The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-07-20
A DELUDED BEE.
MistOOl< the Flowers of Art for
Those of Nature.
From the London Telegraph.

Those of Nature.
From the London Telegraph.
There is something provocative of much
reflection in the incident communicated
to us by a correspondent. He was sit
ting, with a number of other guests up
on the lawn at a garden party in London.
when he observed a large humble bee
winging it's flight toward the clusters Of
many-colored flowers upon the hat of a
young lady who was one of the company
He does not mention what especial flowers
were initiated upon the hat in question,
but the present fashion Is to display 50
varied a collection of forms and hues
that a credulous bee might easily think
herself in a well furnished country gar
den on alighting upon any out-of-door
coimure OF the present time. The insect
in this case was not only deceived In tho
first instance by the exact resemblance
of the work of the modiste to that of
Dame Nature, but evidently found nothing
on closer acquaintance to prevent her from
ransacking the bloom in search of honey;
and, being disappointed in first, second,
and even third essay, appeared to have
gone on examining each bud Of silk, satin
or muslin until she was seen to mediate
disconsolately upon the edge of the last
fallacious flower, and then to fly away,
honeyless, and, no doubt, extremely en-
barrassed by the discovery that the world
contained such illusions and receptions
for Woodworking bees. The innocent in
sect ought not, we think, to be laughed at.
One would have thought, of course, that
humble bee was far too good a Judge
of the products of the field and the gar
den to be taken in by the very cleverest
stimulation of them which the fingers of
Partisan hat-dresser could put together.
The coarser texture, the deficnet fra
GRANGE, the faulty tint. the absence of
proper stamens and pistils ought one
would have said to have made that Lon
don bee ashamed of such an error. Yet,
obviously, 1t is not so. The bee, accus-
toned to find honey wherever she spied
certain sorts of blossoms, detects her IA
Vorite species, and takes the false for the
true, as so many of us also take It, We
can fancy the beguiled little creature
plung1ng into the first artificial bloom
with eager expectation, into the second
with surprise, into the third with disap-
pointment, into the fourth, fifth and sixth
with dismay, disgust and Indignation, I'M
til finally she crawls out upon the Tuscan
straw of the lady's headgear-an astound-
ed, angry and disillusioned being, WHAT
we may imagine her exclaiming, flowers
without honey, and of such a color, too,
and such perfect shape" VIII not that
bee, too wise henceforth for its kind, wan
der over the fiower-beds and hedge-rows
OF England misdoubting everything-tak-
ing the red clover globes for arch impos-
critics; disbelieving in the sweetness of
honeysuckle, and not daring to trust her
self in an umbel of meadowsWeet? Such
an experience must be If we should
find the rain falling from the sky black
and bitter, or the river running salt from
the hills. The modern art of millinery has
had no more magic triumph-if we will
justly consider it-than in this little pass
ing story of the bee at the London garden
party.