EDITORIAL 



Giving Oneself to Life's Work. 



Big-hearted Dr. David R. Lee of the 

 university of Chattanooga recently 

 wrote to me in regard to my lectures 

 delivered at that university. The let- 

 ter contained two sentences that per- 

 haps pleased me more than anything 

 in any other testimonial that I have 

 ever received. . The writer says : "You 

 captured our teachers because you did 

 more than give them lectures. You 

 gave yourself." 



I have always felt a desire to put my 

 personality and the throbbing of my 

 own heart into my work of nature 

 study. 



Perhaps "I" is used too often in the 

 editorial column, but not if the reader 

 will accept my point of view. I believe 

 that an editor, one lone man, has no 

 right to use the word "we." The first 

 person plural should be used only to 

 express the opinion of a company, such 

 as an association, an editorial board or 

 a jury. In this magazine, when the 

 word "we" is used, as it seldom is used 

 by the editor, it may be accepted as an 

 established opinion held by The Agas- 

 siz Association. In the editorial de- 

 partment it is not "we" but "I" and 

 every member of the Association is at 

 liberty to disagree with what I say if 

 he so desires. 



In this note I do not intend to write 

 about myself, but to give a word of 

 commendation to the various members 

 of the Root Family at Medina, Ohio, 

 who confine their journalistic endea- 

 vors to their ideal little magazine — 

 "Gleanings in Bee Culture." I have 

 heard some good beekeepers who value 

 the apiarian knowledge displayed in 

 that magazine, yet pretend to joke 

 about the personality there shown. I 

 have heard some weak attempts to- 

 ward a little joke about "The Root 

 Family Memoirs." But deeply en- 

 trenched within their heart is a love for 

 the personality of A. I. Root and for 

 his sons. Personally, I find extremely 

 interesting the portrayal of that fam- 

 ily, their thoughts and ambitions as 



set forth in that journal. There are 

 few families who would venture, every 

 member of them, to record month after 

 month, year after year, so many little 

 facts, fancies and trivial conversations, 

 and yet continue to rise higher and 

 higher in the reader's estimation. 



We know Grandpa Root and Herbert 

 and Ernest as well as if we had been 

 brought up with them since the days in 

 which all of them were making mud 

 pies. We are familiar with the vener- 

 able Mr. Root's boyhood. We know 

 his hopes when he first met the girl 

 who is now Grandma Root. We have 

 been told when every baby was born 

 and what was said about the baby when 

 it came to ornament the home and 

 make it happy. Recently I could not 

 avoid smiling at the printing of two 

 pictures of a great-granddaughter and 

 her mother when the baby was only 

 eighteen days old. The pictures are 

 exceptionally good, but most editors 

 would have been content to show either 

 of the two, but such is the fondness of 

 the family for one another that the edi- 

 tor could not decide whether the baby 

 should be shown with her mouth open 

 or with it partly closed. Isn't that 

 charmingly delicious? After calm de- 

 liberation the family decided, "We can- 

 not choose between the two. We will 

 use both." 



Here is the style in which Grandpapa 

 writes. As a loving apperciation of his 

 family, it should become classic. 



"Some years ago Mrs. Root made 

 the remark, in speaking of Huber, our 

 last-born boy, 'We shall probably not 

 live long enough to see him married.' 



"Well, through the mercies of a kind 

 Providence we have lived not only to 

 see him married, but to see him the 

 father of a bright little girl who visits 

 her grandmother almost every day 

 when we are here in our northern home. 

 And we have lived to see one of our 

 grandchildren married, and who now 

 has a little girl 'of his very own.' And 

 it affords me wonderful pleasure — in 

 fact, a thrill of joy and thanksgiving, 

 to be able to present to the readers of 



