Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1892-07-01
BEES mNA Cd ( STORE

4 swarm Takes Posss ton and holds Il
Until killed BY b, sing 81 phur-
NEW BRUNswScK, nae 80 About
9 o'clock last Eridc morning 3 lew
bees apparently att eted BIZ me ordoF
If sweets. entered Sc c0rfecllone%
store Of Frank IT. q ebnrg.Ai Mr.. Ihe-
burg and his clerk were behind the
counter, and Ia a rea5 room, which eoulo
be seen through the NORWAY, four men
were Al work making candy. The bees
were shooed out without dill
eulty. but it would appear
that they were only prospecting party
About 1918 o'clock q very large swarm
entered the rear room through . WIN
dow. The men then hed into the store.
Mr.. Theburg hurried around the eoun-
ter 20 close the window in the rear
rosm. but when be reached the door,
WAY be could hardly see the window.
The room was black with bees. His
employes in the store were flashing tow
els furiously to right and left, but the
bees only buzzed the louder and stung
the harder, and soon all the men rush
ed into the street Mr.. Theburg fol-
lowed them and stood on the sidewalk
in a stupor Of surprise. Then the bees
settled down aud proceeded to crawl
about at their leisure.
Pretty soon the show window was
black with them. In the rear room the
floor and the walls, surcharged with
sweetness, were covered as with black
paper, and on the marOle slabs where
the candy was ri lied and'cut they set
tied in a layerI that was almost two
inches thick. Hhe air, too, was thioS
with them.
Mr.. TheburS went TO the window In
the rear and poured In u bucketful OF
boiling water. A thousand bees, it
must have been, were Scalded to death,
hut when be saw what little effect il
had on the big, buZzing horde he gave
I this scheme Up. He could do no 0usi-
ness on Friday He spent the day in
/ idleness, expecting the bees would fly
away at any moment On Saturday
some one told him that IL he caught the
Queen bee and took her out or killed her
the rest would leave the place.
George, be said to his clerk, "go 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 Onl Sunday morning Mr.. The
! Burg noticed something that brought a
raw OF hope to him. The bees In the
I window-they were the only ones he
could see closely--were dying apparent
\ ly Of surieit Of sweetness. He had
\ noticed the night before that they were
not crawling about as blithely as on the
day they irst arrived. But row he could
see some Oh them drag themselves up
the window glass sluggishly, then drop
I of and fall on their backs, dead. They
had described too much sweetness.
But even this seemed a slow process,
especially as bees in the back OF the
room COLD be heard buzzing as yigOr-
| ously as ever. Then a great idea shot
| through Mr. Theburg's mind. He would
| burn sulphur. He bought pile of sui
| Dhur, built fire in a big can and put
the sul3hur on II, made a wild rush into
the retf room, with his face and hands
| protecibd, set the can on the floor and
flew OF again,
He did not 90 into the store again I'M
4. til yesterday morning. The buzzing
was faint and the air was almost clear.
| But On the floor i'm the rear room was a
thick layer oil dead bees. Mr.. The6urQ
[ chucAed. He hired two men TO shovel
I the dead bees into a barrel, aud when
the men quit work, after half an hour,
the barrel was full Mr.. Theburg then
oDensd his store, but he continued to
burn sulphur in the rear room, for there
were still many live bees ia the place.
Tnis morning be filed a small box
with the dead bees he found on the
floor. There are still several hundred
crawling about in the show window, but
the bottom is strewn with dead bees,
and those that still crawl will die with
in few days.