

 down to one practical line, illuminated and 

 elucidated : drive the thing home like a car- 

 penter driving a nail. Have the articles with 

 a hole in the middle, and a nice verse of 

 poetry, or a little advertisement, put in the 

 hole. Don't have any articles : let the 

 editor eat them, digest them, and then reel 

 the whole thing off in oiie unbroken mono- 

 logue. 



What is that I hear you saying. Mr. Edi- 

 tor ? That you did not contemplate having 

 me give everybody's advice, but only my 

 own ? Perhaps that would be the better 

 way. I will make a new paragraph and 

 begin again. 



Friend H., I do think that every writer 

 should have his own individuality, and I'very 

 paper should have its oirn indivhiiiality. 

 Changes may often be wisely made, but de- 

 stroying what is in hopes of a future some- 

 thing better is not usually the best way. I 

 would not say to the Review " Be like Glean- 

 ings : " nor to Gleanings, " Be like the 

 Review." I really like to hear friend Root 

 go on about his garden seeds and his lettuce. 

 I should be disgusted to hear you attempt 

 the same thing. The cultivation of a mutual 

 feeling between readers and writer is one of 

 the grandest things about joualism of any 

 kind — and very often one of the things most 

 strangely neglected. We get acquainted 

 with an editor very poorly if he only shows 

 us one corner of himself — only one eye and 

 ear, like a squirrel behind a liml). We want 

 to have him come out in full view, and show 

 us whether he is a fox-S(iuirrel or a chip- 

 munk. If we heartily like a man, and he 

 has a hobby (most men worth loving do) we 



are quite willing to see him mounted on his 

 hobby once in awhile. Unless we are al- 

 lowed to see him when he thinks he is at his 

 1 )est we are being cheated out of part of our 

 rights. 



This easily opens the way into the vexed 

 question whether a bee paper should be ex- 

 clnsively devoted to bees or not. There is 

 no need to lug in any other subject : and, on 

 the other hand, there is no sense in clubs or 

 stones, and getting comically furious, if an 

 article is published not bearing on apicul- 

 ture. Don't give us any chickens, unless 

 you have chickens bad — in that case give us 

 a few. If you raise puppies for sale we 

 could perhaps tolerate them in the advertis- 

 ing columns, but not in the honey — unless 

 you are such an enthusiast on the subject of 

 improved canines that you just revel among 

 them by day and dream of them at night. 

 In that case do not mince matters, nor apol- 

 ogize, but just give us a good long article on 

 the subject every once in awhile. Don't 

 have a religious corner, unless — Unless what ? 

 Unless the matters of this bread and butter 

 life, this look out for number one scramble, 

 which we call life, needs tempering with a 

 page near by of something higher, and you 

 feel sincerely stirred on the subject. 



You spoke a good word when you stamped 

 upon the "Now all be brief, and let the 

 brethren all be heard from " idea. In clos- 

 ing the articles of some writers we almost 

 always feel sorry they were not longer. 

 Other articles, and many of them, we would 

 much prefer boiled down to one-quarter of 

 their present bulk. But that would give 

 such offence to the writers that they would 

 not write again : and the space next time 

 would be filled liy some duller writer per- 

 haps. Guess the evil does not admit of a 

 perfect remedy : but at any rate do not 

 shorten the man we love to hear in the 

 slender hope that the other kind of fellow 

 may take the hint. Perhaps the Review 

 errs a little in confining its columns too 

 strictly to those who have already won their 

 spurs as apicultural writers. A rising jour- 

 nal should not feel entirely easy in its mind 

 unless bringing forward some fresh and ris- 

 ing pens. Demand is a great stimulant to 

 supply ; and to make it more prominent that 

 such are desired, and hoped for, would be a 

 hopeful step toward bringing them into 

 view. 



And now the matter of keeping clear of 

 the supply business, or going in. Theoreti- 



