186 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



factories are not content to do a manufactur- 

 ing business, but are so keen after trade 

 direct from the consumer that they offer 

 him goods at the lowest possible figure, and 

 some of them send their wholesale prices 

 to any one who asks for it. Especially is 

 this true when they think there is the shadow 

 of a chance of the trade going to a compet- 

 ing factory. What is the result ? Simply 

 this, the consumer sends direct to the fac- 

 tory for his t'ocds, thinking to save a few 

 cents on the deal, and many times when he 

 has paid his freight and other expenses he 

 finds his goo Is have cost him as much, or 

 more, than they would near home, and it 

 has taken four times as long to get thtm. 

 He then sits down and writes an article 

 about how the great corporations in the 

 shape of railroads are robbing the people. 

 He simply was beaten at his own game and 

 should not complain ; not that I do not 

 think that the rates charged by some rail- 

 roads are only a little less than robbery. 



If the factories keep up this method of 

 doing business, the majority of dealers must 

 give up, and then the consumer will not 

 only have more to pay for his goods, and 

 wait his time to get them, but he will be de- 

 prived of any benefit he might derive from 

 seeing the goods before he buys, and of the 

 help which the dealer's information might 

 be to him. If the people who manufacture 

 goods would stop and think who ii is that 

 creates a large part of the demand for them, 

 I think they would readily see they, too, 

 are under some obligation to the dealer, as 

 well as the consumer, and that it will not 

 pay in the end to ignore his rights alto- 

 gether. 



Another thing which the dealer has to 

 contend with is the mania which the people 

 have for change, simply for change's sake. 

 The factories cater to this desire, and the 

 dealer who overstocked last year finds on his 

 hands a lot of goods for which there is no 

 demand because they are not up to date. 

 These he is forced to sell many times at less 

 than they cost him, and in some cases, tie is 

 fortunate if he gets anything near what 

 they cost him. Another thing which isveiy 

 much against the dealer is the habit many 

 people have of paying for what they use 

 long after it has been consumed, and some 

 of them never pay. I am glad to know, how- 

 ever, that the tendency of things is toward 

 a cash basis, and that there are a great many 

 dealers who prefer to keep their goods 



rather than a to receive a promise-to- pay 

 for them. A good plan to adopt, especially 

 for young people, is to "pay as you go," 

 and if you cannot pay, don't go. 

 St. Joseph, Mo. March, 1.5,1896. 



ir't^^^s^^T^ 



Distilled Water. 



ALLEN PKINGLE. 



TN the last Re- 

 i view is a re- 

 quest for imform- 

 tion as to distilled 

 water and how to 

 procure it cheajily. 

 I may be able to 

 give the desired 

 information. The 

 editor remarks 

 that Mr. F. L. 

 Thompson ( the correspondent who desires 

 the information ) "thinks he has heard of 

 an arrangement for attaching to a kitchen 

 stove that would furnish two or three gal- 

 lons a day : " and he also " thinks that such 

 water would be more free from mineral 

 ingredients than is filtered water. " 



Now, here is an important point not gener- 

 ally understood which ought to be made 

 clear. Filteration will not make hard water 

 soft. It will only remove organic impuri- 

 tif 8, and if it is tl orough it removes all such, 

 in 'luding spores and microbes. Boiling 

 water for a longer or shorter time destroys 

 the life in the organic matter of the water, 

 but of course does not remove the dead im- 

 purities. It follows from this that the water 

 filtered should be soft ; but of course water 

 is the better of filteration whether hard or 

 soft, because usually the hard water is as 

 badly populnted with organic impurities 

 as the soft. 



The way to render hard water soft is to 

 distil it. Distillation not only destroys the 

 organic impurities but the mineral as well. 

 When I was at the World's Fair in passing 

 through the Anthropological Building one 

 day my attention was at'racted to just such 

 an "arrangement" as Mr. Tuompson speaks 

 of— a little distiller which could be attached 

 to a kitchen stove. It was in active opera- 

 tion, and I was so much pleased with the 

 arrangement that I resolved to take one 

 home with me as well as the Pasteur Cham- 

 berland filter. When, however, I went to 



