1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUIiE. 



461 



harm. lie has agreed with me, within a few 

 days, that it was a mistaken kindness to 

 him, although I did it with the kindest of 

 motives. Is it not possilde that God k)io\vs 

 that wliat you and I are both i)raying for 

 now would in the end dc us harmV I have 

 thanked God a great many times for with- 

 holding money from me, after I could loolc 

 back and see where it would have done 

 harm. Can we not both thank him now for 

 withliolding tliat which he in his great wis- 

 dom sees will not be best? Children are 

 sometimes stubborn, and refuse to be taught: 

 shall we be of that class? },ly dear friend in 

 trial, you and I both liave on'e great precious 

 gift tliat man> of the world know not of. It 

 occurs to me .lUst now, that we might with 

 consistencv even slimit for joy at the bare 

 thought of it. Shall I t^ll you what it is? 

 .V little verse that I have been singing for a 

 few weeks past, at odd times, tells it. 



1 am tliiiic. Ol.i.Kl. I 111 

 Anil it tolil thv li'>vi- ti 



I'.ut 1 long- tn rise in lli. 

 Anil liucliiserilr.uvii i 



vrliiiiiil til. 



mv: 



anus of rail 



'• And it told thy love to me." Poor, un- 

 worthy, rebellious"///' . There is no mistak- 

 ing it. We have both heard that voice, even 

 if we do not hear it so plainly now. That 

 love is not gone, unless we have driven it j 

 away by '' unrighteousness." I want to pay | 

 all iny just debts, even to the uttermost j 

 farthing (in fact. I would rather pay some 

 things it seems to me I do not justly owe. 

 than to make ajiy mistake about it), and then 

 all the i-est may gt). ( iive me that love, and 

 all the world's "possessions are as nothing to 

 me. Still, if God wants me to hold them 

 and wield them for the good of you all, all 

 right. If 1 do not get enough kind words 

 along the way t(^ make me happy anyhow. I 

 Avill just remember that love that was spok- 

 en '• to me " away back on the night when I 

 lirst told my Savior, on bended knee, that I 

 wanted him to lead and I would follow. 



AMOS If. ROOT. 



^ N the July luiinber nl' tiLKANiNGs appeared au 

 W article characteristic of the abo\ e persouage, 

 c-ai but not very compliiiK'ntary to ourselves. It 

 was characteristic of Mr. Koot for iiiauy rea- 

 sous, among the number being the falsehooils it con- 

 tained, and the evident desire to injure a competitor 

 in business. Mr. Koot copied an extract from one of 

 our advertisements, and S9>s that it appeared in the 

 May and June numbers of his Gi.kamngs: yet the 

 pages of this same Glkanimjs disproves the asser- 

 tion. Tlie advertisement referred to by Mr. K. was 

 written in the mouth of March last, and was changed 

 Ijyus as soon as practicable after we had ascertained 

 the loss of <iur bees. It may have been our duty to 

 have known each day the exact condition of our 

 bees; but as we are not accustomed to their daily 

 inanipulation during the winter season (and April 

 waf, tor the most part, a winter month here), espe- 

 cially when located Jive miles from home, possibly 

 we are excusable for not knowing, at the time, that 

 our bees were starving to death. 



Early in May we received a letter from the pub- 

 lisher of Gleanings, stating that he was informed 

 by our neighbors that we were advertising a hardy 

 strain of bees, when, iji fact, they were all dead. In 

 reply to our inquiry, Mr. Itoot admitted that he was 

 unable to furnish the names of those parties who 

 knew so much more about our business than we did 

 ourselves; yet, Mr. Root had the audacity to publish 

 this statement, which he could not verify, in July 

 Gleanings. 



After making several other untruthful statements 

 regarding us and our business, Mr. Root winds up his 

 July strictures with the ever-convenient exhorta- 



tion, calling upon us to confess our great sin. With 

 the July number of Gleanings came a note from 

 Mr. Koot, requesting us to furnish him a list of those 

 customers whose orders we had filled or returned 

 their money. To this we replied as follows:— 



SoiTII Havkx. Mil II , July 4, 1881. 

 Ml! A. 1. liiiiiT. Muilina. ().: Dear Sir.-- 



V. Ills ,,r .luiif.'W. tnfri'thiT with .Jnlv I ;i.ka.n-ini;s. r-niiJulv i. 

 In 111.- attilnilf Villi silk til plan- iis, tlii-ri- is vnv ;titk- ihn"ni-<- 

 fill- ns to ii-iily. Oni- I'lli.vts tn prm iiri- Miitalili' "assist.inci.- are 

 iloiilitli-ss already kmiwii to ymi, lirnci- no cxiilanati'iii is neces- 

 sary. So far as imy iriiin- is lonieineil. whieii yon ehiir(,'e tiiioii 

 lis witli sneli eviilent ilelitrlit. we eaii only snv. that we stand Ijv 

 every word of every line we Iiave written. We meant just what 

 niir advertisenunts said at the time they were written. We 

 mean it now. We have nothing to take liaek. We have never 

 lieen aeenstoined to make thoufrlitless assertions, expeetiiifr with 

 the same lireath to reiall them. " t'onsisteiiiy is a jewel.' ' U 

 has heen onr lonstaiit aim and endeavm to do a straitrhtfor- 

 ward. lesritimate linsiniss; to p.iv our lionest debts, and he just 

 to all. We arefalliliie. and doulitless liave made mistakes.' In 

 the hurry and bustle id business, with its eonstant demands up- 

 on IIS for the ))ast few months, it eoulil not well be otherwise; 

 but we ever stand ready to rectify them, so far as lies in onr 

 liower. 



With resrard to letuiiiiiiyrnione.v when deni.anded. we can inily 

 say. we have done so as fast as we conld possilily. The motive 

 lor tills attack upon lis seeins to be. • His prices were also lower 

 than others'.' ' When a man becomes a .strontr competitor in 

 business, stamp liini out. No more favorable opjjoitunlty 

 could of coui-se be selected, than when he is laboring under 

 linaiiiial cnibarrassmcut. This, then, is the inle of action. 

 When American liee-kcepei's shall know the facts ill tliis case, as 

 they sonic time may, we shall rest content, williutr to abide by 

 their decision. 



To notice in detail the iiiitinthfnl assertions conceriungr us in 

 last Gi.E.vxiNGs would reiiuire more time than we have at onr 

 command. In fact, we have already written more than than we 

 intended. In concmsion, will only say. )ilease discontinue our 

 advertiseiuiut in 111 KAMM.s. Send us yuiir bill for same. AVe 

 will )iay it jnst as sion as we can do s,',. We expeit that your 

 etfoi Is to '• help ■ ' us will materially delay the payment of some 

 of our bills. With malic,' toward none, aiul charity tor all, anil 

 a ilcti rmiiiation to do all in our power lo satisfy every just dc- 

 iiianil made upon ns. we are Yours, etc., H. .\. BlKi II iV Co. 



Mr. Root, have you corrected the many untruths 

 .vou have published in regard to us'r Did you even 

 print this letter in the last number of Gleanings'/ 

 Let the pages of Gleanings answer. Instead of 

 '• trying to help us pull through," do they not unmis- 

 tak.ibly show a determination to do all in your pow- 

 er to not only crush our suppl.v trade, but to blast 

 our reputation for honesty and integrity as well? 



in August fJLEANiNGS you say you have heard of 

 but two cases where we have shipped bees this sea- 

 son. Mr. Root, is that the truth? Did you not know 

 you were writing au untruth when you penned those 

 words? If we are not mistaken, more than the num- 

 ber of " cases" you mentioned had been brought to 

 your attention. If you had desired the truth in this 

 matter, could you not have easily ascertained wheth- 

 er we were shipping bees or not? 



It is true, that you asked us for the names of our 

 customers to whom we had sliippcd bees or returned 

 money. That was indeed a very clever move on your 

 part; in fact, your life work is full of .iust such ma- 

 neuvers; but did you expect we were so green as to 

 "give awa.^ " our business to a rival in the trade? 

 You know very well, friend Amos I., that a line di- 

 rected to our express agent would have develope<1 

 the fact whether wc were shipping bees or not. 

 Since you did not care to ascertain the truth in this 

 respect, we may be pardoned for stating, in this 

 conneetion, that the " Out-trip Book " of the Ameri- 

 can Express Co. here shows forty-two consignments 

 of bees from us, embracing nearly 150 full colonies 

 alone. 



Now a word or two more about the August No. of 

 Gleanings. You gave a list of names, with alleged 

 amounts of money sent us for liees, stating that 

 said parties could obtain neither bees nor mone}', 

 nor even hear from us in reg-ird to the same. Now, 

 Mr. Koot, you knew that the first man named in the 

 list ordered other supplies than bees, and that his or- 

 der had been filled. We say you l.ncw it, because we 

 had had correspondence with you personally in re- 

 gard to the matter. Y''our list also contained the 

 names of other parties to whom we did not then, nor 

 do we now, owe a single penny, and the name of at 

 lea&t one man from. whom we have never received 

 a dollar for any thing. \'et, in your eager desire to 

 make the matter as bad as possible, you pile them all 

 in together, regardless of the truth. Perhaps you 

 will not object to publishing the following extract 

 from a letter in regard to this same list, received 

 from one of your clerks:— 



The correspondence of those who eomplailied of you was put 

 all toffether. anil Mr. W. 's card, ou which lie stated that he 

 would settle with you for SlO. 00. among them. Thinkintr that 

 he h.ad sent yon that amount of money at some time, 1 added It 

 to the list. 



We gi\e this extract, simply to show American 



