iRICAN BE 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AT TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



Vol. VII. 



AI?I£IL, IST^S. 



No. 10. 



[For Wagner's American Bee Journal ] 



We promised to give our readers, with suit- 

 able comments, the attack on Mr. Wagner by 

 Mr. King's associate editor. We shall preface 

 this attack, with an editorial from King's Feb- 

 ruary number, to show that his paper endorsed 

 it. 



"Those who have read Mr. Wagner's 'slang' 

 notes about the person who has brouixht tlie fncU to 

 jiulilic notice, concerniny: the invention of movable 

 Irames, will discover the fallacy of Mr. Warner's 

 statements, by remittine: 2.5 cents to Messrs. Moon 

 & AJitchell, for copies of the National Bee Journal. 

 For replies by Mrs. E. S. Tapper, send 25 cents to 

 her, Des Moiues, Iowa, lor copies of the Iowa Home- 

 stead." 



[For the National Bee Journal. 



Sneaking out a Patent. 



Messrs. Editors : — To most of the scurril- 

 ous attacks and mean insinuations of Samuel 

 Wagner against Mr. King, the latter has not 

 deigned to reply, and to our knowledge he has 

 njore than once refused the columns of his jour- 

 nal for these personal aftairs, even though writ- 

 ten by others in his own defence. We shall not 

 call in question the wisdom of his course, for 

 when contrasted with Mr. AVagner's, even the 

 latler's own friends cannot but admit that it is 

 the wiser of the two. It is generally true that 

 slanderous reports will not injure, unless by 

 combating them we give them standing and 

 character. But there are occasions when " for- 

 bearance ceases to be a virtue ;" when if a man 

 does not raise his voice in defence of his mo- 

 tives, or character, he will have the one impugned 

 and the other injured by the falsehoods of envy 

 and malice. From our position as Associate 

 Editor of the Bee Keeper i^'' J'.uriviJ, we have had 

 every opportunity of becoming familiar with all 

 the facts of the present controversy, and shall 

 therefore speak advisedly in answering a few of 

 Mr. W.'s "foot-notes" and editorial vents of 

 impotent rage. 



We are informed that Mr. W. is an "old man," 

 and this fact is frequently brought forward to 

 excuse his conduct. Were we to judge of his 

 age by these jaersonal attacks on Mr. King, in 

 defence of his hive interests, we should unhesi- 

 tatingly pronounce him a very young man, for 



they exhibit only the rashness of youth, and not 

 the experience and sober thought of a mature 

 mind. The only way we can reconcile his inju- 

 dicious course, his " storms of blind fury," 

 with the reports of his great age, is on the sup- 

 position that he is now in his second childhood. 



Mr. W. warns the writer of an article in his 

 last journal, to be on his guard lest Mr. King, 

 whom he courteously denominates "The Great 

 American Humbug inventor," should "sneak 

 out a patent," on something mentioned in his 

 article. We once heard of a man who insanely 

 supposed he was monarch of the whole earth, 

 and who raved incessantly because men did not 

 come and reverence him. Mr. W. is almost 

 there, for he arrogantly assumes that all matters 

 pertaining to apiculture must be referred to him, 

 and if a man obtains a patent on any device to 

 advance bee-culture, without his knowledge and 

 consent, he "sneaks it out." This is just what 

 Mr. W. meant by this expression, and we propose 

 to stdjstantiate it, and to show who "sneaks" 

 and -how it is done. 



By the rules of the Patent Office, no officer, 

 clerk or employee is permitted to give any 

 information concerning the application for a 

 patent, or the proceedings during its examina- 

 tion, except to the inventor or his authorized 

 agent. Yet it has been long reported that Mr. 

 Wagner was intimate with Patent Office officials, 

 and being better posted on bee matters than 

 they, was generally consulted when applications 

 were made for patents on bee hives, and otcuirig 

 tfrntory in the L. L. jxitent, he had always done 

 what he could "thus sneakingly," to prevent 

 the issue of such patents. These reports were 

 recently confirmed by a prominent member of 

 the Cleveland Association, from the South, and 

 there is no doubt of their truth. When Mr. 

 Quinby made application for a patent, he 

 thought of going to Washington himself, but his 

 agent thought there would be no difficulty iu 

 securing it, and he did not go. The conse- 

 quence was his application was rejected "be- 

 cause the device was covered by Mr. Wagner's 

 patent." How was it discovered that it con- 

 flicted with Mr. W.'s patent ? Wagner's friend, 

 Mr. Bickford, admitted that he (Mr. W.) "hap- 

 pened " to be in the Patent Olhce when the ap- 

 plication was being examined, and vv-as invited 

 into the room to give his opinion on the case. 



