1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



937 



It is certainly true that the world has never 

 had a bee-keeper who was more widely and 

 justly known, loved, and appreciated than our 

 dear father Langstroth. And so the world 

 never lost an apiarist who will be more widely 

 and sincerely mourned. 



I had visited our beloved and venerable 

 friend repeatedly at his own home, and had 

 entertained him at my home on several differ- 

 ent occasions. I grew to love him as a dear 

 personal friend, to admire him as a man of very 

 rare native ability and acquirements, to vener- 

 ate him as a man of the loftiest Christian char- 

 acter. Few persons ever suffered more cruelly 

 at the hands of unscrupulous, selfish, designing 

 men, and yet his great loving heart seemed to 

 harbor no thought of revenge or unkindness. 

 He exemplified, in a manner rarely witnessed 

 even among good men, Christ's words, "Love 

 your enemies, and pray for them that despite- 

 fully use you and persecute you." Indeed, he 

 was a rare example of one whose life was 

 wholly permeated and glorified with the spirit 

 of the Master. 



There are many men who excel in some one 

 line of work. They may have a genius at in- 

 vention; they may be wonderful at painting 

 word-pictures, and thus gifted in the art of 

 exposition; they may possess great intellects. 

 and thus become great scholars; they may 

 have that beautiful equipoise of character that 

 insures just judgments, and makes them broafl- 

 ly and grandly influential. But how rare to 

 find these qualities united in one and the same 

 person! Mr. Langstroth was all this. His 

 keenness of vision as an inventor was remark- 

 able; his power as an investigator and writer 

 was graphically illustrated in his admirable 

 work on the honey-bee; his ability and scholar- 

 ship were known, recognized, and appreciated 

 by all who knew him; while his beautiful 

 character, that thought no evil, could hardly 

 understand or believe that others were selfish, 

 calculating, and willing to take advantage of 

 his unsuspecting nature. His was a great 

 .mind, his a true loving heart, he that noblest 

 work of God, a true, sweet. Christian character. 

 To-day we know positively that Mr. Lang- 

 stroth was the inventor of the first practical 

 movable-frame bee-hive. The German top-bar 

 hive, with combs fastened to the side, was a 

 previous invention, as was the close-fitting 

 frame of Major Munn; but neither of these 

 was known to him previous to his own inven- 

 tion, and each was as inferior to his as is the 

 sickle to the self-binder. Mr. Langstroth had 

 the vision to see a great need, and the genius 

 to supply it; and in so doing he shared the 

 honor and glory of very few men — that of 

 revolutionizing a great industry, and changing 

 entirely its methods. He did more than this; 

 he did his work so well, that, though nearly 

 fifty years have rolled by, yet no one has been 



able in all that time to improve upon his in- 

 vention in any essential particular. What a 

 compliment to him, that his hive, essentially as 

 it was given to the world nearly half a century 

 ago. is to-day the hive of nearly all our bright- 

 est and most successful bee-keepers! No one 

 can gainsay the fact, no one can deny the glory, 

 of such an accomplishment. I can not find a 

 parallel case in all the history of inventions. 

 The sewing-machine, the reaper, the steam- 

 boat, the railroad locomotive of to-day, could 

 hardly claim relationship with the first ones 

 given to the public; indeed, we are told that 

 no one can afford to run a steamship of a score 

 of years ago. 



Mr. Langstrothwas also an author of the high- 

 est type. His " Honey-bee" will ever remain a 

 classic in bee literature. The incisive style, 

 the pure vigorous English, as well as the fasci- 

 nating subject-matter, alike charm the interest 

 and awaken the deepest admiration. Like an- 

 other classic, Darwin's " Voyage Around the 

 World," he opens up to us the secrets of inves- 

 tigation, and we are charmed as we discover 

 how his mind worked its way upward in the 

 realms of invention and scientific discovery, 

 and it is equally true that his honesty was as 

 thorough as was his genius at invention or his 

 ability to describe. He was no plagiarist, ei- 

 ther as a writer or inventor. Even the thought 

 of claiming the work or thought of others was 

 revolting to him. Had the same been true of 

 others, Mr. Langstroth would have died a rich 

 man. In all his writings he was overscrupu- 

 lous and particular to give every possible credit 

 to others. 



As a student in college, Mr. Langstroth stood 

 among the first. As a teacher in Yale College, 

 his alma mater, after graduation he won the 

 respect of all his colleagues. As a preacher he 

 was eloquent, persuasive, convincing. It was 

 my privilege to hear him preach on several 

 occasions, and he always held the closest at- 

 tention of all his hearers. Except for the men- 

 tal affliction that weighed him down for so 

 much of his life, he would certainly have gain- 

 ed wide fame as a pulpit orator. He was an 

 intimate friend of the great Henry Ward 

 Beecher, whom he resembled not a little in 

 personal appearance and style of oratory. 



Socially Mr. Langstroth was very exceptional. 

 Time always took flight when he became a 

 companion. An hour or even more was all too 

 short for the meal-time when he sat at the 

 board; and the hours for sleep were crowded at 

 both ends of the night when he was an inmate 

 of the home. His wide reading, his knowledge 

 of history, his acquaintance with men, his thor- 

 ough knowledge of the Bible, and his practical 

 adoption of its teaching and spirit, all combined 

 to make him a delightful and most valuable 

 and entertaining companion. 



His lifework specially endeared him to bee- 



