1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



281 



some insurance, but not enough if all was paid, 

 to liquidate the pressing debts incurred last year, 

 and she would be left without the means to pur- 

 chase bees again. She has since informed us 

 that the insurance was all paid, but was $1,000 less 

 than the amount she had to pay her late partner for 

 her half interest in the business. She adds, 'I must 

 begin again where I was ten years ago.' We 

 had no thoughts of saying anything to injure any 

 one, or afford an occasion for personal strife, 

 which has so long cursed the cause of bee-culture 

 in America." 



Tne apology for exalting Mrs. Tupper above 

 all other apiarian celebrities, is, it must be 

 -confessed, a very lame one, and those who think 

 it sufficient are certainly not hard to please. 

 " Inadvertence " is a poor excuse for the editor 

 of a monthly journal to set up ; and as for the 

 statement, " we did not intend to make such an 

 assertion," all we can say is, that it was of course 

 written and revised in manuscript before going 

 to press, and read after it was in print, and how 

 all this can be harmonized, is past our compre- 

 hension. But this is only a minor matter. 



The grave part of our complaint was and is, 

 that there was an attempt 1o hood- wink and de- 

 ceive the bee-keeping public in the appeal made 

 on behalf of Mrs. Tupper. Mr. King now says 

 Mrs. T. informed him at the start that there was 

 " some insurance," but not enough, forsooth, " to 

 liquidate the pressing debts incurred last year.' 

 This is a very different affair from its not being 

 enough to make up the " actual loss," to which 

 we referred in our remarks on the case. Now 

 Mr. King says: "She has since informed us that 

 the insurance was all paid, but was $1,000 less 

 than the amount she had to pay her late partner 

 for her half interest in the business." If we are not 

 misinformed, the insurance was $2,400 or there- 

 abouts; add $1,000 and you have $3,400. Well, 

 either the Italian Bee Company was doing a spank- 

 ing business, or Mr3. T.'s "late partner" sold out 

 remarkably well. But that's not the point in dis- 

 pute. The question is, whether we were justified 

 in declining to publish and endorse the appeal sent 

 out by Mr. King, and in putting the bee keepers 

 of the country on their guard in reference to it. 

 We maintain that we were, and that we should 

 have been guilty of a gross dereliction of duty 

 had we not done so. We have investigated this 

 matter pretty thoroughly, on the spot, since our 

 last issue, and the result has been thoroughly to 

 confirm the positions then taken by us ; that the 

 fire was a gain rather than a loss, that the insu 

 ranee was a far larger sum than any intelligent 

 bee-keeper would have given for the bee s, and 

 that the sending forth of an a appeal for sympathy 



and aid, was, under the circumstances, an act 

 deserving universal condemnation. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Who is to Blame? 



THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE NATIONAL, SOCIETY. 



Mr. Editor. — As much has been said about 

 the report of the N. A. Bee-keepers Society 

 being delayed, and I have been mixed up with 

 it, I wish to make a statement of all I know 

 about it. 



The Society adjourned at noon on the 6th of 

 December. I went to Louisville that night and 

 took the first boat for home next day, where I 

 arrived on the 8th. I sat down and made out 

 the report from my notes. I finished it and 

 corrected it in two days, and mailed it to H. A. 

 King on the morning of the 1 1th, and wrote to 

 him on that day that I had done so. Here my 

 responsibility ceased. 



On the 23d of December I received the fol 

 lowing letter from Mr. King, dated December 

 19th, and post-marked New York, December 

 19th. 3 p. m. : 



Gen. D. L. Adair. — Dear Friend — Yours of 

 11th was received yesterday, the day I reached 

 my office from the west. The report has 

 not yet arrived. I expected it early last 

 week, and my associates at the office waited 

 as long as they could keep the printers busy, 

 and then gave up printing, the report in our 

 January number, and when I ai rived I found 

 the paper nearly ready for press, many of the 

 pages made up, and most all of my type set up, 

 so that it will be impossible for me to set it up 

 for two or three weeks ; hence, I conclude that 

 I had better write to the different Bee Journals 

 and state the facts, and when the report arrives 

 have a clerk take a copy and return the original 

 to you. I think you had better send jjroofs of 

 your abbreviated report to all the papers at 

 once. Please send us a proof. 



I feared you would meet with this delay if 

 you went home before completing the report. 

 It should have been completed at Indianapolis 

 and sent per express to the office where the 

 proofs were to be made. 



I have three papers — monthlies — and only 

 hands and type enough to print one at a time ; 

 hence, I cannot wait many days for copy with- 

 out throwing all behind. I think it would 

 have been too late for the other journals even if 

 we could have waited, hence, it will be better 

 that it should not appear in my Journals for 

 January, but all wait until February number. 

 Yours as ever, 



H. A. King. 



I heard nothing further from the report until 

 I saw in one of his papers that he had given the 

 MSS. to Mr. Clarke, to be published in the 

 January number of the American Bee Journal. 

 Mr. Clarke writes me that he was in New York 



