388 



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T^M® msiMmmi^mm wmm j®wmm.kiL'. 



Xhe Udioh and the Wiley tAc 



Mr. G. M. Doolittle, of Borodino, N. Y., 

 Vice President of tiie Bee-Keepers' Union, 

 sends us ttie following item, and liis re- 

 marks, and tlie subsequent correspondence 

 between liimself and a new cliampion of 

 Wiley's diabolical " scientific pleasantry." 



Mr. Doolittle says: " The following is a 

 copy of an item which I wrote for the 

 Rural Home, which appeared in the issue 

 of that paper for May 5, 1888 : 



Here is an item which is going the rounds 

 of the papers. Mr. Root, of Ohio, has a 

 standing otter of $1,000 for a sample of man- 

 ufactured honey in the comb. This should 

 have a good effect on our industry, and will 

 do much to counteract the story told by 

 Prof. Wiley, of the United States Govern- 

 ment fame, who tolil hs a "scientific pleas- 

 antry" the story, that there was lots of 

 honey on the market, selling as genuine 

 comb honey, which was nothing more than 

 manufactured stutf, the combs being made 

 of paraffine. and the honey they contained 

 being of glucose. From the latter, imagi- 

 nary places sprang up in Chicago, New 

 York, and elsewhere, where comb honey 

 was turned out by the ton, all working well 

 until the past poor season, when honey 

 went from a drug on the market, at the low 

 price of 10 to 12 cents per pound, to a 

 scarcity, scarcely obtainable at the high 

 figure of from 20 to 25 cents. This effect- 

 ually squelched the Wiley lie, and caused 

 the papers to notice the offer of Mr. Root, 

 which was made several years ago. 



A Virgianian takes exceptions to the 

 above item, and wrote to the Rural Home 

 as follows about it : 



Amherst, Va., May 4, 1888. 



Editor Rural Home : — In May .5th 

 Rural I notice under "Bee Notes," that 

 Mr. Root, of Ohio, has a standing offer of 

 81,000 for a sample of manufactured honey 

 in the comb, and tlie further statement is 

 added by Mr. Doolittle, " This should have 

 a good effect on our industry, and will do 

 much to cr)unteract the story told by Prof. 

 Wiley, of United States Government fame, 

 etc." 



Then Mr. D. says, because honey was 

 so high last year, "the Wiley lie was 

 squelched." Now, Mr. Editivr, if you will 

 open your columns to a fair, open, and 

 honest ventilation of the question, I will 

 show who the little niggers are in this wood 

 pile. 



I deny that any "responsible" man has 

 ever made such an offer, and more, I dare 

 any one to make one like it. One of the 

 largest dealers in gUioose and syrups, told 

 me four years ago, that the apiarists of 

 Pennsylvania, New Jer.sey and New York 

 States were then buying large quantities of 

 It. What for ? Why, to feed the cows, of 

 course. I will wager $1,000 that the Wiley 

 lie is true, as to the adulteration of comb 

 honey. Come on saints and sinners, "Barkis 

 is willin'."— W. M. Evans. 



This bold and bombastic letter was an- 

 swered as follows by Mr. Doolittle : 



Borodino, N. Y., May 16, 1888. 

 W. M. Evans.— Dear Sir;— Your letter 

 to the Rural Home, regarding the adultera- 

 tion of honey, lias been forwarded to me, 

 and I have this day written to the Manager 

 of the Bee-Keepers' Union (a society to pro- 

 tect our interests), and to Mr. Root, who 

 will doubtless give you a chance to prove 



your position, or lose the 81,000 you wager. 

 The story told you four years ago by a glu- 

 cose dealer, will do to tell, but may lack of 

 6 root on investigation. Yours truly,— G. M. 

 lOOLITTLE. 



Promptly Mr. A. I. Root, who is also a 

 Vice-President of the National Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Union, wrote to Mr. Evans, informing 

 that doubter that A. I. Root was a real 

 living man, and not an imaginary phantom ! 

 that he made the offer of 81,000 for proof 

 "that honey-comb is made, filled with 

 glucose, and sealed up by a machine made 

 for that purpose!" that he lived at Medina, 

 Ohio ! that his responsibilities in commer- 

 cial circles could easily be ascertained from 

 Bradstreet's Agency, and enclosing his 

 "business card !" 



Mr. Evans was nonplused. He wrote to 

 Prof. Wiley to help him out of the difficulty, 

 and here is Prof. Wiley's reply : 



Washington, D. C, May 29, 1888. 



W. M. Evans.— Dear Sir .-—In regard to 

 the matter ot artificial combs of which you 

 wrote me under date of 25th inst., permit me 

 to make the following statement : About 

 eiglit years ago a very intimate friend of 

 mine,, an eminent chemist. Dr. E. J. Hal- 

 lock, now deceased, told me that in Boston, 

 where he then resided, there had been cou- 

 .structed a full outfit of machinery for the 

 manufacture of artificial comh. He stated 

 further, that this cnmb was filled with glu- 

 cose or artificial lioney and sold for the 

 Fure article. On the basis of this testimony 

 made a statement in an article I wrote for 

 thfi Popular Science Monthly to the effect 

 that such artificial comb and honey were 

 made. 



At the time, I repeated thi.s statement 

 more in the light of a pleasantry than 

 as a commercial reality, for I did not be- 

 lieve that it was possible commercially to 

 imitate the comb, although I did not doubt 

 at the time that attempts had been made in 

 this direction. It is, however, quite a com- 

 mon custom to malie an artificial base for 

 the comb, and bee-keepers do not deny that 

 this is done. Some persons, in a malicious 

 spirit, have constantly circulated this state- 

 ment of mine for the purpose o( injuring 

 me professionally, and their failure to do so 

 has only made their persecutions more 

 bitter. 



Since Dr. Hallock is dead, 1 have no evi- 

 dence except my own statement to offer in 

 regard to the acouricy of the report. It is 

 possible that Dr. Hallock may have been 

 misinformed in regard to the matter, but he 

 was perfectly honest in making the state- 

 ment to me, and I was perfectly sincere in 

 repeating it. Respectfully, 



H. W. Wiley, Chemist. 



In the foregoing letter Prof. Wiley makes 

 this astonishing confession : " At the time, 

 I repeated tliis statement more in the light 

 of a pleasantry than as a commercial reality, 

 for I did not believe that it was POSSIBLE 

 commercially to imitate the comb." 



Therefore, he " knowingly, wilfully and 

 maliciously" lied out of whole cloth just to 

 cause a seusation, and to injure an honest 

 pursuit, for the paltry pay which the Popu- 

 lar Science Monthly gave him for the 

 article ! ! ! 



It is astonishing that any man could make 

 such a bare-faced confession without blush- 

 ing for the infamy it exhibited ! 



To lie for the filthy lucre it brings is bad 

 enough, but when he permits that lie to be 

 copied all over the world, and to be used to 

 injure an honest business, without making 



the least endeavor to arrest its evil effect by 

 an honest contradiction — the crime is 

 doubled ! 



Without the least compunction ot con- 

 science he wrote " the statement " as.to the 

 manufacture of comb honey when he " did 

 not believe that it was possible commer- 

 cially to imitate the comb "! Infamous ! ! 



As is usual in such cases, a liar will add 

 to the number of his crimes to hide his 

 meanness. So Wiley winds up his letter by 

 asserting another falsehood, thus : " I was 

 perfectly sincere in repeating it." Could a 

 man be sincere in repeating what he knew 

 to be a falsehood ? 



He knew it to be impossible " to imitate 

 the comb," and yet (over six years ago, and 

 never tried to contradict it) he wrote this 

 sentence : 



"In commercial honey, which is entirely 

 free from bee mediation, the comb is made 

 of paraffine, and tilled with pure glucose by 

 appropriate machinery." 



Now he wants us to believe that he " was 

 perfectly sincere " In the assertion. 



The attempt to justify himself because 

 beekeepers use comb foundation (that is 

 sheets of pure beeswax, with corrugations 

 coriesponding to the base of the cells) is as 

 mean as it is futile. 



To take the pure beeswax from the bees, 

 melt it, and thereby take out its dirt and 

 impurities, and give ft to the bees again for 

 use at just the time they need it, is no ex- 

 cuse for lying about " making the combs of 

 paraffine and filling them with glucose !" 



After receiving the above letter from 

 Prof. Wiley, and getting no proof from it to 

 sustain his bombast, Mr. Evans wrote as 

 follows to Mr. Root : 



Amherst, Va., May 31, 1888. 



Mr. a. I. Root.— Dear Sir .■—This letter 

 settles the fact as to Wiley's statement, but 

 it does not refute the tact that Doolittle, in 

 his note to the Rural Home, so worded his 

 reference to your $l,0UO offer, as to mislead 

 the minds of the readers as to the real facts. 

 If he had published the fl.OOO reward, and 

 the 4 or .5 lines following (or 2 lines), then 

 no one would have been deceived. 



1 made the statement two years ago in the 

 Kural Home, that comb honey was being 

 adulterated by feeding the bees mixtures, 

 which is a fraud upon the public. Will 

 you open the columns ot Oleanings for a 

 ventilation of this matter? And will jou 

 advocate the formation of anti-adulteration 

 bands? 



I mean that the facts shall be known, and 

 shall use the puhlie press freely. An adul- 

 terated religion, which uses the essence of 

 hell (fermented wines), and calls it "the 

 blood of Jesus," is one cause of the uni- 

 versal prevalence of adultery, and the arlul- 

 teration ot most everything we eat, drink, 

 wear, and use ; and 1 think it is about time 

 this hell-disease was crushed, but it cannot 

 be done by " wind religion," but only by 

 work for God and humanity. More Golden 

 Rule lived, and less praying and preaching 

 will do it. Prayer in action is the kind 

 needed now— wind is too cheap 1— W. M. 

 Evans. 



The last paragraph shows that Mr. Evans 

 is a "crank" of the worst type. 



He threatened and blustered. He asserted 

 most positively that there was no such per- 

 son as A. I. Root 1 that no responsible man 



