NOVEMBER 15, 1915 



953 



A. I. Root 



OUE HOME 



Editor 



Enter not into the patn of the wicked, and go not 

 in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, 

 turn from it, and pass away. For they sleep not, 

 except they have done mischief; and their sleep is 

 taken away unless they cause some to fall. But 

 the path of the just is as the shining light, that 

 shineth more and more unto the perfect day. — 

 Prov. 4:14, 15, 16, 18. 



I have always been busy. My mother 

 said when I was but an infant I always 

 found something to interest me and to be 

 bus\- with. Almost sixty years ago, after 

 I had beeorae engaged to Mrs. Root I decid- 

 ed to start in business. I have told you 

 there were two other jewelers in our little 

 town of Medina, and the two at the time 

 were almost " one too many." There was 

 some merriment about my starting a tliird 

 watch-repairing establishment. I borrowed 

 a ladder, hung up my sign on a suitable 

 post in front of the window of a vacant 

 store; and before I got down from the 

 ladder I liad a job of cleaning a watch; and 

 I do not believe I have ever been out of a 

 job since that time. In fact, I tried so hard 

 to keep up with my work I was soon oblig- 

 ed to work evenings as well as all day ; and 

 when I had been in the business barely ten 

 years my health began to fail, in conse- 

 quence of working so many hours indoors. 

 A doctor in a nearby drugstore, with whom 

 I was well acquainted, suggested that a 

 glass of beer, say every day, or when I 

 was worn out, might be a help. Now, this 

 doctor was a good Christian man, and he 

 was honest and sincere in thinking the beer 

 would be a benefit. How many doctors are 

 there at the present day who would give the 

 same advice? If you know any such, try to 

 persuade them that they are a relic of a 

 former age. 



Well, between my place of business and 

 my home there was a saloon. They did not 

 call it a saloon then — it was a grocery'; but 

 the grocer kept beer among other commod- 

 ities. I finally got in the habit of having 

 a glass of beer when I was tired and worn 

 out, and needed rest and sleep. As the doc- 

 tor said, it did seem to brace me up a little, 

 for the time being. There was quite a stir 

 in regard to temperance matters, however, 

 even as long as fifty years ago; but as I 

 always took my drink usually after nine or 

 ten o'clock, nobody knew much about it. 



Well, I remember one evening, when I 

 came into the grocery, a man who just tak- 

 en a drink looked at me in surprise and 

 said, "Why, I didn't know that Mr. Root 

 ever drank beer." I knew this was a sort 

 of clip at me, and I felt a little guilty; but 



I he reply of the grocer was a still more 

 severe clip. It was this : 



" Oh ! Mr. Root is one of my regular 

 customers." 



I went out and went home; but I kept 

 hearing ringing in my ears, " Regular cus- 

 tomer ! regular customer ! " My wife prob- 

 ably knew of my glass of beer; but as she 

 was of English parentage she probably did 

 not feel much worried, for people did not 

 look at such things then as they do now. 

 The claim that I was a " regular customer " 

 was, of course, an exaggeration, and I hard- 

 ly need say to the friends that the saloon- 

 keei^ers have been for the whole fifty years 

 that have elapsed since the incident men- 

 tioned, guilty of exaggeration. This matter 

 of exaggei'ation reminds me that at one 

 time, years ago, a statement came out in 

 the papers that Mark Twain was dead. 

 Finally one of the reporters of a daily pa- 

 per called his attention to it; and with 

 pencil and notebook in hand he said, " Mr. 

 Twain, what have you to say to this? What 

 shall we tell the people about it?" 



I think Mark looked at his interlocutor a 

 little while, and with a little smile on his 

 face replied, " Just say for me that the 

 statement is greatly exaggerated." 



Before I take up the subject of exaggera- 

 tion, however, I wish to say a word or two 

 about the doctors of the present day who 

 advise beer for men and women who are 

 run down because they stay indoors so 

 much, or eat three meals a day when two 

 would be a gi'eat plenty, etc. The whole 

 wide world now is ringing, as I have told 

 you repeatedly, with the slogan of " effi- 

 ciency;" and this whole wide world is also 

 not only declaring but insisting that alco- 

 hol in any form and in any quantity is a 

 foe to etficiency. Insurance companies, 

 railroad companies, manufactories, and 

 everybody else demand men and women, 

 boys and girls, who do not drink at all. 

 Any drink that contains aleoliol in any 

 quantity whatever is tabooed; and whisky 

 and brandy are ruled out as medicines; and 

 the time is soon coming when doctors are 

 going to cure people without booze, without 

 stimulants or dope, and without stuff that 

 comes in bottles. Twenty years ago Dr. 

 Dewey published a book that made quite a 

 sensation at the time, declaring that drugs 

 and medicines are not needed, even in cases 

 of typhoid fever ; and he gave a long list of 

 typhoid patients who were cured quicker 

 and were left in better shape where they 

 had no medicine whatever. We may thank 



