1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



781 



those old days of enthusiasm makes the blood 

 even now tingle to my fingers' ends. 



As soon as I found that Mr. Langstroth was 

 living at Oxford, Butler Co., O., I commenced 

 correspondence. Then I wanted the best 

 queen-bee to start with that tlie world afforded. 

 It wa>* pretty well along in the fall, but I could 

 not wait till spring, as some of my friends ad- 

 vised me to do. I soon learned to look up to 

 friend Langstroth with such confidence and 

 respect that I greedily read again and again 

 every word I could find from his pen — even his 

 adverti-^ements and circular in regard to Italian 

 bees. When the book was read through once 1 

 read it again. Then I read certain chapters 

 over and over; and when summer time came 

 again, and I had little miniature hives or nuclei 

 under almost every fruit-tree in our spacious 

 dooryard, each little hive containing a daugh- 

 ter of that $20 queen, then I read Langstroth's 

 book with still more avidity and eagerness, 

 finiiag new truths and suggestions in it each 

 time. 



I think I met him first and heard him talk at a 

 convention in Cincinnati. He was a wonderful 

 talker as well as writer— one of the most genial, 

 good-natured, benevolent men the world has 

 ever produced. He was a poet, a sage, a philos- 

 opher, and a humanitarian, all in one, and, 

 best of all, a most devoted and humble follower 

 of the Lord Jesus Christ. His fund of anec- 

 dotes and pleasant memories and incidents was 

 beyond that of any other man I ever met: and 

 his rare education and scholarly accomclish- 

 ments but added to it all. No one I ever saw 

 could tell a story as he would tell it. A vein of 

 humor and good-natured pleasantry seemed to 

 run through it all. I think he enjoyed telling 

 stories— especially stories with good morals; 

 and they all had to have a good moral or they 

 could not come from L. L. Langstroth. Not 

 only the play of his benevolent face and the 

 twinkle of his eye. but the motion of his hands 

 as he gave emphasis to the different points in 

 his narration, showed how thoroughly he enter- 

 ed into his topic. 



It was ray good fortune to listen to him one or 

 more times from the pulpit. He preached to 

 us once here in Medina. The church was full, 

 but I hardly believe any one else in that large 

 audience enjoyed his talk as I did. They did 

 not kuoio him as I did. 



You must not think from what I have said 

 that our good friend always agreed with every 

 one else. He had opinions of his own, and he 

 could be stubborn and almost contrary when 

 he got "hot" in a discussion. But the gentle 

 spirit was back of it all. I remember once of 

 being out in the apiary, explaining to him some 

 wonderful improvement! had just been work- 

 ing out. He, however, did not see it as I did, 

 and stoutly maintained that the old way— his 

 way, in fact— was better. All at once I stopped 



and concluded we had better give up the sub- 

 ject. Pretty soon he laid his hand on my arm, 

 and said; 



"Friend Root, will you not forgive me? I 

 was rude an uncourteous. You have practiced 

 this thing, and are succeeding. ■ Very likely 

 you are light and I am wrong." 



Now, friends, how many times in this world 

 of ours do you meet a man with a spirit like 

 that? Once or twice I have knelt with him in 

 prayer. Sometimes we have prayed together 

 in regard to differences among bee-keepers; 

 and I have always been struck with his re- 

 markable gift in prayer. It seemed as though 

 he were pleading with some dear friend, when 

 he addressed his Maker. 



His last public talk to bee-keepers, if I am 

 correct, was the one given at Toronto; and I 

 felt anxious at the time that some shortnand 

 reporter might be at hand who could give all his 

 words, and even his little stories, just as he gave 

 them to us then. Perhaps others did not enjoy 

 .this talk as I did, because they did not know 

 him as I did. Why, that history of long ago, 

 telling of the troubles, blunders, and mistakes 

 in introducing the Italian bees from Italy to 

 America, should be handed down to comine 

 generations. It should be embodied in some of 

 the standard works on bees, in order to secure 

 its preservation. 



Langstroth and Quinby — those two old pio- 

 neers — have now both passed away, but " their 

 works do live after them," and shall live for a 

 thousand years or more. 1 feel anxious that 

 the first edition of both Langstroth and Quinby 

 should be preserved. There is something to me 

 more interesting in their first efforts- Quinby's 

 book, for instance, telling how to keep bees 

 with a box hive, and Langstroth telling his 

 first experiments with the movable-frame hive. 

 Those early editions should be preserved; also 

 the early volumes of the American Bee Jour- 

 7ial, containing the writings of these two great 

 benefactors of the world. 



When quite a child I was greatly interested 

 in reading the life of Benjamin Franklin. 

 When I first became acquainted with Lang- 

 stroth I could not resist the suggestion that he 

 was much like Franklin. The maxims of Poor 

 Richard suggest the thought. Mr. Langstroth 

 was remarkably well read in ancient litera- 

 ture. He was familiar with the writings of 

 great men in all the ages. It rejoices my heart 

 now to know that he has been remembered for 

 many years at our national conventions, and to 

 know that he was even present with his daugh- 

 ter at the one that occurred so short a time be- 

 fore his death. He never seemed to have a 

 faculty for accumulating property; but what 

 is mi.llionii of money compared to the grateful 

 remembrance with which Langstroth's name 

 will be spoken in every civilized land on the 

 face of the earth ? 



