614 



perliaps se^■el■al years. I protested, and I 

 do not know but I threatened again; but 

 she declared her conscience told her it was 

 best. I asked her to set the time, say within 

 tAvo or three years, but she refused to do 

 even that. She said we both were quite 

 liable to change our minds before we be- 

 came of marriageable age and it would 

 he better to leave it with no pledge oi- 

 pi-omise. Then I went off into the "cold 

 empty world," as thousands of other boys 

 have done under similar circumstances. If 

 you want to know how many men and 

 Women commit suicide just because they 

 have been disa]:)pointed in love, look over 

 the daily pap«is. Other young men and 

 boys, 1 am sorry to say, go and get 

 driink, and say (hey do not care what 

 becomes of them. I did neither. T just 

 decided that, if I could not court the 

 fjiii 1 loved, I. would court science and be- 

 come a '■ great man." 



During the winter that followed, I studied 

 liarder than ev-er before. In school, in ad- 

 dition to the connnon studies, I had algebra, 

 geometry, and shorthand, and was making 

 experiments in chemistry and electricity 

 dniing the evening's. Tn order to get exer- 

 cise so that I could stand so much study I 

 walked two and a half miles to school and 

 back again, and cut all the wood to replenish 

 the fire for the family, and while I experi- 

 mented sometinjes late at night it did not 

 hui1 me a bit. The walk through the woods 

 developed my bones and muscles so they diil 

 not call me " Pipestems" any longer. 



Now right here let me tell you something 

 (Iiat will more fully illustrate Mrs. Root's 

 good sense and wisdom. A fellow-student — 

 in fact, a young man with whom I was in- 

 timately acquainted, told me, in speaking of 

 wliat Ihad accomplished during that one 

 winter, that his own schooling was just 

 about a complete failure. When the school 

 first opened he got in with a class of boys 

 and girls who called themselves the " Euchre 

 Party." They got into such a cra^e for 

 playing cards that they spent about all their 

 time, not only during the day but late at 

 night, in card-playing — an occupation that 

 amounted to nothing or woise than nothing; 

 and when they came to recite they were just 

 a drag on the school. Years afterward this 

 n'.an lealized what he had lost by wasting 

 the best hours of his early manhood. His 

 good father and mother worked and scrimp- 

 ed on the farm to provide the means for 

 him to go to town and attend school. Do 

 you wonder that T feel pained whenever 1 

 see or hear of card-playing? 



Another point comes in right here: The 

 average boy or girl is far better off in llie 



GLEANOGS IN BEE CULTURE 



home under the father's and mother's care, 

 especially when getting an education. My 

 tramp of two and a half miles every night 

 and morning, and the muscular exercise 

 given by chopping firewood, were splendid 

 inrcslnicnts when I was just turning from 

 boyhood to manhood. The parents of these 

 card-playei'S paid for their board, and they 

 had a room of their own, so they (boys and 

 girls both) could sit up all night if they 

 cliose, and no one were near to hinder. 



ELECTRICITY, GALVANISM, 



n i ii > K T <> - E I. i: <" T It W 1 T V ! 



Am I. ROOT, 



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Phofosraphic copy of A. I. Root's "program, 

 as )ie had it printed wlion lie was 16 years old — 

 aliiKist fit) years ajco. 



1 wrote sevei-al articles for the Scientific 

 American before 1 was seventeen. These 

 wore accepted and ])ublished. In the mean 

 lime I began to go into the country school- 

 houses and give talks and experiments. The 

 idea that a mere boy was giving lectures 

 utti-acted attention. I had full houses, and 



