The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-09-12
BILL ARP AND THE BEES.
Wonderful Things About the Lit
tie WOrkers-The Sting OF q Bee and

it's Effects.
Atlanta Constitution.
There is one good thing about get
ing stung by q bee. 1t makes you for
get ali other troubles for q little while.
l have had lots Of fun with these bum
blebees for the last few days and It re-
newed my youth. Time was when /
thought 1t q big thing to fight
"yeller jackets " and take my chances
with the other boys. The hravest boy
was the biggest fool aud would stay at
the hole the longest and thresh all the
leaves off of his brush and get stung
before he surrendered. / am not that
brave now, and I fight with exceeding
caution, but 1 have killed ver two
hundred in two days and fought fair
and square. My weapon Ia q pan
and 1 take 'em coming and going, but
they crowd me sometimes and my antics
attracted attention among the ma
bors, for they can see me In the up
stairs piazza and n good lady inquir-
The bees come out where the weather
ed II Major Arp was subject to fits.
boarding joins the floor and my repeat
ed assaults have made them mad gen.
orally. UP to this time they have
stung every member of the family,
even to the little grandchild who lives
with us, and Pm going to exterminate
them IL it takes all summer. We tried
Just think of that poor little child GO
ing round with one eye closed and
afraid she will lose the other one {; and
Mrs. Apps head all swelled up with
two bumps that q phrenologist couldn't
diagnose. We can't sit in the down
stairs piazza with any security. It is
a bigger thing right now than bimetal-
lism or free coinage or the tabernacle
meeting. In fact, it is a relief from
| politics to fight bees and study them in
the books. / wish the editors
would hold up awhile and go to the
woods and fight yeller jackets or wasps
I 1t would be a relief to the country and
1 have heard that such stings are good
for rheumatism or any nervous affec-
tion and / know that 1t takes the con-
ceit cut Of a man for awhile.
My book says that the proper name
is "humblebee," but there is no
humility about these at my house.
There are from 10 to 300 in q colony
and 30 l know I have nearly whipped
the fight. They live only one summer
and never rebuild in the same place.
The books say there are three kinds
the masons and the carpenters and the
diggers, but what they are good for I
don't know unless it is to make O man
more willing to quit this world and
prepare himself for another. II there
were no snakes and tarantulas and
singing things and deadly contag-
ions and demagogues and thieves
and fuses we w%oulden't want another
world.
The little honey bee Is q trump and q
wonder from stem to stern. 1t Is good
to ruminate about their wisdom and
skill and their government. Just
think of n queen being the mother
of 10000 and controlling them all more
absolutely than any human mother
controls her children. Just think of
1850 workers and only 500 drones
in a colony. These drones are gentle
men, and remind you of our gentlemen
loafers and swells who set about on the
piazzas Of the hotels and watch the
girls go by. But the drones don't en-.
Joy themselves but q month or two.
The queen gets tired Of them and gives
her orders and then the massacre OF
ST. Bartholomew begins. In an hours
time every ono is ~slain-stung to death
by the workers, and their puffy, bloat-
ed carcasses dragged out and tumbled
on the ground.
There is no little thing in nature
more wonderful than the honeycomb
that these little workers make. Its
mathematical construction gives the
most space with the least enclosure,
the arched top and bottom of every
cell, the exact and uniform thickness
of every division and the wisdom shown
in shaping the whole storehouse to suit
the shape of the hive is, indeed, mar
velous. Then there is the division OF
the workers. into brigades and regi-
ments n companies, some to gather
honey, some to make wax, some to
build the cells, some to stand guard,
some to wait on the queen and be her
escort as she moves around, and q
whole regiment to keep their wings GO
ing like revolving fans and supply fresh
air in the hive. That fan business
the hive day and night. 1t is the lut-
ter of the wings of the tanners. How
In the world they do everything in the
dark Is q wonder to me. was talking
to my friend, Mr.. Bussey, about it on
the train some time ago, and he told
me ~cOnfidentially that he was expert
menting TO see If he coulden't cross
honey bees with lightning bugs and
get up q bee that could see how to
work at night or in the dark. He has
applied for q patent IN the idea, but
whether he has succeeded or not in his
experiment 1 have not heard. He was
very sanguine, and the only trouble,
he said, was about the cross finding
room in tho tail for the fireworks and
the sting too. But Mr.. Bussey Is an
engineer on the State road and knows
what he is about.
The sting Of q bee is said to be the
most perfect war weapon ever invent
ed. 1t Is exquisite in it's mechanism.
1t Is a hollow tube, and yet the point
of the finest cambria needle is i'm
mense when compared with it. Under
the microscope the sting is perfect In
Its shape and s~mOothness, so much SO
that the point is almost invisible,
whereas tho point OF the needle under
h same glass looks like a great rough
crowbar with seams and ruts and
ridges all over It. This is the differ
ence between the works of God and
man. And yet the same Almighty
hand that made the little bee with his
wonderful instincts and attachments
made the universc-the boundless,
limitless universe where there are
stars to be seen by the Lord Ross teles-
cope, whose light takes go, 600 years to
reach us. Contemplate that for q
moment, We little %conceited minds who
think 1T smart to say, 81 don't believe
in God. I am an agnostic." sixty
Thousand years for the light to reach
us, and Lord Ross said that the star
was in the near edge of the universe.
Light travels through space about
10000 miles in second Of time, which