ILLINOIS STATE BEE KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



191 



terer, and his fath'er stuttered too, so 

 the boy was not to blame. Mr. Jones 

 was greatly concerned about his boy 

 and he wanted, if possible, to over- 

 come that stammering in his son, so 

 he went to the physician. Dr. McCall, 

 in our town and he told him -what he 

 was there for, and he went through 

 the whole story, describing the stut- 

 tering of his son, and w^hen he got 

 through the doctor says to him, "So 

 your son stutters all the time," Mr. 

 Jones says, "n-n-no, only when he 

 t-t-talks." (Applause.) 



The President — The next is the 

 friendship of our fraternity. This is 

 something that strikes me very favor- 

 ably indeed. I am very fond of friend- 

 ship, and I like to be friendly with 

 everybody, and it pleases me very 

 much to feel that almost evrerybody is 

 friendly with me, and it reminds me 

 of a little incident of a humorous 

 character that took place not very 

 long ago. A gentleman was going 

 from his home to the office and a very 

 pretty girl overtook him, and she said, 

 "Do you know that I think you are a 

 real nice man;" and he said, "Do you 

 really? "Well, I have always felt you 

 were a very nice girl." They walked 

 along together and finally she said, 

 "Do you know that you really remind 

 me of a song?" "Well, that made the 

 gentleman feel a little more near and 

 a little more nervous possibly than 

 ever, but he didn't like to say any- 

 thing, but he couldn't stand it. Before 

 they got to the office he said, "Say, 

 what is the song I remind you of?" 

 She said, "When the Frost Is on the 

 Pumpkin Vine." (Laughter.) 



The gentleman who is to respond to 

 this toast is perhaps a better looking 

 man than the one I have referred to, 

 and it is possible that something of 

 that kind may have occurred to him 

 in his lifetime, but it might not have 

 reference to the frost upon the pump- 

 kin vine. He is that gentleman who 

 takes such a very pretty photograph 

 when he has his picture taken. Tou 

 often see it in the Journals. His name 

 is "W. Z. Hutchinson. (Applause.) 



Mr. Hutchinson — Mr. Chairman, La- 

 dies and Gentlemen: It has been 

 said that we are all willing to lend a 

 helping hand, but decidedly backward 

 about lending money; in short, the 

 world's gauge of friendship is the big, 

 round dollar. But even when meas- 

 ured by this standard, the friendship 



of our fraternity is not found wa^ting^ 

 Let me give just one, little personal 

 instance: 



As many of you know, "The Re- 

 view" was started on considerably 

 less than nothing; the first few years 

 was a race between receipts and ex- 

 penditures, with the latter often in the 

 lead. Well, near the close of the first 

 year, a bee-keeping friend whom I had 

 not met, and may never meet, wrote 

 and asked how the "Review" was 

 "coming on." I replied that, early in 

 the year, I had bought type and other 

 material for use in printing the "Re- 

 view," and that this was now all paid 

 for except $20.00. Upon Christmas 

 day came a check for $20.00, accom- 

 panied by such a letter that made it 

 impossible to refuse the gift without 

 giving offense; so, on any subscription 

 list is one name after which is written 

 "life subscriber." 



While the worldly measure of 

 friendship may be the dollar, there 

 are other tests far deeper and truer; 

 in fact, I am not sure that tests of 

 friend^ip are the most interesting 

 phase of the subject. I have often 

 been led to wo'^^^r why there is this 

 great depth of friendship among bee- 

 keepers; iwhat draws them together as 

 with hoops of steel? Perhaps the ex- 

 planation is that bee-keeping appeals 

 only to men of a certain make-up 

 hience, they are, by nature, kindred 

 spirits. Let tihe explanation be what 

 it may, you know that when you were 

 on the way to this Convention, if you 

 went through the train and found a 

 man wearing one of these buttons, 

 your hand went out instantly. If you 

 had never met before, it made no 

 difference. Tou sat down in the same 

 seat, smuggled down together, and 

 then how the tongues began to fly! 

 Tou have met this man only five min- 

 utes before, but he is a brother bee- 

 keeper, and you have for him a w^arm- 

 er feeling of friendship than for the 

 butcher ^who has lived next door to 

 you for five years! 



If I had left the toee-keeping ranks 

 a few years ago and engaged in .manu- 

 facturing, or merchandising, or some 

 similar occupation, I never should 

 have heard lof a ibee convention with- 

 out a longing to be there, well know- 

 ing that, (had I remained a bee-keeper, 

 I would have been present and seen 

 cheeks kindle, and eyes flash, and 

 heard the occasional enthusiastic re- 

 sounding '^whack" on the shoulders 



