JULY 1, 1916 



553 



A. I. Root 



OUR HOMES 



Editor 



Know ye not that your body is the temple of the 

 Holy Ghost which is in you? — I. COR. 6:9. 



Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 

 — Gal. 6:7. 



I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the 

 iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the 

 third and fourth generation of them that hate me. — 

 Ex. 20:5. 



Our older readers will remember that 

 when Gleanings was first started I com- 

 menced a good-natured " war on Christian 

 principles." Almost as soon as I became 

 interested in bee culture somebody told me 

 the only way to handle bees successfully 

 was with smoke; and a little later some- 

 body said that tobacco smoke was ever so 

 much better than any other kind of smoke; 

 and pretty soon a young man said he was 

 going to learn to smoke so that he could 

 always have it handy to use on bees. I 

 pi'otested then and there, and then went 

 right to work to make a better bee-smoker 

 than the world had ever used. I have told 

 the story several times, but I will simply 

 go over it briefly. 



¥7ell, I told this young man that if he 

 would promise not to use tobacco I would 

 make him a present of a bee-smoker. I 

 think there were then about half a dozen 

 men and boys present, and they put a joke 

 np on me. Another young man said, " Can 

 I have a smoker too on the same terms? " 



I assented. Then finally the whole crowd 

 took it up, and I replied something as fol- 

 lows : 



" Yes, friends, each one of you may have 

 a fifty-cent smoker free of charge if you 

 will give up the use of tobacco and give me 

 a promise that I can print in Gleanings 

 that, when you use it again in any form, 

 smoking or chewing, you will pay me back 

 my iifty cents." 



As a matter of course the names of those 

 who made the pledge were printed in the 

 journal, with an explanation. In due time 

 my pledges came from all over the United 

 States, not only from the men and boys, but 

 from several ministers of the gospel, and 

 from quite a few women. The names of all 

 these people, amounting to quite a little 

 over 1000, are given in our back numbers. 

 Just a few paid back the fifty cents. 



Now, altho all this happened about forty 

 years ago, I hardly think there has been a 

 year since that I have not had some stran- 

 ger grasp my hand and tell me what he owed 

 me for having given up the use of tobacco. 

 Wlien T visited H. A. March, away up in 

 Puget Sound. I saw on the mantelpiece a 

 bright new Simplicity smoker, and he in- 

 formed me it was the one I gave him, years 



before, for breaking off tobacco. He said 

 he had never used the smoker, but kept it 

 up there in plain sight as a daily reminder 

 of what he owed his old friend A. I. Root. 

 He told me the story something as follows: 



" Mr. Root, when I got that smoker I was 

 having a nervous breakdown. My hand 

 shook so much that I could hardly write a 

 letter. The doctors did not seem able to 

 help me. When 1 saw what you said about 

 tobacco I grasped the idea as a drowning 

 m.an grasps at a straw. Now look here. 

 Can you hold vour hand any steadier than 

 that?" 



Then he held his hand up before my face. 

 I replied, " To be sure, I cannot, for yours 

 is as steady as a piece of cast iron." 



Let us now come down to the present day. 

 A month ago I received the following let- 

 ter: 



Dear Mr. Root: — Knowing how you feel on the 

 subject of excessive use of tobacco, we are sending 

 you a copy of the new book by Prof. Mac Levy, 

 which we believe will be very interesting to you. 

 Even if you are busy, we hope you will try to take 

 a half-hour to look thru this volume. It is being 

 endorsed by eminent educators and physicians. 

 There is actually a need for. such a volume, consid- 

 erinsr the tremendous amount of damage that is be- 

 ins done by tobacco at the present time. 



New York, May 9. P. K. Thompson, 



Secretary Albro Society. 



I found the book referred to beside the 

 letter, and gave it a rather hasty going- 

 over; but I get so many books to review 

 besides lookin.g over the great mass of agri- 

 cultural periodicals, that it is next to im- 

 possible to read any book clear thru. After 

 giving the book as much attention as I 

 could find time for I answered the letter as 

 follows : 



Many thanks for the tobacco book. Thirty or 

 forty years ago we sent out and gave away several 

 hundred books discouraging the use of tobacco. Witli 

 the present fight against strong drink, our Anti- 

 saloon League had thought best to let up a little on 

 tobacco, altho we are still waging war on cigarettes, 

 giving away the book put out by Ford, Edison, and 

 others. 



By the way, I was a little surprised — perhaps I 

 should say pained — to notice the author has little or 

 nothing to say about the help that Christianity gives 

 one to break oi¥ any bad habit. I did notice one 

 suggestion — that if a man was going to succeed he 

 was to stop swearing. That's well and good; but in 

 view of the great work that Billy Sunday is doing in 

 the way of reformation from strong drink and tobac- 

 co, should there not be a little more recognition of 

 divine help ? 



I heartily endorse the instruction you give, and, 

 by the way, will not such a course help greatly in 

 overcoming any other bad habit — all sorts of "dope," 

 for instance ? May God bless and prosper you in the 

 great undertaking. 



By the way, just one thing more occurs to me : 

 The matter came up some time ago as to whether 

 our Ohio Experiment Station should teach our Ohio 

 boys how to grow tobacco. I said: " God forbid;" 



