FEBRUARY 15, 1913 



1st 



Our Homes 



A, I. ROOT 



To him that oveixometh will I give to eat of the 

 tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of 

 God. — Rev. 2:7. 



Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the 

 five loaves of the five thousand, and how many bas- 

 kets ye took up ? neither the seven loaves of the four 

 thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? — 

 Matt. 16:9, 10. 



(A sequel to the Home Papers in the Jan. 15th issue.) 



In the second and third chapter of Rev- 

 elation there are some glorious and won- 

 derful promises to those who '* overcome." 

 I wish the readers of Gleanings would look 

 them up. I have chosen one of them for my 

 text for this Home i^aper; and as I dictate 

 here the first page of that Home paper 

 (that was lost) 1 do it to illustrate how 

 many times in this busy life it is necessary 

 to exercise great patience and perseverance, 

 and holding on. Huber has explained that 

 it was the intention of the Root Company 

 to send me a dictaphone in order to help me 

 to keep up my Home Papers while I was 

 in Florida during the winter. I was told 

 arrangements were made so the dictaphone 

 would probably be here early in November 

 about as soon as we arrived; but after go- 

 ing to the express office again and again, 

 and not finding any thing of the dicta- 

 phone, I wrote to Huber. He i-eplied, and 

 said he supi3osed it had been sent promptly 

 long ago. This was somewhere about the 

 first of December. The comjDany, however, 

 without giving any explanation of their re- 

 missness, finally wrote that they had finally 

 forwarded the dictaphone to my address. 

 Then I commenced going to the express 

 office again and again, inquiring for some- 

 thing for A. I. Root. Being told continual- 

 ly that there was nothing, I finally, one day, 

 remonstrated. I said, " Look here, friends, 

 a dictaphone has been shipped to me from 

 Cleveland. It is an instrument worth some- 

 thing like $100 or more, and it is in a large 

 box, and it seems to me it must be here 

 somewhere." 



At this the agent replied, " Oh ! it's a big 

 box that you wanted, is it 1 Well, I remem- 

 ber there is something of this sort here, 

 after all, and it has been here some time." 



When he hunted it up he found it was 

 directed to The A. I. Root Co. instead of to 

 A. I. Root, and this gave him an excuse for 

 saying, over and over again, there was noth- 

 ing for me. I got the box home as soon as 

 possible; and then, in order to be sure that 

 the instrument was not injured in any way, 

 I unpacked it very carefully myself, looking 

 all the while for some directions for setting 

 it up and handling it. Not a scrap of any 

 thing could be found; neither was there a 



mouthpiece anywhere in the package to use 

 for dictation. I wrote a remonstrance to 

 Huber, and he said something like this : "As 

 the machine was expensive and complicated, 

 the manufacturers never had furnished 

 printed directions for use, but they always 

 sent a man along to instruct the purchaser 

 how to operate and see that he got along all 

 right." As they had already sold the A. I. 

 Root Company several machines, they prob- 

 ably supposed that every member of the 

 firm ought to know how to use them. And 

 this, in fact, is true. Several times last 

 summer Huber did remind me that if I was 

 going to use a dictaphone down in Florida 

 I had better come into the office and prac- 

 tice on it awhile; but I was so busy in 

 building that bungalow that it was put off 

 and neglected. It is true, however, that I 

 did have one down here a year ago, and 

 under Ernest's tuition I dictated a little 

 matter on it. The fact is, I somehow dread- 

 ed using the machine, feeling a sort of em- 

 barrassment talking to a piece of " machin- 

 ery " instead of talking to my long-time 

 friend and standby, W. P. Root, who has 

 for so many years taken down all of my 

 dictation. My correspondence was already 

 far behind. I had a lot of things that I 

 wanted to say to my readers since coming 

 here to Florida, and it was of the greatest 

 importance that the dictaphone be got in 

 trim. Perhaps I might explain right here 

 that for many years past it has been a very 

 hard matter for me to use my right arm and 

 do much writing. I can drive nails and hoe 

 corn and " fuss with chickens " all right ; 

 but when I come to get a pen or pencil in 

 my right hand and sit down to the desk, 

 there is a sort of writer's paralysis that has 

 troubled me more or less for forty years. 

 There was no way but to " cipher out " how 

 to use the complicated instrument, even if 

 I did feel .much hesitation in undertaking 

 to pull to pieces any thing so complicated 

 and difficult. I was tempted many times to 

 give it up ; but then I recalled how it spoil- 

 ed my enthusiasm and energy to acknowl- 

 edge myself defeated in any praiseworthy 

 undertaking. It really hurts me, and for 

 that matter it hurts anybody, to acknowl- 

 edge himself defeated, and give up in some- 

 thing that really ought to be done. Under 

 the circumstances the dictaphone seemed \o 

 be almost the only outlet that would permit 

 me to keep up my department of the jour- 

 nal, and was almost the only way to con- 

 tinue to lend a helping hand to those who 

 love poultry, high-pressure gardening, and. 



