Only a bee!
Only a bee, as it flew through the air,
And tried to hum the sweet elfin air.
Only a bee!
Only a bee, and yet when it stings,
The air with loud cries of pain loudly rings.
Only a boy!
Only a boy, on mischief bent,
Only a boy who was not content.
Only a grave!
Only a grave on yonder hill,
Contains a corpse both cold and still.
The man who wrote that “poem” must have thought himself funny; to The
Stinger he was a--I don’t think I shall say fool this time, but I hope
the next time he tries his hand at rhyming, he will give us something
with more sense in it. No bee has yet driven a boy into an untimely
grave; the boy of these times cannot be killed so easily as the writer
of the above lines would seem to imply.
However, The Stinger would say to all boys bent on teasing the bees:
Keep away from the dear little insects until after they are fed, or
they might hurt you.
In casually looking through the November number of the _Review_, I
saw the name of Mr. H. A. Burch mentioned along with that of James
Heddon. I remember the time when the name of Mr. Burch figured quite
prominently in the pages of our bee-papers. It was he, I believe, who
used to furnish the delightful series of “Walks and Talks” for the
earlier volumes of the old _Bee-Keepers’ Magazine_.
These “Walks and Talks,” with some other articles that appeared in
the _Magazine_, gave it a tone that I do not find in any of the
bee-publications of this later day, I am sorry to say. It seems, that
although we have some very good writers on apiculture pure and simple,
still we have none of those classic writers of a number of years ago.
My taste may be somewhat vitiated, and I am unable to recognize the
beauty of style of the leaders in apicultural literature of the present
time.
If I remember correctly, it was the same James Heddon that I just
referred to, that found fault with the writings of “those literary
fellows.” Yet it is this same critic who has secured no less a writer
than the Mr. Burch I have mentioned above, to assist him in building
up his (Heddon’s) newspaper. While complimenting Mr. H. on his good
taste in securing such an eminent writer as Mr. Burch, I must say that
he was a little too severe on a class of writers who did much to make
apiculture what it is to-day.
It was such “literary fellows” as Langstroth and others who did much to
give us some books on bees that rank high as literary productions.
I am inclined to think that Mr. Heddon did not really intend to cast
any reflection on writers like those I have been mentioning, but he
wanted to head of such writers as the Rambler and the Somnambulist. It
was these, and nothing more!
The Stinger is not very well disposed toward those people who have the
running of the Agricultural Experiment Stations in the United States.
He believes that these Stations are, in the majority of cases, managed
by persons who are not in all cases fitted for the places they are
assigned to. There is a good deal of humbuggery about these matters; it
is too often that they are used to give some political fellow a berth
where he can draw down a good salary.
What I would like to see, is some way of making these Stations more
useful than they now are. Not all the men who are in charge of them are
competent to fulfil the duties assigned them.
A correspondent writes saying he was in hopes The Stinger would be
put into winter quarters and not taken out again until the spring.
The Stinger thanks the aforesaid correspondent, and would say that he
regrets that the witless correspondent did not sign his name to the
letter, that I might pay my respects to him in a way that would make
him sorry for his impertinence.
The Stinger is not the kind of a bear that has to seek some den
during the winter months; nor is he exactly like the bee that has the
misfortune of living in a cold clime. The Stinger is out every day in
the year, and if he does not come your way often, do not feel you have
escaped a pestilence. It is generally the man with a guilty conscience
that fears to have his misdeeds ventilated.
A correspondent has written me to know what he should do with his
surplus honey. The way I do when there is any surplus honey in our
house, after we have brought home a jar of honey, and it is not all
consumed at the first meal, is to put it aside until the next meal,
when the surplus will surely disappear.
Never kick a hive of bees when you are down; wait until you are up and
can run away.