TRANSFERRING. 125 



how such liberties could be taken with such a dangerous race of 

 combative insects. More quickly than it takes to write it, when 

 the box was placed bottom upwards prior to drumming, the beea 

 came out in hundreds, nay in thousands. The students, by their 

 movements, gave one the idea that a life amid bees was not a 

 happy one, but when the manipulator, with naked hand and bare 

 arms, began to remove the bees that blocked the way to the re- 

 ceiving box the students' surprise ripened into confidence. No 

 matter who the manipulator is, or who the onlookers are, if the 

 former understands the why and wherefore of bee-life it is always 

 the same. I have met timid ladies who would not go within 

 "coo-ee" distance of a bee-hive, because, as they assert, the bees 

 are always in a fightable disposition "when they are near." Yet 

 in a few minutes afterwards I have seen those same ladies come 

 over to the work-table and, removing their kid gloves, handling 

 the bees as freely as the manipulator was doing. And men, too, 

 who have Herculean strength and the courage of a "she-bear 

 robbed of her whelps," but would turn tail and run if a little bee 

 flew against them, converted from the idea that bees cannot be 

 handled, and after one practical illustration, such as we had at the 

 College, become enthusiastic disciples of the physically blind 

 Huber, and develop into enthusiastic followers of Langstroth's 

 method of bee-keeping. 



Wherein does the supposed secret lie ? Not in any charm, or 

 in the possession of a stupifier, as is too often supposed; but the 

 manipulator has confidence, and, as "like begets like," his con- 

 fidence stimulates and creates a confidence in the onlookers. It 

 was so when these illustrations were produced. It can be seen 

 when the receiver, made out of an empty candle-box, was put in 

 position how the onlookers stood as far from danger as possible, and 

 how the graduations of confidence expand up to the illustration 

 where the students are gathered around the work-table. These 

 youths are so intermixed with the bees, that if the latter werd 

 human beings it would be a difficult task to find the former. All 

 that has ever been written about subduing and handling bees will 

 never convince a sceptic in bee matters half so much as this one 

 bit of practical work. Every onlooker that is depicted around 

 that table is now convinced that bees can be handled, as I told 

 them before I began work, with as little danger as we handle 

 chickens. Count the individuals in the group, note their attire ; 

 observe the subdued, patient, movements of those industrious 



