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American Ttee Journal 



July 12. 1906 



English gardener managed to steal a little honey now and 

 then, but I do not remember at all how he got it; I or.ly 

 know that neither father nor mother would consent to tit 

 killing of bees with sulphur in order to get the honey. 



There came a time when Langstroth hives were made in 

 Ha.nilton. The manufacturer was authorised to sell hives 

 to my father, with the condition that Langstroth himself 

 should come down from Oxford and transfer the bees, and 

 he was so insistent that my father bought 30 hives to get 

 rid of the pestiferous sash-and-window-blind man ! 



So in June, after I was out of school, and when the 

 bees were busy with white clover and locust, here came 

 Langstroth to the big farm. He was a large, slouching man. 

 with a tendency to heaviness in the face. When the sodden 

 look disappeared pain was the predominant expression. I do not 

 now remember that he ever smiled. He came in a Lin- 

 colnian linen duster, and his other clothing was tidy and 

 shapeless. 



We received him in such fashion as became a freakish 

 mechanic and inventor. It was many hours before I learned 

 that he was a graduate of Yale, and hours again before I 

 knew that he was an ordained Presbyterian minister. Later 

 he was revealed to me as one who lived chiefly for the good 

 of others. I fell wholly in love with him when I found 

 that he was an out-of-doors man, a profound naturalist, 

 and, in every fibre, a poet. 



I learned, months after, that his career as a teacher and 

 a preacher was spoiled by fits of melancholy. During these 

 seizures he was often unable to endure the sight of a human 

 face for many days together, and he was sometimes obliged 

 to seclude himself from the public for many weeks con- 

 secutively. At the worst he fasted incredibly. When all 

 was over, he would come forth, a staggering cadaver, slowly 

 and shyly to resume his place in the family and in society. 

 It is a marvel that, like most geniuses, he did not learn 

 to blunt his pain with alcohol, or end all with suicide. 

 When I had learned that he was under the curse of genius 

 I comprehended his countenance better, and I came to doubt 

 that the cloud ever lifted from his noble mind. If I mis- 

 take not, he died at the top, and achieved the only rest pos- 

 sible for such as he. 



Well, I watched him from afar ; I brought him dry 

 and rotten maple wood and saw him subdue the bees with 

 smoke. When they were gorged he inverted the old hive 

 and drove his tens of thousands into an empty box set upon 

 it ; I saw the myriads shaken upon a sheet ; I noted the or- 

 derly march into a Langstroth hive. We took the old hive 

 to the cellar and mounted the combs as well as we could 

 in another Langstroth hive, and we soon drummed out an- 

 other colony of bees to take possession, and that day I grad- 

 uated an apiarist. It was the first of many happy days with 

 Langstroth and bees. Dr. Miixikin 



Dr. Miller — Mr. President, may the peace-loving spirit, 

 and the spirit of unselfishness that pervaded the entire life 

 of Langstroth, be present at all our sessions, whenever and 

 wherever these gavels are wielded. 



Pres. Dadant — The thoughtfulness which prompted this 

 gift can only be rewarded by a vote of thanks from the 

 Association and I will await the motion. 



Mr. Taylor — I make the motion. 



Dr. Bohrer — I second that motion; and before the mo- 

 tion is put I wish to supplement Dr. Miller's statement. 

 A remark occurred in one of the papers that they had never 

 seen Mr. Langstroth smile. I met him at one time and I 

 think he was one of the jolliest men I ever met. That was 

 in 1864. I was home from the army on furlough. I didn't 

 see him any more until 1866, when I happened to catch him 

 in his apiary when one of his attacks of melancholy was on. 

 II, was out in his apiary when I crime to the gate and opened 

 it, and I went right to him, and it was where these gavels 

 were taken from, at the brick house standing in the grounds 

 in Oxford, Ohio. He recognized me and shook hands with 

 me and 5aid, "Please excuse me and talk to Mrs. Lang- 

 stroth and my son James." That day, however, he did not 

 smile. 1 saw him at what was known as the American 

 Convention of Bee-Keepers, in Cincinnati, a few months later, 

 and he did not smile there. It was a short time after he 

 had lost his son, James T. Langstroth, and he asked me if I 

 had ever endured any such experience as that. I said, "Not 

 ia_ the way of a son, but I have lost some near and dear 

 friends. The most I can say in cases of this kind is to look 



to the Mighty Physician, and in addition to that the record 

 of your son is one no one need blush at." The old gen- 

 tleman did not smile. I think the Association ought to ac- 

 cept this gavel as a memento, and it should be guarded and 

 looked after with jealous care because he was one of the 

 greatest men in bee-keeping that the world has ever known. 

 There probably will never be another man live that will do 

 so much for the profession as did Mr. Langstroth. 



Mr. Hilton — I will now move to amend the motion, 

 that the vote be given by rising. 



The President put the motion as amended, and on a 

 vote being taken it was carried unanimously. 



Pres. Dadant — I wish to say the Presidents of both 

 Associations will take good care of these gavels, and that 

 they shall be handed from one President to another as long 

 as the Associations last. 



Dr. Miller — One little personal remark. At one time 

 when I was for some part of the year working in Cin- 

 cinnati, I went up to see Father Langstroth at Oxford, and 

 I did not see him, he wasn't there at all. A very short time 

 after that I was working in my office down in the city pre- 

 paratory to the first of Theodore Thomas' May festivals, 

 and Mr. Langstroth came in and we had quite a pleasant 

 little visit. I was unknown entirely to him, and owing to 

 the fact that an obscure bee-keeper had called to see him, 

 he came back to see me. I think it shows the humble spirit 

 of the man. 



Mr. York — I would like on behalf of the Chicago- North- 

 western Association to thank the donor of the gavel, and it 

 seems to me it is a very strange coincidence. I knew noth- 

 ing at all about this, but about a month ago I designed an 

 idea of having Mr. Langstroth's picture on the front page 

 of this paper, and a poem that had never been published 

 before, that he mailed to me over 10 years ago. I had the 

 pleasure of meeting Mr. Langstroth at the Toronto con- 

 vention, in 1895. I think Mr. Hutchinson will remember I 

 went to Flint on my way to Toronto, and I believe it was 

 near the Port Huron tunnel that Father Langstroth and his 

 daughter, Mrs. Cowan, boarded the train; but I had never 

 seen him before that. After we had ridden some miles Mr. 

 Hutchinson said, "I believe that is Father Langstroth." They 

 traveled nearly all day with us in the car, but we did not 

 speak to him. At that convention I had the very great 

 pleasure of meeting Father Langstroth, and talking to him 

 for about two hours in the hotel while a number of the bee- 

 keepers went to visit the Exposition. It seems to me I never 

 had been so entertained with any conversationalist as I 

 was at that time with Father Langstroth, and I have 

 been thankful to this day that I went to Toronto and had the 

 pleasure of meeting the great Father Langstroth. 



Mr. Aspinwall — Although I have been a resident of Michi- 

 gan for 23 years, my home was originally in New York State, 

 and my acquaintance with Mr. Quinby was some considera- 

 ble, and up to the time of 1895 I had never met Mr. Lang- 

 stroth. and 1 fully endorse the remarks made by Mr. York, 

 of the courteous manner in which he received strangers and 

 guests and entertained them. Previous to my return home. 

 Father Langstroth, upon that short acquaintance, volunteered 

 to send me an autograph copy of his work, which he did 

 shortly after that session. I merely state this to show the 

 spirit of the man as manifestly displayed by the remarks of 

 Dr. Miller, that he lived largely in the interests of others. 



Pres. Dadant — I wish to state that this gavel is en- 

 graved as follows : "Wood from tree planted by Rev. L. L. 

 Langstroth in his garden in Oxford, Ohio. National Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, 1905. F. M. ci " 



Mr. France — I would like to request on behalf of the 

 Association, if they would favor it, that the Association draw 

 upon its funds sufficient to have Father Langstroth's picture 

 framed and hung in our convention halls at future meetings. 

 I would move that. (Applause). 



Dr. Bohrer — I second the motion. 



Pres. Dadant — It will be understood that the motion 

 is simply to recommend this to the Directors. 



The President put the motion which was carried unani- 

 mously. 



Dr. Miller — With your permission I would like to read 

 the poem that Father Langstroth had written which has never 

 been published till just now. It is entitled, 



