Why the Sparks Fly.
The air of flour mills is full of fine dust, and a bit of fire is likely to cause an explosion. The explosions may do much damage, and great care must be taken to guard against them.
An English firm of millers, who had been greatly troubled by these explosions, suspected that they were caused by tiny pieces of iron or steel in the grain. These, crushed between the great steel rolls of the mill, would flash out sparks and set fire to the dust.
To test the theory, they caused all the grain, on the way to the rolls, to pass over great electric magnets. These magnets collected a large number of iron and steel particles, some being box nails several inches long. Several times a day it was found necessary to swing the magnets to one side and brush away the accumulated metal. The freedom of the mills from further explosions confirmed the theory.
I am interested in this because it illustrates so well what happens when "the sparks fly" in our daily lives.
The "wheels of life" are heavy and hard and they whirl at a tremendous speed. They have a big grist to grind in these tense modern days. Any bit of harshness in among those rapidly revolving cylinders is sure to make a spark. And the air is full of dust,—the dust of conflicting opinions, of competing business, of clashing ambitions, of differing personalities. W-f-f! and there is an explosion that may destroy in a minute the profits of many days' grinding.
Keep the hard things out of your daily grist!—the hard thoughts, the hard words, the hard looks, the hard actions. And there is only one magnet that will draw them out,—the electric magnet of love.
Harmless Stings.
After experimenting for two years, a Mr. Burrows, of Essex, England, has evolved, it is said, a stingless bee. This innocent, lamblike creature can be received with safety in any drawing-room. He can be introduced to the children's nursery. We can become familiar with him and even insult him with impunity.
"Stingless" only in name, it appears, for he has a sting; but the sting is harmless. It is merely for show. It is a sort of evolutionary souvenir, like the human appendix.
Now that Mr. Burrows has accomplished this truly useful feat, will he not kindly turn his attention to mankind?
I should like to see the sting taken out of some folks' dispositions, and out of other people's words. Whew! what poisonous barbs an acquaintance of mine interjects into his conversation! And another can sting at long range, through the post-office. And another has an immaterial but venomous sting that works merely by a shrug of the shoulders or a lift of the eyebrows.
Stingless bees are said to be unusually good workers. I think a stingless man would do his work quite as well, and I know that other folks would work better.