1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



(591 



American Bee Journal some time ago. While 

 we do nol have his sanction, we feel sure that 

 this will be quite as agreeable to the naajority 

 of the readers of Gleanings as his visit to the 

 homes of those bee-keepers who are fortunate 

 enough to be in the path of his wheel. While 

 we may be taking unfair advantage of him in 

 his absence, and perliaps seem to have tran- 

 scended the proi)rieties, this general and oft- 

 repeated desire for a look into the face of the 

 editor is our only e.vcuse for their insertion 

 here and now . The writer, who holds Ernest 

 in high esteem, being his big brother-in-law, 

 with broad shoulders, will risk incurring his 

 displeasure. Without further introduction we 

 reproduce the sketch entire, with picture, as it 

 appeared. j 'p q 



It is not often that a periodical is so favored 

 as IS the Bee Jour/iat, with the opportunity to 

 present to us readers, in a biographical sketch 

 and by portrait, one who has come into well- 

 earned prominence with such rapidity and per- 

 manency as Mr. Ernest R. Root. Though we 

 have not met him face to face, we feel that we 

 have in him a sympathetic brother and friend. 

 If we may judge from the exceedingly pleasant 

 and profitable correspondence that has passed 

 between iis. 



Dr. Miller, who has known Mr. Root since 

 his twelfth year, tells, as onlv the doctor can, 

 how he has grown up into his present noble 

 manhood and enviable position of usefulness as 

 fu 1°^^*?^ "lovely Gleanings." Let us all hope 

 that Mr. Root may long be spared to bless the 

 held of apiarian literature with his graceful 

 pen, and more graceful and earnest elTorts in 

 behair of the whole bee-keeping world. 

 ■ P<'r,'"i.t "s now to invite you to a careful read- 

 ing of the following interesting life-story of our 

 friend and brother-editor: 



Somewhere about twenty-four years ag-o I visited 

 Medina, Ohio, for the first time, going- by stage, as 

 there was then no railroad. Among the thing-s I 

 there saw was a boy, perhaps iu his twelfth year (he 

 was b(irn June 23, 1862). His name was Ernest R. 

 Root; and in spite of the three decades that have 

 passed over his head, be is still called "Ernest," 

 both at home and abroad, much oftener than " Mr. 

 Root." I don't know just wby this is; certainly 

 not for want of respect Perhaps because his 

 pleasantly cordial manner, both in writing- and 

 conversation, makes every one think of him as a 

 familiar friend. 1 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 

 ;ats or tying tin cans to dogs' tails. So I don't sup- 

 pose he was worse than the majority of boys. In- 

 leed, 1 suppose he was too busy in other directions 

 to have much time for such things. His father was 

 A.. 1. Root. That's equivalent to saying he was a 

 lobbyist-a born hobbyist. I am told that at a very 

 iarly age he showed an extreme fondness for pic- 

 ■ures— A. I.'s son, you see. 



As a boy, one hobby was machinery, and to him a 

 veil-rigged water-wheel or windmill was tlie sum 

 )f earthly happiness. Later on, singly or combined 

 (long with other hobbies, rume mechanics, elec- 



tricity, microscopy, bees, photograpliy, and bicy- 

 cles. 



In electricity he thought he found himself the 

 discoverer and inventor of many things of real 

 value, but on informing liimself more fully was 

 somewhat chagrined 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 every thing connected with electricity. 



The use of the microscope, notwithstanding its 

 injury to a pair of eyes none the best fitted for it 

 was pursued with zeal; and among other micro- 

 scopic studies, he took up the anatomy of the bee, 

 going so far as to publish two or three articles 

 thereon, when the appearance of the magnificent 

 work of Cheshire made him again feel that lie was 

 only working over old ground. 



ERNEST R. ROOT. 



To go back. In the year '81 he entered the prepai-- 

 atory department of Oberlin College, and left at the 

 end of four years without graduating, being oblig- 

 ed 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 he 

 was settled in another direction, when he capitu- 

 lated to a pair of black eyes, with properly accom- 

 panying charms of mind and body, possessed by 

 Miss Elizabeth Humphrey. After some opportunity 

 for observation, lam glad to believe that in her 

 Ernest h.as a very worthy wife. She has a rival 

 in his affections in the person of their two-year-old 

 son, Leland Ives— a rialry that she seems to bear 

 not only meekly but cheerfully. 



Like his father, a rider of liobbies, 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, liis liat is blown off, he only fiings his 

 arms the higher, and enjoys the fun. Ernest keeps 

 a steady hand on the rein; and if the speed is too 



