196 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAI,. 



[March, 



taken by the defendants ex parte, without their 

 being obliged to give Mr. Otis notice, so that he 

 could be present and cross-examine their wit- 

 nesses. Mr. Gift'ord, of New York, advised him 

 to withdraw them for this reason. Tiie judg- 

 ment against Austin was for using the Kidder 

 hive. It was obtained by default, because Mr. 

 Kidder did not see fit to contest it. Mr. Austin 

 used but a single hiv,'. The object of the suit 

 was to test the validity of the Langstroth patent, 

 and show that the Kidder hive had infringed 

 upon it, and Mr. Otis had no need to call upon 

 Au.stin for any special damages. 



When I personally informed Mr. King, about 

 a year ago, that I regarded all his patents as 

 infringing upon mine, he very pleasantly told nie 

 '•that he would make a big fight," to which I 

 replied, that we were glad to find at last a party 

 who had so much at stake that he must defend 

 himself, and test the validity of the patent to 

 the satisfaction of the public. 



Since that conversation, several propositions 

 have been made by Mr. King to compromise the 

 matter, in one of which he says that he has evi- 

 dence, which if properly attended to, will, he is 

 confident, invaliiiate my patent ; but it will cost 

 a large sum of money, and he is unwilling to 

 engage in a controversy, and for the sake of 

 peace would prefer paying this money to obtain 

 a license under the Langstroth patent. For the 

 sake of peace, he was willing to get a license 

 under a patent which he could prove to be in- 

 valid, and thus join in calling upon beekeepers 

 to pay for using what was public property I 

 Surely, Mr. King's ideas of right and wrong 

 need amending as much as his various patents, 

 nearly every patented feature of which he has 

 after trial discarded. (See April No. of Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal. ) 



Mr. Mitchell says: "If Mr. Langstroth's 

 claims hold good, not one movable comb in 

 twenty will be held as infringers upon the Lang- 

 stroth patent." Now, we feel confident that the 

 very reverse of this will be judicially pro- 

 nounced true, and that not one movable frame 

 hive in twenty will escape being enjoined as in- 

 fringing upon the Langstroth patent. As to 

 our great surprise, Mr. Mitchell has so hand- 

 somely endorsed us as a clear-headed attorney, 

 he will surely review his opinion upon this mat- 

 ter, and thus make a proper use of our astute- 

 ness. We will charge him no fee for our " legal 

 lore." 



Let us look a little into that "threatening 

 article" in the Prairie Farmer, from Mr. Otis 

 and myself. I will fii-st give the article : 



" CAUTION TO BEEKEEPERS. 



All perso-ns using the Triangular Comb Guide, 

 or "bevelled edge," in Langstroth hives, are 

 cautioned against paying K. P. Kidder, or agents, 

 for such use. At our rerjuesi, he has sued us, and 

 we believe the courts will soon decide that the 

 said guide is public property, and that we are 

 not infringing his rights in the Clark patent. 

 L. L. Langstroth, 



Oxford, Ohio. 

 R. C. Otis, 

 Chicago, April 20, 1871. Kenosha, Wisconsin." 



This was written after Mr. K. P. Kidder had 

 served notice upon us that a suit would be 

 brought against us for infringing upon his rights 

 under the Clark patent on the triangular comb 

 guide. Does the advertisement "threaten dire- 

 ful things to all beekeepers using the movable 

 comb hives." It is true, that it was inserted as 

 an advertisement in some of the leading agri- 

 cultural journals of the United States, but the 

 bills we paid for thus attempting to protect the 

 public* would never have suggested to us the 

 idea of cheap advertising. 



We have little doubt that Mr. Mitchell did "at 

 that time put forth his mightiest effort to keep 

 from opening his batteries upon us." Neither 

 3Ir. King nor himself have ever made even a 

 moderate efibrt to open their smallest batteries 

 upon their friend Kidder. He is an enemy to the 

 Langstroth patent, and must have every opportu- 

 nity of levying unclnicked his detestable black 

 mail upon the Langstroth public. Messrs. King 

 and Mitchell know well that he is defrauding the 

 public, and that by their silence they are lending 

 him aid and comfort. 



Can those who have read Mr. Mitchell's abuse 

 of • ' the old and honored beekeeper for whom he 

 has ever entertained the best of feelings," can 

 they, even by the largest stretch of charity, help 

 believing that he enters upon his work with a 

 hearty determination to strike hard and wound 

 deep, and that his professed " tender mercies " 

 areas "cruel" as he dared to make them? 



Only a short year ago, he and Mr. King pro- 

 fessed at the Cincinnati convention to be my 

 warmest friends ; and Mr. King, in particular, 

 could hardly say enough in my praise, asserting 

 that "He (Mr. Langstroth) first made high bee- 

 cultui'e possible by his genius and industry," 

 and expressing his regret that his book con- 

 tained some reflections upon Mr. Langstroth, 

 which were published in misapprehension of the 

 facts, &c. Had I sold myself to these men at 

 that convention, and joined hands with them in 

 maligning Mr. Otis becau.se he asked the highest 

 tribunal of justice in the land, the United States 

 Court, to listen to his case, and decide whether 

 or not the patent of which he owned the largest 

 part was valid, and if valid ; to speak with the 

 strong voice of law to all infringers upon it, and 

 give them to understand that there was such a 

 thing as a legal patent on a bee hive, and that 

 its owners had some rights which the courts 

 would compel all parties to respect — had I then 

 and there acted with such atrocious bad faith 

 towards not only Mr. Otis, but towards every 

 other party who have purchased a territorial in- 

 terest in my patent, that the only way of explain- 

 ing my conduct would have been the conviction 

 that I had sold myself for filthy lucre, or had be- 

 come weak and imbecile from disease ; yes, had I 

 there become the associate of Messrs. King and 

 Mitchell, and like some others, their tool and 

 dupe, I might have been allowed to pass my hat 



* As we cannot do justice to Mr. Kidder in this 

 article, wo propose in a future number of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, to give the Clark patent and Mr. 

 Kidder's course as owner of it, a thorough examina- 

 tion. 



