French, Swiss, German, and Italian domestic cigars,
and have never cared to inquire what they are made
of; and nobody would know, anyhow, perhaps. There
is even a brand of European smoking-tobacco that I
like. It is a brand used by the Italian peasants.
It is loose and dry and black, and looks like tea-grounds.
When the fire is applied it expands, and climbs up
and towers above the pipe, and presently tumbles off
inside of one’s vest. The tobacco itself
is cheap, but it raises the insurance. It is
as I remarked in the beginning—the taste
for tobacco is a matter of superstition. There
are no standards—no real standards.
Each man’s preference is the only standard
for him, the only one which he can accept, the only
one which can command him.
THE BEE
It was Maeterlinck who introduced me to the bee.
I mean, in the psychical and in the poetical way.
I had had a business introduction earlier.
It was when I was a boy. It is strange that I
should remember a formality like that so long; it
must be nearly sixty years.
Bee scientists always speak of the bee as she.
It is because all the important bees are of that
sex. In the hive there is one married bee, called
the queen; she has fifty thousand children; of these,
about one hundred are sons; the rest are daughters.
Some of the daughters are young maids, some are old
maids, and all are virgins and remain so.
Every spring the queen comes out of the hive and flies
away with one of her sons and marries him. The
honeymoon lasts only an hour or two; then the queen
divorces her husband and returns home competent to
lay two million eggs. This will be enough to
last the year, but not more than enough, because hundreds
of bees are drowned every day, and other hundreds
are eaten by birds, and it is the queen’s business
to keep the population up to standard—say,
fifty thousand. She must always have that many
children on hand and efficient during the busy season,
which is summer, or winter would catch the community
short of food. She lays from two thousand to
three thousand eggs a day, according to the demand;
and she must exercise judgment, and not lay more than
are needed in a slim flower-harvest, nor fewer than
are required in a prodigal one, or the board of directors
will dethrone her and elect a queen that has more
sense.
There are always a few royal heirs in stock and ready
to take her place—ready and more than anxious
to do it, although she is their own mother.
These girls are kept by themselves, and are regally
fed and tended from birth. No other bees get
such fine food as they get, or live such a high and
luxurious life. By consequence they are larger
and longer and sleeker than their working sisters.
And they have a curved sting, shaped like a scimitar,
while the others have a straight one.
Copyrights
What Is Man? and Other Essays from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
