ciation, and that they bring young men into actual church membership. Here are some figures, taken from reports made to the International Committee, showing the total attendance at religious services during the year 1900, and the number from that attendance gotten into membership in some evangelical church. The cities were taken at random, and they cover New England, Middle, and Middle Western States: Cairo, Ill., total attendance, 1,300, into church membership, 2; Canton, 2,783, 4; Chicago (Central), 49,046, 20; Chicago (Hyde Park), 2,291, 6; Chicago (West Side), 4,423, 15; Evansville, Ind., 4,300, 2; Cedar Falls, Iowa, 2,152, 7; Brockton, Mass., 9,195, 4; Cambridge, Mass., 4,900, 4; Malden, Mass., 3,294, 9; Saginaw, Mich., 900, 5; Duluth, Minn., 3,172, 3; Winona, Minn., 4,127, 10; Newark, N. J., 13, 154, 24; Brooklyn (one of the suburban branches), 2,338, 12; New York (West Side), 32,723, 17; Rochester, 12, 150, 8; Warren, Pa., 7,874, 17; Easton, Pa., 3,733, 5. Many secretaries do not report numbers uniting with churches, but nothing appeared to show that had they done so the proportion would have been materially changed. Asked concerning this matter, Mr. D. O. Shelton, International Committee secretary, said: "The Young Men's Christian Association is an organic part of the church of Christ. It is related to the church as the arm is to the human body. It is a part of and is controlled by members of the church. It is, therefore, an organization not separate from the church, but the church itself, in an economic way Multitudes of men are at work for young men. Association bridges the chasm between vast masses of living proofs of the statement of Bishop Potter that the men and the church of Christ, and creates the means by which they may pass into the church. An almost unlimited number of examples might be cited to show aggressive forces of the church. The ultimate object of all work carried on in the gymnasiums, libraries, educational classes, social gatherings, Bible classes, and religious meetings of the Association is the building up of a robust Christian manhood. In estimating the value of the Association's work to the churches, it must be borne in mind that it is not only redemptive; it is preventive and educational. Through all its activi navy, in cities and towns, and in its enlarging work ties, at railroad and college centers, in the army and among boys, runs one absorbing purpose: To cultivate Christian character of granitic strength. In the accomplishment of this high object it has ever sought to lead men to personal faith in Jesus Christ, and to train them for intelligent and effective Christian work in their churches and in their daily contact with their It is significant that the warmest advofellow men. its support, are the shrewd Christian business men of cates of its work, and the most liberal contributors to America who have been identified with its workings." the vast contribution the Association has made to the CONVICTED. BY EDWIN L. SABIN. "There is no God!" he, mocking, said. "Behold, Honor have I, and happiness, and gold. Abundantly from day to day I live. What more, I ask you, has your God to give!" Which comes at last, when all our fancied might "Oh God!" he prayed, between his bloodless lips. THE GOSPEL OF MEDITATION. BY CLIFFORD LANIER. Thou art considerate, O Solitude! So truly bland thy welcome is for me And true, ye meek of heart, think on these things!" BEES. BY N. HUDSON MOORE. OST people divide insects into two classes: harmful, those that sting; harmless, those that do not. Because bees under provocation, as well as sometimes for mere spite, gratify themselves in this way, they come under the ban. Modern science reveals the bee in its structure to be one of the most beautiful and perfect organisms we may study, and one of our most necessary agents. With the advent of sugar, honey became of less importance, but the bee, and its influence in making the barren plains to blossom, or orchards to wax fruitful, has never lost its great usefulness to man. Bees belong to the same section of the animal kingdom as spiders, scorpions, centipedes, and insects, the Arthropoda. The insects form the largest division of this branch, and are distinguished as being airbreathing, having a distinct head, thorax, and abdomen; one pair of antennæ, three pairs of legs, and, in an adult state, one or two pairs of wings. Let us say that insects form about fourfifths of the whole animal kingdom. About a quarter of a million have been named and described, not more than a tenth of those that actually exist. What possibilities still remain for the enterprising naturalist! The bees belong to the order Hymenoptera or membranous-winged. The members of this order have four membranous wings, of which the hind pair is the smaller. The mouths are formed for biting and sucking, and the abdomen in the females is usually provided with a sting, a piercer or a saw. Roughly speaking, the Hymenoptera is still further divided into borers and stingers, and to the latter class, the aculeata, do our friends the bees belong. Bees are shorttongued and long-tongued. To the latter class, apida, belong the honey-bees. There are thousands of species of bees, and in this country you can study over fifty different kinds of bumblebees; they have the long tongues, but do not always store up honey. The bumbles you may always know by their gorgeous black and yellow fur coats; they are larger, too, than the hive bees, the aristocrats of their race. Honey-bees were introduced into this country not long after the first settlement, The tongue is one of those rapidly working members, having such a darting quality that now you see it, and now you don't; so that it is well-nigh impossible to locate its exact position. With the closest scrutiny it becomes evident that the bee does not, like other creatures, house its tongue in its mouth, but neatly folds it back beneath its head. Bumblebees, when disturbed, have a way of threatening with their jaws, while the honey-bee has the more direct method of settling intruders with. her sting. WORKER. The jaws of the bee are very creditable organs, and can give quite a formidable nip. Catch a bee in (Twice life size.) a net, and see how viciously it will bite at the meshes, working its jaws sideways instead of up and down. As we said before, the bee's tongue when not in use is neatly folded up and out of harm's way, but it may be let down at will by means of a hinge, and brought forward for action between the jaws. We call this wonderful implement of the bee a tongue, but in reality it is more than this, for the whole arrangement consists of two slender filaments, called maxillæ, the under lip, and the actual tongue. If a drop of honey lies near the surface of a flower, the slender, active tongue, darting out from the case formed by the maxillæ, licks it up with the same ease that a dog licks a plate. Should the tube of the flower be elongated, the bee has at command another length of tongue, which is shot out from within, and shuts up like a telescope when no longer wanted. To appreciate fully this delicate organ you should watch the bee separate it into its component parts, and clean it out. The lengthening process of the proboscis, as the tongue and its allied parts are sometimes called, is accomplished by a series of springs and hinges. In addition to this telescoping power, the tongue is a hairy member, the hairs VANESSA ANTIOPA, MOURNING CLOAK. arranged in rings, the longest ones toward the center. They assist in lifting in the nectar and in pumping it into the mouth; and from there it goes to the honey-sac. lances after the puncture is made, and is pumped out of the poison-sac with great rapidity, the anger of the bee seeming to add venom to the harmless looking fluid. It is harmless only in appearance. It is composed of formic acid and an organic poison, and its virulence can be estimated when it is known that the poison of serpent or rabies may be taken into the stomach without producing death, while bee poison is as vicious there as if received through the blood. Between the sting at one end and the tongue at the other, lies more complicated machinery, on which we cannot touch. The mechanism of the wings, the simple and perfect arrangement for holding them together, or the legs with their baskets, brushes, and combs, are worthy of separate treatment. In every hive are three kinds of bees, one queen, a small number of drones- seldom more than a hundred -and thirty or forty thousand workers. In the spring the tenants of the hive consist of the queen and a small number of workers that have survived the winter. With the spring days the queen begins to lay her eggs, first in the worker and later in the drone cells. The first brood of workers lives about six weeks. There are many vicissitudes to which one of these bees is subject, the prowling bird, the flower with sticky pollen, or some fatal accident by which its fragile wings are split. (Life size.) In early summer the workers build queen cells which are large, and are put on the edge of the comb. In them are reared and tended the queen larvæ. There is a marvelous provision for producing a new queen, should the old queen have taken her flight and the new queens be destroyed. Now to speak briefly of that other organ, the sting. 'Tis but a trifling thing, yet is capable of doing mischief out of all proportion to its size. It is situate, perhaps it is unnecessary to say, at the extreme end of the bee's abdomen. This abdomen is composed of rings horny in substance and having the telescoping quality that we noted in the The workers take a worker egg less than tongue. The sting appears like a tiny dag- three days old, place it in a queen cell, and feed ger; but, like the tongue, it is composed of it upon "royal jelly," and it becomes a queen, several parts. The outer sheath has a able to fulfil all her functions. This "royal groove, and into this groove two lances, jelly" is a product secreted by the worker each barbed with ten stout hook-like projec- bees in the glands of the head, and is fed to the tions, are fitted, and work up and down queen during her whole larval state. The only within it, never getting out of place, no males in the hive are the few drones. These matter how quickly they are darted. are killed by the workers if food is scarce, and die anyway at the coming of winter. The poison is exuded from the barbs of the In the early summer the old queen, hearing the piping" of the young queen, leaves the hive with her brood of workers; the young queen takes her nuptial flight high in air and returns to take command of the hive. The traditions of royalty are curiously observed in the court circles of the hive. When the queen pipes, the other bees lower their heads and remain motionless till the sound stops. If there are any other young queens left in the hive they pipe in reply, their notes sounding defiance and challenge. They sometimes battle to the death for supremacy. Even now we have not mentioned the marvelous process of building the comb, the forming of the wax, its molding and softening. Every fact connected with bees is full of the greatest interest, and repays the closest study, such prominent naturalists as Sir John Lubbock in England and Monsieur J. H. Fabre in France giving years of patient investigation to these tiny creatures. The swarming of the bees is another interesting spectacle. A few years ago I saw a swarm hanging from the telegraph wires in the very center of the city. They had not hung there long before a passer-by saw them, borrowed a box, climbed the pole, hived the bees, and walked off with a smile, a whole hive richer than when he started out, for it was early in the season and the swarm was in consequence more valuable. "A swarm of bees in May Is worth a load of hay. A swarm of bees in June Is worth a silver spoon. JUNE NOTES. If you wish to study insects, even in a cursory manner, a very necessary implement is a pair of insect forceps. They can be bought for from sixty-five cents to several dollars, but the cheap ones answer the pur LARVA VANESSA ANTIOPA. A small pocket microscope will reveal many points which would otherwise be hid, and it is invaluable in the study of botany as well, while grasses and ferns must remain closed books without one. June is the month of all the year for the insect lover or student to revel in specimens. Not only are they to be found all day long, but at dusk in the gardens those fine great hawk moths appear, hovering above the flowers and getting ready to lay their eggs. Among other things the tent caterpillar and passing into the pupa state. If all should decide in their own minds to destroy half a is very active, spinning its cocoon, dozen of these tents, our country roads and our orchards would never assume the burned-over look they sometimes have. The fire-flies gleam in the hedges this month, and the warm days bring out the cicada. It is the males who make all the noise in this family; the females are voiceless. The butterflies are fluttering over every field, even the swamps yielding up the splendid Militaa phaeton. Every form of this butterfly is gorgeous, the larva coated in orange and black, and the pupa case of pearly-gray also bears some spots of the characteristic orange. CHRYSALIS VANESSA ANTIOPA. (Twice life size.) For two or three years past I have reared on some sweet-pea vines the larvae of the Anosia plexippus or Monarch butterfly. The larvæ are a pretty pale green with black bands, and the chrysalis is very beautiful, also pale green and set about in regular fashion with dots of gold. As one of these hangs from the top of a breeding-cage it looks fit to be a jewel-drop for a lady's ear. The butterfly is a bright reddish color, with border and veins of black, and two rows of white spots on the forewings as well as a group of pale spots toward the front of these same wings. There are many interesting facts about this butterfly. It is a migrant, has crossed the Pacific, is a resident now of the Philippines, is common in England as well as Australia. In the autumn I have seen swarms of them crossing Lake Ontario from Canada to the United States, and when many of them cling to a branch of a (Twice life size.) pose satisfactorily. With a pair of these you can examine anything, bees, wasps, or the most repulsive caterpillar that crawls, not to mention "beetles fat that develop bursts of speed, or leaping qualities that are often very embarrassing. You can study your specimen at close range, note his every detail and then let him off no worse for his little squeeze. tree they look like so many dead leaves. It is a protected insect, being furnished with a "scent-pouch" which has in it a secretion which makes it distasteful to birds; so it bears to a great extent a charmed life. Much pleasure may be obtained from studying the changes which will go on under your very eyes. Take home some caterpillars, with leaves of the plant you find them on, and put them in a box a wooden one by prefer ence in which three sides are covered by netting. It will not be long before you will find dangling from the roof the chrysalis, and then some morning, lo, every shell will be burst and the cage filled with butterflies. I once saw such a cage filled with mourning cloaks, and as the cover was removed they fluttered out into the sunshine to while away their brief life. Summary of Preceding Chapters. The RIVALRY of NATIONS WORLD POLITICS OF TODAY CHAPTER XXXIII. RESOURCES IN PEACE AND WAR. HE leadership of the United States in coal production and deposits is a striking fact, in view of the great importance of coal in modern life; but this fact does not stand alone. Mr. Brooks Adams remarks, in his suggestive discussion of "The Economic Supremacy of America": "For the first time in human experience a single nation this year leads in the production of the precious metals, copper, iron, and coal; and this year, also, for the first time the world has done its banking to the west and not to the east of the Atlantic. Necessarily, [Chapters I.-IV. appeared in the October issue. The first was an introductory discussion of the significance of the present age, the expansion of the nations, the industrial revolution, the growth of democracy, and the world problems resulting from the interplay of these elements. Chapter II. explained the politics of Europe in the middle of the century, as turning upon the ideas of nationality and the revolutionary democracy; with the Eastern question as shaped in the Crimean war. In Chapters III. and IV. the development of England and France, respectively, in the last half century was traced, with especial reference to the rise of English democracy and the growth of republican government in France. [Chapters V.-VIII. in the November number considered in a similar way the other four great powers of Europe, Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. [Chapters IX.-XI. in the December number dealt with the question of the near East. Chapter IX. described the reopening of the Eastern question after 1871, explaining the relations of Russia and Turkey and the status of the Turkish empire and the Balkan and Danubian provinces. Chapter X. discussed the developments from 1871 to the RussoTurkish war of 1877-78, the results of the war and the treaty of San Stefano, and Chapter XI. the resettlement of the Eastern question by the Congress of Berlin, the resulting conditions, and the effect upon Russian policy. [In the January number Chapter XII. discussed the consequences of the Congress of Berlin in the Balkan peninsula; Chapter XIII. considered Egypt as a factor in the Eastern question, and the British control; Chapter XIV. was a general introduction to the subject of Colonial Expansion; and Chapter XV., on "Imperial England," began an examination of the characteristics, methods, and extent of the colonial activity of the different European powers. [Chapters XVI.-XIX. in the February number continued the study of the expansion of the great nations begun in January, Chapter XVI. being a study of the growth of the British imperial idea in its spirit and manifestations. A chapter on German colonial policy showed the consistency and studied character of German colonial methods, and another dealt with French colonization in its chief aspects. The closing chapter was on Russian expansion. [In the March number Chapters XX.-XXII. were devoted to a consideration of the advance of civilization in Africa, the scramble for territorial possessions, and the present relations and prospects of the European nations in the Dark Continent. Chapter XXIII. dealt with the entrance of the New World into world politics, the Monroe doctrine, and South America. Chapter XXIV. described the growth of the foreign policy of the United States. [Chapters XXV.-XXVIII. appeared in the April number. The first of these dealt with considerations growing out of the recognition of the United States by itself and others as a world power. Some of its needs, limitations, and responsibilities in this rôle were touched upon. Chapter XXVI. reviewed the great historic movements of nations, with the resulting reconstruction of the map, and considered "the new map of the world." In the following chapter"The Problems of Asia" were taken up, starting from the basis of the four Asiatic empires, Russia and Great Britain, China and Japan. The especial importance of railways in the Asiatic problem was alluded to. Finally, in the fourth of these chapters, Japan," the new oriental world power," was traced to its present place among the nations. [In the May number Chapter XXIX. discussed the relations of China with the western world, ending with the Japanese war; Chapter XXX. dealt with the conditions in China since the treaty of Shimonoseki, introducing the problem of the open door; Chapter XXXI. was a review of the world situation from the standpoint of the far East; and Chapter XXXII. reviewed some of the elements of strength of the world powers.] |