214 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[March, 



friends will insist that the man who has heaped 

 upon him such shameful misrepresentations and 

 slanders, shall be shown in his true character. 

 Other facts also have come to light, and I feel 

 it is no longer possible for mo to hold any terms 

 with a man so steeped to the lips in falsehood, 

 slander and hyiwcrisy as is Homer A. King. 

 However strong are my provocations, I believe 

 that I shall not only say nothing which is not 

 strictly proper, but I know that if the public 

 could be made acquainted with the true history 

 of this man in his relations to bee-culture, they 

 would see that I hare still kept backaome treach- 

 eries ichich W'/U d b'i more damaging to him than 

 any which I have yet given to the public. When 

 the beekeepers of this country have before them 

 the evidence that this man scruples at nothing 

 that he thinks can be made to promote his pur- 

 poses, I have no fear that they will blame me 

 for at last speaking with a plainness that can- 

 not be misunderstood, or that they will fail to 

 see that in self-defence 1 have been driven by 

 Mr. King himself to expose the duplicity which 

 has marked his conduct since he first declared 

 war against Mr. Wagner and myself. 



In the November number of his paper, Mr. 

 King has the following characteristic utterance : 

 " We hope no one will accuse us of electioneer- 

 ing for olfice this year. We shall not be a can- 

 didate, neither shall we help to elect a man for 

 president, as we did last year, merely to confer 

 an honor upon him, and who has boasted that 

 bis election to that office was an acknowledg- 

 ment of his claims." This means that being 

 unanimously chosen president of a convention 

 of beekeepers, many of whom had rival and 

 perhaps conflicting patents, I have been mean 

 enough to abuse their confidence by boasting 

 that it was an admission of the validity of the 

 claims of my patent as against theirs ! Let us 

 look at the language I have used, and see if it 

 will warrant any such construction. "The 

 generous treatment which I have received from 

 the two beekeepers' conventions at Indianapolis 

 and Cincinnati, has, I trust, put to rest forever 

 all the aspersions which have been heaped upon 

 me by ignorant or designing men, as being the 

 mere introducer of a foreign invention, which 

 with some unimportant modifications, I am 

 charged with having patented, and attempted to 

 palm upon an unsuspecting public as my own." 

 If ever those charges are again made by those 

 who know the facts, they must renounce all 

 claims to triith, honor, or even common decency. 

 I shall not insult the common sense of my read- 

 ers by seeking to show that only the vilest mis- 

 construction of my language could distort it 

 into any such boasting as Mr. King alleges. I 

 was mistaken, however, in supposing that any- 

 thing could ever put to silence the aspersions of 

 designing men. The charges have been made 

 agaui, and by one who, from what he saw in 

 Europe, was better qualified than almost any 

 other man to know the facts, and by making 

 such charges he has renounced all claims to truth, 

 honor, or even common decency. 



It is well known, that Mr. King was elected 

 secretary of the beekeepers' association which 

 met in Cleveland last December. In the January 



number of his paper, he has as secretary given 

 the proceedings of that body. 



In his report of the proceedings of that body, 

 he gives a description of a certain hive embrac- 

 ing all the features of the hive patented to me 

 in 1852, and says " he speaks advisedly " when he 

 declared that these features were invented by 

 Mr. A. F. Moon over thirty years ago. 



Did the association authorize this utterance of 

 ]\Ir. King? did they require him to inject it into 

 the body of his rejjort, that it might go as it 

 were by their endorsement to every part of the 

 beekeeping world ? Not one word was said 

 about this matter in their public proceedings, and 

 it was left for ISIr. King to do the veiy thing of 

 which he so falsely accused me, viz. : to use dis- 

 honestly his position as an officer of the assf ela- 

 tion, to promote his own selfish interests by 

 trying to damage the claims of others ! 



Those who have read Mr. King's various com- 

 munications since this controversy began, can- 

 not but have noticed his frequent professions of 

 being governed by high Christian motives, and 

 his assertions, that under the severest provoca- 

 tions " God still gives him grace to love his ene- 

 mies." Judged from the tenor of such remarks, 

 coupled with the oft repeated affirmations, that 

 " his non-resistant principles would almost com- 

 pel him to acquiesce in unjust demands," or " to 

 prefer honorable compromise to legal contro- 

 versy," one need feel no surprise that he should 

 interlard not only his conversations and letters, 

 but even his telegraphic communications,* with 

 such suspicious religious utterances. If we give 

 full credit to the sketch of his life, published in 

 the Phrenological Journal for February, 1871, we 

 must agree that he is almost worthy to be can- 

 onized as a saint. 



" Active out-of-door exercise having now restored 

 the health of Mr. Kinij, his impulses of duty again 

 called him to the home missiouary field. A pecxili- 

 arity in his labor was, that lie never received any pay 

 for his ministerial work, not even for travelling expen- 

 ses, when called to jouruey for tlie benefit of his fel- 

 low men many miles by rail. This has given him 

 great power with skeptical minds, since they could 

 not question the purity of his motives, and the sin- 

 cerity of his purposes. 



" The business, however, to which he gave such 

 impetus, now began to feel the effects of his absence, 

 and yielding to a strong outside pressure, upon ma- 

 ture deliberation, he decided to return to his business, 

 under the solemn vow that he would use all his sur- 

 plus income to advance the holy work to which he 

 had devoted his youth." 



" Alas ! however, for the rarity of Christian 

 charity, under the sun !". It is to be feared that 

 this revelation to all the world of solemn vows, 

 which would otherwise have been known only to 

 Mr. King and his Maker, will be regarded by 

 most persons as a positive violation of the com- 

 mand of the Master : 



" Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not 

 sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in 

 the synagogues and in the streets, tliat they may 

 haye glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have 



* One telegram to me begins thus : "I feel to bless 

 and curse not." 



