T'HM MMBRICTtNl MMM JQ'^MKMIL. 



617 



after day without receiving any com- 

 pensation for liis labors ; antl I will 

 show j'ou the man that is able to eat 

 his hat. Some people think it more 

 pleasant to receive than give — es- 

 pecially those politicians who are the 

 recipients of public offices from which 

 emanate j)i7i(juis emoluments nine 

 magna Uiborc. 



Wh}', do you think that a jierson 

 would run for President of the United 

 States, if he has more money than that 

 office pays ; or, if money is no object 

 to him, unless he had some object in 

 view, such as praise, honor or glory P 

 In this case he receives the praise and 

 honor witli the concomitant pecuniary 

 interests as a secondary object. So, 

 also, with an inventor ; he not only 

 wants the prerogative to protect his 

 invention by a patent, but he wants the 

 renown emanating from the article 

 patented itself. 



HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE. 



And it is right that his name should 

 go down on the pages of history as a 

 benefactor of mankind, glittering like 

 the diamond — thi'owing out scintilla- 

 tions of light to future generations as 

 they come and go — among the galaxies 

 of the brilliant names of generals, 

 historians, doctors, astronomers and 

 poets. 



Do you think that a person would sit up at 

 night, 



While the mopping owl doth to the moon com- 

 plain 



Of such as wander near her sacred bower, 



and have his ears made the recipients 

 of other nocturnal noises, even into 

 that arching hour of night — when the 

 Northern bear, tired of prowling 

 around in the fold of the North Star, 

 has slunk into his den— which holds 

 the rest together, thus robbing his 

 brain and limbs of their needed 

 quietude, working on some book or 

 invention — if he did not e.xpect a 

 guerdon ? If it is a history into which 

 he has thrown the corruscations of his 

 genius, and made things in tradition 

 to appear to put on the countenance 

 of truth, like Prescott, a man, who 

 although blind apart of his time, wrote 

 histories so wonderful that tliere was 

 no need of treating them pragnuiti- 

 callj', because tlie imagination could 

 portray and picture the cause and re- 

 sults well enough to suit the mind's 

 eye ; and, I repeat it, although blind, 

 yet, like our own Huber, persevered 

 in his studies, rendering true that old 

 aphorism, viz : 



For nothing elsG is history 

 Hut piolile of antiquity 

 Where things are kept in memory 

 From stinkiuif, 



liad a right to have his histories copy- 

 righted, so that no one else could steal 

 his writings, and thus wrest from him 

 the emoluments emanating therefrom. 



So the inventor of the interchange- 

 able brood-eliamber and reversilde 

 alveary, thus sliowed to apiarists that, 

 albeit the Langstroth hive has been the 

 tlie standard liive for years, yet the 

 time has come, wlien in the face of 

 terrible drouths, reduced prices and 

 the like, that a Ijetterhive was needed. 



Some people think that certain in- 

 ventions cannot be perfected to a 

 greater degree. Such thoughts should 

 be relegated to the mixen of the intel- 

 lect — the omnium gatherum in Pan- 

 dora's bo.x of useless knowledge. And 

 yet, to show how ridiculous it is to 

 think in the aforesaid manner, let me 

 show it bj' an example : 



Edison, the great inventor, has been 

 making new inventions in the art of 

 telegraphy — inventions, which it put 

 into operation, would facilitate the 

 powers of telegraphy nearly bi-foUl. 

 The Western Union Telegraph Com- 

 pany seeing tliis, and knowing that if 

 these inventions came into the hands 

 of a rival company, that that companj- 

 would soon be able to surpass and out- 

 shine it, has been buying up these in- 

 ventions at the inventoi"'s price. The 

 formula for buying is like this : •' How 

 much?" "Check, filOO.OOO." 



When the Rev. L. L. Langstroth, the 

 inventor of the movable-frame hive, 

 and therefore juMtj able to determine 

 the merits of the hive, wrote that vig- 

 orous article published on page 294 of 

 the American Bee Journal for 1888, 

 \he. vox jiopuli against it, should have 

 held its breath a liitle longer ; but as it 

 did not, the result was quite a war in 

 the columns of our bee-periodicals. 



Jealousy in apiitultnre is a thing not 

 to be overlooked, because it is a worker 

 of evil to our puisuit ; therefore it 

 naturally follows, wliat is the cause of 

 all this " hue and cry" about an in- 

 vention that is revolutionizing many of 

 the ways of bee-keeping, and at the 

 same time purveying a good to hu- 

 munity ? Is it envy ? Then those of 

 our apiarsts who are envious concern- 

 ing certain late inventions, and be- 

 lieve in the Bible, should remember 

 that it says : "Thou shalt not covet 

 thy neighbor's wife, thou shalt not 

 covet thj' neighbor's house, nor his 

 man-servant, nor liis maid-servant, nor 

 his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that 

 is thy neighbors." But nevertlieless 

 we know that there are some people 

 who cannot master their tickle nature, 

 and let jealousy reign supreme and 

 uncondemned ; and, pushed on by 

 hatred or the love of gold, it grasps 

 them much after tlie following manner: 



But g-nawing Jealousy out of their sight, 

 Sittiug alone, his bitter lips did bite. 



Is it that they liad the idea in their 

 heads years ago, or fabricated tlie in- 

 ventions, and were ashamed to get 

 them patented, but preferred to keep 



them for their own private use ? Then 

 tliey should remember that he who 

 goes to tlie trouljle of patenting his 

 inventions, and bringing tlieni before 

 the public into practical use, standing 

 all tlie cavil and calumny besides 

 pli!eb<jtomiziug on the veins of his 

 pecuniary life-blood, shouUI most right- 

 fully be considered its inventor, as 

 Langstroth was of the movable-frame 

 hive, and Davis of the discovery where- 

 bj' the worker-larvso of one race of 

 Ijees can — with a tiny spoon or goose- 

 quill — be transferred to queen-cells of 

 a ditt'crent race ; thus in time chang- 

 ing the whole colony. 



Luck is not the motive whereb}- in- 

 ventions or success come, but hand 

 labor. If any one thinks that the 

 Langstroth and later hives came bj" 

 luck, he is mistaken; for "Luck is 

 ignis faiuiis (a will-o'-the-wisp) ; you 

 m.ay follow it to ruin, but never to suc- 

 cess." We must reason from what we 

 know, if we desire to avoid a proci- 

 dence in any profession or experi- 

 ments. This is the cause of failure 

 with a great many uninitiated bee- 

 keepers. They do not reason from 

 what they know, and instead of start- 

 ing in with one or two colonies, learn- 

 ing the business as they go along, they 

 dash headlong, prone into tlie waves 

 of bee-keeping, and not being able to 

 swim in apicultural waters, down thej" 

 go, leaving invectives behind them 

 against our pursuit. Tluirefore, in or- 

 der to avoid an apiarian prolapsus, we 

 see that we must reason from what we 

 know, and build up in knowledge as 

 we go along. 



The trutib of this is quickly seen by 

 reading of some of Langstroth's first 

 inventions. Before he had invented 

 the movable-frame hive, he used what 

 we now call top-bars ; the bees start- 

 ing the combs on the under surface of 

 the bars, and, building them down- 

 ward, thej' attached the combs to the 

 sides and bottoms of the hive. There- 

 fore, it will be seen, that he had to 

 cut the combs loose from the sides and 

 bottom of the hive, before he could lift 

 tlieni out. This, of course, was a great 

 improvement over the old box-hive, 

 but still it did not suit Mr. Langstroth. 



Then, by reasoning from what he 

 knew and saw, the idea struck him, of 

 nailing uprights to the top-bar and a 

 slat on tlie bottom connecting them, 

 the npi'ights. That it was a success, 

 we, apiarists of to-day, know full well. 



No, it does not pay to plunge pre- 

 cipitately into bee-keeping — better 

 " prospect," as the speculator sajs, or 

 according to John Lilly, "Cut thy 

 coat according to thj- cloth." Yes, it 

 was days, months and even years of 

 toil linked together with the hope of 

 receiving some reward in the end ; a 

 reference to which is given by our 



