556 
LANGSTROTH 
that our good friend always agreed with 
every one else. He had opinions of his own, 
and he could be stubborn and almost con¬ 
trary when he got "hot” in a discussion. 
But the gentle spirit was back of it all. I 
remember once being out in his apiary, ex¬ 
plaining to him some wonderful improve¬ 
ment I had just been working out. He, 
however, did not see it as I did, and stoutly 
maintained that the old way—his way, in 
fact—was better. All at once I stopped and 
concluded we had better give up the sub¬ 
ject. Pretty soon he laid his hand on my 
arm, and said: 
"Friend Root, will you not forgive me? 
I was rude and uncourteous. You have 
practiced this thing, and are succeeding. 
Very likely you are right and I am wrong.” 
Mr. Langstroth paid us a visit. He told 
us a long story about his patent. This poor 
man had dwelt on it so long that even he, a 
minister of the gospel, and a successful one, 
had lost his peace of mind; and if he had 
not lost his faith in God it shook his faith 
in humanity. I called his attention to the 
hopeful text, "But I say unto you, Love ye 
your enemies; do good to them that hate 
you; bless them that curse you, and pray for 
thern that despitefully use you.” But even 
he did not catch on. I urged until he seemed 
annoyed, and I was afraid of a return of 
his malady. With a sad heart I gave it up. 
As it was getting to be late and toward bed¬ 
time I went with him to his room. He said 
very little, altho he was naturally exceed¬ 
ingly talkative, and I felt I had offended 
him by my importunity. In the morning, 
when breakfast was ready, as he had not 
put in an appearance Mrs. Root thought I 
had better go to his room. It was warm 
weather, and the door was wide open. The 
old gentleman was awake and partly sitting 
up, leaning on his elbow. As soon as he saw 
me he beckoned me to come up near him, 
with his finger. I was really afraid he was 
going into one of his "spells.” He took 
his watch out from under his pillow and 
asked me to listen. As I was a watch re¬ 
pairer I supposed there was something wrong 
with the beat; but when I told him that it 
seemed to be in perfect order, and that it 
beat clearly and regularly, what do you 
think he said? He asked me what the watch 
said to me. 1 replied that it did not "say” 
anything, and now felt sure that he was los¬ 
ing his mind. This is what he said: 
"Mr. Root, that watch has been saying 
‘Quinby; Quinby! Quinby! ’ all night long, 
and I can’t stand it any longer. I am going 
to start today. I am going to see Mr. Quin¬ 
by. I am not going to say a word about the 
patent or the hive. 1 am going to him as 
tho we had always been friends.” 
Friend Langstroth went to see Mr. Quin¬ 
by, as he declared he would do, and they 
had "the best time in the world.” 
His last public ta^ to beekeepers, if I am 
correct, was the one given at Toronto; and 
I felt anxious at the time that some short¬ 
hand reporter might be at hand who could 
give all his words and even his little stories 
just as he gave them to us. Perhaps others 
did not enjoy this talk as I did, because they 
did not know him as I did. Why, that his¬ 
tory of long ago, telling of the troubles, blun¬ 
ders and mistakes in introducing the Italian 
bees from Italy to America, should be hand¬ 
ed down to coming generations. It should 
be embodied in some of the standard works 
on bees, in order to secure its preservation. 
Langstroth and Quinby-—those two old 
pioneers—have now both passed away, but 
"their works do live after them,” and shall 
live for a thousand years or more. I feel 
anxious that the first edition of both Lang¬ 
stroth and Quinby should be preserved. 
There is something to me more interesting 
in their first efforts—Quinby’s book, for in¬ 
stance, telling how to keep bees with a box 
hive, and Langstroth telling his first experi¬ 
ments with the movable-frame hive. Those 
early editions should be preserved. 
When quite a child I was greatly interest¬ 
ed in reading the life of Benjamin Frank¬ 
lin. When I first became acquainted with 
Langstroth I could not resist the suggestion 
that he was much like Franklin. The max¬ 
ims of Poor Richard suggest the thought. 
Mr. Langstroth was remarkably well read 
in ancient literature. He was familiar with 
the writings of great men in all the ages. 
It rejoices my heart now to know that he 
has been remembered for many years at our 
national conventions, and to know that he 
was even present with his daughter at the 
one that occurred so short a time before his 
death. He never seemed to have a faculty 
for accumulating property, but what is mil¬ 
lions of money compared to the grateful re¬ 
membrance with which Langstroth’s name 
will be spoken in every civilized land on the 
face of the earth? 
LAUREL. —See Poisonous Honey. 
LAWS RELATING TO BEES. — The 
subject of bees takes up but little space in 
law. The old law writers, the men who 
really laid down the basic principles of 
our law during its formative pei’iod, classi¬ 
fied bees and defined the rights of the keep¬ 
ers of bees in a few brief paragraphs, yet 
they seem to have covered the subject as 
fully as was necessary at the time at which 
they wrote. 
As to legal opinions handed down in 
cases that have been adjudicated by a 
court of last resort, and which opinions 
form the bulk of our law of today, those 
pertaining to bees are very meager in vol¬ 
ume. There have been, no doubt, many 
cases in the minor courts, but the decisions 
