AUGUST 15, 1912 



527 



Our Homes 



A. I. Root 



When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh 

 even his enemies to be at peace with him. — Prov. 

 16:7. 



If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye 

 shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto 

 you.— John 15:7. 



And it shall come to pass, that before they call I 

 will answer ; and while they are yet speaking I will 

 hear. — Isaiah 65:24. 



The year 1879 was an eventful one in my 

 life. Obstacles came up in the way of my 

 plans for developing bee culture; but the 

 wonderful answers to prayer came thick 

 and fast in enabling me in a striking way 

 to surmount these obstacles. I will go over 

 some of the events briefly. 



In putting up the first brick building on 

 the grounds we now occupy I became for a 

 brief time somewhat financially embarrass- 

 ed. The good friends here in Medina, and 

 even my own relatives, were troubled about 

 my getting the boys out of jail to work for 

 me, and in expecting that G-od would an- 

 swer my prayers for financial help, etc. 

 All at once the way seemed blocked, as it 

 were. None of my good friends were will- 

 ing to advance me money any longer, and 

 the man who furnished the brick for the 

 first building declared he would have to 

 have his money, and finally he said if it was 

 not ready on a certain day he would make 

 me trouble. Just then the little hymn from 

 Moody and Sankey's collection, "Take it to 

 the Lord in prayer," was very popular. It 

 ",vas my habit, in kneeling down with my 

 wife at night, to tell the dear Lord of my 

 diflBculties, and ask him not only to direct 

 me, but to furnish the means for doing his 

 work. The man who furnished the brick 

 said he would have to have his money on a 

 certain day and at a certain hour. Almost 

 immediately after tliis pi'ayer a stranger, 

 George 0. Goodhue, of Quebec, Canada, 

 \'isited our place, and volunteered, without 

 my mentioning the matter, to furnish the 

 money I needed. My friends laughed at 

 me again for having faith that an utter 

 stranger should send me money "without se- 

 curity. On the day in question our mail 

 came in about an hour before the time I 

 had promised the money. I told the girl 

 who was opening the mail that I was ex- 

 pecting a letter from Quebec. In a few 

 minutes she sailed a letter over to my desk, 

 saying, "There is your Quebec letter, Mr. 

 Root." When opened I found it to contain 

 a check reading, "Pay to A. I. Root $500 in 

 gold, and charge to the account of George 

 b. Goodhue." 



The brickman came in very soon after I 

 had the check in my fingers, and was great- 

 ly surprised to find I had the money for 



him. This whole event is fully recorded in 

 the Home papers for 1879, with many sim- 

 ilar ones. At that date I was manufactur- 

 ing a fifty-cent smoker, and I made a reck- 

 less offer (as most people thought it) of 

 giving one of these smokers to any beekeep- 

 er who would abandon the use of tobacco. 

 The tobacco pledge was put in print in our 

 "young" bee journal. First and last, more 

 than one thousand people gave me the 

 pledge and received a smoker; but at al- 

 most the same time that the man came from 

 Quebec our good friend Bingham came 

 down from Michigan. and informed me that 

 my smoker infringed on his patent, just 

 then taken out. After talking it over it 

 seemed a question as to whether his patent 

 would hold legally; but rather than to go 

 into litigation (for that would disturb my 

 spirituality more than any thing else) I 

 gave way and made a promise not to make 

 any more smokers. In fact, at that time I 

 decided I would not go into any thing 

 whatever unless I could honestly ask God 

 to bless the undertaking. I told friend 

 Bingham, after we had talked the matter 

 all over very thoroughly, that I would stop 

 making my cheap Simplicity smoker. I 

 believe father Quinby had the credit of 

 making the first bee-smoker to be blown by 

 a bellows instead of using a tin tube blown 

 by the mouth. Bingham's invention, how- 

 ever, was, without question, an improve- 

 ment on the first rude smoker. When I 

 told Mi-s. Root my decision, she thought, as 

 did some others of my friends, that my con- 

 elusion was hasty and even reckless. Let 

 me quote my very words to her, from 

 Gleanings for January, 1879 : "If God has 

 really directed me, in giving this up, he will 

 certainly guide me in giving beekeepers 

 something just as good if not better in 

 place of it." I went to bed and slept sound- 

 ly, although I did not know how in the 

 world I should get smokers to sell at the 

 low price of 50 cents, and a large part of 

 them to be given away. Next morning, 

 when I got down to my new office in the 

 brick factory, a queer-shaped package from 

 away off in California lay on my desk, and 

 with it the following letter : 



ALL ABOUT BEE-SMOKERS. 



Having examined all the bee-smokers of the pres- 

 ent day, as well as many of more ancient origin, 

 and experimented not only with those of other mak- 

 ers, but also with several of my own make, I arrived 

 at last to the following conclusions and objections: 



All smokers made on the principle of blowing a 

 blast of air through the chamber containing the fuel 

 are defective for this reason: The fuel is made to 

 burn up rapidly ; and, worst of all, the smoke is 

 hot; and who has not noticed how hot smoke irri- 

 tates bees instead of quieting them? 



