1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



213 



Mel iu ore, verba lactis, 

 Fel iu rorde, fraus in lactis. 



Medirei'al Latin. 

 With lioneyed lips and creamy words, 

 His lieart is gall, aud all las acts are frauds. 



Personal — " Homer A. King, the Eminent 

 Apiarian.* 



Those of my readers who saw the American 

 Bee Journal for April, 1871, are aware that in 

 stating the matters at issue between Mr. King 

 and myself, I used no language in the least 

 derogatory to his personal character, or that by 

 the severest construction could be deemed lack- 

 ing in courtesy towards him. Had he chosen to 

 carry on in the same spirit, the controversy as to 

 the validity of the Langstroth patent, and his al- 

 leged infringement upon it, nothing would have 

 appeared in the columns of his paper or of the 

 American Bee Journal which might not proj^erly 

 have been said by Christian gentlemen. So 

 soon, however, as Mr. Otis refused to listen to 

 his propositions for compromises, and I assured 

 him personally that nothing short of a legal de- 

 cision sustaining or invalidating the Langstroth 

 patent would ever satisfy the beekeeijing pub- 

 lic, he began to f^ssail me and the late Samuel 

 Wagner, who had so ably exposed the worth- 

 lessness of his patents, with the most bitter 

 personalities ; to represent me as the mere intro- 

 ducer of foreign inventions, and as sustained by 

 Mr. Wagner iu patenting them as my own, in 

 order to deprive others of the honor which was 

 their due. In the December number of his 

 paper, these attacks were brought to a focus, 

 intended if possible to consume us. Not con- 

 tented witli assuming that the works of Debeau- 

 boys, Munn and Berlepsch had fully anticipated 

 all my claims, he suggested that I had procui-ed 

 the re-issue of my patent through a purciiasable 

 patent office examiner, and that j\Ir. Wagner 

 had aided me by his knowledge of German bee- 

 culture, to patent a foreign invention as my own. 

 He even went so far as to insinuate that I was 

 acquainted with one Backliaus, to whom Ber- 

 lepsch says he sent some hives with frames in 

 1851, thus endeavoring to strengthen tlie con- 

 jecture of the Baron, that I copied my invention 

 from his. 



"Coelum non animum mutant qui trans mare cur- 

 runt." 



The same unscrupulousness which he has 

 shown in all this controversy in this country, 

 he carried with him over the ocean, and by the 

 grossest misrepresentations, induced an honora- 

 ble man to assail publicly one who had always 

 spoken of him with respect. 



" Alas ! 

 Some minds improve by travel — others rather 

 Resemble copper wire or brass, 

 Which gets the narrower by going farther." 



If, in his abuse of a man who less than a year 

 ago he professed to love almost as well as David 



* See Fowler's Journal of Phrenology, Feb., 1871, p. 

 133. 



loved Jonathan, he had ventured to insinuate 

 that I had something to do with the lo.ss of his 

 stolen documents, it would not have surpiised 

 me, for this would have been mild compared 

 with his attempt to fasten upon me the brand of 

 perjury, bribery, subornation of perjury and 

 swindling ; perjury, in swearing to the inven- 

 tion of another as my own ; bribery and subor- 

 nation of perjury, in purcliasing of a sworn 

 official a reissue to which I was not entitled ; 

 and swindling, in selling to the public a patent 

 to which 1 had no valid title. 



When this December number came to my 

 house, freighted as it were with maledictions, 

 aimed not merely at my property and rights, but 

 at my reputation, and that of the most noble and 

 generous of friends, I was laid aside from all 

 ability to use either mind or body to any advan- 

 tage ; suffering from a cruel malady, to whicli I 

 have been subject from my college days, and 

 which has caused the loss of more than one- 

 half of my time for the last twenty or more 

 years— when this deadly missive came to my 

 house, my family hesitated for some time to put 

 it into my hands, dreading its ettect upon me in 

 my suftering condition. Deciding at length that 

 it would be wrong to withliold it, it was given to 

 me for perusal. Thank God ! instead of harming 

 me, it proved the very best of tonics ; nay, 

 rather like an electric shock, it raised me from 

 my torpor, set my mind almost instantaneously 

 to work, and shortened by months the usual 

 length of my attacks, so that soon, pen in hand, 

 I was devising what reply ought to be made to 

 its many misrepresentations. 



Could I for a moment forget that less than a 

 year ago, this Homer A. King, professed, after 

 notice had been served upi,n him of tlie Otis suit, 

 tlie most unbounded friendship for me ; that I 

 had published nothing which miglit not have 

 been said against the most honorable opponent, 

 and that when he found that I would not impede 

 the efforts of Mr. Otis to test the validity of my 

 patent— "only this and nothing more " — he fell 

 upon me with fury, and in almost every number 

 of his paper sought- to consign me to "the bot- 

 tomless pit of public condemnation. " (See June, 

 1871, No. of his paper). No ! I could not forget, 

 that to these charges I had made no reply, and 

 that his audacity seemed to be increased by my 

 silence. It was under these circumstances that 

 I still determined to deal as little in personali- 

 ties as possible, but by adhering strictly to the 

 facts, to pi-otect my legal rights and tlie rights 

 of those who had purchased under my patent. 

 After doing tliis in as courteous a manner as 

 seemed possible, I closed my article in the Feb- 

 ruary number of the American Bee Journal 

 with these words : 



"Does Mr. King, when suggesting that I 

 might have bribed the patent office examiner, or 

 that I might have conspired with Mr. Wagner 

 to patent a foreign invention as my own, sup- 

 pose that the beekeepers of this country will 

 consider him as using tlie legitimate weapons of 

 an honorable warfare, or that they will ever give 

 credit to such unworthy insinuations'?" 



Since this article was written, Mr. Samuel 

 Wagner has died, and I know that his many 



