194 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JcIjY 



I am in the right frame of mind, I feel that yan 

 are all kinder and more liberal, than I merit, 

 and then I go to my worls with fresh vigor, 

 aud try to serve you better. 



We are all w^orking for somebody ; that 

 somebody may be mankind in general, it may 

 be the government, it may be those vphom vpe 

 expect to buy our produce, it may be a rail- 

 road company, or some one who pays us so 

 much p6r hour to help him serve somebody 

 else. If we are earning very much more than 

 we get, somebody else will soon find it out, 

 and we shall get an offer of better pay. If we 

 are getting better pay than we deserve, sorae- 

 bo(^ will offer to do the work that we do, 

 cheaper, and then we shall have to work for 

 less, or look up another situation. Now if w« 

 are ready to do all this pleasantly, to let the 

 law of demand and supply regulate this mat- 

 ter of labor just as it does other commodities, 

 we have got a very good start. "Knowledge is 

 power," is a very good motto for one who de- 

 sires better wages, and he should set to work 

 learning all about the business he is engaged 

 in. If he is a worker in wood, let him learn 

 all about the different kinds of wood, and how 

 they behave under different circumstances. 

 A bee hive will stand the weather vastly bet- 

 ter if the heart side of the lumber be put 

 toward the sun, and yet a carpenter of many 

 years experience was surprised when told he 

 must be sure to observe this point. On the 

 same day a builder of wooden cisterns was 

 employed to put up one in our cellar, and find- 

 ing he could get no iron rivets in our town, 

 he without my knowledge substituted copper 

 ones saying he thought they would hold just 

 as well. I afterward found our engine boy 

 who is only 15, remonstrated in vain at the 

 proceeding. The consequence was that after 

 the f rst rain, which came in the night, the 

 swelling of the pine staves sheared the copper 

 rivets off as if they had been lead, and our cel- 

 lar was flooded with water. Copper is a very 

 pretty, nice and useful metal, but has not in 

 nearly as great a degree as iron, the properties 

 demanded for standing such a side strain as 

 would be put upon the rivets. A man who 

 has learned all these properties of wood and 

 metals, would be well worth 25 cents a day, 

 more than one who has not. The same point 

 comes up in regard to the use of tools. A man 

 was employed to overhaul our engine, and in 

 doing so he broke two wrenches. Was the 

 fault in the tools ? One of them had been bro- 

 ken and repaired, but for all that, a really fine, 

 keen mechanic would have taken a good look 

 at it before using it in the place, and would 

 have decided by inspection how much strain 

 it would do to put upon it, and if it would 

 not do the work it would have been laid aside 

 uninjured. It was a small nickle plated 

 wrench, that I valued very much. It is a fre- 

 quent thing for inexperienced mechanics to 

 twist the heads from bolts, or to break off 

 screws where it is very expensive and labori- 

 ous to get the broken part out, yet they fre- 

 (luently say it was no fault of their own, "it 

 had to be done." This I believe is a mistake. 

 There are ways of removing bolts and screws 

 in almost all cases, and that too without inju- 

 ry. One who is ambitious, should make him- 

 self master of all these little arts, and if he is 



careful rot to break anything, he will very 

 soon be sought after, and oflfered good pay. 

 Whatever may be the temptation, do not boast 

 of your skill, but let your work do all the 

 talking. 



Beware of accidents; they maybe trifling 

 in themselves, and seem of no great moment, 

 and at first glance you may not see that the 

 fault was in any way your own, yet a careful 

 examination into these matters will show that 

 they could almost always have been avoided. 

 Accidents and breakages tell fearfully at the 

 end of a year in ah establishment where many 

 hands are employed. Even if the broken 

 things are promptly paid for, that is but a 

 small part of it, for it causes loss of time and 

 delay in replacing, and it very seldom answers 

 exactly the place of the missing thing. Some 

 people seem to be continually dropping things 

 and a young friend whom I am very anxious 

 to have make progress, seems at times to have 

 a knack of letting every thing slip that her 

 fingers touch. It is true that she seldom 

 breaks anything, but when things go rolling 

 about the floor, it takes time to gather them 

 up, and for the rest to look at it and laugh, 

 and in debating what wages I could afford to 

 pay her, I felt it a duty to take this into con- 

 sideration. There are others who have no 

 fault of this kind, yet have others just about 

 as bad, or even worse. One will work so 

 slowly, that a person of quick and active tem- 

 perament would "go crazy" to use a common 

 expression, just to look at him. I once saw a 

 couple of carpenters who had been employed 

 at a very low price, and one, to stop and look 

 at them, would suppose they were trying to 

 see how slowly they could move, aud have it 

 called work. Evidently the only evt?nt they 

 looked forward to with pleasure in this world, 

 was the call to dinner. Perhaps nothing is 

 more trying to me, than to have hands appar- 

 ently bent on nothing else but lo pn^s away 

 the time in some way, until it is time to stop 

 work. Others there are who have none of 

 these habits, but who are disorderly ; will 

 scatter their work on the floor and have it 

 stepped upon, will make a litter of all the rem- 

 nants, even when desired to take time to put 

 them away in the proper baskets, and who will 

 leave their tools and materials just where they 

 happen to get done using them, in spite of all 

 that can be said — beg pardon, I did not quite 

 mean that last, for it will not quite harmonize 

 with my closing up ; perhaps I should say 

 rather, in spite of repeated requests to do oth- 

 erwise. Another thing that spoils the value 

 of one's services, is getting vexed or impatient 

 with one's work. I certainly know something 

 of it, for it perhaps more tlian anything else, 

 mars my value as a mechanic. I do not get 

 angry with my work as I did once, but I de- 

 feat myself greatly, by beins in too great a 

 hurry, to do my work well. Very skilful peo- 

 ple almost always, work slowly and deliber- 

 ately. Not with the slowness before men- 

 tioned, for the most skilful, are the busiest, 

 they work with brains as well as hands, but 

 they take ample time to do each part of their 

 work thoroughly and completely. Taking in 

 all the points, making no mistakes, and for- 

 getting nothing. One who (juarrels with his 

 tools, who gets angry at his work, and indulges 



