1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



963 



PERTAINING TO BEE CULTURE. 



THE GOLDEN BEE HIVE, AGAIN. 



Dear friend Root (for I have learned to love you as 

 one through Gleanings):— Inclosed please find a 

 circular containing- something' about the Golden 

 hive. I saw in Gleanings, Sept. 15, 1889, page 693, 

 that the circular is a fraud. Mr. .1. B. Picked is now 

 in Concord, Cabarrus Co., N. C, selling farm-rights 

 for $8.00, and giving a hive. Please ^publish the 

 same in Gleanings, and send a copy to our local 

 paper, The Times, Concord. He promised me to-day 

 that he would publish what you had in Gleanings. 



Concord, N. C, Nov. 14, 1889. S. L. Klutts. 



The day after, friend K. writes again as 

 follows: 



Mr. A. I. Boot.— On my way home yesterday even- 

 ing, J. W. Carriker showed me a circular that J. B. 

 Pickerl had given him on you. which you will find 

 inclosed. We do uo( like to see such reports 

 circulated on you, for we have come to love you as 

 a true Christian gentleman. Of course, we know 

 nothing of Gleanings ten years ago, but we do not 

 believe one word of it. I am trying to get all the 

 evidence that can be had concerning the Golden 

 bee-hive man. I wrote to A. J. Cook, asking him if 

 it was true that he ever used the Golden hive. 

 Please send a copy of Gleanings to The Times, 

 Concord, with the article marked. He promised to 

 publish it. Also send a copy to J. C. Klutts, who 

 bought a farm-right of the Golden bee-hive. His 

 postofttce is Clear Creek, N. C. Send one to J. W. 

 Carriker, Pioneer Mills, N. C. S. L. Klutts. 



Clear Creek, N. C, Nov. 15, 1889. 



Here is another letter from another friend 

 in the same vicinity : 



Mr. A. I. Root:— I have been a subscriber to 

 Gleanings for some time, and have become some- 

 what attached to you in that way. But there is a 

 gentleman in our county (if I can call him such) 

 who is selling the Golden hive, and circulating 

 scandalous circulars concerning you. In looking 

 over Gleanings I find him advertised in the 

 September number, 1888, as a humbug. I tell you, 

 I just felt like saying Sunday-school words to him 

 when he tried to injure a man whom 1 have every 

 reason to believe is honest, and a Christian, and is 

 trying to better his fellow-man. Please to give the 

 gentleman a hearing in the Concord Times, a weekly 

 paper published in our county. 



R. J. Caldwell, M. D. 



Clear Creek, N. C, Nov. 15, 1889. 



We do not need to occupy very much 

 space in noticing these circulars. A single 

 sentence from the large circular will be suf- 

 ficient : 



Prof. A. J. Cook, of the Michigan Agricultural 

 College at Lansing, reports over $ 80.00 from each 

 swarm of bees kept in the Golden hive last year. 



Our friends will notice that this is the 

 same thing we gave in the September issue. 

 Now, a man who will, year after year, print 

 such a statement, when Prof. Cook never 

 made any such report, and never had the 

 Golden bee-hive in his apiary at all, would 

 probably do any thing to get money. In re- 

 gard to the small circular alluded to, slan- 

 dering your humble servant, I will only say 

 that it is on a little sheet without a date, put 



out by N. C. Mitchell about ten years ago. A 

 sentence, or even a part of one from this 

 circular, will explain why Mitchell got it 

 out. 



" No doubt many of you, and especially those who 

 read Gleanings, know that A. I. Root has kept our 

 name at the top of his Humbug column . . . ." 



This is true. N. C. Mitchell has been ad- 

 vertised as a humbug and swindler, off and 

 on, for toward fifteen years. Good father 

 Langstroth, in commenting on the matter, 

 once said, " If Mitchell had employed the 

 same talents, skill, and education, in honest 

 work, that he has in trying to defraud, he 

 might have been well off." This is no 

 doubt true. Well, he who exposes hum- 

 bugs must expect slander and abuse. Many 

 of the present readers of Gleanings may 

 perhaps not be aware that your humble ser- 

 vant has not been preaching Jesus Christ all 

 of his life. When there came a change it 

 was a great change. " To be carnally mind- 

 ed is death ; but to be spiritually minded is 

 life and peace." Mitchell, of course, picked 

 up fragments of the old A. I. Root, and 

 thought with these to frighten me from my 

 purpose of exposing him. Of course, I did 

 not frighten worth a cent ; for he who is 

 serving the Master has nothing to fear, 

 even from his enemies. Do not be troubled, 

 dear friends. Let the enemies of truth and 

 honesty scatter as many circulars as they 

 please ; they will not harm your old friend. 

 His trust and refuge is with Him who 

 said, ' k Blessed are ye when men shall revile 

 you, and persecute you, and say all manner 

 of evil against you falsely, for my sake.'''' 

 Something comes in here, however, "which I 

 do not understand. What has Pickerl or 

 the Golden bee-hive to do with Mitchell, with 

 his old adjustable hive? It seems to me 

 that we are unearthing and bringing to 

 light an old humbug under a new guise. 

 We are very much obliged to the friends for 

 giving us prompt notice of the patent-hive 

 frauds. When Mitchell was exposed in one 

 locality he moved to another. In fact, he 

 started out in different localities, north, 

 south, east, and west; but when he found 

 that a subscriber of Gleanings popped up 

 in almost every neighborhood, he seemed to 

 lose heart, and, we hoped, had concluded, 

 as good father Langstroth had said, that 

 more money was to be made in honest, legit- 

 imate business, than by trying to get it by 

 falsehood and fraud. We have heard of 

 nothing in regard to Mitchell now for some 

 years. When friend K. gets his answer 

 from Prof. Cook, we hope he will place the 

 matter in the hands of the proper author- 

 ities, and have Pickerl arrested. If money 

 is wanted to bring him to justice, we shall 

 be glad to help furnish it. 



Since the above was written we have been 

 printing a lot of order-sheets for friend Jen- 

 kins. On the back of these he has the fol- 

 lowing : 



A WARNING I 



Stop thief! I hail the vender of " Rights " to use 

 the " Golden," the " Bernbeiin." and other so-called 

 patent (?) bee-hives. Quit your meanness, and make 

 an houest living by doing something else than going 

 about the country, taking people's money for— 

 nothing. 



Let us review the matter of patented hives a lit- 

 tle. In 1851 the Rev. L. L. Langstroth invented and 



