914 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15. 



dent Day always strongly desired its abolition, 

 but he did not agree with many of the methods 

 pursued by our prominent anti -slavery men. In 

 his judgment, even the formation of ami-slave- 

 ry societies in the North was a mif^take. He 

 thought their natural tendency was to irritate 

 Southern men. and turn them away from mak- 

 ing any practical efforts to change their institu- 

 tions. I once heard him say, "■ If a door is part- 

 ly open, and you for some reason wish to have it 

 opened wider, it would not be wise to use such 

 irritating language as could only end in having 

 the door slammed in your face." I heard Wm. 

 Lloyd Garrison lecture in a church at New Ha- 

 ven. Many Southern students were present, 

 and great offense was given tliem by the oppro- 

 brious epithets which he so vehemently bestow- 

 ed upon all slaveholders. I could easily see that 

 their sense of justice was often violated, and 

 that they could not fail to be provoked, by his 

 strong denunciations of their Christian fathers 

 and mothers. I suppose it would, at that time, 

 have been an inconceivable idea to Mr. Garri- 

 son that ■' men-stcalers." as he called all slave- 

 holders, could possibly be real Christians. Tlie 

 cries. " It is a lie! you ai'e a liar! " were hurled 

 at him by those who truly believed that he de- 

 served such epithets, and the meeting broke up. 

 I believe, in confusion. Some years later I read, 

 in a Portland paper, an angry controversy car- 

 ried on between John Neale and Mr. Garrison, 

 long before the latter became prominent as an 

 anti-slavery agitator. One sentence dwelt long 

 in my memory, and inspired a strong dislike to 

 Garrison. The purport of it was, that Neale 

 might live to be proud some day of the connec- 

 tion of his name with that of Garrison: " For" 

 (I quote from memory) " it is my determination 

 to make the name of William Lloyd Garrison 

 known wherever the sun doth rise and set." To 

 " make the name of William Lloyd Garrison 

 known" seemed to me. for a long time, to be too 

 much his leading motive. If it was, he lived to 

 rise nobly above it in his subsequent career. It 

 may well be doubted, whether the steps which 

 led to the overthrow of slavei'y could ever have 

 been taken by men who did not possess the 

 Lutherlike spirit of Garrison and his associates. 

 But what if he had possessed a stronger spirit 

 of love? or if he had been, as it were, a Luther- 

 Melancthon embodied in one soul? But God 

 raised up a Luther and a Melancthon, out no 

 Luther-Melancthon. 



In the Andover church, as in so many others, 

 there were wide and irreconcilable differences 

 of opinion as to what ought to be done by church 

 action on the slavery question. One of my own 

 church- members came to converse with me one 

 day. on this (to him) all-engrossing theme. We 

 differed widely: he grew more and more excited 

 as his voice rose higlier and higher in fierce re- 

 monstrances. In a lull of the storm, a tapping 

 was heard at my study door: and when I open- 

 ed it my wife stood therewith tokens of surprise 

 if not alarm on her countenance. My angry 

 parishioner subsided at once, and. taking her by 

 the hand, he said, with a pleasant smile, " Did 

 you think that I was abusing your good hus- 

 band? I know I lost my temper, for which I 

 apologize to you both; but let me assure you 

 that, however much we differ on the question of 

 slavery. I believe that we honestly differ, and I 

 think that there is no man in the parish who 

 loves your husband belter than I do, or would 

 go further to serve him." 



It is by no means certain, that, if Garrison 

 and his co-agitators had been able to obey more 

 fully the Savior's injunction, to be "wise as 

 serpents and harmless as doves," they ever 

 could have brought about a peaceable solution 

 of the slavery question. Before the war, how 

 many wise and good men sought to prevent the 



sword from being drawn: and during the bloody 

 struggle, how many cried out. in the words of 

 the prophet, " O thou sword of the Lord, how 

 long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself 

 into thy scabbard; rest, and be still," to be "ans- 

 wered only by the words of the same prophet, 

 '■ How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath 

 given it a charge, and he hath appointed it?" 

 Perhaps this very passage suggested to Lincoln 

 what he said about the blood shed by the lash, 

 and that to be shed by the sword. 



In the autumn of 1856 I heard Theodore Par- 

 ker preach a thanksgiving sermon in Boston, 

 from the text, " The harvest is past, the summer 

 is ended, and we are not saved." He gave it as 

 his opinion, that the last opportunity for the 

 peaceable settlement of the slavery question, in 

 this countiy, had passed by unimproved ; and 

 then he uttered those prophetic words," Slavery 

 shall perish, buther suv shall (jo down in a sea 

 of blood! ^' It is easy for us now to see how 

 much better than most preachers or statesmen 

 he read the signs of the times. 



Dayton, O. L. L. Langstroth. 



Continued. 



MANTJM INTEODTJCING VIRGIN QUEENS. 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS FROM A. E. MANUJi; 

 THE VALUE OF HATCHING BROOD. 



I was talking to the bees, and said: : - 



"There, take that, and we will see if you will 

 accept this queen." 



" Hello. Manum! what are you trying to do 

 with those bees all shaken out in front of the 

 hive?" asked Mr. Charles McGee, as he made ■ 

 a call on his return home from his own apiary, , 

 which is located eight miles distant. 



"Well. Charles, you have caught me this.! 

 time, sure. I have always claimed that my-, 

 method of introducing virgin queens was sue- ' 

 cessful: and while it is, as a rule, yet I find an > 

 occasional colony that gives me more or less 

 trouble; and while, formerly, not over two per 

 cent of my virgin queens have failed to be ac-. 

 cepted, this year I think all of five per cent 

 have missed, and the second queen has been 

 given, while this colony have killed the second 

 one. and I have just given them the third one." 

 •• What do you attribute the failiu'e to?" 

 " Well, Charles, to my mind there are two 

 causes. One is, the lack (or dearth) of honey 

 in this locality. The bees being idle, they are 

 more sensitive and irritable, and lience more 

 particular, perhaps, about accepting queens; 

 and then, again, owing to the press of work, I 

 have given some of my colonies queens too soon 

 after removing their old one; and in many 

 cases I have been obliged to give them queens 

 that had been hatched several days, and that 

 had remained in the nursery cages that were in 

 colonies which had laying queens; and having 

 neglected to feed these colonies regularly, and 

 as bountifully as I ought, the colony became 

 enraged nt having hatched queens within their 

 hives. They tried to kill them, but could not. 

 as these virgins were safe within the nursery- 

 cages. In many instances, when I would go to 

 these nursery colonies for a queen I would find 

 the cages balled by enraged bees, and. of course, 

 the queens within became excited, and more or 

 less scented with the poison emitted from the 

 enraged bees. Therefore this condition of 

 things I believe to have been one cause of the 

 non-acceptance of so many queens. I tell you, 

 Charles, there are many little things which we 

 are liable to overlook or neglect, which are the 

 real cause of some of our failures; we should, 

 therefore, be watchful of little things." 



