GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



niug to attend a dancing-sehool. Mother 

 and father, of course, objected; but he 

 quoted tliis, that, and the other who were 

 going to that school, and there seemed to be 

 no way of settling tlie matter until the son- 

 in-law said, " I think I can persuade Mar- 

 shall to give up the dancing-school. I will 

 give hira lessons in drawing." In a little 

 while ray brotlier was so much taken up 

 with his progress in writing, and later in 

 ornamental pen-drawing, that he forgot all 

 about the dancing-school. In fact, when 

 he was a boy in his teens he went out teach- 

 ing penmanship, and gained quite a little 

 money thereby. 



From tii-st to last Mr. Gray has been a 

 friend and helper in the Root family. In 

 fact, he accomplished many things besides 

 what I have narrated that no one else could 

 have brought about. When I became inter- 

 ested in poultry he advised me, in order to 

 tind out whether it paid or not, and how 

 much it paid, to keep double-entry book- 

 keeping. Make the chickens debtor to 

 everything purchased for them, and give 

 them credit for every egg laid. I was de- 

 lighted Avith tliis orderly way of doing 

 business, and I think the biddies must have 

 been " delighted " also ; for before the year 

 was ended everything had gone over to one 

 side of the ledger. Tlie chickens paid all 

 expenses, paid for themselves, and paid for 

 their poultry-house and for their poultry- 

 yard. 



When I commenced " lectm-ing," Mr. 

 (ji'ay invited me to come out to the " Black 

 Swamp" in the western part of Ohio (where 

 he was running a sawmill), and educate the 

 people I'ound about in chemistry and elec- 

 tricity. I have alluded to my ups and 

 downs in my lecturing-tours. When it came 

 toward winter Mr. Gray suggested that I 

 should stop traveling during the winter 

 months, and teach a school in their neigh- 

 borhood. . Let me digress right here to 

 mention an incident in Mr. Gray's school- 

 teaching : 



In our Mogadore high school, at the time 

 of his visit, there had been much trouble 

 with incompetent Icachers. They could not 

 preserve order. If the master called one of 

 the big boys to come up on the floor he 

 would not go ; and when the master tried 

 to enforce his command by catching hold of 

 the unruly pupil the boy would hang on to 

 the desk until the master would have to give 

 up. One day ]\Ir. Gray called on a good- 

 sized boy lo step out on tlie floor because of 

 disobeying some of the rules of the school. 

 When the boy did not come, Mr. Gray took 

 him by the collar and pulled a little. As 

 Ihe boy seemed lo l)e pretty well anchored, 



as usual, Mr. Gray seemed to hesitate, and 

 tlien there was a titter among the rest of the 

 pupils, all thinking the new teacher was 

 "up a stump," like his predecessor. But all 

 at once something happened; and it was 

 done so quickly that it seemed like a sleight- 

 of-hand performance. Before anybody 

 knew how it came about, Thomas was on 

 his back in the middle of the floor, and 

 pileously promising to be good and beha\e 

 himself if given another chance. By the 

 way, for Thomas, who was always so neatly 

 dressed, and had his hair combed so nicely, 

 it was a rather severe shock to find himself 

 in such disorder on that old schooli'oom 

 floor, none too clean at best. From that 

 time fonvard Thomas was one of the best 

 and most obedient bo.^'S in the school. 

 When he went away, Thomas said he was 

 not only the best teacher, but that he had 

 learned more from Mr. Gray than from any 

 other teacher in his whole Life. Here was 

 a practical illustration of the old proverb, 

 •' Foolishness is bound ujd in the heart of 

 a child: but the rod shall drive it from 

 him." 



Well, now, let us go back to the Black 

 SAvamp. When my brother-in-law urged 

 me tO' give up lecturing and go to teaching 

 school I objected; but when he told me thai 

 the weather here in northern Ohio would 

 make me trouble, and be bad for my health 

 at my early age, I listened. He said, 

 "Amos, if you just drop lecturing until 

 spring, your school money will furnish you 

 means in the spring to go on lecturing for 

 qiiiie « long while. You see you will have 

 quite a little money laid up for a rainy 

 day, etc.* 



To make this storj' biief, when I fii-st 

 planned our hive factory, in 1878, and was 

 thinking about a brick building near the 

 railroad, my first thought was that Mr. 

 Gray could better plan the building and 

 take hold of the manufacturing business 

 than anybody else I knew of in the world. 

 Xt that time he was in northern Micliigan ; 

 but I solicited him to move back to Medina 

 and take charge. For many years he was 

 general foreman. He not only superintend- 

 ed the construction of our first brick struc- 



* When he applied to the directors for the school 

 out in tlip Black Swamp, and they learned my acre, 

 they made the objection that I was too young'. The 

 hoys in that particular school had turned the teacher 

 out of doois several vinters in the past. Mr. Gray 

 asKiircd thorn that there would be no such thing as 

 liutlinjr me out of doors, even if I was but eighteen 

 ypars*old; and. in fact, some of the big boys did 

 undertake it; but I have told you in a previous 

 Home paper that their plans did not work. I do 

 not know but I told the boys they might carry out 

 my body, but not while there was any life remain- 

 ing. But there M'as not any " dead body " in the 

 fracas; and after the directors met to consider mat- 

 ters they hired me for another month longer just 

 becwsc I refused to he dethroned. 



