52 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



THE UNTIMEl,Y DEATH OF "raMBI^ER." 



John H. Martin, otherwise l^^nown 

 as "Rambler," died Dec. 13, in Ha- 

 vana, Cuba. He was first taken with 

 a fever, and, just as lie was rallying 

 from that, pneumonia set in, and he 

 lived only a short time. He was de- 

 cidedly the humorist of our ranks. His 

 humor was not the wooden, made-to- 

 order, try-to-be-funny-on-purpose kind, 

 that kind that makes a man shudder, 

 shut his teeth together hard and think 

 thoughts that must not be spoken; 

 Rambler's humor was spontaneous. It 

 bubbled up like a clear spr'n,; that 

 goes laiighing and sparkling do^vu the 

 mountain-side. His humor was like 

 that of Josh Billings. It was philos- 

 ophy expressed in a humorous way. 

 A sad but strange feature, consider- 

 ing the humorous style in which he 

 wrote, was that deep down in his 

 heart was a great sorrow. He was 

 not given to talking of this, but he 

 once wrote me than when the wife of 

 his youth died, the light of his life 

 went out. No man has done more to 

 brighten and lighten the pages of 

 Gleanings than has Rambler. He sav- 

 ed them from the monotony and 

 heaviness that comes from heavy ar- 

 gximents continued month after 

 month. It is sad to thus see friend 

 after friend drop out of our ranks, but 

 it should warn us that soon our life's 

 work will be over, and lead us to do 

 oiu- very best while we do live. 



THE GENERAT, MANAGER EI,ECTlON. 



The majority of the Board of Direc- 

 tors of the National Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation, after thoroughly considering 

 the matter, have decided that the elec- 

 tion for Genera] Manager was legal, 

 and cannot be set aside. They woiild 

 have been glad to have taken another 

 ballot, but it would have been clearly 

 illegal, and would have led to greater 



troubles and complications. Mr. 

 b'rance would also have been glad to 

 have had another ballot, but, Avhen he 

 became convinced that it was impos- 

 sible, bravely consented to accept the 

 office, made out a bond, and forward- 

 ed it to the chairman of the Board. It 

 is now being passed around for ac- 

 ceptance by the members of the 

 Board, and, by the time this is being 

 read, tlie office will probably have 

 been turned over to Mr. France, who, 

 it is safe to say, has no enemies, and 

 Avill make a good officer. While there 

 have been some very unpleasant fea- 

 tures connected with the General Man- 

 agersliip during the last year, all are 

 agreed that it is time to stop quibbling 

 and wrangling, to practice a little for- 

 bearance, and get down to business. 

 Nothing can be gained by further ar- 

 gument. Some of our lessons have 

 been pretty severe, but it is to be 

 lioped that they have been so thor- 

 oughljf learned as to prevent further 

 troul)les from the same sources. 



While through a peculiar combina- 

 tion of circumstances the amendments 

 to the constitution that INIr. Abbott at- 

 tempted to present at Denver were 

 not sent out to be voted upon, there 

 is no doubt that some amendments 

 are needed. In fact, one great source, 

 if not the soiu'ce, of most of our late 

 troubles have been from a lack of 

 definiteness in our constitution. T>ast 

 spring Avhen I was consulting with a 

 neighbor who is speaker of the House 

 in our legislatm-e. and asking his ad- 

 vice in regard to some of our prac- 

 tices, he asked me frequently: "What 

 does your constiution say on that 

 point?" When I e.xplalned to him its 

 lack of definiteness, he said: "Well. 1 

 guess about the first thing you better 

 do, is to give that constitution a thor- 

 ough overhauling." It is a little early 

 now. perhaps, to discuss details of 

 needed changes, but it should be tak- 



