THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



333 



few words in a confused way and then sit 

 down. If that is the way some folks feel 

 when they pick up a pen, I know how to 

 sympathize with them. The cure in both 

 cases is simply to persevere ; to continue to 

 write and speak until the embarrassment 

 wears away. 



One excuse given for not writing, is lack 

 of education. So far as penmanship goes, 

 this is not the shadow of an excuse, because 

 one would have to travel far and wide to find 

 worse copy than that furnished by some 

 editors, so far as chirography is concerned. 

 Thousands and thousiouls of letters have 

 passed through my hands, and I have yet to 

 tind one I could not read. So far as the Re- 

 view is concerned there need be no hesitancy 

 in sending articles for fear they can't be 

 read, and I think the same is true of other 

 offices. In fact, the men who write the most, 

 often, I had almost said usually, write in a 

 manner that makes their writing more diffi- 

 cult to read than that from a non-profes- 

 sional. The man who writes seldom, writes 

 slowly and forms his letters with care, and 

 his manuscript is easily read. Friends, you 

 need never hesitate to write fearing that 

 your writing will be illegible. 



Some urge as an excuse for not writing 

 that, although fair penmen, they are poor 

 spellers or poor grammarians, or not used 

 to writing, etc., etc. Ijet me say to such 

 that of all the correspondents to the Review 

 only two or three send such perfect manu- 

 script that it can be turned over to the com- 

 positor without revision, and occasionally I 

 am obliged to re-write an article to make it 

 presentable, but I am thankful for the priv- 

 ilege of doing this if it only contains infor- 

 mation of value. If it does not, it goes in 

 the waste basket, no matter how well it is 

 written. This trying to " write like a book " 

 is the great stumbling block to those who 

 first attempt to write. Write just as you 

 would talk. Don't attempt to write like 

 someone else whose tyle you admire. At a 

 railroad station I once saw a man's whiskers 

 trimmed in a style I greatly admired. I 

 went home and had mine trimmed in a simi- 

 lar style. I never trimmed them that way 

 again. It spoiled their appearance. This 

 illustration may be far fetched, but it is 

 quite illustrative. 



Someone, I think it was Horace (ireely, 

 said that most articles needed to have the 

 head and tail cut off before they were " any 

 good." Don't waste words on an introduc- 



tion. Plunge in boldly, and begin on your 

 sul)ject at once. Keep right at it until you 

 have told all that is necessary and then .stop; 

 that is all there is to it. Some can write bet- 

 ter l)y making a sort of skeleton of the article 

 before beginning to write. That is, write 

 down the different headings, or points to be 

 remembered, then take them up in their 

 regular order and enlarge upon them. 



The one great point is, have something of 

 value to write about. You may think you 

 have not when you have. You are so accus- 

 tomed to your implements, methods, etc., 

 that it seems to you that everylnxly knows of 

 them. It isn't so. Occasionally an editor 

 takes a trip among bee keepers and then 

 prints an account of what he has seen. 

 Sometimes he describes something that is 

 important but has not been generally known. 

 Upon reading of it I sometimes think to 

 myself. " Why, I have been doing so and so, 

 or using such and such an implement for 

 years, and supposed everybody knew about 

 it." They had not. This is the case with 

 many bee keepers. 



Many plead lack of time. I think I know 

 something about this. When our little twins 

 came, wife and I took care of them and did 

 the house work, without a girl, the first 

 winter. We did nothing else, and that was 

 enough. It seemed one while as though 1 

 should be obliged to give up writing for 

 Gleanim/s, but I kept a pencil and paper 

 lying on top of the organ, and whenever I 

 could snatch even a minute I stepped up and 

 wrote. Most of the sentences were composed 

 and committed to memory, while I was 

 rocking a baby to sleep. It was hard work 

 writing an article by piece meal in this man- 

 ner, and it was usually several days before 

 one was completed. 



There are one or two minor points that 

 might be mentioned, and one is, don't write 

 with a i)encil if it can be avoided. Use white 

 paper and black ink if you would save an 

 editor's tired eyes. Some use a tinted paper 

 and pale ink, and it is almost impossible to 

 read the writing. When a pencil is used, 

 the rubbing together of the sheets of paper 

 while being handled in the mails, often blurs 

 the writing to such an extent that it is de- 

 ciphered with difficulty. 



As I have said before, a journal is largely 

 what its readers make it. It is their journal 

 as well as the editor's. If you have an inter- 

 est in the Review, if you wish to see it boom 

 as it has never boomed before, just take it 



