1878 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CTLTUEE. 



219 



reason which the judges gave for so doing, 

 was that the ghiss case of sections was not a 

 box of honey, and tliat the list read for the 

 "'best box of honey". Mine was a box of 

 honey boxes, and nothing was offered for 

 siicii an arrangement. I confess the temp- 

 tation was very strong, to declare I ^\T»uld 

 never go to a fair again at all ; but maturer 

 reflection brings to mind that these judges 

 are my own townsmen and women, and 

 good lionest people. They may have had a 

 little prejudice, perhaps, against the honey 

 built on fdn., although no such reason was 

 given, and if they have, what then? shall I 

 stay away, and give as a reason that I got 

 mad because they would not give me the 

 premium? or shall I take some more honey 

 and hives and extractors and, perhaps, a 

 fdn. machine, with some of the girls to roll 

 the wax where all can see, and thus help to 

 make fairs a means of educating the people, 

 as they really should be, without caring who 

 gets the premium, or at least trying not to 

 care? for I am full of fight, when there is 

 any chance for rivalry, as I have told you be- 

 fore. Well. I think I will choose the latter 

 course, and if the fair gets to be full of cor- 

 ruption and liorse racing, I will try and put 

 my shoulder to the wheel, and help it along 

 into a better track ; if my efforts do not 

 amount to any thing, I will still do the best 

 I can, and ask God to give me faith and pa- 

 tience, so long as the people love fairs, and 

 turn out to them, as they always seem to do. 

 May God help me to feel the same towards 

 conventions, and try to avoid being contra- 

 ry, remembering that true worth will always 

 be recognized, sooner or later, and if it is 

 not recognized where we think it ought to be, 

 it is a pretty sure sign that it does not exist. 

 The expense of going long distances, to eith- 

 er conventions or fairs, may be saved, by at- 

 tending those in our own county, and trying 

 to make them what they should be. 



P'his department is to be kept for the benefit of 

 those who are dissatisfied; and when anything is 

 amiss. I hope you will "tallt rii^ht out." As a rule 

 we will omit names and addresses, to avoid being 

 too personal.] 



^iTSjiROM your postal of the 32nd ult., it seems that 

 j?n you have some doubt alTout my telling the 

 i^r* truth in regard to the frame stuff's not hav- 

 ing been planed. I took the whole lot to the Me- 

 chanics' Planing Mills in St. Louis, to have them 

 finished, for which I paid them .f 3.00, The use of a 

 team one day was $3.00. What my time is worth, 

 away from home one day, in the swarming season, 

 with .50 stocks of Italians, I leave to your own judg- 

 ment. One swarm which came out tliat day, settled, 

 in such a place that my wife could not hive them 

 and In the woods they went. 



For fear that jou may think that I ought to have 

 a notice in the "Growlery", I will send you, by mail, 

 3 pieces of some of your work. When you get them, 

 call a counsel of your overseers (if you have any), 

 and ask them why they allowed such work as that 

 to pass. I think you will agree with me that it 

 ought to have been put among the rubbish. No 1 is 

 a fair sample of }i of the end pieces. About '/^ of 

 them are cut ncarlij through the centre, but the 

 worst of it is that they vary from 'a to 3-16 in length. 

 Put your square on No. 3 and then imagine 3 of 



them on a hive leaning in opposite directions. 

 About 'A of them are like the sample. I have put 

 up about 500 of the sections, and have on my tables 

 about 100 pieces like No. 3. How many more there 

 are among the balance, I do not know. I cannot 

 understand why your work does not come out all 

 alike, after the gauges arc set. I would not use a 

 single one of the end pieces, if I had time to make 

 others, for I consider them a first class botch work. 



I don't expect you, or any one else, to pay me for 

 any overcharge any R. K. Co. makes on goods ship- 

 ped to me; I simply wanted to know if $8.00 from 

 Medina to Cin. was correct or not, which you ought 

 to know, or which you could, by a very little troub- 

 le, find out. 



I would not be bothered with an other lot of stuff 

 like it, if it were presented to me. The comb 

 guides are just enough too short and too thin to be 

 of no use. The top and bottom pieces of the two 

 inch frames vary so much in length, that % of the 

 end pieces have to be planed off on the inside, to 

 admit the sections. 



From reading Gleanings, one would suppose 

 that everything about your place works as accur- 

 atelj' as a watch factory, but your work does not 

 prove it. A. W. W. 



June 6th, 1878. 



I presume I should not have published the 

 above, had it not been for the concluding 

 remark. If I have given you an erroneous 

 impression in regard to my work, through 

 Gleanings, I feel like hastening with all 

 speed to undeceive you. Our friend order- 

 ed some closed end Q. frames, with section 

 boxes to match ; something that neither I 

 nor any of the hands had ever seen. Worst 

 of all, the order was given in such a way, 

 that it had to be "•figured out". It came at a 

 time when almost every body was doing 

 things wrong, because I was not omnipres- 

 ent, and when skilled mechanics were 

 standing still, because I could not find time 

 to explain to them what was wanted. Amid 

 the noise and roar of machinery that ceased 

 not, either day or night, and of ever so 

 many calling, I was obliged to figure out, as 

 best I could, how the things had best be 

 made; for as I could not tell what friend W. 

 wanted, I could not very well explain to the 

 hands what I wanted, and the whole atmos- 

 phere, about that time, I remember, seemed 

 full of floating interrogation points ; if 

 the confusion at the Tower of Babel was 

 half as bad, I pity them. Every body "want- 

 ed to know, you know." When it came to 

 directing the clerks about writing apologies, 

 we had about the same state of affairs, and 

 so, while I never dreamed of such a thing, 

 our friend thought I doubted his word. 

 Perhaps it is this unintentional sting, that 

 has caused him to write as he has and the 

 thought that he did not knoio that I 

 would never doubt his word, stings me still 

 more. I know I ought to have done better, 

 but you see I am too "small" for such a 

 rush of business, and you overloaded me. 

 If a trutliful statement of my business 

 would kill it, let it die ; for T had rather die 

 an honest death, than flourish dishonestly. 

 I have paid my friend for tlie above blun- 

 dering, and I hope it is all pleasant now. If 

 I have been giving only the better side in 

 Gleanings of late, let us have tlie other 

 side, by all means, so "here goes." 



Your buckwheat came yesterday; one month 

 after the order. This is a fine way to do business! 

 and then, instead of packing it in a box, and send- 

 ing by freight as you ought to have done, you must 

 send "by express with charges, ^5.30, making $7.30 

 for three pecks of buckwheat. Very cheap, eh? 



