The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-07-03
BEES IN A CANDY STORE.
A Swarm TAX IS Poss ession and Holds
1t Until Killed by Burning Su phur.
From the Netc York Sun.

A Swarm TAX IS Poss ession and Holds
1t Until Killed by Burning Su phur.
From the NetO York Sun.
NEW BRUNSWICK, June 2S.-About 9
o'clock last Friday NOR ming a few bees, ap-
parently attracted by the odor of sweets,
entered the confectionery store of Frank T.
Thsburg. Mr.. Theburg and his clerk were
behind the counter and i'll rear room,
which could be seen through the doorway,
four men were at work making fresh candy.
The bees were shooed out with difficulty
but it would appear that they were only q
prospecting party. About 1915 o'clock
very large swarm entered the rear
room through window. The
men then fed into the store Mr. Thebure
hurried around the counter to close the
window in the rear room, but when he
reached the doorway he could hardly see
the window. The room was black with
: bees HIS employees In the store were lash
ing towels furlously to right and left. but
the bees only buzzed the louder and stung
the harder, and soon all the men rushed
into the street. Mr.. Theburg folio wed them
and stood on the sidewalk in a stupor of
surprise. Then the bees settled down and
proceeded TO crawl about at their leisure.
Pretty soon the show window was black
with them In the rear room tine floor and
the walls surcharged with sweetness, were
covered as with black paper, and on the
marble slabs where the candy was rolled
and cut they settled in a layer that was
almost two inches thick. The air, too, was
thick with them.
Mr.. Theburg went to the window in the
rear and poured in bucketful of boiling
water. A thousand bees, it must have
been, were scalded 70 death, but when he
saw what little effect it had on the big,
buZzing horde he gave this scheme up. He
could do no business on Friday. He spent
the day in idleness, expecting the bees would
fly away at any moment. On Saturday
some one told him that if LIE caught the
queen bee and took her out or killed her the
rest would leave the place.
"George," he said TO his clerk, Ego in and
catch the queen bee"
George didn't do so. On Saturday, also,
ordinarily the busiest day In the week, no
business was done.
Early on Sunday morning Mr.. Theburg
notice something that brought a ray OF hope
to him. The bees in the window-they were
the only ones he could see closey-were
dying, apparently of surfeit of sweetn ess
He had noticed the night before that they
were not crawling about as blithely as on
on the day they first arrived. But now he
could see some OF them drag themselves up
the window glass sluggishly, then drop off
and fall on their backs, dead. They had
absorbed too much sweetness.
But even this seemed a slow process
especially as bees In the back of the room
could be heard buzzing as vigorously as
ever. Then a great idea shot through Mr..
Theburg's mind. He would burn sui phur.
He bought pile of sulphur, built fire In
big can and put the sulphur on it, made a
wild rush into the rear room, with his face
and hands protected, set the can on the
floor and flew out again.
He did not go into the store again un til
yesterday morning. The buzzing was faint
and the air was almost clear. But on the
floor in the rear room was a thick layer of
dead bees. Mr.. TheburK chuckled He hired
two men to shovel the dead bees into bar
rel, and when the men quit work, Ter hslf
an hour, the barrel was full, Nj. Tneburg
then opened his store, but he continued to
burn sulphur IN the rear room, for there
were still many live bees IN the place.
This morning he filled a small box with
the dead bees he found on the floor. There
are still several huudred crawling about in
the show window, but tho bottom is strewn
with dead bees, and those that still crawl
will be dead within few days.