236 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1.5. 



it is A. I. Root and nobody else."' You see, I 

 was called out of my regular beat, a little out 

 of my line of work. I was in a new atmos- 

 phere, and among a class of people with whom 

 I had had comparatively little acquaintance; 

 and, dear friends, with all the great lines of 

 progress in science and art that now surround 

 us, we run into this thing quite frequently. Oh 

 how my heart has been pained to see uneducat- 

 ed people criticise and sneer at those whom 

 they might chance to meet, with education and 

 intelligence: yes, and my heart has been sadly 

 pained to see hard-working poor people look 

 upon those who were more fortunate than them- 

 selves, in just the way I was tempted to look 

 upon and judge those I saw at that musical 

 rehearsal. Several of my friends suggested 

 that I could easily cultivate a taste for classical 

 music; that, if I were to take time and pains, 

 I could very soon see a higher order of melody 

 in what I was tempted to call a senseless per- 

 formance than I had ever got a glimpse of be- 

 fore. Perhaps this is true; but even if it were 

 not, we are not all alike. Individuals in the 

 same family differ widely. I have told you be- 

 fore that I am partially color-blind. When a 

 carriage full of people look out upon a cherry- 

 tree, as we are riding by, and all utter exclama- 

 tions of surprise because of the beautiful red 

 cherries lurking among the green leaves, sup- 

 pose that, because / can not see any red cher- 

 ries at all, I should declare there are none. 

 What sort of person would I be ? And yet I 

 have sometimes been almost vexed because my 

 own children, two or three years old, could see 

 cherries where I saw none. 



In this matter of capital and labor, I sus- 

 pect many of the troubles and want of charity 

 come along in the line of our text. Somebody, 

 or some class of people (it is a good deal sadder 

 to see a tot of people going wrong than simply 

 one individual), who do not see nor understand 

 some new developmer.t with merchandise and 

 factories; etc.. will declare it is a plan to cheat 

 and defraud the public. They look on it from 

 their standpoint. They not only lack charity, 

 but they lack intelligence and education, and 

 they push ahead, insisting that they are the 

 only honest people in the world. The ones they 

 censure so severely, perhaps, are kind enough 

 to try to explain; but no explanations will be 

 received; and this way of severely judging 

 others, often results in mobs, riots, and blood- 

 shed. May God help us!. 



Again, good people lament that their boys — 

 aye, and girls too— will not stay on the farm, 

 when the fault is entirely their own. T. B. 

 Terry, or somebody else, tells of a young farm- 

 er whose father was well-to-do, who had deter- 

 mined to become a telegraph operator. His 

 father and motlier urged him to stay on the 

 farm, telling him of his future prospects: but 

 the boy could not be turned. Finally the father 

 asked the advice of a mutual friend. The 

 result of the advice was, that the next morning 

 the old farmer took out a roll of bills and hand- 

 ed it to the boy, and said: " Look here, John. 

 Before we begin our spring's work we want 

 another good stout horse. Now, I believe you 

 can buy a horse just as well as I can, and may 

 be better too. You probably know where the 

 good horses are. Suppose you try your hand at 

 it." The boy took the money mechanically, 

 but stared at his father in open-mouthed won- 

 der. What in the world had happened, or come 

 over the old gentleman to make him do such an 

 unheard-of thing? Off went the boy, feeling 

 several inches taller to think that he was final- 

 ly, for the first time in his life, intrusted with 

 money, and sent off to do business without 

 even having his father along. They did not 

 get him for a telegraph operator at all, and in a 



little time lie showed the. old gentleman that he 

 could beat him right along in modern farming. 

 Of course, he made some blunders, and had to 

 learn by experience. 



The Roots are given to hobbies. Your hum- 

 ble servant has ridden more hobbies, and pushed 

 them day and night, up hill and down, summer 

 and winter, perhaps, than any reader of Glean- 

 ings; and when he is astride one of these hob- 

 bies, he can not very well sec any thing else. 

 Why, just a few months ago I refused to look at 

 a wheel, and refused to believe I had strength 

 or time to ride one. I went around grunting 

 with my aches and pains, and would hai'dly lis- 

 ten to Ernest, nor even consider the matter. 

 Yes, I remember, too, when I thought this 

 wheel craze was a big nuisance — they hadn't 

 any business on the sidewalks; and I don't 

 know but I almost thought (without thinking 

 or considering the matter) that they had no 

 business anyivhere. What a stupid blunder I 

 was making I W^ell, the young Roots are given 

 to hobbies. Just now Huber is bent on making 

 maple sugar from three trees that are down near 

 the tool house. He has borrowed a kettle, and 

 is preparing to hang it on a pole. He has also 

 collected rubbish from all over tlie neighbor- 

 hood, and stood it up in the sun where it will 

 dry. I told him the sugar would cost him a 

 dollar a pound, and that it would not be good, 

 even then. But, notwithstanding, that is just 

 the principal thing he wants to do. Miss Con- 

 stance, who invited me to come toOberlin, nev- 

 er showed any particular tendency to get crazy 

 after any thing until she was almost twenty 

 years old. I felt sure it would come sooner or 

 later, and was watching to see what direction 

 her enthusiasm would take. Well, siie has 

 found her mission — I believe that is what she 

 calls it; and she is just as certain as I was, 

 when I went chasing after hobbies, that she 

 will follow it "all the days of her life." You 

 may conjecture that it is music. Well, it is one 

 kind of music. If it had been vocal music or a 

 piano, or even a guitar, we might have been at 

 least tolerably reconciled. But, what do you 

 think? Why, her whole heart and soul are ab- 

 sorbed in taking lessons on the violin! We 

 thought it would last only a few weeks; but it 

 has lasted almost a year, and she thinks she has 

 as yet only a glimpse of the wonderful possi- 

 bilities beyond. First, she took lessons of the 

 best talent here in Medina; now sh^ has taken 

 several terms of the leading professor on the 

 violin in Oberlin. Some of you who are behind 

 the times, like myself, may inquire, "Why, is 

 she going to devote all her life toward learning 

 to fiddle for dances, theaters, parties, etc.?" It 

 seems we are all wrong. I do not believe that, 

 in all tlie fiddling she has done, week in and week 

 out, sometimes practicing several hours a day, 

 she has ever yet fiddled a dancing tune. If she 

 has, I have never heard of it. It is all exer- 

 cises, and the exercises are very much in line 

 with theclassical music thatis almost Greek and 

 Latin to your humble servant. She wants a 

 violin worth a hundred dollars or more; then 

 she wants to keep on taking lessons as long as 

 Oberlin can give her assistance. But this is not 

 all. After that she is to be trained under the 

 city masters, and may go to Europe to perfect 

 her studies. Of course, I talked with the pro- 

 fessor about it, under whom she is taking les- 

 sons. He said she had shown more progress in 

 a short time than any other pupil, except one, 

 who had ever been under his care. He has now- 

 over forty pupils, and has taught violin-playing 

 for more than twenty-five years. That is his 

 business, and nothing else. Said I: 



" But, my dear sir, what is to be the outcome 

 of all this? What is she going to do with this 

 musical education that takes so much time and 



