The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-01-06

would never enter into mind of the
simple, natural flea!
Among the smaller animals there is
none that seems SO Intelligent, so prac-
tical and sober minded as 'sthe little
busy bee" He will mount dn the air.
and fly in a, straight line for his hive
It has passed into pTEoverb, and when
a man wishes to say that he has gone
by the shortest Line from one point to
another (and that, as mathematics
teach. is the straight hneO he says he
made a bee-line" for the place. So
in the structure of their cells they APP
tons which reason proves to be most
effective and economical of space.
They are fine subjects and obey inaplic-
ttIy their queen and they take good
care of the drones as long as they are
useful to the well being of the COM
immunity, and kill them as soon as they
cease to be so.
1t would appear, therefore, a very
simple thing to teach bees tricks and
Introduce them to a. professional life
as performers on the amusement stage.
Yet probably very few have ever seen
them trained. In 1891 however, a, man
named Wildeman, of Plymouth, did
train a troop and exhibited them for
the recreation of the curious public.
He got sWamls of bees so we'll trained
That he could make them enact man
| oeuvres with as much precision and
unity as troops of soldiers go through
| field tactics This man used to eXhlLo.t
| the bees in a, large hall outside of Which
was a garden. When the bees got
| through working as trick performers
they could have a good time Playing
among the flowers. Wildenam would
| I,oFo no 1otId6anRNG Thp
Ibaes s'warning all over him. They
we're on his face, on his hands, crawl
ling over his clothes, and his pockets
| vera full of them. 1t looked as II he
were a great flower full of material
| from which honey could. be made from
the assiduous attention which these
busy little bees paid him. Whether
they had been despoiled of their s9ings
or mot is not said. But he must have
felt uncomfortable if he knew taat
many scores Of bees, were they so
minded, could have stung him at Will.
Such a quantity of bee Stings as that
could easily settle a man and leave
him stung to death. Anybody who has
ever been unluclzy enough to receive
! the sting of even one healthy, vigorous
bee will not find it difficult to believe
| this.
The hives Of the bees were in a GER
tain part of the large hall quite re-
moved from the stage where Wildeman
stood with them thickly clustered on
him. All at once he would give a whis-
tie and presto! The bees started off
ana flew straight to their hives! Wh:n
they had got well settled there he
! would whistle again, and back they
flew and settled on his face and hands
and clothes once more. This was done
with the greatest promptness and reg
ularity. 1t must have been with Soma
IsoQicitude that the spectators assisted
at this performance. But it is cue TO
the bees and perhaps to Wildsman, to
say that no one was ever saung by
them.
Virgil, the great Latin poet, who
wrote four poems on different agricul-
tural themes, devotes one Of t these
Georgia., as they are called eht-Fely
to bees. But he nowhere says they can
Ibe taught to do the things which this
man of Plymouth trained them to psr-
form. VdrgiPs bees knew a great deal
bn+ thev have learned it all from ma.
80 JOHN JAMES.