February, 1922 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



lOS 



IN Our Homes 

 for September 



I told }'ou how 

 a single person 

 was, as I bc- 

 1 i e V 0, led to 

 change his 

 mind ver}' sud- 

 denly in answer 

 to prayer. I am 

 now going to try 

 to tell you how 

 quite a respect- 

 able crowd of 

 people all of a 

 sudden turned 

 about and took 

 ' ' a back track, ' ' 

 also in answer 

 to prayer. I 

 hardly need tell 

 you that all my 

 life I have been 

 opposed to the 



tobacco habit — not because it is a notion of 

 mine, but because I have felt sure it is 

 harmful to hunianit.y at large, young and 

 old. My father used it many years; in fact, 

 the habit became so firmly fixed on him 

 that he was scarcely ever seen without his 

 pipe. He finally began failing, and was 

 feeling much cast down because old age 

 seemed to be coming on when he should 

 have been almost in his prime. Some good 

 sensible doctor advised him to try going 

 without tobacco. It was a terrible task he 

 had before him, especially for a few days; 

 but in a few weeks the gain was very ap- 

 parent. People joked him wherever he went 

 by remarks something as follows: 



"Why, brother Root, what is up? You 

 seem to be getting young again. ' ' 



He did get back his health and happiness, 

 and lived to a fairly good old age. Well, 

 when I started out to serve the Lord in 

 place of A. I. Root, one of the first things 

 I was called on to do was to furnish em- 

 ployment to the needj^ people of our town; 

 and very soon I had men and women, and 

 girls and boys, at work for me. When our 

 first brick building beside the railway track 

 was completed in the fall of 1878, and we 

 liad moved in, I was much annoyed by hav- 

 ing the carpenters and others squirt tobacco 

 juice all around the premises. I took this, 

 liowever, as a kind of necessary evil, and 

 did not say much about it. But one day 

 in passing some boys on the street, one of 

 them, with a cigar in his mouth, said to his 

 companion, "Johnny, I don't see you smok- 

 ing any more. What is the trouble?" 



"Well, I don't have any money to buy 

 cigars; but when school is out I am going 

 to Avork for Mr. Root again, and then I 

 shnll have money so I can learn to smoke.'' 



This happened so long ago that I can re- 

 licmber only imperfectly the particulars; 

 but I decided then and there that if my 

 giving employment would help boys buy 



OUR HOMES 



A. I. ROOT 



Know ye not tliat ye are tlie temple of God, and 

 that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? If any man 

 defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy ; for 

 tho temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. — 

 T. Cor. .".ae. 17. 



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

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

 16:7. 



Tf ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed ye 

 might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked 

 up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea, and 

 it should obey you. — Luke 17:6. 



tobacco it was 

 time to call a 

 I'alt; and I think 

 1 made some 

 kind of a rule 

 that no boys 

 who used tobac- 

 co would be giv- 

 en employment 

 until they gave 

 ii]> the use of it. 

 I do not think 

 we had any law 

 then in regard 

 to selling tobac- 

 co to minors; 

 but the question 

 soon came up as 

 to what age a 

 boy ceases to be a 

 boy and becomes 

 a man, and it was 

 not long before I 

 had found I had 

 run against a snag. I was interfering with 

 personal liberty, and that same "personal 

 liberty" is being ta^ked about, as you may 

 know, just now. I told the men folks who 

 used tobacco the story about my father, and 

 I suggested to them to try giving it up, 

 and some of them did try. 1 remember that 

 one day my foreman said laughingly he 

 wished that a certain carpenter would go 

 to using tobacco again, and gave as a rea- 

 son that since he had stopped or tried to 

 stop he was not worth half price. The mat- 

 ter was talked over, pro and con. I can not 

 remember just now the particulars, but I 

 had for once in my life a little experience 

 with what might be called a "strike." My 

 help talked it over^ and I was asked to back 

 down in what I had undertaken to do in 

 regard to the tobacco habit. I do not think 

 I had prayed over it as I ought to have 

 done; and I am inclined to think that I was 

 at least just a little unreasonable; but be- 

 fore I kn'ew what was going on, the engine 

 was shut down; my help, old and young 

 (with very few exceptions), including the 

 women in the office, got their dinner pails 

 and left the premises. Let me digress a 

 little right here. 



Some years before this event occurred a 

 bright little girl with a remarkably sweet 

 and pleading face came to me for work. I 

 said to her something as I did to the boy 

 Jacob, ' ' Why, my little friend, are you old 

 enough to work in the office ?" 



She replied with a very pretty girlish 

 smile that she knew she was _voung, but she 

 wanted to help her widowed mother. Site 

 took hold of the Avork in a way that sur- 

 prised me; and after she had been with us 

 for about two years she came to me and 

 said something as follows: "Mr. Root, I 

 have a very dear friend who is wasting her 

 time and talents by going to dances and 

 being out late nights, etc. If you could 

 give her a place here in the factory, say to 



