f*EBRUARt 1.1, 1915 



167 



A. I. Root 



OUE HOME 



Give us this day our daily bread. — Matt. 5:11. 



" THB GRKAT ARMY OP UNEMPLOYED/' 



CONTINUED. 



Tbeie seem to be two great classes of 

 people in this world of ours — those who 

 work for somebody else, and the " somebody 

 else " who employs people, or who sets peo- 

 ple to work, and pays wages or salaries. 

 We frequently hear it said of some one, 

 " He is a good man to work for some one 

 else, but he seems to have a poor faculty for 

 working for himself." In other words, he 

 needs a " boss " to tell him what to do and 

 hoio to do it. Of course there are also 

 many who belong to both classes, more or 

 less. These good people " work out," when 

 wanted, and work at home Avhen no one 

 seems to need .them. Farmers and garden- 

 ers belong to this class largely, and we 

 might say, also, carpenters, masons, etc., 

 especially in the small towns and villages. 

 This latter class also very often hire help 

 occasionally. Farmers who exchange or 

 help each other come under this class, and 

 I am sometimes tempted to think these ac- 

 commodating " neighborly " people are the 

 very best folks in the world. As the work- 

 ing j^eople greatly outnumber those who 

 hire great numbers, it would seem naturally 

 as if the latter would be held in gi'eat esteem 

 as benefactors of the public at large; but it 

 saddens one to think of the strikes, and even 

 bitter warfare, that are almost always going 

 on of late between capital and labor. 



Anotlier thing might be mentioned here. 

 There are many men — yes, and boys — who 

 work for wages until they get a little ahead, 

 and then start business themselves, gradual- 

 ly employing help. Why, the largest part 

 of our great business men started life on a 

 farm, and also, as a rule, started as poor 

 bo\'s; and this fact suggests what some of 

 you may have already guessed, that I am 

 once more going to advise everybody to 

 "make garden and keep chickens in the back 

 j'ard " — that is, of course, in place of being 

 idle, and belonging to the " great army of 

 unemploj'cd." 



It has occurred to me that a little of my 

 experience here may be helpful. I was 

 weak and puny in childhood, as I have told 

 you. My '' pipestem " arras and legs were 

 a standing joke in that merry family of 

 seven* — three older and three younger. I 

 was not onljr^weak and frail in body, but I 

 was slow to "catch on," believed every thing 



* In spite of my frail constitution in childhood I 

 am at 75 strong and well; and of the seven, only 

 one brother and one sister are left. 



anybody told me, etc., also bashful and 



timid. I mention this because my story 

 may be helpful to other timid boys and 

 girls. Every winter I had a recurrence of 

 my early lung troubles, and I had such 

 spells of coughing I used to can-y in my 

 pocket some pods of the wild lobelia to chew 

 wlien the cough was bad. When the lobelia 

 produced a slight nausea the cough let up. 



I am glad to remember I always wanted 

 to go to school; and, even if I was torment- 

 ed by the big boys, the " schoolma'ams " 

 were always my particular friends. They 

 seemed to take the place of my good mother. 

 I remember one time when the six children, 

 and perhaps father too, were laughing at 

 my credulity, queer ways, etc., that mother 

 said, " Now, you just mark my words, and 

 wait and see if Amos doesn't do as much in 

 liie world as any one of you." And the 

 good faithful mother worked hard to make 

 her prediction come true. On account of 

 sickness and some other troubles there was 

 a time when it was a little hard to provide 

 for that family of nine (including the par- 

 ents) ; and to make ends meet mother begged 

 for a garden, and chose me for her helper. 

 This brought me in touch with the seedsmen 

 and seed catalogs of that early day ; and 

 veiy soon mother and I had the tinest gar- 

 den in the neighborhood. Father, although 

 he was a fair carpenter, had a strong in- 

 clination for farming; and when I was 

 about a dozen years old we all moved back 

 to the farm in Medina Co. in spite of pro- 

 tests from the rest of the family. I wasn't 

 a success on the farm. I was too frail and 

 weak, and didn't seem to catch on to big 

 fields and horses and cattle. One spring 

 day, at dinner, mother asked if she could 

 have Amos to make garden. Father replied, 

 "Yes! take him and keep him as long as 

 you like, for he doesn't ' earn his salt ' out 

 in the field." This, of course, was said as 

 a joke; but mother quietly gave me a look 

 that I understood. Our garden pros])ered 

 as gardens made by mother and me always 

 did. Perhaps father's conscience troubled 

 him a little, for he manured and fitted our 

 ground in fine shape, and in due time that 

 garden and the chickens furnished fine din- 

 ners for the men who worked in the fields. 

 Mother was Avaiting lier chance; and one 

 day after all had finished an excellent din- 

 ner she said : 



" Father, can't you now take back a little 

 of wliat you said about Amos not * earning 

 his salt,' etc.?" 



T distinctly remember the good-natured 



