Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-09-06

LEE AFTER THE Wharf.-The Oration up
on General r. f. Lee, delivered at LeXing-
ton, Virginia. last week, by Hon. John Dan
iel was a perfect tribute to great soldier.
Not many people knew before, that Gen.
Lee had been offered the chief command of
the army in 1861 and declined 1T. The offer
was made upon the recommendation OF Gen.
Scott, backed by the venerable Francis +.
Blair, Sr., who conveyed the tender OF the
position to Gen. Lee in person. 1t must
have been a great moral courage to decline
the highest position to which he could ever
have attained in his most ambitious dreams.
One or two of the illusions Of Major Daniel
are not generally understood and will ex-
plain them. In 1865 the railroad which is
now called the Virginia Midland and its
connections was mainly owned by Eng
lish bOndholders. After an expert had care
fully examined the condition of things the
committee of bondhOlders held meeting
and rendered to Gen. Lee the presidency OF
the road and it's connections under one Or
ganiZatiOn, at a salary OF S50,O0O year:
About this time one of the most powerful OF
the New York life insurance companies Of
fered Gen. Lee $10,0 900 year and house in
Richmond to take hold Of and build up their
Southern business. Gen. Lee declined both
these splendid offers to accept place as q
teacher of Southern young men at $4,000
wear. Can such conduct be matched in his
tory? One more instance of his greatness
The Duke of Beaufort, Lord John Manners
and two other English noblemen rendered
Gen. Lee splendid estate in the West Rid
ing of Yorkshire, with a handsome rental
equal to $685. ,00Oa year for life, if he Wouldac-
cept it and live upon it. Earl Spencer, now
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, made the ten
der. Gen. Lee, with charming dignity that
these men say was beyond anything they
had imagined, declined the offer. 1t is
think it would give the world view of Gen:
Lee in a light he has never been in and
show how lofty his nature really was. IN
this age and time of competition for wealth
and power character so great and a nature
50 simple is almost incomprehensible. Lee
showed that the true greatness of manhood
| is in those elements which make him supe-
rior to fortune and equal toany fate Httsh-
ington HeraM.
WONDERruL INSTINCT IN BEEs.-Many
interesting accounts have been written of
the wonderful instincts ofhoney bees-some,
| in fact, which would almost tend to prove
that they possessed reasoning faculties. An
Australian bee-keeper contributes to the
Queeusttmder the following interesting incl
dent, illustrative of the sagacity OF these
| wonderful little insects "a nelghbOr OF
mine who keeps bees in bar-frame hives
had robbed them of some Of their surplus
store, but noticing few days afterWard the
honey running from the entrance to the
hive, and the bees clogged with it, he raised
the top to ascertain the cause, when he found
the bees in so woful a plight that he knew
not what to do, and was quite disheartened::
He mentioned the matter to me and l went
| to his assistance | found the hive in a
dreadful state; the frames were very large,
and the weight of honey proportionally
great; the combs had fallen down, and the
honey had been set free. Thousands OF bees
were suffocated and smeared with the
honey, it was a work of some difficulty to
set matters right. On the floor of the hive,
and floating in the escaped honey, were
dozens of white grubs, which had evident
ly been forcibly drawn from the cells by, the
bees, and the reason they sacrificed their
progeny appears to be that, finding them
selves overwhelmed with the disaster that
had befallen them and having filled every
available crevice with the overtloWed honey,
they had found it necessary to empty the
cells of the young brood in order to find
space to store the balance until the wreck
could be repaired. There was reason, GER
tainly, for what they did, and the fact has
not, perhaps, been noticed before because
the people who kept bees for observatory
purposes would never have allowed such
| calamity to happen to them.