iiiA BEE- KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



123 



something about it that will catch the eye — 

 sotnethint^ out of the coininou — something 

 different from the ordinary. Next, it must 

 be readcible. Having noticed the ad, the 

 reader must be so interested in the way that 

 " things are put " that he will read it. Not 

 only this, but the story must be told in a 

 clear, strong, vigorous manner, so that it 

 ca'inot be misunderstood. Don't generalize. 

 Don't say " Bees and Queens and Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Supplies, etc. " Tell exactly what you 

 have got. Describe it and put a price on it. 

 Another little point right here. About every 

 man's business there is usually some strong 

 point in its favor, or tliat can be made in its 

 favor, whereby superior advantages can be 

 offered to purchasers — these points should 

 be brought out strongly in an ad. 



A Condensed View of Current 

 Bee Writings. 



E. E. HASTY. 



HOW goes the bittle for continued life 

 and standing room for perioJical bee 

 literature ? While the " bee fever " is on a 

 fellow, of course he will buy and most eager- 

 ly peruse apiarian journals, if he can pos- 

 sibly raise the cash to subscribe ; but there 

 is a steady grind of life further on which 

 differs somewhat from bee fever conditions, 

 even as married life differs from the honey- 

 moon. The " two little lambs " involved in 

 the latter sort of fever would read ( aloud 

 and in concert ) a magazine mostly given up 

 to the department " How to be sweet on 

 each other " — no doubt about the first sub- 

 scription, and the April and May numbers ; 

 but they might after all fail to read Novem- 

 ber and December, and their renewal, alas, 

 would never come in. A specialist journal de- 

 voted to the X ray might get lots of subscrib- 

 ers just now ; yet in a short time the j jurnal 

 would be starved out. Certainly apiculture 

 is not so short-lived a topic as these extreme 

 examples : but it does look as if it lay pretty 

 nearly on the dividing line between the 

 things which can and the things which can 

 not be made permanently the subject of 

 specialist journalism. Did an American 

 bee paper ever fairly pay for the time, brains 

 and cash put into it, and keep doing so for 

 five years, without leaning very hard on 

 pome other topic than apiculture to sustain 

 the reader's interest ■:" It sounds well to say 



" Devoted entirely to apiculture " — almost 

 as nice as " 'Tis sweet for your country to 

 die ; " but maybe one can't live up to either 

 motto and keep on doing business at the 

 old stand too. Why butt our heads to 

 pieces against the granite walls of the in- 

 evitable ? As for me I am about half con- 

 vinced that trying to shut out all other topics 

 is a fatal mistake. Most bee papers in their 

 dying struggles, after they are too nearly 

 dead for resuscitation, desperately intro- 

 duce some other topic — and we say, died of 

 side issues. Perliaps we ought rather to 

 say, died of side issues postponed too long. 

 Any one of the home topics which ought 

 to interest most of the human race should be 

 available to drive in span with apiculture, 

 providing that is the best way for a journal 

 to travel. Of course such an editor will 

 have to watch vigilantly lest the side issue 

 choke out the center issue ;but that has long 

 been done by the editors of one successful 

 bee paper, and can be done by others. 



THE REVIEW. 



It is the Review's turn this month, and the 

 fact that it has been squirming of late in its 

 "one issue " bed, and sticking out a home 

 medicine foot from under the "kiver, " was 

 what led to the meditations of the opening 

 paragraph. Beyond this straw, which may 

 indicate how inner currents of thought are 

 beginning to blow, I believe the Review has 

 not been attempting any novelties or inno- 

 vations of late — just hanging on for dear 

 life to the tail-board of the almanac, and 

 trying to catch up. 



'Spects now I shall have to say something 

 about Mr. Pringle's health articles, whether 

 I want to or not. Who believes a man or a 

 dog would starve on ordinarily good white 

 bread ? E'en'ymost ready to offer myself 

 forthetest( either as dog or man as my 

 brother Pringle may determine ) and then 

 if I failed to pull through there would be 

 one unbeliever the less. Am not even quite 

 ready to agree that fat pork if^always an im- 

 proper food. Let me tell a tale. From my 

 earliest childhood till I became a man I 

 utterly abominated the taste of fat pork, 

 and never could be got to eat it, although it 

 was usually on my father's table. Same way 

 for the last 30 years and more. Yet there 

 was once a period of several weeks, when my 

 bodily conditions were somewhat unusual 

 when I ate fat pork with pleasure. I even 

 planned to astonish the folks at home, and 



