HONEY EXHIBITS 
503 
The A. I. Root Company’s exhibit at the Ohio State Fair. 
wait and see the next stunt, for he is going 
to make a swarin. With a large dishpan, 
which lie has previously provided, he 
shakes the bees from two or three combs 
into this pan. Then he takes it up and 
turns to the crowd, saying, “The bees are 
* 
William H. Crowson demonstrating bees at the 
Tri-state Fair, Memphis, Term. 
not real mad yet, so I'll begin to shake 
them up to make them so.’’ The people 
wonder what he is going to do, seeing him 
barearmed and bareheaded. He keeps on 
shaking until he has the bees all in one big 
ball, and to the unitiated it looks as if 
they would sting him to dath. But, no! 
the continual shaking is the very thing that 
makes them gentle instead of cross. He 
now runs his hand under the ball of bees, 
pushing it under gently, being careful not 
to pinch any. The movement must be very 
deliberate—so slow indeed that the hand 
scarcely seems to move. He picks up a 
handful and holds them up for the crowd 
to examine. If he has good nerves he can 
put three or four bees in his mouth; shake 
a handful of bees on top of his head, and 
in the meantime pick up another handful. 
At the next performance there will be 
big crowds around to see the work. While 
the man is doing his stunts with the bees 
he tells what honey is, saying that it is a 
wholesome sweet, and that there is no such 
thing as manufactured comb honey, and 
that he will pay $100 for a single sample 
of it. At that psychological moment he 
draws attention to the fact that he has 
some good honey at the stand opposite or 
in the building yonder. The crowd will 
then go round to the stand and buy the 
honey. 
