The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-20
ENIGMA OF POLLING BEES.
ITS LITE 4 CIRCLE OF L1BOR
 ENDING IN DARKNESS.
Under the Spell of Some Inexplicabie Sad essity-NIaetcrlinck's Sympa- thetic Study.

and genius been brought to bear on the
 life and work of any of those mysteri-
 ous and minute beings whom we call
 insects as in "The Life of the Bee
 :. . Many ingenius minds have been
 brought to bear on this singular crea-
 ture in all times and places, and the science of apiculture, or bookkeeping
 has been carried to so high a point that
 the bee may be said to have become an unconscious ministrant of man.
 Though Maeterlinck himself is an api- arist and profoundly learned, in the culture of bees, he has not written a
 book which is a mere treatise on prac-
 tical bookkeeping. Nor has he followed the great English observer whom the
 world used to know as Sir John Lub- book in merely adding to the collection of precise and accurate obsarvat tions of bee-life
 Maeterlinck has indeed made these observations, and his book is full of the results. But they are built into an ed ifice of lofty fancy and imagination which justifies us in ranking the book among the great prose-poems of the world, and placing it by the side of that other great poem on the life of the bee contained in the fourth book of Virgips S 'Georgics.' Maeterlinck differs from the ordinary scientist by the atmos- phere of mystery and profound sugges- tion with which he surrounds the whole subject of the bee Under his guidance we feel that we are engaged in lifting corner of the veil that hangs over the inner life of nature. Watching mi nutely, from it's opening to it's close, the long series of infinite actions that make up the life of bee, we feel less lonely in the universe. Mans intelligence, so boastful of it's splendid isolation, finds itself in close relation to the intelli- gence of one of the smallest and mi nutest of creatures. To use Maeter- lincks imagery we feel like Robinson Crusoe, when, in the fidst of his soli- tude, he found the footprints on the sand.
 Another emotion is aroused by this great work, and that is the sense of the importance, even for mans own ends, of fully understanding and sympathizing with this humble crea- ture. The utility of he bee to man has steadily advanced with the study of it's ways and habits. The result of this minute study has been that the mod ern bee-keeper co-operates with the bee in the structure of the hive, and, by providing a waxen substructure, ena- bles the hive of bees to perform in a few weeks the work that would other wise take months. The bee, says Mae terlink, never recognizes the dominion of man. This self-sufficing, indepen- dent little creature goes steadily on her way, working for the hive, for the queen, for the community. But it would be a mere conceit of man to SUD- pose that she ever stores drop of hon. ey or collects fragment of pollen for his use. But her intelligence is such that, if man will work along her lines, and assist her endeavors, she will ac- cept his aid without resentment or re- buff and will finally, out of her super fluity, provide both for herself and for him.
 It is not very probable that the bee understands the ingenuity of the means by which the modern bee-keep CT draws off the honey from the hive by the use of turbine, without in any way injuring the structure. But as long as mans work does not hwart the supreme end of the bee in her labor for perpetuity, she will show no active re- sentiment. The true bee-keeper fears not the stings of the bee; it is only the meddler, the clumsy, vulgar despiser of an intelligence which is probably supe- rior to his own. Even in that extraor- dinary upheaval of bee-life which is called the swarm" which Maeterlinck describes in passage of exquisite power and beauty, the bee may with patience and care be directed to the service of man. If the swarm be shak- en into dirty, noisome vessel, it will after due investigation, refuse to spend it's labor in vain, and go elsewhere. But if it be shaken into clean, sanita- ny hive, it will immediately start on rebuilding another waxen city, like that which it has left in that mysteri- ous, inexplicable act of abnegation which forms the summit of bee-life.
 It is the sacrifice of the individual which is after all, the standing moral problem of bee-life. We see it first in the fifty thousand virgin workers of the hive, whose life centers entirely round the existence of the queen bee, without whom they will do no work, and for whom they will sacrifice every thing. The queen bee is the universal mother, and the few male bees which are allowed a brief existence of lazy voluptuousness are finally massacred with every detail of cruelty. Austeri- ty is the law of the hive, and the pop ulation is population of amazons. The work is infinitely subdivided but except the brief existence of he lazy drones, there is no exception the law of work.
 Within the hives here are all the chief trades known to man-the archl- tects, the builders, the wax-makers, the cleaners, the nurses, the storekeep- CTS, the chemists, the guards at the doors, the hunters, the reapers and the distillers. By the cooperation of all these trades the fairy palace of wax gradually rises, and within it the net work of hexagonal cells. Then the queen journeys round and lays an egg in each cell, until whole new society is there in embryo, awaiting only the touch of life. Then begins the nursing | and feeding But before the new gene ration knocks at the door," comes the l swarm and only few are left be- hind to nurse he larvae of the coming | r,oo C,,ol, ic tbo Ii fe Of ba hap A cir !