670 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jdne 15 



OUR , 



HOMES, tetfW 



BY A. I. R O OT. 



She hath done what she could.— Mark 14:8. 



It has been my privilege to meet many 

 noble men and women during this life which 

 God has permitted me to live so far. Yes, 

 more than that— it has been my privilege to 

 know intimately, and to find right in my 

 own immediate neighborhood, many good 

 and noble characters. Sometimes we do not 

 realize the true worth of these grand and 

 noble characters until God has seen fit to 

 take them away. This matter has been 

 called to mind by the recent death of one 

 who for many years had a very close con- 

 nection with the growth and building-up of 

 our business. 



Some time about 1856 my father moved 

 from the town where I was brought up, out 

 on to a farm in the woods in Medina County, 

 Ohio. When we began to get acquainted 

 with the neighbors I heard frequent men- 

 tion of Miss Ellen Mason. Everybody spoke 

 of her as a very studious girl and good schol- 

 ar. She did not attend the country district 

 school where my younger brothers and sis- 

 ters did, for she had mastered the common 

 branches, and was at that time in Oberlin, 

 Ohio, a place that was then and is now 

 famed far and wide for educational facili- 

 ties. By and by Miss Mason came home on 

 a vacation, and it was my privilege to meet 

 her. Although she was still in her teens, 

 everybody seemed to agree in calling her 

 Miss Mason instead of plain Ellen Mason, 

 and I wondered at this somewhat; but when 

 I became acquainted with her I understood 

 it better. While she had a keen relish for 

 every thing outdoors as well as for what 

 could be learned from books, she seldom 

 joined very much, if I am correct, in ordi- 

 nary sports and gatherings, especially the 

 boisterous gatherings. Her remarkable 

 characteristic was that she was always ex- 

 ceedingly busy about something or other, 

 usually studying up something that had 

 heretofore escaped her. She was quite pro- 

 ficient, even at an early age, in drawing; 

 and both my sister and Mrs. Root, who were 

 nearly of an age (only 15 or 16) took draw- 

 ing-lessons of Miss Mason. Some of the 

 pictures Mrs. Root made at that time are 

 still in our possession. 



After Miss Mason graduated in Oberlin, 

 taking a gentleman's course as well as a 

 ladies' course, she became a teacher in 

 Cleveland. When I started the ABC book 

 I was anxious to learn to draw so as to help 

 the engraver make the pictures I wanted. 

 Miss Mason undertook to give me lessons in 

 drawing by mail. By the way, this was an 

 early start in the "correspondence-school" 

 business. Well do I remember her beauti- 

 ful hand-writing and excellent phraseology 

 in her letters of instruction. But I had too 

 much on my hands at that time to attend to 

 it, and it was soon dropped. 



When she heard what I was doing in bee 

 culture she paid us a visit, and I do not think 

 I ever had a visitor before or since who 

 looked through the bee-hives with such 

 intense and enthusiastic interest. She plied 

 me with question after question, and remem- 

 bered my replies so well that in one brief 

 visit she had a pretty fair understanding of 

 the mysteries of the hive. Later on, such 

 close application indoors seemed prejudicial 

 to her health, and she asked if she could not 

 be of some assistance in our growing busi- 

 ness. My impression is we talked about 

 having her outdoors some of the time; but 

 she was so valuable as an assistant book- 

 keeper and correspondent that she could not 

 well be spared to go outdoors. About the 

 time we came to our present location, in 

 1878, she became installed as head book- 

 keeper. When she first commenced work- 

 ing for me she accepted very much less 

 wages than what she had been receiving in 

 the public schools of Cleveland; and during 

 all her busy life with us for eighteen or 

 twenty years she never once even s^^ggested 

 more pay than she had been getting. On 

 the contrary, she almost invariably objected 

 to an advance. When the business became 

 so large that there were a dozen or more 

 clerks in the office, most of them under her 

 supervision, I suggested that she ought to 

 have about a thousand dollars a year. She 

 said she was becoming aware that the 

 amount of business we were doing required 

 somebody who would be worth about that 

 amount; but she very much feared she 

 could not fill the requirements of the posi- 

 tion as they ought to be filled. She did, 

 however, manage very well for quite a num- 

 ber of years after that conversation. 



She was all her life an exceedingly busy 

 woman. From the moment her time was 

 marked in the morning until it was marked 

 off, not only every minute, but it would 

 seem as if every second, was given entirely 

 to the service of The A. I. Root Co. Her 

 example in the office was worth a great deal 

 to our business in this respect. If there 

 was to be any talk about outside events, it 

 was always before or after her time was 

 marked oif. 



I am told that she chose the Lord Jesus 

 Christ for her friend and helper when she 

 was only fourteen years old; and I do not 

 think she ever forgot that sacred pledge 

 for one moment to the end of her life. 

 Whenever it was necessary that somebody 

 should be labored with about being out late 

 nights in bad company, or getting into bad 

 habits. Miss Mason was the very person to 

 do it. Of course, I allude especially to our 

 office help. Nobody was ever offended at 

 Miss Mason's kind rebukes. Many parents 

 were exceedingly anxious to have their 

 children in our employ, and I hope the 

 above remark is just as true now as it was 

 25 or 30 years ago.* 



* I do not intend by the above to carry the idea that 

 Miss Mason was the only woman in my employ at that 

 time who did this kind of work. There are others, both 

 men and women; and there are at the present time 

 through our different departments unselfish, whole- 



