1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



241 



that. Whatever I do, I wish to maintain 

 your respect. I am pra3Mng- that God may 

 help me to hold jour confidence and your 

 good will, whatever may happen. Last of 

 all, most of you are church-nienibers. 



We g-ot along- pretty well after that. Usu- 

 ally, before closing- a lesson I give the boys 

 a hint of what is g-oing- on in the scientific 

 world. One evening- I g-ave them a g-limpse 

 of my specimen of radium which I have told 

 you about. On this particular Sunday I 

 said, just before the last bell rang, " Do 

 you know, friends, that two Ohio boys, or 

 young men, rather, have outstripped the 

 world in demonstrating that ?i flying-ma- 

 chine can be constructed without the use of a 

 balloon? During the past fevr months these 

 two boys have made a machine that actual- 

 ly flew through the air for more than half 

 a mile, carrying one of the boys with it. 

 This young man is not only a credit to our 

 State, but to the whole country and to the 

 world. ' ' 



"Where do the boys live? What are their 

 names?" said a chorus of voices. 



" Their names are Orville and Wilbur 

 Wright, of Dayton, Ohio." 



"When and where did their machine 

 fly?" 



" Their experiments were made just be- 

 fore winter set in, on the Atlantic coast, at 

 Kitty Hawk, N. C, at a place where there 

 are several miles of soft sand blown up by 

 the wind. They chose that sandy waste so 

 that, in case of an accident, they would not 

 be apt to be severely hurt by falling. For 

 the same reason they managed it so as to 

 keep the machine within five or ten feet of 

 the ground. As soon as we have warm 

 weather they are going on with their exper- 

 iments. The machine was made something 

 after the fashion of a box kite. A gaso- 

 line engine moved propeller wheels that 

 pulled it against the wind. When they 

 make their next trial I am going to try to 

 be on hand and see the experiment." 



This little story seemed to have the ef- 

 fect I expected it would. They seemed to 

 have forgotten the unpleasantness about 

 maintaining order, and I was thanking 

 God that I had been enabled to talk as se- 

 verely as I did, and yet not arouse any bad 

 or vindictive feelings in their hearts; but 

 as we pssed out of the door of our room, 

 however, one of the tallest and brightest of 

 the group said something like this: 



"If they t^ke you up in the inachine I 

 hope they will let you drop; for we haven't 

 any use for any such 'old thing' around 

 here." 



I glanced quickly at the speaker's face 

 to see if it was a bit of pleasantry; but he 

 simply looked hard and sullen, or at least 

 I thought he did. He had been one of the 

 worst oft'enders that day, and he seemed 

 not to have f. rgotten my severe words after 

 all, even though he had listened intently to 

 what I had to say about the flying-ma- 

 chine. Let me digress a little. 



Years ago, at an open-air meeting among 

 a class of toughs, I read to them in the 



Bible about turning the other cheek also, 

 when somebody hits you a blow. One of 

 the hearers interrupted me by saying, "Mr. 

 Root, if somebody gives j'ou a clip on one 

 side of the head, will you turn the other 

 side and let him hit you again ?" 



I replied that I would try hard to show 

 that kind of spirit. The reply came quick: 



"All right; may be you would; but I 

 should like mightily to see it tried on.'''' 



These words have rung in my ears a good 

 many times since then, and it happened 

 perhaps nearly thirty years ago. I have 

 tried to school myself to receive all kinds of 

 clips, and still keep cool and quiet, and not 

 feel mentally troubled or worried. Some- 

 times I have felt as if it were too much to 

 expect any speck of humanity to render, 

 under all circumstances, good for evil. A 

 few times I have succeeded in looking pleas- 

 ant and good-natured, even while stinging 

 from a blow, or when inwardly stirred up 

 to fierce rebellion. 



On the way home I kept thinking about 

 that unkind fling. It seemed as if there 

 was an almost satanic ingenuity in it. It 

 implied, or at least I thought it did, that I 

 was getting to be too old to undertake to 

 teach a crowd of boys in their teens. Per- 

 haps it was Satan that kept suggesting I 

 had lost interest in boyish sports — that I 

 was getting so well along in years it would 

 be better all around if I should cease even 

 trying to teach any longer. Could it be 

 true I was getting too old to be of any fur- 

 ther use among men or among boys? Why, 

 just a week or two ago, our family physi- 

 cian said, when I started on a little run to 

 catch up with the rest of the crowd, " Why, 

 Mr. Root, you run as spry as a boy of six- 

 teen instead of a man over sixty; " and I 

 have prided myself on being as spry, both 

 physically and mentally, and, I hope, spir- 

 itually, as I ever was. As I pondered on 

 that speech about being too old to be of any 

 further use here in my native town of Me- 

 dina, I wondered how many of that class 

 were of the same opinion. Had the boys 

 been laughing at my attempts to control 

 them? May be the superintendent thought 

 I was too old to undertake to handle such a 

 cl iss. I told Mrs. Root about it, and she 

 felt hurt too. I did not enjoy running my 

 automobile home from Sunday-school ; and 

 during that whole afternoon when I attempt- 

 ed to read, that unkind speech kept haunt- 

 ing me. I told some of our people about it 

 — that is. the grown up children — the pa- 

 rents of our grandchildren — and they were 

 quite indignant. The idea that A. I. Rcx)t, 

 who had helped to build up the town of 

 Medina, was of no further use in it, and 

 that it would be a general gain if he could 

 be "dropped out of a flying-machine" or 

 gotten rid of in some other way! As I 

 thought it over it seemed to me as if the 

 sting was greater than if I had been 

 knocked over with a club; but, dear friends, 

 it did me good. It set me to praying; and 

 my prayers cleared the sky somewhat, es- 

 pecially when on bended knees I remember- 



