88 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



AriJ. 



ces" on iho creeks :it that pleasant 11th of j 

 Harch "Sunday school sugar party." | 



A 



CHAPTER XVII, 



lias some distant connection with "vvasliiii;; day." 

 ca.sc was recently mentioned of a mer- 

 chant who went to New York to purchase 

 ^joods as usual, and as the transaction was 

 about beinjr closed up, he by some misunder- 

 standing imagined he was being cheated. The 

 more it was explained to him the more he "got 

 mad" until he so far forgot himself as to break 

 out in downright oaths and blasphemy. The 

 clerks of the large establishment were horror- 

 struck at his want of a sense of propriety, to 

 say nothing more, and went for one of the pro- 

 prietors, who after he had kindly and patiently 

 shown the man his erroi', informed him the em- 

 ployes were entirely unused to such language, 

 and begged him to consider the ettect on socie- 

 ty if every one allowed himself to give way to 

 such hasty and unmanly feelings. After the 

 individual got home, he in telling his wife of 

 it. lu'umised he would stop the use of profane 

 language, and heed the good counsel given 

 him. Alas for good resolutions! not many 

 minutes afterward he in attempting to fix the 

 clothes line found both himselt and the clean 

 clothes rolling in the dirt from the breaking of 

 the line ; it was the old story over again ; a 

 string of profanity where no one but himself 

 wa.> to blame tor having a rotten clothes line. 

 Now, although tliis rotten clothes line is to be 

 the thread of our discourse lor this chapter, I 

 by no means would teach that a good ck>thes 

 line was all the man needed. I am glad to bo 

 able to add that shortly afterward his heart 

 was made new, and the fountain hi ad from 

 whence came all these muddy waters was 

 cleansed in such a way that lie could look on 

 calmly and sometimes smilingly, doubtless, 

 even when events, or his fellows 

 were aggravating to the iitmost. His better 

 nature was aroused and the man had risen by 

 contemplation of, and communion with the Be- 

 ing who made him, so much above the passions 

 that had formerly held sway, that there really 

 was no room or temptation to indulge in weak- 

 nes.ses of the old life that he now looked back 

 to with feelings of pain and sorrow. 



Before picking up our clothes and line I 

 would remark that among the kind criticisms 

 of these home papers, one comes from a friend 

 in a distant state, reminding me, that perhaps 

 lam lorgetting that there may be among my 

 readers those who have very tine houses and 

 door yards; and who would hardly approve 

 my familiar way of telling them how to make 

 cheap sidewalks, etc. I most heartily beg par- 

 don if I have been thounhtless, and would sug- 

 gest that 1 am obliged to write for the average 

 humanity; those who have all the comforts of 

 life, lued no help, and I must confess that my 

 heartiest sympathies are with those dear broth- 

 ers and sisters who are working hard every 

 day for nil the comforts they possess. May my 

 lot always be with theirs, and may the time 

 never come when any human being in my em- 

 ploy, in whatever capacity, w(>ul(l h^ unwel- 

 come to sit at the table with our usual family 

 circle. 



I would not have a clotbi s line stretched 

 clear across the yard "no how." Furthermore 



I would not have any clothes line at all, if I 

 could possibly purchase one made of galvan- 

 ized iron. If it were stretched across the yard, 

 my wife would have to lug her basket the whole 

 length of it, in putting her clothes up and ta- 

 king them down, to say nothing of the deep 

 snow that we didn't have last winter, 

 but have now this 24th of March. 

 If the line or wire is stretched on a revolving- 

 frame, the basket can be set down on a perma- 

 nent bench made on purpose for it, and the 

 lino made to pass its whole length over it by 

 simply turning the frame. You can procure 

 castings of the hardwares to hold the arms to 

 this frame, or the whole apparatus can be 

 home made something after this fashion. Get 

 a good stout oak or cedar post about Q feet 

 long, and set it in the ground ;> feet. Bore a 

 hole in the top and put in lirraly a pin of ^:^ 

 round iron so that it will project about a foot. 

 Get two pieces of 2 inch plank a foot square 

 and bore a f-^ hole in the centrt- of each. Slip 

 them both over the iron pin, then raise the up- 

 per one up level with the top of the pin, and 

 fasten it there by nailing strips from one to the 

 other on each of the four sides. Get out four 

 arms of straight grained pine 12 feet long, and 

 2x3. Halve the ends on to the lower plank in 

 such a way that the outer ends will stand at 

 about the height your women folks would like 

 their clothes line. By the way it will be a 

 line idea to have a sidewalk made from the 

 kitchen or wash room door to this clothes dry- 

 er, and on account of snow we would have it 6 

 inches above the ground; when the grass is 

 long and wet it will be very convenient also. 

 If you have this walk, let them stand on the 

 end of the walk when they tell you how high 

 to have the line. Now when you are building 

 it, don't have any opinions of your own, but 

 put it at just the height they want it, and if 

 they afterward want it changed, change it as 

 often as they wish. It is the very best way. 

 After this part is decided, get some strips 3 

 inches by 1 and 16 feet long. These are to be 

 nailed on the upper plank at their middles, and 

 at their ends to the arms that hold the line. 

 All the work should be planed, and if you are 

 careful you can make good joints, even if you 

 are not a carpenter. Now get a small can of 

 tlie Avcrill Chemical paint, and you can fix 

 something that you will always be proud of; 

 if you have any paint left, paint the bench to 

 hold the clothes basket, and if your walk is a 

 nice one paint that also. If you make your walk 

 on the plan I gave in the Mar. No., it will be an 

 easy matter to get your scythe close up to it in 

 mowing the grass away near it. Now this ap- 

 paratus is to be located as near the wash room 

 as it can well be, and get a nire airy and sunny 

 place for the clothes to dry. But Mrs. 11. says if 

 all bees are like ours it should be at a pretty 

 good distance from the apiary. Ours stands 

 close to the house apiary, and she insists that 

 even during the summer months the bees sjiot 

 tile clothes more or less. By the way, the great- 

 est complaint that has evi r bei n made against 

 having bees in town, is the spotting of cloiho 

 in sjirin^^: our way of getting along with it, is 

 to send ov( r ajar of honey when we hear of a 

 neighbors having had to lake iheit clollies all 

 in and rinse them over again. Please don't ever 

 forget that "a soft answer turneth away wraih." 



