AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



299 



conversation, makes every one think of 

 him as a familiar friend. I hope it may 

 be always so. If he should ever get to 

 be "Mr. Root" with me, I don't think 

 I should like him as well as I do 

 " Ernest." 



The principal thing that I remember 

 about him on that first visit, is that I do 

 not recall that during the 24 hours I 

 was there he was engaged in killing 

 cats, or tying tin-cans to dogs' tails. So 

 I don't suppose he was worse than the 

 majority of boys. Indeed, I suppose he 

 was too busy in other directions to have 

 much time for such things. His father 

 was A. I. Root. That's equivalent to 



ERNEST R. ROOT. 



saying he was a hobbyist — a born hobby- 

 ist. I am told that at a very early age 

 he showed an extreme fondness for 

 pictures — A. I.'s son, you see. 



As a boy, one hobby was machinery, 

 and to him a w^ell-rigged water-wheel or 

 windmill was the sum of earthly happi- 

 ness. Later on, singly or combined, 

 along with other hobbies, came mechan- 

 ics, electricity, microscopy, bees, pho- 

 tography and bicycles. 



In electricity to find himself the dis- 

 coverer and Inventor of many things of 

 real value, but on Informing himself 

 more fully was somewhat chagrinned to 

 find that he was neither an inventor nor 



discoverer, for all his new things were 

 old. In spite of that, he still retains a 

 fondness for everything connected with 

 electricity. 



The use of the microscope, notwith- 

 standing its injury to a pair of eyes none 

 the best fitted for it, was pursued with 

 zeal; and among other microscopic 

 studies, he took up the anatomy of the 

 bee, going so far as to publish two or 

 three articles thereon, when the appear- 

 ance of the magnificent work of Cheshire 

 made him again feel that he was only 

 working over old ground. 



To go back. In the year '81 he en- 

 tered the preparatory department of 

 Oberlin College, and left at the end of 

 four years without graduating, bpiiig 

 obliged to go home and take part of the 

 burden that had become too heavy for 

 his father's shoulders. That settled him 

 in one direction, and shortly after lie 

 was settUd In another direction, when 

 he capitulated to a pair of black eyes, 

 with properly accompanying charms of 

 mind and body, possessed by Miss Eliza- 

 beth Humphrey. After some opportu- 

 nity for observation, I am glad to be- 

 lieve that in her Ernest has a very 

 worthy wife. She has a rival in his 

 affections in the person of their two- 

 year-old son, Leland Ives, a rivalry that 

 she seems to bear not only meekly, but 

 cheerfully. 



Like his father, a rider of hobbies, I 

 think Ernest is the better horseman of 

 the two. Once fairly seated on a hobby, 

 A. I. gives free rein, and if, in the chase, 

 his hat is blown off, he only flings his 

 arms the higher, and enjoys the fun. 

 Ernest keeps a steady hand on the rein, 

 and if the speed is too great, or the 

 direction not to his mind, with a sharp 

 pull he brings the hobby under control, 

 or else deliberately dismounts. 



Few have had the chance for editorial 

 training that Ernest has had, and few 

 have so well profited by it. Probably no 

 one could tell when he became editor of 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture. 1 doubt if at 

 any point of time there was any formal 

 transfer of the position of editor from 

 father to son. The fact is, he grew into 

 the place. Very likely not many of the 

 readers of Gleanings know how fully 

 under the control of the son are its col- 

 umns. Except the home and gardening 

 departments, if I am not mistaken, un- 

 less you find the initials "A. I. R." at- 

 tached, you may be sure that every 

 thing has felt the editorial influence of 

 Ernest. That the journal has lost noth- 

 ing by the change of censorship, in the 

 minds of its supporters, is evidenced by 

 the fact that within five years from the 



