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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35950-8.txt b/35950-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c5119f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/35950-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9214 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Lives of Poor Boys Who Became Famous, by Sarah K. Bolton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lives of Poor Boys Who Became Famous + +Author: Sarah K. Bolton + +Release Date: April 24, 2011 [EBook #35950] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVE OF POOR BOYS *** + + + + +Produced by Darleen Dove, Sharon Verougstraete and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + LIVES + OF + POOR BOYS WHO BECAME FAMOUS. + + BY + SARAH K. BOLTON. + + + "_There is properly no History, only Biography._" + --EMERSON. + + _Human portraits, faithfully drawn, are of all pictures the + welcomest on human walls._ + --CARLYLE. + + + _FORTY-FIRST THOUSAND._ + + NEW YORK + THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. + PUBLISHERS + + + + + _Copyright,_ + BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. + 1885. + + + Norwood Press: + J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith. + Boston, Mass., U.S.A. + + + + + TO + MY ONLY SISTER, + + Mrs. Halsey D. Miller, + + IN REMEMBRANCE OF + MANY HAPPY HOURS. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +These characters have been chosen from various countries and from varied +professions, that the youth who read this book may see that poverty is +no barrier to success. It usually develops ambition, and nerves people +to action. Life at best has much of struggle, and we need to be cheered +and stimulated by the careers of those who have overcome obstacles. + +If Lincoln and Garfield, both farmer-boys, could come to the Presidency, +then there is a chance for other farmer-boys. If Ezra Cornell, a +mechanic, could become the president of great telegraph companies, and +leave millions to a university, then other mechanics can come to fame. +If Sir Titus Salt, working and sorting wool in a factory at nineteen, +could build one of the model towns of the world for his thousands of +workingmen, then there is encouragement and inspiration for other +toilers in factories. These lives show that without WORK and WILL no +great things are achieved. + +I have selected several characters because they were the centres of +important historical epochs. With Garibaldi is necessarily told the +story of Italian unity; with Garrison and Greeley, the fall of slavery; +and with Lincoln and Sheridan, the battles of our Civil War. + + S. K. B. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + GEORGE PEABODY Merchant 1 + + BAYARD TAYLOR Traveller 13 + + Captain JAMES B. EADS Civil Engineer 26 + + JAMES WATT Inventor 33 + + Sir JOSIAH MASON Manufacturer 46 + + BERNARD PALISSY Potter 54 + + BERTEL THORWALDSEN Sculptor 65 + + WOLFGANG MOZART Composer 72 + + SAMUEL JOHNSON Author 83 + + OLIVER GOLDSMITH Poet and Writer 90 + + MICHAEL FARADAY Scientist 96 + + Sir HENRY BESSEMER Maker of Steel 112 + + Sir TITUS SALT Philanthropist 124 + + JOSEPH MARIE JACQUARD Silk Weaver 130 + + HORACE GREELEY Editor 138 + + WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON Reformer 156 + + GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI Patriot 172 + + JEAN PAUL RICHTER Novelist 187 + + LEON GAMBETTA Statesman 204 + + DAVID G. FARRAGUT Sailor 219 + + EZRA CORNELL Mechanic 238 + + Lieut.-General SHERIDAN Soldier 251 + + THOMAS COLE Painter 270 + + OLE BULL Violinist 284 + + MEISSONIER Artist 303 + + GEO. W. CHILDS Journalist 313 + + DWIGHT L. MOODY Evangelist 323 + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN President 342 + + + + +[Illustration: GEORGE PEABODY.] + +GEORGE PEABODY. + + +If America had been asked who were to be her most munificent givers in +the nineteenth century, she would scarcely have pointed to two grocer's +boys, one in a little country store at Danvers, Mass., the other in +Baltimore; both poor, both uneducated; the one leaving seven millions to +Johns Hopkins University and Hospital, the other nearly nine millions to +elevate humanity. George Peabody was born in Danvers, Feb. 18, 1795. His +parents were respectable, hard-working people, whose scanty income +afforded little education for their children. George grew up an +obedient, faithful son, called a "mother-boy" by his companions, from +his devotion to her,--a title of which any boy may well be proud. + +At eleven years of age he must go out into the world to earn his living. +Doubtless his mother wished to keep her child in school; but there was +no money. A place was found with a Mr. Proctor in a grocery-store, and +here, for four years, he worked day by day, giving his earnings to his +mother, and winning esteem for his promptness and honesty. But the boy +at fifteen began to grow ambitious. He longed for a larger store and a +broader field. Going with his maternal grandfather to Thetford, Vt., he +remained a year, when he came back to work for his brother in a +dry-goods store in Newburyport. Perhaps now in this larger town his +ambition would be satisfied, when, lo! the store burned, and George was +thrown out of employment. + +His father had died, and he was without a dollar in the world. Ambition +seemed of little use now. However, an uncle in Georgetown, D.C., hearing +that the boy needed work, sent for him, and thither he went for two +years. Here he made many friends, and won trade, by his genial manner +and respectful bearing. His tact was unusual. He never wounded the +feelings of a buyer of goods, never tried him with unnecessary talk, +never seemed impatient, and was punctual to the minute. Perhaps no one +trait is more desirable than the latter. A person who breaks his +appointments, or keeps others waiting for him, loses friends, and +business success as well. + +A young man's habits are always observed. If he is worthy, and has +energy, the world has a place for him, and sooner or later he will find +it. A wholesale dry-goods dealer, Mr. Riggs, had been watching young +Peabody. He desired a partner of energy, perseverance, and honesty. +Calling on the young clerk, he asked him to put his labor against his, +Mr. Riggs's, capital. "But I am only nineteen years of age," was the +reply. + +This was considered no objection, and the partnership was formed. A year +later, the business was moved to Baltimore. The boyish partner travelled +on horseback through the western wilds of New York, Pennsylvania, +Maryland, and Virginia, selling goods, and lodging over night with +farmers or planters. In seven years the business had so increased, that +branch houses were established in Philadelphia and New York. Finally Mr. +Riggs retired from the firm; and George Peabody found himself, at the +age of thirty-five, at the head of a large and wealthy establishment, +which his own energy, industry, and honesty had helped largely to build. +He had bent his life to one purpose, that of making his business a +success. No one person can do many things well. + +Having visited London several times in matters of trade, he determined +to make that great city his place of residence. He had studied finance +by experience as well as close observation, and believed that he could +make money in the great metropolis. Having established himself as a +banker at Wanford Court, he took simple lodgings, and lived without +display. When Americans visited London, they called upon the genial, +true-hearted banker, whose integrity they could always depend upon, and +transacted their business with him. + +In 1851, the World's Fair was opened at the Crystal Palace, London, +Prince Albert having worked earnestly to make it a great success. +Congress neglected to make the needed appropriations for America; and +her people did not care, apparently, whether Powers' Greek Slave, Hoe's +wonderful printing-press, or the McCormick Reaper were seen or not. But +George Peabody cared for the honor of his nation, and gave fifteen +thousand dollars to the American exhibitors, that they might make their +display worthy of the great country which they were to represent. The +same year, he gave his first Fourth of July dinner to leading Americans +and Englishmen, headed by the Duke of Wellington. While he remembered +and honored the day which freed us from England, no one did more than he +to bind the two nations together by the great kindness of a great heart. + +Mr. Peabody was no longer the poor grocery boy, or the dry-goods clerk. +He was fine looking, most intelligent from his wide reading, a total +abstainer from liquors and tobacco, honored at home and abroad, and very +rich. Should he buy an immense estate, and live like a prince? Should he +give parties and grand dinners, and have servants in livery? Oh, no! Mr. +Peabody had acquired his wealth for a different purpose. He loved +humanity. "How could he elevate the people?" was the one question of his +life. He would not wait till his death, and let others spend his money; +he would have the satisfaction of spending it himself. + +And now began a life of benevolence which is one of the brightest in our +history. Unmarried and childless, he made other wives and children happy +by his boundless generosity. If the story be true, that he was once +engaged to a beautiful American girl, who gave him up for a former poor +lover, the world has been the gainer by her choice. + +In 1852, Mr. Peabody gave ten thousand dollars to help fit out the +second expedition under Dr. Kane, in his search for Sir John Franklin; +and for this gift a portion of the newly-discovered country was justly +called Peabody Land. This same year, the town of Danvers, his +birthplace, decided to celebrate its centennial. Of course the rich +London banker was invited as one of the guests. He was too busy to be +present, but sent a letter, to be opened on the day of the celebration. +The seal was broken at dinner, and this was the toast, or sentiment, it +contained: "EDUCATION--_a debt due from present to future generations._" +A check was enclosed for twenty thousand dollars for the purpose of +building an Institute, with a free library and free course of lectures. +Afterward this gift was increased to two hundred and fifty thousand +dollars. The poor boy had not forgotten the home of his childhood. + +Four years later, when Peabody Institute was dedicated, the giver, who +had been absent from America twenty years, was present. New York and +other cities offered public receptions; but he declined all save +Danvers. A great procession was formed, the houses along the streets +being decorated, all eager to do honor to their noble townsman. The +Governor of Massachusetts, Edward Everett, and others made eloquent +addresses, and then the kind-faced, great-hearted man responded:-- + +"Though Providence has granted me an unvaried and unusual success in the +pursuit of fortune in other lands, I am still in heart the humble boy +who left yonder unpretending dwelling many, _very_ many years ago.... +There is not a youth within the sound of my voice whose early +opportunities and advantages are not very much greater than were my own; +and I have since achieved nothing that is impossible to the most humble +boy among you. Bear in mind, that, to be truly great, it is not +necessary that you should gain wealth and importance. Steadfast and +undeviating _truth_, fearless and straightforward _integrity_, and an +_honor_ ever unsullied by an unworthy word or action, make their +possessor greater than worldly success or prosperity. These qualities +constitute greatness." + +Soon after this, Mr. Peabody determined to build an Institute, combining +a free library and lectures with an Academy of Music and an Art Gallery, +in the city of Baltimore. For this purpose he gave over one million +dollars--a princely gift indeed! Well might Baltimore be proud of the +day when he sought a home in her midst. + +But the merchant-prince had not finished his giving. He saw the poor of +the great city of London, living in wretched, desolate homes. Vice and +poverty were joining hands. He, too, had been poor. He could sympathize +with those who knew not how to make ends meet. What would so stimulate +these people to good citizenship as comfortable and cheerful +abiding-places? March 12, 1862, he called together a few of his trusted +friends in London, and placed in their hands, for the erection of neat, +tasteful dwellings for the poor, the sum of seven hundred and fifty +thousand dollars. Ah, what a friend the poor had found! not the gift of +a few dollars, which would soon be absorbed in rent, but homes which for +a small amount might be enjoyed as long as they lived. + +At once some of the worst portions of London were purchased; tumble-down +structures were removed; and plain, high brick blocks erected, around +open squares, where the children could find a playground. Gas and water +were supplied, bathing and laundry rooms furnished. Then the poor came +eagerly, with their scanty furniture, and hired one or two rooms for +twenty-five or fifty cents a week,--cab-men, shoemakers, tailors, and +needle-women. Tenants were required to be temperate and of good moral +character. Soon tiny pots of flowers were seen in the windows, and a +happier look stole into the faces of hard-working fathers and mothers. + +Mr. Peabody soon increased his gift to the London poor to three million +dollars, saying, "If judiciously managed for two hundred years, its +accumulation will amount to a sum sufficient to buy the city of London." + +No wonder that these gifts of millions began to astonish the world. +London gave him the freedom of the city in a gold box,--an honor rarely +bestowed,--and erected his bronze statue near the Royal Exchange. Queen +Victoria wished to make him a baron; but he declined all titles. What +gift, then, would he accept, was eagerly asked. "A letter from the Queen +of England, which I may carry across the Atlantic, and deposit as a +memorial of one of her most faithful sons," was the response. It is not +strange that so pure and noble a man as George Peabody admired the +purity and nobility of character of her who governs England so wisely. + +A beautiful letter was returned by the Queen, assuring him how deeply +she appreciated his noble act of more than princely munificence,--an +act, as the Queen believes, "wholly without parallel," and asking him to +accept a miniature portrait of herself. The portrait, in a massive gold +frame, is fourteen inches long and ten inches wide, representing the +Queen in robes of state,--the largest miniature ever attempted in +England, and for the making of which a furnace was especially built. The +cost is believed to have been over fifty thousand dollars in gold. It is +now preserved, with her letter, in the Peabody Institute near Danvers. + +Oct. 25, 1866, the beautiful white marble Institute in Baltimore was to +be dedicated. Mr. Peabody had crossed the ocean to be present. Besides +the famous and the learned, twenty thousand children with Peabody badges +were gathered to meet him. The great man's heart was touched as he said, +"Never have I seen a more beautiful sight than this vast collection of +interesting children. The review of the finest army, attended by the +most delightful strains of martial music, could never give me half the +pleasure." He was now seventy-one years old. He had given nearly five +millions; could the world expect any more? He realized that the freed +slaves at the South needed an education. They were poor, and so were a +large portion of the white race. He would give for their education three +million dollars, the same amount he had bestowed upon the poor of +London. To the trustees having this gift in charge he said, "With my +advancing years, my attachment to my native land has but become more +devoted. My hope and faith in its successful and glorious future have +grown brighter and stronger. But, to make her prosperity more than +superficial, her moral and intellectual development should keep pace +with her material growth. I feel most deeply, therefore, that it is the +duty and privilege of the more favored and wealthy portions of our +nation to assist those who are less fortunate." Noble words! Mr. +Peabody's health was beginning to fail. What he did must now be done +quickly. Yale College received a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for +a Museum of Natural History; Harvard the same, for a Museum of +Archæology and Ethnology; to found the Peabody Academy of Science at +Salem a hundred and forty thousand dollars; to Newburyport Library, +where the fire threw him out of employment, and thus probably broadened +his path in life, fifteen thousand dollars; twenty-five thousand dollars +each to various institutions of learning throughout the country; ten +thousand dollars to the Sanitary Commission during the war, besides four +million dollars to his relatives; making in all thirteen million +dollars. Just before his return to England, he made one of the most +tender gifts of his life. The dear mother whom he idolized was dead, but +he would build her a fitting monument; not a granite shaft, but a +beautiful Memorial Church at Georgetown, Mass., where for centuries, +perhaps, others will worship the God she worshipped. On a marble tablet +are the words, "Affectionately consecrated by her children, George and +Judith, to the memory of Mrs. Judith Peabody." Whittier wrote the hymn +for its dedication:-- + + "The heart, and not the hand, has wrought, + From sunken base to tower above, + The image of a tender thought, + The memory of a deathless love." + +Nov. 4, 1869, Mr. Peabody lay dying at the house of a friend in London. +The Queen sent a special telegram of inquiry and sympathy, and desired +to call upon him in person; but it was too late. "It is a great +mystery," said the dying man feebly; "but I shall know all soon." At +midnight he passed to his reward. + +Westminster Abbey opened her doors for a great funeral, where statesmen +and earls bowed their heads in honor of the departed. Then the Queen +sent her noblest man-of-war, "Monarch," to bear in state, across the +Atlantic, "her friend," the once poor boy of Danvers. Around the coffin, +in a room draped in black, stood immense wax candles, lighted. When the +great ship reached America, Legislatures adjourned, and went with +Governors and famous men to receive the precious freight. The body was +taken by train to Peabody, and then placed on a funeral car, eleven feet +long and ten feet high, covered with black velvet, trimmed with silver +lace and stars. Under the casket were winged cherubs in silver. The car +was drawn by six horses covered with black and silver, while corps of +artillery preceded the long procession. At sunset the Institute was +reached, and there, surrounded by the English and American flags draped +with crape, the guard kept silent watch about the dead. At the funeral, +at the church, Hon. Robert C. Winthrop pronounced the eloquent eulogy, +of the "brave, honest, noble-hearted friend of mankind," and then, amid +a great concourse of people, George Peabody was buried at Harmony Grove, +by the side of the mother whom he so tenderly loved. Doubtless he looked +out upon this greensward from his attic window when a child or when he +labored in the village store. Well might two nations unite in doing +honor to this man, both good and great, who gave nine million dollars to +bless humanity. + +[The building fund of £500,000 left by Mr. Peabody for the benefit of +the poor of London has now been increased by rents and interest to +£857,320. The whole of this great sum of money is in active employment, +together with £340,000 which the trustees have borrowed. A total of +£1,170,787 has been expended during the time the fund has been in +existence, of which £80,903 was laid out during 1884. The results of +these operations are seen in blocks of artisans' dwellings built on land +purchased by the trustees and let to working men at rents within their +means, containing conveniences and comforts not ordinarily attainable by +them, thus fulfilling the benevolent intentions of Mr. Peabody. At the +present time 4551 separate dwellings have been erected, containing +10,144 rooms, inhabited by 18,453 persons. Thirteen new blocks of +buildings are now in course of erection and near completion. Indeed, +there is no cessation in the work of fulfilling the intentions of the +noble bequest.--_Boston Journal_, Mar. 7, 1885.] + + + + +[Illustration: BAYARD TAYLOR.] + +BAYARD TAYLOR. + + +Since Samuel Johnson toiled in Grub Street, London, literature has +scarcely furnished a more pathetic or inspiring illustration of struggle +to success than that of Bayard Taylor. Born of Quaker parentage in the +little town of Kennett Square, near Philadelphia, Jan. 11, 1825, he grew +to boyhood in the midst of fresh air and the hard work of farm-life. His +mother, a refined and intelligent woman, who taught him to read at four, +and who early discovered her child's love for books, shielded him as far +as possible from picking up stones and weeding corn, and set him to +rocking the baby to sleep. What was her amazement one day, on hearing +loud cries from the infant, to find Bayard absorbed in reading, and +rocking his own chair furiously, supposing it to be the cradle! It was +evident, that, though such a boy might become a fine literary man, he +could not be a successful baby-tender. + +He was especially eager to read poetry and travels, and, before he was +twelve years old, had devoured the contents of their small circulating +library, as well as Cooper's novels, and the histories of Gibbon, +Robertson, and Hume. The few books which he owned were bought with money +earned by selling nuts which he had gathered. He read Milton, Scott, +Byron, and Wordsworth; and his mother would often hear him repeating +poetry to his brother after they had gone to bed. He was always planning +journeys in Europe, which seemed very far from being realized. At +fourteen he began to study Latin and French, and at fifteen, Spanish; +and a year later he assisted in teaching at the academy where he was +attending school. + +He was ambitious; but there seemed no open door. There is never an open +door to fame or prosperity, except we open it for ourselves. The world +is too busy to help others; and assistance usually weakens rather than +strengthens us. About this time he received, through request, an +autograph from Charles Dickens, then lecturing in this country. The boy +of sixteen wrote in his journal: "It was not without a feeling of +ambition that I looked upon it; that as he, a humble clerk, had risen to +be the guest of a mighty nation, so I, a humble pedagogue, might, by +unremitted and arduous intellectual and moral exertion, become a light, +a star, among the names of my country. May it be!... I believe all poets +are possessed in a greater or less degree of ambition. I think this is +never given without a mind of sufficient power to sustain it, and to +achieve its lofty object." + +At seventeen, Bayard's schooling was over. He sketched well, and would +gladly have gone to Philadelphia to study engraving; but he had no +money. One poem had been published in the "Saturday Evening Post." Those +only who have seen their first poem in print can experience his joy. But +writing poetry would not earn him a living. He had no liking for +teaching, but, as that seemed the only thing at hand, he would try to +obtain a school. He did not succeed, however, and apprenticed himself +for four years to a printer. He worked faithfully, using all his spare +hours in reading and writing poetry. + +Two years later, he walked to Philadelphia and back--thirty miles each +way--to see if fifteen of his poems could not be printed in a book! His +ambition evidently had not abated. Of course no publisher would take the +book at his own risk. There was no way of securing its publication, +therefore, but to visit his friends, and solicit them to buy copies in +advance. This was a trying matter for a refined nature; but it was a +necessity. He hoped thus to earn a little money for travel, and "to win +a name that the person who shall be chosen to share with me the toils of +life will not be ashamed to own." This "person" was Mary Agnew, whose +love and that of Bayard Taylor form one of the saddest and tenderest +pictures in our literature. + +At last the penniless printer boy had determined to see Europe. For two +years he had read every thing he could find upon travels abroad. His +good mother mourned over the matter, and his acquaintances prophesied +dire results from such a roving disposition. He would go again to +Philadelphia, and see if the newspapers did not wish correspondence from +Europe. All the editors politely declined the ardent boy's proposals. +Probably he did not know that "unknown writers" are not wanted. + +About to return home, "not in despair," he afterwards wrote, "but in a +state of wonder as to where my funds would come from, for I felt certain +they would come," the editor of the "Saturday Evening Post" offered him +four dollars a letter for twelve letters,--fifty dollars,--with the +promise of taking more if they were satisfactory. The "United States +Gazette" made a similar offer, and, after selling a few manuscript poems +which he had with him, he returned home in triumph, with a hundred and +forty dollars in his pocket! "This," he says, "seemed sufficient to +carry me to the end of the world." + +Immediately Bayard and his cousin started on foot for Washington, a +hundred miles, to see the member of Congress from their district, and +obtain passports from him. Reaching a little village on their way +thither, they were refused lodgings at the tavern because of the +lateness of the hour,--nine o'clock!--and walked on till near midnight. +Then seeing a house brilliantly lighted, as for a wedding, they +approached, and asked the proprietor whether a tavern were near by. The +man addressed turned fiercely upon the lads, shouting, "Begone! Leave +the place instantly. Do you hear? Off!" The amazed boys hastened away, +and at three o'clock in the morning, footsore and faint, after a walk of +nearly forty miles, slept in a cart standing beside an old farmhouse. + +And now at nineteen, he was in New York, ready for Europe. He called +upon the author, N. P. Willis, who had once written a kind note to him; +and this gentleman, with a ready nature in helping others,--alas! not +always found among writers--gave him several letters of introduction to +newspaper men. Mr. Greeley said bluntly when applied to, "I am sick of +descriptive letters, and will have no more of them. But I should like +some sketches of German life and society, after you have been there, and +know something about it. If the letters are good, you shall be paid for +them; but don't write _until you know something_." + +July 1, 1844, Bayard and two young friends, after paying ten dollars +each for steerage passage, started out for this eventful voyage. No +wonder that, as land faded from sight, and he thought of gentle Mary +Agnew and his devoted mother, his heart failed him, and he quite broke +down. After twenty-eight days they landed in Liverpool, strangers, poor, +knowing almost nothing of the world, but full of hope and enthusiasm. +They spent three weeks in Scotland and the north of England, and then +travelled through Belgium to Heidelberg. Bayard passed the first winter +in Frankfort, in the plainest quarters, and then, with his knapsack on +his back, visited Leipzig, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, and Munich. After +this he walked over the Alps, and through Northern Italy, spending four +months in Florence, and then visiting Rome. Often he was so poor that he +lived on twenty cents a day. Sometimes he was without food for nearly +two days, writing his natural and graphic letters when his ragged +clothes were wet through, and his body faint from fasting. But the +manly, enthusiastic youth always made friends by his good cheer and +unselfishness. + +At last he was in London, with but thirty cents to buy food and lodging. +But he had a poem of twelve hundred lines in his knapsack, which he +supposed any London publisher would be glad to accept. He offered it; +but it was "declined with thanks." The youth had not learned that Bayard +Taylor unknown, and Bayard Taylor famous in two hemispheres, were two +different names upon the title-page of a book. Publishers cannot usually +afford to do missionary work in their business; they print what will +sell. "Weak from sea-sickness," he says, "hungry, chilled, and without a +single acquaintance in the great city, my situation was about as +hopeless as it is possible to conceive." + +Possibly he could obtain work in a printer's shop. This he tried hour +after hour, and failed. Finally he spent his last twopence for bread, +and found a place to sleep in a third-rate chop-house, among sailors, +and actors from the lower theatres. He rose early, so as not to be asked +to pay for his bed, and again sought work. Fortunately he met an +American publisher, who loaned him five dollars, and with a thankful +heart he returned to pay for his lodging. For six weeks he staid in his +humble quarters, wrote letters home to the newspapers, and also sent +various poems to the English journals, which were all returned to him. +For two years he supported himself on two hundred and fifty dollars a +year, earning it all by writing. "I saw," he says, "almost nothing of +intelligent European society; but literature and art were, nevertheless, +open to me, and a new day had dawned in my life." + +On his return to America he found that his published letters had been +widely read. He was advised to put them in a book; and "Views Afoot," +with a preface by N. P. Willis, were soon given to the world. Six +editions were sold the first year; and the boy who had seen Europe in +the midst of so much privation, found himself an author, with the +prospect of fame. Not alone had poverty made these two years hard to +bear. He was allowed to hold no correspondence with Mary Agnew, because +her parents steadily refused to countenance the young lovers. He had +wisely made his mother his confidante, and she had counselled patience +and hope. The rising fame possibly smoothed the course of true love, +for at twenty-one, Bayard became engaged to the idol of his heart. She +was an intelligent and beautiful girl, with dark eyes and soft brown +hair, and to the ardent young traveller seemed more angel than human. He +showed her his every poem, and laid before her every purpose. He wrote +her, "I have often dim, vague forebodings that an eventful destiny is in +store for me"; and then he added in quaint, Quaker dialect, "I have told +thee that existence would not be endurable without thee; I feel further +that thy aid will be necessary to work out the destinies of the +future.... I am really glad that thou art pleased with my poetry. One +word from thee is dearer to me than the cold praise of all the critics +in the land." + +For the year following his return home, he edited a country paper, and +thereby became involved in debts which required the labors of the next +three years to cancel. He now decided to go to New York if possible, +where there would naturally be more literary society, and openings for a +writer. He wrote to editors and publishers; but there were no vacancies +to be filled. Finally he was offered enough to pay his board by +translating, and this he gladly accepted. By teaching literature in a +young ladies' school, he increased his income to nine dollars a week. +Not a luxurious amount, surely. + +For a year he struggled on, saving every cent possible, and then Mr. +Greeley gave him a place on the "Tribune," at twelve dollars a week. He +worked constantly, often writing poetry at midnight, when his day's +duties were over. He made true friends, such as Stedman and Stoddard, +published a new book of poems; and in the beginning of 1849 life began +to look full of promise. Sent by his paper to write up California, for +six months he lived in the open air, his saddle for his pillow, and on +his return wrote his charming book "El-dorado." He was now twenty-five, +out of debt, and ready to marry Mary Agnew. But a dreadful cloud had +meantime gathered and burst over their heads. The beautiful girl had +been stricken with consumption. The May day bridal had been postponed. +"God help me, if I lose her!" wrote the young author to Mr. Stoddard +from her bedside. Oct. 24 came, and the dying girl was wedded to the man +she loved. Four days later he wrote: "We have had some heart-breaking +hours, talking of what is before us, and are both better and calmer for +it." And, later still: "She is radiantly beautiful; but it is not the +beauty of earth.... We have loved so long, so intimately, and so wholly, +that the footsteps of her life have forever left their traces in mine. +If my name should be remembered among men, hers will not be forgotten." +Dec. 21, 1850, she went beyond; and Bayard Taylor at twenty-six was +alone in the world, benumbed, unfitted for work of any kind. "I am not +my true self more than half the time. I cannot work with any spirit: +another such winter will kill me, I am certain. I shall leave next fall +on a journey somewhere--no matter where," he wrote a friend. + +Fortunately he took a trip to the Far East, travelling in Egypt, Asia +Minor, India, and Japan for two years, writing letters which made him +known the country over. On his return, he published three books of +travel, and accepted numerous calls in the lecture-field. His stock in +the "Tribune" had become productive, and he was gaining great success. + +His next long journey was to Northern Europe, when he took his brother +and two sisters with him, as he could enjoy nothing selfishly. This time +he saw much of the Brownings and Thackeray, and spent two days as the +guest of Tennyson. He was no longer the penniless youth, vainly looking +for work in London to pay his lodging, but the well-known traveller, +lecturer, and poet. Oct. 27, 1857, seven years after the death of Mary +Agnew, he married the daughter of a distinguished German astronomer, +Marie Hansen, a lady of great culture, whose companionship has ever +proved a blessing. + +Tired of travel, Mr. Taylor now longed for a home for his wife and +infant daughter, Lilian. He would erect on the old homestead, where he +played when a boy, such a house as a poet would love to dwell in, and +such as poet friends would delight to visit. So, with minutest care and +thought, "Cedarcroft," a beautiful structure, was built in the midst of +two hundred acres. Every flower, every tree, was planted with as much +love as Scott gave to "Abbotsford." But, when it was completed, the old +story had been told again, of expenses going far beyond expectations, +and, instead of anticipated rest, toil and struggle to pay debts, and +provide for constant outgoes. + +But Bayard Taylor was not the man to be disturbed by obstacles. He at +once set to work to earn more than ever by his books and lectures. With +his characteristic generosity he brought his parents and his sisters to +live in his home, and made everybody welcome to his hospitality. The +"Poet's Journal," a poem of exquisite tenderness, was written here, and +"Hannah Thurston," a novel, of which fifteen thousand were soon sold. + +Shortly after the beginning of our civil war, Mr. Taylor was made +Secretary of Legation at Russia. He was now forty years of age, loved, +well-to-do, and famous. His novels--"John Godfrey's Fortunes" and the +"Story of Kennett"--were both successful. The "Picture of St. John," +rich and stronger than his other poems, added to his fame. But the +gifted and versatile man was breaking in health. Again he travelled +abroad, and wrote "Byways in Europe." On his return he translated, with +great care and study, "Faust," which will always be a monument to his +learning and literary skill. He published "Lars, a Norway pastoral," and +gave delightful lectures on German literature at Cornell University, +and Lowell and Peabody Institutes, at Boston and Baltimore. + +At last he wearied of the care and constant expense of "Cedarcroft." He +needed to be near the New York libraries. Mr. Greeley had died, his +newspaper stock had declined, and he could not sell his home, as he had +hoped. There was no alternative but to go back in 1871 into the daily +work of journalism in the "Tribune" office. The rest which he had longed +for was never to come. For four years he worked untiringly, delivering +the Centennial Ode at our Exposition, and often speaking before learned +societies. + +In 1878, President Hayes bestowed upon him a well-deserved honor, by +appointing him minister to Berlin. Germany rejoiced that a lover of her +life and literature had been sent to her borders. The best of New York +gathered to say good-by to the noted author. Arriving in Berlin, Emperor +William gave him cordial welcome, and Bismark made him a friend. A +pleasant residence was secured, and furniture purchased. At last he was +to find time to complete a long-desired work, the Lives of Goethe and +Schiller. "Prince Deukalion," his last noble poem, had just reached him. +All was ready for the best and strongest work of his life, when, lo! the +overworked brain and body gave way. He did not murmur. Only once, Dec. +19, he groaned, "I want--I want--oh, you know what I mean, that _stuff +of life_!" It was too late. At fifty-three the great heart, the +exquisite brain, the tired body, were still. + + "Dead he lay among his books; + The peace of God was in his looks." + +Germany as well as America wept over the bier of the once poor Quaker +lad, who travelled over Europe with scarce a shilling in his pocket, +now, by his own energy, brought to one of the highest positions in the +gift of his country. Dec. 22, the great of Germany gathered about his +coffin, Bertold Auerbach speaking beautiful words. + +March 13, 1879, the dead poet lay in state in the City Hall at New York, +in the midst of assembled thousands. The following day the body was +borne to "Cedarcroft," and, surrounded by literary associates and tender +friends, laid to rest. Public memorial meetings were held in various +cities, where Holmes, Longfellow, Whittier, and others gave their loving +tributes. A devoted student, a successful diplomat, a true friend, a +noble poet, a gifted traveller, a man whose life will never cease to be +an inspiration. + + + + +CAPTAIN JAMES B. EADS. + + +On the steamship "Germanic" I played chess with the great civil +engineer, Captain Eads, stimulated by the thought that to beat him was +to defeat the man who had twice conquered the Mississippi. But I didn't +defeat him. + +The building of a ship-canal across the Isthmus of Suez made famous the +Frenchman, Ferdinand de Lesseps: so the opening-up of the mouth of the +Mississippi River has distinguished Captain Eads. To-day both these men +are struggling for the rare honor of joining, at the Isthmus of Panama, +the waters of the great Atlantic and Pacific; a magnificent scheme, +which, if successful, will save annually thousands of miles of dangerous +sea-voyage around Cape Horn, besides millions of money. + +The "Great West" seems to delight in producing self-made men like +Lincoln, Grant, Eads, and others. + +James B. Eads was born in Indiana in 1820. He is slender in form, neat +in dress, genial, courteous, and over sixty years of age. In 1833, his +father started down the Ohio River with his family, proposing to settle +in Wisconsin. The boat caught fire, and his scanty furniture and +clothing were burned. Young Eads barely escaped ashore with his +pantaloons, shirt, and cap. Taking passage on another boat, this boy of +thirteen landed at St. Louis with his parents; his little bare feet +first touching the rocky shore of the city on the very spot where he +afterwards located and built the largest steel bridge in the world, over +the Mississippi,--one of the most difficult feats of engineering ever +performed in America. + +At the age of nine, young Eads made a short trip on the Ohio, when the +engineer of the steamboat explained to him so clearly the construction +of the steam-engine, that, before he was a year older, he built a little +working model of it, so perfect in its parts and movements, that his +schoolmates would frequently go home with him after school to see it +work. A locomotive engine driven by a concealed rat was one of his next +juvenile feats in mechanical engineering. From eight to thirteen he +attended school; after which, from necessity, he was placed as clerk in +a dry-goods store. + +How few young people of the many to whom poverty denies an education, +either understand the value of the saying, "knowledge is power," or +exercise will sufficient to overcome obstacles. Willpower and thirst for +knowledge elevated General Garfield from driving canal horses to the +Presidency of the United States. + +Over the store in St. Louis, where he was engaged, his employer lived. +He was an old bachelor, and, having observed the tastes of his clerk, +gave him his first book in engineering. The old gentleman's library +furnished evening companions for him during the five years he was thus +employed. Finally, his health failing, at the age of nineteen he went on +a Mississippi River steamer; from which time to the present day that +great river has been to him an all-absorbing study. + +Soon afterwards he formed a partnership with a friend, and built a small +boat to raise cargoes of vessels sunken in the Mississippi. While this +boat was building, he made his first venture in submarine engineering, +on the lower rapids of the river, by the recovery of several hundred +tons of lead. He hired a scow or flat-boat, and anchored it over the +wreck. An experienced diver, clad in armor, who had been hired at +considerable expense in Buffalo, was lowered into the water; but the +rapids were so swift that the diver, though incased in the strong armor, +feared to be sunk to the bottom. Young Eads determined to succeed, and, +finding it impracticable to use the armor, went ashore, purchased a +whiskey-barrel, knocked out the head, attached the air-pump hose to it, +fastened several heavy weights to the open end of the barrel; then, +swinging it on a derrick, he had a practical diving-bell--the best use I +ever heard made of a whiskey-barrel. + +Neither the diver, nor any of the crew, would go down in this +contrivance: so the dauntless young engineer, having full confidence in +what he had read in books, was lowered within the barrel down to the +bottom; the lower end of the barrel being open. The water was sixteen +feet deep, and very swift. Finding the wreck, he remained by it a full +hour, hitching ropes to pig-lead till a ton or more was safely hoisted +into his own boat. Then, making a signal by a small line attached to the +barrel, he was lifted on deck, and in command again. The sunken cargo +was soon successfully raised, and was sold, and netted a handsome +profit, which, increased by other successes, enabled energetic Eads to +build larger boats, with powerful pumps, and machinery on them for +lifting entire vessels. He surprised all his friends in floating even +immense sunken steamers--boats which had long been given up as lost. + +When the Rebellion came, it was soon evident that a strong fleet must be +put upon Western rivers to assist our armies. Word came from the +government to Captain Eads to report in Washington. His thorough +knowledge of the "Father of Waters" and its tributaries, and his +practical suggestions, secured an order to build seven gunboats, and +soon after an order for the eighth was given. + +In forty-eight hours after receiving this authority, his agents and +assistants were at work; and suitable ship-timber was felled in half a +dozen Western States for their hulls. Contracts were awarded to large +engine and iron works in St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati; and +within one hundred days, eight powerful ironclad gunboats, carrying over +one hundred large cannon, and costing a million dollars, were achieving +victories no less important for the Mississippi valley than those which +Ericsson's famous "Cheese-box Monitor" afterwards won on the James +River. + +These eight gunboats, Commodore Foote ably employed in his brave attacks +on Forts McHenry and Donaldson. They were the first ironclads the United +States ever owned. Captain Eads covered the boats with iron: Commodore +Foote covered them with glory. + +Eads built not less than fourteen of these gunboats. During the war, the +models were exhibited by request to the German and other governments. +His next work was to throw across the mighty Mississippi River, nearly +half a mile wide, at St. Louis, a monstrous steel bridge, supported by +three arches, the spans of two being five hundred and two feet long, and +the central one five hundred and twenty feet. The huge piles were +ingeniously sunk in the treacherous sand, one hundred and thirty-six +feet below the flood-level to the solid rock, through ninety feet of +sand. This bridge and its approaches cost eighty millions of dollars, +and is used by ten or twelve railroad companies. Above the tracks is a +big street with carriage-roads, street-cars, and walks for +foot-passengers. + +The honor of building the finest bridge in the world would have +satisfied most men, but not ambitious Captain Eads. He actually loved +the noble river in which De Soto, its discoverer, was buried, and fully +realized the vast, undeveloped resources of its rich valleys. Equally +well he understood what a gigantic work in the past the river and its +fifteen hundred sizable tributaries had accomplished in times of +freshets, by depositing soil and sand north of the original Gulf of +Mexico, forming an alluvial plain five hundred miles long, sixty miles +wide, and of unknown depth, and having a delta extending out into the +Gulf, sixty miles long, and as many miles wide, and probably a mile +deep. And yet this heroic man, although jealously opposed for years by +West Point engineers, having a sublime confidence in the laws of nature, +and actuated by intense desire to benefit mankind, dared to stand on the +immense sand-bars at the mouth of this defiant stream, and, making use +of the jetty system, bid the river itself dig a wide, deep channel into +the seas beyond, for the world's commerce. + +Captain Eads, who had studied the improvements on the Danube, Maas, and +other European rivers, observed that all rivers flow faster in their +narrow channels, and carry along in the swift water, sand, gravel, and +even stones. This familiar law he applied at the South Pass of the +Mississippi River, where the waters, though deep above, escaped from the +banks into the Gulf, and spread sediment far and wide. + +The water on the sand-bars of the three principal passes varied from +eight to thirteen feet in depth. Many vessels require twice the depth. +Two piers, twelve hundred feet apart, were built from land's end, a mile +into the sea. They were made from willows, timber, gravel, concrete, and +stone. Mattresses, a hundred feet long, from twenty-five to fifty feet +wide, and two feet thick, were constructed from small willows placed at +right angles, and bound securely together. These were floated into +position, and sunk with gravel, one mattress upon another, which the +river soon filled with sand that firmly held them in their place. The +top was finished with heavy concrete blocks, to resist the waves. These +piers are called "jetties," and the swift collected waters have already +carried over five million cubic yards of sand into the deep gulf, and +made a ship-way over thirty feet deep. The five million dollars paid by +the United States was little enough for so priceless a service. + + * * * * * + +In June, 1884, Captain Eads received the Albert medal of the British +Society of Arts, the first American upon whom this honor has been +conferred. Before his great enterprise of the Tehuantepec ship railroad +had been completed, he died at Nassau, New Providence, Bahama Islands, +March 8, 1887, after a brief illness, of pneumonia, at the age of +sixty-seven. + + + + +[Illustration: JAMES WATT.] + +JAMES WATT. + + +The history of inventors is generally the same old struggle with +poverty. Sir Richard Arkwright, the youngest of thirteen children, with +no education, a barber, shaving in a cellar for a penny to each +customer, dies worth two and one-half million dollars, after being +knighted by the King for his inventions in spinning. Elias Howe, Jr., in +want and sorrow, lives on beans in a London attic, and dies at +forty-five, having received over two million dollars from his +sewing-machines in thirteen years. Success comes only through hard work +and determined perseverance. The steps to honor, or wealth, or fame, are +not easy to climb. + +The history of James Watt, the inventor of the steam-engine, is no +exception to the rule of struggling to win. He was born in the little +town of Greenock, Scotland, 1736. Too delicate to attend school, he was +taught reading by his mother, and a little writing and arithmetic by his +father. When six years of age, he would draw mechanical lines and +circles on the hearth, with a colored piece of chalk. His favorite play +was to take to pieces his little carpenter tools, and make them into +different ones. He was an obedient boy, especially devoted to his +mother, a cheerful and very intelligent woman, who always encouraged +him. She would say in any childish quarrels, "Let James speak; from him +I always hear the truth." Old George Herbert said, "One good mother is +worth a hundred schoolmasters"; and such a one was Mrs. Watt. + +When sent to school, James was too sensitive to mix with rough boys, and +was very unhappy with them. When nearly fourteen, his parents sent him +to a friend in Glasgow, who soon wrote back that they must come for +their boy, for he told so many interesting stories that he had read, +that he kept the family up till very late at night. + +His aunt wrote that he would sit "for an hour taking off the lid of the +teakettle, and putting it on, holding now a cup and now a silver spoon +over the steam, watching how it rises from the spout, and catching and +condensing the drops of hot water it falls into." + +Before he was fifteen, he had read a natural philosophy twice through, +as well as every other book he could lay his hands on. He had made an +electrical machine, and startled his young friends by some sudden +shocks. He had a bench for his special use, and a forge, where he made +small cranes, pulleys, pumps, and repaired instruments used on ships. He +was fond of astronomy, and would lie on his back on the ground for +hours, looking at the stars. + +Frail though he was in health, yet he must prepare himself to earn a +living. When he was eighteen, with many tender words from his mother, +her only boy started for Glasgow to learn the trade of making +mathematical instruments. In his little trunk, besides his "best +clothes," which were a ruffled shirt, a velvet waistcoat, and silk +stockings, were a leather apron and some carpenter tools. Here he found +a position with a man who sold and mended spectacles, repaired fiddles, +and made fishing nets and rods. + +Finding that he could learn very little in this shop, an old +sea-captain, a friend of the family, took him to London. Here, day after +day, he walked the streets, asking for a situation; but nobody wanted +him. Finally he offered to work for a watchmaker without pay, till he +found a place to learn his trade. This he at last obtained with a Mr. +Morgan, to whom he agreed to give a hundred dollars for the year's +teaching. As his father was poorly able to help him, the conscientious +boy lived on two dollars a week, earning most of this pittance by rising +early, and doing odd jobs before his employer opened his shop in the +morning. He labored every evening until nine o'clock, except Saturday, +and was soon broken in health by hunger and overwork. His mother's heart +ached for him, but, like other poor boys, he must make his way alone. + +At the end of the year he went to Glasgow to open a shop for himself; +but other mechanics were jealous of a new-comer, and would not permit +him to rent a place. A professor at the Glasgow University knew the +deserving young man, and offered him a room in the college, which he +gladly accepted. He and the lad who assisted him could earn only ten +dollars a week, and there was little sale for the instruments after they +were made: so, following the example of his first master, he began to +make and mend flutes, fiddles, and guitars, though he did not know one +note from another. One of his customers wanted an organ built, and at +once Watt set to work to learn the theory of music. When the organ was +finished, a remarkable one for those times, the young machinist had +added to it several inventions of his own. + +This earning a living was a hard matter; but it brought energy, +developed thought, and probably helped more than all else to make him +famous. The world in general works no harder than circumstances compel. + +Poverty is no barrier to falling in love, and, poor though he was, he +now married Margaret Miller, his cousin, whom he had long tenderly +loved. Their home was plain and small; but she had the sweetest of +dispositions, was always happy, and made his life sunny even in its +darkest hours of struggling. + +Meantime he had made several intellectual friends in the college, one of +whom talked much to him about a steam-carriage. Steam was not by any +means unknown. Hero, a Greek physician who lived at Alexandria a century +before the Christian era, tells how the ancients used it. Some crude +engines were made in Watt's time, the best being that of Thomas +Newcomen, called an atmospheric engine, and used in raising water from +coal-mines. It could do comparatively little, however; and many of the +mines were now useless because the water nearly drowned the miners. + +Watt first experimented with common vials for steam-reservoirs, and +canes hollowed out for steam-pipes. For months he went on working night +and day, trying new plans, testing the powers of steam, borrowing a +brass syringe a foot long for his cylinder, till finally the essential +principles of the steam-engine were born in his mind. He wrote to a +friend, "My whole thoughts are bent on this machine. I can think of +nothing else." He hired an old cellar, and for two months worked on his +model. His tools were poor; his foreman died; and the engine, when +completed, leaked in all parts. His old business of mending instruments +had fallen off; he was badly in debt, and had no money to push forward +the invention. He believed he had found the right principle; but he +could not let his family starve. Sick at heart, and worn in body, he +wrote: "Of all things in life there is nothing more foolish than +inventing." Poor Watt! + +His great need was money,--money to buy food, money to buy tools, money +to give him leisure for thought. Finally, a friend induced Dr. Roebuck, +an iron-dealer, to become Watt's partner, pay his debts of five thousand +dollars, take out a patent, and perfect the engine. Watt went to London +for his patent, but so long was he delayed by indifferent officials, +that he wrote home to his young wife, quite discouraged. With a brave +heart in their pinching poverty, Margaret wrote back, "I beg that you +will not make yourself uneasy, though things should not succeed to your +wish. If the engine will not do, _something else will; never despair_." + +On his return home, for six months he worked in setting up his engine. +The cylinder, having been badly cast, was almost worthless; the piston, +though wrapped in cork, oiled rags, and old hat, let the air in and the +steam out; and the model proved a failure. "To-day," he said, "I enter +the thirty-fifth year of my life, and I think I have hardly yet done +thirty-five pence worth of good in the world: but I cannot help it." The +path to success was not easy. + +Dr. Roebuck was getting badly in debt, and could not aid him as he had +promised; so Watt went sadly back to surveying, a business he had taken +up to keep the wolf from the door. In feeble health, out in the worst +weather, his clothes often wet through, life seemed almost unbearable. +When absent on one of these surveying excursions, word was brought that +Margaret, his beloved wife, was dead. He was completely unnerved. Who +would care for his little children, or be to him what he had often +called her, "the comfort of his life"? After this he would often pause +on the threshold of his humble home to summon courage to enter, since +she was no longer there to welcome him. She had shared his poverty, but +was never to share his fame and wealth. + +And now came a turning-point in his life, though the struggles were by +no means over. At Birmingham, lived Matthew Boulton, a rich +manufacturer, eight years older than Watt. He employed over a thousand +men in his hardware establishment, and in making clocks, and reproducing +rare vases. He was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, with whom he had +corresponded about the steam-engine, and he had also heard of Watt and +his invention through Dr. Roebuck. He was urged to assist. But Watt +waited three years longer for aid. Nine years had passed since he made +his invention; he was in debt, without business, and in poor health. +What could he do? He seemed likely to finish life without any success. + +Finally Boulton was induced to engage in the manufacture of engines, +giving Watt one-third of the profits, if any were made. One engine was +constructed by Boulton's men, and it worked admirably. Soon orders came +in for others, as the mines were in bad condition, and the water must be +pumped out. Fortunes, like misfortunes, rarely come singly. Just at this +time the Russian Government offered Watt five thousand dollars yearly if +he would go to that country. Such a sum was an astonishment. How he +wished Margaret could have lived to see this proud day! + +He could not well be spared from the company now; so he lived on at +Birmingham, marrying a second time, Anne Macgregor of Scotland, to care +for his children and his home. She was a very different woman from +Margaret Miller; a neat housekeeper, but seemingly lacking in the +lovable qualities which make sunshine even in the plainest home. + +As soon as the Boulton and Watt engines were completed, and success +seemed assured, obstacles arose from another quarter. Engines had been +put into several Cornwall mines, which bore the singular names of "Ale +and Cakes," "Wheat Fanny," "Wheat Abraham," "Cupboard," and "Cook's +Kitchen." As soon as the miners found that these engines worked well, +they determined to destroy the patent by the cry that Boulton and Watt +had a monopoly of a thing which the world needed. Petitions were +circulated, giving great uneasiness to both the partners. Several +persons also stole the principle of the engine, either by bribing the +engine-men, or by getting them drunk so that they would tell the secrets +of their employers. The patent was constantly infringed upon. Every hour +was a warfare. Watt said, "The rascality of mankind is almost past +belief." + +Meantime Boulton, with his many branches of business, and the low state +of trade, had gotten deeply in debt, and was pressed on every side for +the tens of thousands which he owed. Watt was nearly insane with this +trouble. He wrote to Boulton: "I cannot rest in my bed until these money +matters have assumed some determinate form. I am plagued with the blues. +I am quite eaten up with the mulligrubs." + +Soon after this, Watt invented the letter-copying press, which at first +was greatly opposed, because it was thought that forged names and +letters would result. After a time, however, there was great demand for +it. Watt was urged by Boulton to invent a rotary engine; but this was +finally done by their head workman, William Murdock, the inventor of +lighting by gas. He also made the first model of a locomotive, which +frightened the village preacher nearly out of his senses, as it came +puffing down the street one evening. Though devoted to his employers, +sometimes working all night for them, they counselled him to give up all +thought about his locomotive, lest by developing it he might in time +withdraw from their firm. Alas for the selfishness of human nature! He +was never made a partner, and, though he thought out many inventions +after his day's work was done, he remained faithful to their service +till the end of his life. Mr. Buckle tells this good story of Murdock. +Having found that fish-skins could be used instead of isinglass, he came +to London to inform the brewers, and took board in a handsome house. +Fancying himself in his laboratory, he went on with his experiments. +Imagine the horror of the landlady when she entered his room, and found +her elegant wall-paper covered with wet fish-skins, hung up to dry! The +inventor took an immediate departure with his skins. When the rotary +engine was finished, the partners sought to obtain a charter, when lo! +The millers and mealmen all opposed it, because, said they, "If flour is +ground by steam, the wind and water-mills will stop, and men will be +thrown out of work." Boulton and Watt viewed with contempt this new +obstacle of ignorance. "Carry out this argument," said the former, "and +we must annihilate water-mills themselves, and go back again to the +grinding of corn by hand labor." Presently a large mill was burned by +incendiaries, with a loss of fifty thousand dollars. + +Watt about this time invented his "Parallel Motion," and the Governor, +for regulating the speed of the engine. Large orders began to come in, +even from America and the West Indies; but not till they had expended +two hundred thousand dollars were there any profits. Times were +brightening for the hard-working inventor. He lost his despondency, and +did not long for death, as he had previously. + +After a time, he built a lovely home at Heathfield, in the midst of +forty acres of trees, flowers, and tasteful walks. Here gathered some of +the greatest minds of the world,--Dr. Priestley who discovered oxygen, +Sir William Herschel, Dr. Darwin, Josiah Wedgwood, and scores of others, +who talked of science and literature. Mrs. Watt so detested dirt, and so +hated the sight of her husband's leather apron and soiled hands, that he +built for himself a "garret," where he could work unmolested by his +wife, or her broom and dustpan. She never allowed even her two pug-dogs +to cross the hall without wiping their feet on the mat. She would seize +and carry away her husband's snuff-box, wherever she found it, because +she considered snuff as dirt. At night, when she retired from the +dining-room, if Mr. Watt did not follow at the time fixed by her, she +sent a servant to remove the lights. If friends were present, he would +say meekly, "We must go," and walk slowly out of the room. Such conduct +must have been about as trying as the failure of his engines. For days +together he would stay in his garret, not even coming down to his meals, +cooking his food in his frying-pan and Dutch oven, which he kept by him. +One cannot help wondering, whether, sometimes, as he worked up there +alone, he did not think of Margaret, whose face would have brightened +even that dingy room. + +A crushing sorrow now came to him. His only daughter, Jessie, died, and +then his pet son, Gregory, the dearest friend of Humphry Davy, a young +man of brilliant scholarship and oratorical powers. Boulton died before +his partner, loved and lamented by all, having followed the precept he +once gave to Watt: "Keep your mind and your heart pleasant, if possible; +for the way to go through life sweetly is not to regard rubs." + +Watt died peacefully Aug. 19, 1819, in his eighty-third year, and was +buried in beautiful Handsworth Church. Here stands Chantrey's +masterpiece, a sitting statue of the great inventor. Another is in +Westminster Abbey. When Lord Brougham was asked to write the inscription +for this monument, he said, "I reckon it one of the chief honors of my +life." Sir James Mackintosh placed him "at the head of all inventors in +all ages and nations"; and Wordsworth regarded him, "Considering both +the magnitude and the universality of his genius, as perhaps the most +extraordinary man that this country has ever produced." + +After all the struggle came wealth and fame. The mine opens up its +treasures only to those who are persevering enough to dig into it; and +life itself yields little, only to such as have the courage and the will +to overcome obstacles. + +Heathfield has passed into other hands; but the quiet garret is just as +James Watt left it at death. Here is a large sculpture machine, and many +busts partly copied. Here is his handkerchief tied to the beam on which +he rested his head. The beam itself is crumbling to dust. Little pots of +chemicals on the shelves are hardened by age. A bunch of withered grapes +is on a dish, and the ashes are in the grate as when he sat before it. +Close by is the hair trunk of his beloved Gregory, full of his +schoolbooks, his letters, and his childish toys. This the noble old man +kept beside him to the last. + + + + +SIR JOSIAH MASON. + + +One sunny morning in June, I went out five miles from the great +manufacturing city of Birmingham, England, to the pretty town called +Erdington, to see the Mason Orphanage. I found an immense brick +structure, with high Gothic towers, in the midst of thirteen acres of +velvety lawn. Over the portals of the building were the words, "DO DEEDS +OF LOVE." Three hundred happy children were scattered over the premises, +the girls in brown dresses with long white aprons: some were in the +great play-room, some doing the housework, and some serving at dinner. +Sly Cupid creeps into an orphan-asylum even; and the matron had to watch +carefully lest the biggest pieces of bread and butter be given by the +girls to the boys they liked best. + +In the large grounds, full of flowers and trees, among the children he +so tenderly loved and called by name, the founder, Sir Josiah Mason, and +his wife, are buried, in a beautiful mausoleum, a Gothic chapel, with +stone carving and stained-glass windows. + +[Illustration: SIR JOSIAH MASON.] + +And who was this founder? + +In a poor, plain home in Kidderminster, Feb. 23 1795, Sir Josiah Mason +was born. His father was a weaver, and his mother the daughter of a +laborer. At eight years of age, with of course little education, the boy +began the struggle of earning a living. His mother fitted up two baskets +for him, and these he filled with baker's cakes, and sold them about the +streets. Little Joe became so great a favorite, that the buyers often +gave him an extra penny. Finally a donkey was obtained; and a bag +containing cakes in one end, and fruit and vegetables in the other, was +strapped across his back. In this way, for seven years, Joe peddled from +door to door. Did anybody ever think then that he would be rich and +famous? + +The poor mother helped him with her scanty means, and both parents +allowed him to keep all he could make. His father's advice used to be, +"Joe, thee'st got a few pence; never let anybody know how much thee'st +got in thee pockets." And well the boy carried out his father's +injunction in afterlife. + +When he was fifteen, his brother had become a confirmed invalid, and +needed a constant attendant. The father was away at the shop, and the +mother busy with her cares: so Joe, who thought of others always before +himself, determined to be nurse, and earn some money also. He set about +becoming a shoemaker, having learned the trade from watching an old man +who lived near their house; but he could make only a bare pittance. Then +he taught himself writing, and earned a trifle for composing letters and +Valentines for his poor neighbors. This money he spent in books, for he +was eager for an education. He read no novels nor poetry, but books of +history, science, and theology. + +Finally the mother started a small grocery and bakery, and Joe assisted. +Many of their customers were tramps and beggars, who could buy only an +ounce or half-ounce of tea; but even a farthing was welcome to the +Masons. Later, Josiah took up carpet-weaving and blacksmithing; but he +could never earn more than five dollars a week, and he became restless +and eager for a broader field. He had courage, was active and +industrious, and had good habits. + +He was now twenty-one. He decided to go to Birmingham on Christmas Day, +to visit an uncle whom he had never seen. He went, and this was the +turning-point of his life. His uncle gave him work in making gilt toys; +and, what was perhaps better still for the poor young man, he fell in +love with his cousin Annie Griffiths, and married her the following +year. This marriage proved a great blessing, and for fifty-two years, +childless, they two were all in all to each other. For six years the +young husband worked early and late, with the promise of succeeding to +the small business; but at the end of these years the promise was +broken, and Mason found himself at thirty, out of work, and owning less +than one hundred dollars. + +Walking down the street one day in no very happy frame of mind, a +stranger stepped up to him, and said, "Mr. Mason?" + +"Yes," was the answer. + +"You are now, I understand, without employment. I know some one who +wants just such a man as you, and I will introduce him to you. Will you +meet me to-morrow morning at Mr. Harrison's, the split-ring maker?" + +"I will." + +The next day the stranger said to Mr. Harrison, "I have brought you the +very man you want." + +The business man eyed Mason closely, saying, "I've had a good many young +men come here; but they are afraid of dirtying their fingers." + +Mason opened his somewhat calloused hands, and, looking at them, said, +"Are _you_ ashamed of dirtying yourselves to get your own living?" + +Mason was at once employed, and a year later Mr. Harrison offered him +the business at twenty-five hundred dollars. Several men, observing the +young man's good qualities, had offered to loan him money when he should +go into trade for himself. He bethought him of these friends, and called +upon them; but they all began to make excuse. The world's proffers of +help or friendship we can usually discount by half. Seeing that not a +dollar could be borrowed, Mr. Harrison generously offered to wait for +the principal till it could be earned out of the profits. This was a +noble act, and Mr. Mason never ceased to be grateful for it. + +He soon invented a machine for bevelling hoop-rings, and made five +thousand dollars the first year from its use. Thenceforward his life +reads like a fairy-tale. One day, seeing some steel pens on a card, in a +shop-window, he went in and purchased one for twelve cents. That evening +he made three, and enclosed one in a letter to Perry of London, the +maker, paying eighteen cents' postage, which now would be only two +cents. + +His pen was such an improvement that Mr. Perry at once wrote for all he +could make. In a few years, Mason became the greatest pen-maker in the +world, employing a thousand persons, and turning out over five million +pens per week. Sixty tons of pens, containing one and a half million +pens to the ton, were often in his shops. What a change from peddling +cakes from door to door in Kidderminster! + +Later he became the moneyed partner in the great electro-plating trade +of the Elkingtons, whose beautiful work at the Centennial Exposition we +all remember. + +Mr. Mason never forgot his laborers. When he established copper-smelting +works in Wales, he built neat cottages for the workmen, and schools for +the three hundred and fifty children. The Welsh refused to allow their +children to attend school where they would be taught English. Mr. Mason +overcame this by distributing hats, bonnets, and other clothing to the +pupils, and, once in school, they needed no urging to remain. The +manufacturer was as hard a worker as any of his men. For years he was +the first person to come to his factory, and the last to leave it. He +was quick to decide a matter, and act upon it, and the most rigid +economist of time. He allowed nobody to waste his precious hours with +idle talk, nor did he waste theirs. He believed, with Shakespeare, that +"Talkers are no good doers." His hours were regular. He took much +exercise on foot, and lived with great simplicity. He was always +cheerful, and had great self-control. Finally he began to ask himself +how he could best use his money before he died. He remembered his poor +struggling mother in his boyish days. His first gift should be a home +for aged women--a noble thought!--his next should be for orphans, as he +was a great lover of children. For eight years he watched the beautiful +buildings of his Orphanage go up, and then saw the happy children +gathered within, bringing many of them from Kidderminster, who were as +destitute as himself when a boy. He seemed to know and love each child, +for whose benefit he had included even his own lovely home, a million +dollars in all. The annual income for the Orphanage is about fifty +thousand dollars. What pleasure he must have had as he saw them swinging +in the great playgrounds, where he had even thought to make triple +columns so that they could the better play hide-and-seek! At eight, he +was trudging the streets to earn bread; they should have an easier lot +through his generosity. + +For this and other noble deeds Queen Victoria made him a knight. What +would his poor mother have said to such an honor for her boy, had she +been alive! + +What would the noble man, now over eighty, do next with his money? He +recalled how hard it had been for him to obtain knowledge. The colleges +were patronized largely by the rich. He would build a great School of +Science, free to all who depended upon themselves for support. They +might study mathematics, languages, chemistry, civil engineering, +without distinction of sex or race. For five years he watched the +elegant brick and stone structure in Birmingham rise from its +foundations. And then, Oct. 1, 1880, in the midst of assembled +thousands, and in the presence of such men as Fawcett, Bright, and Max +Muller, Mason Science College was formally opened. Professor Huxley, R. +W. Dale, and others made eloquent addresses. In the evening, a thousand +of the best of England gathered at the college, made beautiful by +flowers and crimson drapery. On a dais sat the noble giver, in his +eighty-sixth year. The silence was impressive as the grand old man +arose, handing the key of his college, his million-dollar gift, to the +trustees. Surely truth is stranger than fiction! To what honor and +renown had come the humble peddler! + +On the following 25th of June, Sir Josiah Mason was borne to his grave, +in the Erdington mausoleum. Three hundred and fifty orphan-children +followed his coffin, which was carried by eight servants or workingmen, +as he had requested. After the children had sung a hymn, they covered +the coffin-lid with flowers, which he so dearly loved. He sleeps in the +midst of his gifts, one of England's noble benefactors. + + + + +BERNARD PALISSY. + + +In the Louvre in Paris, preserved among almost priceless gems, are +several pieces of exquisite pottery called Palissy ware. Thousands +examine them every year, yet but few know the struggles of the man who +made such beautiful works of art. + +Born in the south of France in 1509, in a poor, plain home, Bernard +Palissy grew to boyhood, sunny-hearted and hopeful, learning the trade +of painting on glass from his father. He had an ardent love for nature, +and sketched rocks, birds, and flowers with his boyish hands. When he +was eighteen, he grew eager to see the world, and, with a tearful +good-by from his mother, started out to seek his fortune. For ten years +he travelled from town to town, now painting on glass for some rich +lord, and now sketching for a peasant family in return for food. +Meantime he made notes about vegetation, and the forming of crystals in +the mountains of Auvergne, showing that he was an uncommon boy. + +[Illustration: BERNARD PALISSY.] + +Finally, like other young people, he fell in love, and was married at +twenty-eight. He could not travel about the country now, so he settled +in the little town of Saintes. Then a baby came into their humble home. +How could he earn more money, since the poor people about him had no +need for painted glass? Every time he tried to plan some new way to grow +richer, his daily needs weighed like a millstone around his neck. + +About this time he was shown an elegant enamelled cup from Italy. "What +if I could be the first and only maker of such ware in France?" thought +he. But he had no knowledge of clay, and no money to visit Italy, where +alone the secret could be obtained. + +The Italians began making such pottery about the year 1300. Two +centuries earlier, the Pagan King of Majorca, in the Mediterranean Sea, +was said to keep confined in his dungeons twenty thousand Christians. +The Archbishop of Pisa incited his subjects to make war upon such an +infidel king, and after a year's struggle, the Pisans took the island, +killed the ruler, and brought home his heir, and great booty. Among the +spoils were exquisite Moorish plates, which were so greatly admired that +they were hung on the walls of Italian churches. At length the people +learned to imitate this Majolica ware, which brought very high prices. + +The more Palissy thought about this beautiful pottery, the more +determined he became to attempt its making. But he was like a man +groping in the dark. He had no knowledge of what composed the enamel on +the ware; but he purchased some drugs, and ground them to powder. Then +he bought earthen pots, broke them in pieces, spread the powder upon the +fragments, and put them in a furnace to bake. He could ill afford to +build a furnace, or even to buy the earthenware; but he comforted his +young wife with the thought that as soon as he had discovered what would +produce white enamel they would become rich. + +When the pots had been heated sufficiently, as he supposed, he took them +out, but, lo! the experiment had availed nothing. Either he had not hit +upon the right ingredients, or the baking had been too long or too short +in time. He must of course try again. For days and weeks he pounded and +ground new materials; but no success came. The weeks grew into months. +Finally his supply of wood became exhausted, and the wife was losing her +patience with these whims of an inventor. They were poor, and needed +present income rather than future prospects. She had ceased to believe +Palissy's stories of riches coming from white enamel. Had she known that +she was marrying an inventor, she might well have hesitated, lest she +starve in the days of experimenting; but now it was too late. + +His wood used up, Palissy was obliged to make arrangements with a potter +who lived three miles away, to burn the broken pieces in his furnace. +His enthusiasm made others hopeful; so that the promise to pay when +white enamel was discovered was readily accepted. To make matters sure +of success at this trial, he sent between three and four hundred pieces +of earthenware to his neighbor's furnace. Some of these would surely +come back with the powder upon them melted, and the surface would be +white. Both himself and wife waited anxiously for the return of the +ware; she much less hopeful than he, however. When it came, he says in +his journal, "I received nothing but shame and loss, because it turned +out good for nothing." + +Two years went by in this almost hopeless work, then a third,--three +whole years of borrowing money, wood, and chemicals; three years of +consuming hope and desperate poverty. Palissy's family had suffered +extremely. One child had died, probably from destitution. The poor wife +was discouraged, and at last angered at his foolishness. Finally the +pottery fever seemed to abate, and Palissy went back to his drudgery of +glass-painting and occasional surveying. Nobody knew the struggle it had +cost to give up the great discovery; but it must be done. + +Henry II., who was then King of France, had placed a new tax on salt, +and Palissy was appointed to make maps of all the salt-marshes of the +surrounding country. Some degree of comfort now came back to his family. +New clothes were purchased for the children, and the overworked wife +repented of her lack of patience. When the surveying was completed, a +little money had been saved, but, alas! the pottery fever had returned. + +Three dozen new earthen pots were bought, chemicals spread over them as +before, and these taken to a glass-furnace, where the heat would be much +greater. He again waited anxiously, and when they were returned, some of +the powder had actually melted, and run over the earthenware. This added +fuel to the flame of his hope and ambition. And now, for two whole years +more, he went between his house and the glass-furnace, always hoping, +always failing. + +His home had now become like a pauper's. For five years he had chased +this will-o'-the-wisp of white enamel; and the only result was the +sorrow of his relatives and the scorn of his neighbors. Finally he +promised his heart-broken wife that he would make but one more trial, +and if this failed, he would give up experimenting, and support her and +the children. He resolved that this should be an almost superhuman +effort. In some unknown way he raised the money for new pots and three +hundred mixtures of chemicals. Then, with the feelings of a man who has +but one chance for life, he walked beside the person who carried his +precious stock to the furnace. He sat down before the mouth of the great +hot oven, and waited four long hours. With what a sinking heart he +watched the pieces as they were taken out! He hardly dared look, because +it would probably be the old story of failure. But, lo! some were +melted, and as they hardened, oh, joy unspeakable, they turned white! +He hastened home with unsteady step, like one intoxicated, to tell his +wife the overwhelming truth. Surely he could not stop now in this great +work; and all must be done in secret, lest other potters learn the art. + +Fears, no doubt, mingled with the new-born hopes of Mrs. Palissy, for +there was no regular work before her husband, and no steady income for +hungry little mouths. Besides, he must needs build a furnace in the shed +adjoining their home. But how could he obtain the money? Going to the +brick yard, he pledged some of the funds he hoped to receive in the +future, and brought home the bricks upon his back. Then he spent seven +long months experimenting in clay vessels, that he might get the best +shapes and quality to take the enamel. For another month, from early +morning till late at night, he pounded his preparations of tin, lead, +iron, and copper, and mixed them, as he hoped, in proper proportions. +When his furnace was ready, he put in his clay pots, and seated himself +before the mouth. + +All day and all night, he fed the fire, his little children bringing him +soup, which was all the food the house afforded. A second day and night +he watched the results eagerly; but the enamel did not melt. Covered +with perspiration, and faint from loss of sleep and food, with the +desperation of hope that is akin to despair, for six days and six +nights, catching scarcely a moment of sleep, he watched the earthen +pots; but still the enamel did not melt. At last, thinking that his +proportions in his mixtures might have been wrong, he began once more to +pound and grind the materials without letting his furnace cool. His clay +vessels which he had spent seven months in making were also useless, so +he hastened to the shops, and bought new ones. + +The family were now nearly frantic with poverty and the pottery madness +of the father. To make matters quite unbearable, the wood had given out, +and the furnace-fires must not stop. Almost wild with hope deferred, and +the necessities of life pressing upon him, Palissy tore up the fence +about his garden, and thrust it into the furnace-mouth. Still the enamel +did not melt. He rushed into the house, and began breaking up the table +and chairs for fuel. His wife and children were horrified. They ran +through the streets, crying out that Palissy was tearing the house down, +and had become crazy. The neighbors gathered, and begged him to desist, +but all to no purpose. He tore up the floors of the house, and threw +them in. The town jeered at him, and said, "It is right that he die of +hunger, seeing that he has left off following his trade." He was +exhausted and dried up by the heat of the furnace; but still he could +not yield. Finally the enamel melted. But now he was more crazy than +before. He must go forward, come what might. + +With his family nearer than ever to starvation, he hired an assistant +potter, promising the old promise,--to pay when the discovery had been +perfected. The town of Saintes must have become familiar with that +promise. An innkeeper boarded the potter for six months, and charged it +to Palissy, to be paid, like all the other bills, in the future. +Probably Mrs. Palissy did not wish to board the assistant, even had she +possessed the necessary food. At the end of the six months the potter +departed, receiving, as pay, nearly all Palissy's wearing-apparel, which +probably was scarcely worth carrying away. + +He now felt obliged to build an improved furnace, tearing down the old +one to recover the bricks, nearly turned to stone by the intense heat. +His hands were fearfully bruised and cut in the work. He begged and +borrowed more money, and once more started his furnace, with the boast +that this time he would draw three or four hundred francs from it. When +the ware was drawn out, the creditors came, eager for their share; but, +alas! there was no share for them. The mortar had been full of flints, +which adhered to the vessels; and Palissy broke the spoiled lot in +pieces. The neighbors called him a fool; the wife joined in the +maledictions--and who could blame her? + +Under all this disappointment his spirit gave way, and he fled to his +chamber, and threw himself upon the bed. Six of his children had died +from want during the last ten years of struggle. What agony for the fond +mother! "I was so wasted in person," he quaintly wrote afterwards, +"that there was no form nor prominence of muscle on my arms or legs; +also the said legs were throughout of one size, so that the garters with +which I tied my stockings were at once, when I walked, down upon my +heels, with the stockings too. I was despised and mocked by all." + +But the long lane turned at last. He stopped for a year, and took up his +old work to support his dying family, and then perfected his discovery. +For five or six years there were many failures,--the furnaces were too +hot, or the proportions were wrong; but finally the work became very +beautiful. His designs from nature were perfect, and his coloring +marvellous. His fame soon spread abroad; and such nobles as Montmorenci, +who stood next in rank to the King, and counts and barons, were his +patrons. He designed tiles for the finest palaces, ideal heads of the +Saviour, and dainty forms from Greek mythology. + +Invited by Catherine de Medicis, wife of King Henry II., Palissy removed +to Paris, and was thenceforward called "Bernard of the Tuileries." He +was now rich and famous. What a change from that day when his +half-starved wife and children fled along the streets of Saintes, their +furniture broken up for furnace-fires! And yet, but for this blind +devotion to a single object, he would have remained a poor, unknown +glass-painter all his life. While in Paris, he published two or three +books which showed wide knowledge of history, mines, springs, metals, +and philosophy. He founded a Museum of Natural History, and for eight +years gave courses of lectures, attended by all the learned men of the +day. When his great learning was commented upon, he replied, "I have had +no other book than the sky and the earth, known to all." A wonderful man +indeed! + +All his life Palissy was a devoted Huguenot, not fearing to read his +Bible, and preach to the people daily from it. Once he was imprisoned at +Bordeaux, and but for his genius, and his necessity to the beautifying +of palaces and chapels, he would have been put to death. When he was +seventy-six, under the brutal Henry III., he was shut up in the +Bastille. After nearly four years, the curled and vain monarch visited +him, and said, "My good man, you have been forty-five years in the +service of the Queen my mother, or in mine, and we have suffered you to +live in your own religion, amidst all the executions and the massacres. +Now, however, I am so pressed by the Guise party and my people, that I +have been compelled, in spite of myself, to imprison these two poor +women and you; they are to be burnt to-morrow, and you also, if you will +not be converted." + +"Sire," answered the old man, "you have said several times that you feel +pity for me; but it is I who pity you, who have said, 'I am compelled.' +That is not speaking like a King. These girls and I, who have part in +the kingdom of heaven, we will teach you to talk royally. The Guisarts, +all your people, and yourself, cannot compel a potter to bow down to +images of clay." + +The two girls were burnt a few months afterward. The next year, 1589, +Henry III. was stabbed by a monk who knelt before his throne; and the +same year, Palissy died in the Bastille, at the age of eighty. + + + + +[Illustration: THORWALDSEN.] + +BERTEL THORWALDSEN. + + +A few months ago we visited a plain old house in Copenhagen, the boyhood +home of the great Danish sculptor. Here he worked with his father, a +poor wood-carver, who, thinking his boy would be a more skilful workman +if he learned to draw, sent him to the Free Royal Academy of Fine Arts +when he was twelve years old. At the end of four years he took a prize, +and the fact was mentioned in the newspapers. The next day, one of the +teachers asked, "Thorwaldsen, is it your brother who has carried off the +prize?" + +Bertel's cheeks colored with pride as he said, "No, sir; it is I." The +teacher changed his tone, and replied, "Mr. Thorwaldsen, you will go up +immediately to the first rank." + +Years afterward, when he had become famous, he said no praise was ever +so sweet as being called "Mr." when he was poor and unknown. + +Two years later, he won another prize; but he was now obliged to stay at +home half the time to help support the large family. Obtaining a small +gold medal from the Academy, although so modest that, after the +examination, he escaped from the midst of the candidates by a private +staircase, he determined to try for the large gold medal. If he could +obtain this, he would receive a hundred and twenty dollars a year for +three years, and study art in Italy. He at once began to give +drawing-lessons, taught modelling to wealthy boys, and helped illustrate +books, working from early morning till late at night. He was rarely seen +to smile, so hard was the struggle for daily bread. But he tried for the +medal, and won. + +What visions of fame must have come before him now, as he said good-by +to his poor parents, whom, alas, he was never to see again, and, taking +his little dog Hector, started for far-away Italy! When he arrived, he +was so ill and homesick that several times he decided to give up art and +go back. He copied diligently the works of the old masters, and tried in +vain to earn a little money. He sent some small works of his own to +Copenhagen; but nobody bought them. He made "Jason with the Golden +Fleece," and, when no one ordered it, the discouraged artist broke it in +pieces. The next year he modelled another Jason, a lady furnishing the +means; and while everybody praised it, and Canova said, "This young Dane +has produced a work in a new and grand style," it did not occur to any +one to buy the statue in marble. + +An artist could not live on praise alone. Anxious days came and went, +and he was destitute and wretched. He must leave Rome, and go back to +the wood-carving in Copenhagen; for no one wanted beautiful things, +unless the maker was famous. He deferred going from week to week, till +at last his humble furniture had been sold, and his trunks waited at the +door. As he was leaving the house, his travelling companion said to him, +"We must wait till to-morrow, from a mistake in our passports." + +A few hours later, Mr. Thomas Hope, an English banker, entered his +studio, and, struck with the grandeur of his model of Jason, asked the +cost in marble. "Six hundred sequins" (over twelve hundred dollars), he +answered, not daring to hope for such good fortune. "That is not enough; +you should ask eight," said the generous man, who at once ordered it. + +And this was the turning-point in Bertel's life. How often a rich man +might help a struggling artist, and save a genius to the world, as did +this banker! Young Thorwaldsen now made the acquaintance of the Danish +ambassador to Naples, who introduced him to the family of Baron Wilhelm +von Humboldt, where the most famous people in Rome gathered. Soon a +leading countess commissioned him to cut four marble statues,--Bacchus, +Ganymede, Apollo, and Venus. Two years later, he was made professor in +the Royal Academy of Florence. + +The Academy of Copenhagen now sent him five hundred dollars as an +expression of their pride in him. How much more he needed it when he was +near starving, all those nine years in Rome! The bashful student had +become the genial companion and interesting talker. Louis of Bavaria, +who made Munich one of the art centres of the world, was his admirer and +friend. The Danish King urged him to return to Copenhagen; but, as the +Quirinal was to be decorated with great magnificence, Rome could not +spare him. For this, he made in three months his famous "Entry of +Alexander into Babylon," and soon after his exquisite bas-reliefs, +"Night" and "Morning,"--the former, a goddess carrying in her arms two +children, Sleep and Death; the latter, a goddess flying through the air, +scattering flowers with both hands. + +In 1816, when he was forty-six, he finished his Venus, after having made +_thirty_ models of the figure. He threw away the first attempt, and +devoted three years to the completion of the second. Three statues were +made, one of which is at Chatsworth, the elegant home of the Duke of +Devonshire; and one was lost at sea. A year later, he carved his +exquisite Byron, now at Trinity College, Cambridge. + +He was now made a member of three other famous academies. Having been +absent from Denmark twenty-three years, the King urged his return for a +visit, at least. The Royal Palace of Charlottenburg was prepared for his +reception The students of the Academy escorted him with bands of music, +cannon were fired, poems read, cantatas sung; and the King created him +councillor of state. + +Was the wood-carver's son proud of all these honors? No. The first +person he met at the palace was the old man who had served as a model +for the boys when Thorwaldsen was at school. So overcome was he as he +recalled those days of toil and poverty, that he fell upon the old man's +neck, and embraced him heartily. + +After some of the grandest work of his life in the Frue Kirke,--Christ +and the Twelve Apostles, and others,--he returned to Rome, visiting, on +the way, Alexander of Russia, who, after Thorwaldsen had made his bust, +presented the artist with a diamond ring. + +Although a Protestant, accounted now the greatest living sculptor, he +was made president of the Academy of St. Luke, a position held by Canova +when he was alive, and was commissioned to build the monument of Pius +VII. in St. Peters. Mendelssohn, the great composer, had become his warm +friend, and used to play for him as he worked in his studio. Sir Walter +Scott came to visit the artist, and as the latter could speak scarcely a +word of English, the two shook hands heartily, and clapped each other on +the shoulder as they parted. + +When Thorwaldsen was sixty-eight years old, he left Rome to end his +days among his own people. The enthusiasm on his arrival was unbounded. +The whole city waited nearly three days for his coming. Boats decked +with flowers went out to meet him, and so many crowded on board his +vessel that it was feared she would sink. The members of the Academy +came in a body; and the crowd took the horses from the carriage, and +drew it themselves through the streets to the Palace of Charlottenburg. +In the evening there was a grand torchlight procession, followed by a +constant round of parties. + +So beset was he with invitations to dinner, that, to save a little time +for himself, he told his servant Wilkins, that he would dine with him +and his wife. Wilkins, greatly confused, replied, "What would the world +think if it found out that the chancellor dined with his servant?" + +"The world--the world! Have I not told you a thousand times that I don't +care in the least what the world thinks about these things?" Sometimes +he refused even to dine with the King. Finding at last that society +would give him no rest, he went to live with some friends at Nyso, seven +hours by boat from Copenhagen. + +Once more he visited Rome, for a year, receiving royal attentions all +through Germany. Two years after, as he was sitting in the theatre, he +rose to let a lady pass. She saw him bending toward the floor, and +asked, "Have you dropped something?" + +The great man made no answer; he was dead. The funeral was a grand +expression of love and honor. His body lay in state in the Royal Palace, +laurel about his brow, the coffin ornamented with floral crowns--one +made by the Queen of Denmark; his chisel laid in the midst of laurel and +palm, and his great works of art placed about him. Houses were draped in +black, bells tolled in all the churches, women threw flowers from their +windows before the forty artists who carried the coffin, and the King +and Prince royal received it in person at the Frue Kirke. + +Then it was borne to the large museum which Copenhagen had built to +receive his work, and buried in the centre of the inner court, which had +been prepared under his own hand. A low granite coping surrounds the +grave, which is entirely covered with ivy, and on the side is his boyish +name, Bertel (Bartholomew) Thorwaldsen. + + + + +MOZART. + + +The quaint old city of Salzburg, Austria, built into the mountain-side, +is a Mecca for all who love music, and admire the immortal Mozart. When +he was alive, his native city allowed him nearly to starve; when he was +dead, she built him a beautiful monument, and preserved his home, a +plain two-story, stuccoed building, for thousands of travellers to look +upon sadly and tenderly. + +Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born Jan. 27, 1756, a delicate, sensitive +child, who would ask a dozen times a day whether his friends loved him, +and, if answered in the negative, would burst into tears. At three, he +began to show his passion for music. He would listen intensely as his +father taught his little sister, Nannerl, seven years old; would move +his playthings from one room to another, to the sound of the violin; and +at four, composed pieces which astonished his sire. + +[Illustration: W. A. MOZART.] + +Two years later, the proud father took Wolfgang and his sister on a +concert tour to Vienna. So well did the boy play, that the Empress Maria +Theresa held him in her arms, and kissed him heartily. One day as he +was walking between two of her daughters, he slipped on the polished +floor and fell. Marie Antoinette, afterward Empress of France, raised +him up, whereupon he said, "You are very kind; I will marry you." The +father was alarmed at this seeming audacity; but the lovely Princess +playfully kissed him. + +The next year he was taken to Paris, and here two sets of sonatas, the +works of a boy of seven, were brought out, dedicated to Marie +Antoinette. The children sat at the royal table, poems were written +about them, and everywhere they excited wonder and admiration; yet so +excessively modest was young Mozart, that he cried when praised too +much. In London, Bach took the boy between his knees, and alternately +they played his own great works and those of Handel at sight. Royalty +gave them "gold snuffboxes enough to set up a shop," wrote home the +father; "but in money I am poor." Wolfgang was now taken ill of +inflammatory fever; but he could not give up his music. A board was laid +across the bed, and on this he wrote out his thoughts in the notes. +Finally, with ardor dampened at their lack of pecuniary success, Leopold +Mozart took his dear ones back to quiet Salzburg. + +Here the cold archbishop, discrediting the reports of the boy's genius, +shut him up alone for a week to compose an oratorio, the text furnished +by himself. Mozart, only ten years old, stood the test brilliantly. The +next year a second tour was taken to Vienna, to be present at the +marriage of the Archduchess Maria Josepha. The bride died from smallpox +shortly after their arrival: and poor Wolfgang took the disease, and was +blind for nine days. When he recovered, the musicians, moved by envy and +jealousy, would not be outdone by a boy of twelve, who was equally at +home in German or Italian opera, and determined to hiss off the stage +whatever he might compose. Sad at heart, and disappointed, again the +Mozarts went back to the old home. + +Two years later, after much self-sacrifice, the father took his boy to +Italy for study. The first day in Passion Week they went to the Sistine +Chapel to hear the famous "Miserere" of Allegri, which was considered so +sacred, that the musicians were forbidden to take home any part of it, +or copy it out of the chapel, on pain of excommunication. Wolfgang, as +soon as he reached his lodgings, wrote it out from memory; which +remarkable feat for a boy of fourteen astonished all Rome. So +wonderfully did he play, that the audience at Naples declared there was +witchcraft in the ring which he wore on his left hand, and he was +obliged to remove it. At Milan, when he was nearly fifteen, he composed +the opera "Mithridate," conducting it himself, which was given twenty +nights in succession to enthusiastic audiences. After this came requests +for operas from Maria Theresa, Munich, and elsewhere. He was busy every +moment. Overworked, he was often ill; but the need for money to meet +heavy expenses made constant work a necessity. All this time he wrote +beautiful letters to his mother and sister. "Kiss mamma's hand for me a +thousand billion times," is the language of his loving heart. He could +scarcely be said to have had any childhood; but he kept his tenderness +and affection to the last of his life. + +After their return to Salzburg, finding the new archbishop even less +cordial than the old--the former had allowed Wolfgang the munificent +salary of five dollars and a fourth yearly!--it was deemed wise to try +to find a new field for employment. The father, now sixty years of age, +must earn a pittance for the family by giving music-lessons, while the +mother accompanied the son to Paris. The separation was a hard one for +the devoted father, who could not say good-by to his idolized son, and +poor Nannerl wept the whole day long. Mozart, now twenty-one, and +famous, well repaid this affection by his pure character. He wrote: "I +have God always before me. Whatever is according to his will is also +according to mine; therefore I cannot fail to be happy and contented." + +Stopping for a time at Mannheim, he attempted to gain the position of +tutor to the elector's children, but was disappointed. Here he fell in +love with Aloysia Weber, a pretty girl of fifteen, whose father, a +prompter at the National Theatre, earned only two hundred dollars yearly +for the support of his wife and six children. The girl had a fine +voice; and Mozart, blinded by love, asked no higher joy than to write +operas in which she might be the star. The good old father, who had +spent all his life in helping his son to win fame, was nearly +heart-broken when he learned of this foolish affection, and wrote him +tenderly but firmly: "Off with you to Paris; get the great folks on your +side; _aut Cæsar, aut nihil_. From Paris, the name and fame of a man of +great talent goes through the whole world." + +The young man, carrying out his childish motto, "God first, and then +papa," reluctantly started for Paris. Here he did not meet with great +success, for scores of applicants waited for every position. His loving +mother soon died, perhaps from over economy in her cold, dark lodgings; +and the young musician took his lonely way back to Salzburg, begging his +father's consent to his stopping at Mannheim to see the Webers. Finding +that Aloysia had gone upon the stage at Munich, he hastened to see her. +She had been offered a good salary. Meantime Mozart had won no new +laurels at Paris. He was small in stature, and poor; and the girl who +wept at his departure a few months previously professed now scarcely to +have seen his face before. The young lover, cut to the heart, yet proud, +seated himself at the piano, and played, + + "I leave the girl gladly who cares not for me," + +and then hastened away to Salzburg. Aloysia married a comedian, and +lived a most unhappy life, gaining some fame from singing the music +which Mozart wrote for her. + +He remained at home for a year and a half, till called to Munich to +write the opera "Idomeneo," and later to Vienna. Here, unfortunately, he +met the Webers again, and, their father having died, he boarded in their +house, and gave lessons to Constance, a younger sister of Aloysia. She +was a plain, good-hearted girl, without much energy, but with a great +appreciation of her gifted teacher. The result came naturally; he fell +in love with the penniless girl, and, despite the distress of his aged +father at his choice, married her when he was twenty-six and she +eighteen. + +Henceforward there was no hope of any thing save the direst poverty. To +marry without love is a grave mistake; to marry simply for love is +sometimes a mistake equally grave. He could of course do nothing now for +his aged father or sister. Unsteady employment, a rapidly-increasing +family, and a wife ill most of the time, made the struggle for existence +ten times harder than before his marriage. Once when he had prepared to +visit his father for the first time after the wedding, and had waited +months for the necessary funds, he was arrested for a debt of fifteen +dollars, just as he was stepping into the carriage. + +The Emperor Joseph said to him one day, "Why did you not marry a rich +wife?" With dignity Mozart at once replied, "Sire, I trust that my +genius will always enable me to support the woman I love"; but +unfortunately it did not. He wrote after his marriage: "The moment we +were made one, my wife as well as myself began to weep, which touched +every one, even the priest, and they all cried when they witnessed how +our hearts were moved." How little they dreamed that they should weep +more seriously when hunger stared their six children in the face! + +From the time of his marriage till his death, nine years, says Rev. Mr. +Haweis, "his life can be compared to nothing but a torch burning out +rapidly in the wind." It was a period of incessant, astonishing labor. +He dedicated six quartets to his dear friend Joseph Haydn, who said, +"Mozart is the greatest composer who has ever lived"; wrote "Figaro" +when he was twenty-nine, which had the greatest popularity, "Don +Giovanni" at thirty-one, and the "Flauto Magico" gratis, for the benefit +of the theatre director, who was in want. The two latter creations were +hailed with delight. Goethe wrote to Schiller later of "Don Giovanni," +"That piece stands entirely alone; and Mozart's death has rendered all +hope of any thing like it idle." + +Whenever he appeared at the theatre, he was called upon the stage from +all parts of the house; yet all this time he could not earn enough to +live. He received only a hundred dollars from his "Don Giovanni," and +less for the others. He gave lessons every hour he could spare, concerts +in the open air, borrowed from his friends, scrimped himself, to send +money to his sick wife at Baden, pawned his silver plate to make one +more unsuccessful journey to win the aid of indifferent princes, and +fainted often at his tasks after midnight. Still he wrote to "the best +and dearest wife of my heart," "If I only had a letter from you, all +would be right," and promised her to work harder than ever to earn +money. + +When Constance was at home with him, if he left her in the morning +before she awakened, he would leave a note for her with the words, +"Good-morning, my darling wife. I shall be at home at -- o'clock +precisely." Once when she had been ill for eight months, and Mozart was +composing beside her as she slept, suddenly a noisy messenger entered. +Alarmed lest his wife should be disturbed, he rose hastily, when the +penknife in his hand fell, and buried itself in his foot. Without a word +escaping his lips, he left the room, a surgeon was called, and, though +lame for some time, the wife was not told of the accident. + +His compositions found few purchasers, for the people generally could +not comprehend them. Publishers' shops were closed to him, unless he +would write in the popular style. "Then I can make no more by my pen," +he said bitterly, "and I had better starve and go to destruction at +once." So poor had his family become, that, with no fuel in the house, +he and his wife were found by a friend, waltzing to keep warm. + +About this time a sepulchral-looking man called to ask that a "Requiem" +be written on the death of the wife of an Austrian nobleman, who was to +be considered the author, and thus his intense grief be shown, though +manifested through a lie. Mozart consulted with his wife, as was his +custom, and, as she indorsed it, he accepted the commission for fifty +dollars. Overworked, harassed by debts which he could not pay, hurt at +the jealousies and intrigues of several musicians, disappointed at the +reception of his new opera at Prague, his hopeful nature forsook him, +and he told Constance that the "Requiem" would be written for himself. + +In the midst of this wretchedness their sixth child was born. The poor +wife forgot her own sorrows, and prevailed upon him to give up work for +a time; but the active brain could not rest, and he wrote as he lay on +his sick-bed. On the day before he died, Dec. 4, 1791, at two o'clock, +he persisted in having a portion of the "Requiem" sung by the friends +who stood about his bed, and, joining with them in the alto, burst into +tears, saying, "Did I not say that I was writing the 'Requiem' for +myself?" Soon after he said, "Constance, oh that I could only hear my +'Flauto Magico!'" and a friend playing it, he was cheered. + +A messenger now arrived to tell him that he was appointed organist at +St. Stephen's Cathedral, a position for which he had longed for years; +but it came too late. Death was unwelcome to him. "Now must I go," he +said, "just as I should be able to live in peace; I must leave my +family, my poor children, at the very instant in which I should have +been able to provide for their welfare." Cold applications were ordered +by the physicians for his burning head; he became delirious for two +hours, and died at midnight, only thirty-five years old. Constance was +utterly prostrated, and threw herself upon his bed, hoping to die also. + +Mozart's body was laid beside his piano, and then, in a pouring rain, +buried in a "common grave," in the plainest manner possible, with nobody +present except the keepers of the cemetery. Weeks after, when the wife +visited the spot, she found a new grave-digger, who could not tell where +her beloved husband was buried, and to this day the author of fourteen +Italian operas, seventeen symphonies, and dozens of cantatas and +serenades, about eight hundred compositions in all, sleeps in an unknown +grave. The Emperor Leopold aided her in a concert to raise fifteen +hundred dollars to pay her husband's debts, and provide a little for +herself. Eighteen years afterward she married the Danish councillor, +Baron von Missen, who educated her two sons, four other children having +died. Salzburg waited a half-century before she erected a bronze statue +to her world-renowned genius, in the Square of St. Michael; and, seventy +years after his death, Vienna built him a monument in the Cemetery of +St. Mark. History scarcely furnishes a more pathetic life. He filled the +world with music, yet died in want and sorrow. + + + + +[Illustration: SAMUEL JOHNSON.] + +DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. + + +In a quaint old house in Lichfield, England, now used as a draper's +shop, Samuel Johnson, son of a poor bookseller and bookbinder, was born. +Here, as in Westminster Abbey, a statue is erected to his memory. Near +by is the schoolhouse where Addison and Garrick studied. + +When Samuel was two and a half years old, diseased with scrofula, his +good mother, with ten dollars sewed in her skirt so that nobody could +steal it, took him to London that, with two hundred others, he might be +touched by Queen Anne, and thus, as superstitious people believed, be +healed. On this journey she bought him a silver cup and spoon. The +latter he kept till his dying-day, and parted with the cup only in the +dire poverty of later years. + +The touch of the Queen did no good, for he became blind in one eye; with +the other he could not see a friend half a yard off, and his face was +sadly disfigured. Being prevented thus from sharing the sports of other +boys, much time was spent in reading. He was first taught at a little +school kept by Widow Oliver, who years after, when he was starting for +Oxford, brought him a present of gingerbread, telling him he was the +best scholar she ever had. After a time he studied Latin under a master +who "whipped it into him." The foolish teacher would ask the boy the +Latin word for candlestick, or some unexpected thing, and then whip him, +saying, "This I do to save you from the gallows!" + +Naturally indolent, Samuel had to struggle against this tendency. He +had, however, the greatest ambition to excel, and to this he attributed +his later success. He was also inquisitive, and had a wonderful memory. +When he wore short dresses, his mother gave him the Prayer-Book one day, +and, pointing to the Collect, said, "You must get this by heart." She +went up stairs, but no sooner had she reached the second floor than she +heard him following. He could repeat it perfectly, having looked it over +but twice. He left school at sixteen, spending two years at home in +helping his parents, and studying earnestly. One day, his father, being +ill, asked him to go to a neighboring town and take his place in selling +books at a stall on market-day. He was proud, and did not go. Fifty +years afterward, in his greatness, then an old man, he went to this +stall, and, with uncovered head, remained for an hour in the rain where +his father had formerly stood, exposed to the sneers of the bystanders +and the inclemency of the weather. It showed the repentance of a noble +soul for disobedience to a parent. + +At nineteen, he entered Pembroke College, Oxford, where he acted as +servant. He used to go daily to his friend Taylor, and get lectures +second-hand, till his feet, showing through his worn-out shoes, were +perceived by the students, and he ceased going. A rich young man +secretly put a pair of new shoes at his door, which he indignantly threw +out of the window. He was willing to work and earn, but would not +receive charity. At the end of three years he became so poor that he was +obliged to leave college, his father dying soon after. + +After various experiences, he sought the position of usher at a school, +but was refused because it was thought that the boys would make fun of +his ugliness. He finally obtained such a place, was treated with great +harshness, and left in a few months. Strange to say, the poor, lonely +scholar, only twenty-six, now fell in love with a widow forty-eight +years old. After obtaining his mother's consent, he married her, and the +union proved a most happy one. With the little money his wife possessed, +he started a school, and advertised for pupils; but only three came, and +the school soon closed. In despair he determined to try London, and see +if an author could there earn his bread. In that great city he lived for +some time on nine cents a day. One publisher to whom he applied +suggested to him that the wisest course would be to become a porter and +carry trunks. + +A poem written at this time, entitled "London," for which he received +fifty dollars, one line of which was in capital letters, + + "SLOW RISES WORTH BY POVERTY DEPRESSED," + +attracted attention; and Pope, who was then at the height of his fame, +asked Dublin University to give to the able scholar the degree of M.A., +that he might thus be able to take the principalship of a school, and +earn three hundred dollars a year; but this was refused. Out of such +struggles come heroic souls. + +When he was forty, he published the "Vanity of Human Wishes," receiving +seventy-five dollars, asserted by many to be the most impressive thing +of its kind in the language. The lines, + + "There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, + Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail," + +show his struggles. A drama soon after, played by the great actor, David +Garrick, brought him nearly a thousand dollars; but the play itself was +a failure. When asked by his friends how he felt about his ill success, +he replied, "Like the monument," meaning that he continued firm and +unmoved, like a column of granite. Fame was coming at last, after he had +struggled in London for thirteen years--and what bitterness they had +brought! + +For two years he worked almost constantly on a paper called the +"Rambler." When his wife said that, well as she had thought of him +before, she had never considered him equal to this, he was more pleased +than with any praise he ever received. She died three days after the +last copy was published, and Johnson was utterly prostrated. He buried +himself in hard work in his garret, a most inconvenient room; but he +said, "In that room I never saw Mrs. Johnson." Her wedding-ring was +placed in a little box, and tenderly kept till his death. + +Three years afterward, his great work, his Dictionary, appeared, for +which he received eight thousand dollars; but, as he had been obliged to +employ six assistants for seven years, he was still poor, but now +famous. The Universities of Oxford and Dublin, when he no longer needed +their assistance, hastened to bestow their degrees upon him. Even George +III. invited him to the royal palace,--a strange contrast to a few years +before, when Samuel Johnson was under arrest for a debt of thirty +dollars! When asked by Reynolds how he had obtained his accuracy and +flow of language in conversation, he replied, "By trying to do my best +on every occasion and in every company." About this time his aged mother +died, and in the evenings of one week, to defray her funeral expenses, +he wrote "Rasselas," and received five hundred dollars for it. He wrote +in his last letter to her, "You have been the best mother, and I believe +the best woman, in the world. I thank you for your indulgence to me, and +beg forgiveness of all that I have done ill, and of all that I have +omitted to do well." His last great work was "The Lives of the Poets." + +He received now a pension of fifteen hundred dollars a year, for his +valuable services to literature, but never used more than four hundred +dollars for himself. He took care of a blind woman of whom he said, "She +was a friend to my poor wife, and was in the house when she died, she +has remained in it ever since," of a mother and daughter dependent upon +an old family physician, and of two men whom nobody else would care for. +Once when he found a poor woman on the street late at night, he took her +home, and kept her till she was restored to health. His pockets were +always filled with pennies for street Arabs; and, if he found poor +children asleep on a threshold, he would slip money into their hands +that, when they awakened, they might buy a breakfast. When a servant was +dying who had been in the family for forty-three years, he prayed with +her and kissed her, the tears falling down his cheeks. He wrote in his +diary, "We kissed and parted--I humbly hope to meet again, and part no +more." He held, rightly, that Christianity levels all distinctions of +rank. + +He was very tender to animals. Once, when in Wales, a gardener brought +into the house a hare which had been caught in the potatoes, and was +told to give it to the cook. Dr. Johnson asked to have it placed in his +arms; then, taking it to the window, he let it go, shouting to it to +run as fast as possible. He would buy oysters for his cat, Hodge, that +the servants, from seeing his fondness for it, might be led to treat it +kindly. + +He died at the age of seventy-five, such men as Burke and Reynolds +standing by his bedside. Of the latter, he begged that he would "read +his Bible, and never paint on Sundays." His last words were to a young +lady who had asked his blessing: "God bless you, my dear!" He was buried +with appropriate honors in Westminster Abbey, and monuments are erected +to him in St. Paul's Cathedral, and at Lichfield. The poor boy, nearly +blind, became "the brightest ornament of the eighteenth century." + + + + +OLIVER GOLDSMITH. + + +On a low slab in a quiet spot, just north of the Church of Knight +Templars, in London, are the simple words, "Here lies Oliver Goldsmith." +The author of the "Vicar of Wakefield" needs no grander monument; for he +lives in the hearts of the people. + +Oliver Goldsmith was born in Pallas, Ireland, in 1728, the son of a poor +minister, who, by means of tilling some fields and assisting in a parish +outside his own, earned two hundred dollars a year for his wife and +seven children! When about six years old, Oliver nearly died of +smallpox, and his pitted face made him an object of jest among the boys. +At eight he showed great fondness for books, and began to write verses. +His mother pleaded for a college education for him, but there seemed +little prospect of it. One day, when a few were dancing at his uncle's +house, the little boy sprang upon the floor and began to dance. The +fiddler, to make fun of his short figure and homely face, exclaimed, +"Æsop!" The boy, stung to the quick, replied:-- + + "Heralds, proclaim aloud! all saying, + 'See Æsop dancing and his monkey playing;'" + +when, of course, the fiddler became much chagrined. + +[Illustration: OLIVER GOLDSMITH.] + +All his school life Oliver was painfully diffident, but a good scholar. +His father finally earned a better salary, and the way seemed open for +college, when, lo! his sister, who had the opportunity of marrying a +rich man, was obliged--so thought the public opinion of the day--to have +a marriage portion of $2,000, and poor Oliver's educational hopes were +blasted. He must now enter Trinity College, Dublin, as a sizar +(servant), wear a coarse black gown without sleeves, a red cap,--the +badge of servitude,--sweep the courts, carry dishes, and be treated with +contempt, which nearly crushed his sensitive nature. + +A year and a half later his father died, and his scanty means ceased +from that source. To keep from starving he wrote ballads, selling them +to street musicians at $1.25 apiece, and stole out at night to hear them +sung. Often he shared this pittance with some one more wretched than +himself. One cold night he gave his blankets to a person with five +children, and crawled into the ticking of his bed for warmth. When a +kind friend, who often brought him food, came in the morning, he was +obliged to break in the door, as Goldsmith could not extricate himself +from his bed. + +Obtaining a small scholarship, he gave a little party in his room in +honor of the event. A savage tutor appeared in the midst of the +festivities, and knocked him down. So incensed was Goldsmith that he ran +away from college, and with twenty-five cents in his pocket started for +Cork. For three days he lived on eight cents a day, and, by degrees, +parted with nearly all his clothes for food. + +Though wholly unfitted for the ministry, Goldsmith was urged by his +relatives to enter the church, because he would then have a living. Too +young to be accepted, he remained at home for two years, assisting his +brother Henry in the village school; and then offering himself as a +candidate, was refused, it was said, because he appeared before the +right reverend in scarlet trousers! After being tutor for a year, his +uncle gave him $250, that he might go to Dublin and study law. On +arriving, he met an old friend, lost all his money in playing cards with +him, and, ashamed and penniless, returned and begged the forgiveness of +his relative. + +A little more money was given him, and with this he studied medicine in +Edinburgh for over a year, earning later some money by teaching. +Afterward he travelled in Italy and France, begging his way by singing +or playing on his flute at the doors of the peasants, returning to +England at twenty-eight years of age without a cent in his pocket. +Living among the beggars in Axe Lane, he asked to spread plasters, or +pound in the mortars of the apothecaries, till, finally, a chemist hired +him out of pity. Through the aid of a fellow-student, he finally opened +a doctor's office, but few came to a stranger, and these usually so +poor as to be unable to pay. + +Attending one day upon a workman, he held his hat close to his breast, +so as to cover a big patch in his second-hand clothes, while he felt the +patient's pulse. Half guessing the young doctor's poverty, the sick man +told him about his master, the author of the famous old novel, "Clarissa +Harlowe," and how he had befriended writers. Goldsmith at once applied +for work, and became press corrector in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street. + +Later he was employed as a reviewer on a magazine. Being obliged to +submit all his reviews to an illiterate bookseller and his wife, the +engagement soon came to an end. He lived now in a garret, was dunned +even for his milk-bill, wrote a book for a college friend, under whose +name it was published, and began a work of his own, "Polite Learning in +Europe," writing to a wealthy relative for aid to publish, which letter +was never answered, though it was greatly regretted after Goldsmith +became famous. + +With no hope in London, he was promised a position in the East Indies. +Life began to look bright, though his Fleet Street garret, with one +chair, was surrounded by swarms of children and dirt. The promise was +not kept, and he applied for the position of hospital mate. His clothes +being too poor for him to be seen on the streets, he pledged the money +to be received for four articles, bought a new suit, went up to the +court of examiners, and was rejected! Had any of these positions been +obtained, the world, doubtless, would never have known the genius of +Oliver Goldsmith. + +He went back to his garret to write, pawned his clothes to pay the +landlady, who was herself to be turned out of the wretched lodgings, +sold his "Life of Voltaire" for twenty dollars, and published his +"Polite Learning in Europe," anonymously. The critics attacked it, and +Goldsmith's day of fame had dawned at last. "The Citizen of the World," +a good-natured satire on society, next appeared, and was a success. Dr. +Johnson became his friend, and made him a member of his club with +Reynolds, Burke, and other noted men. The "Traveller" was next +published, with an immense sale. Goldsmith now moved into the buildings +which bear his name, near Temple Church, and, for once, had flowers and +green grass to look out upon. + +He was still poor, doubtless spending what money he received with little +wisdom. His landlady arrested him for room-rent, upon hearing which, Dr. +Johnson came at once to see him, gave him money, took from his desk the +manuscript of the "Vicar of Wakefield," and sold it to a publisher for +three hundred dollars. This was the fruit of much labor, and the world +received it cordially. Some of his essays were now reprinted sixteen +times. What a change from the Fleet Street garret! + +The "Deserted Village" was published five years later, Goldsmith having +spent two whole years in reviewing it after it was written, so careful +was he that every word should be the best that could be chosen. This was +translated at once into German by Goethe, who was also a great admirer +of the "Vicar of Wakefield." He also wrote an English History, a Roman, +a Grecian, several dramas, of which "She Stoops to Conquer" was the most +popular, and eight volumes of the "History of the Earth and Animated +Nature," for which he received five hundred dollars a volume, leaving +this unfinished. + +Still in debt, overworked, laboring sometimes far into the morning +hours, not leaving his desk for weeks together, even for exercise, +Goldsmith died at forty-five, broken with the struggle of life, but with +undying fame. When he was buried, one April day, 1774, Brick Court and +the stairs of the building were filled with the poor and the forsaken +whom he had befriended. His monument is in the Poets' Corner at +Westminster Abbey, the greatest honor England could offer. True, she let +him nearly starve, but she crowned him at the last. He conquered the +world by hard work, kindness, and a gentleness as beautiful as his +genius was great. + + + + +MICHAEL FARADAY. + + +In the heart of busy London, over a stable, lived James and Margaret +Faraday, with their four little children. The father was a blacksmith, +in feeble health, unable to work for a whole day at a time, a kind, good +man to his household; the mother, like himself, was uneducated, but neat +and industrious, and devoted to her family. The children learned the +rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic at school, and then, of +course, were obliged to earn their living. + +Michael, the third child, born 1791, became, at thirteen years of age, +an errand-boy in a bookseller's shop. His first duty was to carry +newspapers in the morning to customers, who read them for an hour or two +for a trifle, a penny probably, and then gave them to the newsboy to be +re-loaned. Often on Sunday morning the patrons would say, "You must call +again," forgetting that the next place might be a mile away, and that +the young boy was quite as desirous as they, to go to church with his +parents. Years after this, when he had become famous the world over, he +said, "I always feel a tenderness for those boys, because I once +carried newspapers myself." + +[Illustration: MICHAEL FARADAY.] + +The following year, 1805, he was apprenticed to a bookseller for seven +years, to learn the trade of binding and selling books. Here was hard +work before him till he was twenty-one; not a cheerful prospect for one +who loved play as well as other boys. Whenever he had a spare moment, he +was looking inside the books he was binding. Mrs. Marcet's +"Conversations in Chemistry" delighted him; and when he was given the +"Encyclopedia Britannica" to bind, the article on Electricity seemed a +treasure-house of wonders. He soon made an electrical machine,--not an +expensive one,--simply a glass vial, and other apparatus of a similar +kind; and afterwards with a real cylinder. These cost only a few pence a +week, but they gave a vast amount of pleasure to the blacksmith's son. + +One day he saw in a shop-window a notice that a Mr. Tatum was to give at +his own house some lectures on Natural Philosophy. The charge for each +was twenty-five cents. No bookseller's apprentice would have such an +amount of money to spend weekly as that. However, his brother Robert, +three years older, himself a blacksmith, with some pride, perhaps, that +Michael was interested in such weighty matters, furnished the money, and +a lodger at the home of the bookseller taught him drawing, so that he +might be able, in taking notes, to illustrate the experiments. He +attended the lectures, wrote them out carefully in a clear hand, bound +them in four volumes, and dedicated them to his employer. + +A customer at the shop had become interested in a boy who cared so much +for science, and took him to hear four lectures given by Sir Humphry +Davy at the Royal Institution. This was an unexpected pleasure. He was +beginning to sigh for something beyond book-binding. "Oh, if I could +only help in some scientific work, no matter how humble!" he thought to +himself. He says in his journal, "In my ignorance of the world, and +simplicity of my mind, I wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the +Royal Society." No answer was ever returned to the request for a +situation. Could the president have realized that some day ten thousand +people would know the name of Michael Faraday where one knew the name of +Sir Joseph Banks, probably he would have answered the boy's letter. +Blessings on the great man or woman who takes time, however briefly, to +answer every letter received! Such a man was Garfield, and such is +Whittier. A civil question demands a civil answer, whether the person +addressed be king or peasant. + +About the time his apprenticeship ended, in 1812, he summoned courage to +write directly to the great Sir Humphry Davy, sending the full notes he +had made at that gentleman's lectures. Sir Humphry, possibly remembering +that he, too, had been a poor boy, the son of a widowed milliner, wrote +a polite note, saying, that "Science was a harsh mistress, and, in a +pecuniary point of view, but poorly rewarding those who devoted +themselves to her service;" that he was going out of town, but would see +if he could some time aid him. + +Meantime Michael was making crude galvanic experiments. He bought some +malleable zinc, cut out seven plates, each the size of a half-penny, +covered these with the copper half-pennies, placing between them six +pieces of paper soaked in a solution of muriate of soda, and with this +simple battery, decomposed sulphate of magnesia. So pleased was he that +he wrote a letter to one of his boy friends, telling of the experiment, +and adding, "Time is all I require. Oh, that I could purchase at a cheap +rate some of our modern gent's spare hours, nay, days! I think it would +be a good bargain, both for them and for me." The youth had learned the +first secret of success,--not to waste time; not to throw it away on +useless persons or useless subjects. + +He had learned another secret, that of choosing right companions. To +this same young friend, Abbott, he wrote, "A companion cannot be a good +one, unless he is morally so. I have met a good companion in the lowest +path of life, and I have found such as I despised in a rank far superior +to mine.... I keep regular hours, and enter not intentionally into +pleasures productive of evil." London's highest circles possessed no +purer spirit than this young mechanic. + +Faraday now began work at his trade of book-binding for a Frenchman in +London, who, having no children, promised him the business, if he would +remain with him always; but the employer's temper was so hasty that the +position became almost unbearable. The young man was growing depressed +in spirits, when one night, just as he was preparing for bed, a loud +knock on the door startled him. On looking out of the window, he espied +a grand carriage, with a footman in livery, who left a note. This was a +request from Sir Humphry Davy to see him in the morning. Was there, +then, the possibility of a place in the Royal Institution? Between +conflicting hopes and fears, he went to sleep, and in the morning +hastened to see the great chemist. The result was an engagement at six +dollars a week, with two rooms at the top of the house! He was to clean +the instruments, move them to and from the lecture-room, and in all ways +to make himself useful. Now he could say good-by to book-binding; and, +though six dollars a week was not a munificent sum, yet he could +actually handle beautiful instruments,--not copper half-pence and bits +of zinc,--and could listen to stimulating lectures. + +And now work began in earnest. He joined the City Philosophical Society, +an association of thirty or forty persons in moderate circumstances, who +met each Wednesday evening, one of their number giving a lecture. Then a +half dozen friends came together once a week to read, criticise, and +correct each other in pronunciation and conversation. How eagerly would +such a young man have attended college! There was no opportunity to hear +polished talk in elegant drawing-rooms, no chance to improve manners in +so-called "best society." He did what is in the power of everybody,--he +educated himself. Did he not need recreation after the hard day's work? +Every person has to make his choice. Amusements do not make scholars: +pleasure and knowledge do not go hand in hand. Faraday chose the topmost +story of the Royal Institution, and books for companions, and immortal +fame was the result. + +The experiments with Davy soon became absorbing, and often dangerous. +Now they extracted sugar from beet-root; now they treated chloride of +nitrogen, wearing masks of glass upon their faces, which, +notwithstanding, were sometimes badly cut by the explosions. Seven +months after this, Sir Humphry decided to travel upon the Continent, and +asked Faraday to be his amanuensis. This was a rare opportunity for the +young assistant. For a year and a half they visited France, Switzerland, +Italy, and Germany, climbing Vesuvius, enjoying art-galleries, and +meeting the learned and famous of the age. The journey had its +disagreeable side; for Faraday was made more or less a servant by Davy +and his sometimes inconsiderate wife; but it had great and lasting +advantages for one who had never been but twelve miles from London. + +His heart turned longingly back to the poor ones he had left behind. He +wrote to his mother, "The first and last thing in my mind is England, +home, and friends. When sick, when cold, when tired, the thoughts of +those at home are a warm and refreshing balm to my heart.... These are +the first and greatest sweetness in the life of man.... I am almost +contented except with my ignorance, which becomes more visible to me +every day." And again, "I have several times been more than half decided +to return hastily home: I am only restrained by the wish of +improvement." To his sister he wrote, "Give my love with a kiss to +mother, the first thing you do on reading this letter, and tell her how +much I think of her." To Abbott he wrote something intended for his eyes +only, but headed, "I do not wish that my mother should remain ignorant +of it. I _have no secrets from her_." His heart bounded with joy at the +prospect of meeting them again, and "enjoying the pleasure of their +conversation, from which he had been excluded." No absorption in science +could make him outgrow his parents and his humble home. + +On his return to England his salary was increased to $500 yearly, and he +was promoted to Laboratory Assistant. He was now twenty-four. He had +noted carefully Davy's researches in iodine and chlorine, had seen him +develop his safety-lamp, which has proved an untold blessing to miners, +had made many experiments from his own thinking; and now he too was to +give his first course of six lectures before his friends in the City +Philosophical Society, on Chemical Affinity, and kindred topics. He +wrote them out with great care; for whatever he did was well done. This +year he published his first paper in the "Quarterly Journal of Science" +on caustic lime. Encouraged by the approving words of Sir Humphry, the +following year he wrote six papers for the "Quarterly," giving his +experiments with gases and minerals, and gave another course of lectures +before the Philosophical Society. To improve himself in delivering +these, he attended lectures on oratory, taking copious notes. + +Seven years had now gone by in his apprenticeship to Science. He had +published thirty-seven papers in the "Quarterly," had a book ready for +the press, on the alloys of steel, and had read a paper before the Royal +Society itself, on two new compounds of chlorine and carbon, and a new +compound of iodine, carbon, and hydrogen. But the young and now +brilliant student had other weighty matters in hand. Five years before +this, he had written in his diary: + + "What is't that comes in false, deceitful guise, + Making dull fools of those that 'fore were wise? + 'Tis love. + What's that the wise man always strives to shun, + Though still it ever o'er the world has run? + 'Tis love." + +But now, whether he tried to shun it or no, he became thoroughly in love +with Sarah Barnard, an intelligent and sweet-tempered girl, the +daughter of a silversmith. Distracted by fears lest he might not win +her, he wrote her. "In whatever way I can best minister to your +happiness, either by assiduity or by absence, it shall be done. Do not +injure me by withdrawing your friendship, or punish me for aiming to be +more than a friend by making me less." + +The girl showed this to her father, who replied that love made +philosophers say very foolish things. She hesitated about accepting him, +and went away to the seaside to consider it; but the ardent lover +followed, determined to learn the worst if need be. They walked on the +cliffs overhanging the ocean, and Faraday wrote in his journal as the +day drew near its close, "My thoughts saddened and fell, from the fear I +should never enjoy such happiness again. I could not master my feelings, +or prevent them from sinking, and I actually at last shamed myself by +moist eyes." He blamed himself because he did not know "the best means +to secure the heart he wished to gain." He knew how to fathom the depths +of chemical combinations, but he could not fathom the depths of Sarah +Barnard's heart. + +At last the hour of her decision came; and both were made supremely +happy by it. A week later he wrote her, "Every moment offers me fresh +proof of the power you have over me. I could not at one time have +thought it possible that I, that any man, could have been under the +dominion of feelings so undivided and so intense: now I think that no +other man can have felt or feel as I do." A year later they were married +very quietly, he desiring their wedding day to be "just like any other +day." Twenty-eight years later he wrote among the important dates and +discoveries of his life, "June 12, 1821, he married,--an event which, +more than any other, contributed to his earthly happiness and healthful +state of mind. The union has nowise changed, except in the depth and +strength of its character." + +For forty-seven years "his dear Sarah" made life a joy to him. He rarely +left home; but if so, as at the great gathering of British Scientists at +Birmingham, he wrote back, "After all, there is no pleasure like the +tranquil pleasure of home; and here, even here, the moment I leave the +table, I wish I were with you IN QUIET. Oh, what happiness is ours! My +runs into the world in this way only serve to make me esteem that +happiness the more." + +And now came twenty years in science that made Faraday the wonder and +ornament of his age. Elected an F.R.S., he began at once twelve lectures +in Chemical Manipulation before the London Institution, six on Chemical +Philosophy before the Royal Society, published six papers on +electromagnetism, and began a course of juvenile lectures which +continued for nineteen years. This was one of the beautiful things of +Faraday's life,--a great man living in a whirl of work, yet taking time +to make science plain to the young. When asked at what age he would +teach science, he replied that he had never found a child too young to +understand him. For twenty years he lectured at the Royal Academy at +Woolwich, became scientific adviser to the government with regard to +lighthouses and buoys, not for gain, but for the public good, drew all +London to his eloquent lectures with his brilliant experiments, Prince +Albert attending with his sons; and published one hundred and +fifty-eight scientific essays and thirty series of "Experimental +Researches in Electricity," which latter, says Dr. Gladstone, "form one +of the most marvellous monuments of intellectual work; one of the rarest +treasure-houses of newly-discovered knowledge, with which the world has +ever been enriched." + +He not only gathered into his vast brain what other men had learned of +science, but he tested every step to prove the facts, and became, says +Professor Tyndall, "the greatest experimental philosopher the world has +ever seen." He loved science as he loved his family and his God, and +played with Nature as with a petted child. When he lectured, "there was +a gleaming in his eyes which no painter could copy, and which no poet +could describe. His audience took fire with him, and every face was +flushed." + +In his earlier discoveries in compressing gases into liquids, he +obtained from one thousand cubic feet of coal gas one gallon of fluid +from which he distilled benzine. In 1845 the chemist Hofman found this +same substance in coal-tar, from which come our beautiful aniline dyes. + +After eighteen years of studying the wonderful results of Galvani's +discovery at the University of Bologna, that the legs of a dead frog +contract under the electric current; and of Volta, in 1799, with his +voltaic pile of copper, zinc, and leather, in salt-water; and of +Christian Oersted at the University of Copenhagen; and Ampère and Arago, +that electricity will produce magnets, Faraday made the great discovery +of magneto-electricity,--that magnets will produce electricity. At once +magneto-electric machines were made for generating electricity for the +electric light, electro-plating, etc. This discovery, says Professor +Tyndall, "is the greatest experimental result ever attained by an +investigator, the Mont Blanc of Faraday's achievements." + +Soon after he made another great discovery, that of electric induction, +or that one electric current will induce another current in an adjoining +wire. Others had suspected this, but had sought in vain to prove it. The +Bell telephone, which Sir William Thompson calls "the wonder of +wonders," depends upon this principle. Here no battery is required; for +the vibration of a thin iron plate is made to generate the currents. +After this, Faraday proved that the various kinds of electricity are +identical; and that the electricity of the Voltaic pile is produced by +chemical action, and not by contact of metals, as Volta had supposed. +The world meantime had showered honors upon the great scientist. Great +Britain had made him her idol. The Cambridge Philosophical Society, the +Institution of Civil Engineers, of British Architects, of Philosophy and +of Medicine, and the leading associations of Scotland had made him an +honorary member. Paris had elected him corresponding member of all her +great societies. St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Berlin, Palermo, +Modena, Lisbon, Heidelberg, Frankfort, and our own Boston and +Philadelphia had sent tokens of admiration. Eminent men from all the +world came to see him. + +How proud his mother must have felt at this wonderful success! She was +not able to enter into her son's pursuits from lack of early education; +but she talked much about him, calling him ever, "my Michael"; and would +do nothing whatever without his advice. He supported her in her +declining years; and she seemed perfectly happy. His father had died in +his boyhood; but Faraday ever honored his occupation. He used to say, "I +love a smith-shop, and anything relating to smithing. My father was a +blacksmith." + +He was now forty-nine. The overtaxed brain refused to work longer. +Memory was losing her grasp, and but for the sweet and careful presence +of Sarah Faraday, the life-work would doubtless have been finished at +this time. She took him to Switzerland, where he walked beside the lakes +and over the mountains with "my companion, dear wife, and partner in +all things." For four years he made scarcely any experiments in original +research, and then the tired brain seemed to regain its wonted power, +and go on to other discoveries. + +An Italian philosopher, Morichini, was the first to announce the +magnetizing power of the solar rays. Mrs. Somerville covered one-half of +a sewing-needle with paper, and exposed the other half to the violet +rays. In two hours the exposed end had acquired magnetism. Faraday, by +long and difficult experiments, showed the converse of this: he +magnetized a ray of light,--an experiment "high, beautiful, and alone," +says Mr. Tyndall. He also showed the magnetic condition of all matter. + +He was always at work. He entered the laboratory in the morning, and +often worked till eleven at night, hardly stopping for his meals. He +seldom went into society, for time was too precious. If he needed a +change, he read aloud Shakspeare, Byron, or Macaulay to his wife in the +evening, or corresponded with Herschel, Humboldt, and other great men. +In the midst of exhausting labors he often preached on the Sabbath, +believing more earnestly in the word of God the more he studied science. + +When he was sixty-four the great brain began to show signs of decline. +Belgium, Munich, Vienna, Madrid, Rome, Naples, Turin, Rotterdam, Upsala, +Lombardy, and Moscow had sent him medals, or made him a member of their +famous societies. Napoleon III. made him commander of the Legion of +Honor, a rare title; and the French exhibition awarded him the grand +medal of honor. The Queen asked him to dine with her at Windsor Castle, +and, at the request of Prince Albert her husband, she presented him with +a lovely home at Hampton Court. + +At seventy-one he wrote to Mrs. Faraday from Glasgow, "My head is full, +and my heart also; but my recollection rapidly fails. You will have to +resume your old function of being a pillow to my mind, and a rest,--a +happy-making wife." Still he continued to make able reports to the +government on lighthouses, electric machines, steam-engines, and the +like. + +And then for two years the memory grew weaker, the body feebler, and he +was, as he told a friend, "just waiting." He died in his chair in his +study, August 25th, 1867, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery. +Westminster Abbey would have opened her doors to him, but he requested +to be buried "in the simplest earthly place, with a gravestone of the +most ordinary kind." On a plain marble slab in the midst of clustering +ivy are his name and the dates of his birth and death. One feels a +strange tenderness of heart as he stands beside this sacred spot where +rests one, who, though elected to seventy societies, and offered nearly +one hundred titles and tokens of honor, said he "would remain plain +Michael Faraday to the last." + +Wonderful man! great in mind, noble in heart, and gentle in manner, +having brought a strong nature under the most complete discipline. His +energy, his devotion to a single object, his untiring work, and his +beautiful character carried the blacksmith's son to the highest +success. + + + + +SIR HENRY BESSEMER. + + +A little way from London, England, at Denmark Hill, looking toward the +Crystal Palace, is a mansion which is fit for royalty. The grounds, +covering from thirty to forty acres, are beautifully terraced, dotted +here and there with lakelets, fountains, and artificial caverns, while +the great clumps of red rhododendron, yellow laburnum, pink hawthorne, +and white laurel make an exquisitely colored picture. The home itself is +spacious and inviting, with its elegant conservatory and rare works of +art. The owner of this house, Sir Henry Bessemer, is cordial and +gracious; and from his genial face and manner, no one would imagine that +his life had been one long struggle with obstacles. + +Born in Charlton, a little county town in Hertfordshire, Jan. 19, 1813, +he received the rudiments of an education like other boys in the +neighborhood. His father, Anthony Bessemer, an inventor, seeing that his +son was inclined to mechanics, bought him, in London, a five-inch +foot-lathe, and a book which described the art of turning. Day after +day, in the quiet of his country home, he studied and practised turning, +and modelling in clay. + +[Illustration: SIR HENRY BESSEMER.] + +At eighteen years of age he went to London, "knowing no one," he says, +"and myself unknown,--a mere cipher in a vast sea of human enterprise." +He soon found a place to work as modeller and designer, engraving a +large number of original designs on steel, with a diamond point, for +patent-medicine labels. A year later he exhibited one of his models at +the Royal Academy. His inventive brain and observing eye were always +alert in some new direction. Having ascertained that the Government lost +thousands of pounds annually by the transfer of adhesive stamps from old +deeds to new ones, he determined to devise a stamp which could not be +used twice. + +For several months he worked earnestly, at night after his daily tasks +were over, and in secret, thinking how richly the Government would +reward him if he succeeded. At last he produced a die of unique design, +which perforated a parchment deed with four hundred little holes. He +hastened to the Stamp officials to show his work. They were greatly +pleased, and asked him which he preferred for his reward, a sum of +money, or the position of Superintendent of Stamps, with a salary of +three or four thousand dollars a year. He delightedly chose the latter, +as that would make him comfortable for life. There was another reason +for his delight; for being engaged to be married, he would have no +solicitude now about daily needs: life would flow on as smoothly as a +river. + +At once he visited the young lady, and told her of his great success. +She listened eagerly, and then said, "Yes, I understand this; but +surely, if all stamps had a _date_ put upon them, they could not at a +future time be used without detection." His spirits fell. He confessed +afterward that, "while he felt pleased and proud of the clever and +simple suggestion of the young lady, he saw also that all his more +elaborate system, the result of months of toil, was shattered to pieces +by it." What need for four hundred holes in a die, when a single date +was more effective? He soon worked out a die with movable dates, and +with frankness and honor presented it before the Government officials. +They saw its preferableness: the new plan was adopted by Act of +Parliament; the old stamps were called in and new ones issued; and then +the young inventor was informed that his services as Superintendent of +Stamps, at three thousand dollars a year, were not needed. + +But surely the Government, which was to save a half million dollars a +year, would repay him for his months of labor and thought! Associations, +like individuals, are very apt to forget favors, when once the desired +end is attained. The Premier had resigned; and, after various promises +and excuses, a lawyer in the Stamp Office informed him that he made the +new stamp of his own free will, and there was no money to be given him. +"Sad and dispirited, and with a burning sense of injustice overpowering +all other feelings," says young Bessemer, "I went my way from the Stamp +Office, too proud to ask as a favor that which was indubitably my +right." + +Alas! that he must learn thus early the selfishness of the world! But he +took courage; for, had he not made one real invention? and it must be in +his power to make others. When he was twenty-five he produced a +type-casting machine; but so opposed was it by the compositors, that it +was finally abandoned. He also invented a machine for making figured +Utrecht velvet; and some of his productions were used in the state +apartments of Windsor Castle. + +A little later his attention was accidentally called to bronze powder, +he having bought a small portion to ornament his sister's album. The +powder, made in Germany, cost only twenty-two cents a pound in the raw +material, and sold for twenty-two dollars. Here was a wonderful profit. +Why could he not discover the process of making it? He worked for +eighteen months, trying all sorts of experiments, and failed. But +failure to a great mind never really means failure; so, after six +months, he tried again, and--succeeded. He knew little about patents, +had been recently defrauded by the Government; and he determined that +this discovery should be kept a secret. He made a small apparatus, and +worked it himself, sending out a travelling-man with the product. That +which cost him less than one dollar was sold for eighteen. A fortune +seemed now really within his grasp. + +A friend, assured of his success, put fifty thousand dollars into the +business. Immediately Bessemer made plans of all the machinery required, +sent various parts to as many different establishments, lest his secret +be found out, and then put the pieces of his self-acting machines +together. Five assistants were engaged at high wages, under pledge of +secrecy. At first he made one thousand per cent profit; and now, in +these later years, the profit is three hundred per cent. Three of the +assistants have died; and Mr. Bessemer has turned over the business and +the factory to the other two. The secret of making the bronze powder has +never been told. Even Mr. Bessemer's oldest son had reached manhood +before he ever entered the locked room where it was made. + +For ten years the inventor now turned his attention to the construction +of railway carriages, centrifugal pumps, etc. His busy brain could not +rest. When frequent explosions in coal-mines occasioned discussion +throughout the country, he made, at large expense, a working model for +ventilating mines, and offered to explain it to a committee of the House +of Commons. His offer was declined with thanks. A little investigation +on the part of great statesmen would have been scarcely out of place. + +At the great exhibition in London in 1851, he exhibited several +machines,--one for grinding and polishing plate glass, and another for +draining, in an hour, an acre of land covered with water a foot deep. +The crowd looked at them, called the inventor "the ingenious Mr. +Bessemer," and passed on. Two years later he made some improvements in +war implements, and submitted his plans to the Woolwich Arsenal; but +they were declined, without thanks even. Some other men might have +become discouraged; but Mr. Bessemer knew that obstacles only strengthen +and develop men. + +The improved ordnance having been brought to the knowledge of Napoleon +III., he encouraged the inventor, and furnished the money to carry +forward the experiments. While the guns were being tested at Vincennes, +an officer remarked, "If you cannot get stronger metal for your guns, +such heavy projectiles will be of little use." And then Mr. Bessemer +began to ask himself if he could not improve iron. But he had never +studied metallurgy. This, however, did not deter him; for he immediately +obtained the best books on the subject, and visited the iron-making +districts. Then he bought an old factory at Baxter House, where Richard +Baxter used to live, and began to experiment for himself. After a whole +year of labor he succeeded in greatly improving cast-iron, making it +almost as white as steel. + +Could he not improve steel also? For eighteen months he built and pulled +down one furnace after another, at great expense. At last "the idea +struck him," he says, of making cast-iron malleable by forcing air into +the metal when in a fluid state, cast-iron being a combination of iron +and carbon. When oxygen is forced in, it unites with the carbon, and +thus the iron is left nearly pure. The experiment was tried at the +factory, in the midst of much trepidation, as the union of the +compressed air and the melted iron produced an eruption like a volcano; +but when the combustion was over, the result was steel. + +Astonished and delighted, after two years and a half of labor, Bessemer +at once took out a patent; and the following week, by request, Aug. 11, +1856, read a paper before the British Association, on "The manufacture +of malleable iron and steel without fuel." There was great ridicule made +beforehand. Said one leading steel-maker to another. "I want you to go +with me this morning. There is a fellow who has come down from London to +read a paper on making steel from cast-iron without fuel! Ha! ha! ha!" + +The paper was published in the "Times," and created a great sensation. +Crowds hastened to Baxter House to see the wonderful process. In three +weeks Mr. Bessemer had sold one hundred thousand dollars worth of +licenses to make steel by the new and rapid method. Fame, as well as +great wealth, seemed now assured, when lo! in two months, it being found +that only certain kinds of iron could be worked, the newspapers began to +ridicule the new invention, and scientists and business men declared +the method visionary, and worse than useless. + +Mr. Bessemer collected a full portfolio of these scathing criticisms; +but he was not the man to be disconcerted or cast down. Again he began +the labor of experimenting, and found that phosphorus in the iron was +the real cause of the failure. For three long years he pursued his +investigations. His best friends tried to make him desist from what the +world had proved to be an impracticable thing. Sometimes he almost +distrusted himself, and thought he would give up trying, and then the +old desire came back more strongly than ever. At last, success was +really assured, but nobody would believe it. Every one said, "Oh, this +is the thing which made such a blaze two or three years ago, and which +was a failure." + +Mr. Bessemer took several hundredweight of the new steel to some +Manchester friends, that their workmen might try it, without knowing +from whence it came. They detected no difference between this which cost +thirty dollars a ton, and what they were then using at three hundred +dollars a ton. + +But nobody wanted to buy the new steel. Two years went by in this +fruitless urging for somebody to take up the manufacture of the new +metal. Finally, Bessemer induced a friend to unite with him, and they +erected works, and began to make steel. At first the dealers would buy +only twenty or thirty pounds; then the demand steadily increased. At +last the large manufacturers awoke to the fact that Bessemer was +underselling them by one hundred dollars a ton, and they hastened to pay +a royalty for making steel by the new process. + +But all obstacles were not yet overcome. The Government refused to make +steel guns; the shipbuilders were afraid to touch it; and when the +engineer of the London and North-western Railway was asked to use steel +rails, he exclaimed, excitedly, "Mr. Bessemer, do you wish to see me +tried for manslaughter?" Now, steel rails are used the world over, at +the same cost as iron formerly, and are said to last twenty times as +long as iron rails. + +Prejudice at last wore away, and in 1866, the "Bessemer process," the +conversion of crude iron into steel by forcing cold air through it for +fifteen or twenty minutes, was bringing to its inventor an income of +five hundred thousand dollars a year! Fame had now come, as well as +wealth. In 1874, he was made President of the Iron and Steel Institute, +to succeed the Duke of Devonshire. The Institute of Civil Engineers gave +him the Telford Gold Medal; the Society of Arts, the Albert Gold Medal. +Sweden made him honorary member of her Iron Board; Hamburg gave him the +freedom of the city; and the Emperor of Austria conferred upon him the +honor of Knight Commander of the Order of Francis Joseph, sending a +complimentary letter in connection with the jewelled cross and circular +collar of the order. Napoleon III. wished to give him the Grand Cross of +the Legion of Honor, but the English Government would not permit him to +wear it; the Emperor therefore presented him in person with a gold medal +weighing twelve ounces. Berlin and the King of Wurtemburg sent him gold +medals. In 1879 he was made Fellow of the Royal Society, and the same +year was knighted by Queen Victoria. In 1880 the freedom of the city of +London was presented to him in a gold casket; the only other great +discoverers who have received this distinction being Dr. Jenner, who +introduced vaccination, and Sir Rowland Hill, the author of penny +postage. In the United States, which gives no ribbons or decorations, +Indiana has appropriately named a flourishing town after him. + +It is estimated that Sir Henry Bessemer's one discovery of making steel +has saved the world, in the last twenty-one years, above five thousand +million dollars. + +When his patent expired in 1870, he had received in royalties over five +million dollars. In his steel works at Sheffield, after buying in all +the licenses sold in 1856, when the new process seemed a failure, the +profits every two months equalled the original capital, or in fourteen +years the company increased the original capital eighty-one times by the +profits. + +How wise it proved that the country lad did not obtain the permanent +position of superintendent of stamps, at three thousand dollars a year! + +Rich beyond his highest hopes, the friend of such eminent and +progressive men as the King of the Belgians, who visits Denmark Hill, +Sir Henry has not ceased his inventions. Knowing the terrors of +sea-sickness, he designed a great swinging saloon, seventy feet by +thirty, in the midst of a sea-going vessel named the "Bessemer." The +experiment cost one hundred thousand dollars, but has not yet proved +successful. In 1877, when sixty-four years old, he began to devote +himself to the study of Herschel's works on optics, and has since +constructed an immense and novel telescope, which magnifies five +thousand times. The instrument is placed in a comfortable observatory, +so that the investigator can either sit or stand while making his +observations. "The observing room, with its floor, windows, and dome, +revolve and keep pace automatically with every motion of the telescope." +This is accomplished by hydraulic power. + +No wonder that Bessemer has been called the "great captain of modern +civilization." He has revolutionized one of the most important of the +world's industries; he has fought obstacles at every step,--poverty, the +ridicule of the press, the indifference of his countrymen, and the +cupidity of men who would steal his inventions or appropriate the +results. He has earned leisure, but he rarely takes it. His has been a +life of labor, prosecuted with indomitable will and energy. He has taken +out one hundred and twenty patents, for which the specifications and +drawings fill seven large volumes, all made by himself. The world had at +last come to know and honor the boy who came to London at the age of +eighteen, "a mere cipher in a vast sea of human enterprise." He made his +way to greatness unaided, save by his helpful wife. + +Sir Henry died on the fifteenth of March, 1898, leaving an immense +fortune, which, nevertheless, was not inordinate when compared with the +services rendered by him to mankind; and a stainless name. The unfair +treatment which had embittered his earlier days had been atoned for by +the Queen granting him a title in recognition of his invention accepted +by the Post-Office, and he had come to be regarded as one of the +greatest benefactors of modern times. Such a life, crowned with such a +success, is calculated to be a mighty inspiration to every ambitious +youth. + + + + +SIR TITUS SALT. + + +I spent a day, with great interest, in visiting the worsted mills and +warehouses at Saltaire, just out from Bradford, England, which cover +about ten acres. The history of the proprietor, Sir Titus Salt, reads +like a romance. A poor boy, the son of a plain Yorkshire man, at +nineteen in a loose blouse he was sorting and washing wool; a little +later, a good salesman, a faithful Christian worker and the +superintendent of a Sunday school. + +At thirty-three, happening to be in Liverpool, he observed on the docks +some huge pieces of dirty-looking alpaca wool. They had long lain in the +warehouses, and becoming a nuisance to the owners, were soon to be +reshipped to Peru. Young Salt took away a handful of the wool in his +handkerchief, scoured and combed it, and was amazed at its attractive +appearance. His father and friends advised him strongly to have nothing +to do with the dirty stuff, as he could sell it to no one; and if he +attempted to make cloth from it himself, he ran a great risk of failure. +Finally he said, "I am going into this alpaca affair right and left, and +I'll either make myself a man or a mouse." + +[Illustration: SIR TITUS SALT.] + +Returning to Liverpool, he bought the whole three hundred bales for a +small sum, and toiled diligently till proper machinery was made for the +new material. The result was a great success. In three years over two +million pounds of alpaca wool were imported, and now four million pounds +are brought to Bradford alone. Employment was soon furnished to +thousands, laborers coming from all over Great Britain and Germany. Ten +years later Mr. Salt was made mayor of Bradford; ten years after this a +member of Parliament, and ten years later still a baronet by Queen +Victoria,--a great change from the boy in his soiled coarse blouse, but +he deserved it all. He was a remarkable man in many ways. Even when +worth his millions, and giving lavishly on every hand, he would save +blank leaves and scraps of paper for writing, and lay them aside for +future use. He was an early riser, always at the works before the +engines were started. It used to be said of him, "Titus Salt makes a +thousand pounds before others are out of bed." He was punctual to the +minute, most exact, and unostentatious. After he was knighted, it was no +uncommon thing for him to take a poor woman and her baby in the carriage +beside him, or a tired workman, or scatter hundreds of tracts in a +village where he happened to be. Once a gypsy, not knowing who he was, +asked him to buy a broom. To her astonishment, he bought all she was +carrying! + +The best of his acts, one which he had thought out carefully, as he +said, "to do good to his fellow-men," was the building of Saltaire for +his four thousand workmen. When asked once what he had been reading of +late, he replied. "Alpaca. If you had four or five thousand people to +provide for every day, you would not have much time left for reading." +Saltaire is a beautiful place on the banks of the river Aire, clean and +restful. In the centre of the town stands the great six-story mill, +well-ventilated, lighted, and warmed, five hundred and forty-five feet +long, of light-colored stone, costing over a half million dollars. The +four engines of eighteen hundred horse-power consume fifteen thousand +tons of coal per year. The weaving shed, covering two acres, holds +twelve hundred looms, which make eighteen miles of fabric per day. + +The homes of the work-people are an honor to the capitalist. They are of +light stone, like the mill, two stories high, each containing parlor, +kitchen, pantry, and three bedrooms or more, well ventilated and +tasteful. Flower beds are in every front yard, with a vegetable garden +in the rear. No broken carts or rubbish are to be seen. Not satisfied to +make Saltaire simply healthful, by proper sanitary measures, and +beautiful, for which Napoleon III. made him one of the Legion of Honor, +Mr. Salt provided school buildings at a cost of $200,000, a +Congregational church, costing $80,000, Italian in style,--as are the +other buildings,--a hospital for sick or injured, and forty-five pretty +almshouses, like Italian villas, where the aged and infirm have a +comfortable home. Each married man and his wife receive $2.50 weekly, +and each single man or woman $1.87 for expenses. Once a year Mr. Salt +and his family used to take tea with the inmates, which was a source of +great delight. + +Believing that "indoor washing is most pernicious, and a fruitful source +of disease, especially to the young," he built twenty-four baths, at a +cost of $35,000, and public wash-houses. These are supplied with three +steam engines and six washing machines. Each person bringing clothes is +provided with a rubbing and boiling tub, into which steam and hot and +cold water are conveyed by pipes. The clothes are dried by hot air, and +can be washed, dried, mangled, and folded in an hour. In Sweden, I found +the same dislike to having washing done in the homes, and clothes are +usually carried to the public wash-houses. + +Perhaps the most interesting of all Mr. Salt's gifts to his workmen is +the Saltaire Club and Institute, costing $125,000; a handsome building, +with large reading-room supplied with daily papers and current +literature, a library, lecture-hall for eight hundred persons, a "School +of Art," with models, drawings, and good teachers, a billiard-room with +four tables, a room for scientific study, each student having proper +appliances for laboratory work, a gymnasium and drill-room nearly sixty +feet square, an armory for rifle-practice, and a smoking-room, though +Mr. Salt did not smoke. The membership fee for all this study and +recreation is only thirty seven cents for each three months. Opposite +the great mill is a dining-hall, where a plate of meat can be purchased +for four cents, a bowl of soup for two cents, and a cup of tea or coffee +for one cent. If the men prefer to bring their own food, it is cooked +free of charge. The manager has a fixed salary, so that there is no +temptation to scrimp the buyers. + +Still another gift was made to the work-people; a park of fourteen +acres, with croquet and archery grounds, music pavilion, places for +boating and swimming, and walks with beautiful flowers. No saloon has +ever been allowed in Saltaire. Without the temptation of the beer-shops, +the boys have grown to intelligent manhood, and the girls to virtuous +womanhood. Sir Titus Salt's last gift to his workmen was a Sunday-school +building costing $50,000, where are held the "model Sunday schools of +the country," say those who have attended the meetings. No wonder, at +the death of this man, 40,000 people came to his burial,--members of +Parliament, clergymen, workingmen's unions, and ragged schools. No +wonder that statues have been erected to his memory, and that thousands +go every year to Saltaire, to see what one capitalist has done for his +laborers. No fear of strikes in his workshops; no socialism talked in +the clean and pretty homes of the men; no squalid poverty, no depraving +ignorance. + +That capital is feeling its responsibility in this matter of homes for +laborers is one of the hopeful signs of the times. We shall come, +sometime, to believe with the late President Chadbourne, "The rule now +commonly acted upon is that business must be cared for, and men must +care for themselves. The principle of action, in the end, must be that +_men must be cared for_, and business must be subservient to this great +work." + +If, as Spurgeon has well said, "Home is the grandest of all +institutions," capital can do no better work than look to the homes of +the laborer. It is not the mansion which the employer builds for +himself, but the home which he builds for his employé, which will insure +a safe country for his children to dwell in. If discontent and poverty +surround his palace, its foundations are weak; if intelligence has been +disseminated, and comfort promoted by his unselfish thought for others, +then he leaves a goodly heritage for his children. + + + + +JOSEPH MARIE JACQUARD. + + +The small world which lives in elegant houses knows little of the great +world in dingy apartments with bare walls and empty cupboards. Those who +walk or ride in the sunshine often forget the darkness of the mines, or +the tiresome treadmill of the factories. + +Over a century ago, in Lyons, France, lived a man who desired to make +the lives of the toilers brighter and happier. Joseph Jacquard, the son +of a silk-weaver who died early, began his young manhood, the owner of +two looms and a comfortable little home. He had married Claudine +Boichon, the daughter of a goldsmith who expected to give his daughter a +marriage portion, but was unable from loss of property. Jacquard loved +her just as devotedly, however, as though she had brought him money. A +pretty boy was born into their home, and no family was happier in all +France. But the young loom-owner saw the poor weavers working from four +in the morning till nine at night, in crowded rooms, whole families +often bending over a loom, their chests shrunken and their cheeks +sallow from want of air and sunlight; and their faces dull and vacant +from the monotony of unvaried toil. There were no holidays, no walks in +the fields among the flowers, no reading of books, nothing but the +constant routine which wore out body and mind together. There was no +home-life; little children grew pinched and old; and mothers went too +early to their graves. If work stopped, they ate the bread of charity, +and went to the almshouse. The rich people of Lyons were not +hard-hearted, but they did not _think_; they were too busy with their +parties and their marriages; too busy buying and selling that they might +grow richer. But Jacquard was always thinking how he could lighten the +labor of the silk-weavers by some invention. + +The manufacture of silk had become a most important industry. Seventeen +hundred years before Christ the Chinese had discovered the making of +silk from silk-worms, and had cultivated mulberry-trees. They forbade +anybody to export the eggs or to disclose the process of making the +fabric, under penalty of death. The Roman Emperor Justinian determined +to wrest this secret from China, and thus revive the resources of his +empire. He sent two monks, who ostensibly preached Christianity, but in +reality studied silk-worms, and, secreting some eggs in two hollow +reeds, returned to Justinian, and breaking these canes, laid the eggs on +the lap of the beautiful Empress Theodora. From this the art spread into +Italy, and thence into France. + +The more Jacquard thought how he could help the silk-weavers of France +the more he became absorbed, and forgot that money was needed to support +his family. Soon the looms had to be sold at auction, with his small +home. The world ridiculed, and his relatives blamed him; but Claudine +his wife encouraged him, and prophesied great fame for him in the +future. She sold her little treasures, and even her bed, to pay his +debts. Finally, when there was no food in the house, with tears in his +eyes, Jacquard left his wife and child, to become a laborer for a +lime-burner in a neighboring town. Claudine went to work in a +straw-bonnet factory; and for sixteen years they battled with poverty. + +Then the French Revolution burst upon Lyons in 1793. Her crime before +such murderers as Robespierre and Marat was that she was the friend of +Louis XVI. Sixty thousand men were sent against her by the so-called +Republicans, who were commanded to utterly destroy her, and write over +the ruins, "Lyons made war upon liberty; Lyons is no more." Six thousand +persons were put to death, their houses burned, and twelve thousand +exiled; among them Jacquard. + +His only child, a brave boy of sixteen, had joined the Republican ranks, +that he might fight against the foreign armies of England, Austria, and +Naples, who had determined, under Pitt, to crush out the new government. +At the boy's earnest request his father enlisted with him, and together +they marched toward the Rhine. In one of the first battles a +cannon-ball struck the idolized son, who fell expiring in Jacquard's +arms. Covered with the blood of his only child, he dug a grave for him +on the battle-field; and exhausted and heart-broken went to the hospital +till his discharge was obtained. + +He returned to Lyons and sought his poor wife. At last he found her in +the outskirts of the city, living in a hay-loft, and earning the barest +pittance by spreading out linen for the laundresses to dry. She divided +her crusts with her husband, while they wept together over their +irreparable loss. She soon died of grief, but, with her last words, bade +Jacquard go forward in developing his genius, and have trust in God, who +would yet show him the way of success. Blessed Claudine! A sweet, +beautiful soul, shining like a star in the darkness of the French +Revolution. + +Jacquard with all earthly ties severed went back to the seclusion of +inventing. After his day's work was done as a laborer, he studied on his +machine for silk-weaving. Finally, after seven years,--a long time to +patiently develop an idea,--he had produced a loom which would decrease +the number of workmen at each machine, by one person. The model was +placed at the Paris Industrial Exposition in 1801; and the maker was +awarded a bronze medal. In gratitude for this discovery he went to the +image of the Virgin which stood on a high hill, and for nine days +ascended daily the steps of the sacred place. Then he returned to his +work, and seating himself before a Vaucanson loom, which contained the +germ of his own, he consecrated himself anew to the perfecting of his +invention. + +Jacques de Vaucanson, who died when Jacquard was thirty years old, was +one of the most celebrated mechanicians of France. His automatons were +the wonder of the age. He exhibited a duck which, when moved, ate and +drank like a live one. The figure would stretch out its neck for food, +and swallow it: walk, swim, dabble in the water, and quack most +naturally. His musician, playing the flageolet with the left hand, and +beating the tambourine with the right, executing many pieces of +difficult music with great accuracy, was an astonishment to every body. +He had been appointed inspector of silk-factories at Lyons, and, because +he made some improvements in machines, he was pelted with stones by the +workmen, who feared that they would thereby lose their labor. He +revenged himself by making a machine which wove, brocaded, and colored +at the same time, and was worked by a donkey! + +It remained for Jacquard to make the Vaucanson loom of the utmost +practical use to Lyons and to the world. After a time he was not only +able to dispense with one workman at each loom, but he made machinery do +the work of three men and two women at each frame. The city authorities +sent a model of this machine to Paris, that the Emperor Napoleon might +examine it. So pleased was he that he at once sent for Jacquard to come +to Paris. The latter had previously invented a machine for making +fishing-nets, now used in producing Nottingham lace. When brought before +Bonaparte, and Carnot the Minister of the Interior, the latter asked, +"Is it you then, who pretend to do a thing which is impossible for +man,--to make a knot upon a tight thread?" + +Jacquard answered the brusque inquiry by setting up a machine, and +letting the incredulous minister see for himself. + +The Emperor made Jacquard welcome to the _Conservatoire des Arts et +Metiers_, where he could study books and machines to his heart's +content, and gave him a pension of about twelve hundred dollars for his +discovery. When he had, with his own hands, woven a magnificent brocaded +silk dress for the Empress Josephine, he returned to Lyons to set up the +Jacquard looms. His name began to be lauded everywhere. Claudine's +prophecies had at last come true. She had given her life to help him; +but she could not live to share his honors. + +Soon, however, the tide of praise turned. Whole families found +themselves forced into the street for lack of work, as the looms were +doing what their hands had done. Bands of unemployed men were shouting, +"Behold the traitor! Let him provide for our wives and children now +driven as mendicants from door to door; or let him, the destroyer of +the peoples' labor, share in the death which he has prepared for us!" +The authorities seemed unable to quell the storm, and by their orders +the new loom was broken in pieces on the public square. "The iron," says +Jacquard, "was sold as old iron; the wood, for fuel." One day he was +seized by a crowd of starving workmen, who knocked him down, and dragged +him to the banks of the Rhone, where he would have been drowned at once, +had not the police rescued him, bleeding and nearly dead. He left the +city overwhelmed with astonishment and sorrow. Soon Switzerland, +Germany, Italy, and America were using the Jacquard looms, largely +increasing the manufacture and sale of silk, and therefore the number of +laborers. The poor men of Lyons awoke to the sad fact, that by breaking +up Jacquard's machines, they had put the work of silk-weaving into other +hands all over the world; and idleness was proving their ruin. They +might have doubled and trebled the number of their factories, and +benefited labor a thousand-fold. + +The inventor refused to take out a patent for himself, nor would he +accept any offers made him by foreigners, because he thought all his +services belonged to France. He loved the working people, who, for +twenty years, were too blind to see it. + +He removed to a little home and garden at Oullins, near Lyons, the use +of which had been given him for life, where he could hear the sound of +his precious looms on which he had worked for sixty years, and which +his city had at last adopted. Here he attended his garden, and went +every morning to early church, distributing each day some small pieces +of money to poor children. As old age came on, Lyons realized the +gratitude due her great inventor. A silver medal was awarded him, and +then the grand distinction of the cross of the Legion of Honor. + +People from the neighboring towns visited Oullins, and pointed out with +pride the noble old man at eighty-four, sitting by his garden-wall, +dressed like a workman in his long black tunic, but wearing his broad +red ribbon with his cross of honor. Illustrious travellers and statesmen +visited him whose fame was now spread through Europe and America. + +Toinette, a faithful servant who had known and loved Claudine, watched +over the pure-hearted Jacquard till death came, Aug. 7, 1834. Six years +after, Lyons, which once broke his machine and nearly killed him, raised +a beautiful statue of him in the public square. The more than seventy +thousand looms in the city, employing two hundred thousand workmen, are +grander monuments even than the statue. The silk-weavers are better +housed and fed than formerly. The struggling, self-sacrificing man, who +might have been immensely rich as well as famous, was an untold blessing +to labor and to the world. + + + + +HORACE GREELEY. + + +Among the hills of New Hampshire, in a lonely, unpainted house, Horace +Greeley was born, Feb. 3, 1811, the third of seven children. His father +was a plain farmer, hard-working, yet not very successful, but aided by +a wife of uncommon energy and good spirits, notwithstanding her many +cares. Besides her housework, and spinning, and making the children's +clothes, she hoed in the garden, raked and loaded hay to help her +husband, laughing and singing all day long, and telling her feeble +little son, Horace, stories and legends all the evening. Her first two +children having died, this boy was especially dear. Mrs. Greeley was a +great reader of such books as she could obtain, and remembered all she +read. It requires no great discernment to see from whence Horace Greeley +derived his intense love for reading, and his boundless energy. + +[Illustration: HORACE GREELEY.] + +He learned to read, one can scarcely tell how. When two years old, he +would pore over the Bible, as he lay on the floor, and ask questions +about the letters; at three, he went to the "district school," often +carried through the deep snow on the shoulders of one of his aunts, or +on the back of an older boy. He soon stood at the head of his little +class in spelling and reading, "and took it so much to heart when he did +happen to lose his place, that he would cry bitterly; so that some boys, +when they had gained the right to get above him, declined the honor, +because it hurt Horace's feelings so." + +Before he was six years old he had read the Bible through, and +"Pilgrim's Progress." Their home contained only about twenty books, and +these he read and re-read. As he grew older, every book within seven +miles was borrowed, and perused after the hard day's work of farming was +over. He gathered a stock of pine knots, and, lighting one each night, +lay down by the hearth, and read, oblivious to all around him. The +neighbors came and made their friendly visits, and ate apples and drank +cider, as was the fashion, but the lad never noticed their coming or +their going. When really forced to leave his precious books for bed, he +would repeat the information he had learned, or the lessons for the next +day, to his brother, who usually, most ungraciously, fell asleep before +the conversation was half completed. + +When Horace was nearly ten years old, his father, who had speculated in +a small way in lumber, became a bankrupt; his house and furniture were +sold by the sheriff, and he was obliged to flee from the State to avoid +arrest. Some of these debts were paid, thirty years afterward, by his +noble son. Going to Westhaven, Vt., Mr. Greeley obtained work on a farm, +and moved his family thither. They were very poor, the children sitting +on the floor and eating their porridge together out of a tin pan; but +they were happy in the midst of their hard work and plain food. The +father and the boys chopped logs, and the little sisters, with the +mother, gathered them in heaps, the voice of the latter, says Mr. James +Parton, in his biography, "ringing out in laughter from the tangled +brushwood in which she was often buried." Would there were thousands +more of such women, who can laugh at disaster, and keep their children +and themselves from getting soured with life. Everybody has troubles; +and very wise are they who do not tell them, either in their faces or by +their words. + +Horace earned a few pennies all his own; sometimes by selling nuts, or +bundles of the roots of pitch-pine for kindling, which he carried on his +back to the store. This money he spent in books, buying Mrs. Hemans's +poetry and "Shakspeare." No wonder that the minister of the town said, +"Mark my words; that boy was not made for nothing." + +He could go to school no longer, and must now support himself. From +earliest childhood he had determined to be a printer; so, when eleven +years of age, he walked nine miles to see the publisher of a newspaper, +and obtain a situation. The editor looked at the small, tow-haired boy, +shook his head, and said, "You are too young." With a heavy heart the +child walked the long nine miles back again. But he must do something; +and, a little later, with seventy-five cents in his pocket, and some +food tied in a bundle, which he hung on the end of a stick, slung over +his shoulder, he walked one hundred and twenty miles back to New +Hampshire, to see his relatives. After some weeks he returned, with a +few more cents in his purse than when he started! + +The father Greeley ought to have foreseen that such energy and will +would produce results; but because Horace, in a fit of abstraction, +tried to yoke the "off" ox on the "near" side, he said, "Ah! that boy +will never get along in the world. He'll never know more than enough to +come in when it rains." Alas! for the blindness of Zaccheus Greeley, +whose name even would not be remembered but for his illustrious son. + +When Horace was fourteen, he read in a newspaper that an apprentice was +wanted in a printing-office eleven miles distant. He hastened thither, +and, though unprepossessing, from his thin voice, short pantaloons, lack +of stockings, and worn hat, he was hired on trial. The first day he +worked at the types in silence. Finally the boys began to tease him with +saucy remarks, and threw type at him; but he paid no attention. On the +third day, one of the apprentices took a large black ball, used to put +ink on the type, and remarking that Horace's hair was too light, daubed +his head four times. The pressman and editor both stopped their labors +to witness a fight; but they were disappointed, for the boy never turned +from his work. He soon left his desk, spent an hour in washing the ink +from his hair, and returned to his duties. Seeing that he could not be +irritated, and that he was determined to work, he became a great +favorite. + +When at his type, he would often compose paragraphs for the paper, +setting up the words without writing them out. He soon joined a debating +society, composed of the best-informed persons of the little town of +East Poultney,--the minister, the doctor, the lawyer, the +schoolteachers, and the like. What was their surprise to find that the +young printer knew almost every thing, and was always ready to speak, or +read an essay. + +He was often laughed at because of his poor clothes, and pitied because, +slender and pale as he was, he never wore an overcoat; but he used to +say, "I guess I'd better wear my old clothes than run in debt for new +ones." Ah! they did not know that every penny was saved and sent to the +father, struggling to clear a farm in the wilderness in Pennsylvania. +During his four years' apprenticeship he visited his parents twice, +though six hundred miles distant, and walked most of the way. + +Soon after he had learned his trade, the newspaper suspended, and he was +thrown out of work. The people with whom he boarded gave him a brown +overcoat, not new, and with moistened eyes said good-by to the poor +youth whom they had learned to love as their own. He remained a few +weeks with his family, then walked fifty miles east to a town in New +York State, where he found plenty of work, but no money, and in six +weeks returned to the log-cabin. After trying various towns, he found a +situation in Erie, taking the place of a workman who was ill, and for +seven months he did not lose a day. Out of his wages--eighty-four +dollars--he had used only six, less than one dollar a mouth! Putting +fifteen dollars in his pocket, he took the balance of sixty-three in a +note, and gave it to his father. A noble son indeed, who would not buy a +single garment for himself, but carried the money home, so as to make +the poor ones a trifle more comfortable! + +He had become tired of working in the small towns; he determined to go +to the great city of New York, and "be somebody." He walked a part of +the way by the tow-path along the canal, and sometimes rode in a scow. +Finally, at sunrise, Friday, Aug. 18, 1831, he landed close to the +Battery, with ten dollars in his pocket, knowing, he says, "no human +being within two hundred miles." His first need was a boarding-place. +Over a saloon, kept by an Irishman, he found room and board for two +dollars and a half a week. Fortunately, though it was the almost +universal custom to use liquors, Horace was a teetotaler, and despised +chewing or smoking tobacco, which he regarded "as the vilest, most +detestable abuse of his corrupted sensual appetites whereof depraved man +is capable;" therefore he had no fear of temptation from these sources. + +All day Friday and Saturday he walked the streets of New York, looking +for work. The editor of the "Journal of Commerce" told him plainly that +he was a runaway apprentice from the country, and he did not want him. +"I returned to my lodging on Saturday evening, thoroughly weary, +disheartened, disgusted with New York, and resolved to shake its dust +from my feet next Monday morning, while I could still leave with money +in my pocket, and before its almshouse could foreclose upon me." On +Sunday he went to church, both morning and afternoon. Late in the day, a +friend who called upon the owner of the house, learning that the printer +wanted work, said he had heard of a vacancy at Mr. West's, 85 Chatham +Street. + +The next morning Horace was at the shop at half-past five! New York was +scarcely awake; even the newsboys were asleep in front of the paper +offices. He waited for an hour and a half,--a day, it seemed to +him,--when one of the journey-men arrived, and, finding the door locked, +sat down beside the stranger. He, too, was a Vermonter, and he +determined to help young Greeley, if possible. He took him to the +foreman, who decided to try him on a Polyglot Testament, with marginal +references, such close work that most of the men refused to do it. Mr. +West came an hour or two later, and said, in anger, "Did you hire that +fool?" + +"Yes; we need help, and he was the best I could get," said the foreman. + +"Well, pay him off to-night, and let him go about his business." + +When night came, however, the country youth had done more and better +work, than anybody who had tried the Testament. By beginning his labors +before six in the morning, and not leaving his desk till nine in the +evening, working by the light of a candle stuck in a bottle, he could +earn six dollars a week. At first his fellow-workmen called him "the +ghost," from his white hair and complexion; but they soon found him +friendly, and willing to lend money, which, as a rule, was never +returned to him; they therefore voted him to be a great addition to the +shop. As usual, though always scrupulously clean, he wore his poor +clothes, no stockings, and his wristbands tied together with twine. Once +he bought a second-hand black suit of a Jew, for five dollars, but it +proved a bad bargain. His earnings were sent, as before, to his parents. + +After a year, business grew dull, and he was without a place. For some +months he worked on various papers, when a printer friend, Mr. Story, +suggested that they start in business, their combined capital being one +hundred and fifty dollars. They did so, and their first work was the +printing of a penny "Morning Post," which suspended in three weeks, they +losing sixty dollars. The partner was drowned shortly after, and his +brother-in-law took his place. + +Young Greeley, now twenty-three, and deeply interested in politics, +determined to start a weekly paper. Fifteen of his friends promised to +subscribe for it. The "New Yorker" was begun, and so well conducted was +it that three hundred papers throughout the country gave it +complimentary notices. It grew to a subscription list of nine thousand +persons; but much of the business was done on trust, times were hard, +and, after seven years, the enterprise had to be abandoned. This was a +severe trial to the hard-working printer, who had known nothing but +struggles all his life. Years after this he wrote, "Through most of this +time I was very poor, and for four years really bankrupt, though always +paying my notes, and keeping my word, but living as poorly as possible. +My embarrassments were sometimes dreadful; not that I feared +destitution, but the fear of involving my friends in my misfortunes was +very bitter.... I would rather be a convict in a State prison, a slave +in a rice-swamp, than to pass through life under the harrow of debt. +Hunger, cold, rags, hard work, contempt, suspicion, unjust reproach, are +disagreeable, but debt is infinitely worse than them all. Avoid +pecuniary obligation as you would pestilence or famine. If you have but +fifty cents, and can get no more for a week, buy a peck of corn, parch +it, and live on it, rather than owe any man a dollar." + +Meantime the young editor had married Miss Mary Y. Cheney, a +schoolteacher of unusual mind and strength of character. It was, of +course, a comfort to have some one to share his sorrows; but it pained +his tender heart to make another help bear his burdens. Beside editing +the "New Yorker," he had also taken charge of the "Jeffersonian," a +weekly campaign paper published at Albany, and the "Log-Cabin," +established to aid in the election of General Harrison to the +Presidency. The latter paper was a great success, the circulation +running up to ninety thousand, though very little money was made; but it +gave Mr. Greeley a reputation in all parts of the country for +journalistic ability. + +President Harrison died after having been a month in office; and seven +days after his death, Mr. Greeley started, April 10, 1841, a new paper, +the "New York Tribune," with the dying words of Harrison as its motto: +"I desire you to understand the true principles of the government. I +wish them carried out. I ask nothing more." The paper had scarcely any +money for its foundation,--only a thousand dollars loaned by a +friend,--but it had a _true man_ at its head, strong in his hatred of +slavery, and the oppression of the laboring man, and fearless in the +advocacy of what he believed to be right. + +Success did not come at first. Of the five thousand copies published and +to be sold at a cent each, Mr. Greeley says, "We found some difficulty +in giving them away." The expenses for the first week were five hundred +and twenty-five dollars; receipts, ninety-two. But the boy who could +walk nearly six hundred miles to see his parents, and be laughed at for +poor clothes, while he saved his money for their use, was not to be +overcome at thirty years of age, by the failure of one or of a dozen +papers. Some of the New York journals fought the new sheet; but it lived +and grew till, on the seventh week, it had eleven thousand subscribers. +A good business-manager was obtained as partner. Mr. Greeley worked +sixteen hours a day. He wrote four columns of editorial matter (his +copy, wittily says Junius Henri Browne, "strangers mistook for diagrams +of Boston"), dozens of letters, often forgot whether he had been to his +meals, and was ready to see and advise with everybody. When told that he +was losing time by thus seeing people, he said, "I know it; but I'd +rather be beset by loafers, and stopped in my work, than be cooped up +where I couldn't be got at by men who really wanted to and had a right +to see me." So warm as this were his sympathies with all humanity! + +In 1842, when he was thirty-one, he visited Washington, Niagara, and +his parents in Pennsylvania, and wrote delightful letters back to his +paper. How proud the mother must have felt of the growing fame of her +son! What did Zaccheus think now of his boy of whom he prophesied "would +never know more than enough to come in when it rains"? + +The years passed on. Margaret Fuller came upon the editorial staff; for +Mr. Greeley was ever the advocate of the fullest liberty for woman in +any profession, and as much pay for her work as for that of men. And now +came a great sorrow, harder to bear than poverty. His little son Pickie, +called "the glorious boy with radiant beauty never equalled," died +suddenly. "When at length," he said, "the struggle ended with his last +breath, and even his mother was convinced that his eyes would never +again open upon the scenes of this world, I knew that the summer of my +life was over; that the chill breath of its autumn was at hand; and that +my future course must be along the down-hill of life." He wrote to +Margaret Fuller in Italy, "Ah, Margaret, the world grows dark with us! +You grieve, for Rome is fallen; I mourn, for Pickie is dead." His hopes +were centered in this child; and his great heart never regained its full +cheerfulness. + +In 1848 he was elected to Congress for three months to fill out the +unexpired term of a deceased member, and did most effective work with +regard to the mileage system and the use of the public lands. To a high +position had come the printer-boy. At this time he was also prominently +in the lecture-field, speaking twice a week to large audiences all over +the country. In 1850 his first book was published by the Harpers, "Hints +toward Reform," composed of ten lectures and twenty essays. The +following year he visited England as one of the "jury" in the awarding +of prizes; and while there made a close study of philanthropic and +social questions. He always said, "He, who by voice or pen strikes his +best blow at the impostures or vices whereby our race is debased and +paralyzed, may close his eyes in death, consoled and cheered by the +reflection that he has done what he could for the emancipation and +elevation of his kind." + +In 1855 he again visited Europe; and four years later, California, where +he was received with great demonstrations of honor and respect. In 1860 +he was at the Chicago Convention, and helped to nominate Abraham Lincoln +in preference to William H. Seward. Mr. Greeley had now become one of +the leading men of the nation. His paper molded the opinions of hundreds +of thousands. He had fought against slavery with all the strength of his +able pen; but he advocated buying the slaves for four hundred million +dollars rather than going to war,--a cheaper method than our subsequent +conflict, with enormous loss of life and money. When he found the war +inevitable, after General McClellan's defeat at the Chickahominy, he +urged upon Mr. Lincoln immediate emancipation, which was soon adopted. +The "New York World" said after his death, "Mr. Greeley will hold the +first place with posterity on the roll of emancipation." + +In the draft riots in New York, in 1863, the mob burst into the Tribune +Building, smashing the furniture, and shouting, "Down with the old white +coat!" Mr. Greeley always wore a coat and hat of this hue. Had he been +present, doubtless he would have been killed at once. When urged to arm +the office, he said, "No; all my life I have worked for the workingmen; +if they would now burn my office and hang me, why, let them do it." + +The same year he began his "History of the Civil War" for a Hartford +publisher. Because so constantly interrupted, he went to the Bible +House, and worked with an amanuensis from nine in the morning till four +in the afternoon, and then to the "Tribune" office, and wrote on his +paper till eleven at night. These volumes, dedicated to John Bright, +have had a sale of several hundred thousand copies. + +After the war Mr. Greeley, while advocating "impartial suffrage" for +black as well as white, advocated also "universal amnesty." He believed +nothing was to be gained by punishing a defeated portion of our nation, +and wanted the past buried as quickly as possible. He was opposed to the +hanging of Jefferson Davis; and with Gerritt Smith, a well-known +abolitionist, and about twenty others, he signed Mr. Davis's bail-bond +for one hundred thousand dollars, which released him from prison at +Fortress Monroe, where he had been for two years. At once the North was +aflame with indignation. No criticism was too scathing; but Mr. Greeley +took the denunciations like a hero, because he had done what his +conscience approved. He said, "Seeing how passion cools and wrath +abates, I confidently look forward to the time when thousands who have +cursed will thank me for what I have done and dared in resistance to +their own sanguinary impulses.... Out of a life earnestly devoted to the +good of human kind, your children will select my going to Richmond and +signing that bail-bond as the wisest act." + +In 1872 considerable disaffection having arisen in the Republican party +at the course pursued by President Grant at the South, the "Liberal +Republicans," headed by Sumner, Schurz, and Trumbull, held a convention +at Cincinnati, and nominated Horace Greeley for President. The +Democratic party saw the hopelessness of nominating a man in opposition +to Grant and Greeley, and accepted the latter as their own candidate. +The contest was bitter and partisan in the extreme. Mr. Greeley received +nearly three million votes, while General Grant received a half million +majority. + +No doubt the defeat was a great disappointment to one who had served his +country and the Republican party for so many years with very little +political reward. But just a month before the election came the +crushing blow of his life, in the death of his noble wife. He left his +speech-making, and for weeks attended her with the deepest devotion. A +few days before she died, he said, "I am a broken down old man. I have +not slept one hour in twenty-four for a month. If she lasts, poor soul, +another week, I shall go before her." + +After her death he could not sleep at all, and brain-fever soon set in. +Friday, Nov. 29, the end came. At noon he said distinctly, his only +remaining children, Ida and Gabriella, standing by his bedside, "I know +that my Redeemer liveth;" and at half-past three, "It is done." He was +ready for the great change. He had written only a short time before, +"With an awe that is not fear, and a consciousness of demerit which does +not exclude hope, I await the opening, before my steps, of the gates of +the eternal world." Dead at sixty-one! Overworked, not having had "a +good night's sleep in fifteen years!" + +When his death became known, the whole nation mourned for him. +Newspapers from Maine to Louisiana gave touching tributes to his +greatness, his purity, and his far-sightedness as a leader of the +people. The Union League Club, the Lotos, the Typographical Society, the +Associated Press, German and colored clubs, and temperance organizations +passed resolutions of sorrow. Cornell University, of whose Board he was +a member, did him honor. St. Louis, Albany, Indianapolis, Nashville, +and other cities held memorial meetings. John Bright sent regrets over +"our friend, Horace Greeley." Congress passed resolutions of respect for +his "eminent services and personal purity and worth." + +And then came the sad and impressive burial. In the governor's room in +the City Hall, draped in black, surrounded by a guard of honor composed +of the leading men of New York, the body of the great journalist lay in +state. Over fifty thousand persons, rich and poor, maimed soldiers and +working people, passed in one by one to look upon the familiar face. +Said one workman, "It is little enough to lose a day for Horace Greeley, +who spent many a day working for us." Just as the doors of the room were +being closed for the night, a farmer made his way, saying, "I've come a +hundred miles to be at the funeral of Horace Greeley. Can't you possibly +let me in to have one last look?" The man stood a moment by the open +coffin, and then, pulling his hat low down to hide the tears, was lost +in the crowd. + +From there the body was taken to Dr. Chapin's church, where it rested +under a solid arch of flowers, with the words, "I know that my Redeemer +liveth"; and in front of the pulpit, "It is done." The coffin was nearly +hidden by floral gifts; one of the most touching being a plow made of +white camelias on a ground of violets, from the "Tribune" workmen,--a +gift to honor the man who honored labor, and ennobled farm-life at his +country home at Chappaqua, a few miles from New York. + +And then through an enormous concourse of people, Fifth Avenue being +blocked for a mile, the body was borne to Greenwood Cemetery. Stores +were closed, and houses along the route were draped in black. Flags on +the shipping, in the harbor, were at half-mast; and bells tolled from +one to three o'clock. Two hundred and fifty carriages, containing the +President of the United States, governors, senators, and other friends, +were in the procession. By the side of his wife and their three little +children the great man was laid to rest, the two daughters stepping into +the vault, and laying flowers tenderly upon the coffin. + +The following Sabbath clergymen all over the country preached about this +wonderful life: its struggles succeeded by world-wide honor. Mr. +Greeley's one great wish was gratified, "I cherish the hope that the +journal I projected and established will live and flourish long after I +shall have mouldered into forgotten dust; and that the stone which +covers my ashes may bear to future eyes the still intelligible +inscription, 'Founder of the NEW YORK TRIBUNE.'" + + + + +WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. + + +For a great work God raises up a great man. Usually he is trained in the +hard school of poverty, to give him courage and perseverance. Usually he +stands alone among a great multitude, that he may have firmness and +endurance. + +William Lloyd Garrison was born to be preëminently the deliverer of the +slave. For two hundred years the curse of African slavery had rested +upon one of the fairest portions of our land. Everybody thought it an +evil to keep four million human beings from even the knowledge of how to +read and write, and a cruelty to sell children away from parents, to +toil forever without home or kindred. Everybody knew that slavery was as +ruinous almost to master as to slave; that labor was thereby despised, +and that luxury was sapping the vigor of a race. But every slave meant +money, and money is very dear to mankind. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON.] + +Before the Declaration of Independence, three hundred thousand slaves +had been brought to this country. Some of the colonists remonstrated, +but the traffic was not stopped till 1808. The Quakers were opposed to +human bondage from the first, and decided, in 1780, to free all their +slaves. Vermont had freed hers three years previously, and other +Northern States soon followed. Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, +and others were outspoken against the sin; but it continued to increase +till, in 1810, we had over a million slaves. + +Five years before this time, in a plain, wooden house in Newburyport, +Mass., a boy was born who was to electrify America, and the world even, +on this great subject. William Lloyd Garrison's father was a +sea-captain, a man who loved books and had some literary ambition; the +mother was a noble woman, deeply religious, willing to bear all and +brave all for conscience' sake, and fearless in the path of duty. She +early taught her boy to hate oppression of every kind, and to stand +everywhere for the right. Very poor, there was no chance for William, +either in school or college. When he was seven, his mother, having found +work for herself as a nurse for the sick, placed the child with a deacon +of the town, where he learned to split wood and other useful things. At +nine, the careful mother put him to the shoemaking trade, though he was +scarcely large enough to hold the lap-stone. He was not happy here, +longing for something that made him think. + +Perhaps he would like to build tables and chairs better, so he was +apprenticed to a cabinet-maker; but here he was no more satisfied than +with the monotony of sewing leather. At his own request, the dealer +cancelled the agreement, and the boy found a place to set type on the +Newburyport "Herald." At last he had obtained the work he loved. He +would some day own a paper, he thought, and write articles for it. Ah! +how often poor boys and rich build air-castles which tumble to the +ground. It is well that we build them, for life soon becomes prosaic +enough to the happiest of us. + +At sixteen he wrote an article for the "Herald," signing it "An Old +Bachelor." Imagine his surprise and delight when he saw it really in +print! Meantime his mother, who was six hundred miles away, wrote him +devoted letters, ever encouraging and stimulating him to be upright and +temperate. A year later she died, and William was left to fight his +battles alone. He missed the letters,--missed having some one to whom he +could tell a boy's hopes and fears and temptations. That boy is +especially blest who has a mother to whom he can confide everything; +such a boy usually has a splendid future, because by her wisdom and +advice he becomes well fitted for life, making no foolish experiments. + +Reading as much as possible, at nineteen William wrote some political +articles for a Salem paper, and, strange to say, they were attributed to +Hon. Timothy Pickering! Surely, he could do something in the world now; +so when his apprenticeship was over and he had worked long and +faithfully, he started a paper for himself. He called it the "Free +Press." It was a good title, and a good paper; but, like most first +literary adventures, it proved a failure. Perhaps he ought to have +foreseen that one can do little without capital; but youth is about as +blind as love, and rarely stops to reason. + +Did one failure discourage him? Oh, no! He went to Boston, and found a +place in a printing office. He soon became the editor of the "National +Philanthropist," the first paper established to advocate total +abstinence from intoxicants. His motto was a true one, not very popular, +however, in those days, "Moderate drinking is the down-hill road to +drunkenness." He was now twenty-two, poor, but God-fearing and +self-reliant. About this time there came to Boston a man whose influence +changed young Garrison's whole life,--Benjamin Lundy, a Quaker, +thirty-nine years of age. Leaving his father's home at nineteen, he had +spent four years at Wheeling, Va., where he learned the saddler's trade, +and learned also the cruelties of slave-holding. After this he moved to +Ohio, and in four years earned three thousand dollars above his living +expenses. When he was twenty-six he organized an Anti-slavery Society at +his own house, and, promising to become assistant editor of an abolition +paper, he went to St. Louis to dispose of his stock of saddlery. +Business was greatly depressed, the whole region being agitated over the +admission of Missouri as a slave State; and, after spending two years, +Lundy returned to Ohio, on foot, in winter, his property entirely gone. + +None of his ardor for freedom having abated, he determined to start a +monthly paper, though poor and entirely ignorant about printing. This +sheet he called the "Genius of Universal Emancipation," printed twenty +miles from his home, the edition being carried on his back, each month, +as he walked the long distance. He moved shortly after to East +Tennessee, walking half of the eight hundred miles, and gradually +increased his subscription list. Several times his life was in danger; +but the slight, gentle Quaker kept quietly on his course. In 1824 he set +out on foot for Baltimore, paying his way by saddlery or +harness-mending, living on the poorest fare; and he subsequently +established the "Genius" there. While he was absent from home, his wife +died, leaving twins, and his five children were divided among friends. +Deeply sorrowing, he renewed his resolve to devote his life to worse +than motherless children,--those sold into bondage,--and made his way as +best he could to Boston. Of such material were the foundation stones of +the anti-slavery cause. + +At his boarding-place Lundy met Garrison, and told him his burning +desire to rid the country of slavery. The heart of the young printer was +deeply moved. He, too, was poor and unknown, but he had not forgotten +his mother's teachings and prayers. After some time he agreed to go to +Baltimore, and help edit the "Genius of Universal Emancipation." Lundy +was in favor of sending the slaves to the West Indies or Africa as fast +as their masters would consent to free them, which was not very fast. +Garrison said, "The slaves are here by no fault of their own, and do not +deserve to be sent back to barbarous Africa." He was in favor of +immediate freedom for every human being. + +Baltimore had slave-pens on the principal streets. Vessel-loads of +slaves, torn from their homes, were sent hundreds of miles away to +southern ports, and the auction-block often witnessed heart-rending +scenes. The tender heart of Garrison was stirred to its very depths. In +the first issue of his paper he declared for Immediate Emancipation, and +soon denounced the slave-trade between Baltimore and New Orleans as +"domestic piracy," giving the names of several citizens engaged in the +traffic, among them a vessel-owner from his own town, Newburyport. The +Northern man immediately arrested Garrison for "gross and malicious +libel," and he was found guilty by a slave-holding court, and fined +fifty dollars and costs. No one was ready to give bail, and he was +thrown into prison. The young man was not in the least cast down, but, +calm and heroic, wrote two sonnets on the walls of his cell. + +Meantime, a noble young Quaker at the North, John G. Whittier, was +deeply anxious for Garrison. He had no money to pay his fine, but, +greatly admiring Henry Clay, whom he hoped to see President, wrote him +urging that he aid the "guiltless prisoner." Clay would doubtless have +done so, but Arthur Tappan, one of New York's noble men, sent the money, +releasing Garrison from his forty-nine days' imprisonment. Wendell +Phillips says of him, "He was in jail for his opinions when he was just +twenty-four. He had confronted a nation in the very bloom of his youth." + +Garrison had not been idle while in prison. He had prepared several +lectures on slavery, and these he now gave when he could find a hearing. +Large churches were not opened to him, and nobody offered him two +hundred dollars a night! The free colored people welcomed him gladly, +but the whites were usually indifferent or opposed to such "fanatical" +ideas. At last he came to Boston to start a paper,--that city where +brains and not wealth open the doors to the best society. Here, with no +money nor influential friends, he started the "Liberator," with this for +his motto, "I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as +justice. On this subject I do not wish to speak or write with +moderation. I am in earnest. I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I +will not retreat a single inch--_and I will be heard!_" + +The North was bound hand and foot by the slave-trade almost as +effectually as the South. The great plea was the fear lest the Union +would be dissolved. Cotton factories had sprung up on every hand, and it +was believed that slave-labor was essential to the producing of cotton. +Some thought it would not be safe to free the slaves; that +assassinations would be the result. The real secret, however, was that +each slave meant several hundred dollars, and freedom meant poverty to +the masters. Meantime, the "Liberator" was making itself felt, despite +Garrison's poverty. The Vigilance Association of South Carolina offered +a reward of $1,500 for the apprehension and prosecution of any white +person who might be detected in distributing or circulating it. In +Raleigh, N.C., the grand jury found a bill against the young editor, +hoping to bring him to that State for trial. Hon. Robert Y. Hayne, of +South Carolina, having received a paper by mail, wrote to Harrison Gray +Otis, Mayor of Boston, to ascertain the sender. Mr. Otis caused an agent +to visit the office of the "Liberator," and returned answer to Mr. +Hayne, that he found it "an obscure hole, his only visible auxiliary a +negro boy; and his supporters a few very insignificant persons of all +colors." + +And where was this "obscure hole"? In the third story of a business +block, "the walls dingy," says Mr. Oliver Johnson in "Garrison and his +Times"; "the small windows bespattered with printers' ink; the press +standing in one corner; the long editorial and mailing table covered +with newspapers; the bed of the editor and publisher on the floor--all +these make a picture never to be forgotten." Their food, what little +they had, was procured at a neighboring bakery. + +Soon Georgia passed a law offering $5,000 to any person arresting and +bringing to trial, under the laws of the State, and punishing to +conviction, the editor or publisher of the "Liberator." What a wonder +that some ruffian at midnight did not break into the "obscure hole," and +drag the young man off to a slave-vessel lying close by in the harbor! +The leaven of anti-slavery was beginning to work. Twelve "fanatics" +gathered one stormy night in the basement of an African church in +Boston, and organized the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832. + +The following year, as the managers of the American Colonization Society +had sent an agent to England, it was deemed best to send Garrison abroad +to tell Wilberforce and others who were working for the suppression of +slavery in the West Indies, that it was not a wise plan to send the +slaves to Africa. It was difficult to raise the money needed; but +self-sacrifice usually leaves a good bank-account. The "fanatic," only +twenty-eight, was received with open arms by such men as Lord Brougham, +Wilberforce, Clarkson, and Daniel O'Connell. Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton +gave a breakfast in his honor. When the guests had arrived, among them +Mr. Garrison, Mr. Buxton held up both hands, exclaiming, "Why, my dear +sir, I thought you were a black man!" This, Mr. Garrison used to say, +was the greatest compliment of his life, because it showed how truly and +heartily he had labored for the slave. A great meeting was arranged for +him at Exeter Hall, London. How inspiring all this for the young +reformer! Here he met the eloquent George Thompson, and asked him to +visit our country, which invitation he accepted. + +On his return the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed, Dec. 4, +1833, at Philadelphia, delegates coming from eleven States. John G. +Whittier was chosen Secretary. The noble poet has often said that he was +more proud that his name should appear signed to the Declaration of +Principles adopted at that meeting than on the title-page of any of his +volumes. Thus has he ever loved liberty. + +The contest over the slavery question was growing extremely bitter. +Prudence Crandall of Canterbury, Conn., a young Quaker lady, admitted +several colored girls to her school, who came from Boston, New York, and +Philadelphia. The people were indignant at such a commingling of races. +Shopkeepers refused to sell her anything; her well was filled with +refuse, and at last her house was nearly torn down by a midnight mob. +Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, Western Reserve College, Hudson, +O., with some others, were nearly broken up by the conflict of opinion. +Some anti-slavery lecturers were tarred and feathered or thrown into +prison. In New York, a pro-slavery mob broke in the doors and windows of +a Presbyterian church, and laid waste schoolhouses and dwellings of +colored people. In Philadelphia, the riots lasted three days, forty-four +houses of colored people being nearly or quite destroyed. + +In Boston, a "most respectable" mob, composed, says Horace Greeley, "in +good part of merchants," dispersed a company of women belonging to the +Female Anti-Slavery Society, while its President was engaged in prayer. +Learning that Garrison was in the adjoining office, they shouted, "We +must have Garrison! Out with him! Lynch him!" + +Attempting to escape by the advice of the Mayor, who was present, he +sought refuge in a carpenter's shop, but the crowd drew him out, and +coiling a rope around his body, dragged him bareheaded along the street. +One man called out, "He shan't be hurt; he is an American!" and this +probably saved his life, though many blows were aimed at his head, and +his clothes were nearly torn from his body. The Mayor declaring that he +could only be saved by being lodged in jail, Garrison pressed into a +hack, and was driven as rapidly as possible to the prison, the maddened +crowd clinging to the wheels, dashing against the doors and seizing hold +of the horses. At last he was behind the bars and out of their reach. On +the walls of his cell he wrote:-- + +"William Lloyd Garrison was put into this cell on Wednesday afternoon, +Oct. 21, 1835, to save him from the violence of a respectable and +influential mob, who sought to destroy him for preaching the abominable +and dangerous doctrine that 'all men are created equal,' and that all +oppression is odious in the sight of God. Confine me as a prisoner, but +bind me not as a slave. Punish me as a criminal, but hold me not as a +chattel. Torture me as a man, but drive me not like a beast. Doubt my +sanity, but acknowledge my immortality." + +The "respectable" mob had wrought wiser than they knew. Garrison and his +"Liberator" became more widely known than ever. Famous men and women now +joined the despised Abolitionists. The conflict was growing deeper. +Elijah P. Lovejoy, the ardent young preacher of Alton, Illinois, was +murdered by four balls at the hands of a pro-slavery mob, who broke up +his printing-press, and threw it into the river. A public meeting was +held in Faneuil Hall to condemn such an outrage. A prominent man in the +gallery having risen to declare that Lovejoy "died as the fool dieth," a +young man, unknown to most, stepped to the rostrum, and spoke as though +inspired. From that day Wendell Phillips was the orator of America. From +that day the anti-slavery cause had a new consecration. + +From this time till 1860 the struggle between freedom and slavery was +continuous. The South needed the Territories for her rapid increase of +slaves. The North was opposed; but in the year 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska +Act, devised by Stephen A. Douglas, repealed the Missouri Compromise of +1820, which had prohibited slavery north of latitude 36° 30', the +southern boundary of Kansas. Kansas at once became a battle-ground. +Armed men came over from Missouri to establish slavery. Men came from +New England determined that the soil should be free, if they spilled +their blood to gain it. The Fugitive Slave Law, whereby slaves were +returned without trial by jury, and slave-owners allowed to search the +North for their slaves, made great bitterness. The brutal attack of +Preston Brooks, of South Carolina, on Charles Sumner, for his speech on +Kansas, and the hanging of John Brown by the State of Virginia for his +invasion of Harper's Ferry with seventeen white men and five negroes, +calling upon the slaves to rise and demand their liberty, brought +matters to a crisis. + +Garrison was opposed to war; but after the firing on Sumter, April 12, +1861, it was inevitable. For two years after Abraham Lincoln's election +to the Presidency, Garrison waited impatiently for that pen-stroke which +set four million human beings free. When the Emancipation Proclamation +was issued, Jan. 1. 1863, Garrison's life-work was accomplished. +Thirty-five years of untiring, heroic struggle had not been in vain. +When two years later the stars and stripes were raised again over Fort +Sumter, he was invited by President Lincoln, as a guest of the +government, to witness the imposing scene. When Mr. Garrison arrived in +Charleston, the colored people were nearly wild with joy. Children sang +and men shouted. A slave made an address of welcome, his two daughters +bearing a wreath of flowers to their great benefactor. Garrison's heart +was full to overflowing as he replied, "Not unto us, not unto us, but +unto God be all the glory for what has been done in regard to your +emancipation.... Thank God, this day, that you are free. And be resolved +that, once free, you will be free forever. Liberty or death, but never +slavery! While God gives me reason and strength, I shall demand for you +everything I claim for the whitest of the white in this country." + +The same year he discontinued the publication of the "Liberator," +putting in type with his own hands the official ratification of the +Thirteenth Amendment, forever prohibiting slavery in the United States, +and adding, "Hail, redeemed, regenerated America! Hail, all nations, +tribes, kindred, and peoples, made of one blood, interested in a common +redemption, heirs of the same immortal destiny! Hail, angels in glory; +tune your harps anew, singing, 'Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord +God Almighty!'" + +Two years after the war Mr. Garrison crossed the ocean for the fourth +time. He was no longer the poor lad setting type at thirteen, or +sleeping on the hard floor of a printing-room, or lying in a Baltimore +jail, or the victim of a Boston mob. He was the centre of a grand and +famous circle. The Duke and Duchess of Argyle and the Duchess of +Sutherland paid him special honors. John Bright presided at a public +breakfast given him at St. James' Hall, London. Such men as John Stuart +Mill, Herbert Spencer, and Prof. Huxley, graced the feast. Mr. Bright +said in his opening address, concerning Mr. Garrison: "His is the +creation of that opinion which has made slavery hateful, and which has +made freedom possible in America. His name is venerated in his own +country; venerated in this country and in Europe, wheresoever +Christianity softens the hearts and lessens the sorrows of men." +Edinburgh conferred upon him the freedom of the city, an honor accorded +to one other American only,--George Peabody. Birmingham, Manchester, and +other cities held great public meetings to do him reverence. + +On his return, such friends as Sumner, Wilson, Emerson, Longfellow, +Lowell, Greeley, and others presented him with $30,000. The remainder of +his life he devoted to temperance, woman-suffrage, and every other +reform calculated to make the world better. His true character was shown +when, years before, appointed to the London Anti-Slavery Convention as a +delegate, he refused to take his seat after his long journey across the +ocean, because such noble co-workers as Lucretia Mott, Mrs. Wendell +Phillips, and others, were denied their place as delegates. Thus +strenuous was he for right and justice to all. Always modest, hopeful, +and cheerful, he was as gentle in his private life with his wife and +five children, as he was strong and fearless in his public career. He +died at the home of his daughter in New York, May 24, 1879, his children +singing about his bed, at his request: + + "Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve," + +and, + + "Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings." + +At sunset, in Forest Hills, they laid the brave man to rest, a quartette +of colored singers around his open grave, singing, "I cannot always +trace the way." + + "The storm and peril overpast, + The hounding hatred shamed and still, + Go, soul of freedom! take at last + The place which thou alone canst fill. + + "Confirm the lesson taught of old-- + Life saved for self is lost, while they + Who lose it in His service hold + The lease of God's eternal day." + + + + +GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI. + + +Few men come to greatness. Most drift on with the current, having no +special plan nor aim. They live where their fathers lived, taking no +thought beyond their neighborhood or city, and die in their little round +of social life. + +Not so a boy born in Southern France, in 1807. Giuseppe Garibaldi was +the son of humble parents. His father was a sailor, with a numerous +family to support, seemingly unskilled in keeping what little property +he had once acquired. His mother was a woman of ambition, energy, and +nobility of character. If one looks for the cause of greatness in a man, +he seldom has to go further than the mother. Hence the need of a highly +educated, noble womanhood all over the world. Such as Giuseppe Garibaldi +are not born of frivolous, fashionable women. + +Of his mother, the great soldier wrote in later years, "She was a model +for mothers. Her tender affection for me has, perhaps, been excessive; +but do I not owe to her love, to her angel-like character, the little +good that belongs to mine? Often, amidst the most arduous scenes of my +tumultuous life, when I have passed unharmed through the breakers of +the ocean or the hail-storms of battle, she has seemed present with me. +I have, in fancy, seen her on her knees before the Most High--my dear +mother!--imploring for the life of her son; and I have believed in the +efficacy of her prayers." No wonder that, "Give me the mothers of the +nation to educate, and you may do what you like with the boys," was one +of his favorite maxims. + +[Illustration: GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI.] + +Giuseppe was an ardent boy, fond of books, loving to climb the lonely +mountains around his home, and eager for some part of the world's +bustle. Sometimes he earned his living among the fishermen on the +Riviera; sometimes he took sea-voyages with his father. He had unusual +tenderness of heart, combined with fearlessness. One day he caught a +grasshopper, took it to his house, and, in handling it, broke its leg. +He was so grieved for the poor little creature, that he went to his room +and wept bitterly for hours. Another time, standing by a deep ditch, he +discovered that a woman had fallen from the bank as she was washing +clothes. With no thought for his own life, he sprang in and rescued her. + +His parents, seeing that he was quick in mathematics and the languages, +desired him to study for the ministry; but he loved the sea and +adventure too well for a sedentary life. Becoming tired of study, at +twelve years of age, he and some companions procured a boat, put some +provisions and fishing-tackle on board, and started to make their +fortune in the East. These visions of greatness soon came to an +inglorious end; for the paternal Garibaldi put to sea at once, and soon +overtook and brought home the mortified and disappointed infantile crew. + +At twenty-one, we find Garibaldi second in command on the brig +"Cortese," bound for the Black Sea. Three times during the voyage they +were plundered by Greek pirates, their sails, charts, and every article +of clothing taken from them, the sailors being obliged to cover their +bodies with some matting, left by chance in the hold of the ship. As a +result of this destitution, the young commander became ill at +Constantinople, and was cared for by some Italian exiles. Poor, as are +most who are born to be leaders, he must work now to pay the expenses +incurred by this illness. Through the kindness of his physician, he +found a place to teach, and when once more even with the world +pecuniarily, went back to sea, and was made captain. + +He was now twenty-seven years old. Since his father had taken him when a +mere boy to Rome, he had longed for and prayed over his distracted +Italy. He saw what the Eternal City must have been in her ancient +splendor; he pictured her in the future, again the pride and glory of a +united nation. He remembered how Italy had been the battle-ground of +France, Spain, and Austria, when kings, as they have ever done, +quarrelled for power. He saw the conqueror of Europe himself conquered +by the dreadful Russian campaign: then the Congress of Vienna parcelling +out a prostrate people among the nations. Austria took Lombardy and +Venice; Parma and Lucca were given to Marie Louise, the second wife of +Napoleon; and the Two Sicilies to Ferdinand II., who ruled them with a +rod of iron. Citizens for small offences were lashed to death in the +public square. Filthy dungeons, excavated under the sea, without light +or air, were filled with patriots, whose only crime was a desire for a +free country. The people revolted in Naples and Sardinia, and asked for +a constitution; but Austria soon helped to restore despotism. Kings had +divine rights; the people had none. No man lessens his power willingly. +The only national safety is the least possible power in the hands of any +one person. The rule of the many is liberty; of the few, despotism. + +Garibaldi was writing all these things on his heart. His blood boiled at +the slavery of his race. Mazzini, a young lawyer of Genoa, had just +started a society called "Young Italy," and was looking hopefully, in a +hopeless age, toward a republic for his native country. Garibaldi was +ready to help in any manner possible. The plan proposed was to seize the +village of St. Julien, and begin the revolt; but, as usual, there was a +traitor in the camp: they were detected; and Garibaldi, like the rest, +was sentenced to death. This was an unexpected turn of events for the +young sea-captain. Donning the garb of a peasant, he escaped by mountain +routes to Nice, his only food being chestnuts, bade a hasty farewell to +his precious mother, and started for South America. He had learned, +alas, so soon, the result of working for freedom in Italy! + +He arrived at Rio Janeiro, an exile and poor; but, finding several of +his banished countrymen, they assisted him in buying a trading-vessel; +and he engaged in commerce. But his mind constantly dwelt on freedom. +The Republic of Rio Grande had just organized and set up its authority +against Brazil. Here was a chance to fight for liberty. A small cruiser +was obtained, which he called "The Mazzini," and, with twenty +companions, he set out to combat an empire. After capturing a boat +loaded with copper, the second vessel they met gave battle, wounded +Garibaldi in the neck, and made them all prisoners. + +A little later, attempting to escape, he was brutally beaten with a +club, and then his wrists tied together by a rope, which was flung over +a beam. He was suspended in the air for two hours. His sufferings were +indescribable. Fever parched his body, and the rope cut his flesh. He +was rescued by a fearless lady, Senora Alemon, but for whom he would +have died. After two months, finding that he would divulge nothing of +the plans of his adopted republic, he was released without trial, and +entered the war again at once. + +After several successful battles, his vessel was shipwrecked, nearly all +his friends were drowned, and he escaped as by a miracle. His heart now +became desolate. He says in his diary, "I felt the want of some one to +love me, and a desire that such a one might be very soon supplied, as my +present state of mind seemed insupportable." After all, the brave young +captain was human, and cried out for a human affection. He had "always +regarded woman as the most perfect of creatures"; but he had never +thought it possible to marry with his adventurous life. + +About this time he met a dark-haired, dark-eyed, young woman, tall and +commanding, and as brave and fearless as himself. Anita belonged to a +wealthy family, and her father was incensed at the union, though years +after, when Garibaldi became famous, he wrote them a letter of +forgiveness. They idolized each other; and the soldier's heart knew +desolation no longer, come now what would. She stood beside him in every +battle, waving her sword over her head to encourage the men to their +utmost. When a soldier fell dead at her feet, she seized his carbine, +and kept up a constant fire. When urged by her husband to go below, +because almost frantic with fear for her safety, she replied, "If I do, +it will be but to drive out those cowards who have sought concealment +there," and then return to the fight. In one of the land-battles she was +surrounded by twenty or more of the enemy; but she put spurs to her +horse, and dashed through their midst. At first they seemed dazed, as +though she were something unearthly; then they fired, killing her +animal, which fell heavily to the ground; and she was made a prisoner. +Obtaining permission to search among the dead for her husband, and, not +finding him, she determined to make her escape. That night, while they +slept, she seized a horse, plunged into the forests, and for four days +lived without food. On the last night,--a stormy one,--closely pursued +by several of the enemy, she urged her horse into a swollen river, five +hundred yards broad, and seizing fast hold of his tail, the noble +creature swam across, dragging her with him. After eight days she +reached her agonized husband, and their joy was complete. + +After a year or more of battles and hardships, their first child, +Menotti, was born, named for the great Italian Liberal. Garibaldi, +fighting for a poor republic, destitute of everything for his wife and +child, started across the marshes to purchase a few articles of +clothing. In his absence, their little company was attacked by the +Imperialists, and Anita mounted her saddle in a pitiless storm, and fled +to the woods with her twelve-days-old infant. Three months later the +child came near dying, the mother carrying him in a handkerchief tied +round her neck, and keeping him warm with her breath, as they forded +swamps and rivers. + +After six years of faithful service for the South American Republic, +Garibaldi determined to settle down to a more quiet life, with his +little family, and sought a home at Montevideo, where he took up his +former occupation of teaching. But he was soon drawn into war again, and +his famous "Italian Legion," of about four hundred men, made for +themselves a record throughout Europe and America for bravery and +success against fearful odds. The grateful people made Garibaldi +"General," and placed a large tract of land at the disposal of the +Legion; but the leader said, "In obedience to the cause of liberty alone +did the Italians of Montevideo take up arms, and not with any views of +gain or advancement," and the gift was declined. Yet so poor was the +family of Garibaldi, that they used to go to bed at sunset because they +had no candles; and his only shirt he had given to a companion in arms. +When his destitution became known, the minister of war sent him one +hundred dollars. He accepted half for Anita and her little ones, and +begged that the other half might be given to a poor widow. + +Fourteen years had gone by since he left Italy under sentence of death. +He was now forty-one, in the prime of his life and vigor. Italy had +become ripe for a revolution. Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, had +declared himself ready to give constitutional liberty to his people, and +to help throw off the Austrian yoke. Garibaldi believed that his hour +had come, and saying good-bye to the Montevideans, who were loathe to +part with him, he took fifty-six of his brave Italian Legion, and sailed +for Nice, in the ship Esperanza. His beloved Anita improvised a +Sardinian flag, made from a counterpane, a red shirt, and a bit of old +green uniform; and the little company gave themselves to earnest plans +and hopes. They met a hearty reception on their arrival; Garibaldi's +mother taking Anita and her three children, Menotti, Meresita, and +Ricciotti, to her home. General Garibaldi at once presented himself +before Charles Albert, and offered his services. He wore a striking +costume, consisting of a cap of scarlet cloth, a red blouse, and a white +cloak lined with red, with a dagger at his belt, besides his sword. The +King, perhaps remembering that the brave soldier was once a Republican +in sentiment, made the great mistake of declining his aid. Nothing +daunted, he hurried to Milan, only to find that the weak King had +yielded it to Austria. Charles Albert soon abdicated in favor of his son +Victor Emmanuel, and died from sorrow and defeat. + +Meantime Rome had declared herself a Republic, and Pius IX. had fled the +city. Garibaldi was asked to defend her, and entered with his troops, +April 28, in 1849. England and France were urged to remain neutral, +while Rome fought for freedom. But alas! Louis Napoleon, then President +of the French Republic, desired to please the Papal party, and sent +troops to reinstate the Pope! When Rome found that this man at the head +of a republic was willing to put a knife to her throat, her people +fought like tigers. They swarmed out of the workshops armed with weapons +of every kind, while women urged them on with applause. For nearly three +months Rome held out against France and Austria, Garibaldi showing +himself an almost superhuman leader, and then the end came. Pius IX. +re-entered the city, and the Republic was crushed by monarchies. + +When all was lost, Garibaldi called his soldiers together, and, leaping +on horseback, shouted, "Venice and Garibaldi do not surrender. Whoever +will, let him follow me! Italy is not yet dead!" and he dashed off at +full speed. By lonely mountain-paths, he, with Anita and about two +hundred of his troops, arrived on the shore of the Adriatic, where +thirteen boats were waiting to carry them to Venice. Nine were soon +taken by the Austrians, the rest escaping, though nearly all were +finally captured and shot at once. The General and his wife escaped to a +cornfield, where she lay very ill, her head resting on his knee. Some +peasants, though fearful that they would be detected by the Austrians, +brought a cart, and carried the dying wife to the nearest cottage, +where, as soon as she was laid upon the bed, she breathed her last, +leaning on Garibaldi's arm. Overwhelmed with the loss of his idol, he +seemed benumbed, with no care whether he was made a prisoner or not. At +last, urged for the sake of Italy to flee, he made the peasants promise +to bury Anita under the shade of the pine grove near by, and, hunted +like a robber from mountain to mountain, he found a hiding-place among +the rocks of the Island of Caprera. There was nothing left now but to +seek a refuge in the great American Republic. + +Landing in New York, the noble General asked aid from no one, but +believing, as all true-minded persons believe, that any labor is +honorable, began to earn his living by making candles. What a contrast +between an able general working in a tallow factory, and some proud +young men and women who consent to be supported by friends, and thus +live on charity! Woe to America if her citizens shall ever feel +themselves too good to work! + +For a year and a half he labored patiently, his children three thousand +miles away with his mother. Then he became captain of a merchant vessel +between China and Peru. When told that he could bring some Chinese +slaves to South America in his cargo, he refused, saying, "Never will I +become a trafficker in human flesh." America might buy and sell four +millions of human beings, but not so Garibaldi. After four years he +decided to return to Italy. With the little money he had saved, he +bought half the rocky island of Caprera, five miles long, off the coast +of Sardinia, whose boulders had once sheltered him, built him a +one-story plain house, and took his three children there to live, his +mother having died. + +Meantime Cavour, the great Italian statesman, had not been idle in +diplomacy. The Crimean War had been fought, and Italy had helped England +and France against Russia. When Napoleon III. went to war with Austria +in 1859, Cavour was glad to make Italy his ally. He called Garibaldi +from Caprera, and made him Major-General of the Alps. At once the red +blouse and white cloak seemed to inspire the people with confidence. +Lombardy sprang to arms. Every house was open, and every table spread +for the Liberators. And then began a series of battles, which, for +bravery and dash and skill, made the name of Garibaldi the terror of +Austria, and the hope and pride of Italy. Tuscany, Modena, Parma, and +Lucca declared for King Victor Emmanuel. The battles of Magenta and +Solferino made Austria bite the dust, and gladly give up Lombardy. + +At last it seemed as if Italy were to be redeemed and reunited. +Garibaldi started with his famous "Mille," or thousand men, to release +the two Sicilies from the hated rule of Francis, the son of Ferdinand +II. The first battle was fought at Palermo, the Neapolitans who +outnumbered the troops of Garibaldi four to one being defeated after +four hours' hard fighting. Then the people dared to show their true +feelings. Peasants flocked in from the mountains, and ladies wore red +dresses and red feathers. When the cars carried the soldiers from one +town to another, the people crowded the engine, and shouted themselves +hoarse. Drums were beaten, and trumpets blown, and women pressed +forward to kiss the hand or touch the cloak of the Lion of Italy. He was +everywhere the bravest of the brave. Once when surrounded by four +dragoons, who called upon him to surrender, he drew his sword, and said, +"I am Garibaldi; you must surrender to me." + +And yet amid all this honor and success in war, and supremacy in power, +as he was the Dictator, he was so poor that he would wash his red shirt +in a brook, and wait for it to dry while he ate his lunch of bread and +water, with a little fruit. No wonder the Sicilians believed him to be a +second Messiah, and the French that he could shake the bullets from his +body into his loose red shirt, and empty them out at his leisure! The +sailor boy had become the hero of all who loved liberty the world over. +When the war was ended, he resigned his Dictatorship, handed the two +Sicilies over to his sovereign, distributed medals to his devoted +soldiers, and returned to his island home at Caprera, with barely three +dollars in his pocket, having borrowed one hundred to pay his debts. How +rarely does any age produce such a man as Garibaldi! + +But Rome was not yet the capital of Italy. The hero could not rest while +the city was governed by a Pope. At last, tired of waiting for the king +to take action, he started with three thousand men for Rome. Victor +Emmanuel, fearing to offend France, if the Pope were molested, sent the +royal troops against Garibaldi at Aspromonte, who badly wounded him, +and carried him to a prison on the Gulf of Spezzia. The people, +indignant at the Government, crowded around him, bearing gifts, and +kissing the hem of his raiment. They even bored a hole in the door of +the prison, that they might catch a glimpse of their idol, as he lay on +his iron bedstead, a gift from an English friend. + +After his release and return to Caprera, he visited England in 1864, the +whole country doing him honor. Stations were gaily decorated, streets +arched with flowers, ladies dressed in red; the Duke of Sutherland +entertained him; London gave him the freedom of the city; Tennyson made +him his guest at the Isle of Wight; and crowds made it scarcely possible +for him to appear on the public thoroughfares. He refused to receive a +purse of money from his friends, and went back to Caprera, majestic in +his unselfishness. + +Again Italy called him to help her in her alliance with Prussia against +Austria in 1866, and again he fought nobly. The year following he +attempted to take Rome, but was a second time arrested and imprisoned +for fear of Napoleon III. When that monarch fell at Sedan, and the +French troops were withdrawn from the Eternal City, Victor Emmanuel +entered without a struggle, and Rome was free. + +In 1874, after helping the French Republic, the brave Spartan was +elected to Parliament. He was now sixty-seven. As he entered Rome, the +streets were blocked with people, who several times attempted to remove +the horses, and draw the carriage themselves. Ah! if Anita had only +been there to have seen this homage of a grateful nation. He entered the +Senate House on the arm of his son Menotti, and when he rose in his red +shirt and gray cloak to take the oath, so infirm that he was obliged to +be supported by two friends, men wept as they recalled his struggles, +and shouted frantically as he took his seat. + +Seven years longer the grand old man lived at Caprera, now beautified +with gifts from all the world, the recipient of a thank-offering of +$10,000 yearly from Italy. Around him were Francesca, whom he married +late in life, and their two children whom he idolized,--Manlio and +Clelia. He spent his time in writing several books, in tilling the soil, +and in telling visitors the wonderful events of his life and of Anita. + +On June 2, 1882, all day long he lay by the window, looking out upon the +sea. As the sun was setting, a bird alighted on the sill, singing. The +great man stammered, "Quanti o allegro!" How joyful it is! and closed +his eyes in death. He directed in his will that his body should be +burned; but, at the request of the Government and many friends, it was +buried at Caprera, to be transferred at some future time to Rome, now +the capital of united Italy. Not alone does Italy honor her great +Liberator, whom she calls the "most blameless and most beloved of men." +Wherever a heart loves liberty, there will Garibaldi's name be cherished +and honored. + + + + +JEAN PAUL RICHTER. + + +Vasari, who wrote the lives of the Italian painters, truly said, "It is +not by sleeping, but by working, waking, and laboring continually, that +proficiency is attained and reputation acquired." This was emphatically +true of Richter, as it is of every man or woman who wins a place in the +memory of men. The majority die after a commonplace life, and are never +heard of; they were probably satisfied to drift along the current, with +no especial purpose, save to eat, drink, and be merry. + +Not so with the German boy, born in the cold Pine Mountains of Bavaria. +His home was a low, thatched building, made of beams of wood, filled in +with mortar, one part for the family, and the other for corn and goats. +This is still the custom in Switzerland, the poor caring as tenderly for +their dumb beasts as for their children. Jean Paul was born on the 21st +of March, 1763: "My life and the life of the spring began the same +month," he used to say in after years, and the thought of robin +red-breasts and spring flowers made the poor lad happy amid the deepest +trials. + +His father was an under-pastor and organist in the little village of +Wunsiedel, and lived on a pitiful salary; but, generous to a fault, he +stripped off his own garments to clothe the poor, and sent the +schoolmaster a meal every day, because, if possible, he was poorer than +the preacher. In school, Jean Paul was a studious boy, almost envying +every one who said his lessons well, and fond of his teachers and mates; +but one of the boys having cut Paul's hand, the father at once took him +home and became his instructor. A painstaking and conscientious man, he +showed little aptness for his work, when he gave his boy, at nine years +of age, a Latin dictionary to commit to memory! For four solid hours in +the morning, and three in the afternoon, Paul and his brother learned +grammatical lessons and Latin verses of which they did not understand a +word. Still the boy grew more and more fond of books, and of +Nature,--made clocks with pendulums and wheels; a sun-dial, drawing his +figures on a wooden plate with ink; invented a new language from the +calendar signs of the almanac; and composed music on an old harpsichord +whose only tuning-hammer and tuning-master were the winds and the +weather. + +When Paul was thirteen, the family moved to Schwarzenbach, where he made +the acquaintance of a young pastor, Vogel, who owned quite a valuable +library, and encouraged him to educate himself. Given free access to the +books, he began to read eagerly. Thinking that he should never own +volumes for himself, he made blank-books, of three hundred pages each, +from his father's sermon-paper, and began the almost interminable labor +of copying whatever he thought he should need in law, medicine, +philosophy, theology, natural history, and poetry. For nearly four years +he worked thus, till he had quite a library of his own, and a wealth of +information in his brain, which proved invaluable in the writing of +after years. Such a boy could not fail of success. + +Paul's father, meantime, had become despondent over his debts, small +though they were, and died when his son was sixteen. The grandfather on +the mother's side dying soon after, Frau Richter became entitled by will +to his property. The remaining brothers and sisters at once went to law +about the matter, preferring to spend the estate in the courts rather +than have a favorite child enjoy it. Two years later, at eighteen, Paul +started for college at Leipzig, hoping that in this cultured city he +might teach while pursuing his own studies. Alas! scores had come with +the same hope, and there was no work to be obtained. He found himself +alone in a great city, poorly dressed, timid, sensitive, and without a +hand to help. Many boys had brought letters of introduction to the +professors, and thus of course received attention. He wrote to his +mother, "The most renowned, whose esteem would be useful to me, are +oppressed with business, surrounded by a multitude of respectable +people, and by a swarm of envious flatterers. If one would speak to a +professor without a special invitation, he incurs the suspicion of +vanity. But do not give up your hopes. I will overcome all these +difficulties. I shall receive some little help, and at length I shall +not need it." All honor to the brave boy who could write so +encouragingly in the midst of want and loneliness! + +He longed to make the acquaintance of some learned people, but there was +no opportunity. Finally, getting deeper and deeper into debt, he wrote +to his mother, "As I have no longer any funds, I must continue to be +trusted. But what can I at last expect? I must eat, and I cannot +continue to be trusted. I cannot freeze, but where shall I get wood +without money? I can no longer take care of my health, for I have warm +food neither morning nor evening. It is now a long time since I asked +you for twenty-six dollars; when they come, I shall scarcely be able to +pay what I already owe. Perhaps the project I have in my head will +enable me to earn for you and myself." Poor lad! how many hearts have +ached from poverty just as did his. The mother was also in debt, but in +some way she managed to obtain the money; for what will a mother not do +for her child? + +Paul worked on, but was soon in debt again. He could tell nobody but his +devoted mother: "I will not ask you for money to pay my victualler," he +wrote, "to whom I owe twenty-four dollars; nor my landlady to whom I am +indebted ten; or even for other debts, that amount to six dollars. For +these great sums I will ask no help, but for the following you must not +deny me your assistance. I must every week pay the washerwoman, who does +not trust. I must drink some milk every morning. I must have my boots +soled by the cobbler, who does not trust; my torn cap must be repaired +by the tailor, who does not trust; and I must give something to the +maid-servant, who of course does not trust. Eight dollars of Saxon money +will satisfy all, and then I shall need your help no longer." + +He was keeping up courage, because he was writing a book! He told his +mother, with his high dreams of young authorship, that he should bring +home all his old shirts and stockings at vacation, for he should buy new +ones then! It is well that all the mountains seem easy to climb in +youth; when we are older, we come to know their actual height. The +mother discouraged authorship, and hoped her boy would become a +preacher; but his project was too dear to be given up. When his book of +satirical essays, called "Eulogy of Stupidity," was finished, it was +sent, with beating heart, to a publisher. In vain Paul awaited its +return. He hoped it would be ready at Michaelmas fair, but the publisher +"so long and so kindly patronized the book by letting it lie on his +desk, that the fair was half over before the manuscript was returned." +The boyish heart must have ached when the parcel came. He had not +learned, what most authors are familiar with, the heart sickness from +first rejected manuscripts. He had not learned, too, that fame is a hard +ladder to climb, and that a "friend at court" is often worth as much, or +more, than merit. Publishers are human, and cannot always see merit till +fame is won. + +For a whole year Paul tried in vain to find a publisher. Then he said to +the manuscript, "Lie there in the corner together with school exercises, +for thou art no better. I will forget, for the world would certainly +have forgotten thee." Faint from lack of food, he says, "I undertook +again a wearisome work, and created in six months a brand-new satire." +This book was called the "Greenland Lawsuits," a queer title for a +collection of essays on theology, family pride, women, fops, and the +like. + +Paul had now gained courage by failure. Instead of writing a letter, he +went personally to every publisher in Leipzig, and offered his +manuscript, and every publisher refused it. Finally he sent it to Voss +of Berlin. On the last day of December, as he sat in his room, hungry, +and shivering because there was no fire in the stove, there was a knock +at the door, and a letter from Voss was handed in. He opened it hastily, +and found an offer of seventy dollars for the "Greenland Lawsuits." +Through his whole life he looked back to this as one of its supreme +moments. It was not a great sum, only three dollars a week for the six +months, but it was the first fruit of his brain given to the public. He +was now nineteen. What little property the mother had possessed had +wasted away in the lawsuits; one brother in his despair had drowned +himself, and another had entered the army; but Paul still had hope in +the future. + +After a short vacation with his mother, he went back to Leipzig. The +second volume of the "Greenland Lawsuits" was now published, and for +this he received one hundred and twenty-six dollars,--nearly twice that +given for the first volume. This did not take with the public, and the +third volume was refused by every publisher. His money was gone. What +could he do? He would try, as some other authors had done, the plan of +writing letters to distinguished people, telling them his needs. He did +so, but received no answers. Then, spurred on by necessity, he took the +manuscript in his hand, and presented it himself at the doors of the +learned; but he was either not listened to, or repulsed on every +occasion. How one pities this lad of nineteen! How many wealthy men +might have aided him, but they did not! He wrote a few essays for +various periodicals, but these brought little money, and were seldom +wanted. His high hopes for a literary career began to vanish. + +It was evident that he must give up college life, for he could not get +enough to eat. He had long discontinued his evening meal, making his +supper of a few dried prunes. His boarding-mistress was asking daily for +her dues. He could bear the privation and the disgrace no longer, and, +packing his satchel, and borrowing a coat from a college boy, that he +might not freeze, he stole away from Leipzig in the darkness of the +twilight, and went home to his disconsolate mother. Is it any wonder +that the poor are disconsolate? Is it any wonder that they regard the +wealthy as usually cold and indifferent to their welfare? Alas! that so +many of us have no wish to be our "brother's keeper." + +Perhaps some of the professors and students wondered where the bright +lad had gone; but the world forgets easily. Frau Richter received her +college boy with a warm heart, but an empty purse. She was living with +her two children in one room, supporting them as best she could by +spinning, working far into the night. In this room, where cooking, +washing, cleaning, and spinning were all carried on, Paul placed his +little desk and began to write. Was the confusion trying to his +thoughts? Ah! necessity knows no law. He says, "I was like a prisoner, +without the prisoner's fare of bread and water, for I had only the +latter; and if a gulden found its way into the house, the jubilee was +such that the windows were nearly broken with joy." But with the +strength of a noble and heroic nature, he adds, "What is poverty that a +man should whine under it? It is but like the pain of piercing the ears +of a maiden, and you hang precious jewels in the wound." + +The family were so needy, however, that they must look somewhere for +aid, and hesitatingly Paul applied to Vogel, the young pastor, who +loaned them twenty-five gulden. Very soon the boarding-mistress from +Leipzig appeared, having walked the whole way to Hof, and demanded her +pay. In his distress Paul sent her to another friend, Otto, who became +surety for the debt. + +Richter now began to work harder than ever. His books of extracts were +invaluable, as were his hand-books of comical matters, touching +incidents, synonyms, etc. He made it a rule to write half a day, and +take long walks in the afternoon in the open air, thinking out the plans +for his books. Poor as he was, he was always cheerful, sustaining by his +letters any who were downhearted. One of his best friends, Herman, who +had become a physician through much struggle, died about this time, +broken on the wheel of poverty. Despite his own starving condition, Paul +sent him five dollars. Having an opportunity to teach French to the +brother of a Leipzig friend, he accepted; but at the end of three years, +through the disappointing character of the pupil, and the miserliness of +the father, Paul returned to his mother, broken in health and +dispirited. His heart ached for those who like himself were suffering, +and now he made a resolution that changed for life the course of his +writing. He would write satire no more. He said, "I will not pour into +the cup of humanity a single drop of gall." Henceforward love, and hope, +and tenderness, breathe upon his every page. + +He now wrote ten essays on "What is Death?" asking the noble-hearted +Herder to send them to Weiland for his magazine, lest they be overlooked +in his mass of papers, if Richter, unaided, should venture to ask the +favor. They were overlooked for months; but finally Herder procured the +insertion of one essay in a different magazine, but Richter never +received any pay for it. Three years had passed, and all this time the +third volume of the "Greenland Lawsuits" had been journeying from one +publishing house to another. At last it was accepted, but little money +came from it. + +Again he taught,--this time at Schwarzenbach, where he used to go to +school. Here his tenderness, his tact, and good cheer won the hearts of +the pupils. There was no memorizing of Latin dictionaries, but the exact +work of all was kept in a "red book" for parents to see. He instructed +them orally five hours a day, till they were eager for astronomy, +history, and biography. For four years he taught, "his schoolroom being +his Paradise," every Sunday walking to Hof to see his mother. Well might +he say, "To the man who has had a mother all women are sacred for her +sake." + +Paul now determined to write a novel, and though he had little knowledge +of any sphere of life save that in which poverty held sway, he would put +his own heart into the work. The "Invisible Lodge" was written and sent +to the Counsellor of the town, asking, if the work pleased him, that he +would assist in its publication. At first Counsellor Moritz was annoyed +at the request; but as he read he became deeply interested, and said, +this is surely from Goethe, Herder, or Weiland. The book was soon +published, and two hundred and twenty-six dollars paid for it! The +moment Richter received the first instalment of seventy dollars, he +hastened to Hof, and there, late at night, found his mother spinning by +the light of the fire, and poured the whole of the gold into her lap. +The surprise, joy, and thanksgiving of the poor woman can well be +imagined. Her son immediately moved her into a small but more +comfortable home. + +The new novel began to be talked about and widely read. Fame was really +coming. He began at once to work on "Hesperus," one of his most famous +productions, though when published he received only two hundred dollars +for the four volumes. Letters now came from scholars and famous people. +One admirer sent fifty Prussian dollars. What joy must have swelled the +heart of the poor schoolteacher! "Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces" +followed shortly after, and Richter was indeed famous. Learned ladies of +Weimar wrote most enthusiastic thanks. With his reverence for woman, +and delight in her intellectual equality with man, these letters were +most inspiring. Request after request came for him to visit Weimar. Dare +he go and meet such people as Goethe, and Schiller, and Herder, and +Weiland, whom for twelve long years he had hoped sometime to look upon? +At last he started, and upon reaching Weimar, was made the lion of the +day. His warm heart, generous and unaffected nature, and brilliant and +well-stored mind made him admired by all. Herder said: "Heaven has sent +me a treasure in Richter. That I neither deserved nor expected. He is +all heart, all soul; an harmonious tone in the great golden harp of +humanity." Caroline Herder, his wife, a very gifted woman, was equally +his friend and helper. Noble and intellectual women gathered about him +to do him honor. Some fell in love with him; but he studied them closely +as models for future characters in his books, giving only an ardent +friendship in return. He was even invited to court, and gathered here +the scenes for his greatest work, "Titan." How grand all this seemed to +the poor man who had been hungering all his life for refined and +intellectual companionship! So rejoiced was he that he wrote home, "I +have lived twenty years in Weimar in a few days. I am happy, wholly +happy, not merely beyond all expectation, but beyond all description." + +He was now thirty-four. The poor, patient mother had just died, but not +till she had heard the fame of her son spoken on every hand. After her +death, Paul found a faded manuscript in which she had kept the record of +those small gains in spinning into the midnight hours. He carried it +next his heart, saying, "If all other manuscripts are destroyed, yet +will I keep this, good mother." For weeks he was not able to write a +letter, or mention the loss of his parent. + +His youngest brother, Samuel, a talented boy, was now ready for college; +so Jean Paul determined to make Leipzig his home while his brother +pursued his course. What changes the last few years had wrought! Then he +was stealing away from Leipzig in debt for his board, cold, hungry, and +desolate; now he was coming, the brilliant author whom everybody +delighted to honor. When we are in want, few are ready to help; when +above want, the world stands ready to lavish all upon us. After spending +some time in Leipzig, he visited Dresden to enjoy the culture of that +artistic city. During this visit, Samuel, who had become dissipated, +broke into his brother's desk, stole all his hard-earned money, and left +the city. He led a wandering life thereafter, dying in a hospital in +Silesia. Paul never saw him again, but sent him a yearly allowance, as +soon as he learned his abiding-place. What a noble character! + +He now returned to Weimar, dedicating his "Titan" to the four daughters +of the Duke of Mecklenburg, one of whom became the mother of Emperor +William, the famous and beautiful Louise of Prussia. He visited her +later in Berlin, where he writes, "I have never been received in any +city with such idolatry. I have a watch-chain of the hair of three +sisters; and so much hair has been begged of me, that if I were to make +it a traffic, I could live as well from the outside of my head as from +what is inside of it." + +In this city he met the woman who was to be hereafter the very centre of +his life. He had had a passing fancy for several, but never for one that +seemed fitted, all in all, to make his life complete. Caroline Myer, the +daughter of one of the most distinguished Prussian officers, was a +refined, intellectual, noble girl, with almost unlimited resources +within herself, devoted to her family and to every good. Paul had met +women who dressed more elegantly, who were more sparkling in +conversation, who were more beautiful, but they did not satisfy his +heart. In his thirty-eighth year he had found a character that seemed +perfection. He wrote, "Caroline has exactly that inexpressible love for +all beings that I have till now failed to find even in those who in +everything else possess the splendor and purity of the diamond. She +preserves in the full harmony of her love to me the middle and lower +tones of sympathy for every joy and sorrow in others." + +Her love for Richter was nearly adoration. Several months after their +marriage she wrote her father, "Richter is the purest, the holiest, the +most godlike man that lives. Could others be admitted, as I am, to his +inmost emotions, how much more would they esteem him!" Richter also +wrote to his best friend, Otto, "Marriage has made me love her more +romantically, deeper, infinitely more than before." At the birth of +their first child, he wrote again to Otto, "You will be as transported +as I was when the nurse brought me, as out of a cloud, my second love, +with the blue eyes wide open, a beautiful, high brow, kiss-lipped, +heart-touching. God is near at the birth of every child." + +On Caroline's first birthday after their marriage, he wrote, "I will be +to thee father and mother! Thou shalt be the happiest of human beings, +that I also may be happy." + +"Titan," now ten years in progress, was published, and made a great +sensation. The literary world was indignant at the fate of "Linda," his +heroine, but all pronounced it a great book,--his masterpiece. + +Soon after he removed to Bayreuth, and settled down to earnest work. +Almost every day he might be seen walking out into the country, where he +rented a room in a peasant's house for quiet and country air. Whenever +the day was pleasant he worked out of doors. A son had now been born to +him, and life seemed complete. Now he played with his home-treasures, +and now talked at table about some matter of art or science that all +might be instructed. He was especially fond of animals, having usually +a mouse, a tame spider, a tree-frog, and dogs. So good was he to his +canary birds that he never left the house without opening the door of +their cage that they might fly about and not be lonely. Often when he +wrote, they walked over his manuscript, scattering water from the vase +and mingling it with his ink. + +His son Max, a boy of sixteen, had entered school at Munich. He was a +beautiful youth, conscientious, sensitive, devoted to study, and the +idol of the household. At first he wept whole nights from homesickness, +denying himself sufficient fire, food, and clothing, from a desire to +save expense to his parents. He was a fine scholar, but distrusted his +intellectual gifts. At the end of a year he came home, pale and worn, +and died at the age of nineteen. + +To Richter this was a death-blow. He went on writing, while the tears +dropped upon his page. He could never bear the sight of a book his boy +had touched, and the word "philology," his son's favorite study, cut him +to the heart. At the end of three months he wrote to a friend, "My being +has suffered not merely a wound, but a complete cutting off of all joy. +My longing after him grows always more painful." Broken in health he +visited Dresden; but the end was near. The sight of the left eye at +first failed him, then the right, till he was left in complete darkness. +He still hoped to finish his autobiography, and the "Immortality of the +Soul," begun on the very day Max was buried; but this was denied him. +Once only did his sorrows overpower him, when pitifully looking toward +the window, he cried out as Ajax in the "Iliad":-- + + "Light! light only, then may the enemy come!" + +The devoted wife and two daughters grew unspeakably dear to him. When +tired with thinking, he would seat himself at the piano, and play till +he, as well as those who heard him, would burst into tears. On the 14th +of November, 1825, he sat in his chamber, his youngest child climbing on +the back of his chair, and laying her face against her father's. It was +only noon, but thinking it was night, Richter said, "It is time to go to +rest." He was wheeled into his sleeping apartment, and some flowers laid +on the bed beside him. "My beautiful flowers! My lovely flowers!" he +said, as he folded his arms, and soon fell asleep. His wife sat beside +him, her eyes fixed on the face of the man she loved. About six the +doctor arrived. The breath came shorter, the face took on a heavenly +expression, and grew cold as marble. The end had come. He was buried by +torchlight, the unfinished manuscript of the "Immortality of the Soul" +being borne upon his coffin, while the students sung Klopstock's hymn, +"Thou shalt arise, my Soul." His more than one hundred volumes and his +noble, generous life are his monuments. He said, "I shall die without +having seen Switzerland or the ocean, but the ocean of eternity I shall +not fail to see." + + + + +LEON GAMBETTA. + + +On January 6, 1883, Paris presented a sad and imposing spectacle. Her +shops were closed; her public buildings and her homes were draped in +black. Her streets were solid with hundreds of thousands, all +dispirited, and many in tears. A large catafalque covered with black +velvet upheld a coffin shrouded with the tricolor. From a vase at each +corner rose burning perfume, whose vapor was like sweet incense. Six +black horses drew the funeral car, and two hundred thousand persons +followed in the procession, many bearing aloft wreaths of flowers, and +shouting, "Vive la Republique! Vive la Gambetta!" + +The maker of the Republic, the brilliant, eloquent leader of the French +people, was dead; dead in the prime of his life at forty-five. The +"Figaro" but voiced the feeling of the world when it said, "The Republic +has lost its greatest man." America might well mourn him as a friend, +for he made her his pattern for his beloved France. The "Pall-Mall +Gazette" said, "He will live in French history among the most +courageous"; and even Germany courted him as the bravest of the brave, +while she breathed freer, saying in the "Berlin Press," "The death of +Gambetta delivers the peace of Europe from great danger." The hand that +would sometime doubtless have reached out to take back sobbing Alsace +and Lorraine was palsied; the voice that swayed the multitude, now with +its sweet persuasiveness, and now with its thunder like the rush of a +swollen torrent, was hushed; the supreme will that held France like a +willing child in its power, had yielded to the inevitable,--death. + +[Illustration: LEON GAMBETTA.] + +Leon Gambetta was born at Cahors, April 2, 1838. His father was an +Italian from Genoa, poor, and of good character; his mother, a French +woman, singularly hopeful, energetic, and noble. They owned a little +bazaar and grocery, and here, Onasie, the wife, day after day helped her +husband to earn a comfortable living. When their only son was seven +years old, he was sent to a Jesuits' preparatory school at Monfaucon, +his parents hoping that he would become a priest. His mother had great +pride in him, and faith in his future. She taught him how to read from +the "National," a newspaper founded by Thiers, republican in its +tendencies. She saw with delight that when very young he would learn the +speeches of Thiers and Guizot, which he found in its columns, and +declaim them as he roamed alone the narrow streets, and by the quaint +old bridges and towers of Cahors. At Monfaucon, he gave his orations +before the other children, the mother sending him the much-prized +"National" whenever he obtained good marks, and the Jesuits, whether +pleased or not, did not interfere with their boyish republican. + +At eight years of age an unfortunate accident happened which bade fair +to ruin his hopes. While watching a cutter drill the handle of a knife, +the foil broke, and a piece entered the right eye, spoiling the sight. +Twenty years afterward, when the left, through sympathy, seemed to be +nearly destroyed, a glass eye was inserted, and the remaining one was +saved. + +When Leon was ten years old, the Revolution of 1848 deposed Louis +Philippe, the Orleanist, and Louis Napoleon was made President of the +Republic. Perhaps the people ought to have known that no presidency +would long satisfy the ambition of a Bonaparte. He at once began to +increase his power by winning the Catholic Church to his side. The +Jesuits no longer allowed the boy Leon to talk republicanism; they saw +that it was doomed. They scolded him, whipped him, took away the +"National," and finally expelled him, writing to his parents, "You will +never make a priest of him; he has an utterly undisciplinable +character." + +The father frowned when he returned home, and the neighbors prophesied +that he would end his life in the Bastile for holding such radical +opinions. The poor mother blamed herself for putting the "National" into +his hands, and thus bringing all this trouble upon him. Ah, she wrought +better than she knew! But for the "National," and Gambetta's +unconquerable love for a republic, France might to-day be the plaything +of an emperor. + +Meantime Louis Napoleon was putting his friends into office, making +tours about the country to win adherents, and securing the army and the +police to his side. At seven o'clock, on the morning of December 2, +1851, the famous Coup d'état came, and the unscrupulous President had +made himself Emperor. Nearly two hundred and fifty deputies were +arrested and imprisoned, and the Republicans who opposed the usurpation +were quickly subdued by the army. Then the French were graciously +permitted to say, by ballot, whether they were willing to accept the +empire. There was, of course, but one judicious way to vote, and that +was in the affirmative, and they thus voted. + +Joseph Gambetta, the father, saw the political storm which was coming, +and fearing for his outspoken son, locked him up in a lyceum at Cahors, +till he was seventeen. Here he attracted the notice of his teachers by +his fondness for reading, his great memory, and his love of history and +politics. At sixteen he had read the Latin authors, and the economical +works of Proudhon. When he came home, his father told him that he must +now become a grocer, and succeed to the business. He obeyed, but his +studious mind had no interest in the work. He recoiled from spending his +powers in persuading the mayor's wife that a yard of Genoa velvet at +twenty francs was cheaper than the same measure of the Lyon's article at +thirteen. So tired and sick of the business did he become, that he +begged his father to be allowed to keep the accounts, which he did in a +neat, delicate hand. + +His watchful mother saw that her boy's health was failing. He was +restless and miserable. He longed to go to Paris to study law, and then +teach in some provincial town. He planned ways of escape from the hated +tasks, but he had no money, and no friends in the great city. + +But his mother planned to some purpose. She said to M. Menier, the +chocolate-maker, "I have a son of great promise, whom I want to send to +Paris against his father's will to study law. He is a good lad, and no +fool. But my husband, who wants him to continue his business here, will, +I know, try to starve him into submission. What I am about to propose is +that if I buy your chocolate at the rate you offer it, and buy it +outright instead of taking it to sell on commission, will you say +nothing if I enter it on the book at a higher price, and you pay the +difference to my son?" Menier, interested to have the boy prosper, +quickly agreed. + +After a time, she called her son aside and, placing a bag of money in +his hand, said, "This, my boy, is to pay your way for a year. A trunk +full of clothes is ready for you. Try and come home somebody. Start +soon, and take care to let nobody suspect you are going away. Do not +say good-bye to a single soul. I want to avoid a scene between you and +your father." + +Ambition welled up again in his heart, and the bright expression came +back into his face. The next morning he slipped away, and was soon at +Paris. He drove to the Sorbonne, because he had heard that lectures were +given there. The cab-driver recommended a cheap hotel close by, and, +obtaining a room in the garret, the youth, not yet eighteen, began his +studies. He rose early and worked hard, attending lectures at the +medical school as well as at the law, buying his books at second-hand +shops along the streets. Though poverty often pinched him as to food, +and his clothes were poor, he did not mind it, but bent all his energies +to his work. His mother wrote how angered the father was at his leaving, +and would not allow his name to be mentioned in his presence. Poor +Joseph! how limited was his horizon. + +Leon's intelligence and originality won the esteem of the professors, +and one of them said, "Your father acts stupidly. You have a true +vocation. Follow it. But go to the bar, where your voice, which is one +in a thousand, will carry you on, study and intelligence aiding. The +lecture-room is a narrow theatre. If you like, I will write to your +father to tell him what my opinion of you is." + +Professor Valette wrote to Joseph Gambetta, "The best investment you +ever made would be to spend what money you can afford to divert from +your business in helping your son to become an advocate." + +The letter caused a sensation in the Gambetta family. The mother took +courage and urged the case of her darling child, while her sister, Jenny +Massabie, talked ardently for her bright nephew. An allowance was +finally made. In two years Leon had mastered the civil, criminal, +military, forest, and maritime codes. Too young to be admitted to the +bar to plead, for nearly a year he studied Paris, its treasures of art, +and its varied life. It opened a new and grand world to him. +Accidentally he made the acquaintance of the head usher at the Corps +Legislatif, who said to the young student, "You are an excellent fellow, +and I shall like to oblige you; so if the debates of the Corps +Legislatif interest you, come there and ask for me, and I will find you +a corner in the galleries where you can hear and see everything." Here +Leon studied parliamentary usage, and saw the repression of thought +under an empire. At the Café Procope, once the resort of Voltaire, +Diderot, Rousseau, and other literary celebrities, the young man talked +over the speeches he had heard, with his acquaintances, and told what he +would do if he were in the House. An improbable thing it seemed that a +poor and unknown lad would ever sit in the Corps Legislatif, as one of +its members! He organized a club for reading and debating, and was of +course made its head. It could not be other than republican in +sentiment. + +In 1860, at the age of twenty-two, Gambetta was admitted to the bar. The +father was greatly opposed to his living in Paris, where he thought +there was no chance for a lawyer who had neither money nor influential +friends, and urged his returning to Cahors. Again his aunt Jenny, whom +he always affectionately called "Tata," took his part. Having an income +of five hundred dollars a year, she said to the father, "You do not see +how you can help your son in Paris, it may be for long years; but next +week I will go with him, and we shall stay together;" and then, turning +to her nephew, she added, "And now, my boy, I will give you food and +shelter, and you will do the rest by your work." + +They took a small house in the Latin Quartier, very plain and +comfortless. His first brief came after waiting eighteen months! Grepps, +a deputy, being accused of conspiracy against the Government, Gambetta +defended him so well that Crémieux, a prominent lawyer, asked him to +become his secretary. The case was not reported in the papers, and was +therefore known only by a limited circle. For six years the brilliant +young scholar was virtually chained to his desk. The only recreation was +an occasional gathering of a few newspaper men at his rooms, for whom +his aunt cooked the supper, willing and glad to do the work, because she +believed he would some day come to renown from his genius. + +Finally his hour came. At the Coup d'état, Dr. Baudin, a deputy, for +defending the rights of the National Assembly, was shot on a barricade. +On All-Soul's Day, 1868, the Republicans, to the number of a thousand, +gathered at the grave in the cemetery of Montmartre, to lay flowers upon +it and listen to addresses. The Emperor could not but see that such +demonstrations would do harm to his throne. Dellschuzes, the leader, was +therefore arrested, and chose the unknown lawyer, Gambetta, to defend +him. He was a strong radical, and he asked only one favor of his lawyer, +that he would "hit hard the Man of December," as those who hated the +Coup d'état of December 2, loved to call Louis Napoleon. + +Gambetta was equal to the occasion. He likened the Emperor to Catiline, +declaring that as a highwayman, he had taken France and felled her +senseless. "For seventeen years," he said, "you have been masters of +France, and you have never dared to celebrate the Second of December. It +is we who take up the anniversary, which you no more dare face than a +fear-haunted murderer can his victim's corpse." When finally, overcome +with emotion, Gambetta sank into his seat at the close of his speech, +the die was cast. He had become famous from one end of France to the +other, and the Empire had received a blow from which it never recovered. +That night at the clubs, and in the press offices, the name of Leon +Gambetta was on every lip. + +It is not strange that in the elections of the following year, he was +asked to represent Belleville and Marseilles, and chose the latter, +saying to his constituents that he was in "irreconcilable opposition to +the Empire." He at once became the leader of a new party, the +"Irreconcilables," and Napoleon's downfall became from that hour only a +question of time. Gambetta spoke everywhere, and was soon conceded to be +the finest orator in France. Worn in body, by the confinement of the +secretaryship, and the political campaign, he repaired to Ems for a +short time, where he met Bismarck. "He will go far," said the Man of +Iron. "I pity the Emperor for having such an irreconcilable enemy." The +"National," under Madam Gambetta's teaching in childhood, was bearing +fruit. + +Napoleon saw that something must be done to make his throne more stable +in the hearts of his people. He attempted a more liberal policy, with +Émile Ollivier at the head of affairs. But Gambetta was still +irreconcilable, saying in one of his great speeches, "We accept you and +your Constitutionalism as a bridge to the Republic, but nothing more." +At last war was declared against Prussia, as much with the hope of +promoting peace at home as to win honors in Germany. Everybody knows the +rapid and crushing defeat of the French, and the fall of Napoleon at +Sedan, September 2, when he wrote to King William of Prussia, "Not +having been able to die at the head of my troops, I can only resign my +sword into the hands of your Majesty." + +When the news reached Paris on the following day, the people were +frantic. Had the Emperor returned, a defeated man, he could never have +reached the Tuileries alive. Crowds gathered in the streets, and forced +their way into the hall of the Corps Legislatif. Then the eloquent +leader of the Republican ranks, scarcely heard of two years before, +ascended the Tribune, and declared that, "Louis Napoleon Bonaparte and +his dynasty have forever ceased to reign over France." With Jules Favre, +Ferry, Simon, and others, he hastened to the Hotel de Ville, writing on +slips of paper, and throwing out to the multitude, the names of those +who were to be the heads of the provisional government. Cool, fearless, +heroic, Gambetta stood at the summit of power, and controlled the +people. They believed in him because he believed in the Republic. + +Meantime the German armies were marching on Paris. The people fortified +their city, and prepared to die if need be, in their homes. Before Paris +was cut off from the outside world by the siege, part of the governing +force retired to Tours. It became necessary for Gambetta, in October, to +visit this city for conference, and to accomplish this he started in a +balloon, which was just grazed by the Prussian guns as he passed over +the lines. It was a hazardous step; but the balloon landed in a forest +near Amiens, and he was safe. When he arrived in Tours there was not a +soldier in the place; in a month, by superhuman energy, and the most +consummate skill and wisdom, he had raised three armies of eight +hundred thousand men, provided by loan for their maintenance, and +directed their military operations. One of the prominent officers on the +German side says, "This colossal energy is the most remarkable event of +modern history, and will carry down Gambetta's name to remote +posterity." + +He was now in reality the Dictator of France, at thirty-two years of +age. He gave the fullest liberty to the press, had a pleasant "Bon jour, +mon ami" for a workman, no matter how overwhelmed with cares he might +be, and a self-possession, a quickness of decision, and an indomitable +will that made him a master in every company and on every occasion. He +electrified France by his speeches; he renewed her courage, and revived +her patriotism. Even after the bloody defeat of Bazaine at Gravelotte, +and his strange surrender of one hundred and seventy thousand men at +Metz, Gambetta did not despair of France being able, at least, to demand +an honorable peace. + +But France had grown tired of battles. Paris had endured a siege of four +months, and the people were nearly in a starving condition. The +Communists, too, were demanding impossible things. Therefore, after +seven months of war, the articles of peace were agreed upon, by which +France gave to Germany fourteen hundred million dollars, to be paid in +three years, and ceded to her the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. + +Gambetta could never bring himself to consent to these humiliating +conditions, and on the day on which the terms were ratified, he and his +colleagues from these two sections of the country, left the assembly +together. Just as they were passing out, the venerable Jean Kuss, mayor +of Strasburg, staggered up to Gambetta, saying, "Let me grasp your +patriot's hand. It is the last time I shall shake it. My heart is +broken. Promise to redeem brave Strasburg." He fell to the floor, and +died almost immediately. Gambetta retired to Spain, till recalled by the +elections of the following July. + +He now began again his heroic labors, speaking all through France, +teaching the people the true principles of a republic; not communism, +not lawlessness, but order, prudence, and self-government. He urged +free, obligatory education, and the scattering of books, libraries, and +institutes everywhere. When Thiers was made the first President, +Gambetta was his most important and truest ally, though the former had +called him "a furious fool"; so ready was the Great Republican to +forgive harshness. + +In 1877 he again saved his beloved Republic. The Monarchists had become +restless, and finally displaced Thiers by Marshal MacMahon, a strong +Romanist, and a man devoted to the Empire. It seemed evident that +another coup d'état was meditated. Gambetta stirred the country to +action. He declared that the President must "submit or resign," and for +those words he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment and a fine of +four hundred dollars, which sentence was never executed. MacMahon seeing +that the Republic was stronger than he had supposed, soon after resigned +his position, and was succeeded by M. Grevy. Gambetta was made President +of the Assembly, and doubtless, if he had lived, would have been made +President of the Republic. + +There were not wanting those who claimed that he was ambitious for the +supreme rule; but when death came from the accidental discharge of a +pistol, producing a wound in the hand, all calumny was hushed, and +France beheld her idol in his true light,--the incarnation of +republicanism. Two hours before his death, at his plain home just out of +Paris at Ville d'Avray, he said, "I am dying; there is no use in denying +it; but I have suffered so much it will be a great deliverance." He +longed to last till the New Year, but died five minutes before midnight, +Dec. 31, 1882. The following day, fifteen thousand persons called to see +the great statesman as he lay upon his single iron bedstead. + +Afterward the body lay in state at the Palais Bourbon, the guard +standing nearly to their knees in flowers. Over two thousand wreaths +were given by friends. Alsace sent a magnificent crown of roses. No +grander nor sadder funeral was ever seen in France. Paris was urgent +that he be buried in Père la Chaise, but his father would not consent; +so the body was carried to Nice to lie beside his mother, who died a +year before him, and his devoted aunt, who died five years previously. +Every day Joseph Gambetta lays flowers upon the graves of his dear ones. + +Circumstances helped to make the great orator, but he also made +circumstances. True, his opportunity came at the trial, after the Baudin +demonstration, but he was ready for the opportunity. He had studied the +history of an empire under the Cæsars, and he knew how republics are +made and lost. When in the Corps Legislatif a leader was needed, he was +ready, for he had carefully studied men. When at Tours he directed the +military, he knew what he was doing, for he was conversant with the +details of our civil war. When others were sauntering for pleasure along +the Champs Élysees, he had been poring over books in an attic opposite +the Sorbonne. He died early, but he accomplished more than most men who +live to be twice forty-five. When, in the years to come, imperialists +shall strive again to wrest the government from the hands of the people, +the name of Leon Gambetta will be an inspiration, a talisman of victory +for the Republic. + + + + +[Illustration: D. G. FARRAGUT. + +(From his Life, published by D. APPLETON & CO.)] + +DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT. + + +The possibilities of American life are strikingly illustrated by the +fact that the two names at the head of the army and navy, Grant and +Farragut, represent self-made men. The latter was born on a farm near +Knoxville, Tennessee, July 5, 1801. His mother, of Scotch descent, was a +brave and energetic woman. Once when the father was absent in the Indian +wars, the savages came to their plain home and demanded admittance. She +barred the door as best she could, and sending her trembling children +into the loft, guarded the entrance with an axe. The Indians thought +discretion the better part of valor, and stole quietly away. + +When David was seven years old, the family having moved to New Orleans, +as the father had been appointed sailing master in the navy, the noble +mother died of yellow fever, leaving five children, the youngest an +infant. This was a most severe blow. Fortunately, soon after, an act of +kindness brought its reward. The father of Commodore Porter having died +at the Farragut house, the son determined to adopt one of the +motherless children, if one was willing to leave his home. Little David +was pleased with the uniform, and said promptly that he would go. + +Saying good-bye forever to his father, he was taken to Washington, and +after a few months spent in school, at the age of nine years and a half, +was made a midshipman. And now began a life full of hardship, of +adventure, and of brave deeds, which have added lustre to the American +navy, and have made the name of Farragut immortal. + +His first cruise was along the coast, in the _Essex_, after the war of +1812 with Great Britain had begun. They had captured the _Alert_ and +other prizes, and their ship was crowded with prisoners. One night when +the boy lay apparently asleep, the coxswain of the _Alert_ came to his +hammock, pistol in hand. David lay motionless till he passed on, and +then crept noiselessly to the cabin, and informed Captain Porter. +Springing from his cot, he shouted, "Fire! fire!" The seamen rushed on +deck, and the mutineers were in irons before they had recovered from +their amazement. Evidently the boy had inherited some of his mother's +fearlessness. + +His second cruise was in the Pacific Ocean, where they encountered a +fearful storm going round Cape Horn. An incident occurred at this time +which showed the mettle of the lad. Though only twelve, he was ordered +by Captain Porter to take a prize vessel to Valparaiso, the captured +captain being required to navigate it. When David requested that the +"maintopsail be filled away," the captain replied that he would shoot +any man who dared to touch a rope without his orders, and then went +below for his pistols. David called one of the crew, told him what had +happened, and what he wanted done. "Aye, aye, sir!" responded the +faithful sailor, as he began to execute the orders. The young midshipman +at once sent word to the captain not to come on deck with his pistols +unless he wished to go overboard. From that moment the boy was master of +the vessel, and admired for his bravery. + +The following year,--1814,--while the _Essex_ was off the coast of +Chili, she was attacked by the British ships _Phoebe_ and _Cherub_. +The battle lasted for two hours and a half, the _Phoebe_ throwing +seven hundred eighteen-pound shots at the _Essex_. + +"I shall never forget," Farragut said years after, "the horrid +impression made upon me at the sight of the first man I had ever seen +killed. It staggered and sickened me at first; but they soon began to +fall so fast that it all appeared like a dream, and produced no effect +upon my nerves.... Soon after this some gun-primers were wanted, and I +was sent after them. In going below, while I was on the ward-room +ladder, the captain of the gun directly opposite the hatchway was struck +full in the face by an eighteen-pound shot, and fell back on me. We +tumbled down the hatch together. I lay for some moments stunned by the +blow, but soon recovered consciousness enough to rush up on deck. The +captain seeing me covered with blood, asked if I was wounded; to which I +replied, 'I believe not, sir.' 'Then,' said he, 'where are the primers?' +This brought me completely to my senses, and I ran below again and +carried the primers on deck." + +When Porter had been forced to surrender, David went below to help the +surgeon in dressing wounds. One brave young man, Lieutenant Cowell, +said, "O, Davy, I fear it is all up with me!" He could have been saved, +had his leg been amputated an hour sooner; but when it was proposed to +drop another patient and attend to him, he said, "No, Doctor, none of +that; fair play is a jewel. One man's life is as dear as another's; I +would not cheat any poor fellow out of his turn." + +Many brave men died, saying, "Don't give her up! Hurrah for liberty!" +One young Scotchman, whose leg had been shot off, said to his comrades, +"I left my own country and adopted the United States to fight for her. I +hope I have this day proved myself worthy of the country of my adoption. +I am no longer of any use to you or to her; so good-bye!" saying which +he threw himself overboard. + +When David was taken a prisoner on board the _Phoebe_, he could not +refrain from tears at his mortification. + +"Never mind, my little fellow," said the captain; "it will be your turn +next, perhaps." + +"I hope so," was the reply. + +Soon David's pet pig "Murphy" was brought on board, and he immediately +claimed it. + +"But," said the English sailor, "you are a prisoner and your pig also." + +"We always respect private property," the boy replied, seizing hold of +"Murphy"; and after a vigorous fight, the pet was given to its owner. + +On returning to Captain Porter's house at Chester, Pa., David was put at +school for the summer, under a quaint instructor, one of Napoleon's +celebrated Guard, who used no book, but taught the boys about plants and +minerals, and how to climb and swim. In the fall he was placed on a +receiving-ship, but gladly left the wild set of lads for a cruise in the +Mediterranean. Here he had the opportunity of visiting Naples, Pompeii, +and other places of interest, but he encountered much that was harsh and +trying. Commodore C---- sometimes knocked down his own son, and his +son's friend as well,--not a pleasant person to be governed by. + +In 1817, Chaplain Folsom of their ship was appointed consul at Tunis. He +loved David as a brother, and begged the privilege of keeping him for a +time, "because," said he to the commodore, "he is entirely destitute of +the aids of fortune and the influence of friends, other than those whom +his character may attach to him." For nearly nine months he remained +with the chaplain, studying French, Italian, English literature, and +mathematics, and developing in manliness and refinement. The Danish +consul showed great fondness for the frank, ardent boy, now sixteen, and +invited him to his house at Carthage. Failing in his health, a horseback +trip toward the interior of the country was recommended, and during the +journey he received a sunstroke, and his eyes were permanently weakened. +All his life, however, he had some one read to him, and thus mitigate +his misfortune. + +The time came to go back to duty on the ship, and Chaplain Folsom +clasped the big boy to his bosom, fervently kissing him on each cheek, +and giving him his parting blessing mingled with his tears. Forty years +after, when the young midshipman had become the famous Admiral, he sent +a token of respect and affection to his old friend. + +For some years, having been appointed acting lieutenant, he cruised in +the Gulf of Mexico, gaining knowledge which he was glad to use later, +and in the West Indies, where for two years and a half, he says, "I +never owned a bed, but lay down to rest wherever I found the most +comfortable berth." Sometimes he and his seamen pursued pirates who +infested the coast, cutting their way through thornbushes and cactus +plants, with their cutlasses; then burning the houses of these robbers, +and taking their plunder out of their caves. It was an exciting but +wearing life. + +After a visit to his old home at New Orleans,--his father had died, and +his sister did not recognize him,--he contracted yellow fever, and lay +ill for some time in a Washington hospital. Perhaps the sailor was +tired of his roving and somewhat lonely life, and now married, at +twenty-two, Miss Susan Marchant of Norfolk, Virginia. + +For sixteen years she was an invalid, so that he carried her often in +his arms like a child. Now he took her to New Haven for treatment, and +improved what time he could spare by attending Professor Silliman's +lectures at Yale College. Now he conducted a school on a receiving-ship, +so as to have her with him. "She bore the sickness with unparalleled +resignation and patience," says Farragut in his journal, "affording a +beautiful example of calmness and fortitude." One of her friends in +Norfolk said, "When Captain Farragut dies, he should have a monument +reaching to the skies, made by every wife in the city contributing a +stone to it." How the world admires a brave man with a tender heart! + +Farragut was now nearly forty years of age; never pushing himself +forward, honors had come slowly. Three years later, having been made +commandant, he married Miss Virginia Royall, also of Norfolk, Va. At the +beginning of the Mexican War, he offered his services to the Government, +but from indifference, or the jealousy of officials, he was not called +upon. The next twelve years were spent, partly in the Norfolk Navy Yard, +giving weekly lectures on gunnery, preparing a book on ordnance +regulations, and establishing a navy yard on the Pacific Coast. Whatever +he did was done thoroughly and faithfully. When asked by the Navy +Department to express a preference about a position, he said, "I have no +volition in the matter; your duty is to give me orders, mine to obey.... +I have made it the rule of my life to ask no official favors, but to +await orders and then obey them." + +And now came the turning-point of his life. April 17, 1860, Virginia, by +a vote of eighty-eight to fifty-five, seceded from the United States. +The next morning, Farragut, then at Norfolk, expressed disapproval of +the acts of the convention, and said President Lincoln would be +justified in calling for troops after the Southerners had taken forts +and arsenals. He was soon informed "that a person with those sentiments +could not live in Norfolk." + +"Well then, I can live somewhere else," was the calm reply. + +Returning home, he announced to his wife that he had determined to +"stick to the flag." + +"This act of mine may cause years of separation from your family; so you +must decide quickly whether you will go North or remain here." + +She decided at once to go with him, and, hastily collecting a few +articles, departed that evening for Baltimore. That city was in +commotion, the Massachusetts troops having had a conflict with the mob. +He finally secured passage for New York on a canal-boat, and with +limited means rented a cottage at Hastings-on-the-Hudson, for one +hundred and fifty dollars a year. He loved the South, and said, "God +forbid that I should have to raise my hand against her"; but he was +anxious to take part in the war for the Union, and offered his services +to that end. + +The Government had an important project in hand. The Mississippi River +was largely in the control of the Confederacy, and was the great highway +for transporting her supplies. New Orleans was the richest city of the +South, receiving for shipment at this time ninety-two million dollars +worth of cotton, and more than twenty-five million dollars worth of +sugar yearly. If this city could be captured, and the river controlled +by the North, the South would be seriously crippled. But the lower +Mississippi was guarded by the strongest forts, Jackson and St. Philip, +which mounted one hundred and fifteen guns, and were garrisoned by +fifteen hundred men. Above the forts were fifteen vessels of the +Confederate fleet, including the ironclad ram, _Manassas_, and just +below, a heavy iron chain across the river bound together scores of +cypress logs thirty feet long, and four or five feet in diameter, thus +forming an immense obstruction. Sharpshooters were stationed all along +the banks. + +Who could be entrusted with such a formidable undertaking as the capture +of this stronghold? Who sufficiently daring, skilful, and loyal? Several +naval officers were considered, but Gideon Welles, Secretary of the +Navy, said, "Farragut is the man." The steam sloop-of-war, _Hartford_, +of nineteen hundred tons burden, and two hundred twenty-five feet long, +was made ready as his flag-ship. His instructions were, "The certain +capture of the city of New Orleans. The Department and the country +require of you success.... If successful, you open the way to the sea +for the Great West, never again to be closed. The rebellion will be +riven in the centre, and the flag, to which you have been so faithful, +will recover its supremacy in every State." + +With a grateful heart that he had been thought fitting for this high +place, and believing in his ability to win success, at sixty-one years +of age he started on his mission, saying, "If I die in the attempt, it +will only be what every officer has to expect. He who dies in doing his +duty to his country, and at peace with his God, has played the drama of +life to the best advantage." He took with him six sloops-of-war, sixteen +gunboats, twenty-one schooners, and five other vessels, forty-eight in +all, the fleet carrying over two hundred guns. + +April 18, 1862, they had all reached their positions and were ready for +the struggle. For six days and nights the mortars kept up a constant +fire on Fort Jackson, throwing nearly six thousand shells. Many persons +were killed, but the fort did not yield. The Confederates sent down the +river five fire-rafts, flat-boats filled with dry wood, smeared with tar +and turpentine, hoping that these would make havoc among Farragut's +ships; but his crews towed them away to shore, or let them drift out to +sea. + +Farragut now made up his mind to pass the forts at all hazards. It was +a dangerous and heroic step. If he won, New Orleans must fall; if he +failed--but he must not fail. Two gunboats were sent to cut the chain +across the river. All night long the commander watched with intense +anxiety the return of the boats, which under a galling fire had +succeeded in breaking the chain, and thus making a passage for the +fleet. + +At half past three o'clock on the morning of April 24, the fleet was +ready to start. The _Cayuga_ led off the first division of eight +vessels. Both forts opened fire. In ten minutes she had passed beyond +St. Philip only to be surrounded by eleven Confederate gunboats. The +_Varuna_ came to her relief, but was rammed by two Southern boats, and +sunk in fifteen minutes. The _Mississippi_ encountered the enemy's ram, +_Manassas_, riddled her with shot, and set her on fire, so that she +drifted below the forts and blew up. + +Then the centre division, led by the _Hartford_, passed into the +terrific fire. First she grounded in avoiding a fire-raft; then a +Confederate ram pushed a raft against her, setting her on fire; but +Farragut gave his orders as calmly as though not in the utmost peril. +The flames were extinguished, and she steamed on, doing terrible +execution with her shells. Then came the last division, led by the +_Sciota_, and Commander Porter's gunboats. In the darkness, lighted only +by the flashes of over two hundred guns, the fleet had cut its way to +victory, losing one hundred and eighty-four in killed and wounded. + + "In a twinkling the flames had risen + Half-way to maintop and mizzen, + Darting up the shrouds like snakes! + Ah, how we clanked at the brakes! + And the deep steam-pumps throbbed under + Sending a ceaseless glow. + Our top-men--a dauntless crowd-- + Swarmed in rigging and shroud; + There ('twas a wonder!) + The burning ratlins and strands + They quenched with their bare hard hands. + But the great guns below + Never silenced their thunder. + + "At last, by backing and sounding, + When we were clear of grounding, + And under headway once more, + The whole Rebel fleet came rounding + The point. If we had it hot before, + 'Twas now, from shore to shore, + One long, loud thundering roar,-- + Such crashing, splintering, and pounding + And smashing as you never heard before. + + "But that we fought foul wrong to wreck, + And to save the land we loved so well, + You might have deemed our long gun-deck + Two hundred feet of hell! + For all above was battle, + Broadside, and blaze, and rattle, + Smoke and thunder alone; + But down in the sick-bay, + Where our wounded and dying lay, + There was scarce a sob or a moan. + + "And at last, when the dim day broke, + And the sullen sun awoke, + Drearily blinking + O'er the haze and the cannon-smoke, + That even such morning dulls, + There were thirteen traitor hulls + On fire and sinking!" + + --_Henry Howard Brownell_ + + * * * * * + +"Thus," says the son of Farragut, in his admirable biography, "was +accomplished a feat in naval warfare which had no precedent, and which +is still without a parallel except the one furnished by Farragut +himself, two years later, at Mobile. Starting with seventeen wooden +vessels, he had passed with all but three of them, against the swift +current of a river but half a mile wide, between two powerful earthworks +which had long been prepared for him, his course impeded by blazing +rafts, and immediately thereafter had met the enemy's fleet of fifteen +vessels, two of them ironclads, and either captured or destroyed every +one of them. And all this with a loss of but one ship from his +squadron." + +The following day, he wrote:-- + +"My dearest wife and boy,--I am so agitated that I can scarcely write, +and shall only tell you that it has pleased Almighty God to preserve my +life through a fire such as the world has scarcely known. He has +permitted me to make a name for my dear boy's inheritance, as well as +for my comfort and that of my family." + +The next day, at eleven o'clock in the morning, by order of Farragut, +"the officers and crews of the fleet return thanks to Almighty God for +His great goodness and mercy in permitting us to pass through the events +of the last two days with so little loss of life and blood." + +April 29, a battalion of two hundred and fifty marines and two +howitzers, manned by sailors from the _Hartford_, marched through the +streets of New Orleans, hoisted the Union flag in place of the +Confederate on the city hall, and held possession till General Butler +arrived with his troops on May 1. After the fall of the city, the forts +surrendered to Porter. + +From here Farragut went to Vicksburg with sixteen vessels, "the +_Hartford_," he says "like an old hen taking care of her chickens," and +passed the batteries with fifteen killed and thirty wounded. Three +months later he received the thanks of Congress on parchment for the +gallant services of himself and his men, and was made Rear-Admiral. He +remained on the river and gulf for some months, doing effective work in +sustaining the blockade, and destroying the salt-works along the coast. +When the memorable passage of the batteries at Port Hudson was made, +where one hundred and thirteen were killed or wounded, the _Hartford_ +taking the lead, his idolized boy, Loyall, stood beside him. When urged +by the surgeon to let his son go below to help about the wounded, +because it was safer, he replied, "No; that will not do. It is true our +only child is on board by chance, and he is not in the service; but, +being here, he will act as one of my aids, to assist in conveying my +orders during the battle, and we will trust in Providence." Neither +would the lad listen to the suggestion; for he "wanted to be stationed +on deck and see the fight." Farragut soon sent him back to his mother; +for he said, "I am too devoted a father to have my son with me in +troubles of this kind. The anxieties of a father should not be added to +those of a commander." + +Every day was full of exciting incident. The admiral needing some +despatches taken down the river, his secretary, Mr. Gabaudan, +volunteered to bear the message. A small dug-out was covered with twigs, +so as to resemble floating trees. At night he lay down in his little +craft, with paddle and pistol by his side, and drifted with the current. +Once a Confederate boat pulled out into the stream to investigate the +somewhat large tree, but returned to report that, "It was only a log." +He succeeded in reaching General Banks, who had taken the place of +General Butler, and when the fleet returned to New Orleans, he was +warmly welcomed on board by his admiring companions. + +Farragut now returned to New York for a short time, where all were +anxious to meet the Hero of New Orleans, and to see the historic +_Hartford_, which had been struck two hundred and forty times by shot +and shell in nineteen months' service. The Union League Club presented +him a beautiful sword, the scabbard of gold and silver, and the hilt set +in brilliants. + +His next point of attack was Mobile Bay. Under cover of the forts, +Morgan, Gaines, and Powell, the blockade was constantly broken. A good +story is told of the capture of one of these vessels, whose merchant +captain was brought before Farragut. He proved to be an old +acquaintance, who said he was bound for Matamoras on the Rio Grande! The +admiral expressed amazement that he should be three hundred miles out of +his course, and said good-naturedly, "I am sorry for you; but we shall +have to hold you for your thundering bad navigation!" + +And now occurred the most brilliant battle of his career. Aug. 4, 1864, +he wrote to his wife,-- + +"I am going into Mobile Bay in the morning, if God is my leader, as I +hope He is, and in Him I place my trust. God bless and preserve you, my +darling, and my dear boy, if anything should happen to me. + +"Your devoted and affectionate husband, who never for one moment forgot +his love, duty, or fidelity to you, his devoted and best of wives." + +At half past five on the morning of Aug. 5, fourteen ships and four +monitors, headed by the _Brooklyn_, because she had apparatus for +picking up torpedoes, moved into action. Very soon the _Tecumseh_, the +monitor abreast of the _Brooklyn_, went down with nearly every soul on +board, sunk by a torpedo. When the _Brooklyn_ saw this disaster, she +began to back. + +"What's the trouble?" was shouted through the trumpet. + +"Torpedoes." + +The supreme moment had come for decision. The grand old admiral offered +up this prayer in his heart, "O God, direct me what to do. Shall I go +on?" And a voice seemed to answer, "Go on!" + +"Go ahead!" he shouted to his captain on the _Hartford_; "give her all +the steam you've got!" And like a thing of life she swept on over the +torpedoes to the head of the fleet, where she became the special target +of the enemy. Her timbers crashed, and her "wounded came pouring +down,--cries never to be forgotten." Twice the brave admiral was lashed +to the rigging by his devoted men, lest in his exposed position he fall +overboard if struck by a ball. The fleet lost three hundred and +thirty-five men, but Farragut gained the day. When all was over, and he +looked upon the dead laid out on the port side of his ship, he wept like +a child. The prisoners captured in the defences of Mobile were one +thousand four hundred and sixty-four, with one hundred and four guns. + +On his return to New York he was welcomed with the grandest +demonstrations. Crowds gathered at the Battery, a public reception was +given him at the Custom House, and fifty thousand dollars with which to +buy a house in New York. Congress made him Vice-Admiral. Prominent +politicians asked him to become a candidate for the Presidency; but he +refused, saying, "I have no ambition for anything but what I am,--an +admiral. I have worked hard for three years, have been in eleven fights, +and am willing to fight eleven more if necessary, but when I go home I +desire peace and comfort." + +At Hastings-on-the-Hudson, the streets were arched with the words "New +Orleans," "Mobile," "Jackson," "St. Philip," etc. Boston gave him a +welcome reception at Faneuil Hall, Oliver Wendell Holmes reading a poem +on the occasion. At Cambridge, two hundred Harvard students took his +horses from the carriage, and attaching ropes to it, drew him through +the streets. On July 25, 1866, the rank of admiral was created by +Congress, and Farragut was appointed to the place. Honors, and +well-deserved ones, had come at last to the brave midshipman. + +The next year, in command of the European squadron, accompanied by Mrs. +Farragut, who went by special permission of the President, he visited +France, Russia, and other countries. + +Napoleon III. welcomed him to the Tuileries; the Grand Duke Constantine +of Russia, Duke of Edinburgh, and Victor Emmanuel each made him their +guest; he dined with the King of Denmark and the King of Greece, and +Queen Victoria received him at the Osborne House. Two years later he +visited the navy yard on the Pacific Coast, which he had established +years before. + +He died Aug. 14, 1870, at the age of sixty-nine, universally honored and +regretted. Congress appropriated twenty thousand dollars for his statue +on Farragut Square, Washington, and the work has been executed by Vinnie +Ream Hoxie. + +Success was not an accident with the Christian admiral. It was the +result of devotion to duty, real bravery, and a life distinguished by +purity of character and the highest sense of honor. + + + + +EZRA CORNELL. + + +In the winter of 1819 might have been seen travelling from New Jersey to +De Ruyter in New York, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles, some +covered emigrant wagons, containing a wife and six children in the +first, and household goods and farming utensils in the others. Sometimes +the occupants slept in a farmhouse, but usually in their vehicles by a +camp-fire in the woods. + +For two weeks they journeyed, sometimes through an almost uninhabited +wilderness and over wellnigh impassable roads. The mother, with a baby +in her arms,--her oldest child, Ezra, a boy of twelve,--must have been +worn with this toilsome journey; but patient and cheerful, no word of +repining escaped her lips. Elijah Cornell, a frank, noble-hearted +Quaker, was going West to make his living as a potter and farmer +combined. + +Like other pioneers, they made ready their little home among the sterile +hills; and there, for twenty years, they struggled to rear a family that +grew to eleven children, instead of six. The boys of the family were +taught the simple mysteries of pottery-making early in life, and thus +formed habits of industry, while their limited income necessarily made +them economical. + +[Illustration: EZRA CORNELL. + +(From his Biography, by Gov. A. B. Cornell.)] + +The eldest boy, Ezra,--now sixteen,--was growing anxious to be something +more than a potter. He was nearly six feet tall, thin, muscular, and +full of energy. He was studious, reading every book within his reach, +and desirous of an education, which there was no money to procure. +Determined, if possible, to go to the common school one more winter, he +and his brother, fifteen years of age, chopped and cleared four acres of +heavy beech and maple woodland, plowed, and planted it to corn, and thus +made themselves able to finish their education. + +Soon after the father engaged a carpenter to build a large pottery. Ezra +assisted, and began to think he should like the trade of a carpenter. +When the structure was completed, taking his younger brother to the +forest, they cut timber, and erected for their father's family a +two-story dwelling, the best in the town. Without any supervision, Ezra +had made the frame so that every part fitted in its exact place. This, +for a boy of seventeen, became the wonder of the neighborhood. +Master-builders prophesied a rare carpenter for posterity. + +It was evident that the quiet town of De Ruyter could not satisfy such a +lad, and at eighteen he started away from his affectionate mother to try +the world. She could trust him because he used neither liquor nor +tobacco; was truthful, honest, and willing to work hard. If a young man +desires to get his living easily, or is very particular as to the kind +of work he undertakes, his future success may well be doubted. Ezra +found no carpentering, as he had hoped; but in the vicinity of Syracuse, +then a small village, he engaged himself for two years, to get out +timber for shipment to New York by canal. The following year he worked +in a shop making wool-carding machinery, and being now only twenty miles +from De Ruyter, he walked home every Saturday evening and back Monday +morning. Twenty miles before a day's work would have been too long for +most boys. There was no danger that Ezra would grow tender, either of +foot or hand, through luxury. + +Hearing that there was a good outlook for business at Ithaca, he walked +forty miles thither, with a spare suit of clothes, and a few dollars in +his pocket. Who would have said then that this unknown lad, with no +capital save courage and ambition, would make the name of Ithaca, joined +with that of Cornell, known round the world? + +He obtained work as a carpenter, and was soon offered the position of +keeping a cotton-mill in repair. This he gladly accepted, using what +knowledge he had gained in the machine-shop. A year later, Colonel +Beebe, proprietor of a flouring and plaster mill, asked young Cornell to +repair his works; and so pleased was he with the mechanic that he kept +him for twelve years, making him his confidential agent and general +manager. When a tunnel was needed to bring water from Fall Creek, +Cornell was made engineer-in-chief of the enterprise; when labor-saving +machinery was required, the head of the enterprising young man invented +it. + +Meantime he had married, at the age of twenty-four, an intelligent girl, +Mary Ann Wood, four years his junior, the second in a family of eleven +children. As the young lady was not a Quaker, Cornell was formally +excommunicated from his church for taking a person outside the fold. He +was offered forgiveness and re-instatement if he would apologize and +show proper regret, which he refused to do, feeling that the church had +no right to decide upon the religious convictions of the person he +loved. + +He soon purchased a few acres of land near the mill, and erected a +simple home for his bride. Here they lived for twenty years, and here +their nine children were born, four of whom died early. It was happiness +to go daily to his work, receive his comfortable salary, and see his +children grow up around him with their needed wants supplied. But the +comfortable salary came to an end. Colonel Beebe withdrew from active +business, the mill was turned into a woollen factory, and Cornell was +thrown out of work. Business depression was great all over the country. +In vain for months he sought for employment. The helpless family must be +supported; at the age of thirty-six matters began to look serious. + +Finally, he went to Maine in the endeavor to sell the patent right of a +new plow, recently invented. He visited the "Maine Farmer," and met the +editor, Hon. F. O. J. Smith, a member of Congress, who became much +interested. He tried also to sell the patent in the State of Georgia, +walking usually forty miles a day, but with little success. Again he +started for Maine, walking from Ithaca to Albany, one hundred and sixty +miles in four days, then, going by rail to Boston, and once more on foot +to Portland. He was fond of walking, and used to say, "Nature can in no +way be so rationally enjoyed, as through the opportunities afforded the +pedestrian." + +Entering the office of the "Maine Farmer" again, he found "Mr. Smith on +his knees in the middle of his office floor, with a piece of chalk in +his hand, the mould-board of a plow lying by his side, and with various +chalk-marks on the floor before him." + +Mr. Smith arose and grasped him cordially by the hand, saying, "Cornell, +you are the very man I want to see. I have been trying to explain to +neighbor Robertson a machine that I want made, but I cannot make him +understand it. I want a kind of scraper, or machine for digging a ditch +for laying our telegraph pipe under ground. Congress has appropriated +thirty thousand dollars to enable Professor Morse to test the +practicability of his telegraph on a line between Washington and +Baltimore. I have taken the contract to lay the pipe at one hundred +dollars a mile." + +Mr. Cornell's ready brain soon saw what kind of a machine was needed, +and he sketched a rough diagram of it. + +Without much hope of success, Smith said, "You make a machine, and I +will pay the expense whether successful or not; if successful, I will +pay you fifty dollars, or one hundred, or any price you may name." + +Mr. Cornell at once went to a machine shop, made the patterns for the +necessary castings, and then the wood-work for the frame. The trial of +the new machine was made at Mr. Smith's homestead, four yoke of oxen +being attached to the strange-looking plow, which cut a furrow two and +one-half feet deep, and one and one-fourth inches wide, and laid the +pipe in the bottom at the same time. It worked successfully, and Mr. +Cornell was asked to take charge of the laying of the pipe between +Baltimore and Washington. He accepted, for he believed the telegraph +would become a vast instrument in civilization. The loss of a position +at the Beebe mill proved the opening to a broader world; his energy had +found a field as wide as the universe. + +It was decided to put the first pipe between the double tracks of the +Baltimore and Ohio railroad. With an eight-mule team, horses being +afraid of the engines, nearly a mile of pipe was laid each day. Soon +Professor Morse came hurriedly, and calling Mr. Cornell aside, said, +"Can you not contrive to stop this work for a few days in some manner, +so the papers will not know that it has been purposely interrupted? I +want to make some experiments before any more pipe is laid." + +Cornell had been expecting this, for he knew that the pipes were +defective, though other officials would not permit Morse to be told of +it. Replying that he would do as requested, he stepped back to his plow, +and said, "Hurrah, boys, whip up your mules; we must lay another length +of pipe before we quit to-night." Then he purposely let the machine +catch against a point of rock, making it a perfect wreck. + +Mr. Cornell began now, at Professor Morse's request, to experiment in +the basement of the Patent Office at Washington, studying what books he +could obtain on electrical science. It was soon found to be wise to put +the wires upon poles, as Cooke and Wheatstone had done in England. The +line between Baltimore and Washington proved successful despite its +crudities; but what should be done with it? Government did not wish to +buy it, and private capital was afraid to touch it. + +How could the world be made interested? Mr. Cornell, who had now put his +heart into the telegraph, built a line from Milk Street, Boston, to +School Street, that the people might see for themselves this new agent +which was to enable nations to talk with each other; but nobody cared to +waste a moment in looking at it. They were more interested in selling a +piece of cloth, or discovering the merits of a dead philosopher. Not +delighted with the indifference of Boston, he moved his apparatus to New +York in 1844, and constructed a line from opposite Trinity Church on +Broadway, to near the site of the present Metropolitan Hotel; but New +York was even more indifferent than Boston. + +The "Tribune," "Express," and some other newspapers gave cordial notices +of the new enterprise, but the "Herald" said plainly that it was opposed +to the telegraph, because now it could beat its rivals by special +couriers; but if the telegraph came into use, then all would have an +equal opportunity to obtain news! During the whole winter Mr. Cornell +labored seemingly to no purpose, to introduce what Morse had so grandly +discovered. A man of less will and less self-reliance would have become +discouraged. He met the fate of all reformers or inventors. Nobody wants +a thing till it is a great success, and then everybody wants it at the +same moment. + +Finally, by the hardest struggle, the Magnetic Telegraph Company was +formed for erecting a line between New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, +and Washington, and Mr. Cornell for superintending it was to receive one +thousand dollars per annum. So earnest was he for the matter that he +subscribed five hundred dollars to the stock of the company, paying for +it out of his meagre salary! Such men,--willing to live on the merest +pittance that a measure of great practical good may succeed,--such men +deserve to win. + +The next line was between New York and Albany, and Mr. Cornell, being +the contractor, received his first return for these years of labor six +thousand dollars in profits. The tide had turned; and though afterward +various obstacles had to be met and overcome, the poor mechanic had +started on the high-road to fame and fortune. He next organized the Erie +and Michigan Telegraph Company, supposing that the Western cities thus +benefited would subscribe to the stock; but even in Chicago, which now +pays three thousand dollars daily for telegraphic service, it was +impossible to raise a dollar. + +A year later, the New York and Erie telegraph line was constructed +through the southern part of New York State. Mr. Cornell, believing most +heartily in the project, obligated himself heavily, and the result +proved his far-sightedness. But now ruinous competition set in. Those +who had been unwilling to help at first were anxious to share profits. +To save all from bankruptcy in the cutting of rates, Mr. Cornell and a +few others consolidated the various interests in the Western Union +Telegraph Company, now grown so large that it has nearly five hundred +thousand miles of wire, employs twenty thousand persons, sends over +forty-one million messages yearly, and makes over seven and one-half +million dollars profits. + +For more than fifteen years he was the largest stockholder in the +company; it was not strange therefore, that middle life found Ezra +Cornell a millionnaire. This was better than making pottery in the +little town of De Ruyter. It had taken work, however, to make this +fortune. While others sauntered and enjoyed life at leisure, he was +working early and late, away from his family most of the time for twelve +years. + +In 1857, when fifty years of age, he purchased three hundred acres near +Ithaca, planted orchards, bought fine cattle and horses, and moved his +family thither. He was made president of the County Agricultural +Society, and in 1862 was chosen to represent the State Agricultural +Society at the International Exposition in London. Taking his wife with +him, they travelled in Great Britain and on the Continent, enjoying a +few months of recreation, for the first time since, when a youth, thirty +years before, he had walked into Ithaca. + +During the war he gave money and sympathy freely, being often at the +front, in hospitals, and on battle-fields, caring for the wounded and +their families, and aiding those whom the war had left maimed or +impoverished. For six years he served acceptably in the State +Legislature. Self-reliant, calm, unselfish, simple in dress and manner, +he was, alike the companion of distinguished scholars, and the advocate +of the people. + +The great question now before his mind was how to spend his fortune most +wisely. He recalled the days when he cleared four acres of timber land, +that he might have three months of schooling. He had regretted all his +life his lack of a college education. He determined therefore to build +"an institution where _any_ person can find instruction in _any_ study." +Preparatory to this he built Cornell Library, costing sixty-one thousand +dollars. A workman, losing one of his horses by accident in the +construction of the edifice, was called upon by the philanthropist, who, +after inquiring the value of the animal, drew a check and handed it to +the man, remarking, with a kind smile, "I presume I can better than you +afford to lose the horse." A man with money enough to build libraries +does not always remember a laborer! + +Mr. Cornell's first gift toward his university was two hundred acres of +his cherished farm, and five hundred thousand dollars in money. The +institution was formally opened in 1868, Hon. Andrew D. White, a +distinguished graduate of Yale and of the University of Berlin, being +chosen president. Soon over four hundred students gathered from over +twenty-seven States. Mr. Cornell's gifts afterward, including his saving +the Land Grant Fund from depreciation, amounted to over three million +dollars. A wonderful present from a self-made mechanic! Other men have +followed his illustrious example. Henry W. Sage has given three hundred +thousand dollars for the building of Sage College for women, and the +extensive conservatories of the Botanical Department. Hiram Sibley, of +Rochester, has given fifty thousand dollars for the College of Mechanic +Arts, and John McGraw, one hundred thousand for the library and museum. +Cornell University is now one of the most liberally endowed institutions +in the country, and has already sent out over one thousand graduates. + +Mr. Cornell did everything to enrich and develop his own town. He +brought manufactories of glass and iron into her midst, held the +presidency of the First National Bank for a dozen years, made her as far +as possible a railroad centre, and gave generously to her churches of +whatever denomination. The first question asked in any project was, +"Have you seen Ezra Cornell? He will take hold of the work; and if he is +for you, no one will be against you, and success is assured, if success +be possible." + +Dec. 9, 1874, at the age of sixty-seven, scarcely able to stand, he +arose from his bed and was dressed that he might attend to some +unfinished business. Shortly after noon, it was finished by an unseen +hand. His body was carried to Library Hall, and there, the Cornell +Cadets standing as guard of honor, thousands looked upon the renowned +giver. The day of the funeral, public and private buildings were draped, +shops were closed, and the streets filled by a saddened throng. The +casket was borne into the cemetery between lines of students, who owed +to his generosity their royal opportunities for scholarship. Various +societies in various cities passed resolutions of respect and honor for +the dead. + +Froude, the English historian, well said of him, "There is something I +admire even more than the university, and that is the quiet, +unpretending man by whom the university was founded. We have had such +men in old times, and there are men in England who make great fortunes +and who make claim to great munificence, but who manifest their +greatness in buying great estates and building castles for the founding +of peerages to be handed down from father to son. Mr. Cornell has sought +for immortality, and the perpetuity of his name among the people of a +free nation. There stands his great university, built upon a rock, built +of stone, as solid as a rock, to endure while the American nation +endures. When the herald's parchment shall have crumbled into dust, and +the antiquarians are searching among the tombstones for the records of +these departed families, Mr. Cornell's name will be still fresh and +green through generation after generation." + +Overlooking Ithaca and Cayuga Lake stands his home, a beautiful Gothic +villa in stone, finished a year after his death. His motto, the motto of +his life, is carved over the principal entrance, "TRUE AND FIRM." + + + + +[Illustration: P. H. Sheridan. + +(From Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia).] + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SHERIDAN. + + +It is sometimes said that circumstances make the man; but there must be +something in the man, or circumstances, however favorable, cannot +develop it. A poor lad, born of Irish parents in the little western town +of Somerset, Ohio, working at twenty-four dollars a year, would never +have come to the lieutenant-generalship of the United States, unless +there was something noteworthy in the lad himself. + +Philip Henry Sheridan, a generous, active boy, after having studied +arithmetic, geography, and spelling at the village school, began to work +in a country store in 1843, at the early age of twelve, earning fifty +cents a week, fortunately, still keeping his home with his mother. He +was fond of books, especially of military history and biography; and +when he read of battles, he had dreams of one day being a great soldier. +Probably the keeper of the store where Philip worked, and his boyish +companions, thought these dreams useless air-castles. + +After some months, quickness and attention to business won a better +position for him, where he obtained one dollar and a half a week. So +useful had he become, that at seventeen he acted as bookkeeper and +manager of quite a business for the munificent wages of three dollars a +week. + +He had not forgotten his soldier ambition, and applied to the member of +Congress from his county, Perry, for appointment to West Point. Hon. +Thomas Ritchey was pleased with the boy's determination and energy, and +though most of these places were given to those whose fathers had served +in the Mexican War, Philip was not forgotten. He took a preliminary +examination in the common branches, and much to his surprise, received +the appointment. Feeling greatly his need of more knowledge, his +room-mate, Henry W. Slocum, afterward a major-general, assisted him in +algebra and geometry. The two boys would hang blankets at the windows of +their room, and study after the usual limit for the putting out of +lights and retiring. + +Graduating in 1853, he was made second lieutenant in the United States +Infantry, and assigned to Fort Duncan on the western boundary of Texas, +which at that time seemed wellnigh out of the world. Here he came much +in contact with the Apache and Comanche Indians, warlike and independent +tribes. + +One day, as Sheridan was outside the fort with two other men, a band of +Indians swooped down upon them. The chief jumped from his horse to seize +his prisoners, when Sheridan instantly sprang upon the animal's back, +and galloped to Fort Duncan. Hastily summoning his troops, he rushed +back to save his two friends. The enraged chief sprang toward him, when +a ball from Sheridan's rifle laid him dead upon the ground. His ready +thought had saved his own life and that of his friends. + +Two years later he was made first lieutenant, and sent to Oregon as +escort to an expedition surveying for a branch of the Pacific Railway. +The region was wild and almost unknown, yet beautiful and full of +interest. This life must have seemed inspiring compared with the quiet +of the Somerset store. + +Chosen very soon to take charge of an Indian campaign, his fearlessness, +his quick decision and cautiousness as well, made him a valuable leader. +The Indians could endure hardships; so could Sheridan. Sometimes he +carried his food for two weeks in his blanket, slung over his shoulder, +and made the ground his bed at night. The Indians could scale rocks and +mountains; so could the young officer. + +A severe encounter took place at the Cascades, on the Columbia River, +April 28, 1856, where, by getting in the rear of the Indians, he +completely vanquished them. For this strategy, he was especially +commended by Lieutenant-General Scott. However, he won the confidence of +the Indian tribes for probity and honesty in his dealings with them. + +When the Civil War began, he was eager to help the cause of the Union, +and in 1861 was made captain and chief quartermaster in south-western +Missouri, on the staff of Major-General Curtis. He was quiet and +unassuming, accurate in business matters, and thoroughly courteous. +Perhaps now that he had learned more of army life by nine and a half +years of service, he was less sanguine of high renown than in his boyish +days; for he told a friend that "he was the sixty-fourth captain on the +list, and with the chances of war, thought he might soon be major." + +It required executive ability to provide for the subsistence of a great +army, but Sheridan organized his depots of supplies and transportation +trains with economy and wisdom, for the brave men who fought under +Sigel. With a high sense of honor, Sheridan objected to the taking of +any private property from the enemy, for self-aggrandizement, as was the +case with some officers, and asked to be relieved from his present +position. + +Fortunately he was appointed on the staff of General Halleck in +Tennessee, a man who soon learned the faithfulness and ability of his +captain; and when the Governor of Michigan asked for a good colonel for +the Second Michigan Cavalry, Sheridan was chosen. After sharing in +several engagements around Corinth, he was attacked July 1, 1862, at +Booneville, by a force of nine regiments, numbering nearly five thousand +men. He had but two regiments! What could he do? Selecting ninety of his +best men, armed with guns and sabres, he sent them four miles around a +curve to attack the enemy's rear, and promised to attack at the same +time in front. When the moment came, he rushed upon the foe as though he +had an immense army at his back, while the handful of men in the rear +charged with drawn sabres. The Confederates were thrown into confusion, +and, panic-stricken, rushed from the field, leaving guns, knapsacks, and +coats behind them. Sheridan chased them for twenty miles. + +This deed of valor won the admiration of General Grant, who commended +him to the War Department for promotion. He was at once made +brigadier-general. Perhaps the boyish dreams of being a great soldier +would not turn out to be air-castles after all. Men love to fight under +a man who knows what to do in an emergency, and Sheridan's men, who +called him "Little Phil," had the greatest faith in him. + +In the fall, he was needed to defend Louisville against General Bragg. +This Confederate officer had been told that he would find recruits and +supplies in abundance if he would come to Kentucky. He came therefore, +bringing arms for twenty thousand men, but was greatly disappointed to +find that not half that number were willing to cast in their lot with +the Secessionists. General Buell, of the Union army, received, on the +contrary, over twenty thousand new soldiers here. Bragg prepared to +leave the State, sending his provision train ahead, and made a stand at +Perryville, Kentucky. Here Sheridan played "a distinguished part, +holding the key of the Union position, and resisting the onsets of the +enemy again and again, with great bravery and skill, driving them at +last from the open ground in front by a bayonet charge. The loss in +Sheridan's division in killed and wounded was over four hundred, but his +generalship had saved the army from defeat." + +Bragg determined now to make one great effort to hold Tennessee, and +Dec. 31, 1862, gave battle at Stone River, near Murfreesboro'. General +Rosecrans had succeeded Buell as commander of the Army of the +Cumberland. Being a Romanist, high mass was celebrated in his tent just +before the battle, the officers, booted and spurred, standing outside +with heads uncovered. The conflict began on the right wing, the enemy +advancing six lines deep. Our troops were mowed down as by a scythe. +Sheridan sustained four attacks of the enemy, and four times repulsed +them, swinging his hat or his sword, as he rode among his men, and +changing his front under fire, till, his ammunition exhausted, he +brought out his shattered forces in close column, with colors flying. +Pointing sadly to them, he said to Rosecrans, "Here is all that are +left, General. My loss is seventeen hundred and ninety-six,--my three +brigade commanders killed, and sixty-nine other officers; in all +seventy-two officers killed and wounded." The men said proudly, "We came +out of the battle with compact ranks and empty cartridge-boxes!" + +Even after this Sheridan recaptured two pieces of artillery, and routed +the same men who had driven him. For noble conduct on the field he was +made major-general of volunteers. + +General Rosecrans says of him in his official report, "At Stone River he +won universal admiration. Upon being flanked and compelled to retire, he +withdrew his command more than a mile, under a terrible fire, in +remarkable order, at the same time inflicting the severest punishment +upon the foe. The constancy and steadfastness of his troops on the 31st +of December enabled the reserve to reach the right of our army in time +to turn the tide of battle, and changed a threatened rout into a +victory." + +General Rosecrans showed himself dauntless in courage. When a shell took +off the head of his faithful staff-officer, Garesché, riding by his +side, to whom he was most tenderly attached, he only said, "I am _very_ +sorry; we cannot help it. This battle must be won." Dashing up to a +regiment lying on the ground waiting to be called into action, he said, +while shot and shell were whizzing furiously around him, "Men, do you +wish to know how to be safe? Shoot low. But do you wish to know how to +be safest of all? Give them a blizzard and then charge with cold steel! +Forward, men, and show what you are made of!" + +After the day's bloody battle, the troops lay all night on the cold +ground where they had fought. "When," says the heroic General Rousseau, +"I saw them parch corn over a few little coals into which they were +permitted to blow a spark of life; when they carved steak from the loins +of a horse which had been killed in battle, and ate, not simply without +murmuring, but made merry over their distress, tears involuntarily +rolled from my eyes." + +At midnight it rained upon the soldiers, and the fields became masses of +mud; yet before daylight they stood at their guns. "On the third day," +says Rosecrans, "the firing was terrific and the havoc terrible. The +enemy retreated more rapidly than they had advanced. In forty minutes +they lost two thousand men." All that night the Federals worked to +entrench the front of the army. Saturday hundreds of wounded lay in the +mud and rain, as the enemy had destroyed so many of our hospital tents. +On Sunday morning it was found that the Confederates had departed, +leaving twenty-five hundred of their wounded in Murfreesboro' for us to +take care of. Burial parties were now sent out to inter the dead. The +Union loss in killed and wounded was eight thousand seven hundred and +seventy-eight; the enemy's loss ten thousand one hundred and +twenty-five. + +Sheridan's next heavy fighting was at Chickamauga. The battle was begun +by Bragg on Sept. 19, 1863. The right of our army had been broken to +pieces, but General Thomas, the idol of his men, stood on the left like +a rock, Sheridan assisting, and refused to be driven from the field. +General Henry M. Cist, in his "Army of the Cumberland" says, "There is +nothing finer in history than Thomas at Chickamauga." Sheridan lost over +one-third of his four thousand men and ninety-six officers. The Federal +loss was over sixteen thousand; the Confederate, over twenty thousand. + +There were heroic deeds on this as on every battle-field. When a +division of the Reserve Corps--brave men they were, too--wavered under +the storm of lead, General James B. Steedman rode up, and taking the +flag from the color-bearer, cried out, "Go back, boys, go back, but the +Flag can't go with you!" and dashed into the fight. The men rallied, +closed their column, and fought bravely to the death. Even the +drummer-boy, Johnny Clem, from Newark, Ohio, ten years old, near the +close of the battle, when one of Longstreet's colonels rode up, and with +an oath commanded him to surrender, sent a bullet through the officer's +heart. Rosecrans, made him a sergeant, and the daughter of Secretary +Chase gave him a silver medal. + +Two months later, the battle of Chattanooga redeemed the defeat of +Chickamauga. Near the town rises Lookout Mountain, abrupt, rocky cliffs +twenty-four hundred feet above the level of the sea, and Missionary +Ridge, both of which were held by the enemy. On Nov. 24, Lookout was +stormed and carried by General Hooker in the "Battle above the Clouds." +On the following day Missionary Ridge was to be assaulted. Sheridan held +the extreme left for General Thomas. Before him was a wood, then an open +plain, several hundred yards to the enemy's rifle-pits; and then beyond, +five hundred yards covered with rocks and fallen timber to the crest, +where were Bragg's heaviest breastworks. At three o'clock in the +afternoon the signal to advance--six guns fired at intervals of two +seconds--was given. As Sheridan shouted, "Remember Chickamauga!" the men +dashed over the plain at double-quick, their glittering bayonets ready +for deadly work. Says Benjamin F. Taylor, who was an eye-witness, "Never +halting, never faltering, they charged up to the first rifle-pits with a +cheer, forked out the rebels with their bayonets, and lay there panting +for breath. If the thunder of guns had been terrible, it was now growing +sublime. It was rifles and musketry; it was grape and canister; it was +shell and shrapnel. Mission Ridge was volcanic; a thousand torrents of +red poured over its brink and rushed together to its base. + +"They dash out a little way, and then slacken; they creep up, hand over +hand, loading and firing, and wavering and halting, from the first line +of works to the second; they burst into a charge with a cheer, and go +over it. Sheets of flame baptize them; plunging shot tear away comrades +on left and right; it is no longer shoulder to shoulder; it is God for +us all! Under tree-trunks, among rocks, stumbling over the dead, +struggling with the living, facing the steady fire of eight thousand +infantry, they wrestle with the Ridge.... Things are growing desperate +up aloft; the rebels tumble rocks upon the rising line; they light the +fusees and roll shells down the steep; they load the guns with handfuls +of cartridges in their haste; and as if there were powder in the word, +they shout 'Chickamauga' down upon the mounters. But it would not all +do, and just as the sun, weary of the scene, was sinking out of sight, +with magnificent bursts all along the line, the advance surged over the +crest, and in a minute those flags fluttered along the fringe where +fifty rebel guns were, kennelled.... Men flung themselves exhausted upon +the ground. They laughed and wept, shook hands, embraced; turned round, +and did all four over again. It was as wild as a carnival." + +Grant had given the order for taking the first line of rifle-pits only, +but the men, first one regiment and then another, swept up the hill, +determined to be the first to plant the colors there. "When I saw those +flags go up," said Sheridan afterward, "I knew we should carry the +ridge, and I took the responsibility." Sheridan's horse was shot under +him, after which he led the assault on foot. Over twelve hundred men +made Missionary Ridge sacred to liberty by their blood. + +All seemed heroes on that day. One poor fellow, with his shoulder +shattered, lay beside a rock. Two comrades halted to bear him to the +rear, when he said, "Don't stop for me; I'm of no account; for GOD'S +sake, push right up with the boys!" and on they went, to help scale the +mountain. + +When the men were seen going up the hill, Grant asked by whose orders +that was done? "It is all right if it turns out all right," he said; +"but if not, some one will suffer." But it turned out all right, and +Grant knew thereafter how fully he could trust Sheridan. + +The following spring Sheridan was placed by Grant in command of the +cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, numbering nearly twelve thousand +men. Here he was to add to his fame in the great battles of the +Shenandoah Valley. From May to August Sheridan lost over five thousand +men in killed and wounded, in smaller battles as he protected Grant's +flank while he moved his forces to the James River, or in cutting off +Lee's supplies. Meantime General Early had been spreading terror by his +attempt to take Washington, thus hoping also to withdraw Grant's +attention from Lee at Richmond. + +The time had come for decisive action. Grant's orders were, "Put +yourself south of the enemy and follow him to the death. I feel every +confidence that you will do the best, and will leave you as far as +possible to act on your own judgment, and not embarrass you with orders +and instructions." About the middle of September Grant visited Sheridan +with a plan of battle for him in his pocket, but he said afterward, "I +saw that there were but two words of instruction necessary, 'Go in.' The +result was such that I have never since deemed it necessary to visit +General Sheridan before giving him orders." + +The battle of Opequan was fought Sept. 19, 1864, Early being completely +routed and losing about four thousand men, five pieces of artillery, and +nine army flags, with an equal loss of men by the Federals. The fight +was a bitter one from morning till evening, a regiment like the One +Hundred and Fourteenth New York going into the battle with one hundred +and eighty men, and coming out with forty, their dead piled one above +another! Sheridan at first stood a little to the rear, so that he might +calmly direct the battle; but at last, swinging his sword, and +exclaiming, "I can't stand this!" he rode into the conflict. The next +day he telegraphed to Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, "We have just +sent them whirling through Winchester, and we are after them to-morrow. +This army behaved splendidly." + +This battle quickened the hope and courage of the North, who begun to +see the end of the devastating war. "Whirling through Winchester" was +reported all over the land. Abraham Lincoln telegraphed, "Have just +heard of your great victory. God bless you all, officers and men! +Strongly inclined to come up and see you." Grant ordered each of his +two Richmond armies to fire a salute of one hundred guns. + +The next day Sheridan passed on after Early, and gave battle at Fisher's +Hill, the Confederates losing sixteen guns and eleven hundred prisoners, +besides killed and wounded. Many of these belonged to Stonewall +Jackson's corps, and were the flower of the Southern army. "Keep on," +said Grant, "and your good work will cause the fall of Richmond." +Secretary Stanton ordered one hundred guns to be fired by various +generals, fifteen hundred guns in all, for Fisher's Hill. Early was now +so thoroughly beaten, that the Richmond mob wrote on the guns forwarded +to him by the South the satirical sentence, "General Sheridan, care of +General Early!" Grant's orders were now to lay waste the valley, so that +Lee might have no base of supplies. Over two thousand barns filled with +grain, over seventy mills, besides bridges and railroads were burned, +and seven thousand cattle and sheep appropriated by the Union army. Such +destruction seemed pitiful, but if the war was thereby shortened, as it +doubtless was, then the saving of bloodshed was a blessing. + +Oct. 15 Sheridan was summoned to Washington for consultation. Early, +learning his absence, and having been reinforced by twelve thousand +troops, decided at once to give battle at Cedar Creek. His army marched +at midnight, canteens being left in camp, lest they make a noise. At +daybreak, Oct. 19, with the well-known "rebel yell" the enemy rushed +upon the sleeping camps of the Union army. Nearly a thousand of our men +were taken prisoners, and eighteen guns. A panic ensued, and in utter +confusion, though there was some brave fighting, our troops fell back to +the rear. Sheridan, on his way from Washington, had slept at Winchester +that night, twenty miles away. At nine o'clock he rode out of the town +on his splendid black horse, unconscious of danger to his army. Soon the +sound of battle was heard, and not a mile away he met the fugitives. He +at once ordered some troops to stop the stragglers, and rushed on to the +front as swiftly as his foaming steed could carry him, swinging his hat, +and shouting, "Face the other way, boys! face the other way! If I had +been here, boys, this never should have happened." Meeting a colonel who +said, "The army is whipped," he replied, "You are, but the army isn't!" + +Rude breastworks of stones, rocks, and trees were thrown up. Then came +desperate fighting, and then the triumphant charge. The first line was +carried, and then the second, Sheridan leading a brigade in person. +Early's army was thoroughly routed. The captured guns were all retaken, +besides twenty-four pieces of artillery and sixteen hundred prisoners. +Early reported eighteen hundred killed and wounded. + +Again the whole North rejoiced over this victory. Sheridan was made a +major-general in the regular army "for the personal gallantry, military +skill and just confidence in the courage and gallantry of your troops +displayed by you on the 19th day of October at Cedar Run," said Lincoln, +"whereby, under the blessing of Providence, your routed army was +reorganized, a great national disaster averted, and a brilliant victory +achieved over the rebels for the third time in pitched battle within +thirty days." General Grant wrote from City Point, "Turning what bid +fair to be a disaster into a glorious victory stamps Sheridan what I +always thought him, one of the ablest of generals." + +Well wrote Thomas Buchanan Read in that immortal poem, "Sheridan's +Ride":-- + + "Hurrah! hurrah for Sheridan! + Hurrah! hurrah for horse and man! + And when their statues are placed on high, + Under the dome of the Union sky, + The American soldier's Temple of Fame, + There with the glorious General's name, + Be it said in letters both bold and bright, + 'Here is the steed that saved the day, + By carrying Sheridan into the fight + From Winchester, twenty miles away!'" + +The noble animal died in Chicago, October, 1878. + +"In eleven weeks," says General Adam Badeau, "Sheridan had taken +thirteen thousand prisoners, forty-nine battle flags, and sixty guns, +besides recapturing eighteen cannon at Cedar Creek. He must besides have +killed and wounded at least nine thousand men, so that he destroyed for +the enemy twenty-two thousand soldiers." + +And now the only work remaining was to join Grant at Richmond in his +capture of Lee. He had passed the winter near Winchester, and now having +crossed the James River, April 1, 1865, was attacked by General Pickett +at Five Forks. After a severe engagement about five thousand prisoners +were taken by Sheridan, with thirteen colors and six guns. His magnetic +influence over his men is shown by an incident narrated by General +Badeau. "At the battle of Five Forks, a soldier, wounded under his eyes, +stumbled and was falling to the rear, but Sheridan cried, 'Never mind, +my man; there's no harm done!' and the soldier went on with a bullet in +his brain, till he dropped dead on the field." + +From here he pushed on to Appomattox Court House, where he headed Lee's +army, and waited for Grant to come up. Richmond had surrendered to Grant +on the morning of April 3. On the 7th of April Grant wrote to Lee, "The +result of the last week must convince you of the hopelessness of further +resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this +struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my duty to shift from +myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood, by asking +you to surrender that portion of the Confederate States Army known as +the Army of Northern Virginia." Lee replied, "Though not entertaining +the opinion you express on the hopelessness of further resistance on the +part of the Army of Northern Virginia, I reciprocate your desire to +avoid useless effusion of blood, and therefore, before considering your +proposition, ask the terms you will offer on condition of its +surrender." The reply was the only one that could be given. "The terms +upon which peace can be had are well understood. By the South laying +down their arms they will hasten that most desirable event, save +thousands of human lives, and hundreds of millions of property not yet +destroyed." + +At one o'clock, April 9, 1865, the two able generals met, and at four it +was announced that the Army of Northern Virginia, with over twenty-eight +thousand men, had surrendered to the Army of the Potomac. Memorable day! +that brought peace to a nation tired of the horrors of war. In July, +Sheridan assumed command of the Military Division of the Gulf. Ten years +later, June 3, 1875, when he was forty-four years old, he married Miss +Irene Rucker, the daughter of General D. H. Rucker, for years his +friend. She is a fine linguist, and a charming woman. Their home in +Chicago has many souvenirs of war times, and tokens of appreciation from +those who realize General Sheridan's great services to his country. + +He was made Lieutenant-General, March 4, 1869, and when General Sherman +retired from the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Nov. 1, +1883, Sheridan moved to Washington, to take his place. The office of +"Lieutenant-General" expires with General Sheridan, he being the last of +our three great and famous generals,--Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan. In +this latter city he has a home purchased by thirty-one of his leading +friends from Chicago. He is devoted to his wife and children, honest, +upright, and manly, and deserves the honors he has won. + + * * * * * + +General Sheridan was taken ill of heart disease about the middle of May, +1888. After three months, he died at Nonquitt, Mass., near the ocean, at +twenty minutes past ten on the evening of August 5, 1888. He left a wife +and four children, a girl of eight, a boy of six, and twin daughters of +four. After lying in state at Washington, he was buried with military +honors at Arlington Heights, on Saturday, August 11, in the midst of +universal sorrow. + + + + +THOMAS COLE. + + +Four of my favorite pictures from childhood have been Cole's "Voyage of +Life." I have studied the tiny infant in the boat surrounded by roses, +life's stream full of luxuriant vegetation; the happy, ambitious youth, +looking eagerly forward to the Temple of Fame, steering the boat +himself, with no need of aid from his guardian angel; then the worried +and troubled man, his boat tossing and whirling among the broken trees +and frightful storms that come to all; and lastly, perhaps most +beautiful, the old man sailing peacefully into the ocean of eternity, +the angel having returned to guide him, and the way to heaven being +filled with celestial spirits. I have always hung these pictures near my +writing-table, and their lesson has been a helpful and inspiring one. + +No wonder that Thorwaldsen, the great sculptor, said when he looked upon +them in Rome, "O great artist! what beauty of conception! what an +admirable arrangement of parts! what an accurate study of nature! what +truth of detail!" He told Cole that his work was entirely new and +original, executed in a masterly manner, and he commended the harmony +of color. + +These pictures are hung in thousands of homes; but how few persons know +the history of the artist! Born in England, Feb. 1, 1801, the only son +in a family of eight children, and the youngest but one, we find him +when a mere child, in some print-works, learning to engrave simple +designs for calico. His father, a woolen manufacturer, had failed in +business, and the family were thrown upon themselves for support. He was +a kind and honest man, always hoping to succeed, but never succeeding; +always trying new scenes to build up his fortune and never building it. +Like other fathers, especially those who have been disappointed in life, +he had hopes that his boy would accomplish more than himself. + +He wished to apprentice him to an attorney or to an iron manufacturer, +but Thomas saw no pleasure in Blackstone, or in handling ponderous iron. +A boy of tender feelings, he found little companionship with his +fellow-operatives, most of whom were rough; and he enjoyed most an old +Scotchman who could repeat ballads, and tell of the beautiful hills and +lakes of his native land. When he had leisure, he wandered with his +sister Sarah into the surrounding country; and while she sang, he +accompanied her with his flute. + +With little opportunity for school, he was a great reader; and when +through with designs for calico for the day, he buried himself in +books, especially about foreign countries, and in imagination clambered +over high mountains, and sailed upon broad rivers. He talked much to the +family of the wonders of the New World; and when he was eighteen, they +all sailed for America. The father rented a little house and shop in +Philadelphia, and began to sell the small stock of dry-goods which he +had brought with him, while Thomas found work with a person who supplied +woodcuts for printers. + +The father soon became dissatisfied with his prospects, and moved his +family to Steubenville, Ohio, where he hoped to find a land flowing with +milk and honey. Thomas remained behind, working on some illustrations +for Bunyan's "Holy War," keeping up his spirits with his beloved flute; +going to Steubenville the next year, walking almost the entire way from +Philadelphia. + +Here he worked in his father's small manufactory of paper-hangings; yet +he had longings to do some great work in the world, as he wandered alone +in the wild and charming scenery. He loved music, architecture, and +pictures, but he hardly dared breathe his aspirations save in a few +verses of poetry. How in that quiet home a boy should be born who had +desires to win renown was a mystery. Nobody knows whence the perilous +but blessed gift of ambition comes. + +About this time a portrait-painter by the name of Stein came to the +village. He took an interest in the poetic boy, and loaned him an +English illustrated work on painting. Thomas had already acquired some +skill in drawing. Now his heart was on fire as he read about Raphael, +Claude Lorraine, and Titian, and he resolved to make painting his +life-work. How little he knew of the obstacles before a poor artist! + +He set to work to make his own brushes, obtaining his colors from a +chair-maker. His easel and palette were of his own crude manufacture. +The father had serious misgivings for his son; but his mother encouraged +him to persevere in whatever his genius seemed to lie. As a rule, women +discover genius sooner than men, and good Mary Cole had seen that there +was something uncommon in her boy. His brushes ready, putting his scanty +wearing apparel and his flute in a green baize bag, hung over his +shoulder, the youth of twenty-one started for St. Clairsville, thirty +miles distant, to begin life as a painter. He broke through the ice in +crossing a stream, and, wet to his breast, arrived at the town, only to +find that a German had just been there, and had painted all the +portraits which were desired. + +However, a saddler was found who was willing to be painted, and after +five days of work from morning till night, the young artist received a +new saddle as pay. A military officer gave him an old silver watch for a +portrait, and a dapper tradesman a chain and key, which proved to be +copper instead of gold. For some other work he received a pair of shoes +and a dollar. All these, except the dollar, he was obliged to give to +his landlord for board, the man being dissatisfied even with this +bargain. + +From here Thomas walked one hundred miles to Zanesville, and to his +great sorrow, found that the German had preceded him here also, and +painted the tavern-keeper and his family. The landlord intimated that a +historical picture would be taken in payment for the young stranger's +board. Accordingly an impromptu studio was arranged. A few patrons came +at long intervals; but it was soon evident that another field must be +chosen. What, however, was young Cole's astonishment to find that the +historical painting would not be received for board, and that if +thirty-five dollars were not at once paid, he would be thrust into jail! +Two or three acquaintances became surety for the debt to the +unprincipled landlord, and the pale, slender artist hastened toward +Chillicothe with but a sixpence in his pocket. + +After walking for three days, seventy-five miles, he sat down under a +tree by the roadside, wellnigh discouraged, in the hot August day; but +when the tears gathered in his eyes, he took out his flute, and playing +a lively air, his courage returned. He had two letters of introduction +in his pocket, given him at Zanesville, and these he would present, +whispering to himself that he must "hold up his head like Michael +Angelo" as he offered them. The men who received them had little time +or wish to aid the young man. A few persons sat for their portraits, and +a few took lessons in drawing; but after a time he had no money to pay +for washing his linen, and at last no linen even to be washed. Still +enthusiastic over art, and with visions of Italy floating in his mind, +yet penniless and footsore, he returned to Steubenville to tell his +sorrows to his sympathetic mother. How her heart must have been moved as +she looked upon her boy's pale face, and great blue eyes, and felt his +eager desire for a place of honor in the world, but knew, alas! that she +was powerless to aid him. + +He took a plain room for a studio, painted some scenes for a society of +amateur actors, and commenced two pictures,--Ruth gleaning in the field +of Boaz, and the feast of Belshazzar. One Sunday, some vicious boys +broke into the studio, mixed the paints, broke the brushes, and cut the +paintings in pieces. Learning that the boys were poor, Cole could not +bear to prosecute them; and the matter was dropped. He soon departed to +Pittsburgh, whither his parents had moved, and began to assist his +father in making floor-cloths. Every moment of leisure he was down by +the banks of the Monongahela, carefully drawing tree, or cloud, or +hill-top. + +Finally the old longing became irresistible. He packed his little trunk, +his mother threw over his shoulders the table cover, with her blessing +and her tears; and with six dollars in his purse, he said good-bye to +the family and started for Philadelphia. Then followed, as he used to +say in after years, the "winter of his discontent." In a poor quarter of +the city, in an upper room, without a bed or fire or furniture, +struggled poor Thomas Cole. Timid, friendless, his only food a baker's +roll and a pitcher of water, his only bedding at night the table cover, +he worked day by day, now copying in the Academy, and now ornamenting +bellows, brushes, or Japan ware, with figures of birds or with flowers. +Sometimes he ran down a neighboring alley, whipping his hands about him +to keep his blood in circulation, lest he be benumbed. He soon became +the victim of inflammatory rheumatism, and was a great sufferer. He +still saw before him, someway, somehow, renown. Meantime his pure, noble +soul found solace in writing poetry and an occasional story for the +"Saturday Evening Post." After a year and a half he put his goods on a +wheelbarrow, had them carried to the station, and started for New York, +whither his family had moved. + +He was now twenty-four. Life had been one continuous struggle. Still he +loved each beauty in nature, and hoped for the good time to come. In his +father's garret in Greenwich Street, in a room so narrow that he could +scarcely work, and so poorly lighted that he was "perpetually fighting a +kind of twilight," he labored for two years. Obstacles seemed but to +increase his determination to persevere. Of such grand material are +heroes made! + +His first five pictures were placed for exhibition in the shop of an +acquaintance, and were sold at eight dollars apiece. Through the +courtesy of a gentleman who purchased three of these, he was enabled to +go up the Hudson and sketch from nature among the Catskills. This was +indeed a great blessing. On his return, he painted "A View of Fort +Putnam," "Lake with dead trees," and "The Falls of the Caterskills." +These were purchased at twenty-five dollars apiece by three +artists,--Trumbull, Dunlap, and Durand. + +Trumbull first discovered the merits of the pictures, buying the "Falls" +for his studio, and invited Cole to meet Durand at his rooms. At the +hour appointed the sensitive artist made his appearance, so timid that +at first he could only reply to their cordial questioning by +monosyllables. Colonel Trumbull said, "You surprise me, at your age, to +paint like this. You have already done what I, with all my years and +experience, am yet unable to do." Through the new friends, attention was +called to his work, and he soon had abundant commissions. How his hungry +heart must have fed on this appreciation! "From that time," said his +friend, William Cullen Bryant, "he had a fixed reputation, and was +numbered among the men of whom our country had reason to be proud. I +well remember what an enthusiasm was awakened by these early works of +his,--the delight which was expressed at the opportunity of +contemplating pictures which carried the eye over scenes of wild +grandeur peculiar to our country, over our arid mountain-tops with their +mighty growth of forest never touched by the axe, along the banks of +streams never deformed by culture, and into the depth of skies bright +with the hues of our own climate; such skies as few but Cole could ever +paint, and through the transparent abysses of which it seemed that you +might send an arrow out of sight." + +The struggles were not all over, but the "renown" of which the +calico-designer had dreamed had actually come. Down in the heart of Mary +Cole there must have been deep thanksgiving that she had urged him on. + +He with a few others now founded the National Academy of Design. He took +lodgings in the Catskills in the summer of 1826, and worked diligently. +He studied nature like a lover; now he sketched a peculiar sunset, now a +wild storm, now an exquisite waterfall. "Why do not the younger +landscape painters walk--walk alone, and endlessly?" he used to say. +"How I have walked, day after day, and all alone, to see if there was +not something among the old things which was new!" He knew every chasm, +every velvety bank, every dainty flower growing in some tanglewood for +miles around. American scenery, with its untamed wilderness, lake, and +mountain, was his chief passion. He found no pleasure, however, in +hunting or fishing; for his kind heart could not bear to inflict the +slightest injury. + +The following spring he exhibited at the National Academy the "Garden of +Eden and the Expulsion," rich in poetic conception; and in the fall +sketched in the White Mountains, especially near North Conway, which the +lamented Starr King loved so well. In the winter he was very happy, +finishing his "Chocorua Peak." A visitor said, "Your clouds, sir, appear +to move." + +"That," replied the artist, "is precisely the effect I desire." + +He was now eager to visit Europe to study art; but first he must see +Niagara, of which he made several sketches. He had learned the secret, +that all poets and artists finally learn,--that they must identify +themselves with some great event in history, something grand in nature, +or some immortal name. Milton chose a sublime subject, Homer a great +war, just as some one will make our civil war a famous epic two +centuries hence. + +In June, 1829, he sailed for Europe, and there, for two years, studied +faithfully. In London, he saw much of Turner, of whom he said, "I +consider him as one of the greatest landscape painters that ever lived, +and his 'Temple of Jupiter' as fine as anything the world has produced. +In landscapes, my favorites are Claude Lorraine, and Gaspar Poussin." + +Some of Cole's work was exhibited at the British Gallery, but the autumn +coloring was generally condemned as false to nature! How little we know +about that which we have not seen! + +Paris he enjoyed greatly for its clear skies and sunny +weather,--essentials usually to those of poetic temperament, though he +was not over pleased with the Venuses and Psyches of modern French art. +For nine months he found the "galleries of Florence a paradise to a +painter." He thought our skies more gorgeous than the Italian, though +theirs have "a peculiar softness and beauty." At Rome, some of his +friends said, "Cole works like a crazy man." He usually rose at five +o'clock, worked till noon, taking an hour for eating and rest, and then +sketched again till night. + +There was a reason for this. The support of the family came upon him, +besides the payment of debts incurred by his father. + +He felt that every hour was precious. In Rome, he found the Pantheon +"simple and grand"; the Apollo Belvidere "the most perfect of human +productions," while the Venus de Medici has "the excellence of feminine +form, destitute in a great measure of intellectual expression"; the +"Transfiguration," "beautiful in color and chiaroscuro," and Michael +Angelo's "Moses," "one of the things never to be forgotten." + +On his return to New York he took rooms at the corner of Wall Street and +Broadway. Here he won the friendship of Luman Reed, for whom he promised +to paint pictures for one room, to cost five thousand dollars. The chief +pictures for Mr. Reed, who died before their completion, were five, +called "The Course of Empire," representing man in the different phases +of savage life, high civilization, and ruin through sin, the idea coming +to him while in Rome. Of this group, Cooper, the novelist, said, "I +consider the 'Course of Empire' the work of the highest genius this +country has ever produced, and one of the noblest works of art that has +ever been wrought." + +In November, 1836, Mr. Cole was married to Maria Bartow, a young lady of +refinement and loveliness of character. Soon after, both of his parents +died. The "Departure and Return" were now painted, "among his noblest +works," says Bryant, followed by the "Voyage of Life," for Mr. Samuel +Ward, who, like Mr. Reed, died before the set was finished. This series +was sold in 1876 for three thousand one hundred dollars. These pictures +he had worked upon with great care and intensity. He used to say, +"Genius has but one wing, and, unless sustained on the other side by the +well-regulated wing of assiduity, will quickly fall to the ground. The +artist must work always; his eye and mind can work even when his pen is +idle. He must, like a magician, draw a circle round him, and exclude all +intrusive spirits. And above all, if he would attain that serene +atmosphere of mind in which float the highest conceptions of the soul in +which the sublimest works have been produced, he must be possessed of a +holy and reasonable faith." + +The "Voyage of Life" was well received. The engraver, Mr. Smilie, found +one morning before the second of the series, "Youth," a person in middle +life looking as though in deep thought. "Sir," he said at length, "I am +a stranger in the city, and in great trouble of mind. But the sight of +these pictures has done me great good. I go away from this place +quieted, and much strengthened to do my duty." + +In 1841, worn in health, Cole determined to visit Europe again. He wrote +from Kenilworth Castle to his wife, "Every flower and mass of ivy, every +picturesque effect, waked my regret that you were not by my side.... How +can I paint without you to praise, or to criticize, and little Theddy to +come for papa to go to dinner, and little Mary with her black eyes to +come and kiss the figures in the pictures?... My life will be burdened +with sadness until I return to my wife and family." In Rome he received +much attention, as befitted one in his position. + +On his return, he painted several European scenes, the "Roman Campagna," +"Angels Ministering to Christ in the Wilderness," "Mountain Ford" (sold +in 1876 for nine hundred dollars), "The Good Shepherd," "Hunter's +Return," "Mill at Sunset," and many others. For his "Mount Etna," +painted in five days, he received five hundred dollars. How different +these days from that pitiful winter in Philadelphia! + +He dreaded interruptions in his work. His "St. John the Baptist in the +Wilderness" was destroyed by an unexpected visit from some ladies and +gentlemen, who quenched the fire of heart in which he was working. He +sorrowfully turned the canvas to the wall, and never finished it. He had +now come to the zenith of his power, yet he modestly said, "I have only +learned how to paint." He built a new studio in the Catskills, in the +Italian villa style, and hoped to erect a gallery for several paintings +he had in contemplation, illustrating the cross and the world, and the +immortality of the soul. + +But the overworked body at forty-seven years of age could no longer bear +the strain. On Saturday, Feb. 5, 1848, he laid his colors under water, +and cleansed his palette as he left his studio. The next day he was +seized with inflammation of the lungs. The following Friday, after the +communion service at his bedside, he said, "I want to be quiet." These +were his last words. The tired artist had finished his work. The voyage +of life was over. He had won enduring fame. + + + + +OLE BULL. + + +In the quaint old town of Bergen, Norway, so strange with its narrow +streets, peculiar costumes, and open-hearted people, that no traveller +can ever forget it, was born, Feb. 5, 1810, Ole Bull, the oldest in a +family of ten children. His father was an able chemist, and his mother a +woman of fine manners and much intelligence. All the relatives were +musical, and at the little gatherings for the purpose of cultivating +this talent, the child Ole would creep under table or sofa, and listen +enraptured for hours, often receiving a whipping when discovered. + +He loved music intensely, fancying when he played alone in the meadows, +that he heard nature sing, as the bluebells were moved among the grasses +by the wind. When he was four years old, his uncle gave him a yellow +violin, which he kissed with great delight, learning the notes at the +same time as his primer. Although forbidden to play till study-hours +were over, he sometimes disobeyed, and was punished both at home and at +school. + +[Illustration: Ole Bull. + +(From his Memoirs, by SARA C. BULL.)] + +Finally, at eight, through the good sense of his mother, a +music-teacher was provided, and his father bought him a new red violin. +The child could not sleep for thinking of it; so the first night after +its purchase he stole into the room where it lay, in his night-clothes, +to take one peep at the precious thing. He said years after, with tears +in his eyes at the painful remembrance, "The violin was so red, and the +pretty pearl screws did smile at me so! I pinched the strings just a +little with my fingers. It smiled at me ever more and more. I took up +the bow and looked at it. It said to me it would be pleasant to try it +across the strings. So I did try it, just a very, very little, and it +did sing to me so sweetly. At first, I did play very soft. But presently +I did begin a capriccio, which I like very much, and it do go ever +louder and louder; and I forgot that it was midnight and that everybody +was asleep. Presently I hear something crack! and the next minute I feel +my father's whip across my shoulders. My little red violin dropped on +the floor, and was broken. I weep much for it, but it did no good. They +did have a doctor to it next day, but it never recovered its health." + +Pitiful it is that sometimes parents are so lacking in judgment as to +stifle the best things in a child's nature! Guiding is wise; forcing +usually ends in disaster. In two years, Ole could play pieces which his +teacher found it impossible to perform. He began to compose melodies, +imitating nature in the song of birds, brooks, and the roar of +waterfalls; and would hide in caves or in clumps of bushes, where he +could play his own weird improvisations. When he could not make his +violin do as he wished, he would fling it away impetuously, and not +touch it again for a long time. Then he would perhaps get up in the +middle of the night, and play at his open window, forgetting that +anybody might be awakened by it. Sometimes he played incessantly for +days, scarcely eating or sleeping. He had no pleasure in fishing or +shooting, on account of the pain inflicted,--a feeling seemingly common +to noble and refined natures,--though he greatly enjoyed anything +athletic. + +At fourteen, having heard of Paganini, he went to his grandparent, of +whom he was very fond, and said, "Dear grandmother, can't I have some of +Paganini's music?" + +"Don't tell any one," was the reply; "but I will try to buy a piece of +his for you if you are a good child." + +Shortly after this an old miser, of whom the Bergen boys were afraid, +called Ole into his house one day as he was passing, and said, "Are you +the boy that plays the fiddle?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then come with me. I have a fiddle I bought in England, that I want to +show you." + +The fiddle needed a bridge and sounding-post, and these the boy gladly +whittled out, and then played for the old man his favorite air, "God +save the King." He was treated to cakes and milk, and promised to come +again. The next afternoon, what was his surprise to receive four pairs +of doves, with a blue ribbon around the neck of one, and a card attached +bearing the name of "Ole Bull." This present was more precious than the +diamonds he received in later years from the hands of royalty. + +Ole's father, with a practical turn of mind, urged his being a +clergyman, as he honored that profession, and well knew that music and +art usually furnish a small bank account. A private tutor, Musæus by +name, was therefore engaged. This man had the unique habit of kneeling +down to pray before he whipped a boy, and asking that the punishment +might redound to the good of the lad. He soon made up his mind that +Ole's violin and theology were incompatible, and forbade his playing it. +Ole and his brothers bore his harsh methods as long as possible, when +one morning at half past four, as the teacher was dragging the youngest +boy out of bed, Ole sprang upon him and gave him a vigorous beating. The +smaller boys put their heads out from under the bed-clothes and cried +out, "Don't give up, Ole! Don't give up! Give it to him with all your +might!" The whole household soon appeared upon the scene, and though +little was said, the private feeling seemed to be that a salutary lesson +had been imparted. + +At eighteen, Ole was sent to the University of Christiana, his father +beseeching him that he would not yield to his passion for music. On his +arrival, some Bergen students asked him to play for a charitable +association. + +"But," said Ole, "my father has forbidden me to play." + +"Would your father prevent your doing an act of charity?" + +"Well, this alters the case a little, and I can write to him, and claim +his pardon." + +After this he played nearly all night at the home of one of the +professors, saying to himself that his father would be pleased if the +Faculty liked him, and the next morning failed in his Latin +examinations! In despair, he stated the case to the professor, who +replied, "My good fellow, this is the very best thing that could have +happened to you! Do you believe yourself fitted for a curacy in Finmark +or a mission among the Laps? Certainly not! It is the opinion of your +friends that you should travel abroad. Meanwhile, old Thrane having been +taken ill, you are appointed _ad interim_ Musical Director of the +Philharmonic and Dramatic Societies." A month later, by the death of +Thrane, he came into this position, having gained the pardon of his +disappointed father. + +But he was restless at Christiana. He desired to know whether he really +had genius or not, and determined to go to Cassell, to see Louis Spohr, +who was considered a master. The great man was not sufficiently great to +be interested in an unknown lad, and coolly said, when Ole remarked +politely, "I have come more than five hundred miles to hear you," "Very +well, you can now go to Nordhausen; I am to attend a musical festival +there." + +Ole went to the festival, and was so disappointed because the methods +and interpretation were different from his own, that he resolved to go +back to classic studies, feeling that he had no genius for music. Still +he was not satisfied. He would go to Paris, and hear Berlioz and other +great men. Giving three concerts at Trondhjeim and Bergen, by which he +made five hundred dollars, he found himself in possession of the needed +funds. When he arrived in this great city, everybody was eagerly looking +out for himself. Some were in pursuit of pleasure; but most, as is the +case everywhere, were in pursuit of bread and shelter. Nobody cared to +hear his violin. Nobody cared about his recommendations from far-off +Norway. In vain he tried to make engagements. He had no one to speak for +him, and the applicants were numberless. + +Madam Malibran was singing nightly to crowded houses, and the poor +violinist would now and then purchase one of the topmost seats, and +listen to that marvellous voice. His money was gradually melting away. +Finally, an elderly gentleman who boarded at the same house, having +begged him to take what little money he possessed out of the bank, as it +was not a safe place, stole every cent, together with Ole's clothes, and +left him entirely destitute. + +An acquaintance now told him of a boarding-place where there were +several music-teachers, and gave security for his board for one +month,--twelve dollars. Soon the friend and the boarding-mistress grew +cold and suspicious. Nothing tries friendship like asking the loan of +money. At last his condition becoming known to a person, whom he +afterward learned was Vidocq, the noted Chief of Police, he was shown by +him to a gaming-table, where he made one hundred and sixty dollars. +"What a hideous joy I felt," he said afterward; "what a horrid pleasure +to hold in the hand one's own soul saved by the spoil of others!" He +could not gamble again, though starvation actually stared him in the +face. + +Cholera was sweeping through the city, and had taken two persons from +the house where he lodged. He was again penniless and wellnigh +despairing. But he would not go back to Christiana. The river Seine +looked inviting, and he thought death would be a relief. He was nervous +and his brain throbbed. Finally he saw a placard in a window, "Furnished +rooms to let." He was exhausted, but would make one more effort. + +An elderly lady answered his query by saying that they had no vacant +rooms, when her pretty granddaughter, Alexandrine Félicie, called out, +"Look at him, grandmamma!" Putting on her glasses, the tears filled her +eyes, as she saw a striking resemblance to her son who had died. The +next day found him at Madam Villeminot's house, very ill of brain fever. +When he regained consciousness, she assured him that he need not worry +about the means for payment. When, however, the Musical Lyceum of +Christiana learned of his struggles, they sent him eight hundred +dollars. + +Becoming acquainted about this time with Monsieur Lacour, a dealer in +violins, who thought he had discovered that a certain kind of varnish +would increase sweetness of tone, Ole Bull was requested to play on one +of his instruments at a soirée, given by a Duke of the Italian Legation. +An elegant company were present. The intense heat soon brought out the +odor of assafoetida in the varnish. The young man became embarrassed +and then excited, and played as though beside himself. The player was +advertised, whether Monsieur Lacour's instruments were or not; for +Marshal Ney's son, the Duke of Montebello, at once invited him to +breakfast, and presided over a concert for him, whereby the violinist +made three hundred dollars. The tide had turned at last, and little +Félicie Villeminot had done it with her "Look at him, grandmamma!" + +As the Grand Opera was still closed to him, he made a concert tour +through Switzerland and Italy. In Milan, one of the musical journals +said, "He is not master of himself; he has no style; he is an untrained +musician. If he be a diamond, he is certainly in the rough and +unpolished." + +Ole Bull went at once to the publisher and asked who had written the +article. "If you want the responsible person," said the editor, "I am +he." + +"No," said the artist, "I have not come to call the writer to account, +but to thank him. The man who wrote that article understands music; but +it is not enough to tell me my faults; he must tell me how to rid myself +of them." + +"You have the spirit of the true artist," replied the journalist. + +The same evening he took Ole Bull to the critic, a man over seventy, +from whom he learned much that was valuable. He at once gave six months +to study under able masters, before again appearing in public. He was, +however, an earnest student all through life, never being satisfied with +his attainments. + +At Venice he was highly praised, but at Bologna he won the celebrity +which continued through life. Malibran was to sing in two concerts, but +feigned illness when she learned that the man she loved, De Beriot, was +to receive a smaller sum than herself, and would not appear. The manager +of the theatre was in despair. Meantime, in a poor hotel, in an upper +room, Ole Bull was composing his concerto in the daytime, and playing on +his violin at night by his open window. Rossini's first wife heard the +music, and said, "It must be a violin, but a divine one. That will be a +substitute for De Beriot and Malibran. I must go and tell Zampieri" (the +manager). + +On the night of the concert, after Ole Bull had been two hours in bed +from weariness, Zampieri appeared, and asked him to improvise. He was +delighted, and exclaiming, "Malibran may now have her headaches," +hurried the young artist off to the theatre. The audience was of course +cold and disappointed till Ole Bull began to play. Then the people +seemed to hold their breath. When the curtain fell, he almost swooned +with exhaustion, but the house shook with applause. Flowers were +showered upon him. He was immediately engaged for the next concert; a +large theatre was offered him free of expense, one man buying one +hundred tickets, and the admiring throng drew his carriage to the hotel, +while a procession with torchlights acted as guard of honor. + +Ole Bull had stepped into the glory of fame in a single night. +Henceforth, while there was to be much of trial and disappointment, as +come to all, he was to be forever the idol of two continents, drawing +crowded houses, honored by the great, and universally mourned at his +death. He had come to fame as by accident, but he had made himself +worthy of fame. + +Malibran at first seemed hurt at his wonderful success in her stead, but +she soon became one of his warmest friends, saying, "It is your own +fault that I did not treat you as you deserved. A man like you should +step forth with head erect in the full light of day, that we may +recognize his noble blood." + +From here he played with great success at Florence and Rome, at the +latter city composing his celebrated "Polacca Guerriera" in a single +night, writing till four o'clock in the morning. It was first conceived +while he stood alone at Naples, at midnight, watching Mount Vesuvius +aflame. + +Returning to Paris, he found the Grand Opera open to him. Here, at his +first performance, his a-string snapped; he turned deathly pale, but he +transposed the remainder of the piece, and finished it on three strings. +Meyerbeer, who was present, could not believe it possible that the +string had really broken. + +He was now twenty-six, famous and above want. What more fitting than +that he should marry pretty Félicie Villeminot, and share with her the +precious life she had saved? They were married in the summer of 1836, +and their love was a beautiful and enduring one until her death +twenty-six years afterward. Though absent from her much of the time +necessarily, his letters breathe a pure and ardent affection. Going to +England soon after, and being at the house of the Duke of Devonshire at +Chatsworth, he writes, "How long does the time seem that deprives me of +seeing you! I embrace you very tenderly. The word _home_ has above all +others the greatest charm for me." + +In London, from three to seven thousand persons crowded to hear him. The +"Times" said, "His command of the instrument, from the top to the +bottom of the scale--and he has a scale of his own of three complete +octaves on each string--is absolutely perfect." At Liverpool he received +four thousand dollars for a single night, taking the place of Malibran, +who had brought on a hemorrhage resulting in death, by forcing a tone, +and holding it so long that the audience were astonished. Ole Bull came +near sharing her fate. In playing "Polacca," the hall being large and +the orchestra too strong, he ruptured a blood vessel, and his coat had +to be cut from him. + +In sixteen months he gave two hundred and seventy-four concerts in the +United Kingdom. Afterwards, at St. Petersburg, he played to five +thousand persons, the Emperor sending him an autograph letter of +affection, and the Empress an emerald ring set with one hundred and +forty diamonds. Shortly after this his father died, speaking with pride +of Ole, and thinking he heard divine music. + +On his return to Norway, at the request of the King, he gave five +concerts at Stockholm, the last netting him five thousand dollars. So +moved was the King when Ole Bull played before him at the palace, that +he rose and stood till the "Polacca" was finished. He presented the +artist with the Order of Vasa, set in brilliants. + +In Christiana, the students gave him a public dinner, and crowned him +with laurel. He often played for the peasants here and in Bergen, and +was beloved by the poor as by the rich. At Copenhagen he was presented +at Court, the King giving him a snuff-box set in diamonds. Hans Andersen +became his devoted friend, as did Thorwaldsen while he was in Rome. He +now went to Cassell, and Spohr hastened to show him every attention, as +though to make amends for the coldness when Ole Bull was poor and +unknown. At Salzburg he invited the wife of Mozart to his concerts. For +her husband he had surpassing admiration. He used to say that no mortal +could write Mozart's "Requiem" and live. + +While in Hungary, his first child, Ole, died. He wrote his wife, "God +knows how much I have suffered! I still hope and work, not for +myself,--for you, my family, my country, my Norway, of which I am +proud." + +All this time he was working very hard. He said, "I must correspond with +the directors of the theatres; must obtain information regarding the +people with whom I am to deal; I must make my appointments for concerts +and rehearsals; have my music copied, correct the scores, compose, play, +travel nights. I am always cheated, and in everlasting trouble. I +reproach myself when everything does not turn out for the best, and am +consumed with grief. I really believe I should succumb to all these +demands and fatigues if it were not for my drinking cold water, and +bathing in it every morning and evening." + +In November, 1843, urged by Fanny Elssler, he visited America. At +first, in New York, some of the prominent violinists opposed him; but he +steadily made his way. When Mr. James Gordon Bennett offered him the +columns of the "Herald," that he might reply to those who were assailing +him, he said in his broken English, "I tink, Mr. Bennett, it is best tey +writes against me, and I plays against tem." Of his playing in New York, +Mrs. Lydia Maria Child wrote, "His bow touched the strings as if in +sport, and brought forth light leaps of sound, with electric rapidity, +yet clear in their distinctness. He played on four strings at once, and +produced the rich harmony of four instruments. While he was playing, the +rustling of a leaf might have been heard; and when he closed, the +tremendous bursts of applause told how the hearts of thousands leaped +like one. His first audience were beside themselves with delight, and +the orchestra threw down their instruments in ecstatic wonder." + +From New York he took a successful trip South. That he was not +effeminate while deeply poetic, a single incident will show. After a +concert, a man came to him and said he wished the diamond in his violin +bow, given him by the Duke of Devonshire. Ole Bull replied that as it +was a gift, he could neither sell it nor give it away. + +"But I am going to have that stone!" said the man as he drew a bowie +knife from his coat. In an instant Ole Bull had felled the man to the +floor with the edge of his hand across his throat. "The next time I +would kill you," said the musician, with his foot on the man's chest; +"but you may go now." So much did the ruffian admire the muscle and +skill of the artist, that he begged him to accept the knife which he had +intended to use upon him. + +During this visit to America he gave two hundred concerts, netting him, +said the "New York Herald," fully eighty thousand dollars, besides +twenty thousand given to charitable associations, and fifteen thousand +paid to assistant artists. "No artist has ever visited our country and +received so many honors. Poems by the hundreds have been written to him; +gold vases, pencils, medals, have been presented to him by various +corporations. His whole remarkable appearance in this country is really +unexampled in glory and fame," said the same newspaper. Ole Bull was +kindness itself to the sick or afflicted. Now he played for Alice and +Phoebe Carey, when unable to leave their home, and now for insane and +blind asylums and at hospitals. He loved America, and called himself +"her adopted son." + +On his return to Norway, after great success in Spain, the Queen +bestowing upon him the order of Charles III. and the Portuguese order of +Christus, he determined to build a National Theatre in Bergen, his +birthplace, for the advancement of his nation in the drama and in music. +By great energy, and the bestowal of a large sum of money, the place was +opened in 1850, Ole Bull leading the orchestra. But the Storthing, or +Parliament, declined to give it a yearly appropriation,--perhaps the +development of home talent tended too strongly toward republicanism. The +burden was too great for one man to carry, and the project did not prove +a success. + +The next plan of the philanthropist-musician was to buy one hundred and +twenty-five thousand acres of land on the Susquehanna River, in +Pennsylvania, and "found a New Norway, consecrated to liberty, baptized +with independence, and protected by the Union's mighty flag." Soon three +hundred houses were built, a country inn, store, and church, erected by +the founder. To pay the thousands needed for this enterprise he worked +constantly at concert-giving, taking scarcely time to eat his meals. He +laid out five new villages, made arrangements with the government to +cast cannon for her fortresses, and took out patents for a new +smelting-furnace. + +While in California, where he was ill with yellow fever, a crushing blow +fell upon him. He learned that he had purchased the land through a +swindling company, his title was invalid, and his fortune was lost. He +could only buy enough land to protect those who had already come from +Norway, and had settled there, and soon became deeply involved in +lawsuits. Hon. E. W. Stoughton of New York, who had never met Ole Bull +personally, volunteered to assist him, and a few thousands were wrested +from the defrauding agent. + +On his return to Norway he was accused of speculating with the funds of +his countrymen, which cut him to the heart. A little later, in 1862, his +wife died, worn with ill health, and with her husband's misfortunes, and +his son Thorvald fell from the mast of a sailing-vessel in the +Mediterranean, and was killed. + +In the autumn of 1868 he returned to America, and nearly lost his life +in a steamboat collision on the Ohio. He swam to land, saving also his +precious violin. Two years afterward he was married to Miss Thorp of +Madison, Wis., an accomplished lady much his junior in years, who has +lived to write an admirable life of her illustrious husband. A daughter, +Olea, came to gladden his home two years later. When he was sixty-six +years old, he celebrated his birthday by playing his violin on the top +of the great pyramid, Cheops, at the suggestion of King Oscar of Norway +and Sweden. + +In the Centennial year he returned to America, and made his home at +Cambridge, in the house of James Russell Lowell, while he was Minister +to England. Here he enjoyed the friendship of such as Longfellow, who +says of him in his "Tales of a Wayside Inn":-- + + "The angel with the violin, + Painted by Raphael, he seemed, + + * * * * * + + And when he played, the atmosphere + Was filled with magic, and the ear + Caught echoes of that Harp of Gold, + Whose music had so weird a sound, + The hunted stag forgot to bound, + The leaping rivulet backward rolled, + The birds came down from bush and tree, + The dead came from beneath the sea, + The maiden to the harper's knee!" + +The friend of the highest, he never forgot the lowest. When a colored +barber in Hartford, a lad who was himself a good fiddler, heard Ole Bull +play, the latter having sent him a ticket to his concert, he said, +"Mister, can't you come down to the shop to-morrow to get shaved, and +show me those tricks? I feel powerful bad." + +And Ole Bull went to the shop, and showed him how the wonderful playing +was accomplished. + +In 1880 Ole Bull sailed, for the last time, to Europe, to his lovely +home at Lysö, an island in the sea, eighteen miles from Bergen. Ill on +the voyage, he was thankful to reach the cherished place. Here, planned +by his own hand, was his elegant home overlooking the ocean; here his +choice music-room upheld by delicate columns and curiously wrought +arches; here the shell-roads he had built; and here the flower-beds he +had planted. The end came soon, on a beautiful day full of sunshine. + +The body lay in state in the great music-room till a larger steamer came +to bear it to Bergen. This was met by a convoy of sixteen steamers +ranged on either side; and as the fleet approached the city, all flags +were at half-mast, and guns were fired, which re-echoed through the +mountains. The quay was covered with juniper, and the whole front +festooned with green. As the boat touched the shore, one of Ole Bull's +inimitable melodies was played. Young girls dressed in black bore the +trophies of his success, and distinguished men carried his gold crown +and order, in the procession. The streets were strewn with flowers, and +showered upon the coffin. When the service had been read at the grave by +the pastor, Björnson, the famous author, gave an address. After the +coffin had been lowered and the mourners had departed, hundreds of +peasants came, bringing a green bough, a sprig of fern, or a flower, and +quite filled the grave. Beautiful tribute to a beautiful life! + + + + +[Illustration: MEISSONIER.] + +MEISSONIER. + + +The old maxim, that "the gods reward all things to labor," has had fit +illustration in Meissonier. His has been a life of constant, unvaried +toil. He came to Paris a poor, unknown boy, and has worked over fifty +years, till he stands a master in French art. + +Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier was born at Lyons, in 1811. His early life +was passed in poverty so grinding that the great artist never speaks of +it, and in such obscurity that scarcely anything is known of his +boyhood. At nineteen he came to Paris to try his fate in one of the +great centres of the world. He, of course, found no open doors, nobody +standing ready to assist genius. Genius must ever open doors for itself. + +The lad was a close observer, and had learned to draw accurately. He +could give every variety of costume, and express almost any emotion in +the face of his subject. But he was unknown. He might do good work, but +nobody wanted it. He used to paint by the side of Daubigny in the +Louvre, it is said, for one dollar a yard. Now his "Amateurs in +Painting," a chef-d'oeuvre of six inches in size, is bought by Leon +Say for six thousand dollars. Such is fame. + +Time was so necessary in this struggle for bread, that he could sleep +only every other night; and for six months his finances were so low, it +is stated, that he existed on ten cents a week! No wonder that the +sorrows of those days are never mentioned. + +His earliest work was painting the tops of bon-bon boxes, and fans. Once +he grew brave enough to take four little sepia drawings to an editor to +illustrate a fairy tale in a magazine for children. The editor said the +drawings were charming, but he could not afford to have them engraved, +and so "returned them with thanks." + +His first illustrations in some unknown journal were scenes from the +life of "The Old Bachelor." In the first picture he is represented +making his toilet before the mirror, his wig spread out on the table; in +the second, dining with two friends; in the third, being abused by his +housekeeper; in the fourth, on his death-bed, surrounded by greedy +relations; and in the fifth, the servants ransacking the death-chamber +for the property. + +For a universal history he drew figures of Isaiah, St. Paul, and +Charlemagne, besides almost numberless ornamental letters and headings +of chapters. Of course he longed for more remunerative work, for fame; +but he must plod on for months yet. He worked conscientiously, taking +the greatest pains with every detail. + +His first picture, exhibited in 1833, when he was twenty-two, called +"The Visitors," an interior view of a house, with an old gentleman +receiving two visitors, all dressed in the costume of James I., +admirable for its light and shade, was bought by the Society of the +Friends of Art, for twenty dollars. Two years later he made +illustrations for the Bible of the Sieur Raymond, of Holofernes invading +Judea, and Judith appearing before Holofernes. For "Paul and Virginia" +he made forty-three beautiful landscapes. "They contain evidence of long +and careful work in the hot-houses of the 'Jardin des Plantes,' and in +front of the old bric-a-brac dealer's stalls, which used to stand about +the entrance to the Louvre. And how admirably, with the help of these +slowly and scrupulously finished studies, he could reproduce, in an +ornamental letter or floral ornament, a lily broken by the storm, or a +sheaf of Indian arms and musical instruments." + +In 1836, his "Chess Players," two men watching intently the moves of +chess, and "The Little Messenger," attracted a crowd of admirers. Each +sold for twenty dollars. He had now struggled for six years in Paris. It +was high time that his unremitting and patient work should find +approval. The people were amazed at so vast an amount of labor in so +small a space. They looked with their magnifying glasses, and found the +work exquisite in detail. They had been accustomed to great canvases, +glowing colors, and heroic or romantic sentiments; but here there was +wonderful workmanship. + +When the people began to admire, critics began to criticize. They said +"Meissonier can depict homelike or ordinary scenes, but not historic." +He said nothing, but soon brought out "Diderot" among the philosophers, +Grimm, D'Alembert, Baron Holbach, and others in the seventeenth century. +Then they said he can draw interiors only, and "on a canvas not much +larger than his thumb-nail." He soon produced the "Portrait of the +Sergeant," "one of the most daring experiments in the painting of light, +in modern art. The man stands out there in the open by himself, +literally bathed in light, and he makes a perfect picture." Then they +were sure that he could not paint movement. He replied by painting +"Rixe," two ruffians who are striving to fight, but are withheld by +friends. This was given by Louis Napoleon to the Prince Consort. + +Meissonier also showed that he could depict grand scenes, by "Moreau and +Dessoles on the eve of the battle of Hohenlinden," the "Retreat from +Russia," and the "Emperor at Solferino." Into these he put his +admiration for Napoleon the Great, and his adoration for his defeated +country. In the former picture, the two generals are standing on a +precipice, surveying the snow-covered battle-field with a glass; the +trees are bending under a strong wind, and the cloaks of the generals +are fluttering behind them. One feels the power of this picture. + +In painting the "Retreat from Russia," the artist borrowed the identical +coat worn by Napoleon, and had it copied, crease for crease, and button +for button. "When I painted that picture," he said, "I executed a great +portion of it out of doors. It was midwinter, and the ground was covered +with snow. Sometimes I sat at my easel for five or six hours together, +endeavoring to seize the exact aspect of the winter atmosphere. My +servant placed a hot foot-stove under my feet, which he renewed from +time to time, but I used to get half-frozen and terribly tired." + +He had a wooden horse made in imitation of the white charger of the +Emperor; and seating himself on this, he studied his own figure in a +mirror. His studies for this picture were almost numberless,--a horse's +head, an uplifted leg, cuirasses, helmets, models of horses in red wax, +etc. He also prepared a miniature landscape, strewn with white powder +resembling snow, with models of heavy wheels running through it, that he +might study the furrow made in that terrible march home from burning +Moscow. All this was work,--hard, patient, exacting work. + +It had now become evident to the world, and to the critics as well, that +Meissonier was a master; that he was not confined to small canvases nor +home scenes. + +In 1855 he received the grand medal; in 1856 he was made an officer of +the Legion of Honor; in 1861, a member of the Institute; and in 1867, +at the International Exhibition, he received the grand medal again. When +the prizes were given by the Emperor, the "Battle of Solferino" was +placed in the centre of the space cleared for the ceremony, with the +works of Reimers, the Russian painter, Knaus of Prussia, Rousseau, the +French landscape-painter, and others. This painting represents Napoleon +III. in front of his staff, looking upon the battle "as a cool player +studies a chess-board. On the right, in the foreground, some +artillery-men are manoeuvring their guns. The corpses of a French +soldier and two white Austrians, torn to rags by some explosion, show +where the battle had passed by." + +Meissonier's paintings now brought enormous prices. His "Marshal Saxe +and his Staff" brought eight thousand six hundred dollars in New York; +the "Soldiers at Cards," in 1876, in the same city, eleven thousand five +hundred dollars; in 1867, his "Cavalry Charge" was sold to Mr. Probasco +of Cincinnati, for thirty thousand dollars; and the "Battle of +Friedland," upon which he is said to have worked fifteen years, to A. T. +Stewart, of New York, for sixty thousand dollars. Every figure in this +was drawn from life, and the horses moulded in wax. It represents +Napoleon on horseback, on a slight elevation, his marshals grouped +around him, holding aloft his cocked hat in salutation, as the soldiers +pass hurriedly before him. + +Edmund About once wrote, "To cover M. Meissonier's pictures with gold +pieces simply would be to buy them for nothing; and the practice has now +been established of covering them with bank notes." + +"The Blacksmith," shoeing a patient old cart-horse, perfect in anatomy; +"La Halte," some soldiers at an inn, now in Hertford House gallery; and +"La Barricade," a souvenir of the civil war, are among the favorite +pictures of this famous man. And yet as one looks at some of the +exquisite work about a convivial scene, the words of the great Boston +painter, William Hunt, come to mind. Being shown a picture, very fine in +technique, by a Munich artist, of a drunken man, holding a half-filled +glass of wine, he said, "It's skilfully done, but _what is_ the _use_ of +_doing_ it! The subject isn't worthy of the painter." + +Rarely does a woman appear in Meissonier's pictures. He has done nothing +to deprave morals, which is more than can be said of some French art. +His portrait of Madame Henri Thénard was greatly admired, while that of +Mrs. Mackay was not satisfactory, and was said to have been destroyed by +her. Few persons, however, can afford to destroy a Meissonier. When told +once that "he was a fortunate man, as he could possess as many +Meissoniers as he pleased," he replied, "No, no, I cannot; that would +ruin me. They are a great deal too dear." + +He lives in the Boulevard Malesherbes, near the lovely Parc Monceau, in +the heart of the artists' quarter in Paris. His handsome home, designed +by himself in every detail, is in the Italian Renaissance style. He has +two studies,--one a quiet nook, where he can escape interruptions; and +one very large, where are gathered masterpieces from every part of the +world. Here is "a courtyard of the time of Louis XIII., brilliantly +crowded with figures in gala dress; a bride of the same period, stepping +into an elegant carriage of a crimson color, for which Meissonier had a +miniature model built by a coach-maker, to study from; a superb work of +Titian,--a figure of an Italian woman in a robe of green velvet, the +classic outline of her head shown against a crimson velvet curtain in +the background; a sketch of Bonaparte on horseback, at the head of his +picturesquely dressed staff, reviewing the young conscripts of the army +of Italy, who are cheering as he passes;" and many more valuable +pictures. Here, too, are bridles of black leather, with silver +ornaments, once the property of Murat. + +One picture here, of especial interest, was painted at his summer home +at Poissy, when his house was crowded with German soldiers in the war of +1871. "To escape their company," says M. Claretie, "in the rage that he +experienced at the national defeat, he shut himself up in his studio, +and threw upon the canvas the most striking, the most vivid, the most +avenging of allegories: he painted Paris, enveloped in a veil of +mourning, defending herself against the enemy, with her soldiers and +her dying grouped round a tattered flag; sailors, officers, and +fusiliers, soldiers, national guards, suffering women, and dying +children; and, hovering in the air above them, with the Prussian eagle +by her side, was Famine, wan and haggard Famine, accomplishing the work +that the bombardment had failed to achieve." + +His summer home, like the one in Paris, is fitted up luxuriously. He +designed most of the furniture and the silver service for his table. +Flowers, especially geraniums and tea roses, blossom in profusion about +the grounds, while great trees and fountains make it a restful and +inviting place. The walls of the dining-room are hung with crimson and +gold satin damask, against which are several of his own pictures. An +engraver at work, clad in a red dressing-gown, and seated in a room hung +with ancient tapestry, has the face of his son Charles, also an artist, +looking out from the frame. One of Madame Meissonier also adorns this +room. + +Near by are his well-filled stables, his favorite horse, Rivoli, being +often used for his model. He is equally fond of dogs, and has several +expensive hounds. How strange all this, compared with those early days +of pinching poverty! He is rarely seen in public, because he has +learned--what, alas! some people learn too late in life--that there is +no success without one commands his or her time. It must be frittered +away neither by calls nor parties; neither by idle talk nor useless +visits. Painting or writing for an hour a day never made greatness. Art +and literature will give no masterships except to devotees. The young +lady, sauntering down town to look at ribbons, never makes a George +Eliot. The young man, sauntering down town to look at the buyers of +ribbons, never makes a Meissonier. Nature is rigid in her laws. Her +gifts only grow to fruitage in the hands of workers. + +Meissonier is now seventy-four, with long gray beard and hair, round, +full face, and bright hazel eyes. His friend, Claretie, says of him, +"This man, who lives in a palace, is as moderate as a soldier on the +march. This artist, whose canvases are valued by the half-million, is as +generous as a nabob. He will give to a charity sale a picture worth the +price of a house. Praised as he is by all, he has less conceit in his +nature than a wholesale painter." + + * * * * * + +January 31, 1891, at his home in Paris, the great artist passed away. +His illness was very brief. The funeral services took place at the +Church of the Madeleine, which was thronged with the leaders of art and +letters. An imposing military cortege accompanied the body to its last +resting-place at Poissy, the summer home of the artist, on the Seine, +ten miles from Versailles. + + + + +[Illustration: GEORGE WILLIAM CHILDS.] + +GEORGE W. CHILDS. + + +The "Public Ledger" of Philadelphia, and its owner, are known the world +over. Would we see the large-hearted, hospitable millionaire, who has +come to honor through his own industry, let us enter the elegant +building occupied by his newspaper. + +Every portion is interesting. The rooms where editors and assistants +work are large, light, and airy, and as tasteful as parlors. Alas! how +unhomelike and barren are some of the newspaper offices, where gifted +men toil from morning till night, with little time for sleep, and still +less for recreation. Mr. Childs has thought of the comfort and health of +his workmen, for he, too, was a poor boy, and knows what it is to labor. + +He has also been generous with his men in the matter of wages. "He +refused to reduce the rate of payment of his compositors, +notwithstanding that the Typographical Union had formerly sanctioned a +reduction, and notwithstanding that the reduced scale was operative in +every printing-office in Philadelphia except his own. He said, 'My +business is prosperous; why should not my men share in my prosperity?' +This act of graciousness, while it endeared him to the hearts of his +beneficiaries, was commented on most favorably at home and abroad. That +his employés, in a formal interview with him, expressed their +willingness to accept the reduced rates, simply augments the generosity +of his act." Strikes among laborers would be few and far between if +employers were like George W. Childs. + +Each person in his employ has a summer vacation of two or more weeks, +his wages being continued meantime, and paid in advance, with a liberal +sum besides. On Christmas every man, woman, and boy receives a present, +amounting, of course, to many thousands of dollars annually. Mr. Childs +has taken care of many who have become old or disabled in his service. +The foreman of his composing-room had worked for him less than twelve +months before he failed in health. For years this man has drawn his +weekly pay, though never going to the establishment. This is indeed +practical Christianity. + +Besides caring for the living, in 1868 this wise employer of labor +purchased two thousand feet in Woodlands for a printers' cemetery, and +gave it to the Philadelphia Typographical Society, with a sum of money +to keep the grounds in good order yearly. The first person buried beyond +the handsome marble gothic gateway was a destitute and aged printer who +had died at the almshouse and whose dying message to Mr. Childs was that +he could not bear to fill a pauper's grave. His wish was cordially +granted. + +But after seeing the admirable provision made for his workmen, we must +enter the private office of Mr. Childs. He is most accessible to all, +with no airs of superior position, welcoming persons from every clime +daily, between the hours of eleven and one. He listens courteously to +any requests, and then bids you make yourself at home in this elegant +office, that certainly has no superior in the world, perhaps no rival. + +The room itself in the Queen Anne style, with exquisite wood-carving, +marble tiles, brass ornaments, and painted glass, is a gem. Here is his +motto, a noble one, and thoroughly American, "Nihil sine labore," and +well his life has illustrated it. All honor to every man or woman who +helps to make labor honored in this country. The design of the ceiling +was suggested by a room in Coombe Abbey, Warwickshire, the seat of the +Earls Craven, fitted up by one of its lords for the reception of Queen +Elizabeth. Over a dozen valuable clocks are seen, one made in Amsterdam +over two hundred years ago, which, besides the time of day, gives the +phases of the moon, the days of the week, and the month; another, a +clock constructed by David Rittenhouse, the astronomer of the +Revolution, in the old colonial days, which plays a great variety of +music, has a little planetarium attached, and nearly six thousand teeth +in wheels. It was made for Joseph Potts, who paid six hundred and forty +dollars for it. The Spanish Minister in 1778 offered eight hundred for +it, that he might present it to his sovereign. Mr. Childs has about +fifty rare clocks in his various homes, one of these costing six +thousand dollars. + +Here is a marble statuette of Savonarola, the Florentine preacher of the +fifteenth century; the little green harp which belonged to Tom Moore, +and on which he used to play in the homes of the great; a colossal suit +of antique French armor, one hundred and fifty years old; a miniature +likeness of George Washington, handsomely encased in gold, bequeathed by +him to a relative, a lock of his hair in the back of the picture; a +miniature ship, made from the wood of the _Alliance Frigate_, the only +one of our first navy, of the class of frigates, which escaped capture +or destruction during the Revolutionary war. This boat, and a silver +waiter, presented after the famous battle of New Orleans, were both the +property of President Jackson, and were taken by him to the Hermitage. +Here, also, is a photograph of "Old Ironsides" Stewart, in a frame made +from the frigate _Constitution_, in which great victories were achieved, +besides many portraits given by famous people, with their autographs. + +After a delightful hour spent in looking at these choice things, Mr. +Childs bids us take our choice of some rare china cups and saucers. We +choose one dainty with red birds, and carry it away as a pleasant +remembrance of a princely giver, in a princely apartment. + +Mr. Childs has had a most interesting history. Born in Baltimore, he +entered the United States navy at thirteen, where he remained for +fifteen months. At fourteen he came to Philadelphia, poor, but with +courage and a quick mind, and found a place to work in a bookstore. Here +he remained for four years, doing his work faithfully, and to the best +of his ability. At the end of these years he had saved a few hundred +dollars, and opened a little store for himself in the Ledger Building, +where the well-known newspaper, the "Public Ledger," was published. + +He was ambitious, as who is not, that comes to prominence; and one day +he made the resolution that he would sometime be the owner of this great +paper and its building! Probably had this resolution been known, his +acquaintances would have regarded the youth as little less than crazy. +But the boy who willed this had a definite aim. Besides, he was never +idle, he was economical, his habits were the best, and why should not +such a boy succeed? + +In three years, when he was twenty-one, he had become the head of a +publishing house,--Childs & Peterson. He had a keen sense of what the +public needed. He brought out Kane's "Arctic Expedition," from which the +author, Dr. Kane, realized seventy thousand dollars. Two hundred +thousand copies of Peterson's "Familiar Science" were sold. Allibone +dedicated his great work, "Dictionary of English and American Authors," +to the energetic and appreciative young publisher. + +He had now acquired wealth, sooner almost than he could have hoped. +Before him were bright prospects as a publisher; but the prize that he +had set out to win was to own the "Public Ledger." + +The opportunity came in December, 1864. But his paper was losing money. +His friends advised against taking such a burden; he would surely fail. +But Mr. Childs had faith in himself. He expected to win where others +lost. He bought the property, doubled the subscription rates, lowered +the advertising, excluded everything questionable from the columns of +his paper, made his editorials brief, yet comprehensive, until under his +judicious management the journal reached the large circulation of ninety +thousand daily. For ten years he has given the "Ledger Almanac" to every +subscriber, costing five thousand dollars annually. The yearly profits, +it is stated, have been four hundred thousand dollars. All this has not +been accomplished without thought and labor. + +Fortune, of course, had come, and fame. He built homes, elegant ones, in +Philadelphia and at Newport, but these are not simply places in which to +spend money, but centres of hospitality and culture. + +His library is one of the most charming places in this country. The +wood-work is carved ebony with gold, the bookshelves six feet high on +every side, and the ceiling built in sunken panels, blue and gold. In +the centre is a table made from ebony, brought from Africa by Paul du +Chaillu. One looks with interest upon the handsome volumes of the +standard authors, but other things are of deeper interest. + +Here is an original sermon of Rev. Cotton Mather; the poems of Leigh +Hunt, which he presented to Charles Dickens; the original manuscript of +Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Consular Experiences"; the first edition of the +"Scarlet Letter," with a note to Mr. Childs from the great novelist; +Bryant's manuscript of the "First Book of the Iliad"; James Russell +Lowell's "June Idyl," begun in 1850 and finished eighteen years +afterward; the manuscript of James Fenimore Cooper's "Life of Captain +Richard Somers"; and Edgar Allan Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue," +seventeen pages of large paper written small and close. + +Here is an autograph letter from Poe, in which he offers to his +publishers thirty-three short stories, enough to fill two large volumes, +"On the terms which you allowed me before; that is, you receive all +profits and allow me twenty copies for distribution to friends." From +this it seems that Poe had the _usual_ struggles of literary people. + +One of the most unique things of the library is the manuscript of "Our +Mutual Friend," bound in fine brown morocco. The skeleton of the novel +is written through several pages, showing how carefully Dickens thought +out his plan and his characters; the paper is light blue, written over +with dark blue ink, with many erasures and changes. Here are also +fifty-six volumes of Dickens' works, with an autograph letter in each, +from the author to Mr. Childs. Here is Lord Byron's desk on which he +wrote "Don Juan." Now we look upon the smallest book ever printed, +Dante's "Divina Commedia," bound in Turkey gilt, less than two and +one-fourth inches long by one and one-half inches wide. + +The collection of Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, now the property of Mr. +Childs, letters and manuscripts from Lamb, Hawthorne, Mary Somerville, +Harriet Martineau, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Browning, and hundreds of +others, is of almost priceless value. In 1879 Mrs. Hall gave the Bible +of Tom Moore to Mr. Childs, "an honored and much loved citizen of the +United States, as the best and most valuable offering she could make to +him, as a grateful tribute of respect, regard, and esteem." + +Another valuable book is made up of the portraits of the presidents, +with an autograph letter from each. Dom Pedro of Brazil sent, in 1876, a +work on his empire, with his picture and his autograph. George Peabody +sat for a full-length portrait for Mr. Childs. The album of Mrs. Childs +contains the autographs of a great number of the leading men and women +of the world. + +One could linger here for days, but we must see the lovely country-seat +called "Wootton," some distance out from the city. The house is in Queen +Anne style, surrounded by velvety lawns, a wealth of evergreen and +exquisite plants, brought over from South America and Africa. The farm +adjoining is a delight to see. Here is the dairy built of white +flintstone, while the milkroom has stained glass windows, as though it +were a chapel. The beautiful grounds are open every Thursday to +visitors. + +Here have been entertained the Duke and Duchess of Buckingham, the Duke +of Sutherland, Lord Rosse, Lord Dufferin, Sir Stafford Northcote, +Herbert Spencer, John Waller, M.P., of the "London Times," Dean Stanley, +Thomas Hughes, Dickens, Grant, Evarts; indeed, the famous of two +hemispheres. + +With all this elegance, befitting royalty, Mr. Childs has been a +constant and generous giver. For his own city he was one of the foremost +to secure Fairmount Park, and helped originate the Zoölogical Gardens, +the Pennsylvania Museum, and the School of Industrial Arts. He gave ten +thousand dollars for a Centennial Exposition. He has been one of General +Grant's most generous helpers; yet while doing for the great, he does +not forget the unknown. He gives free excursions to poor children, a +dinner annually to the newsboys, and aids hundreds who are in need of an +education. + +He has placed a stained glass window in Westminster Abbey, in +commemoration of George Herbert and William Cowper; given largely to a +memorial window for Thomas Moore at Bronham, England; for a stone to +mark Leigh Hunt's resting-place in Kensal Green; and toward a monument +for Poe. + +Mr. Childs has come to eminence by energy, integrity, and true faith in +himself. He has had a noble ambition, and has worked towards it. He has +proved to all other American boys that worth and honest dealing will win +success, in a greater or less degree. That well-known scientist, Prof. +Joseph Henry, of the Smithsonian Institute, said, "Mr. Childs is a +wonderful man. His ability to apply the power of money in advancing the +well-being of his fellow-men is unrivalled. He is naturally kind and +sympathetic, and these generous feelings are exalted, not depressed, by +his success in accumulating a fortune.... Like man in the classification +of animals, he forms a genus in himself. He stands alone; there is not +another in the wide world like him." + + * * * * * + +Mr. Childs died at 3.01 A.M. February 3, 1894 from the effects of a +stroke of paralysis sustained at the Ledger office on January 18. He was +nearly sixty-five years of age. He was buried on February 6, in the +Drexel Mausoleum in Woodland Cemetery beside his life long friend. + + + + +[Illustration: DWIGHT L. MOODY] + +DWIGHT L. MOODY. + + +"There's no chance to get in there. There's six thousand persons inside, +and two thousand outside." + +This was said to Dr. Magoun, President of Iowa College, and myself, +after we had waited for nearly an hour, outside of Spurgeon's +Tabernacle, in London, in the hope of hearing Mr. Moody preach. Finally, +probably through courtesy to Americans, we obtained seats. The six +thousand in this great church were sitting as though spellbound. The +speaker was a man in middle life, rugged, strong, and plain in dress and +manner. His words were so simple that a child could understand them. Now +tears came into the eyes of most of the audience, as he told some +touching incident, and now faces grew sober as the people examined their +own hearts under the searching words. There was no consciousness about +the preacher; no wild gesture nor loud tone. Only one expression seemed +applicable, "a man dead in earnest." + +And who was this man whom thousands came to hear? Not a learned man, +not a rich man, but one of the greatest evangelists the world has ever +seen. Circumstances were all against him, but he conquered +circumstances. + +Dwight Lyman Moody was born at Northfield, Mass., Feb. 5, 1837. His +father, a stone-mason and farmer, died when the boy was four years old, +broken down with reverses in business. His mother was left with seven +sons and two daughters, the eldest a boy only fifteen. What happened to +this lad was well told by Mr. Moody, a few years since. "Soon after my +father's death the creditors came in and took everything. One calamity +after another swept over the entire household. Twins were added to the +family, and my mother was taken sick. To the eldest boy my mother looked +as a stay in her calamity; but all at once that boy became a wanderer. +He had been reading some of the trashy novels, and the belief had seized +him that he had only to go away, to make a fortune. Away he went. I can +remember how eagerly she used to look for tidings of that boy; how she +used to send us to the post-office to see if there was a letter from +him, and recollect how we used to come back with the sad news, 'No +letter!' I remember how in the evenings we used to sit beside her in +that New England home, and we would talk about our father; but the +moment the name of that boy was mentioned she would hush us into +silence. Some nights, when the wind was very high, and the house, which +was upon a hill, would tremble at every gust, the voice of my mother was +raised in prayer for that wanderer, who had treated her so unkindly. I +used to think she loved him better than all of us put together, and I +believe she did. + +"On a Thanksgiving day she used to set a chair for him, thinking he +would return home. Her family grew up, and her boys left home. When I +got so that I could write, I sent letters all over the country, but +could find no trace of him. One day, while in Boston, the news reached +me that he had returned. While in that city, I remember how I used to +look for him in every store--he had a mark on his face--but I never got +any trace. One day, while my mother was sitting at the door, a stranger +was seen coming toward the house, and when he came to the door he +stopped. My mother didn't know her boy. He stood there with folded arms +and great beard flowing down his breast, his tears trickling down his +face. When my mother saw those tears, she cried, 'Oh, it's my lost son!' +and entreated him to come in. But he stood still, 'No, mother,' he said, +'I will not come in until I hear that you have forgiven me.' She rushed +to the threshold, threw her arms around him, and breathed forgiveness." + +Dwight grew to be a strong, self-willed lad, working on the farm, fond +of fun rather than of study, held in check only by his devotion to his +mother. She was urged to put the children into different homes, on +account of their extreme poverty, but by tilling their garden, and doing +some work for their neighbors, she managed to keep her little flock +together. A woman who could do this had remarkable energy and courage. + +What little schooling Dwight received was not greatly enjoyed, because +the teacher was a quick-tempered man, who used a rattan on the boys' +backs. Years after, he told how a happy change was effected in that +school. "After a while there was somebody who began to get up a movement +in favor of controlling the school by love. I remember how we thought of +the good time we should have that winter, when the rattan would be out +of school. We thought we would then have all the fun we wanted. I +remember who the teacher was--a lady--and she opened the school with +prayer. We hadn't seen it done before, and we were impressed, especially +when she prayed that she might have grace and strength to rule the +school with love. The school went on several weeks, and we saw no +rattan; but at last the rules were broken, and I think I was the first +boy to break them. She told me to wait till after school, and then she +would see me. I thought the rattan was coming out sure, and stretched +myself up in warlike attitude. After school, however, she sat down by me +and told me how she loved me, and how she had prayed to be able to rule +that school by love, and concluded by saying, 'I want to ask you one +favor, that is, if you love me, try and be a good boy;' and I never +gave her trouble again." + +He was very susceptible to kindness. When an old man, who had the habit +of giving every new boy who came into the town a cent, put his hand on +Dwight's head, and told him he had a Father in heaven, he never forgot +the pressure of that old man's hand. + +Farming among Northfield rocks was not exciting work enough for the +energetic boy; so with his mother's consent, he started for Boston, when +he was seventeen, to look for work. He had the same bitter experience +that other homeless boys have. He says, "I went to the post-office two +or three times a day to see if there was a letter for me. I knew there +was not, as there was but one mail a day. I had not any employment and +was very homesick, and so went constantly to the post-office, thinking +perhaps when the mail did come in, my letter had been mislaid. At last, +however, I got a letter. It was from my youngest sister,--the first +letter she ever wrote me. I opened it with a light heart thinking there +was some good news from home, but the burden of the whole letter was +that she had heard there were pickpockets in Boston, and warned me to +take care of them. I thought I had better get some money in hand first, +and then I might take care of pickpockets." + +The homesick boy finally applied to an uncle, a shoe-dealer, who +hesitated much about taking the country lad into his employ. He agreed +to do so on the conditions that the boy would heed his advice, and +attend regularly the Mount Vernon Church and Sunday-school. The +preaching of Dr. Kirk, the pastor, was scholarly and eloquent, but quite +above the lad's comprehension. His Sunday-school teacher, Mr. Edward +Kimball, was a devoted man, and withal had the tact to win a boy's +confidence. One day he came into the store where young Moody worked, and +going behind the counter, placed his hand on the boy's shoulder and +talked about his becoming a Christian. Such interest touched Dwight's +heart, and he soon took a stand on the right side. Years afterward, +Moody was the means of the conversion of the son of Mr. Kimball, at +seventeen, just his own age at this time. + +His earnest nature made him eager to do Christian work; but so poor was +his command of language, and his sentences were so awkward, that he was +not accepted to the membership of the church for a year after he had +made his application. They thought him very "unlikely ever to become a +Christian of clear and decided views of gospel truth; still less to fill +any extended sphere of public usefulness." Alas! how the best of us +sometimes have our eyes shut to the treasures lying at our feet. + +He longed for a wider field of usefulness, and in the fall of 1856, when +he was nineteen, started for Chicago, taking with him testimonials which +secured him a place as salesman in a shoe store. He joined Plymouth +Church, and at once rented four pews for the young men whom he intended +to bring in. Here, it is said, some of the more cultured assured him +that his silence would be more effective for good than his speech! +Certainly not encouraging to a young convert. + +He offered his services to a mission school as a teacher. "He was +welcome, if he would bring his own scholars," they said. The next +Sunday, to their astonishment, young Moody walked in at the head of +eighteen ragged urchins whom he had gathered from the streets. He +distributed tracts among the seamen at the wharfs, and did not fear to +go into saloons and talk with the inmates. + +Finally he wanted a larger field still, and opened an old saloon, which +had been vacated, as a Sunday-school room. It was in the neighborhood of +two hundred saloons and gambling-dens! His heart was full of love for +the poor and the outcasts, and they did not mind about his grammar. A +friend came to see him in these dingy quarters, and found him holding a +colored child, while he read, by the dim light of some tallow candles, +the story of the Prodigal Son to his little congregation. "I have got +only one talent," said the unassuming Moody. "I have no education, but I +love the Lord Jesus Christ, and I want to do something for him. I want +you to pray for me." + +Thirteen years later, when all Great Britain was aflame with the sermons +of this same man, he wrote his friend, "Pray for me every day; pray now +that the Lord will keep me humble." + +Soon the Sunday-school outgrew the shabby saloon, and was moved to a +hall, where a thousand scholars gathered. Still attending to business as +a travelling salesman, for six years he swept and made ready his +Sunday-school room. He had great tact with his pupils, and won them by +kindness. One day a boy came, who was very unruly, sticking pins into +the backs of the other boys. Mr. Moody patted him kindly on the head, +and asked him to come again. After a short time he became a Christian, +and then was anxious about his mother, whom Mr. Moody had been unable to +influence. One night the lad threw his arms about her neck, and weeping +told her how he had stopped swearing, and how he wanted her to love the +Saviour. When she passed his room, she heard him praying, "Oh, God, +convert my dear mother." The next Sunday he led her into the +Sabbath-school, and she became an earnest worker. + +He also has great tact with his young converts. "Every man can do +something," he says. "I had a Swede converted in Chicago. I don't know +how. I don't suppose he was converted by my sermons, because he couldn't +understand much. The Lord converted him into one of the happiest men you +ever saw. His face shone all over. He came to me, and he had to speak +through an interpreter. This interpreter said this Swede wanted to have +me give him something to do. I said to myself, 'What in the world will +I set this man to doing? He can't talk English!' So I gave him a bundle +of little handbills, and put him out on the corner of the greatest +thoroughfare of Chicago, and let him give them out, inviting people to +come up and hear me preach. A man would come along and take it, and see +'Gospel meeting,' and would turn around and curse the fellow; but the +Swede would laugh, because he didn't know but he was blessing him. He +couldn't tell the difference. A great many men were impressed by that +man's being so polite and kind. There he stood, and when winter came and +the nights got so dark they could not read those little handbills, he +went and got a little transparency and put it up on the corner, and +there he took his stand, hot or cold, rain or shine. Many a man was won +to Christ by his efforts." + +In 1860, when Moody was twenty-three, he made up his mind to give all +his time to Christian work. He was led to this by the following +incident. He says, "In the Sunday-school I had a pale, delicate young +man as one of the teachers. I knew his burning piety, and assigned him +to the worst class in the school. They were all girls, and it was an +awful class. They kept gadding around in the schoolroom, and were +laughing and carrying on all the while. One Sunday he was absent, and I +tried myself to teach the class, but couldn't do anything with them; +they seemed farther off than ever from any concern about their souls. +Well, the day after his absence, early Monday morning, the young man +came into the store where I worked, and, tottering and bloodless, threw +himself down on some boxes. + +"'What's the matter?' I asked. + +"'I have been bleeding at the lungs, and they have given me up to die,' +he said. + +"'But you are not afraid to die?' I questioned. + +"'No,' said he, 'I am not afraid to die; but I have got to stand before +God and give an account of my stewardship, and not one of my +Sabbath-school scholars has been brought to Jesus. I have failed to +bring one, and haven't any strength to do it now.' + +"He was so weighed down that I got a carriage and took that dying man in +it, and we called at the homes of every one of his scholars, and to each +one he said, as best his faint voice would let him, 'I have come to just +ask you to come to the Saviour,' and then he prayed as I never heard +before. And for ten days he labored in that way, sometimes walking to +the nearest houses. And at the end of that ten days, every one of that +large class had yielded to the Saviour. + +"Full well I remember the night before he went away (for the doctors +said he must hurry to the South); how we held a true love-feast. It was +the very gate of heaven, that meeting. He prayed, and they prayed; he +didn't ask them, he didn't think they could pray; and then we sung, +'Blest be the tie that binds.' It was a beautiful night in June that he +left on the Michigan Southern, and I was down to the train to help him +off. And those girls every one gathered there again, all unknown to each +other; and the depot seemed a second gate to heaven, in the joyful, yet +tearful, communion and farewells between these newly-redeemed souls and +him whose crown of rejoicing it will be that he led them to Jesus. At +last the gong sounded, and, supported on the platform, the dying man +shook hands with each one, and whispered, 'I will meet you yonder.' + +"From this," says Mr. Moody, "I got the first impulse to work solely for +the conversion of men." + +When he told his employer that he was going to give up business, he was +asked, "Where will you get your support?" + +"God will provide for me if he wishes me to keep on, and I shall keep on +till I am obliged to stop," was the reply. + +To keep his expenses as low as possible, he slept at night on a hard +bench in the rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association, and ate the +plainest food. Thus was the devoted work of this Christian hero begun. +He was soon made city missionary for a time. Then the civil war began, +and a camp was established near Chicago. He saw his wonderful +opportunity now to reach men who were soon to be face to face with +death. The first tent erected was used as a place of prayer. Ministers +and friends came to his aid. He labored day and night, sometimes eight +or ten prayer-meetings being held at the same time in the various tents. + +He did not desert these men on the field of battle. He was with the army +at Pittsburgh Landing, Shiloh, Murfreesboro', and Chattanooga. Nine +times, in the interests of the Christian Commission, he visited our men +at the front, on his errands of mercy. He tells this incident in a +hospital at Murfreesboro'. + +"One night after midnight, I was woke up and told that there was a man +in one of the wards who wanted to see me. I went to him, and he called +me 'chaplain,'--I wasn't a chaplain,--and he said he wanted me to help +him die. And I said, 'I'd take you right up in my arms and carry you +into the kingdom of God, if I could; but I can't do it; I can't help you +to die.' + +"And he said, 'Who can?' + +"I said, 'The Lord Jesus Christ can. He came for that purpose.' He shook +his head and said, 'He can't save me; I have sinned all my life.' + +"And I said, 'But he came to save sinners.' I thought of his mother in +the north, and I knew that she was anxious that he should die right, and +I thought I'd stay with him. I prayed two or three times, and repeated +all the promises I could, and I knew that in a few hours he would be +gone. I said I wanted to read him a conversation that Christ had with a +man who was anxious about his soul. I turned to the third chapter of +John. His eyes were riveted on me, and when I came to the fourteenth +and fifteenth verses, he caught up the words, 'As Moses lifted up the +serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: +that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal +life.' + +"He stopped me, and said, 'Is that there?' I said, 'Yes;' and he asked +me to read it again, and I did so. He leaned his elbows on the cot and +clasped his hands together, and said, 'That's good; won't you read it +again?' I read it the third time, and then went on with the rest of the +chapter. When I finished his eyes were closed, his hands were folded, +and there was a smile on his face. Oh, how it was lit up! What a change +had come over it. I saw his lips quiver, and I leaned over him, and +heard in a faint whisper, 'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the +wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever +believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.' + +"He opened his eyes and said, 'That's enough; don't read any more.' He +lingered a few hours, and then pillowed his head on those two verses, +and went up in one of Christ's chariots and took his seat in the kingdom +of God." + +On the 28th of August, 1862, Mr. Moody married Miss Emma C. Revell, a +most helpful assistant in his meetings, and a young lady of noble +character. A daughter and a son came to gladden their simple cottage, +and there was no happier home in all Chicago. One morning he said to his +wife, "I have no money, and the house is without supplies. It looks as +if the Lord had had enough of me in this mission work, and is going to +send me back again to sell boots and shoes." But very soon two checks +came, one of fifty dollars for himself, and another for his school. Six +years after his marriage, his friends gave him the lease of a pleasant +furnished house. + +This home had a welcome for all who sought the true way to live. One day +a gentleman called at the office, bringing a young man who had recently +come out of the penitentiary. The latter shrunk from going into the +office, but Mr. Moody said, "Bring him in." Mr. Moody took him by the +hand, told him he was glad to see him, and invited him to his house. +When the young man called, Mr. Moody introduced him as his friend. When +his little daughter came into the room, he said, "Emma, this is papa's +friend." She went up and kissed him, and the man sobbed aloud. + +When she left the room, Mr. Moody said, "What is the matter?" + +"Oh sir," was the reply, "I have not had a kiss for years. The last kiss +I had was from my mother, and she was dying. I thought I would never +have another kiss again." + +No wonder people are saved from sin by visiting a home like this! + +In 1863, those who had been converted under this beloved leader wanted a +church of their own where they could worship together. A building was +erected, costing twenty thousand dollars. Four years later, Mr. Moody +was made President of the Young Men's Christian Association, and Farwell +Hall was speedily built. + +He was loved and honored everywhere. Once he was invited to the opening +of a great billiard hall. He saw the owners, and asked if he might bring +a friend. They said yes, but asked who he was. Mr. Moody said it wasn't +necessary to tell, but he never went without him. They understood his +meaning, and said, "Come, we don't want any praying." + +"You've given me an invitation, and I am going to come," he replied. + +"But if you come, you needn't pray." + +"Well, I'll tell you what we'll do," was the answer; "we'll compromise +the matter, and if you don't want me to come and pray for you when you +open, let me pray for you both now," to which they agreed. + +Mr. Moody prayed that their business might go to pieces, which it did in +a very few months. After the failure, one of the partners determined to +kill himself; but when he was about to plunge the knife into his breast, +he seemed to hear again the words of his dying mother, "Johnny, if you +get into trouble, pray." That voice changed his purpose and his life. He +prayed for forgiveness and obtained it. + +In 1871, the terrible fire in Chicago swept away Moody's home and +church. Two years later, having been invited to Great Britain by two +prominent Christian men, he decided to take his friend, Mr. Ira D. +Sankey, who had already won a place in the hearts of the people by his +singing, and together they would attempt some work for their Lord. They +landed in Liverpool, June 17. The two friends who had invited them were +dead. The clergy did not know them, and the world was wholly +indifferent. At their first meeting in York, England, only four persons +were present, but Mr. Moody said it was one of the best meetings they +ever held. They labored here for some weeks, and about two hundred were +converted. + +From here they went to Sunderland and Newcastle, the numbers and +interest constantly increasing. Union prayer meetings had been held in +Edinburgh for two months in anticipation of their coming. When they +arrived, two thousand persons crowded Music Hall, and hundreds were +necessarily turned away. As a result of these efforts, over three +thousand persons united with the various churches. In Dundee over ten +thousand persons gathered in the open air, and at Glasgow nearly thirty +thousand, Mr. Moody preaching from his carriage. The press reported all +these sermons, and his congregations were thus increased a hundred-fold +all over the country. The farmer boy of Northfield, the awkward young +convert of Mount Vernon Church, Boston, had become famous. Scholarly +ministers came to him to learn how to influence men toward religion. +Infidels were reclaimed, and rich and poor alike found the Bible +precious, from his simple and beautiful teaching. + +In Ireland the crowds sometimes covered six acres, and inquiry meetings +lasted for eight hours. Four months were spent in London, where it is +believed over two and a half million persons attended the meetings. + +Mr. Moody had been fearless in his work. When a church member who was a +distiller became troubled in conscience over his business, he came and +asked if the evangelist thought a man could not be an honest distiller. + +Mr. Moody replied, "You should do whatever you do for the glory of God. +If you can get down and pray about a barrel of whiskey, and say when you +sell it, 'O Lord God, let this whiskey be blessed to the world,' it is +probably honest!" + +On his return to America, Mr. Moody was eagerly welcomed. Philadelphia +utilized an immense freight depot for the meetings, putting in it ten +thousand chairs, and providing a choir of six hundred singers. Over four +thousand conversions resulted. In New York the Hippodrome was prepared +by an expenditure of ten thousand dollars, and as many conversions were +reported here. Boston received him with open arms. Ninety churches +co-operated in the house-to-house visitation in connection with the +meetings, and a choir of two thousand singers was provided. Mr. Moody, +with his wonderful executive ability and genius in organizing, was like +a general at the head of his army. + +Chicago received him home thankfully and proudly, as was her right. A +church had been built for him during his absence, costing one hundred +thousand dollars. + +For the past ten years his work has been a marvel to the world and, +doubtless, to himself. Great Britain has been a second time stirred to +its centre by his presence. His sermons have been scattered broadcast by +the hundreds of thousands. He receives no salary, never allowing a +contribution to be taken for himself, but his wants have been supplied. +A pleasant home at his birthplace, Northfield, has been given him by his +friends, made doubly dear by the presence of his mother, now over eighty +years old. He has established two schools here, one for boys and another +for girls, with three hundred pupils, trained in all that ennobles life. + +The results from Mr. Moody's work are beyond computing. In his first +visit to London a noted man of wealth was converted. He at once sold his +hunting dogs and made his country house a centre of missionary effort. +During Mr. Moody's second visit the two sons at Cambridge University +professed Christianity. One goes to China, having induced some other +students to accompany him as missionaries; the other, just married to a +lord's daughter, has begun mission work among the slums in the East End +of London. + +The work of such a life as Mr. Moody's goes on forever. His influence +will be felt in almost countless homes after he has passed away from +earth. He has wrought without means, and with no fortuitous +circumstances. He is a devoted student of the Bible, rising at five +o'clock for study in some of his most laborious seasons. He is a man +consecrated to a single purpose,--that of winning souls. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Moody died at his home at East Northfield, Mass., at noon, Friday, +December 22, 1899. He was taken ill during a series of meetings at +Kansas City, a few weeks previously, and heart disease resulted from +overwork. He was conscious to the last. He said to his two sons who were +standing by his bedside: "I have always been an ambitious man, not +ambitious to lay up wealth, but to leave you work to do, and you're +going to continue the work of the schools in East Northfield and Mount +Hermon and of the Chicago Bible Institute." Just as death came he awoke +as if from sleep and said joyfully, "I have been within the gate; earth +is receding; heaven is opening; God is calling me; do not call me back," +and a moment later expired. He was buried Tuesday, December 26, at Round +Top, on the seminary grounds, where thousands have gathered yearly at +the summer meetings conducted by the great evangelist. + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + +In Gentryville, Indiana, in the year 1816, might have been seen a log +cabin without doors or window-glass, a dirt floor, a bed made of dried +leaves, and a stool or two and table formed of logs. The inmates were +Thomas Lincoln, a good-hearted man who could neither read nor write; +Nancy Hanks, his wife, a pale-faced, sensitive, gentle woman, strangely +out of place in her miserable surroundings; a girl of ten, Sarah; and a +tall, awkward boy of eight, Abraham. + +The family had but recently moved from a similar cabin in Hardin County, +Kentucky, cutting their way through the wilderness with an ax, and +living off the game they could obtain with a gun. + +Mrs. Lincoln possessed but one book in the world, the Bible; and from +this she taught her children daily. Abraham had been to school for two +or three months, at such a school as the rude country afforded, and had +learned to read. Of quick mind and retentive memory, he soon came to +know the Bible wellnigh by heart, and to look upon his gentle teacher as +the embodiment of all the good precepts in the book. Afterward, when +he governed thirty million people, he said, "All that I am or hope to +be, I owe to my angel mother. Blessings on her memory!" + +[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.] + +When he was ten years old, the saintly mother faded like a flower amid +these hardships of pioneer life, died of consumption, and was buried in +a plain box under the trees near the cabin. The blow for the girl, who +also died at fifteen, was hard; but for the boy the loss was +irreparable. Day after day he sat on the grave and wept. A sad, far-away +look crept into his eyes, which those who saw him in the perils of his +later life well remember. + +Nine months after this, Abraham wrote a letter to Parson Elkins, a good +minister whom they used to know in Kentucky, asking him to come and +preach a funeral sermon on his mother. He came, riding on horseback over +one hundred miles; and one bright Sabbath morning, when the neighbors +from the whole country around had gathered, some in carts and some on +horseback, he spoke, over the open grave, of the precious, Christian +life of her who slept beneath. She died early, but not till she had laid +well the foundation-stones in one of the grandest characters in history. + +The boy, communing with himself, longed to read and know something +beyond the stumps between which he planted his corn. He borrowed a copy +of Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," and read and re-read it till he could +repeat much of it. Then some one loaned him "Æsop's Fables" and +"Robinson Crusoe," and these he pored over with eager delight. There +surely was a great world beyond Kentucky and Indiana, and perhaps he +would some day see it. + +After a time Thomas Lincoln married a widow, an old friend of Nancy +Hanks, and she came to the cabin, bringing her three children; besides, +she brought what to Abraham and Sarah seemed unheard-of elegance,--a +bureau, some chairs, a table, and bedding. Abraham had heretofore +climbed to the loft of the cabin on pegs, and had slept on a sack filled +with corn-husks: now a real bed would seem indeed luxurious. + +The children were glad to welcome the new mother to the desolate home; +and a good, true mother she became to the orphans. She put new energy +into her somewhat easy-going husband, and made the cabin comfortable, +even attractive. What was better still, she encouraged Abraham to read +more and more, to be thorough, and to be somebody. Besides, she gave his +great heart something to love, and well she repaid the affection. + +He now obtained a much-worn copy of Weem's "Life of Washington," and the +little cabin grew to be a paradise, as he read how one great man had +accomplished so much. The barefoot boy, in buckskin breeches so shrunken +that they reached only half way between the knee and ankle, actually +asked himself whether there were not some great place in the world for +him to fill. No wonder, when, a few days after, making a noise with some +of his fun-loving companions, a good woman said to him, "Now, Abe, what +on earth do you s'pose'll ever become of ye? What'll ye be good for if +ye keep a-goin' on in this way?" He replied slowly, "Well, I reckon I'm +goin' to be President of the United States one of these days." + +The treasured "Life of Washington" came to grief. One stormy night the +rain beat between the logs of the cabin, and flooded the volume as it +lay on a board upheld by two pegs. Abraham sadly carried it back to its +owner, and worked three days, at twenty-five cents a day, to pay +damages, and thus made the book his own. + +The few months of schooling had already come to an end, and he was +"living out," hoeing, planting, and chopping wood for the farmers, and +giving the wages to his parents. In this way, in the daytime he studied +human nature, and in the evenings he read "Plutarch's Lives" and the +"Life of Benjamin Franklin." He was liked in these humble homes, for he +could tend baby, tell stories, make a good impromptu speech, recite +poetry, even making rhymes himself, and could wrestle and jump as well +as the best. + +While drinking intoxicants was the fashion all about him, taught by his +first mother not to touch them, he had solemnly carried out her wishes. +But his tender heart made him kind to the many who, in this pioneer +life, had been ruined through drink. One night, as he was returning from +a house-raising, he and two or three friends found a man in the ditch +benumbed with the cold, and his patient horse waiting beside him. They +lifted the man upon the animal, and held him on till they reached the +nearest house, where Abraham cared for him through the night, and thus +saved his life. + +At eighteen he had found a situation in a small store, but he was not +satisfied to stand behind a counter; he had read too much about +Washington and Franklin. Fifteen miles from Gentryville, courts were +held at certain seasons of the year; and when Abraham could find a spare +day he walked over in the morning and back at night, listening to the +cases. Meantime he had borrowed a strange book for a poor +country-lad,--"The Revised Statutes of Indiana." + +One day a man on trial for murder had secured the able lawyer, John A. +Breckenridge, to defend him. Abraham listened as he made his appeal to +the jury. He had never heard anything so eloquent. When the court +adjourned the tall, homely boy, his face beaming with admiration for the +great man, pressed forward to grasp his hand; but, with a contemptuous +air, the lawyer passed on without speaking. Thirty years later the two +met in Washington, when Abraham Lincoln was the President of the United +States; and then he thanked Mr. Breckenridge for his great speech in +Indiana. + +In March, 1828, the long-hoped-for opportunity to see the world outside +of Gentryville had come. Abraham was asked by a man who knew his honesty +and willingness to work, to take a flat-boat down the Mississippi River +to New Orleans. He was paid only two dollars a week and his rations; and +as a flat-boat could not come up the river, but must be sold for lumber +at the journey's end, he was obliged to walk the whole distance back. +The big-hearted, broad-shouldered youth, six feet and four inches tall, +had seen in this trip what he would never forget; had seen black men in +chains, and men and women sold like sheep in the slave-marts of New +Orleans. Here began his horror of human slavery, which years after +culminated in the Emancipation Proclamation. + +Two years later, when he had become of age, Abraham helped move his +father's family to Illinois, driving the four yoke of oxen which drew +the household goods over the muddy roads and through the creeks. Then he +joined his adopted brothers in building a log house, plowed fifteen +acres of prairie land for corn, split rails to fence it in, and then +went out into the world to earn for himself, his scanty wages heretofore +belonging legally to his father. He did not always receive money for his +work, for once, for a Mrs. Miller, he split four hundred rails for every +yard of brown jeans, dyed with white walnut bark, necessary to make a +pair of trowsers. + +He had no trade, and no money, and must do whatever came to hand. For a +year he worked for one farmer and another, and then he and his +half-brother were hired by a Mr. Offutt to build and take a flat-boat to +New Orleans. So pleased was the owner, that on Abraham's return, he was +at once engaged to manage a mill and store at New Salem. Here he went by +the name of "Honest Abe," because he was so fair in his dealings. On one +occasion, having sold a woman a bill of goods amounting to two dollars +and six and a quarter cents, he found that in adding the items, he had +taken six and a quarter cents too much. It was night, and locking the +store, he walked two or three miles to return the money to his +astonished customer. Another time a woman bought a half pound of tea. He +discovered afterward that he had used a four-ounce weight on the scales, +and at once walked a long way to deliver the four ounces which were her +due. No wonder the world, like Diogenes, is always looking for an honest +man. + +He insisted on politeness before women. One day as he was showing goods, +a boorish man came in and began to use profanity. Young Lincoln leaned +over the desk, and begged him to desist before ladies. When they had +gone, the man became furious. Finding that he really desired to fight, +Lincoln said, "Well, if you must be whipped, I suppose I may as well +whip you as any other man," and suiting the action to the word, gave +him a severe punishing. The man became a better citizen from that day, +and Lincoln's life-long friend. + +Years afterward, when in the Presidential chair, a man used profanity in +his presence, he said, "I thought Senator C. had sent me a gentleman. I +was mistaken. There is the door, and I wish you good-night." + +Hearing that a grammar could be purchased six miles away, the young +store-keeper walked thither and obtained it. When evening came, as +candles were too expensive for his limited wages, he burnt one shaving +after another to give light, and thus studied the book which was to be +so valuable in after years, when he should stand before the great and +cultured of the land. He took the "Louisville Journal," because he must +be abreast of the politics of the day, and made careful notes from every +book he read. + +Mr. Offutt soon failed, and Abraham Lincoln was again adrift. War had +begun with Blackhawk, the chief of the Sacs, and the Governor of +Illinois was calling for volunteers. A company was formed in New Salem, +and "Honest Abe" was chosen captain. He won the love of his men for his +thoughtfulness of them rather than himself, and learned valuable lessons +in military matters for the future. A strange thing now happened,--he +was asked to be a candidate for the State Legislature! At first he +thought his friends were ridiculing him, and said he should be defeated +as he was not widely known. + +"Never mind!" said James Rutledge, the president of their little +debating club. "They'll know you better after you've stumped the county. +Any how, it'll do you good to try." + +Lincoln made some bright, earnest stump speeches, and though he was +defeated, the young man of twenty-three received two hundred and +seventy-seven votes out of the two hundred and eighty cast in New Salem. +This surely was a pleasant indication of his popularity. It was a common +saying, that "Lincoln had nothing, only plenty of friends." + +The County-surveyor needed an assistant. He called upon Lincoln, +bringing a book for him to study, if he would fit himself to take hold +of the matter. This he did gladly, and for six weeks studied and recited +to a teacher, thus making himself skilled and accurate for a new +country. Whenever he had an hour's leisure from his work, however, he +was poring over his law-books, for he had fully made up his mind to be a +lawyer. + +He was modest, but ambitious, and was learning the power within him. But +as though the developing brain and warm heart needed an extra stimulus, +there came into his life, at this time, a beautiful affection, that left +a deeper look in the far-away eyes, when it was over. Ann Rutledge, the +daughter of his friend, was one of the most intelligent and lovely girls +in New Salem. When Lincoln came to her father's house to board, she was +already engaged to a bright young man in the neighborhood, who, shortly +before their intended marriage, was obliged to visit New York on +business. He wrote back of his father's illness and death, and then his +letters ceased. + +Mouths passed away. Meantime the young lawyer had given her the homage +of his strong nature. At first she could not bring herself to forget her +recreant lover, but the following year, won by Lincoln's devotion, she +accepted him. He seemed now supremely happy. He studied day and night, +eager to fill such a place that Ann Rutledge would be proud of him. He +had been elected to the Legislature, and, borrowing some money to +purchase a suit of clothes, he walked one hundred miles to the State +capitol. He did not talk much in the Assembly, but he worked faithfully +upon committees, and studied the needs of his State. + +The following summer days seemed to pass all too swiftly in his +happiness. Then the shadows gathered. The girl he idolized was sinking +under the dreadful strain upon her young heart. The latter part of +August she sent for Lincoln to come to her bedside. What was said in +that last farewell has never been known. It is stated by some that her +former lover had returned, as fond of her as ever, his silence having +been caused by a long illness. But on the twenty-fifth of August, death +took her from them both. + +Lincoln was overwhelmed with anguish; insane, feared and believed his +friends. He said, "I can never be reconciled to have the snow, rains, +and storms beat upon her grave." Years after he was heard to say, "My +heart lies buried in the grave of that girl." A poem by William Knox, +found and read at this time, became a favorite and a comfort through +life,-- + + "Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?" + +Mr. Herndon, his law partner, said, "The love and death of that girl +shattered Lincoln's purposes and tendencies. He threw off his infinite +sorrow only by leaping wildly into the political arena." The memory of +that love never faded from his heart, nor the sadness from his face. + +The following year, 1837, when he was twenty-eight, he was admitted to +the bar, and moved from New Salem to the larger town of Springfield, +forming a partnership with Mr. J. P. Stuart of whom he had borrowed his +law-books. Too poor even yet to pay much for board, he slept on a narrow +lounge in the law-office. He was again elected to the legislature, and +in the Harrison Presidential campaign, was chosen one of the electors, +speaking through the State for the Whig party. To so prominent a +position, already, had come the backwoods boy. + +Four years after Ann Rutledge's death, he married, Nov. 4, 1839, Mary +Todd, a bright, witty, somewhat handsome girl, of good family, from +Kentucky. She admired his ability, and believed in his success; he +needed comfort in his utter loneliness. Till his death he was a true +husband, and an idolizing father to his children,--Robert, Willie, and +Tad (Thomas). + +In 1846, seven years after his marriage, having steadily gained in the +reputation of an honest, able lawyer, who would never take a case unless +sure he was on the right side, Mr. Lincoln was elected to Congress by an +uncommonly large majority. Opposed to the war with Mexico, and to the +extension of slavery, he spoke his mind fearlessly. The "Compromise +measures of 1850," by which, while California was admitted as a free +State, and the slave-trade was abolished in the District of Columbia, +the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, giving the owners of slaves the right +to recapture them in any free State, had disheartened all lovers of +freedom. Lincoln said gloomily to his law partner, Mr. Herndon, "How +hard, oh, how hard it is to die and leave one's country no better than +if one had never lived for it!" + +His father died about this time, his noble son sending him this message, +"to remember to call upon and confide in our great and good and merciful +Maker, who will not turn away from him in any extremity. He notes the +fall of the sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads; and He will not +forget the dying man who puts his trust in Him." + +In 1854, through the influence of Stephen A. Douglas, a brilliant +senator from Illinois, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, whereby +those States were left to judge for themselves whether they would have +slaves or not. But by the Missouri Compromise of 1820, it was expressly +stated that slavery should be forever prohibited in this locality. The +whole North grew to white heat. When Douglas returned to his Chicago +home the people refused to hear him speak. Illinois said, "His arguments +must be answered, and Abraham Lincoln is the man to answer them!" + +At the State Fair at Springfield, in October, a great company were +gathered. Douglas spoke with marked ability and eloquence, and then on +the following day, Abraham Lincoln spoke for three hours. His heart was +in his words. He quivered with emotion. The audience were still as +death, but when the address was finished, men shouted and women waved +their handkerchiefs. Lincoln and the right had triumphed. After this, +the two men spoke in all the large towns of the State, to immense +crowds. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill worked out its expected results. Blood +flowed in the streets, as pro-slavery and anti-slavery men contested the +ground, newspaper offices were torn down by mobs, and Douglas lost the +great prize he had in view,--the Presidency of the United States. + +When the new party, the Republican, held its second convention in +Philadelphia, June 17, 1856, Abraham Lincoln received one hundred and +ten votes for Vice President. What would Nancy Hanks Lincoln have said +if she could have looked now upon the boy to whom she taught the Bible +in the log cabin! + +An incident occurred about this time which increased his fame. A man was +murdered at a camp-meeting, and two young men were arrested. One was a +very poor youth, whose mother, Hannah Armstrong, had been kind to +Lincoln in the early years. She wrote to the prominent lawyer about her +troubles, because she believed her son to be innocent. The trial came +on. The people were clamorous for Armstrong to be hanged. The principal +witness testified that "by the aid of the brightly shining moon, he saw +the prisoner inflict the death-blow with a slung shot." + +After careful questioning, Mr. Lincoln showed the perjury of the +witness, by the almanac, no moon being visible on the night in question. +The jury were melted to tears by the touching address, and their +sympathy went out to the wronged youth and his poor old mother, who +fainted in his arms. Tears, too, poured down the face of Mr. Lincoln, as +the young man was acquitted. "Why, Hannah," he said, when the grateful +woman asked what she should try to pay him, "I shan't charge you a cent; +never." She had been well repaid for her friendliness to a penniless +boy. + +The next year he was invited to deliver a lecture at Cooper Institute, +New York. He was not very well known at the East. He had lived +unostentatiously in the two-story frame-house in Springfield, and when +seen at all by the people, except in his addresses, was usually drawing +one of his babies in a wagon before his door, with hat and coat off, +deeply buried in thought. When the crowd gathered at Cooper Institute, +they expected to hear a fund of stories and a "Western stump speech." +But they did not hear what they expected. They heard a masterly review +of the history of slavery in this country, and a prophecy concerning the +future of the slavery question. They were amazed at its breadth and its +eloquence. The "New York Tribune" said, "No man ever before made such an +impression on his first appeal to a New York audience." + +After this Mr. Lincoln spoke in various cities to crowded houses. A Yale +professor took notes and gave a lecture to his students on the address. +Surprised at his success among learned men, Mr. Lincoln once asked a +prominent professor "what made the speeches interest?" + +The reply was, "The clearness of your statements, the unanswerable style +of your reasoning and your illustrations, which were romance, and +pathos, and fun, and logic, all welded together." + +Mr. Lincoln said, "I am very much obliged to you for this. It throws +light on a subject which has been dark to me. Certainly I have had a +wonderful success for a man of my limited education." + +The sabbath he spent in New York, he found his way to the Sunday-school +at Five Points. He was alone. The superintendent noticing his interest, +asked him to say a few words. The children were so pleased that when he +attempted to stop, they cried, "Go on, oh! do go on!" No one knew his +name, and on being asked who he was, he replied, "Abraham Lincoln of +Illinois." After visiting his son Robert at Harvard College, he returned +home. + +When the Republican State Convention met, May 9, 1860, at Springfield, +Ill., Mr. Lincoln was invited to a seat on the platform, and as no way +could be made through the dense throng, he was carried over the people's +heads. Ten days later, at the National Convention at Chicago, though +William H. Seward of New York was a leading candidate, the West gained +the nomination, with their idolized Lincoln. Springfield was wild with +joy. When the news of his success was carried to him, he said quietly, +"Well, gentlemen, there's a little woman at our house who is probably +more interested in this dispatch than I am; and if you will excuse me, I +will take it up and let her see it." + +The resulting canvass was one of the most remarkable in our history. The +South said, "War will result if he is elected." The North said, "The +time has come for decisive action." The popular vote for Abraham Lincoln +was nearly two millions (1,857,610), while Stephen A. Douglas received +something over a million (1,291,574). The country was in a fever of +excitement. The South made itself ready for war by seizing the forts. +Before the inauguration most of the Southern States had seceded. + +Sad farewells were uttered as Mr. Lincoln left Springfield for +Washington. To his law partner he said, "You and I have been together +more than twenty years, and have never passed a word. Will you let my +name stay on the old sign till I come back from Washington?" + +The tears came into Mr. Herndon's eyes, as he said, "I will never have +any other partner while you live," and he kept his word. Old Hannah +Armstrong told him that she should never see him again; that something +told her so; his enemies would assassinate him. He smiled and said, +"Hannah, if they do kill me, I shall never die another death." + +He went away without fear, but feeling the awful responsibility of his +position. He found an empty treasury and the country drifting into the +blackness of war. He spoke few words, but the lines grew deeper on his +face, and his eyes grew sadder. + +In his inaugural address he said, "In your hands, my dissatisfied +fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. +The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without +being yourselves the aggressors.... Physically speaking we cannot +separate." + +The conflict began April 12, 1861, by the enemy firing on Fort Sumter. +That sound reverberated throughout the North. The President called for +seventy-five thousand men. The choicest from thousands of homes quickly +responded. Young men left their college-halls and men their places of +business. "The Union must and shall be preserved," was the eager cry. +Then came the call for forty-two thousand men for three years. + +The President began to study war in earnest. He gathered military books, +sought out on maps every creek and hill and valley in the enemy's +country, and took scarcely time to eat or sleep. May 24, the brilliant +young Colonel Ellsworth had been shot at Alexandria by a hotel-keeper, +because he pulled down the secession flag. He was buried from the east +room in the White House, and the North was more aroused than ever. The +press and people were eager for battle, and July 21, 1861, the Union +army, under General McDowell, attacked the Confederates at Bull Run and +were defeated. The South was jubilant, and the North learned, once for +all, that the war was to be long and bloody. Congress, at the request of +the President, at once voted five hundred thousand men, and five hundred +million dollars to carry on the war. + +Vast work was to be done. The Southern ports must be blockaded, and the +traffic on the Mississippi River discontinued. A great and brave army of +Southerners, fighting on their own soil, every foot of which they knew +so well, must be conquered if the nation remained intact. The burdens of +the President grew more and more heavy. Men at the North, who +sympathized with the South,--for we were bound together as one family +in a thousand ways,--said the President was going too far in his +authority; others said he moved too slowly, and was too lenient to the +slave power. The South gained strength from the sympathy of England, and +only by careful leadership was war avoided with that country. + +General McClellan had fought some hard battles in Virginia--Fair Oaks, +Mechanicsville, Malvern Hill, and others--with varying success, losing +thousands of men in the Chickahominy swamps, and after the battle of +Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862, one of the severest of the war, when each side +lost over ten thousand men, he was relieved of his command, and +succeeded by General Burnside. There had been some successes at the West +under Grant, at Fort Donelson and Shiloh, and at the South under +Farragut, but the outlook for the country was not hopeful. Mr. Lincoln +had met with a severe affliction in his own household. His beautiful son +Willie had died in February. He used to walk the room in those dying +hours, saying sadly, "This is the hardest trial of my life; why is it? +why is it?" + +This made him, perhaps, even more tender of the lives of others' sons. A +young sentinel had been sentenced to be shot for sleeping at his post; +but the President pardoned him, saying, "I could not think of going into +eternity with the blood of the poor young man on my skirts. It is not to +be wondered at that a boy raised on a farm, probably in the habit of +going to bed at dark, should, when required to watch, fall asleep, and I +cannot consent to shoot him for such an act." This youth was found among +the slain on the field of Fredericksburg, wearing next his heart a +photograph of his preserver, with the words, "God bless President +Lincoln." + +An army officer once went to Washington to see about the execution of +twenty-four deserters, who had been sentenced by court-martial to be +shot. "Mr. President," said he, "unless these men are made an example +of, the army itself is in danger. Mercy to the few is cruelty to the +many." + +"Mr. General," was the reply, "there are already too many weeping widows +in the United States. For God's sake, don't ask me to add to the number, +for I won't do it." At another time he said, "Well, I think the boy can +do us more good above ground than under ground." + +A woman in a faded shawl and hood came to see the President, begging +that, as her husband and all her sons--three--had enlisted, and her +husband had been killed, he would release the oldest, that he might care +for his mother. Mr. Lincoln quickly consented. When the poor woman +reached the hospital where her boy was to be found, he was dead. +Returning sadly to Mr. Lincoln, he said, "I know what you wish me to do +now, and I shall do it without your asking; I shall release your second +son.... Now _you_ have one, and _I_ one of the other two left: that is +no more than right." Tears filled the eyes of both as she reverently +laid her hand on his head, saying, "The Lord bless you, Mr. President. +May you live a thousand years, and always be at the head of this great +nation!" + +Through all these months it had become evident that slavery must be +destroyed, or we should live over again these dreadful war-scenes in +years to come. Mr. Lincoln had been waiting for the right time to free +the slaves. General McClellan had said, "A declaration of radical views, +especially upon slavery, will rapidly disintegrate our present armies"; +but Sept. 22, 1862, Mr. Lincoln told his Cabinet, "I have promised my +God that I will do it"; and he issued the immortal Emancipation +Proclamation, by which four million human beings stepped out from +bondage into freedom. He knew what he was doing. Two years afterward he +said, "It is the central act of my administration, and the great event +of the nineteenth century." + +The following year, 1863, brought even deeper sorrows. The "Draft Act," +by which men were obliged to enter the army when their names were drawn, +occasioned in July a riot in New York city, with the loss of many lives. +Grant had taken Vicksburg on July 4, and General Meade had won at the +dreadful three days' fight at Gettysburg, July 1-4, with a loss of more +than twenty thousand on either side; but the nation was being held +together at a fearful cost. When Mr. Lincoln announced to the people +the victory at Gettysburg, he expressed the desire that, in the +customary observance of the Fourth of July, "He whose will, not ours, +should everywhere be done, be everywhere reverenced with profoundest +gratitude." He reverenced God, himself, most devoutly. "I have been +driven many times upon my knees," he said, "by the overwhelming +conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all +about me seemed insufficient for that day." + +On Nov. 19, of this year, this battle-field was dedicated, with solemn +ceremonies, as one of the national cemeteries. Mr. Lincoln made a very +brief address, in words that will last while America lasts, "The world +will little note, nor long remember, what we say here; but it can never +forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be +dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have +thus far so nobly advanced. It is, rather, for us to be here dedicated +to the great task remaining for us, that from these honored dead we take +increased devotion to the cause for which they gave the last full +measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall +not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new +birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, +and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." + +Emerson says of these words, "This, and one other American speech, that +of John Brown to the court that tried him, and a part of Kossuth's +speech at Birmingham, can only be compared with each other, and no +fourth." + +The next year, Feb. 29, 1864, the Hero of Vicksburg was called to the +Lieutenant-Generalship of the army, and for the first time Mr. Lincoln +felt somewhat a sense of relief from burdens. He said, "Wherever Grant +is, things move." He now called for five hundred thousand more men, and +the beginning of the end was seen. Sherman swept through to the sea. +Grant went below Richmond, where he said, "I propose to fight it out on +this line if it takes all summer." + +Mr. Lincoln had been re-elected to the Presidency for a second term, +giving that beautiful inaugural address to the people, "With malice +toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God +gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are +in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne +the battle, and for his widows and orphans; to do all which may achieve +and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all +nations." On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, and +the long war was ended. The people gathered in their churches to praise +God amid their tears. Abraham Lincoln's name was on every lip. The +colored people said of their deliverer, "He is eberywhere. He is like de +bressed Lord; he walks de waters and de land." + +An old colored woman came to the door of the White House and met the +President as he was coming out, and said she wanted to see "Abraham the +Second." + +"And who was Abraham the First?" asked the good man. + +"Why, Lor' bless you, we read about Abraham de First in de Bible, and +Abraham de Second is de President." + +"Here he is!" said the President, turning away to hide his tears. + +Well did the noble-hearted man say, "I have never willingly planted a +thorn in any man's bosom." + +Five days after the surrender of General Lee, Mr. Lincoln went to Ford's +Theatre, because it would rest him and please the people to see him. He +used to say, "The tired part of me is inside and out of reach.... I feel +a presentiment that I shall not outlast the rebellion. When it is over, +my work will be done." + +While Mr. Lincoln was enjoying the play, John Wilkes Booth, an actor, +came into the box behind him and fired a bullet into his brain; then +sprang upon the stage, shouting, "Sic semper tyrannis! The South is +avenged!" The President scarcely moved in his chair, and, unconscious, +was taken to a house near by, where he died at twenty-two minutes past +seven, April 15, 1865. Booth was caught twelve days later, and shot in a +burning barn. + +The nation seemed as though struck dumb; and then, from the Old World +as well as the New, came an agonizing wail of sorrow. Death only showed +to their view how sublime was the character of him who had carried them +through the war. While the body, embalmed, lay in state in the east room +of the White House tens of thousands crowded about it. And then, +accompanied by the casket of little Willie, the body of Abraham Lincoln +took its long journey of fifteen hundred miles, to the home of his early +life, for burial. Nothing in this country like that funeral pageant has +ever been witnessed. In New York, in Philadelphia, and in every other +city along the way, houses were trimmed with mourning, bells tolled, +funeral marches were played, and the rooms where the body rested were +filled with flowers. Hundreds of thousands looked upon the tired, noble +face of the martyred President. + +In Oak Ridge Cemetery, at Springfield, Illinois, in the midst of a dense +multitude, a choir of two hundred and fifty singing by the open grave of +him who dearly loved music, + + "Children of the Heavenly King," + +Abraham Lincoln was buried, Bishop Simpson, now dead, spoke eloquently, +quoting Mr. Lincoln's words, "Before high Heaven and in the face of the +world I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the +land of my life, my liberty, and my love." + +Charles Sumner said, "There are no accidents in the Providence of God." +Such lives as that of Abraham Lincoln are not accidents in American +history. They are rather the great books from whose pages we catch +inspiration, and in which we read God's purposes for the progress of the +human race. + + * * * * * + + + + +BOOKS BY SARAH K. BOLTON. + + "_Mrs. Bolton never fails to interest and instruct her + readers._"--CHICAGO INTER-OCEAN. + + + POOR BOYS WHO BECAME FAMOUS + GIRLS WHO BECAME FAMOUS + FAMOUS MEN OF SCIENCE + FAMOUS AMERICAN STATESMEN + FAMOUS ENGLISH STATESMEN + FAMOUS AMERICAN AUTHORS + FAMOUS ENGLISH AUTHORS + FAMOUS EUROPEAN ARTISTS + FAMOUS TYPES OF WOMANHOOD + FAMOUS VOYAGERS AND EXPLORERS + FAMOUS LEADERS AMONG MEN + FAMOUS LEADERS AMONG WOMEN + FAMOUS GIVERS AND THEIR GIFTS + EMERSON + RAPHAEL + FROM HEART AND NATURE (Poems) + THE INEVITABLE (Poems) + + + _For Sale by all Booksellers. Send for Catalogue._ + + NEW YORK: + THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. + PUBLISHERS. + + * * * * * + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: + + +Punctuation has been standardised. + +Minor printer errors (e.g. omitted, superfluous & transposed characters) +have been fixed. + + Page 72, "Amodeus" changed to "Amadeus" (Amadeus Mozart was) + + Page 134, "tamborine" changed to "tambourine" (beating the tambourine) + + Page 186, "capitol" changed to "capital" (capital of united Italy) + + Page 241, "enterprizing" changed to "enterprising" (enterprising young) + + Page 273, "sadler" changed to "saddler" (a saddler was found) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lives of Poor Boys Who Became Famous, by +Sarah K. 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Bolton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lives of Poor Boys Who Became Famous + +Author: Sarah K. Bolton + +Release Date: April 24, 2011 [EBook #35950] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVE OF POOR BOYS *** + + + + +Produced by Darleen Dove, Sharon Verougstraete and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + +<h1>LIVES<br/> +OF<br/> +POOR BOYS WHO BECAME FAMOUS.</h1> + +<p class="center">BY</p> +<h2>SARAH K. BOLTON.</h2> + + +<p class="center">"<i>There is properly no History, only Biography.</i>" +—<span class="smcap">Emerson.</span></p> + +<p class="center padbase"><i>Human portraits, faithfully drawn, are of all pictures the +welcomest on human walls.</i> +—<span class="smcap">Carlyle.</span></p> + + +<p class="center"><i>FORTY-FIRST THOUSAND.</i></p> + +<p class="center">NEW YORK +THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. +PUBLISHERS +</p> + + + + +<p class="center padbase"> +<i>Copyright,</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">By Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.</span><br /> +1885.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Norwood Press:<br /> +J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith.<br /> +Boston, Mass., U.S.A.<br /> +</p> + + + + +<p class="center"> +TO<br /> +MY ONLY SISTER,<br /> +<br /> +Mrs. Halsey D. Miller,<br /> +<br /> +IN REMEMBRANCE OF<br /> +MANY HAPPY HOURS.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p>These characters have been chosen from various +countries and from varied professions, that +the youth who read this book may see that poverty +is no barrier to success. It usually develops ambition, +and nerves people to action. Life at best has +much of struggle, and we need to be cheered and +stimulated by the careers of those who have overcome +obstacles.</p> + +<p>If Lincoln and Garfield, both farmer-boys, could +come to the Presidency, then there is a chance for +other farmer-boys. If Ezra Cornell, a mechanic, +could become the president of great telegraph companies, +and leave millions to a university, then other +mechanics can come to fame. If Sir Titus Salt, +working and sorting wool in a factory at nineteen, +could build one of the model towns of the world +for his thousands of workingmen, then there is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span> +encouragement and inspiration for other toilers in +factories. These lives show that without <small>WORK</small> and +<small>WILL</small> no great things are achieved.</p> + +<p>I have selected several characters because they +were the centres of important historical epochs. +With Garibaldi is necessarily told the story of +Italian unity; with Garrison and Greeley, the fall +of slavery; and with Lincoln and Sheridan, the +battles of our Civil War.</p> + +<p class="sig"> +S. K. B.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="10" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td> </td><td align="left"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">George Peabody</span></td><td align="left">Merchant</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Bayard Taylor</span></td><td align="left">Traveller</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Captain <span class="smcap">James B. Eads</span></td><td align="left">Civil Engineer</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">James Watt</span></td><td align="left">Inventor</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Sir <span class="smcap">Josiah Mason</span></td><td align="left">Manufacturer</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Bernard Palissy</span></td><td align="left">Potter</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Bertel Thorwaldsen</span></td><td align="left">Sculptor</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Wolfgang Mozart</span></td><td align="left">Composer</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Samuel Johnson</span></td><td align="left">Author</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Oliver Goldsmith</span></td><td align="left">Poet and Writer </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Michael Faraday</span></td><td align="left">Scientist</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Sir <span class="smcap">Henry Bessemer</span></td><td align="left">Maker of Steel</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Sir <span class="smcap">Titus Salt</span></td><td align="left">Philanthropist</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Joseph Marie Jacquard</span></td><td align="left">Silk Weaver</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_130">130</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Horace Greeley</span></td><td align="left">Editor</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">William Lloyd Garrison </span></td><td align="left">Reformer</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_156">156</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Giuseppe Garibaldi</span></td><td align="left">Patriot</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Jean Paul Richter</span></td><td align="left">Novelist</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_187">187</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span><span class="smcap">Leon Gambetta</span></td><td align="left">Statesman</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_204">204</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">David G. Farragut</span></td><td align="left">Sailor</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_219">219</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Ezra Cornell</span></td><td align="left">Mechanic</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_238">238</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Lieut.-General <span class="smcap">Sheridan</span></td><td align="left">Soldier</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_251">251</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Thomas Cole</span></td><td align="left">Painter</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_270">270</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Ole Bull</span></td><td align="left">Violinist</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_284">284</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Meissonier</span></td><td align="left">Artist</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_303">303</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Geo. W. Childs</span></td><td align="left">Journalist</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_313">313</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Dwight L. Moody</span></td><td align="left">Evangelist</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_323">323</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Abraham Lincoln</span></td><td align="left">President</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_342">342</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 446px;"> +<img src="images/illus-fpc.jpg" width="446" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">GEORGE PEABODY.</span> +</div> + +<h2>GEORGE PEABODY.</h2> + + +<p>If America had been asked who were to be her +most munificent givers in the nineteenth century, +she would scarcely have pointed to two grocer's +boys, one in a little country store at Danvers, +Mass., the other in Baltimore; both poor, both +uneducated; the one leaving seven millions to +Johns Hopkins University and Hospital, the other +nearly nine millions to elevate humanity. George +Peabody was born in Danvers, Feb. 18, 1795. His +parents were respectable, hard-working people, +whose scanty income afforded little education for +their children. George grew up an obedient, faithful +son, called a "mother-boy" by his companions, +from his devotion to her,—a title of which any boy +may well be proud.</p> + +<p>At eleven years of age he must go out into the +world to earn his living. Doubtless his mother +wished to keep her child in school; but there was +no money. A place was found with a Mr. Proctor +in a grocery-store, and here, for four years, he +worked day by day, giving his earnings to his +mother, and winning esteem for his promptness and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> +honesty. But the boy at fifteen began to grow +ambitious. He longed for a larger store and a +broader field. Going with his maternal grandfather +to Thetford, Vt., he remained a year, when he +came back to work for his brother in a dry-goods +store in Newburyport. Perhaps now in this larger +town his ambition would be satisfied, when, lo! the +store burned, and George was thrown out of employment.</p> + +<p>His father had died, and he was without a dollar +in the world. Ambition seemed of little use now. +However, an uncle in Georgetown, D.C., hearing +that the boy needed work, sent for him, and thither +he went for two years. Here he made many friends, +and won trade, by his genial manner and respectful +bearing. His tact was unusual. He never +wounded the feelings of a buyer of goods, never +tried him with unnecessary talk, never seemed impatient, +and was punctual to the minute. Perhaps +no one trait is more desirable than the latter. A +person who breaks his appointments, or keeps +others waiting for him, loses friends, and business +success as well.</p> + +<p>A young man's habits are always observed. If +he is worthy, and has energy, the world has a place +for him, and sooner or later he will find it. A +wholesale dry-goods dealer, Mr. Riggs, had been +watching young Peabody. He desired a partner of +energy, perseverance, and honesty. Calling on the +young clerk, he asked him to put his labor against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> +his, Mr. Riggs's, capital. "But I am only nineteen +years of age," was the reply.</p> + +<p>This was considered no objection, and the partnership +was formed. A year later, the business +was moved to Baltimore. The boyish partner travelled +on horseback through the western wilds of +New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, +selling goods, and lodging over night with farmers +or planters. In seven years the business had so +increased, that branch houses were established in +Philadelphia and New York. Finally Mr. Riggs +retired from the firm; and George Peabody found +himself, at the age of thirty-five, at the head of a +large and wealthy establishment, which his own +energy, industry, and honesty had helped largely to +build. He had bent his life to one purpose, that of +making his business a success. No one person can +do many things well.</p> + +<p>Having visited London several times in matters +of trade, he determined to make that great city his +place of residence. He had studied finance by experience +as well as close observation, and believed +that he could make money in the great metropolis. +Having established himself as a banker at Wanford +Court, he took simple lodgings, and lived without +display. When Americans visited London, they +called upon the genial, true-hearted banker, whose +integrity they could always depend upon, and transacted +their business with him.</p> + +<p>In 1851, the World's Fair was opened at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +Crystal Palace, London, Prince Albert having +worked earnestly to make it a great success. Congress +neglected to make the needed appropriations +for America; and her people did not care, apparently, +whether Powers' Greek Slave, Hoe's wonderful +printing-press, or the McCormick Reaper were +seen or not. But George Peabody cared for the +honor of his nation, and gave fifteen thousand dollars +to the American exhibitors, that they might +make their display worthy of the great country +which they were to represent. The same year, he +gave his first Fourth of July dinner to leading +Americans and Englishmen, headed by the Duke +of Wellington. While he remembered and honored +the day which freed us from England, no one did +more than he to bind the two nations together by +the great kindness of a great heart.</p> + +<p>Mr. Peabody was no longer the poor grocery boy, +or the dry-goods clerk. He was fine looking, most +intelligent from his wide reading, a total abstainer +from liquors and tobacco, honored at home and +abroad, and very rich. Should he buy an immense +estate, and live like a prince? Should he give parties +and grand dinners, and have servants in livery? +Oh, no! Mr. Peabody had acquired his wealth for +a different purpose. He loved humanity. "How +could he elevate the people?" was the one question +of his life. He would not wait till his death, and +let others spend his money; he would have the satisfaction +of spending it himself.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> + +<p>And now began a life of benevolence which is one +of the brightest in our history. Unmarried and +childless, he made other wives and children happy +by his boundless generosity. If the story be true, +that he was once engaged to a beautiful American +girl, who gave him up for a former poor lover, the +world has been the gainer by her choice.</p> + +<p>In 1852, Mr. Peabody gave ten thousand dollars +to help fit out the second expedition under Dr. Kane, +in his search for Sir John Franklin; and for this gift +a portion of the newly-discovered country was justly +called Peabody Land. This same year, the town +of Danvers, his birthplace, decided to celebrate its +centennial. Of course the rich London banker was +invited as one of the guests. He was too busy to +be present, but sent a letter, to be opened on the +day of the celebration. The seal was broken at +dinner, and this was the toast, or sentiment, it +contained: "<span class="smcap">Education</span>—<i>a debt due from present +to future generations.</i>" A check was enclosed for +twenty thousand dollars for the purpose of building +an Institute, with a free library and free course of +lectures. Afterward this gift was increased to two +hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The poor boy +had not forgotten the home of his childhood.</p> + +<p>Four years later, when Peabody Institute was +dedicated, the giver, who had been absent from +America twenty years, was present. New York +and other cities offered public receptions; but he +declined all save Danvers. A great procession<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +was formed, the houses along the streets being +decorated, all eager to do honor to their noble +townsman. The Governor of Massachusetts, Edward +Everett, and others made eloquent addresses, +and then the kind-faced, great-hearted man responded:—</p> + +<p>"Though Providence has granted me an unvaried +and unusual success in the pursuit of fortune in +other lands, I am still in heart the humble boy who +left yonder unpretending dwelling many, <i>very</i> many +years ago.... There is not a youth within the +sound of my voice whose early opportunities and +advantages are not very much greater than were my +own; and I have since achieved nothing that is +impossible to the most humble boy among you. +Bear in mind, that, to be truly great, it is not +necessary that you should gain wealth and importance. +Steadfast and undeviating <i>truth</i>, fearless +and straightforward <i>integrity</i>, and an <i>honor</i> ever +unsullied by an unworthy word or action, make +their possessor greater than worldly success or prosperity. +These qualities constitute greatness."</p> + +<p>Soon after this, Mr. Peabody determined to build +an Institute, combining a free library and lectures +with an Academy of Music and an Art Gallery, in +the city of Baltimore. For this purpose he gave +over one million dollars—a princely gift indeed! +Well might Baltimore be proud of the day when he +sought a home in her midst.</p> + +<p>But the merchant-prince had not finished his giv<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>ing. +He saw the poor of the great city of London, +living in wretched, desolate homes. Vice and poverty +were joining hands. He, too, had been poor. +He could sympathize with those who knew not how +to make ends meet. What would so stimulate these +people to good citizenship as comfortable and cheerful +abiding-places? March 12, 1862, he called together +a few of his trusted friends in London, and +placed in their hands, for the erection of neat, tasteful +dwellings for the poor, the sum of seven hundred +and fifty thousand dollars. Ah, what a friend the +poor had found! not the gift of a few dollars, which +would soon be absorbed in rent, but homes which +for a small amount might be enjoyed as long as they +lived.</p> + +<p>At once some of the worst portions of London were +purchased; tumble-down structures were removed; +and plain, high brick blocks erected, around open +squares, where the children could find a playground. +Gas and water were supplied, bathing and laundry +rooms furnished. Then the poor came eagerly, +with their scanty furniture, and hired one or two +rooms for twenty-five or fifty cents a week,—cab-men, +shoemakers, tailors, and needle-women. Tenants +were required to be temperate and of good +moral character. Soon tiny pots of flowers were +seen in the windows, and a happier look stole into +the faces of hard-working fathers and mothers.</p> + +<p>Mr. Peabody soon increased his gift to the London +poor to three million dollars, saying, "If judi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>ciously +managed for two hundred years, its accumulation +will amount to a sum sufficient to buy the city +of London."</p> + +<p>No wonder that these gifts of millions began to +astonish the world. London gave him the freedom +of the city in a gold box,—an honor rarely bestowed,—and +erected his bronze statue near the +Royal Exchange. Queen Victoria wished to make +him a baron; but he declined all titles. What gift, +then, would he accept, was eagerly asked. "A +letter from the Queen of England, which I may +carry across the Atlantic, and deposit as a memorial +of one of her most faithful sons," was the response. +It is not strange that so pure and noble a man as +George Peabody admired the purity and nobility of +character of her who governs England so wisely.</p> + +<p>A beautiful letter was returned by the Queen, +assuring him how deeply she appreciated his noble +act of more than princely munificence,—an act, as +the Queen believes, "wholly without parallel," and +asking him to accept a miniature portrait of herself. +The portrait, in a massive gold frame, is fourteen +inches long and ten inches wide, representing the +Queen in robes of state,—the largest miniature +ever attempted in England, and for the making of +which a furnace was especially built. The cost is +believed to have been over fifty thousand dollars in +gold. It is now preserved, with her letter, in the +Peabody Institute near Danvers.</p> + +<p>Oct. 25, 1866, the beautiful white marble Insti<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>tute +in Baltimore was to be dedicated. Mr. Peabody +had crossed the ocean to be present. Besides +the famous and the learned, twenty thousand children +with Peabody badges were gathered to meet +him. The great man's heart was touched as he +said, "Never have I seen a more beautiful sight +than this vast collection of interesting children. +The review of the finest army, attended by the most +delightful strains of martial music, could never give +me half the pleasure." He was now seventy-one +years old. He had given nearly five millions; could +the world expect any more? He realized that the +freed slaves at the South needed an education. +They were poor, and so were a large portion of the +white race. He would give for their education three +million dollars, the same amount he had bestowed +upon the poor of London. To the trustees having +this gift in charge he said, "With my advancing +years, my attachment to my native land has but +become more devoted. My hope and faith in its +successful and glorious future have grown brighter +and stronger. But, to make her prosperity more +than superficial, her moral and intellectual development +should keep pace with her material growth. +I feel most deeply, therefore, that it is the duty and +privilege of the more favored and wealthy portions +of our nation to assist those who are less fortunate." +Noble words! Mr. Peabody's health was +beginning to fail. What he did must now be done +quickly. Yale College received a hundred and fifty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +thousand dollars for a Museum of Natural History; +Harvard the same, for a Museum of Archæology +and Ethnology; to found the Peabody Academy of +Science at Salem a hundred and forty thousand dollars; +to Newburyport Library, where the fire threw +him out of employment, and thus probably broadened +his path in life, fifteen thousand dollars; +twenty-five thousand dollars each to various institutions +of learning throughout the country; ten thousand +dollars to the Sanitary Commission during the +war, besides four million dollars to his relatives; +making in all thirteen million dollars. Just before +his return to England, he made one of the most +tender gifts of his life. The dear mother whom he +idolized was dead, but he would build her a fitting +monument; not a granite shaft, but a beautiful +Memorial Church at Georgetown, Mass., where for +centuries, perhaps, others will worship the God she +worshipped. On a marble tablet are the words, +"Affectionately consecrated by her children, George +and Judith, to the memory of Mrs. Judith Peabody." +Whittier wrote the hymn for its dedication:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The heart, and not the hand, has wrought,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From sunken base to tower above,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The image of a tender thought,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The memory of a deathless love."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Nov. 4, 1869, Mr. Peabody lay dying at the +house of a friend in London. The Queen sent a +special telegram of inquiry and sympathy, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +desired to call upon him in person; but it was too +late. "It is a great mystery," said the dying man +feebly; "but I shall know all soon." At midnight +he passed to his reward.</p> + +<p>Westminster Abbey opened her doors for a great +funeral, where statesmen and earls bowed their +heads in honor of the departed. Then the Queen +sent her noblest man-of-war, "Monarch," to bear +in state, across the Atlantic, "her friend," the once +poor boy of Danvers. Around the coffin, in a room +draped in black, stood immense wax candles, lighted. +When the great ship reached America, Legislatures +adjourned, and went with Governors and famous +men to receive the precious freight. The body was +taken by train to Peabody, and then placed on a +funeral car, eleven feet long and ten feet high, covered +with black velvet, trimmed with silver lace and +stars. Under the casket were winged cherubs in +silver. The car was drawn by six horses covered +with black and silver, while corps of artillery preceded +the long procession. At sunset the Institute +was reached, and there, surrounded by the English +and American flags draped with crape, the guard +kept silent watch about the dead. At the funeral, +at the church, Hon. Robert C. Winthrop pronounced +the eloquent eulogy, of the "brave, honest, noble-hearted +friend of mankind," and then, amid a great +concourse of people, George Peabody was buried at +Harmony Grove, by the side of the mother whom he +so tenderly loved. Doubtless he looked out upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +this greensward from his attic window when a child +or when he labored in the village store. Well might +two nations unite in doing honor to this man, both +good and great, who gave nine million dollars to +bless humanity.</p> + +<p>[The building fund of £500,000 left by Mr. Peabody +for the benefit of the poor of London has now +been increased by rents and interest to £857,320. +The whole of this great sum of money is in active +employment, together with £340,000 which the trustees +have borrowed. A total of £1,170,787 has +been expended during the time the fund has been +in existence, of which £80,903 was laid out during +1884. The results of these operations are seen in +blocks of artisans' dwellings built on land purchased +by the trustees and let to working men at rents +within their means, containing conveniences and +comforts not ordinarily attainable by them, thus +fulfilling the benevolent intentions of Mr. Peabody. +At the present time 4551 separate dwellings have +been erected, containing 10,144 rooms, inhabited +by 18,453 persons. Thirteen new blocks of buildings +are now in course of erection and near completion. +Indeed, there is no cessation in the work +of fulfilling the intentions of the noble bequest.—<i>Boston +Journal</i>, Mar. 7, 1885.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 422px;"> +<img src="images/illus-013.jpg" width="422" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">BAYARD TAYLOR.</span> +</div> + + +<h2>BAYARD TAYLOR.</h2> + + +<p>Since Samuel Johnson toiled in Grub Street, +London, literature has scarcely furnished a +more pathetic or inspiring illustration of struggle +to success than that of Bayard Taylor. Born of +Quaker parentage in the little town of Kennett +Square, near Philadelphia, Jan. 11, 1825, he grew +to boyhood in the midst of fresh air and the hard +work of farm-life. His mother, a refined and intelligent +woman, who taught him to read at four, and +who early discovered her child's love for books, +shielded him as far as possible from picking up +stones and weeding corn, and set him to rocking +the baby to sleep. What was her amazement one +day, on hearing loud cries from the infant, to find +Bayard absorbed in reading, and rocking his own +chair furiously, supposing it to be the cradle! It +was evident, that, though such a boy might become +a fine literary man, he could not be a successful +baby-tender.</p> + +<p>He was especially eager to read poetry and travels, +and, before he was twelve years old, had devoured +the contents of their small circulating library, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +well as Cooper's novels, and the histories of Gibbon, +Robertson, and Hume. The few books which +he owned were bought with money earned by selling +nuts which he had gathered. He read Milton, +Scott, Byron, and Wordsworth; and his mother +would often hear him repeating poetry to his brother +after they had gone to bed. He was always planning +journeys in Europe, which seemed very far +from being realized. At fourteen he began to study +Latin and French, and at fifteen, Spanish; and a +year later he assisted in teaching at the academy +where he was attending school.</p> + +<p>He was ambitious; but there seemed no open +door. There is never an open door to fame or +prosperity, except we open it for ourselves. The +world is too busy to help others; and assistance +usually weakens rather than strengthens us. About +this time he received, through request, an autograph +from Charles Dickens, then lecturing in this +country. The boy of sixteen wrote in his journal: +"It was not without a feeling of ambition that I +looked upon it; that as he, a humble clerk, had +risen to be the guest of a mighty nation, so I, a +humble pedagogue, might, by unremitted and arduous +intellectual and moral exertion, become a light, +a star, among the names of my country. May it +be!... I believe all poets are possessed in a +greater or less degree of ambition. I think this is +never given without a mind of sufficient power to +sustain it, and to achieve its lofty object."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p> + +<p>At seventeen, Bayard's schooling was over. He +sketched well, and would gladly have gone to Philadelphia +to study engraving; but he had no money. +One poem had been published in the "Saturday +Evening Post." Those only who have seen their +first poem in print can experience his joy. But +writing poetry would not earn him a living. He +had no liking for teaching, but, as that seemed the +only thing at hand, he would try to obtain a school. +He did not succeed, however, and apprenticed himself +for four years to a printer. He worked faithfully, +using all his spare hours in reading and +writing poetry.</p> + +<p>Two years later, he walked to Philadelphia and +back—thirty miles each way—to see if fifteen of +his poems could not be printed in a book! His +ambition evidently had not abated. Of course no +publisher would take the book at his own risk. +There was no way of securing its publication, therefore, +but to visit his friends, and solicit them to +buy copies in advance. This was a trying matter +for a refined nature; but it was a necessity. He +hoped thus to earn a little money for travel, and +"to win a name that the person who shall be +chosen to share with me the toils of life will not +be ashamed to own." This "person" was Mary +Agnew, whose love and that of Bayard Taylor form +one of the saddest and tenderest pictures in our +literature.</p> + +<p>At last the penniless printer boy had determined<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +to see Europe. For two years he had read every +thing he could find upon travels abroad. His good +mother mourned over the matter, and his acquaintances +prophesied dire results from such a roving +disposition. He would go again to Philadelphia, +and see if the newspapers did not wish correspondence +from Europe. All the editors politely declined +the ardent boy's proposals. Probably he did not +know that "unknown writers" are not wanted.</p> + +<p>About to return home, "not in despair," he afterwards +wrote, "but in a state of wonder as to where +my funds would come from, for I felt certain they +would come," the editor of the "Saturday Evening +Post" offered him four dollars a letter for twelve +letters,—fifty dollars,—with the promise of taking +more if they were satisfactory. The "United States +Gazette" made a similar offer, and, after selling a +few manuscript poems which he had with him, he +returned home in triumph, with a hundred and forty +dollars in his pocket! "This," he says, "seemed +sufficient to carry me to the end of the world."</p> + +<p>Immediately Bayard and his cousin started on +foot for Washington, a hundred miles, to see the +member of Congress from their district, and obtain +passports from him. Reaching a little village on +their way thither, they were refused lodgings at the +tavern because of the lateness of the hour,—nine +o'clock!—and walked on till near midnight. Then +seeing a house brilliantly lighted, as for a wedding, +they approached, and asked the proprietor whether<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +a tavern were near by. The man addressed turned +fiercely upon the lads, shouting, "Begone! Leave +the place instantly. Do you hear? Off!" The +amazed boys hastened away, and at three o'clock in +the morning, footsore and faint, after a walk of +nearly forty miles, slept in a cart standing beside +an old farmhouse.</p> + +<p>And now at nineteen, he was in New York, ready +for Europe. He called upon the author, N. P. +Willis, who had once written a kind note to him; +and this gentleman, with a ready nature in helping +others,—alas! not always found among writers—gave +him several letters of introduction to newspaper +men. Mr. Greeley said bluntly when applied to, "I +am sick of descriptive letters, and will have no more +of them. But I should like some sketches of German +life and society, after you have been there, and +know something about it. If the letters are good, +you shall be paid for them; but don't write <i>until you +know something</i>."</p> + +<p>July 1, 1844, Bayard and two young friends, after +paying ten dollars each for steerage passage, started +out for this eventful voyage. No wonder that, as +land faded from sight, and he thought of gentle +Mary Agnew and his devoted mother, his heart +failed him, and he quite broke down. After twenty-eight +days they landed in Liverpool, strangers, poor, +knowing almost nothing of the world, but full of +hope and enthusiasm. They spent three weeks +in Scotland and the north of England, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>n +travelled through Belgium to Heidelberg. Bayard +passed the first winter in Frankfort, in the plainest +quarters, and then, with his knapsack on his back, +visited Leipzig, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, and +Munich. After this he walked over the Alps, and +through Northern Italy, spending four months in +Florence, and then visiting Rome. Often he was +so poor that he lived on twenty cents a day. Sometimes +he was without food for nearly two days, +writing his natural and graphic letters when his +ragged clothes were wet through, and his body faint +from fasting. But the manly, enthusiastic youth +always made friends by his good cheer and unselfishness.</p> + +<p>At last he was in London, with but thirty cents +to buy food and lodging. But he had a poem of +twelve hundred lines in his knapsack, which he supposed +any London publisher would be glad to +accept. He offered it; but it was "declined with +thanks." The youth had not learned that Bayard +Taylor unknown, and Bayard Taylor famous in two +hemispheres, were two different names upon the +title-page of a book. Publishers cannot usually +afford to do missionary work in their business; they +print what will sell. "Weak from sea-sickness," +he says, "hungry, chilled, and without a single acquaintance +in the great city, my situation was about +as hopeless as it is possible to conceive."</p> + +<p>Possibly he could obtain work in a printer's shop. +This he tried hour after hour, and failed. Finally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +he spent his last twopence for bread, and found +a place to sleep in a third-rate chop-house, among +sailors, and actors from the lower theatres. He +rose early, so as not to be asked to pay for his bed, +and again sought work. Fortunately he met an +American publisher, who loaned him five dollars, +and with a thankful heart he returned to pay for his +lodging. For six weeks he staid in his humble quarters, +wrote letters home to the newspapers, and also +sent various poems to the English journals, which +were all returned to him. For two years he supported +himself on two hundred and fifty dollars +a year, earning it all by writing. "I saw," he says, +"almost nothing of intelligent European society; +but literature and art were, nevertheless, open to +me, and a new day had dawned in my life."</p> + +<p>On his return to America he found that his published +letters had been widely read. He was advised +to put them in a book; and "Views Afoot," +with a preface by N. P. Willis, were soon given to +the world. Six editions were sold the first year; +and the boy who had seen Europe in the midst of +so much privation, found himself an author, with +the prospect of fame. Not alone had poverty made +these two years hard to bear. He was allowed +to hold no correspondence with Mary Agnew, because +her parents steadily refused to countenance +the young lovers. He had wisely made his mother +his confidante, and she had counselled patience and +hope. The rising fame possibly smoothed the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +course of true love, for at twenty-one, Bayard became +engaged to the idol of his heart. She was an +intelligent and beautiful girl, with dark eyes and +soft brown hair, and to the ardent young traveller +seemed more angel than human. He showed her +his every poem, and laid before her every purpose. +He wrote her, "I have often dim, vague forebodings +that an eventful destiny is in store for me"; and +then he added in quaint, Quaker dialect, "I have +told thee that existence would not be endurable +without thee; I feel further that thy aid will be +necessary to work out the destinies of the future.... +I am really glad that thou art pleased with my +poetry. One word from thee is dearer to me than +the cold praise of all the critics in the land."</p> + +<p>For the year following his return home, he edited +a country paper, and thereby became involved in +debts which required the labors of the next three +years to cancel. He now decided to go to New +York if possible, where there would naturally be +more literary society, and openings for a writer. +He wrote to editors and publishers; but there were +no vacancies to be filled. Finally he was offered +enough to pay his board by translating, and this he +gladly accepted. By teaching literature in a young +ladies' school, he increased his income to nine +dollars a week. Not a luxurious amount, surely.</p> + +<p>For a year he struggled on, saving every cent +possible, and then Mr. Greeley gave him a place +on the "Tribune," at twelve dollars a week. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +worked constantly, often writing poetry at midnight, +when his day's duties were over. He made +true friends, such as Stedman and Stoddard, published +a new book of poems; and in the beginning +of 1849 life began to look full of promise. Sent +by his paper to write up California, for six months +he lived in the open air, his saddle for his pillow, +and on his return wrote his charming book "El-dorado." +He was now twenty-five, out of debt, and +ready to marry Mary Agnew. But a dreadful +cloud had meantime gathered and burst over their +heads. The beautiful girl had been stricken with +consumption. The May day bridal had been postponed. +"God help me, if I lose her!" wrote +the young author to Mr. Stoddard from her bedside. +Oct. 24 came, and the dying girl was +wedded to the man she loved. Four days later +he wrote: "We have had some heart-breaking +hours, talking of what is before us, and are both +better and calmer for it." And, later still: "She +is radiantly beautiful; but it is not the beauty of +earth.... We have loved so long, so intimately, +and so wholly, that the footsteps of her life have +forever left their traces in mine. If my name +should be remembered among men, hers will not +be forgotten." Dec. 21, 1850, she went beyond; +and Bayard Taylor at twenty-six was alone in the +world, benumbed, unfitted for work of any kind. +"I am not my true self more than half the time. +I cannot work with any spirit: another such winter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +will kill me, I am certain. I shall leave next fall +on a journey somewhere—no matter where," he +wrote a friend.</p> + +<p>Fortunately he took a trip to the Far East, travelling +in Egypt, Asia Minor, India, and Japan for +two years, writing letters which made him known +the country over. On his return, he published +three books of travel, and accepted numerous calls +in the lecture-field. His stock in the "Tribune" +had become productive, and he was gaining great +success.</p> + +<p>His next long journey was to Northern Europe, +when he took his brother and two sisters with him, +as he could enjoy nothing selfishly. This time he +saw much of the Brownings and Thackeray, and +spent two days as the guest of Tennyson. He was +no longer the penniless youth, vainly looking for +work in London to pay his lodging, but the well-known +traveller, lecturer, and poet. Oct. 27, +1857, seven years after the death of Mary Agnew, +he married the daughter of a distinguished German +astronomer, Marie Hansen, a lady of great culture, +whose companionship has ever proved a blessing.</p> + +<p>Tired of travel, Mr. Taylor now longed for a +home for his wife and infant daughter, Lilian. +He would erect on the old homestead, where he +played when a boy, such a house as a poet would +love to dwell in, and such as poet friends would +delight to visit. So, with minutest care and +thought, "Cedarcroft," a beautiful structure, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +built in the midst of two hundred acres. Every +flower, every tree, was planted with as much love +as Scott gave to "Abbotsford." But, when it +was completed, the old story had been told again, +of expenses going far beyond expectations, and, +instead of anticipated rest, toil and struggle to +pay debts, and provide for constant outgoes.</p> + +<p>But Bayard Taylor was not the man to be disturbed +by obstacles. He at once set to work to +earn more than ever by his books and lectures. +With his characteristic generosity he brought his +parents and his sisters to live in his home, and +made everybody welcome to his hospitality. The +"Poet's Journal," a poem of exquisite tenderness, +was written here, and "Hannah Thurston," a +novel, of which fifteen thousand were soon sold.</p> + +<p>Shortly after the beginning of our civil war, Mr. +Taylor was made Secretary of Legation at Russia. +He was now forty years of age, loved, well-to-do, +and famous. His novels—"John Godfrey's Fortunes" +and the "Story of Kennett"—were both +successful. The "Picture of St. John," rich and +stronger than his other poems, added to his fame. +But the gifted and versatile man was breaking in +health. Again he travelled abroad, and wrote +"Byways in Europe." On his return he translated, +with great care and study, "Faust," which +will always be a monument to his learning and +literary skill. He published "Lars, a Norway +pastoral," and gave delightful lectures on German<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +literature at Cornell University, and Lowell and +Peabody Institutes, at Boston and Baltimore.</p> + +<p>At last he wearied of the care and constant +expense of "Cedarcroft." He needed to be near +the New York libraries. Mr. Greeley had died, +his newspaper stock had declined, and he could +not sell his home, as he had hoped. There was +no alternative but to go back in 1871 into the daily +work of journalism in the "Tribune" office. The +rest which he had longed for was never to come. +For four years he worked untiringly, delivering +the Centennial Ode at our Exposition, and often +speaking before learned societies.</p> + +<p>In 1878, President Hayes bestowed upon him a +well-deserved honor, by appointing him minister to +Berlin. Germany rejoiced that a lover of her life +and literature had been sent to her borders. The +best of New York gathered to say good-by to the +noted author. Arriving in Berlin, Emperor William +gave him cordial welcome, and Bismark made him +a friend. A pleasant residence was secured, and +furniture purchased. At last he was to find time to +complete a long-desired work, the Lives of Goethe +and Schiller. "Prince Deukalion," his last noble +poem, had just reached him. All was ready for the +best and strongest work of his life, when, lo! the +overworked brain and body gave way. He did not +murmur. Only once, Dec. 19, he groaned, "I want—I +want—oh, you know what I mean, that <i>stuff +of life!</i>" It was too late. At fifty-three the great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +heart, the exquisite brain, the tired body, were +still.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Dead he lay among his books;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The peace of God was in his looks."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Germany as well as America wept over the bier +of the once poor Quaker lad, who travelled over +Europe with scarce a shilling in his pocket, now, by +his own energy, brought to one of the highest +positions in the gift of his country. Dec. 22, the +great of Germany gathered about his coffin, Bertold +Auerbach speaking beautiful words.</p> + +<p>March 13, 1879, the dead poet lay in state in the +City Hall at New York, in the midst of assembled +thousands. The following day the body was borne +to "Cedarcroft," and, surrounded by literary associates +and tender friends, laid to rest. Public +memorial meetings were held in various cities, +where Holmes, Longfellow, Whittier, and others +gave their loving tributes. A devoted student, a +successful diplomat, a true friend, a noble poet, a +gifted traveller, a man whose life will never cease +to be an inspiration.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> +<h2>CAPTAIN JAMES B. EADS.</h2> + + +<p>On the steamship "Germanic" I played chess +with the great civil engineer, Captain Eads, +stimulated by the thought that to beat him was to +defeat the man who had twice conquered the Mississippi. +But I didn't defeat him.</p> + +<p>The building of a ship-canal across the Isthmus +of Suez made famous the Frenchman, Ferdinand de +Lesseps: so the opening-up of the mouth of the +Mississippi River has distinguished Captain Eads. +To-day both these men are struggling for the rare +honor of joining, at the Isthmus of Panama, the +waters of the great Atlantic and Pacific; a magnificent +scheme, which, if successful, will save annually +thousands of miles of dangerous sea-voyage +around Cape Horn, besides millions of money.</p> + +<p>The "Great West" seems to delight in producing +self-made men like Lincoln, Grant, Eads, and +others.</p> + +<p>James B. Eads was born in Indiana in 1820. He +is slender in form, neat in dress, genial, courteous, +and over sixty years of age. In 1833, his father +started down the Ohio River with his family, pro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>posing +to settle in Wisconsin. The boat caught +fire, and his scanty furniture and clothing were +burned. Young Eads barely escaped ashore with +his pantaloons, shirt, and cap. Taking passage on +another boat, this boy of thirteen landed at St. +Louis with his parents; his little bare feet first +touching the rocky shore of the city on the very +spot where he afterwards located and built the +largest steel bridge in the world, over the Mississippi,—one +of the most difficult feats of engineering +ever performed in America.</p> + +<p>At the age of nine, young Eads made a short +trip on the Ohio, when the engineer of the steamboat +explained to him so clearly the construction of +the steam-engine, that, before he was a year older, +he built a little working model of it, so perfect +in its parts and movements, that his schoolmates +would frequently go home with him after school to +see it work. A locomotive engine driven by a concealed +rat was one of his next juvenile feats in +mechanical engineering. From eight to thirteen he +attended school; after which, from necessity, he +was placed as clerk in a dry-goods store.</p> + +<p>How few young people of the many to whom +poverty denies an education, either understand the +value of the saying, "knowledge is power," or exercise +will sufficient to overcome obstacles. Willpower +and thirst for knowledge elevated General +Garfield from driving canal horses to the Presidency +of the United States.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> + +<p>Over the store in St. Louis, where he was engaged, +his employer lived. He was an old bachelor, and, +having observed the tastes of his clerk, gave him +his first book in engineering. The old gentleman's +library furnished evening companions for him during +the five years he was thus employed. Finally, +his health failing, at the age of nineteen he went on +a Mississippi River steamer; from which time to +the present day that great river has been to him an +all-absorbing study.</p> + +<p>Soon afterwards he formed a partnership with a +friend, and built a small boat to raise cargoes of +vessels sunken in the Mississippi. While this boat +was building, he made his first venture in submarine +engineering, on the lower rapids of the river, by the +recovery of several hundred tons of lead. He hired +a scow or flat-boat, and anchored it over the wreck. +An experienced diver, clad in armor, who had been +hired at considerable expense in Buffalo, was +lowered into the water; but the rapids were so swift +that the diver, though incased in the strong armor, +feared to be sunk to the bottom. Young Eads +determined to succeed, and, finding it impracticable +to use the armor, went ashore, purchased a whiskey-barrel, +knocked out the head, attached the air-pump +hose to it, fastened several heavy weights to +the open end of the barrel; then, swinging it on a +derrick, he had a practical diving-bell—the best +use I ever heard made of a whiskey-barrel.</p> + +<p>Neither the diver, nor any of the crew, would go<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +down in this contrivance: so the dauntless young +engineer, having full confidence in what he had +read in books, was lowered within the barrel down +to the bottom; the lower end of the barrel being +open. The water was sixteen feet deep, and very +swift. Finding the wreck, he remained by it a full +hour, hitching ropes to pig-lead till a ton or more +was safely hoisted into his own boat. Then, making +a signal by a small line attached to the barrel, +he was lifted on deck, and in command again. The +sunken cargo was soon successfully raised, and was +sold, and netted a handsome profit, which, increased +by other successes, enabled energetic Eads to build +larger boats, with powerful pumps, and machinery +on them for lifting entire vessels. He surprised all +his friends in floating even immense sunken steamers—boats +which had long been given up as lost.</p> + +<p>When the Rebellion came, it was soon evident +that a strong fleet must be put upon Western rivers +to assist our armies. Word came from the government +to Captain Eads to report in Washington. +His thorough knowledge of the "Father of Waters" +and its tributaries, and his practical suggestions, +secured an order to build seven gunboats, and soon +after an order for the eighth was given.</p> + +<p>In forty-eight hours after receiving this authority, +his agents and assistants were at work; and suitable +ship-timber was felled in half a dozen Western +States for their hulls. Contracts were awarded to +large engine and iron works in St. Louis, Pitts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>burgh, +and Cincinnati; and within one hundred +days, eight powerful ironclad gunboats, carrying +over one hundred large cannon, and costing a million +dollars, were achieving victories no less important +for the Mississippi valley than those which +Ericsson's famous "Cheese-box Monitor" afterwards +won on the James River.</p> + +<p>These eight gunboats, Commodore Foote ably +employed in his brave attacks on Forts McHenry +and Donaldson. They were the first ironclads the +United States ever owned. Captain Eads covered +the boats with iron: Commodore Foote covered +them with glory.</p> + +<p>Eads built not less than fourteen of these gunboats. +During the war, the models were exhibited +by request to the German and other governments. +His next work was to throw across the mighty +Mississippi River, nearly half a mile wide, at St. +Louis, a monstrous steel bridge, supported by three +arches, the spans of two being five hundred and +two feet long, and the central one five hundred and +twenty feet. The huge piles were ingeniously sunk +in the treacherous sand, one hundred and thirty-six +feet below the flood-level to the solid rock, through +ninety feet of sand. This bridge and its approaches +cost eighty millions of dollars, and is used by ten +or twelve railroad companies. Above the tracks is +a big street with carriage-roads, street-cars, and +walks for foot-passengers.</p> + +<p>The honor of building the finest bridge in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +world would have satisfied most men, but not ambitious +Captain Eads. He actually loved the noble +river in which De Soto, its discoverer, was buried, +and fully realized the vast, undeveloped resources +of its rich valleys. Equally well he understood +what a gigantic work in the past the river and its +fifteen hundred sizable tributaries had accomplished +in times of freshets, by depositing soil and sand +north of the original Gulf of Mexico, forming an +alluvial plain five hundred miles long, sixty miles +wide, and of unknown depth, and having a delta +extending out into the Gulf, sixty miles long, and +as many miles wide, and probably a mile deep. +And yet this heroic man, although jealously opposed +for years by West Point engineers, having +a sublime confidence in the laws of nature, and +actuated by intense desire to benefit mankind, +dared to stand on the immense sand-bars at the +mouth of this defiant stream, and, making use of +the jetty system, bid the river itself dig a wide, +deep channel into the seas beyond, for the world's +commerce.</p> + +<p>Captain Eads, who had studied the improvements +on the Danube, Maas, and other European rivers, +observed that all rivers flow faster in their narrow +channels, and carry along in the swift water, sand, +gravel, and even stones. This familiar law he applied +at the South Pass of the Mississippi River, +where the waters, though deep above, escaped from +the banks into the Gulf, and spread sediment far +and wide.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p> + +<p>The water on the sand-bars of the three principal +passes varied from eight to thirteen feet in depth. +Many vessels require twice the depth. Two piers, +twelve hundred feet apart, were built from land's +end, a mile into the sea. They were made from +willows, timber, gravel, concrete, and stone. Mattresses, +a hundred feet long, from twenty-five to +fifty feet wide, and two feet thick, were constructed +from small willows placed at right angles, and +bound securely together. These were floated into +position, and sunk with gravel, one mattress upon +another, which the river soon filled with sand that +firmly held them in their place. The top was +finished with heavy concrete blocks, to resist the +waves. These piers are called "jetties," and the +swift collected waters have already carried over five +million cubic yards of sand into the deep gulf, and +made a ship-way over thirty feet deep. The five +million dollars paid by the United States was little +enough for so priceless a service.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p>In June, 1884, Captain Eads received the Albert +medal of the British Society of Arts, the first +American upon whom this honor has been conferred. +Before his great enterprise of the Tehuantepec +ship railroad had been completed, he +died at Nassau, New Providence, Bahama Islands, +March 8, 1887, after a brief illness, of pneumonia, +at the age of sixty-seven.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 494px;"> +<img src="images/illus-033.jpg" width="494" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">JAMES WATT.</span> +</div> + + +<h2>JAMES WATT.</h2> + + +<p>The history of inventors is generally the same +old struggle with poverty. Sir Richard Arkwright, +the youngest of thirteen children, with no +education, a barber, shaving in a cellar for a penny +to each customer, dies worth two and one-half million +dollars, after being knighted by the King for his +inventions in spinning. Elias Howe, Jr., in want +and sorrow, lives on beans in a London attic, and +dies at forty-five, having received over two million +dollars from his sewing-machines in thirteen years. +Success comes only through hard work and determined +perseverance. The steps to honor, or wealth, +or fame, are not easy to climb.</p> + +<p>The history of James Watt, the inventor of the +steam-engine, is no exception to the rule of struggling +to win. He was born in the little town of +Greenock, Scotland, 1736. Too delicate to attend +school, he was taught reading by his mother, and a +little writing and arithmetic by his father. When +six years of age, he would draw mechanical lines +and circles on the hearth, with a colored piece of +chalk. His favorite play was to take to pieces his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +little carpenter tools, and make them into different +ones. He was an obedient boy, especially devoted +to his mother, a cheerful and very intelligent woman, +who always encouraged him. She would say in any +childish quarrels, "Let James speak; from him I +always hear the truth." Old George Herbert said, +"One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters"; +and such a one was Mrs. Watt.</p> + +<p>When sent to school, James was too sensitive to +mix with rough boys, and was very unhappy with +them. When nearly fourteen, his parents sent him +to a friend in Glasgow, who soon wrote back that +they must come for their boy, for he told so many +interesting stories that he had read, that he kept the +family up till very late at night.</p> + +<p>His aunt wrote that he would sit "for an hour +taking off the lid of the teakettle, and putting it +on, holding now a cup and now a silver spoon over +the steam, watching how it rises from the spout, +and catching and condensing the drops of hot water +it falls into."</p> + +<p>Before he was fifteen, he had read a natural philosophy +twice through, as well as every other book +he could lay his hands on. He had made an electrical +machine, and startled his young friends by +some sudden shocks. He had a bench for his +special use, and a forge, where he made small +cranes, pulleys, pumps, and repaired instruments +used on ships. He was fond of astronomy, and +would lie on his back on the ground for hours, +looking at the stars.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p> + +<p>Frail though he was in health, yet he must prepare +himself to earn a living. When he was eighteen, +with many tender words from his mother, her +only boy started for Glasgow to learn the trade of +making mathematical instruments. In his little +trunk, besides his "best clothes," which were a +ruffled shirt, a velvet waistcoat, and silk stockings, +were a leather apron and some carpenter tools. +Here he found a position with a man who sold and +mended spectacles, repaired fiddles, and made fishing +nets and rods.</p> + +<p>Finding that he could learn very little in this +shop, an old sea-captain, a friend of the family, +took him to London. Here, day after day, he +walked the streets, asking for a situation; but nobody +wanted him. Finally he offered to work for a +watchmaker without pay, till he found a place to +learn his trade. This he at last obtained with a +Mr. Morgan, to whom he agreed to give a hundred +dollars for the year's teaching. As his father was +poorly able to help him, the conscientious boy lived +on two dollars a week, earning most of this pittance +by rising early, and doing odd jobs before his +employer opened his shop in the morning. He +labored every evening until nine o'clock, except +Saturday, and was soon broken in health by hunger +and overwork. His mother's heart ached for him, +but, like other poor boys, he must make his way +alone.</p> + +<p>At the end of the year he went to Glasgow to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +open a shop for himself; but other mechanics were +jealous of a new-comer, and would not permit him +to rent a place. A professor at the Glasgow University +knew the deserving young man, and offered +him a room in the college, which he gladly accepted. +He and the lad who assisted him could earn only +ten dollars a week, and there was little sale for the +instruments after they were made: so, following the +example of his first master, he began to make and +mend flutes, fiddles, and guitars, though he did not +know one note from another. One of his customers +wanted an organ built, and at once Watt +set to work to learn the theory of music. When +the organ was finished, a remarkable one for those +times, the young machinist had added to it several +inventions of his own.</p> + +<p>This earning a living was a hard matter; but it +brought energy, developed thought, and probably +helped more than all else to make him famous. +The world in general works no harder than circumstances +compel.</p> + +<p>Poverty is no barrier to falling in love, and, poor +though he was, he now married Margaret Miller, his +cousin, whom he had long tenderly loved. Their +home was plain and small; but she had the sweetest +of dispositions, was always happy, and made his +life sunny even in its darkest hours of struggling.</p> + +<p>Meantime he had made several intellectual friends +in the college, one of whom talked much to him +about a steam-carriage. Steam was not by any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +means unknown. Hero, a Greek physician who +lived at Alexandria a century before the Christian +era, tells how the ancients used it. Some crude +engines were made in Watt's time, the best being +that of Thomas Newcomen, called an atmospheric +engine, and used in raising water from coal-mines. +It could do comparatively little, however; and many +of the mines were now useless because the water +nearly drowned the miners.</p> + +<p>Watt first experimented with common vials for +steam-reservoirs, and canes hollowed out for steam-pipes. +For months he went on working night and +day, trying new plans, testing the powers of steam, +borrowing a brass syringe a foot long for his cylinder, +till finally the essential principles of the steam-engine +were born in his mind. He wrote to a friend, +"My whole thoughts are bent on this machine. I +can think of nothing else." He hired an old cellar, +and for two months worked on his model. His tools +were poor; his foreman died; and the engine, when +completed, leaked in all parts. His old business of +mending instruments had fallen off; he was badly +in debt, and had no money to push forward the invention. +He believed he had found the right principle; +but he could not let his family starve. Sick +at heart, and worn in body, he wrote: "Of all +things in life there is nothing more foolish than +inventing." Poor Watt!</p> + +<p>His great need was money,—money to buy food, +money to buy tools, money to give him leisure for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +thought. Finally, a friend induced Dr. Roebuck, +an iron-dealer, to become Watt's partner, pay his +debts of five thousand dollars, take out a patent, +and perfect the engine. Watt went to London for +his patent, but so long was he delayed by indifferent +officials, that he wrote home to his young wife, quite +discouraged. With a brave heart in their pinching +poverty, Margaret wrote back, "I beg that you will +not make yourself uneasy, though things should not +succeed to your wish. If the engine will not do, +<i>something else will; never despair</i>."</p> + +<p>On his return home, for six months he worked in +setting up his engine. The cylinder, having been +badly cast, was almost worthless; the piston, though +wrapped in cork, oiled rags, and old hat, let the +air in and the steam out; and the model proved a +failure. "To-day," he said, "I enter the thirty-fifth +year of my life, and I think I have hardly yet +done thirty-five pence worth of good in the world: +but I cannot help it." The path to success was not +easy.</p> + +<p>Dr. Roebuck was getting badly in debt, and could +not aid him as he had promised; so Watt went sadly +back to surveying, a business he had taken up to +keep the wolf from the door. In feeble health, out +in the worst weather, his clothes often wet through, +life seemed almost unbearable. When absent on +one of these surveying excursions, word was brought +that Margaret, his beloved wife, was dead. He was +completely unnerved. Who would care for his little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +children, or be to him what he had often called her, +"the comfort of his life"? After this he would +often pause on the threshold of his humble home to +summon courage to enter, since she was no longer +there to welcome him. She had shared his poverty, +but was never to share his fame and wealth.</p> + +<p>And now came a turning-point in his life, though +the struggles were by no means over. At Birmingham, +lived Matthew Boulton, a rich manufacturer, +eight years older than Watt. He employed over +a thousand men in his hardware establishment, and +in making clocks, and reproducing rare vases. He +was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, with whom he +had corresponded about the steam-engine, and +he had also heard of Watt and his invention +through Dr. Roebuck. He was urged to assist. +But Watt waited three years longer for aid. Nine +years had passed since he made his invention; he +was in debt, without business, and in poor health. +What could he do? He seemed likely to finish life +without any success.</p> + +<p>Finally Boulton was induced to engage in the +manufacture of engines, giving Watt one-third of +the profits, if any were made. One engine was +constructed by Boulton's men, and it worked admirably. +Soon orders came in for others, as the +mines were in bad condition, and the water must +be pumped out. Fortunes, like misfortunes, rarely +come singly. Just at this time the Russian Government +offered Watt five thousand dollars yearly if he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +would go to that country. Such a sum was an +astonishment. How he wished Margaret could have +lived to see this proud day!</p> + +<p>He could not well be spared from the company +now; so he lived on at Birmingham, marrying a +second time, Anne Macgregor of Scotland, to care +for his children and his home. She was a very different +woman from Margaret Miller; a neat housekeeper, +but seemingly lacking in the lovable qualities +which make sunshine even in the plainest home.</p> + +<p>As soon as the Boulton and Watt engines were +completed, and success seemed assured, obstacles +arose from another quarter. Engines had been put +into several Cornwall mines, which bore the singular +names of "Ale and Cakes," "Wheat Fanny," +"Wheat Abraham," "Cupboard," and "Cook's +Kitchen." As soon as the miners found that these +engines worked well, they determined to destroy the +patent by the cry that Boulton and Watt had a +monopoly of a thing which the world needed. Petitions +were circulated, giving great uneasiness to +both the partners. Several persons also stole the +principle of the engine, either by bribing the engine-men, +or by getting them drunk so that they would +tell the secrets of their employers. The patent was +constantly infringed upon. Every hour was a warfare. +Watt said, "The rascality of mankind is +almost past belief."</p> + +<p>Meantime Boulton, with his many branches of +business, and the low state of trade, had gotten<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +deeply in debt, and was pressed on every side for +the tens of thousands which he owed. Watt was +nearly insane with this trouble. He wrote to +Boulton: "I cannot rest in my bed until these +money matters have assumed some determinate +form. I am plagued with the blues. I am quite +eaten up with the mulligrubs."</p> + +<p>Soon after this, Watt invented the letter-copying +press, which at first was greatly opposed, because +it was thought that forged names and letters +would result. After a time, however, there was +great demand for it. Watt was urged by Boulton +to invent a rotary engine; but this was finally +done by their head workman, William Murdock, +the inventor of lighting by gas. He also made the +first model of a locomotive, which frightened the +village preacher nearly out of his senses, as it came +puffing down the street one evening. Though devoted +to his employers, sometimes working all night +for them, they counselled him to give up all thought +about his locomotive, lest by developing it he might +in time withdraw from their firm. Alas for the selfishness +of human nature! He was never made a +partner, and, though he thought out many inventions +after his day's work was done, he remained +faithful to their service till the end of his life. Mr. +Buckle tells this good story of Murdock. Having +found that fish-skins could be used instead of isinglass, +he came to London to inform the brewers, +and took board in a handsome house. Fancying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +himself in his laboratory, he went on with his experiments. +Imagine the horror of the landlady +when she entered his room, and found her elegant +wall-paper covered with wet fish-skins, hung up to +dry! The inventor took an immediate departure with +his skins. When the rotary engine was finished, the +partners sought to obtain a charter, when lo! The +millers and mealmen all opposed it, because, said +they, "If flour is ground by steam, the wind and +water-mills will stop, and men will be thrown out +of work." Boulton and Watt viewed with contempt +this new obstacle of ignorance. "Carry +out this argument," said the former, "and we +must annihilate water-mills themselves, and go back +again to the grinding of corn by hand labor." +Presently a large mill was burned by incendiaries, +with a loss of fifty thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>Watt about this time invented his "Parallel +Motion," and the Governor, for regulating the +speed of the engine. Large orders began to come +in, even from America and the West Indies; but +not till they had expended two hundred thousand +dollars were there any profits. Times were brightening +for the hard-working inventor. He lost his +despondency, and did not long for death, as he had +previously.</p> + +<p>After a time, he built a lovely home at Heathfield, +in the midst of forty acres of trees, flowers, +and tasteful walks. Here gathered some of the +greatest minds of the world,—Dr. Priestley who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +discovered oxygen, Sir William Herschel, Dr. Darwin, +Josiah Wedgwood, and scores of others, who +talked of science and literature. Mrs. Watt so +detested dirt, and so hated the sight of her husband's +leather apron and soiled hands, that he +built for himself a "garret," where he could +work unmolested by his wife, or her broom and +dustpan. She never allowed even her two pug-dogs +to cross the hall without wiping their feet on +the mat. She would seize and carry away her +husband's snuff-box, wherever she found it, because +she considered snuff as dirt. At night, +when she retired from the dining-room, if Mr. +Watt did not follow at the time fixed by her, she +sent a servant to remove the lights. If friends +were present, he would say meekly, "We must +go," and walk slowly out of the room. Such conduct +must have been about as trying as the failure +of his engines. For days together he would stay +in his garret, not even coming down to his meals, +cooking his food in his frying-pan and Dutch oven, +which he kept by him. One cannot help wondering, +whether, sometimes, as he worked up there +alone, he did not think of Margaret, whose face +would have brightened even that dingy room.</p> + +<p>A crushing sorrow now came to him. His only +daughter, Jessie, died, and then his pet son, +Gregory, the dearest friend of Humphry Davy, +a young man of brilliant scholarship and oratorical +powers. Boulton died before his partner,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +loved and lamented by all, having followed the +precept he once gave to Watt: "Keep your mind +and your heart pleasant, if possible; for the way +to go through life sweetly is not to regard rubs."</p> + +<p>Watt died peacefully Aug. 19, 1819, in his +eighty-third year, and was buried in beautiful +Handsworth Church. Here stands Chantrey's masterpiece, +a sitting statue of the great inventor. +Another is in Westminster Abbey. When Lord +Brougham was asked to write the inscription for +this monument, he said, "I reckon it one of the +chief honors of my life." Sir James Mackintosh +placed him "at the head of all inventors in all ages +and nations"; and Wordsworth regarded him, +"Considering both the magnitude and the universality +of his genius, as perhaps the most extraordinary +man that this country has ever produced."</p> + +<p>After all the struggle came wealth and fame. +The mine opens up its treasures only to those who +are persevering enough to dig into it; and life itself +yields little, only to such as have the courage +and the will to overcome obstacles.</p> + +<p>Heathfield has passed into other hands; but +the quiet garret is just as James Watt left it +at death. Here is a large sculpture machine, and +many busts partly copied. Here is his handkerchief +tied to the beam on which he rested his head. +The beam itself is crumbling to dust. Little pots +of chemicals on the shelves are hardened by age. +A bunch of withered grapes is on a dish, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +ashes are in the grate as when he sat before it. +Close by is the hair trunk of his beloved Gregory, +full of his schoolbooks, his letters, and his childish +toys. This the noble old man kept beside him +to the last.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p> +<h2>SIR JOSIAH MASON.</h2> + + +<p>One sunny morning in June, I went out five +miles from the great manufacturing city of +Birmingham, England, to the pretty town called +Erdington, to see the Mason Orphanage. I found +an immense brick structure, with high Gothic towers, +in the midst of thirteen acres of velvety lawn. +Over the portals of the building were the words, +"<small>DO DEEDS OF LOVE.</small>" Three hundred happy children +were scattered over the premises, the girls in +brown dresses with long white aprons: some were +in the great play-room, some doing the housework, +and some serving at dinner. Sly Cupid creeps into +an orphan-asylum even; and the matron had to +watch carefully lest the biggest pieces of bread and +butter be given by the girls to the boys they liked +best.</p> + +<p>In the large grounds, full of flowers and trees, +among the children he so tenderly loved and called +by name, the founder, Sir Josiah Mason, and his +wife, are buried, in a beautiful mausoleum, a Gothic +chapel, with stone carving and stained-glass windows.</p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 461px;"> +<img src="images/illus-046.jpg" width="461" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">SIR JOSIAH MASON.</span> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span></p> + +<p>And who was this founder?</p> + +<p>In a poor, plain home in Kidderminster, Feb. 23 +1795, Sir Josiah Mason was born. His father was +a weaver, and his mother the daughter of a laborer. +At eight years of age, with of course little education, +the boy began the struggle of earning a living. +His mother fitted up two baskets for him, and these +he filled with baker's cakes, and sold them about +the streets. Little Joe became so great a favorite, +that the buyers often gave him an extra penny. +Finally a donkey was obtained; and a bag containing +cakes in one end, and fruit and vegetables in +the other, was strapped across his back. In this +way, for seven years, Joe peddled from door to +door. Did anybody ever think then that he would +be rich and famous?</p> + +<p>The poor mother helped him with her scanty +means, and both parents allowed him to keep all he +could make. His father's advice used to be, "Joe, +thee'st got a few pence; never let anybody know +how much thee'st got in thee pockets." And well +the boy carried out his father's injunction in afterlife.</p> + +<p>When he was fifteen, his brother had become a +confirmed invalid, and needed a constant attendant. +The father was away at the shop, and the mother +busy with her cares: so Joe, who thought of others +always before himself, determined to be nurse, and +earn some money also. He set about becoming a +shoemaker, having learned the trade from watching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +an old man who lived near their house; but he could +make only a bare pittance. Then he taught himself +writing, and earned a trifle for composing letters +and Valentines for his poor neighbors. This money +he spent in books, for he was eager for an education. +He read no novels nor poetry, but books of +history, science, and theology.</p> + +<p>Finally the mother started a small grocery and +bakery, and Joe assisted. Many of their customers +were tramps and beggars, who could buy only an +ounce or half-ounce of tea; but even a farthing was +welcome to the Masons. Later, Josiah took up +carpet-weaving and blacksmithing; but he could +never earn more than five dollars a week, and he +became restless and eager for a broader field. He +had courage, was active and industrious, and had +good habits.</p> + +<p>He was now twenty-one. He decided to go to +Birmingham on Christmas Day, to visit an uncle +whom he had never seen. He went, and this was +the turning-point of his life. His uncle gave him +work in making gilt toys; and, what was perhaps +better still for the poor young man, he fell in love +with his cousin Annie Griffiths, and married her the +following year. This marriage proved a great blessing, +and for fifty-two years, childless, they two +were all in all to each other. For six years the +young husband worked early and late, with the +promise of succeeding to the small business; but at +the end of these years the promise was broken, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +Mason found himself at thirty, out of work, and +owning less than one hundred dollars.</p> + +<p>Walking down the street one day in no very happy +frame of mind, a stranger stepped up to him, and +said, "Mr. Mason?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," was the answer.</p> + +<p>"You are now, I understand, without employment. +I know some one who wants just such a +man as you, and I will introduce him to you. Will +you meet me to-morrow morning at Mr. Harrison's, +the split-ring maker?"</p> + +<p>"I will."</p> + +<p>The next day the stranger said to Mr. Harrison, +"I have brought you the very man you want."</p> + +<p>The business man eyed Mason closely, saying, +"I've had a good many young men come here; but +they are afraid of dirtying their fingers."</p> + +<p>Mason opened his somewhat calloused hands, +and, looking at them, said, "Are <i>you</i> ashamed of +dirtying yourselves to get your own living?"</p> + +<p>Mason was at once employed, and a year later +Mr. Harrison offered him the business at twenty-five +hundred dollars. Several men, observing the +young man's good qualities, had offered to loan him +money when he should go into trade for himself. +He bethought him of these friends, and called upon +them; but they all began to make excuse. The +world's proffers of help or friendship we can usually +discount by half. Seeing that not a dollar could be +borrowed, Mr. Harrison generously offered to wait<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +for the principal till it could be earned out of the +profits. This was a noble act, and Mr. Mason +never ceased to be grateful for it.</p> + +<p>He soon invented a machine for bevelling hoop-rings, +and made five thousand dollars the first year +from its use. Thenceforward his life reads like a +fairy-tale. One day, seeing some steel pens on a +card, in a shop-window, he went in and purchased +one for twelve cents. That evening he made three, +and enclosed one in a letter to Perry of London, the +maker, paying eighteen cents' postage, which now +would be only two cents.</p> + +<p>His pen was such an improvement that Mr. Perry +at once wrote for all he could make. In a few +years, Mason became the greatest pen-maker in the +world, employing a thousand persons, and turning +out over five million pens per week. Sixty tons of +pens, containing one and a half million pens to the +ton, were often in his shops. What a change from +peddling cakes from door to door in Kidderminster!</p> + +<p>Later he became the moneyed partner in the great +electro-plating trade of the Elkingtons, whose beautiful +work at the Centennial Exposition we all +remember.</p> + +<p>Mr. Mason never forgot his laborers. When he +established copper-smelting works in Wales, he built +neat cottages for the workmen, and schools for the +three hundred and fifty children. The Welsh refused +to allow their children to attend school where +they would be taught English. Mr. Mason over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>came +this by distributing hats, bonnets, and other +clothing to the pupils, and, once in school, they +needed no urging to remain. The manufacturer +was as hard a worker as any of his men. For years +he was the first person to come to his factory, and +the last to leave it. He was quick to decide a matter, +and act upon it, and the most rigid economist +of time. He allowed nobody to waste his precious +hours with idle talk, nor did he waste theirs. He +believed, with Shakespeare, that "Talkers are no +good doers." His hours were regular. He took +much exercise on foot, and lived with great simplicity. +He was always cheerful, and had great self-control. +Finally he began to ask himself how he +could best use his money before he died. He remembered +his poor struggling mother in his boyish +days. His first gift should be a home for aged +women—a noble thought!—his next should be +for orphans, as he was a great lover of children. +For eight years he watched the beautiful buildings +of his Orphanage go up, and then saw the happy +children gathered within, bringing many of them +from Kidderminster, who were as destitute as himself +when a boy. He seemed to know and love each +child, for whose benefit he had included even his +own lovely home, a million dollars in all. The +annual income for the Orphanage is about fifty +thousand dollars. What pleasure he must have had +as he saw them swinging in the great playgrounds, +where he had even thought to make triple columns<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +so that they could the better play hide-and-seek! +At eight, he was trudging the streets to earn bread; +they should have an easier lot through his generosity.</p> + +<p>For this and other noble deeds Queen Victoria +made him a knight. What would his poor mother +have said to such an honor for her boy, had she +been alive!</p> + +<p>What would the noble man, now over eighty, do +next with his money? He recalled how hard it had +been for him to obtain knowledge. The colleges +were patronized largely by the rich. He would +build a great School of Science, free to all who depended +upon themselves for support. They might +study mathematics, languages, chemistry, civil engineering, +without distinction of sex or race. For +five years he watched the elegant brick and stone +structure in Birmingham rise from its foundations. +And then, Oct. 1, 1880, in the midst of assembled +thousands, and in the presence of such men as +Fawcett, Bright, and Max Muller, Mason Science +College was formally opened. Professor Huxley, +R. W. Dale, and others made eloquent addresses. +In the evening, a thousand of the best of England +gathered at the college, made beautiful by flowers +and crimson drapery. On a dais sat the noble +giver, in his eighty-sixth year. The silence was +impressive as the grand old man arose, handing the +key of his college, his million-dollar gift, to the +trustees. Surely truth is stranger than fiction!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +To what honor and renown had come the humble +peddler!</p> + +<p>On the following 25th of June, Sir Josiah Mason +was borne to his grave, in the Erdington mausoleum. +Three hundred and fifty orphan-children +followed his coffin, which was carried by eight servants +or workingmen, as he had requested. After +the children had sung a hymn, they covered the +coffin-lid with flowers, which he so dearly loved. +He sleeps in the midst of his gifts, one of England's +noble benefactors.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p> +<h2>BERNARD PALISSY.</h2> + + +<p>In the Louvre in Paris, preserved among almost +priceless gems, are several pieces of exquisite +pottery called Palissy ware. Thousands examine +them every year, yet but few know the struggles of +the man who made such beautiful works of art.</p> + +<p>Born in the south of France in 1509, in a poor, +plain home, Bernard Palissy grew to boyhood, +sunny-hearted and hopeful, learning the trade of +painting on glass from his father. He had an +ardent love for nature, and sketched rocks, birds, +and flowers with his boyish hands. When he was +eighteen, he grew eager to see the world, and, with +a tearful good-by from his mother, started out to +seek his fortune. For ten years he travelled from +town to town, now painting on glass for some rich +lord, and now sketching for a peasant family in +return for food. Meantime he made notes about +vegetation, and the forming of crystals in the mountains +of Auvergne, showing that he was an uncommon +boy.</p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 478px;"> +<img src="images/illus-054.jpg" width="478" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">BERNARD PALISSY.</span> +</div> + +<p>Finally, like other young people, he fell in love, +and was married at twenty-eight. He could not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +travel about the country now, so he settled in the +little town of Saintes. Then a baby came into their +humble home. How could he earn more money, +since the poor people about him had no need for +painted glass? Every time he tried to plan some +new way to grow richer, his daily needs weighed like +a millstone around his neck.</p> + +<p>About this time he was shown an elegant enamelled +cup from Italy. "What if I could be the first +and only maker of such ware in France?" thought +he. But he had no knowledge of clay, and no +money to visit Italy, where alone the secret could +be obtained.</p> + +<p>The Italians began making such pottery about the +year 1300. Two centuries earlier, the Pagan King +of Majorca, in the Mediterranean Sea, was said to +keep confined in his dungeons twenty thousand +Christians. The Archbishop of Pisa incited his +subjects to make war upon such an infidel king, and +after a year's struggle, the Pisans took the island, +killed the ruler, and brought home his heir, and +great booty. Among the spoils were exquisite +Moorish plates, which were so greatly admired that +they were hung on the walls of Italian churches. At +length the people learned to imitate this Majolica +ware, which brought very high prices.</p> + +<p>The more Palissy thought about this beautiful +pottery, the more determined he became to attempt +its making. But he was like a man groping in the +dark. He had no knowledge of what composed the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +enamel on the ware; but he purchased some drugs, +and ground them to powder. Then he bought +earthen pots, broke them in pieces, spread the +powder upon the fragments, and put them in a furnace +to bake. He could ill afford to build a furnace, +or even to buy the earthenware; but he comforted +his young wife with the thought that as soon as he +had discovered what would produce white enamel +they would become rich.</p> + +<p>When the pots had been heated sufficiently, as he +supposed, he took them out, but, lo! the experiment +had availed nothing. Either he had not hit +upon the right ingredients, or the baking had been +too long or too short in time. He must of course +try again. For days and weeks he pounded and +ground new materials; but no success came. The +weeks grew into months. Finally his supply of +wood became exhausted, and the wife was losing +her patience with these whims of an inventor. They +were poor, and needed present income rather than +future prospects. She had ceased to believe Palissy's +stories of riches coming from white enamel. +Had she known that she was marrying an inventor, +she might well have hesitated, lest she starve in the +days of experimenting; but now it was too late.</p> + +<p>His wood used up, Palissy was obliged to make +arrangements with a potter who lived three miles +away, to burn the broken pieces in his furnace. +His enthusiasm made others hopeful; so that the +promise to pay when white enamel was discovered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +was readily accepted. To make matters sure of +success at this trial, he sent between three and four +hundred pieces of earthenware to his neighbor's +furnace. Some of these would surely come back +with the powder upon them melted, and the surface +would be white. Both himself and wife waited anxiously +for the return of the ware; she much less +hopeful than he, however. When it came, he says +in his journal, "I received nothing but shame and +loss, because it turned out good for nothing."</p> + +<p>Two years went by in this almost hopeless work, +then a third,—three whole years of borrowing +money, wood, and chemicals; three years of consuming +hope and desperate poverty. Palissy's +family had suffered extremely. One child had died, +probably from destitution. The poor wife was discouraged, +and at last angered at his foolishness. +Finally the pottery fever seemed to abate, and Palissy +went back to his drudgery of glass-painting and +occasional surveying. Nobody knew the struggle it +had cost to give up the great discovery; but it must +be done.</p> + +<p>Henry II., who was then King of France, had +placed a new tax on salt, and Palissy was appointed +to make maps of all the salt-marshes of the surrounding +country. Some degree of comfort now +came back to his family. New clothes were purchased +for the children, and the overworked wife +repented of her lack of patience. When the surveying +was completed, a little money had been +saved, but, alas! the pottery fever had returned.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> + +<p>Three dozen new earthen pots were bought, chemicals +spread over them as before, and these taken +to a glass-furnace, where the heat would be much +greater. He again waited anxiously, and when they +were returned, some of the powder had actually +melted, and run over the earthenware. This added +fuel to the flame of his hope and ambition. And +now, for two whole years more, he went between his +house and the glass-furnace, always hoping, always +failing.</p> + +<p>His home had now become like a pauper's. For +five years he had chased this will-o'-the-wisp of +white enamel; and the only result was the sorrow +of his relatives and the scorn of his neighbors. +Finally he promised his heart-broken wife that he +would make but one more trial, and if this failed, +he would give up experimenting, and support her +and the children. He resolved that this should be +an almost superhuman effort. In some unknown +way he raised the money for new pots and three +hundred mixtures of chemicals. Then, with the +feelings of a man who has but one chance for life, +he walked beside the person who carried his precious +stock to the furnace. He sat down before the +mouth of the great hot oven, and waited four long +hours. With what a sinking heart he watched the +pieces as they were taken out! He hardly dared +look, because it would probably be the old story of +failure. But, lo! some were melted, and as they +hardened, oh, joy unspeakable, they turned white!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +He hastened home with unsteady step, like one intoxicated, +to tell his wife the overwhelming truth. +Surely he could not stop now in this great work; +and all must be done in secret, lest other potters +learn the art.</p> + +<p>Fears, no doubt, mingled with the new-born hopes +of Mrs. Palissy, for there was no regular work +before her husband, and no steady income for hungry +little mouths. Besides, he must needs build a +furnace in the shed adjoining their home. But how +could he obtain the money? Going to the brick +yard, he pledged some of the funds he hoped to +receive in the future, and brought home the bricks +upon his back. Then he spent seven long months +experimenting in clay vessels, that he might get the +best shapes and quality to take the enamel. For +another month, from early morning till late at night, +he pounded his preparations of tin, lead, iron, and +copper, and mixed them, as he hoped, in proper +proportions. When his furnace was ready, he put +in his clay pots, and seated himself before the +mouth.</p> + +<p>All day and all night, he fed the fire, his little +children bringing him soup, which was all the food +the house afforded. A second day and night he +watched the results eagerly; but the enamel did not +melt. Covered with perspiration, and faint from loss +of sleep and food, with the desperation of hope that +is akin to despair, for six days and six nights, +catching scarcely a moment of sleep, he watched<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +the earthen pots; but still the enamel did not melt. +At last, thinking that his proportions in his mixtures +might have been wrong, he began once more to +pound and grind the materials without letting his +furnace cool. His clay vessels which he had spent +seven months in making were also useless, so he +hastened to the shops, and bought new ones.</p> + +<p>The family were now nearly frantic with poverty +and the pottery madness of the father. To make +matters quite unbearable, the wood had given out, +and the furnace-fires must not stop. Almost wild +with hope deferred, and the necessities of life pressing +upon him, Palissy tore up the fence about his +garden, and thrust it into the furnace-mouth. Still +the enamel did not melt. He rushed into the house, +and began breaking up the table and chairs for fuel. +His wife and children were horrified. They ran +through the streets, crying out that Palissy was +tearing the house down, and had become crazy. +The neighbors gathered, and begged him to desist, +but all to no purpose. He tore up the floors of the +house, and threw them in. The town jeered at +him, and said, "It is right that he die of hunger, +seeing that he has left off following his trade." He +was exhausted and dried up by the heat of the furnace; +but still he could not yield. Finally the +enamel melted. But now he was more crazy than +before. He must go forward, come what might.</p> + +<p>With his family nearer than ever to starvation, +he hired an assistant potter, promising the old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +promise,—to pay when the discovery had been +perfected. The town of Saintes must have become +familiar with that promise. An innkeeper boarded +the potter for six months, and charged it to Palissy, +to be paid, like all the other bills, in the future. +Probably Mrs. Palissy did not wish to board the +assistant, even had she possessed the necessary +food. At the end of the six months the potter +departed, receiving, as pay, nearly all Palissy's +wearing-apparel, which probably was scarcely worth +carrying away.</p> + +<p>He now felt obliged to build an improved furnace, +tearing down the old one to recover the bricks, +nearly turned to stone by the intense heat. His +hands were fearfully bruised and cut in the work. +He begged and borrowed more money, and once +more started his furnace, with the boast that this +time he would draw three or four hundred francs +from it. When the ware was drawn out, the creditors +came, eager for their share; but, alas! there +was no share for them. The mortar had been full +of flints, which adhered to the vessels; and Palissy +broke the spoiled lot in pieces. The neighbors +called him a fool; the wife joined in the maledictions—and +who could blame her?</p> + +<p>Under all this disappointment his spirit gave way, +and he fled to his chamber, and threw himself upon +the bed. Six of his children had died from want +during the last ten years of struggle. What agony +for the fond mother! "I was so wasted in person,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +he quaintly wrote afterwards, "that there was no +form nor prominence of muscle on my arms or legs; +also the said legs were throughout of one size, so +that the garters with which I tied my stockings +were at once, when I walked, down upon my +heels, with the stockings too. I was despised and +mocked by all."</p> + +<p>But the long lane turned at last. He stopped for +a year, and took up his old work to support his +dying family, and then perfected his discovery. +For five or six years there were many failures,—the +furnaces were too hot, or the proportions were +wrong; but finally the work became very beautiful. +His designs from nature were perfect, and his coloring +marvellous. His fame soon spread abroad; and +such nobles as Montmorenci, who stood next in +rank to the King, and counts and barons, were his +patrons. He designed tiles for the finest palaces, +ideal heads of the Saviour, and dainty forms from +Greek mythology.</p> + +<p>Invited by Catherine de Medicis, wife of King +Henry II., Palissy removed to Paris, and was +thenceforward called "Bernard of the Tuileries." +He was now rich and famous. What a change from +that day when his half-starved wife and children +fled along the streets of Saintes, their furniture +broken up for furnace-fires! And yet, but for this +blind devotion to a single object, he would have +remained a poor, unknown glass-painter all his life. +While in Paris, he published two or three books<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +which showed wide knowledge of history, mines, +springs, metals, and philosophy. He founded a +Museum of Natural History, and for eight years +gave courses of lectures, attended by all the learned +men of the day. When his great learning was commented +upon, he replied, "I have had no other +book than the sky and the earth, known to all." A +wonderful man indeed!</p> + +<p>All his life Palissy was a devoted Huguenot, not +fearing to read his Bible, and preach to the people +daily from it. Once he was imprisoned at Bordeaux, +and but for his genius, and his necessity to +the beautifying of palaces and chapels, he would +have been put to death. When he was seventy-six, +under the brutal Henry III., he was shut up in the +Bastille. After nearly four years, the curled and +vain monarch visited him, and said, "My good +man, you have been forty-five years in the service +of the Queen my mother, or in mine, and we have +suffered you to live in your own religion, amidst all +the executions and the massacres. Now, however, +I am so pressed by the Guise party and my people, +that I have been compelled, in spite of myself, to +imprison these two poor women and you; they are +to be burnt to-morrow, and you also, if you will not +be converted."</p> + +<p>"Sire," answered the old man, "you have said +several times that you feel pity for me; but it is I +who pity you, who have said, 'I am compelled.' +That is not speaking like a King. These girls and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +I, who have part in the kingdom of heaven, we will +teach you to talk royally. The Guisarts, all your +people, and yourself, cannot compel a potter to bow +down to images of clay."</p> + +<p>The two girls were burnt a few months afterward. +The next year, 1589, Henry III. was stabbed by a +monk who knelt before his throne; and the same +year, Palissy died in the Bastille, at the age of +eighty.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 459px;"> +<img src="images/illus-065.jpg" width="459" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">THORWALDSEN.</span> +</div> + + +<h2>BERTEL THORWALDSEN.</h2> + + +<p>A few months ago we visited a plain old +house in Copenhagen, the boyhood home of +the great Danish sculptor. Here he worked with +his father, a poor wood-carver, who, thinking his +boy would be a more skilful workman if he learned +to draw, sent him to the Free Royal Academy of +Fine Arts when he was twelve years old. At the +end of four years he took a prize, and the fact was +mentioned in the newspapers. The next day, one +of the teachers asked, "Thorwaldsen, is it your +brother who has carried off the prize?"</p> + +<p>Bertel's cheeks colored with pride as he said, +"No, sir; it is I." The teacher changed his tone, +and replied, "Mr. Thorwaldsen, you will go up +immediately to the first rank."</p> + +<p>Years afterward, when he had become famous, +he said no praise was ever so sweet as being called +"Mr." when he was poor and unknown.</p> + +<p>Two years later, he won another prize; but he +was now obliged to stay at home half the time to +help support the large family. Obtaining a small +gold medal from the Academy, although so modest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +that, after the examination, he escaped from the +midst of the candidates by a private staircase, he +determined to try for the large gold medal. If he +could obtain this, he would receive a hundred and +twenty dollars a year for three years, and study art +in Italy. He at once began to give drawing-lessons, +taught modelling to wealthy boys, and helped +illustrate books, working from early morning till +late at night. He was rarely seen to smile, so +hard was the struggle for daily bread. But he +tried for the medal, and won.</p> + +<p>What visions of fame must have come before +him now, as he said good-by to his poor parents, +whom, alas, he was never to see again, and, taking +his little dog Hector, started for far-away Italy! +When he arrived, he was so ill and homesick that +several times he decided to give up art and go +back. He copied diligently the works of the old +masters, and tried in vain to earn a little money. +He sent some small works of his own to Copenhagen; +but nobody bought them. He made "Jason +with the Golden Fleece," and, when no one ordered +it, the discouraged artist broke it in pieces. The +next year he modelled another Jason, a lady furnishing +the means; and while everybody praised +it, and Canova said, "This young Dane has produced +a work in a new and grand style," it did not +occur to any one to buy the statue in marble.</p> + +<p>An artist could not live on praise alone. Anxious +days came and went, and he was destitute and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +wretched. He must leave Rome, and go back to +the wood-carving in Copenhagen; for no one +wanted beautiful things, unless the maker was +famous. He deferred going from week to week, +till at last his humble furniture had been sold, and +his trunks waited at the door. As he was leaving +the house, his travelling companion said to him, +"We must wait till to-morrow, from a mistake in +our passports."</p> + +<p>A few hours later, Mr. Thomas Hope, an English +banker, entered his studio, and, struck with +the grandeur of his model of Jason, asked the cost +in marble. "Six hundred sequins" (over twelve +hundred dollars), he answered, not daring to hope +for such good fortune. "That is not enough; +you should ask eight," said the generous man, who +at once ordered it.</p> + +<p>And this was the turning-point in Bertel's life. +How often a rich man might help a struggling +artist, and save a genius to the world, as did this +banker! Young Thorwaldsen now made the acquaintance +of the Danish ambassador to Naples, +who introduced him to the family of Baron Wilhelm +von Humboldt, where the most famous people +in Rome gathered. Soon a leading countess +commissioned him to cut four marble statues,—Bacchus, +Ganymede, Apollo, and Venus. Two +years later, he was made professor in the Royal +Academy of Florence.</p> + +<p>The Academy of Copenhagen now sent him five<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +hundred dollars as an expression of their pride in +him. How much more he needed it when he was +near starving, all those nine years in Rome! The +bashful student had become the genial companion +and interesting talker. Louis of Bavaria, who +made Munich one of the art centres of the world, +was his admirer and friend. The Danish King +urged him to return to Copenhagen; but, as the +Quirinal was to be decorated with great magnificence, +Rome could not spare him. For this, he +made in three months his famous "Entry of Alexander +into Babylon," and soon after his exquisite +bas-reliefs, "Night" and "Morning,"—the former, +a goddess carrying in her arms two children, Sleep +and Death; the latter, a goddess flying through +the air, scattering flowers with both hands.</p> + +<p>In 1816, when he was forty-six, he finished his +Venus, after having made <i>thirty</i> models of the +figure. He threw away the first attempt, and devoted +three years to the completion of the second. +Three statues were made, one of which is at Chatsworth, +the elegant home of the Duke of Devonshire; +and one was lost at sea. A year later, he +carved his exquisite Byron, now at Trinity College, +Cambridge.</p> + +<p>He was now made a member of three other +famous academies. Having been absent from +Denmark twenty-three years, the King urged his +return for a visit, at least. The Royal Palace of +Charlottenburg was prepared for his reception<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +The students of the Academy escorted him with +bands of music, cannon were fired, poems read, +cantatas sung; and the King created him councillor +of state.</p> + +<p>Was the wood-carver's son proud of all these +honors? No. The first person he met at the palace +was the old man who had served as a model +for the boys when Thorwaldsen was at school. So +overcome was he as he recalled those days of toil +and poverty, that he fell upon the old man's neck, +and embraced him heartily.</p> + +<p>After some of the grandest work of his life in +the Frue Kirke,—Christ and the Twelve Apostles, +and others,—he returned to Rome, visiting, +on the way, Alexander of Russia, who, after Thorwaldsen +had made his bust, presented the artist +with a diamond ring.</p> + +<p>Although a Protestant, accounted now the greatest +living sculptor, he was made president of the +Academy of St. Luke, a position held by Canova +when he was alive, and was commissioned to build +the monument of Pius VII. in St. Peters. Mendelssohn, +the great composer, had become his +warm friend, and used to play for him as he worked +in his studio. Sir Walter Scott came to visit the +artist, and as the latter could speak scarcely a +word of English, the two shook hands heartily, +and clapped each other on the shoulder as they +parted.</p> + +<p>When Thorwaldsen was sixty-eight years old,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +he left Rome to end his days among his own people. +The enthusiasm on his arrival was unbounded. +The whole city waited nearly three days for his +coming. Boats decked with flowers went out to +meet him, and so many crowded on board his vessel +that it was feared she would sink. The members +of the Academy came in a body; and the +crowd took the horses from the carriage, and drew +it themselves through the streets to the Palace of +Charlottenburg. In the evening there was a grand +torchlight procession, followed by a constant round +of parties.</p> + +<p>So beset was he with invitations to dinner, that, +to save a little time for himself, he told his servant +Wilkins, that he would dine with him and his wife. +Wilkins, greatly confused, replied, "What would +the world think if it found out that the chancellor +dined with his servant?"</p> + +<p>"The world—the world! Have I not told you +a thousand times that I don't care in the least what +the world thinks about these things?" Sometimes +he refused even to dine with the King. Finding +at last that society would give him no rest, he went +to live with some friends at Nyso, seven hours by +boat from Copenhagen.</p> + +<p>Once more he visited Rome, for a year, receiving +royal attentions all through Germany. Two years +after, as he was sitting in the theatre, he rose to +let a lady pass. She saw him bending toward the +floor, and asked, "Have you dropped something?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p> + +<p>The great man made no answer; he was dead. +The funeral was a grand expression of love and +honor. His body lay in state in the Royal Palace, +laurel about his brow, the coffin ornamented with +floral crowns—one made by the Queen of Denmark; +his chisel laid in the midst of laurel and +palm, and his great works of art placed about him. +Houses were draped in black, bells tolled in all the +churches, women threw flowers from their windows +before the forty artists who carried the coffin, and +the King and Prince royal received it in person at +the Frue Kirke.</p> + +<p>Then it was borne to the large museum which +Copenhagen had built to receive his work, and +buried in the centre of the inner court, which had +been prepared under his own hand. A low granite +coping surrounds the grave, which is entirely covered +with ivy, and on the side is his boyish name, +Bertel (Bartholomew) Thorwaldsen.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p> +<h2>MOZART.</h2> + + +<p>The quaint old city of Salzburg, Austria, built +into the mountain-side, is a Mecca for all who +love music, and admire the immortal Mozart. +When he was alive, his native city allowed him +nearly to starve; when he was dead, she built him a +beautiful monument, and preserved his home, a +plain two-story, stuccoed building, for thousands of +travellers to look upon sadly and tenderly.</p> + +<p>Wolfgang <a name="amadeus" id="amadeus"></a><ins title="Original has Amodeus">Amadeus</ins> Mozart was born Jan. 27, +1756, a delicate, sensitive child, who would ask a +dozen times a day whether his friends loved him, +and, if answered in the negative, would burst into +tears. At three, he began to show his passion for +music. He would listen intensely as his father +taught his little sister, Nannerl, seven years old; +would move his playthings from one room to another, +to the sound of the violin; and at four, composed +pieces which astonished his sire.</p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 463px;"> +<img src="images/illus-072.jpg" width="463" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">W. A. MOZART.</span> +</div> + +<p>Two years later, the proud father took Wolfgang +and his sister on a concert tour to Vienna. So well +did the boy play, that the Empress Maria Theresa +held him in her arms, and kissed him heartily. One<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +day as he was walking between two of her daughters, +he slipped on the polished floor and fell. +Marie Antoinette, afterward Empress of France, +raised him up, whereupon he said, "You are very +kind; I will marry you." The father was alarmed +at this seeming audacity; but the lovely Princess +playfully kissed him.</p> + +<p>The next year he was taken to Paris, and here +two sets of sonatas, the works of a boy of seven, +were brought out, dedicated to Marie Antoinette. +The children sat at the royal table, poems were +written about them, and everywhere they excited +wonder and admiration; yet so excessively modest +was young Mozart, that he cried when praised too +much. In London, Bach took the boy between his +knees, and alternately they played his own great +works and those of Handel at sight. Royalty gave +them "gold snuffboxes enough to set up a shop," +wrote home the father; "but in money I am poor." +Wolfgang was now taken ill of inflammatory fever; +but he could not give up his music. A board was +laid across the bed, and on this he wrote out his +thoughts in the notes. Finally, with ardor dampened +at their lack of pecuniary success, Leopold +Mozart took his dear ones back to quiet Salzburg.</p> + +<p>Here the cold archbishop, discrediting the reports +of the boy's genius, shut him up alone for a week +to compose an oratorio, the text furnished by himself. +Mozart, only ten years old, stood the test +brilliantly. The next year a second tour was taken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +to Vienna, to be present at the marriage of the +Archduchess Maria Josepha. The bride died from +smallpox shortly after their arrival: and poor Wolfgang +took the disease, and was blind for nine days. +When he recovered, the musicians, moved by envy +and jealousy, would not be outdone by a boy of +twelve, who was equally at home in German or +Italian opera, and determined to hiss off the stage +whatever he might compose. Sad at heart, and disappointed, +again the Mozarts went back to the old +home.</p> + +<p>Two years later, after much self-sacrifice, the +father took his boy to Italy for study. The first +day in Passion Week they went to the Sistine Chapel +to hear the famous "Miserere" of Allegri, which +was considered so sacred, that the musicians were +forbidden to take home any part of it, or copy it +out of the chapel, on pain of excommunication. +Wolfgang, as soon as he reached his lodgings, +wrote it out from memory; which remarkable feat +for a boy of fourteen astonished all Rome. So +wonderfully did he play, that the audience at Naples +declared there was witchcraft in the ring which he +wore on his left hand, and he was obliged to remove +it. At Milan, when he was nearly fifteen, he composed +the opera "Mithridate," conducting it himself, +which was given twenty nights in succession to +enthusiastic audiences. After this came requests +for operas from Maria Theresa, Munich, and elsewhere. +He was busy every moment. Overworked,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +he was often ill; but the need for money to meet +heavy expenses made constant work a necessity. +All this time he wrote beautiful letters to his mother +and sister. "Kiss mamma's hand for me a thousand +billion times," is the language of his loving +heart. He could scarcely be said to have had any +childhood; but he kept his tenderness and affection +to the last of his life.</p> + +<p>After their return to Salzburg, finding the new +archbishop even less cordial than the old—the +former had allowed Wolfgang the munificent salary +of five dollars and a fourth yearly!—it was deemed +wise to try to find a new field for employment. +The father, now sixty years of age, must earn a +pittance for the family by giving music-lessons, +while the mother accompanied the son to Paris. +The separation was a hard one for the devoted +father, who could not say good-by to his idolized +son, and poor Nannerl wept the whole day long. +Mozart, now twenty-one, and famous, well repaid +this affection by his pure character. He wrote: "I +have God always before me. Whatever is according +to his will is also according to mine; therefore I +cannot fail to be happy and contented."</p> + +<p>Stopping for a time at Mannheim, he attempted +to gain the position of tutor to the elector's children, +but was disappointed. Here he fell in love +with Aloysia Weber, a pretty girl of fifteen, whose +father, a prompter at the National Theatre, earned +only two hundred dollars yearly for the support of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +his wife and six children. The girl had a fine voice; +and Mozart, blinded by love, asked no higher joy +than to write operas in which she might be the star. +The good old father, who had spent all his life in +helping his son to win fame, was nearly heart-broken +when he learned of this foolish affection, +and wrote him tenderly but firmly: "Off with you +to Paris; get the great folks on your side; <i>aut +Cæsar, aut nihil</i>. From Paris, the name and fame +of a man of great talent goes through the whole +world."</p> + +<p>The young man, carrying out his childish motto, +"God first, and then papa," reluctantly started for +Paris. Here he did not meet with great success, for +scores of applicants waited for every position. His +loving mother soon died, perhaps from over economy +in her cold, dark lodgings; and the young musician +took his lonely way back to Salzburg, begging his +father's consent to his stopping at Mannheim to see +the Webers. Finding that Aloysia had gone upon +the stage at Munich, he hastened to see her. She +had been offered a good salary. Meantime Mozart +had won no new laurels at Paris. He was small in +stature, and poor; and the girl who wept at his +departure a few months previously professed now +scarcely to have seen his face before. The young +lover, cut to the heart, yet proud, seated himself at +the piano, and played,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +"I leave the girl gladly who cares not for me,"<br /> +</p></div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p> + +<p>and then hastened away to Salzburg. Aloysia married +a comedian, and lived a most unhappy life, +gaining some fame from singing the music which +Mozart wrote for her.</p> + +<p>He remained at home for a year and a half, till +called to Munich to write the opera "Idomeneo," +and later to Vienna. Here, unfortunately, he met +the Webers again, and, their father having died, he +boarded in their house, and gave lessons to Constance, +a younger sister of Aloysia. She was a +plain, good-hearted girl, without much energy, but +with a great appreciation of her gifted teacher. The +result came naturally; he fell in love with the penniless +girl, and, despite the distress of his aged father +at his choice, married her when he was twenty-six +and she eighteen.</p> + +<p>Henceforward there was no hope of any thing save +the direst poverty. To marry without love is a +grave mistake; to marry simply for love is sometimes +a mistake equally grave. He could of course +do nothing now for his aged father or sister. Unsteady +employment, a rapidly-increasing family, and +a wife ill most of the time, made the struggle for +existence ten times harder than before his marriage. +Once when he had prepared to visit his father for +the first time after the wedding, and had waited +months for the necessary funds, he was arrested for +a debt of fifteen dollars, just as he was stepping into +the carriage.</p> + +<p>The Emperor Joseph said to him one day, "Why<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +did you not marry a rich wife?" With dignity +Mozart at once replied, "Sire, I trust that my +genius will always enable me to support the woman +I love"; but unfortunately it did not. He wrote +after his marriage: "The moment we were made +one, my wife as well as myself began to weep, +which touched every one, even the priest, and they +all cried when they witnessed how our hearts were +moved." How little they dreamed that they should +weep more seriously when hunger stared their six +children in the face!</p> + +<p>From the time of his marriage till his death, nine +years, says Rev. Mr. Haweis, "his life can be compared +to nothing but a torch burning out rapidly in +the wind." It was a period of incessant, astonishing +labor. He dedicated six quartets to his dear +friend Joseph Haydn, who said, "Mozart is the +greatest composer who has ever lived"; wrote +"Figaro" when he was twenty-nine, which had the +greatest popularity, "Don Giovanni" at thirty-one, +and the "Flauto Magico" gratis, for the benefit of +the theatre director, who was in want. The two +latter creations were hailed with delight. Goethe +wrote to Schiller later of "Don Giovanni," "That +piece stands entirely alone; and Mozart's death has +rendered all hope of any thing like it idle."</p> + +<p>Whenever he appeared at the theatre, he was +called upon the stage from all parts of the house; +yet all this time he could not earn enough to live. +He received only a hundred dollars from his "Don<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +Giovanni," and less for the others. He gave lessons +every hour he could spare, concerts in the open air, +borrowed from his friends, scrimped himself, to send +money to his sick wife at Baden, pawned his silver +plate to make one more unsuccessful journey to win +the aid of indifferent princes, and fainted often at +his tasks after midnight. Still he wrote to "the +best and dearest wife of my heart," "If I only had +a letter from you, all would be right," and promised +her to work harder than ever to earn money.</p> + +<p>When Constance was at home with him, if he left +her in the morning before she awakened, he would +leave a note for her with the words, "Good-morning, +my darling wife. I shall be at home at — o'clock +precisely." Once when she had been ill for eight +months, and Mozart was composing beside her as +she slept, suddenly a noisy messenger entered. +Alarmed lest his wife should be disturbed, he rose +hastily, when the penknife in his hand fell, and +buried itself in his foot. Without a word escaping +his lips, he left the room, a surgeon was called, and, +though lame for some time, the wife was not told of +the accident.</p> + +<p>His compositions found few purchasers, for the +people generally could not comprehend them. Publishers' +shops were closed to him, unless he would +write in the popular style. "Then I can make no +more by my pen," he said bitterly, "and I had better +starve and go to destruction at once." So poor +had his family become, that, with no fuel in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +house, he and his wife were found by a friend, +waltzing to keep warm.</p> + +<p>About this time a sepulchral-looking man called +to ask that a "Requiem" be written on the death +of the wife of an Austrian nobleman, who was to be +considered the author, and thus his intense grief be +shown, though manifested through a lie. Mozart +consulted with his wife, as was his custom, and, as +she indorsed it, he accepted the commission for +fifty dollars. Overworked, harassed by debts which +he could not pay, hurt at the jealousies and intrigues +of several musicians, disappointed at the reception +of his new opera at Prague, his hopeful nature forsook +him, and he told Constance that the "Requiem" +would be written for himself.</p> + +<p>In the midst of this wretchedness their sixth child +was born. The poor wife forgot her own sorrows, +and prevailed upon him to give up work for a time; +but the active brain could not rest, and he wrote as +he lay on his sick-bed. On the day before he died, +Dec. 4, 1791, at two o'clock, he persisted in having +a portion of the "Requiem" sung by the friends +who stood about his bed, and, joining with them in +the alto, burst into tears, saying, "Did I not say +that I was writing the 'Requiem' for myself?" +Soon after he said, "Constance, oh that I could +only hear my 'Flauto Magico!'" and a friend playing +it, he was cheered.</p> + +<p>A messenger now arrived to tell him that he was +appointed organist at St. Stephen's Cathedral, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +position for which he had longed for years; but it +came too late. Death was unwelcome to him. +"Now must I go," he said, "just as I should be +able to live in peace; I must leave my family, my +poor children, at the very instant in which I should +have been able to provide for their welfare." Cold +applications were ordered by the physicians for his +burning head; he became delirious for two hours, +and died at midnight, only thirty-five years old. +Constance was utterly prostrated, and threw herself +upon his bed, hoping to die also.</p> + +<p>Mozart's body was laid beside his piano, and then, +in a pouring rain, buried in a "common grave," in +the plainest manner possible, with nobody present +except the keepers of the cemetery. Weeks after, +when the wife visited the spot, she found a new +grave-digger, who could not tell where her beloved +husband was buried, and to this day the author of +fourteen Italian operas, seventeen symphonies, and +dozens of cantatas and serenades, about eight hundred +compositions in all, sleeps in an unknown +grave. The Emperor Leopold aided her in a concert +to raise fifteen hundred dollars to pay her husband's +debts, and provide a little for herself. Eighteen +years afterward she married the Danish councillor, +Baron von Missen, who educated her two sons, +four other children having died. Salzburg waited +a half-century before she erected a bronze statue to +her world-renowned genius, in the Square of St. +Michael; and, seventy years after his death, Vienna<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +built him a monument in the Cemetery of St. Mark. +History scarcely furnishes a more pathetic life. He +filled the world with music, yet died in want and +sorrow.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 498px;"> +<img src="images/illus-083.jpg" width="498" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">SAMUEL JOHNSON.</span> +</div> + + +<h2>DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.</h2> + + +<p>In a quaint old house in Lichfield, England, now +used as a draper's shop, Samuel Johnson, son +of a poor bookseller and bookbinder, was born. +Here, as in Westminster Abbey, a statue is erected +to his memory. Near by is the schoolhouse where +Addison and Garrick studied.</p> + +<p>When Samuel was two and a half years old, diseased +with scrofula, his good mother, with ten dollars +sewed in her skirt so that nobody could steal it, +took him to London that, with two hundred others, +he might be touched by Queen Anne, and thus, as +superstitious people believed, be healed. On this +journey she bought him a silver cup and spoon. +The latter he kept till his dying-day, and parted +with the cup only in the dire poverty of later years.</p> + +<p>The touch of the Queen did no good, for he +became blind in one eye; with the other he could +not see a friend half a yard off, and his face was +sadly disfigured. Being prevented thus from sharing +the sports of other boys, much time was spent +in reading. He was first taught at a little school +kept by Widow Oliver, who years after, when he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +was starting for Oxford, brought him a present of +gingerbread, telling him he was the best scholar she +ever had. After a time he studied Latin under a +master who "whipped it into him." The foolish +teacher would ask the boy the Latin word for candlestick, +or some unexpected thing, and then whip +him, saying, "This I do to save you from the gallows!"</p> + +<p>Naturally indolent, Samuel had to struggle against +this tendency. He had, however, the greatest ambition +to excel, and to this he attributed his later success. +He was also inquisitive, and had a wonderful +memory. When he wore short dresses, his mother +gave him the Prayer-Book one day, and, pointing to +the Collect, said, "You must get this by heart." +She went up stairs, but no sooner had she reached +the second floor than she heard him following. He +could repeat it perfectly, having looked it over but +twice. He left school at sixteen, spending two +years at home in helping his parents, and studying +earnestly. One day, his father, being ill, asked him +to go to a neighboring town and take his place in +selling books at a stall on market-day. He was +proud, and did not go. Fifty years afterward, in +his greatness, then an old man, he went to this +stall, and, with uncovered head, remained for an +hour in the rain where his father had formerly +stood, exposed to the sneers of the bystanders and +the inclemency of the weather. It showed the +repentance of a noble soul for disobedience to a +parent.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p> + +<p>At nineteen, he entered Pembroke College, Oxford, +where he acted as servant. He used to go +daily to his friend Taylor, and get lectures second-hand, +till his feet, showing through his worn-out +shoes, were perceived by the students, and he +ceased going. A rich young man secretly put a +pair of new shoes at his door, which he indignantly +threw out of the window. He was willing to work +and earn, but would not receive charity. At the +end of three years he became so poor that he was +obliged to leave college, his father dying soon after.</p> + +<p>After various experiences, he sought the position +of usher at a school, but was refused because it was +thought that the boys would make fun of his ugliness. +He finally obtained such a place, was treated +with great harshness, and left in a few months. +Strange to say, the poor, lonely scholar, only +twenty-six, now fell in love with a widow forty-eight +years old. After obtaining his mother's consent, +he married her, and the union proved a most +happy one. With the little money his wife possessed, +he started a school, and advertised for +pupils; but only three came, and the school soon +closed. In despair he determined to try London, +and see if an author could there earn his bread. +In that great city he lived for some time on nine +cents a day. One publisher to whom he applied +suggested to him that the wisest course would be to +become a porter and carry trunks.</p> + +<p>A poem written at this time, entitled "London,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +for which he received fifty dollars, one line of which +was in capital letters,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +"SLOW RISES WORTH BY POVERTY DEPRESSED,"<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>attracted attention; and Pope, who was then at the +height of his fame, asked Dublin University to give +to the able scholar the degree of M.A., that he +might thus be able to take the principalship of a +school, and earn three hundred dollars a year; but +this was refused. Out of such struggles come +heroic souls.</p> + +<p>When he was forty, he published the "Vanity +of Human Wishes," receiving seventy-five dollars, +asserted by many to be the most impressive thing +of its kind in the language. The lines,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>show his struggles. A drama soon after, played +by the great actor, David Garrick, brought him +nearly a thousand dollars; but the play itself was a +failure. When asked by his friends how he felt +about his ill success, he replied, "Like the monument," +meaning that he continued firm and unmoved, +like a column of granite. Fame was coming +at last, after he had struggled in London for thirteen +years—and what bitterness they had brought!</p> + +<p>For two years he worked almost constantly on a +paper called the "Rambler." When his wife said +that, well as she had thought of him before, she +had never considered him equal to this, he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +more pleased than with any praise he ever received. +She died three days after the last copy was published, +and Johnson was utterly prostrated. He +buried himself in hard work in his garret, a most +inconvenient room; but he said, "In that room I +never saw Mrs. Johnson." Her wedding-ring was +placed in a little box, and tenderly kept till his +death.</p> + +<p>Three years afterward, his great work, his Dictionary, +appeared, for which he received eight thousand +dollars; but, as he had been obliged to employ +six assistants for seven years, he was still poor, +but now famous. The Universities of Oxford and +Dublin, when he no longer needed their assistance, +hastened to bestow their degrees upon him. Even +George III. invited him to the royal palace,—a +strange contrast to a few years before, when +Samuel Johnson was under arrest for a debt of +thirty dollars! When asked by Reynolds how he +had obtained his accuracy and flow of language in +conversation, he replied, "By trying to do my best +on every occasion and in every company." About +this time his aged mother died, and in the evenings +of one week, to defray her funeral expenses, he +wrote "Rasselas," and received five hundred dollars +for it. He wrote in his last letter to her, +"You have been the best mother, and I believe the +best woman, in the world. I thank you for your +indulgence to me, and beg forgiveness of all that I +have done ill, and of all that I have omitted to do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +well." His last great work was "The Lives of the +Poets."</p> + +<p>He received now a pension of fifteen hundred +dollars a year, for his valuable services to literature, +but never used more than four hundred dollars +for himself. He took care of a blind woman +of whom he said, "She was a friend to my poor +wife, and was in the house when she died, she +has remained in it ever since," of a mother and +daughter dependent upon an old family physician, +and of two men whom nobody else would care for. +Once when he found a poor woman on the street +late at night, he took her home, and kept her till +she was restored to health. His pockets were +always filled with pennies for street Arabs; and, if +he found poor children asleep on a threshold, he +would slip money into their hands that, when they +awakened, they might buy a breakfast. When a +servant was dying who had been in the family for +forty-three years, he prayed with her and kissed +her, the tears falling down his cheeks. He wrote in +his diary, "We kissed and parted—I humbly hope +to meet again, and part no more." He held, +rightly, that Christianity levels all distinctions of +rank.</p> + +<p>He was very tender to animals. Once, when in +Wales, a gardener brought into the house a hare +which had been caught in the potatoes, and was +told to give it to the cook. Dr. Johnson asked to +have it placed in his arms; then, taking it to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +window, he let it go, shouting to it to run as fast as +possible. He would buy oysters for his cat, Hodge, +that the servants, from seeing his fondness for it, +might be led to treat it kindly.</p> + +<p>He died at the age of seventy-five, such men as +Burke and Reynolds standing by his bedside. Of +the latter, he begged that he would "read his Bible, +and never paint on Sundays." His last words were +to a young lady who had asked his blessing: "God +bless you, my dear!" He was buried with appropriate +honors in Westminster Abbey, and monuments +are erected to him in St. Paul's Cathedral, +and at Lichfield. The poor boy, nearly blind, became +"the brightest ornament of the eighteenth +century."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span></p> +<h2>OLIVER GOLDSMITH.</h2> + + +<p>On a low slab in a quiet spot, just north of +the Church of Knight Templars, in London, +are the simple words, "Here lies Oliver Goldsmith." +The author of the "Vicar of Wakefield" +needs no grander monument; for he lives in the +hearts of the people.</p> + +<p>Oliver Goldsmith was born in Pallas, Ireland, in +1728, the son of a poor minister, who, by means of +tilling some fields and assisting in a parish outside +his own, earned two hundred dollars a year for his +wife and seven children! When about six years +old, Oliver nearly died of smallpox, and his pitted +face made him an object of jest among the boys. +At eight he showed great fondness for books, and +began to write verses. His mother pleaded for a +college education for him, but there seemed little +prospect of it. One day, when a few were dancing +at his uncle's house, the little boy sprang upon the +floor and began to dance. The fiddler, to make fun +of his short figure and homely face, exclaimed, +"Æsop!" The boy, stung to the quick, replied:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Heralds, proclaim aloud! all saying,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'See Æsop dancing and his monkey playing;'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>when, of course, the fiddler became much chagrined.</p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 466px;"> +<img src="images/illus-090.jpg" width="466" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">OLIVER GOLDSMITH.</span> +</div> + +<p>All his school life Oliver was painfully diffident, +but a good scholar. His father finally earned a +better salary, and the way seemed open for college, +when, lo! his sister, who had the opportunity of +marrying a rich man, was obliged—so thought the +public opinion of the day—to have a marriage portion +of $2,000, and poor Oliver's educational hopes +were blasted. He must now enter Trinity College, +Dublin, as a sizar (servant), wear a coarse black +gown without sleeves, a red cap,—the badge of +servitude,—sweep the courts, carry dishes, and be +treated with contempt, which nearly crushed his +sensitive nature.</p> + +<p>A year and a half later his father died, and his +scanty means ceased from that source. To keep +from starving he wrote ballads, selling them to +street musicians at $1.25 apiece, and stole out at +night to hear them sung. Often he shared this +pittance with some one more wretched than himself. +One cold night he gave his blankets to a person with +five children, and crawled into the ticking of his bed +for warmth. When a kind friend, who often brought +him food, came in the morning, he was obliged to +break in the door, as Goldsmith could not extricate +himself from his bed.</p> + +<p>Obtaining a small scholarship, he gave a little +party in his room in honor of the event. A savage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +tutor appeared in the midst of the festivities, and +knocked him down. So incensed was Goldsmith +that he ran away from college, and with twenty-five +cents in his pocket started for Cork. For three +days he lived on eight cents a day, and, by degrees, +parted with nearly all his clothes for food.</p> + +<p>Though wholly unfitted for the ministry, Goldsmith +was urged by his relatives to enter the church, +because he would then have a living. Too young +to be accepted, he remained at home for two years, +assisting his brother Henry in the village school; and +then offering himself as a candidate, was refused, +it was said, because he appeared before the right +reverend in scarlet trousers! After being tutor for +a year, his uncle gave him $250, that he might go +to Dublin and study law. On arriving, he met an +old friend, lost all his money in playing cards with +him, and, ashamed and penniless, returned and +begged the forgiveness of his relative.</p> + +<p>A little more money was given him, and with this +he studied medicine in Edinburgh for over a year, +earning later some money by teaching. Afterward +he travelled in Italy and France, begging his way +by singing or playing on his flute at the doors of the +peasants, returning to England at twenty-eight years +of age without a cent in his pocket. Living among +the beggars in Axe Lane, he asked to spread plasters, +or pound in the mortars of the apothecaries, +till, finally, a chemist hired him out of pity. Through +the aid of a fellow-student, he finally opened a doc<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>tor's +office, but few came to a stranger, and these +usually so poor as to be unable to pay.</p> + +<p>Attending one day upon a workman, he held his +hat close to his breast, so as to cover a big patch in +his second-hand clothes, while he felt the patient's +pulse. Half guessing the young doctor's poverty, +the sick man told him about his master, the author +of the famous old novel, "Clarissa Harlowe," and +how he had befriended writers. Goldsmith at once +applied for work, and became press corrector in +Salisbury Court, Fleet Street.</p> + +<p>Later he was employed as a reviewer on a magazine. +Being obliged to submit all his reviews to an +illiterate bookseller and his wife, the engagement +soon came to an end. He lived now in a garret, +was dunned even for his milk-bill, wrote a book for +a college friend, under whose name it was published, +and began a work of his own, "Polite Learning in +Europe," writing to a wealthy relative for aid to publish, +which letter was never answered, though it was +greatly regretted after Goldsmith became famous.</p> + +<p>With no hope in London, he was promised a +position in the East Indies. Life began to look +bright, though his Fleet Street garret, with one +chair, was surrounded by swarms of children and +dirt. The promise was not kept, and he applied for +the position of hospital mate. His clothes being +too poor for him to be seen on the streets, he pledged +the money to be received for four articles, bought a +new suit, went up to the court of examiners, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +was rejected! Had any of these positions been obtained, +the world, doubtless, would never have +known the genius of Oliver Goldsmith.</p> + +<p>He went back to his garret to write, pawned his +clothes to pay the landlady, who was herself to be +turned out of the wretched lodgings, sold his "Life +of Voltaire" for twenty dollars, and published his +"Polite Learning in Europe," anonymously. The +critics attacked it, and Goldsmith's day of fame had +dawned at last. "The Citizen of the World," a +good-natured satire on society, next appeared, and +was a success. Dr. Johnson became his friend, and +made him a member of his club with Reynolds, +Burke, and other noted men. The "Traveller" was +next published, with an immense sale. Goldsmith +now moved into the buildings which bear his name, +near Temple Church, and, for once, had flowers +and green grass to look out upon.</p> + +<p>He was still poor, doubtless spending what money +he received with little wisdom. His landlady +arrested him for room-rent, upon hearing which, Dr. +Johnson came at once to see him, gave him money, +took from his desk the manuscript of the "Vicar of +Wakefield," and sold it to a publisher for three hundred +dollars. This was the fruit of much labor, and +the world received it cordially. Some of his essays +were now reprinted sixteen times. What a change +from the Fleet Street garret!</p> + +<p>The "Deserted Village" was published five years +later, Goldsmith having spent two whole years in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +reviewing it after it was written, so careful was he +that every word should be the best that could be +chosen. This was translated at once into German +by Goethe, who was also a great admirer of the +"Vicar of Wakefield." He also wrote an English +History, a Roman, a Grecian, several dramas, of +which "She Stoops to Conquer" was the most popular, +and eight volumes of the "History of the Earth +and Animated Nature," for which he received five +hundred dollars a volume, leaving this unfinished.</p> + +<p>Still in debt, overworked, laboring sometimes far +into the morning hours, not leaving his desk for +weeks together, even for exercise, Goldsmith died +at forty-five, broken with the struggle of life, but +with undying fame. When he was buried, one +April day, 1774, Brick Court and the stairs of the +building were filled with the poor and the forsaken +whom he had befriended. His monument is in the +Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey, the greatest +honor England could offer. True, she let him nearly +starve, but she crowned him at the last. He conquered +the world by hard work, kindness, and a +gentleness as beautiful as his genius was great.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p> +<h2>MICHAEL FARADAY.</h2> + + +<p>In the heart of busy London, over a stable, lived +James and Margaret Faraday, with their four +little children. The father was a blacksmith, in +feeble health, unable to work for a whole day at +a time, a kind, good man to his household; the +mother, like himself, was uneducated, but neat and +industrious, and devoted to her family. The children +learned the rudiments of reading, writing, and +arithmetic at school, and then, of course, were +obliged to earn their living.</p> + +<p>Michael, the third child, born 1791, became, at +thirteen years of age, an errand-boy in a bookseller's +shop. His first duty was to carry newspapers +in the morning to customers, who read them +for an hour or two for a trifle, a penny probably, +and then gave them to the newsboy to be re-loaned. +Often on Sunday morning the patrons would say, +"You must call again," forgetting that the next +place might be a mile away, and that the young +boy was quite as desirous as they, to go to church +with his parents. Years after this, when he had +become famous the world over, he said, "I always<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +feel a tenderness for those boys, because I once +carried newspapers myself."</p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 430px;"> +<img src="images/illus-096.jpg" width="430" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">MICHAEL FARADAY.</span> +</div> + +<p>The following year, 1805, he was apprenticed to +a bookseller for seven years, to learn the trade of +binding and selling books. Here was hard work +before him till he was twenty-one; not a cheerful +prospect for one who loved play as well as other +boys. Whenever he had a spare moment, he was +looking inside the books he was binding. Mrs. +Marcet's "Conversations in Chemistry" delighted +him; and when he was given the "Encyclopedia +Britannica" to bind, the article on Electricity seemed +a treasure-house of wonders. He soon made an +electrical machine,—not an expensive one,—simply +a glass vial, and other apparatus of a similar kind; +and afterwards with a real cylinder. These cost +only a few pence a week, but they gave a vast +amount of pleasure to the blacksmith's son.</p> + +<p>One day he saw in a shop-window a notice that a +Mr. Tatum was to give at his own house some lectures +on Natural Philosophy. The charge for each +was twenty-five cents. No bookseller's apprentice +would have such an amount of money to spend +weekly as that. However, his brother Robert, +three years older, himself a blacksmith, with some +pride, perhaps, that Michael was interested in such +weighty matters, furnished the money, and a lodger +at the home of the bookseller taught him drawing, +so that he might be able, in taking notes, to illustrate +the experiments. He attended the lectures,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +wrote them out carefully in a clear hand, bound +them in four volumes, and dedicated them to his +employer.</p> + +<p>A customer at the shop had become interested in +a boy who cared so much for science, and took him +to hear four lectures given by Sir Humphry Davy +at the Royal Institution. This was an unexpected +pleasure. He was beginning to sigh for something +beyond book-binding. "Oh, if I could only help +in some scientific work, no matter how humble!" he +thought to himself. He says in his journal, "In +my ignorance of the world, and simplicity of my +mind, I wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, President of +the Royal Society." No answer was ever returned +to the request for a situation. Could the president +have realized that some day ten thousand people +would know the name of Michael Faraday where +one knew the name of Sir Joseph Banks, probably +he would have answered the boy's letter. Blessings +on the great man or woman who takes time, however +briefly, to answer every letter received! Such +a man was Garfield, and such is Whittier. A civil +question demands a civil answer, whether the person +addressed be king or peasant.</p> + +<p>About the time his apprenticeship ended, in 1812, +he summoned courage to write directly to the great +Sir Humphry Davy, sending the full notes he had +made at that gentleman's lectures. Sir Humphry, +possibly remembering that he, too, had been a poor +boy, the son of a widowed milliner, wrote a polite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +note, saying, that "Science was a harsh mistress, +and, in a pecuniary point of view, but poorly +rewarding those who devoted themselves to her +service;" that he was going out of town, but +would see if he could some time aid him.</p> + +<p>Meantime Michael was making crude galvanic +experiments. He bought some malleable zinc, cut +out seven plates, each the size of a half-penny, +covered these with the copper half-pennies, placing +between them six pieces of paper soaked in a solution +of muriate of soda, and with this simple battery, +decomposed sulphate of magnesia. So pleased +was he that he wrote a letter to one of his boy +friends, telling of the experiment, and adding, +"Time is all I require. Oh, that I could purchase +at a cheap rate some of our modern gent's spare +hours, nay, days! I think it would be a good bargain, +both for them and for me." The youth had +learned the first secret of success,—not to waste +time; not to throw it away on useless persons or +useless subjects.</p> + +<p>He had learned another secret, that of choosing +right companions. To this same young friend, +Abbott, he wrote, "A companion cannot be a good +one, unless he is morally so. I have met a good +companion in the lowest path of life, and I have +found such as I despised in a rank far superior to +mine.... I keep regular hours, and enter not +intentionally into pleasures productive of evil." +London's highest circles possessed no purer spirit +than this young mechanic.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p> + +<p>Faraday now began work at his trade of book-binding +for a Frenchman in London, who, having +no children, promised him the business, if he would +remain with him always; but the employer's temper +was so hasty that the position became almost unbearable. +The young man was growing depressed +in spirits, when one night, just as he was preparing +for bed, a loud knock on the door startled him. On +looking out of the window, he espied a grand carriage, +with a footman in livery, who left a note. +This was a request from Sir Humphry Davy to see +him in the morning. Was there, then, the possibility +of a place in the Royal Institution? Between +conflicting hopes and fears, he went to sleep, and +in the morning hastened to see the great chemist. +The result was an engagement at six dollars a +week, with two rooms at the top of the house! He +was to clean the instruments, move them to and +from the lecture-room, and in all ways to make +himself useful. Now he could say good-by to +book-binding; and, though six dollars a week was +not a munificent sum, yet he could actually handle +beautiful instruments,—not copper half-pence and +bits of zinc,—and could listen to stimulating lectures.</p> + +<p>And now work began in earnest. He joined the +City Philosophical Society, an association of thirty +or forty persons in moderate circumstances, who +met each Wednesday evening, one of their number +giving a lecture. Then a half dozen friends came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +together once a week to read, criticise, and correct +each other in pronunciation and conversation. How +eagerly would such a young man have attended +college! There was no opportunity to hear polished +talk in elegant drawing-rooms, no chance to improve +manners in so-called "best society." He did what +is in the power of everybody,—he educated himself. +Did he not need recreation after the hard +day's work? Every person has to make his choice. +Amusements do not make scholars: pleasure and +knowledge do not go hand in hand. Faraday chose +the topmost story of the Royal Institution, and +books for companions, and immortal fame was the +result.</p> + +<p>The experiments with Davy soon became absorbing, +and often dangerous. Now they extracted +sugar from beet-root; now they treated chloride of +nitrogen, wearing masks of glass upon their faces, +which, notwithstanding, were sometimes badly cut +by the explosions. Seven months after this, Sir +Humphry decided to travel upon the Continent, +and asked Faraday to be his amanuensis. This was +a rare opportunity for the young assistant. For a +year and a half they visited France, Switzerland, +Italy, and Germany, climbing Vesuvius, enjoying art-galleries, +and meeting the learned and famous of the +age. The journey had its disagreeable side; for +Faraday was made more or less a servant by Davy +and his sometimes inconsiderate wife; but it had +great and lasting advantages for one who had never +been but twelve miles from London.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p> + +<p>His heart turned longingly back to the poor ones +he had left behind. He wrote to his mother, "The +first and last thing in my mind is England, home, +and friends. When sick, when cold, when tired, +the thoughts of those at home are a warm and refreshing +balm to my heart.... These are the first +and greatest sweetness in the life of man.... I +am almost contented except with my ignorance, +which becomes more visible to me every day." And +again, "I have several times been more than half +decided to return hastily home: I am only restrained +by the wish of improvement." To his sister he +wrote, "Give my love with a kiss to mother, the +first thing you do on reading this letter, and tell her +how much I think of her." To Abbott he wrote +something intended for his eyes only, but headed, +"I do not wish that my mother should remain ignorant +of it. I <i>have no secrets from her</i>." His heart +bounded with joy at the prospect of meeting them +again, and "enjoying the pleasure of their conversation, +from which he had been excluded." No +absorption in science could make him outgrow his +parents and his humble home.</p> + +<p>On his return to England his salary was increased +to $500 yearly, and he was promoted to Laboratory +Assistant. He was now twenty-four. He had +noted carefully Davy's researches in iodine and +chlorine, had seen him develop his safety-lamp, +which has proved an untold blessing to miners, had +made many experiments from his own thinking;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +and now he too was to give his first course of six +lectures before his friends in the City Philosophical +Society, on Chemical Affinity, and kindred topics. +He wrote them out with great care; for whatever he +did was well done. This year he published his first +paper in the "Quarterly Journal of Science" on +caustic lime. Encouraged by the approving words +of Sir Humphry, the following year he wrote six +papers for the "Quarterly," giving his experiments +with gases and minerals, and gave another course of +lectures before the Philosophical Society. To improve +himself in delivering these, he attended lectures +on oratory, taking copious notes.</p> + +<p>Seven years had now gone by in his apprenticeship +to Science. He had published thirty-seven papers +in the "Quarterly," had a book ready for the press, +on the alloys of steel, and had read a paper before +the Royal Society itself, on two new compounds of +chlorine and carbon, and a new compound of iodine, +carbon, and hydrogen. But the young and now +brilliant student had other weighty matters in hand. +Five years before this, he had written in his diary:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"What is't that comes in false, deceitful guise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Making dull fools of those that 'fore were wise?<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;">'Tis love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What's that the wise man always strives to shun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though still it ever o'er the world has run?<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;">'Tis love."</span><br /> +</div></div> + +<p>But now, whether he tried to shun it or no, he +became thoroughly in love with Sarah Barnard, an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +intelligent and sweet-tempered girl, the daughter of +a silversmith. Distracted by fears lest he might not +win her, he wrote her. "In whatever way I can +best minister to your happiness, either by assiduity +or by absence, it shall be done. Do not injure me +by withdrawing your friendship, or punish me for +aiming to be more than a friend by making me +less."</p> + +<p>The girl showed this to her father, who replied +that love made philosophers say very foolish things. +She hesitated about accepting him, and went away +to the seaside to consider it; but the ardent lover +followed, determined to learn the worst if need be. +They walked on the cliffs overhanging the ocean, +and Faraday wrote in his journal as the day drew near +its close, "My thoughts saddened and fell, from the +fear I should never enjoy such happiness again. I +could not master my feelings, or prevent them from +sinking, and I actually at last shamed myself by +moist eyes." He blamed himself because he did +not know "the best means to secure the heart he +wished to gain." He knew how to fathom the +depths of chemical combinations, but he could not +fathom the depths of Sarah Barnard's heart.</p> + +<p>At last the hour of her decision came; and both +were made supremely happy by it. A week later he +wrote her, "Every moment offers me fresh proof of +the power you have over me. I could not at one +time have thought it possible that I, that any man, +could have been under the dominion of feelings so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +undivided and so intense: now I think that no other +man can have felt or feel as I do." A year later +they were married very quietly, he desiring their +wedding day to be "just like any other day." +Twenty-eight years later he wrote among the important +dates and discoveries of his life, "June 12, +1821, he married,—an event which, more than any +other, contributed to his earthly happiness and +healthful state of mind. The union has nowise +changed, except in the depth and strength of its +character."</p> + +<p>For forty-seven years "his dear Sarah" made life +a joy to him. He rarely left home; but if so, as at +the great gathering of British Scientists at Birmingham, +he wrote back, "After all, there is no pleasure +like the tranquil pleasure of home; and here, +even here, the moment I leave the table, I wish I +were with you <small>IN QUIET</small>. Oh, what happiness is +ours! My runs into the world in this way only +serve to make me esteem that happiness the more."</p> + +<p>And now came twenty years in science that made +Faraday the wonder and ornament of his age. +Elected an F.R.S., he began at once twelve lectures +in Chemical Manipulation before the London +Institution, six on Chemical Philosophy before the +Royal Society, published six papers on electromagnetism, +and began a course of juvenile lectures +which continued for nineteen years. This was one +of the beautiful things of Faraday's life,—a great +man living in a whirl of work, yet taking time to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +make science plain to the young. When asked at +what age he would teach science, he replied that he +had never found a child too young to understand +him. For twenty years he lectured at the Royal +Academy at Woolwich, became scientific adviser to +the government with regard to lighthouses and +buoys, not for gain, but for the public good, drew +all London to his eloquent lectures with his brilliant +experiments, Prince Albert attending with his sons; +and published one hundred and fifty-eight scientific +essays and thirty series of "Experimental +Researches in Electricity," which latter, says Dr. +Gladstone, "form one of the most marvellous monuments +of intellectual work; one of the rarest +treasure-houses of newly-discovered knowledge, with +which the world has ever been enriched."</p> + +<p>He not only gathered into his vast brain what +other men had learned of science, but he tested +every step to prove the facts, and became, says +Professor Tyndall, "the greatest experimental philosopher +the world has ever seen." He loved science +as he loved his family and his God, and played with +Nature as with a petted child. When he lectured, +"there was a gleaming in his eyes which no painter +could copy, and which no poet could describe. His +audience took fire with him, and every face was +flushed."</p> + +<p>In his earlier discoveries in compressing gases +into liquids, he obtained from one thousand cubic +feet of coal gas one gallon of fluid from which he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +distilled benzine. In 1845 the chemist Hofman +found this same substance in coal-tar, from which +come our beautiful aniline dyes.</p> + +<p>After eighteen years of studying the wonderful +results of Galvani's discovery at the University of +Bologna, that the legs of a dead frog contract under +the electric current; and of Volta, in 1799, with his +voltaic pile of copper, zinc, and leather, in salt-water; +and of Christian Oersted at the University of +Copenhagen; and Ampère and Arago, that electricity +will produce magnets, Faraday made the great discovery +of magneto-electricity,—that magnets will +produce electricity. At once magneto-electric machines +were made for generating electricity for the +electric light, electro-plating, etc. This discovery, +says Professor Tyndall, "is the greatest experimental +result ever attained by an investigator, the +Mont Blanc of Faraday's achievements."</p> + +<p>Soon after he made another great discovery, that +of electric induction, or that one electric current +will induce another current in an adjoining wire. +Others had suspected this, but had sought in vain +to prove it. The Bell telephone, which Sir William +Thompson calls "the wonder of wonders," depends +upon this principle. Here no battery is required; +for the vibration of a thin iron plate is made to +generate the currents. After this, Faraday proved +that the various kinds of electricity are identical; +and that the electricity of the Voltaic pile is produced +by chemical action, and not by contact of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +metals, as Volta had supposed. The world meantime +had showered honors upon the great scientist. +Great Britain had made him her idol. The Cambridge +Philosophical Society, the Institution of Civil +Engineers, of British Architects, of Philosophy and +of Medicine, and the leading associations of Scotland +had made him an honorary member. Paris +had elected him corresponding member of all her +great societies. St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm, +Berlin, Palermo, Modena, Lisbon, Heidelberg, +Frankfort, and our own Boston and Philadelphia +had sent tokens of admiration. Eminent men from +all the world came to see him.</p> + +<p>How proud his mother must have felt at this +wonderful success! She was not able to enter into +her son's pursuits from lack of early education; but +she talked much about him, calling him ever, "my +Michael"; and would do nothing whatever without +his advice. He supported her in her declining years; +and she seemed perfectly happy. His father had +died in his boyhood; but Faraday ever honored his +occupation. He used to say, "I love a smith-shop, +and anything relating to smithing. My father was +a blacksmith."</p> + +<p>He was now forty-nine. The overtaxed brain +refused to work longer. Memory was losing her +grasp, and but for the sweet and careful presence +of Sarah Faraday, the life-work would doubtless +have been finished at this time. She took him to +Switzerland, where he walked beside the lakes and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +over the mountains with "my companion, dear wife, +and partner in all things." For four years he made +scarcely any experiments in original research, and +then the tired brain seemed to regain its wonted +power, and go on to other discoveries.</p> + +<p>An Italian philosopher, Morichini, was the first +to announce the magnetizing power of the solar +rays. Mrs. Somerville covered one-half of a sewing-needle +with paper, and exposed the other half to +the violet rays. In two hours the exposed end had +acquired magnetism. Faraday, by long and difficult +experiments, showed the converse of this: he magnetized +a ray of light,—an experiment "high, beautiful, +and alone," says Mr. Tyndall. He also +showed the magnetic condition of all matter.</p> + +<p>He was always at work. He entered the laboratory +in the morning, and often worked till eleven at +night, hardly stopping for his meals. He seldom +went into society, for time was too precious. If he +needed a change, he read aloud Shakspeare, Byron, +or Macaulay to his wife in the evening, or corresponded +with Herschel, Humboldt, and other great +men. In the midst of exhausting labors he often +preached on the Sabbath, believing more earnestly +in the word of God the more he studied science.</p> + +<p>When he was sixty-four the great brain began to +show signs of decline. Belgium, Munich, Vienna, +Madrid, Rome, Naples, Turin, Rotterdam, Upsala, +Lombardy, and Moscow had sent him medals, or +made him a member of their famous societies.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +Napoleon III. made him commander of the Legion +of Honor, a rare title; and the French exhibition +awarded him the grand medal of honor. The Queen +asked him to dine with her at Windsor Castle, and, +at the request of Prince Albert her husband, she +presented him with a lovely home at Hampton +Court.</p> + +<p>At seventy-one he wrote to Mrs. Faraday from +Glasgow, "My head is full, and my heart also; but +my recollection rapidly fails. You will have to +resume your old function of being a pillow to my +mind, and a rest,—a happy-making wife." Still he +continued to make able reports to the government +on lighthouses, electric machines, steam-engines, +and the like.</p> + +<p>And then for two years the memory grew weaker, +the body feebler, and he was, as he told a friend, +"just waiting." He died in his chair in his study, +August 25th, 1867, and was buried in Highgate +Cemetery. Westminster Abbey would have opened +her doors to him, but he requested to be buried "in +the simplest earthly place, with a gravestone of the +most ordinary kind." On a plain marble slab in +the midst of clustering ivy are his name and the +dates of his birth and death. One feels a strange +tenderness of heart as he stands beside this sacred +spot where rests one, who, though elected to seventy +societies, and offered nearly one hundred titles and +tokens of honor, said he "would remain plain +Michael Faraday to the last."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p> + +<p>Wonderful man! great in mind, noble in heart, +and gentle in manner, having brought a strong +nature under the most complete discipline. His +energy, his devotion to a single object, his untiring +work, and his beautiful character carried the blacksmith's +son to the highest success.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p> +<h2>SIR HENRY BESSEMER.</h2> + + +<p>A little way from London, England, at Denmark +Hill, looking toward the Crystal Palace, +is a mansion which is fit for royalty. The grounds, +covering from thirty to forty acres, are beautifully +terraced, dotted here and there with lakelets, fountains, +and artificial caverns, while the great clumps +of red rhododendron, yellow laburnum, pink hawthorne, +and white laurel make an exquisitely colored +picture. The home itself is spacious and inviting, +with its elegant conservatory and rare works of art. +The owner of this house, Sir Henry Bessemer, is +cordial and gracious; and from his genial face and +manner, no one would imagine that his life had been +one long struggle with obstacles.</p> + +<p>Born in Charlton, a little county town in Hertfordshire, +Jan. 19, 1813, he received the rudiments +of an education like other boys in the neighborhood. +His father, Anthony Bessemer, an inventor, seeing +that his son was inclined to mechanics, bought him, +in London, a five-inch foot-lathe, and a book which +described the art of turning. Day after day, in the +quiet of his country home, he studied and practised +turning, and modelling in clay.</p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 426px;"> +<img src="images/illus-112.jpg" width="426" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">SIR HENRY BESSEMER.</span> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span></p> + +<p>At eighteen years of age he went to London, +"knowing no one," he says, "and myself unknown,—a +mere cipher in a vast sea of human enterprise." +He soon found a place to work as modeller and designer, +engraving a large number of original designs +on steel, with a diamond point, for patent-medicine +labels. A year later he exhibited one of his models +at the Royal Academy. His inventive brain and +observing eye were always alert in some new direction. +Having ascertained that the Government lost +thousands of pounds annually by the transfer of +adhesive stamps from old deeds to new ones, he +determined to devise a stamp which could not be +used twice.</p> + +<p>For several months he worked earnestly, at night +after his daily tasks were over, and in secret, thinking +how richly the Government would reward him if +he succeeded. At last he produced a die of unique +design, which perforated a parchment deed with four +hundred little holes. He hastened to the Stamp +officials to show his work. They were greatly +pleased, and asked him which he preferred for his +reward, a sum of money, or the position of Superintendent +of Stamps, with a salary of three or four +thousand dollars a year. He delightedly chose the +latter, as that would make him comfortable for +life. There was another reason for his delight; for +being engaged to be married, he would have no +solicitude now about daily needs: life would flow on +as smoothly as a river.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p> + +<p>At once he visited the young lady, and told her of +his great success. She listened eagerly, and then +said, "Yes, I understand this; but surely, if all +stamps had a <i>date</i> put upon them, they could not at +a future time be used without detection." His +spirits fell. He confessed afterward that, "while +he felt pleased and proud of the clever and simple +suggestion of the young lady, he saw also that all +his more elaborate system, the result of months of +toil, was shattered to pieces by it." What need for +four hundred holes in a die, when a single date was +more effective? He soon worked out a die with +movable dates, and with frankness and honor presented +it before the Government officials. They +saw its preferableness: the new plan was adopted +by Act of Parliament; the old stamps were called +in and new ones issued; and then the young inventor +was informed that his services as Superintendent +of Stamps, at three thousand dollars a year, +were not needed.</p> + +<p>But surely the Government, which was to save a +half million dollars a year, would repay him for his +months of labor and thought! Associations, like +individuals, are very apt to forget favors, when once +the desired end is attained. The Premier had resigned; +and, after various promises and excuses, a +lawyer in the Stamp Office informed him that he +made the new stamp of his own free will, and there +was no money to be given him. "Sad and dispirited, +and with a burning sense of injustice over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>powering +all other feelings," says young Bessemer, +"I went my way from the Stamp Office, too proud +to ask as a favor that which was indubitably my +right."</p> + +<p>Alas! that he must learn thus early the selfishness +of the world! But he took courage; for, had he +not made one real invention? and it must be in his +power to make others. When he was twenty-five +he produced a type-casting machine; but so opposed +was it by the compositors, that it was finally abandoned. +He also invented a machine for making +figured Utrecht velvet; and some of his productions +were used in the state apartments of Windsor +Castle.</p> + +<p>A little later his attention was accidentally called +to bronze powder, he having bought a small portion +to ornament his sister's album. The powder, made +in Germany, cost only twenty-two cents a pound in +the raw material, and sold for twenty-two dollars. +Here was a wonderful profit. Why could he not +discover the process of making it? He worked for +eighteen months, trying all sorts of experiments, +and failed. But failure to a great mind never really +means failure; so, after six months, he tried again, +and—succeeded. He knew little about patents, +had been recently defrauded by the Government; +and he determined that this discovery should be +kept a secret. He made a small apparatus, and +worked it himself, sending out a travelling-man with +the product. That which cost him less than one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +dollar was sold for eighteen. A fortune seemed +now really within his grasp.</p> + +<p>A friend, assured of his success, put fifty thousand +dollars into the business. Immediately Bessemer +made plans of all the machinery required, sent +various parts to as many different establishments, +lest his secret be found out, and then put the pieces +of his self-acting machines together. Five assistants +were engaged at high wages, under pledge of +secrecy. At first he made one thousand per cent +profit; and now, in these later years, the profit is +three hundred per cent. Three of the assistants +have died; and Mr. Bessemer has turned over the +business and the factory to the other two. The +secret of making the bronze powder has never been +told. Even Mr. Bessemer's oldest son had reached +manhood before he ever entered the locked room +where it was made.</p> + +<p>For ten years the inventor now turned his attention +to the construction of railway carriages, centrifugal +pumps, etc. His busy brain could not rest. +When frequent explosions in coal-mines occasioned +discussion throughout the country, he made, at large +expense, a working model for ventilating mines, and +offered to explain it to a committee of the House of +Commons. His offer was declined with thanks. A +little investigation on the part of great statesmen +would have been scarcely out of place.</p> + +<p>At the great exhibition in London in 1851, he +exhibited several machines,—one for grinding and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +polishing plate glass, and another for draining, in +an hour, an acre of land covered with water a foot +deep. The crowd looked at them, called the inventor +"the ingenious Mr. Bessemer," and passed on. +Two years later he made some improvements in war +implements, and submitted his plans to the Woolwich +Arsenal; but they were declined, without thanks +even. Some other men might have become discouraged; +but Mr. Bessemer knew that obstacles +only strengthen and develop men.</p> + +<p>The improved ordnance having been brought to +the knowledge of Napoleon III., he encouraged the +inventor, and furnished the money to carry forward +the experiments. While the guns were being tested +at Vincennes, an officer remarked, "If you cannot +get stronger metal for your guns, such heavy projectiles +will be of little use." And then Mr. Bessemer +began to ask himself if he could not improve +iron. But he had never studied metallurgy. This, +however, did not deter him; for he immediately +obtained the best books on the subject, and visited +the iron-making districts. Then he bought an old +factory at Baxter House, where Richard Baxter +used to live, and began to experiment for himself. +After a whole year of labor he succeeded in greatly +improving cast-iron, making it almost as white as +steel.</p> + +<p>Could he not improve steel also? For eighteen +months he built and pulled down one furnace after +another, at great expense. At last "the idea struck<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +him," he says, of making cast-iron malleable by +forcing air into the metal when in a fluid state, +cast-iron being a combination of iron and carbon. +When oxygen is forced in, it unites with the carbon, +and thus the iron is left nearly pure. The experiment +was tried at the factory, in the midst of much +trepidation, as the union of the compressed air and +the melted iron produced an eruption like a volcano; +but when the combustion was over, the result was +steel.</p> + +<p>Astonished and delighted, after two years and a +half of labor, Bessemer at once took out a patent; +and the following week, by request, Aug. 11, 1856, +read a paper before the British Association, on +"The manufacture of malleable iron and steel +without fuel." There was great ridicule made beforehand. +Said one leading steel-maker to another. +"I want you to go with me this morning. There is +a fellow who has come down from London to read a +paper on making steel from cast-iron without fuel! +Ha! ha! ha!"</p> + +<p>The paper was published in the "Times," and +created a great sensation. Crowds hastened to +Baxter House to see the wonderful process. In +three weeks Mr. Bessemer had sold one hundred +thousand dollars worth of licenses to make steel by +the new and rapid method. Fame, as well as great +wealth, seemed now assured, when lo! in two +months, it being found that only certain kinds of +iron could be worked, the newspapers began to ridi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>cule +the new invention, and scientists and business +men declared the method visionary, and worse than +useless.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bessemer collected a full portfolio of these +scathing criticisms; but he was not the man to be +disconcerted or cast down. Again he began the +labor of experimenting, and found that phosphorus +in the iron was the real cause of the failure. For +three long years he pursued his investigations. His +best friends tried to make him desist from what the +world had proved to be an impracticable thing. +Sometimes he almost distrusted himself, and thought +he would give up trying, and then the old desire +came back more strongly than ever. At last, success +was really assured, but nobody would believe +it. Every one said, "Oh, this is the thing which +made such a blaze two or three years ago, and +which was a failure."</p> + +<p>Mr. Bessemer took several hundredweight of the +new steel to some Manchester friends, that their +workmen might try it, without knowing from whence +it came. They detected no difference between this +which cost thirty dollars a ton, and what they were +then using at three hundred dollars a ton.</p> + +<p>But nobody wanted to buy the new steel. Two +years went by in this fruitless urging for somebody +to take up the manufacture of the new metal. +Finally, Bessemer induced a friend to unite with +him, and they erected works, and began to make +steel. At first the dealers would buy only twenty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +or thirty pounds; then the demand steadily increased. +At last the large manufacturers awoke to +the fact that Bessemer was underselling them by +one hundred dollars a ton, and they hastened to pay +a royalty for making steel by the new process.</p> + +<p>But all obstacles were not yet overcome. The +Government refused to make steel guns; the shipbuilders +were afraid to touch it; and when the +engineer of the London and North-western Railway +was asked to use steel rails, he exclaimed, excitedly, +"Mr. Bessemer, do you wish to see me tried for +manslaughter?" Now, steel rails are used the +world over, at the same cost as iron formerly, and +are said to last twenty times as long as iron rails.</p> + +<p>Prejudice at last wore away, and in 1866, the +"Bessemer process," the conversion of crude iron +into steel by forcing cold air through it for fifteen +or twenty minutes, was bringing to its inventor an +income of five hundred thousand dollars a year! +Fame had now come, as well as wealth. In 1874, +he was made President of the Iron and Steel Institute, +to succeed the Duke of Devonshire. The +Institute of Civil Engineers gave him the Telford +Gold Medal; the Society of Arts, the Albert Gold +Medal. Sweden made him honorary member of +her Iron Board; Hamburg gave him the freedom of +the city; and the Emperor of Austria conferred +upon him the honor of Knight Commander of the +Order of Francis Joseph, sending a complimentary +letter in connection with the jewelled cross and cir<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>cular +collar of the order. Napoleon III. wished to +give him the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, +but the English Government would not permit him +to wear it; the Emperor therefore presented him in +person with a gold medal weighing twelve ounces. +Berlin and the King of Wurtemburg sent him gold +medals. In 1879 he was made Fellow of the Royal +Society, and the same year was knighted by Queen +Victoria. In 1880 the freedom of the city of London +was presented to him in a gold casket; the only +other great discoverers who have received this distinction +being Dr. Jenner, who introduced vaccination, +and Sir Rowland Hill, the author of penny +postage. In the United States, which gives no +ribbons or decorations, Indiana has appropriately +named a flourishing town after him.</p> + +<p>It is estimated that Sir Henry Bessemer's one +discovery of making steel has saved the world, in +the last twenty-one years, above five thousand million +dollars.</p> + +<p>When his patent expired in 1870, he had received +in royalties over five million dollars. In his steel +works at Sheffield, after buying in all the licenses +sold in 1856, when the new process seemed a failure, +the profits every two months equalled the +original capital, or in fourteen years the company +increased the original capital eighty-one times by +the profits.</p> + +<p>How wise it proved that the country lad did not +obtain the permanent position of superintendent of +stamps, at three thousand dollars a year!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p> + +<p>Rich beyond his highest hopes, the friend of such +eminent and progressive men as the King of the +Belgians, who visits Denmark Hill, Sir Henry has +not ceased his inventions. Knowing the terrors of +sea-sickness, he designed a great swinging saloon, +seventy feet by thirty, in the midst of a sea-going +vessel named the "Bessemer." The experiment +cost one hundred thousand dollars, but has not yet +proved successful. In 1877, when sixty-four years +old, he began to devote himself to the study of +Herschel's works on optics, and has since constructed +an immense and novel telescope, which +magnifies five thousand times. The instrument is +placed in a comfortable observatory, so that the +investigator can either sit or stand while making his +observations. "The observing room, with its floor, +windows, and dome, revolve and keep pace automatically +with every motion of the telescope." +This is accomplished by hydraulic power.</p> + +<p>No wonder that Bessemer has been called the +"great captain of modern civilization." He has +revolutionized one of the most important of the +world's industries; he has fought obstacles at +every step,—poverty, the ridicule of the press, the +indifference of his countrymen, and the cupidity +of men who would steal his inventions or appropriate +the results. He has earned leisure, but he +rarely takes it. His has been a life of labor, prosecuted +with indomitable will and energy. He has +taken out one hundred and twenty patents, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +which the specifications and drawings fill seven +large volumes, all made by himself. The world +had at last come to know and honor the boy who +came to London at the age of eighteen, "a mere +cipher in a vast sea of human enterprise." He +made his way to greatness unaided, save by his +helpful wife.</p> + +<p>Sir Henry died on the fifteenth of March, 1898, +leaving an immense fortune, which, nevertheless, +was not inordinate when compared with the services +rendered by him to mankind; and a stainless +name. The unfair treatment which had embittered +his earlier days had been atoned for by the Queen +granting him a title in recognition of his invention +accepted by the Post-Office, and he had come to +be regarded as one of the greatest benefactors of +modern times. Such a life, crowned with such a +success, is calculated to be a mighty inspiration to +every ambitious youth.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p> +<h2>SIR TITUS SALT.</h2> + + +<p>I spent a day, with great interest, in visiting +the worsted mills and warehouses at Saltaire, +just out from Bradford, England, which cover about +ten acres. The history of the proprietor, Sir Titus +Salt, reads like a romance. A poor boy, the son of +a plain Yorkshire man, at nineteen in a loose blouse +he was sorting and washing wool; a little later, a +good salesman, a faithful Christian worker and the +superintendent of a Sunday school.</p> + +<p>At thirty-three, happening to be in Liverpool, he +observed on the docks some huge pieces of dirty-looking +alpaca wool. They had long lain in the +warehouses, and becoming a nuisance to the owners, +were soon to be reshipped to Peru. Young +Salt took away a handful of the wool in his handkerchief, +scoured and combed it, and was amazed +at its attractive appearance. His father and friends +advised him strongly to have nothing to do with the +dirty stuff, as he could sell it to no one; and if he +attempted to make cloth from it himself, he ran a +great risk of failure. Finally he said, "I am going +into this alpaca affair right and left, and I'll either +make myself a man or a mouse."</p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 465px;"> +<img src="images/illus-124.jpg" width="465" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">SIR TITUS SALT.</span> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p> + +<p>Returning to Liverpool, he bought the whole three +hundred bales for a small sum, and toiled diligently +till proper machinery was made for the new material. +The result was a great success. In three years over +two million pounds of alpaca wool were imported, +and now four million pounds are brought to Bradford +alone. Employment was soon furnished to +thousands, laborers coming from all over Great +Britain and Germany. Ten years later Mr. Salt +was made mayor of Bradford; ten years after this +a member of Parliament, and ten years later still a +baronet by Queen Victoria,—a great change from the +boy in his soiled coarse blouse, but he deserved it +all. He was a remarkable man in many ways. +Even when worth his millions, and giving lavishly +on every hand, he would save blank leaves and +scraps of paper for writing, and lay them aside for +future use. He was an early riser, always at the +works before the engines were started. It used to +be said of him, "Titus Salt makes a thousand +pounds before others are out of bed." He was +punctual to the minute, most exact, and unostentatious. +After he was knighted, it was no uncommon +thing for him to take a poor woman and her baby +in the carriage beside him, or a tired workman, or +scatter hundreds of tracts in a village where he happened +to be. Once a gypsy, not knowing who he +was, asked him to buy a broom. To her astonishment, +he bought all she was carrying!</p> + +<p>The best of his acts, one which he had thought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +out carefully, as he said, "to do good to his fellow-men," +was the building of Saltaire for his four thousand +workmen. When asked once what he had been +reading of late, he replied. "Alpaca. If you had +four or five thousand people to provide for every +day, you would not have much time left for reading." +Saltaire is a beautiful place on the banks of the river +Aire, clean and restful. In the centre of the town +stands the great six-story mill, well-ventilated, +lighted, and warmed, five hundred and forty-five +feet long, of light-colored stone, costing over a half +million dollars. The four engines of eighteen hundred +horse-power consume fifteen thousand tons of +coal per year. The weaving shed, covering two +acres, holds twelve hundred looms, which make +eighteen miles of fabric per day.</p> + +<p>The homes of the work-people are an honor to the +capitalist. They are of light stone, like the mill, +two stories high, each containing parlor, kitchen, +pantry, and three bedrooms or more, well ventilated +and tasteful. Flower beds are in every front yard, +with a vegetable garden in the rear. No broken +carts or rubbish are to be seen. Not satisfied to +make Saltaire simply healthful, by proper sanitary +measures, and beautiful, for which Napoleon III. +made him one of the Legion of Honor, Mr. Salt +provided school buildings at a cost of $200,000, a +Congregational church, costing $80,000, Italian in +style,—as are the other buildings,—a hospital for +sick or injured, and forty-five pretty almshouses,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +like Italian villas, where the aged and infirm have a +comfortable home. Each married man and his wife +receive $2.50 weekly, and each single man or +woman $1.87 for expenses. Once a year Mr. Salt +and his family used to take tea with the inmates, +which was a source of great delight.</p> + +<p>Believing that "indoor washing is most pernicious, +and a fruitful source of disease, especially to the +young," he built twenty-four baths, at a cost of +$35,000, and public wash-houses. These are supplied +with three steam engines and six washing +machines. Each person bringing clothes is provided +with a rubbing and boiling tub, into which steam +and hot and cold water are conveyed by pipes. The +clothes are dried by hot air, and can be washed, +dried, mangled, and folded in an hour. In Sweden, +I found the same dislike to having washing done in +the homes, and clothes are usually carried to the +public wash-houses.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most interesting of all Mr. Salt's +gifts to his workmen is the Saltaire Club and Institute, +costing $125,000; a handsome building, with +large reading-room supplied with daily papers and +current literature, a library, lecture-hall for eight +hundred persons, a "School of Art," with models, +drawings, and good teachers, a billiard-room with +four tables, a room for scientific study, each student +having proper appliances for laboratory work, a +gymnasium and drill-room nearly sixty feet square, +an armory for rifle-practice, and a smoking-room,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +though Mr. Salt did not smoke. The membership +fee for all this study and recreation is only thirty +seven cents for each three months. Opposite the +great mill is a dining-hall, where a plate of meat +can be purchased for four cents, a bowl of soup for +two cents, and a cup of tea or coffee for one cent. +If the men prefer to bring their own food, it is +cooked free of charge. The manager has a fixed +salary, so that there is no temptation to scrimp the +buyers.</p> + +<p>Still another gift was made to the work-people; a +park of fourteen acres, with croquet and archery +grounds, music pavilion, places for boating and +swimming, and walks with beautiful flowers. No +saloon has ever been allowed in Saltaire. Without +the temptation of the beer-shops, the boys have +grown to intelligent manhood, and the girls to virtuous +womanhood. Sir Titus Salt's last gift to his +workmen was a Sunday-school building costing +$50,000, where are held the "model Sunday schools +of the country," say those who have attended the +meetings. No wonder, at the death of this man, +40,000 people came to his burial,—members of +Parliament, clergymen, workingmen's unions, and +ragged schools. No wonder that statues have been +erected to his memory, and that thousands go every +year to Saltaire, to see what one capitalist has +done for his laborers. No fear of strikes in his +workshops; no socialism talked in the clean and +pretty homes of the men; no squalid poverty, no +depraving ignorance.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p> + +<p>That capital is feeling its responsibility in this +matter of homes for laborers is one of the hopeful +signs of the times. We shall come, sometime, to +believe with the late President Chadbourne, "The +rule now commonly acted upon is that business must +be cared for, and men must care for themselves. +The principle of action, in the end, must be that +<i>men must be cared for</i>, and business must be subservient +to this great work."</p> + +<p>If, as Spurgeon has well said, "Home is the +grandest of all institutions," capital can do no better +work than look to the homes of the laborer. It +is not the mansion which the employer builds for +himself, but the home which he builds for his employé, +which will insure a safe country for his children +to dwell in. If discontent and poverty surround +his palace, its foundations are weak; if intelligence +has been disseminated, and comfort promoted by his +unselfish thought for others, then he leaves a goodly +heritage for his children.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span></p> +<h2>JOSEPH MARIE JACQUARD.</h2> + + +<p>The small world which lives in elegant houses +knows little of the great world in dingy apartments +with bare walls and empty cupboards. Those +who walk or ride in the sunshine often forget the +darkness of the mines, or the tiresome treadmill of +the factories.</p> + +<p>Over a century ago, in Lyons, France, lived a man +who desired to make the lives of the toilers brighter +and happier. Joseph Jacquard, the son of a silk-weaver +who died early, began his young manhood, +the owner of two looms and a comfortable little +home. He had married Claudine Boichon, the +daughter of a goldsmith who expected to give his +daughter a marriage portion, but was unable from +loss of property. Jacquard loved her just as devotedly, +however, as though she had brought him +money. A pretty boy was born into their home, +and no family was happier in all France. But the +young loom-owner saw the poor weavers working +from four in the morning till nine at night, in +crowded rooms, whole families often bending over a +loom, their chests shrunken and their cheeks sallow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +from want of air and sunlight; and their faces dull +and vacant from the monotony of unvaried toil. +There were no holidays, no walks in the fields +among the flowers, no reading of books, nothing but +the constant routine which wore out body and mind +together. There was no home-life; little children +grew pinched and old; and mothers went too early +to their graves. If work stopped, they ate the bread +of charity, and went to the almshouse. The rich +people of Lyons were not hard-hearted, but they did +not <i>think</i>; they were too busy with their parties and +their marriages; too busy buying and selling that +they might grow richer. But Jacquard was always +thinking how he could lighten the labor of the silk-weavers +by some invention.</p> + +<p>The manufacture of silk had become a most +important industry. Seventeen hundred years before +Christ the Chinese had discovered the making of +silk from silk-worms, and had cultivated mulberry-trees. +They forbade anybody to export the eggs +or to disclose the process of making the fabric, +under penalty of death. The Roman Emperor +Justinian determined to wrest this secret from China, +and thus revive the resources of his empire. He +sent two monks, who ostensibly preached Christianity, +but in reality studied silk-worms, and, secreting +some eggs in two hollow reeds, returned to +Justinian, and breaking these canes, laid the eggs +on the lap of the beautiful Empress Theodora. +From this the art spread into Italy, and thence into +France.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span></p> + +<p>The more Jacquard thought how he could help +the silk-weavers of France the more he became +absorbed, and forgot that money was needed to +support his family. Soon the looms had to be sold +at auction, with his small home. The world ridiculed, +and his relatives blamed him; but Claudine +his wife encouraged him, and prophesied great fame +for him in the future. She sold her little treasures, +and even her bed, to pay his debts. Finally, when +there was no food in the house, with tears in his +eyes, Jacquard left his wife and child, to become a +laborer for a lime-burner in a neighboring town. +Claudine went to work in a straw-bonnet factory; +and for sixteen years they battled with poverty.</p> + +<p>Then the French Revolution burst upon Lyons in +1793. Her crime before such murderers as Robespierre +and Marat was that she was the friend of +Louis XVI. Sixty thousand men were sent against +her by the so-called Republicans, who were commanded +to utterly destroy her, and write over the +ruins, "Lyons made war upon liberty; Lyons is +no more." Six thousand persons were put to death, +their houses burned, and twelve thousand exiled; +among them Jacquard.</p> + +<p>His only child, a brave boy of sixteen, had joined +the Republican ranks, that he might fight against the +foreign armies of England, Austria, and Naples, +who had determined, under Pitt, to crush out the +new government. At the boy's earnest request his +father enlisted with him, and together they marched<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +toward the Rhine. In one of the first battles a +cannon-ball struck the idolized son, who fell expiring +in Jacquard's arms. Covered with the blood of +his only child, he dug a grave for him on the battle-field; +and exhausted and heart-broken went to the +hospital till his discharge was obtained.</p> + +<p>He returned to Lyons and sought his poor wife. +At last he found her in the outskirts of the city, +living in a hay-loft, and earning the barest pittance +by spreading out linen for the laundresses to dry. +She divided her crusts with her husband, while they +wept together over their irreparable loss. She soon +died of grief, but, with her last words, bade Jacquard +go forward in developing his genius, and have trust +in God, who would yet show him the way of success. +Blessed Claudine! A sweet, beautiful soul, +shining like a star in the darkness of the French +Revolution.</p> + +<p>Jacquard with all earthly ties severed went back +to the seclusion of inventing. After his day's work +was done as a laborer, he studied on his machine for +silk-weaving. Finally, after seven years,—a long +time to patiently develop an idea,—he had produced +a loom which would decrease the number of +workmen at each machine, by one person. The +model was placed at the Paris Industrial Exposition +in 1801; and the maker was awarded a bronze +medal. In gratitude for this discovery he went to +the image of the Virgin which stood on a high hill, +and for nine days ascended daily the steps of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +sacred place. Then he returned to his work, and +seating himself before a Vaucanson loom, which +contained the germ of his own, he consecrated himself +anew to the perfecting of his invention.</p> + +<p>Jacques de Vaucanson, who died when Jacquard +was thirty years old, was one of the most celebrated +mechanicians of France. His automatons were the +wonder of the age. He exhibited a duck which, +when moved, ate and drank like a live one. The +figure would stretch out its neck for food, and swallow +it: walk, swim, dabble in the water, and quack +most naturally. His musician, playing the flageolet +with the left hand, and beating the <a name="tamb" id="tamb"></a><ins title="Original has tamborine">tambourine</ins> with +the right, executing many pieces of difficult music +with great accuracy, was an astonishment to every +body. He had been appointed inspector of silk-factories +at Lyons, and, because he made some +improvements in machines, he was pelted with +stones by the workmen, who feared that they would +thereby lose their labor. He revenged himself by +making a machine which wove, brocaded, and +colored at the same time, and was worked by a +donkey!</p> + +<p>It remained for Jacquard to make the Vaucanson +loom of the utmost practical use to Lyons and to +the world. After a time he was not only able to dispense +with one workman at each loom, but he made +machinery do the work of three men and two women +at each frame. The city authorities sent a model of +this machine to Paris, that the Emperor Napoleon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +might examine it. So pleased was he that he at +once sent for Jacquard to come to Paris. The +latter had previously invented a machine for making +fishing-nets, now used in producing Nottingham +lace. When brought before Bonaparte, and Carnot +the Minister of the Interior, the latter asked, "Is it +you then, who pretend to do a thing which is impossible +for man,—to make a knot upon a tight +thread?"</p> + +<p>Jacquard answered the brusque inquiry by setting +up a machine, and letting the incredulous minister +see for himself.</p> + +<p>The Emperor made Jacquard welcome to the +<i>Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers</i>, where he could +study books and machines to his heart's content, +and gave him a pension of about twelve hundred +dollars for his discovery. When he had, with his +own hands, woven a magnificent brocaded silk dress +for the Empress Josephine, he returned to Lyons to +set up the Jacquard looms. His name began to be +lauded everywhere. Claudine's prophecies had at +last come true. She had given her life to help him; +but she could not live to share his honors.</p> + +<p>Soon, however, the tide of praise turned. Whole +families found themselves forced into the street for +lack of work, as the looms were doing what their +hands had done. Bands of unemployed men were +shouting, "Behold the traitor! Let him provide +for our wives and children now driven as mendicants +from door to door; or let him, the destroyer of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +peoples' labor, share in the death which he has prepared +for us!" The authorities seemed unable to +quell the storm, and by their orders the new loom +was broken in pieces on the public square. "The +iron," says Jacquard, "was sold as old iron; the +wood, for fuel." One day he was seized by a crowd +of starving workmen, who knocked him down, and +dragged him to the banks of the Rhone, where he +would have been drowned at once, had not the +police rescued him, bleeding and nearly dead. He +left the city overwhelmed with astonishment and +sorrow. Soon Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and +America were using the Jacquard looms, largely +increasing the manufacture and sale of silk, and +therefore the number of laborers. The poor men of +Lyons awoke to the sad fact, that by breaking up +Jacquard's machines, they had put the work of silk-weaving +into other hands all over the world; and +idleness was proving their ruin. They might have +doubled and trebled the number of their factories, +and benefited labor a thousand-fold.</p> + +<p>The inventor refused to take out a patent for +himself, nor would he accept any offers made him +by foreigners, because he thought all his services +belonged to France. He loved the working people, +who, for twenty years, were too blind to see it.</p> + +<p>He removed to a little home and garden at Oullins, +near Lyons, the use of which had been given him +for life, where he could hear the sound of his +precious looms on which he had worked for sixty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +years, and which his city had at last adopted. Here +he attended his garden, and went every morning to +early church, distributing each day some small +pieces of money to poor children. As old age came +on, Lyons realized the gratitude due her great +inventor. A silver medal was awarded him, and +then the grand distinction of the cross of the Legion +of Honor.</p> + +<p>People from the neighboring towns visited Oullins, +and pointed out with pride the noble old man at +eighty-four, sitting by his garden-wall, dressed like +a workman in his long black tunic, but wearing his +broad red ribbon with his cross of honor. Illustrious +travellers and statesmen visited him whose fame +was now spread through Europe and America.</p> + +<p>Toinette, a faithful servant who had known and +loved Claudine, watched over the pure-hearted +Jacquard till death came, Aug. 7, 1834. Six years +after, Lyons, which once broke his machine and +nearly killed him, raised a beautiful statue of him +in the public square. The more than seventy thousand +looms in the city, employing two hundred +thousand workmen, are grander monuments even +than the statue. The silk-weavers are better housed +and fed than formerly. The struggling, self-sacrificing +man, who might have been immensely rich as +well as famous, was an untold blessing to labor and +to the world.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span></p> +<h2>HORACE GREELEY.</h2> + + +<p>Among the hills of New Hampshire, in a +lonely, unpainted house, Horace Greeley was +born, Feb. 3, 1811, the third of seven children. +His father was a plain farmer, hard-working, yet +not very successful, but aided by a wife of uncommon +energy and good spirits, notwithstanding her +many cares. Besides her housework, and spinning, +and making the children's clothes, she hoed in the +garden, raked and loaded hay to help her husband, +laughing and singing all day long, and telling her +feeble little son, Horace, stories and legends all the +evening. Her first two children having died, this +boy was especially dear. Mrs. Greeley was a great +reader of such books as she could obtain, and +remembered all she read. It requires no great discernment +to see from whence Horace Greeley +derived his intense love for reading, and his boundless +energy.</p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 460px;"> +<img src="images/illus-138.jpg" width="460" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">HORACE GREELEY.</span> +</div> + +<p>He learned to read, one can scarcely tell how. +When two years old, he would pore over the Bible, +as he lay on the floor, and ask questions about the +letters; at three, he went to the "district school,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +often carried through the deep snow on the shoulders +of one of his aunts, or on the back of an older +boy. He soon stood at the head of his little class +in spelling and reading, "and took it so much to +heart when he did happen to lose his place, that he +would cry bitterly; so that some boys, when they +had gained the right to get above him, declined the +honor, because it hurt Horace's feelings so."</p> + +<p>Before he was six years old he had read the Bible +through, and "Pilgrim's Progress." Their home +contained only about twenty books, and these he +read and re-read. As he grew older, every book +within seven miles was borrowed, and perused after +the hard day's work of farming was over. He +gathered a stock of pine knots, and, lighting one +each night, lay down by the hearth, and read, +oblivious to all around him. The neighbors came +and made their friendly visits, and ate apples and +drank cider, as was the fashion, but the lad never +noticed their coming or their going. When really +forced to leave his precious books for bed, he would +repeat the information he had learned, or the lessons +for the next day, to his brother, who usually, +most ungraciously, fell asleep before the conversation +was half completed.</p> + +<p>When Horace was nearly ten years old, his +father, who had speculated in a small way in lumber, +became a bankrupt; his house and furniture +were sold by the sheriff, and he was obliged to flee +from the State to avoid arrest. Some of these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +debts were paid, thirty years afterward, by his +noble son. Going to Westhaven, Vt., Mr. Greeley +obtained work on a farm, and moved his family +thither. They were very poor, the children sitting +on the floor and eating their porridge together out +of a tin pan; but they were happy in the midst of +their hard work and plain food. The father and +the boys chopped logs, and the little sisters, with +the mother, gathered them in heaps, the voice of +the latter, says Mr. James Parton, in his biography, +"ringing out in laughter from the tangled brushwood +in which she was often buried." Would there +were thousands more of such women, who can +laugh at disaster, and keep their children and themselves +from getting soured with life. Everybody +has troubles; and very wise are they who do not +tell them, either in their faces or by their words.</p> + +<p>Horace earned a few pennies all his own; sometimes +by selling nuts, or bundles of the roots of +pitch-pine for kindling, which he carried on his +back to the store. This money he spent in books, +buying Mrs. Hemans's poetry and "Shakspeare." +No wonder that the minister of the town said, +"Mark my words; that boy was not made for nothing."</p> + +<p>He could go to school no longer, and must now +support himself. From earliest childhood he had +determined to be a printer; so, when eleven years +of age, he walked nine miles to see the publisher of +a newspaper, and obtain a situation. The editor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +looked at the small, tow-haired boy, shook his +head, and said, "You are too young." With a +heavy heart the child walked the long nine miles +back again. But he must do something; and, a +little later, with seventy-five cents in his pocket, +and some food tied in a bundle, which he hung on +the end of a stick, slung over his shoulder, he +walked one hundred and twenty miles back to New +Hampshire, to see his relatives. After some weeks +he returned, with a few more cents in his purse than +when he started!</p> + +<p>The father Greeley ought to have foreseen that +such energy and will would produce results; but +because Horace, in a fit of abstraction, tried to yoke +the "off" ox on the "near" side, he said, "Ah! +that boy will never get along in the world. He'll +never know more than enough to come in when it +rains." Alas! for the blindness of Zaccheus Greeley, +whose name even would not be remembered +but for his illustrious son.</p> + +<p>When Horace was fourteen, he read in a newspaper +that an apprentice was wanted in a printing-office +eleven miles distant. He hastened thither, +and, though unprepossessing, from his thin voice, +short pantaloons, lack of stockings, and worn hat, +he was hired on trial. The first day he worked at +the types in silence. Finally the boys began to +tease him with saucy remarks, and threw type at +him; but he paid no attention. On the third day, +one of the apprentices took a large black ball, used<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +to put ink on the type, and remarking that Horace's +hair was too light, daubed his head four times. +The pressman and editor both stopped their labors +to witness a fight; but they were disappointed, for +the boy never turned from his work. He soon +left his desk, spent an hour in washing the ink +from his hair, and returned to his duties. Seeing +that he could not be irritated, and that he was +determined to work, he became a great favorite.</p> + +<p>When at his type, he would often compose paragraphs +for the paper, setting up the words without +writing them out. He soon joined a debating +society, composed of the best-informed persons of +the little town of East Poultney,—the minister, +the doctor, the lawyer, the schoolteachers, and the +like. What was their surprise to find that the +young printer knew almost every thing, and was +always ready to speak, or read an essay.</p> + +<p>He was often laughed at because of his poor +clothes, and pitied because, slender and pale as he +was, he never wore an overcoat; but he used to +say, "I guess I'd better wear my old clothes than +run in debt for new ones." Ah! they did not +know that every penny was saved and sent to the +father, struggling to clear a farm in the wilderness +in Pennsylvania. During his four years' apprenticeship +he visited his parents twice, though six +hundred miles distant, and walked most of the way.</p> + +<p>Soon after he had learned his trade, the newspaper +suspended, and he was thrown out of work.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +The people with whom he boarded gave him a +brown overcoat, not new, and with moistened eyes +said good-by to the poor youth whom they had +learned to love as their own. He remained a few +weeks with his family, then walked fifty miles east +to a town in New York State, where he found +plenty of work, but no money, and in six weeks +returned to the log-cabin. After trying various +towns, he found a situation in Erie, taking the +place of a workman who was ill, and for seven +months he did not lose a day. Out of his wages—eighty-four +dollars—he had used only six, less +than one dollar a mouth! Putting fifteen dollars in +his pocket, he took the balance of sixty-three in a +note, and gave it to his father. A noble son indeed, +who would not buy a single garment for himself, +but carried the money home, so as to make the +poor ones a trifle more comfortable!</p> + +<p>He had become tired of working in the small +towns; he determined to go to the great city of +New York, and "be somebody." He walked a +part of the way by the tow-path along the canal, +and sometimes rode in a scow. Finally, at sunrise, +Friday, Aug. 18, 1831, he landed close to the Battery, +with ten dollars in his pocket, knowing, he +says, "no human being within two hundred miles." +His first need was a boarding-place. Over a saloon, +kept by an Irishman, he found room and board for +two dollars and a half a week. Fortunately, +though it was the almost universal custom to use<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +liquors, Horace was a teetotaler, and despised +chewing or smoking tobacco, which he regarded +"as the vilest, most detestable abuse of his corrupted +sensual appetites whereof depraved man is +capable;" therefore he had no fear of temptation +from these sources.</p> + +<p>All day Friday and Saturday he walked the +streets of New York, looking for work. The +editor of the "Journal of Commerce" told him +plainly that he was a runaway apprentice from the +country, and he did not want him. "I returned +to my lodging on Saturday evening, thoroughly +weary, disheartened, disgusted with New York, +and resolved to shake its dust from my feet next +Monday morning, while I could still leave with +money in my pocket, and before its almshouse +could foreclose upon me." On Sunday he went to +church, both morning and afternoon. Late in the +day, a friend who called upon the owner of the +house, learning that the printer wanted work, said +he had heard of a vacancy at Mr. West's, 85 +Chatham Street.</p> + +<p>The next morning Horace was at the shop at +half-past five! New York was scarcely awake; +even the newsboys were asleep in front of the +paper offices. He waited for an hour and a half,—a +day, it seemed to him,—when one of the journey-men +arrived, and, finding the door locked, sat down +beside the stranger. He, too, was a Vermonter, +and he determined to help young Greeley, if possi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>ble. +He took him to the foreman, who decided to +try him on a Polyglot Testament, with marginal +references, such close work that most of the men +refused to do it. Mr. West came an hour or two +later, and said, in anger, "Did you hire that fool?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; we need help, and he was the best I could +get," said the foreman.</p> + +<p>"Well, pay him off to-night, and let him go +about his business."</p> + +<p>When night came, however, the country youth +had done more and better work, than anybody who +had tried the Testament. By beginning his labors +before six in the morning, and not leaving his desk +till nine in the evening, working by the light of a +candle stuck in a bottle, he could earn six dollars a +week. At first his fellow-workmen called him "the +ghost," from his white hair and complexion; but +they soon found him friendly, and willing to lend +money, which, as a rule, was never returned to him; +they therefore voted him to be a great addition to +the shop. As usual, though always scrupulously +clean, he wore his poor clothes, no stockings, and +his wristbands tied together with twine. Once he +bought a second-hand black suit of a Jew, for five +dollars, but it proved a bad bargain. His earnings +were sent, as before, to his parents.</p> + +<p>After a year, business grew dull, and he was +without a place. For some months he worked on +various papers, when a printer friend, Mr. Story, +suggested that they start in business, their com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>bined +capital being one hundred and fifty dollars. +They did so, and their first work was the printing +of a penny "Morning Post," which suspended in +three weeks, they losing sixty dollars. The partner +was drowned shortly after, and his brother-in-law +took his place.</p> + +<p>Young Greeley, now twenty-three, and deeply +interested in politics, determined to start a weekly +paper. Fifteen of his friends promised to subscribe +for it. The "New Yorker" was begun, +and so well conducted was it that three hundred +papers throughout the country gave it complimentary +notices. It grew to a subscription list of nine +thousand persons; but much of the business was +done on trust, times were hard, and, after seven +years, the enterprise had to be abandoned. This +was a severe trial to the hard-working printer, +who had known nothing but struggles all his life. +Years after this he wrote, "Through most of this +time I was very poor, and for four years really +bankrupt, though always paying my notes, and +keeping my word, but living as poorly as possible. +My embarrassments were sometimes dreadful; not +that I feared destitution, but the fear of involving +my friends in my misfortunes was very bitter.... +I would rather be a convict in a State prison, a +slave in a rice-swamp, than to pass through life +under the harrow of debt. Hunger, cold, rags, +hard work, contempt, suspicion, unjust reproach, +are disagreeable, but debt is infinitely worse than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +them all. Avoid pecuniary obligation as you would +pestilence or famine. If you have but fifty cents, +and can get no more for a week, buy a peck of +corn, parch it, and live on it, rather than owe any +man a dollar."</p> + +<p>Meantime the young editor had married Miss +Mary Y. Cheney, a schoolteacher of unusual mind +and strength of character. It was, of course, a +comfort to have some one to share his sorrows; but +it pained his tender heart to make another help bear +his burdens. Beside editing the "New Yorker," +he had also taken charge of the "Jeffersonian," +a weekly campaign paper published at Albany, and +the "Log-Cabin," established to aid in the election +of General Harrison to the Presidency. The latter +paper was a great success, the circulation running +up to ninety thousand, though very little money +was made; but it gave Mr. Greeley a reputation in +all parts of the country for journalistic ability.</p> + +<p>President Harrison died after having been a +month in office; and seven days after his death, Mr. +Greeley started, April 10, 1841, a new paper, the +"New York Tribune," with the dying words of +Harrison as its motto: "I desire you to understand +the true principles of the government. I wish +them carried out. I ask nothing more." The +paper had scarcely any money for its foundation,—only +a thousand dollars loaned by a friend,—but it +had a <i>true man</i> at its head, strong in his hatred of +slavery, and the oppression of the laboring man,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +and fearless in the advocacy of what he believed to +be right.</p> + +<p>Success did not come at first. Of the five thousand +copies published and to be sold at a cent each, +Mr. Greeley says, "We found some difficulty in +giving them away." The expenses for the first +week were five hundred and twenty-five dollars; +receipts, ninety-two. But the boy who could walk +nearly six hundred miles to see his parents, and be +laughed at for poor clothes, while he saved his +money for their use, was not to be overcome at +thirty years of age, by the failure of one or of a +dozen papers. Some of the New York journals +fought the new sheet; but it lived and grew till, on +the seventh week, it had eleven thousand subscribers. +A good business-manager was obtained as +partner. Mr. Greeley worked sixteen hours a day. +He wrote four columns of editorial matter (his +copy, wittily says Junius Henri Browne, "strangers +mistook for diagrams of Boston"), dozens of +letters, often forgot whether he had been to his +meals, and was ready to see and advise with everybody. +When told that he was losing time by thus +seeing people, he said, "I know it; but I'd rather +be beset by loafers, and stopped in my work, than +be cooped up where I couldn't be got at by men +who really wanted to and had a right to see me." +So warm as this were his sympathies with all +humanity!</p> + +<p>In 1842, when he was thirty-one, he visited<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +Washington, Niagara, and his parents in Pennsylvania, +and wrote delightful letters back to his paper. +How proud the mother must have felt of the growing +fame of her son! What did Zaccheus think now of +his boy of whom he prophesied "would never know +more than enough to come in when it rains"?</p> + +<p>The years passed on. Margaret Fuller came +upon the editorial staff; for Mr. Greeley was ever +the advocate of the fullest liberty for woman in any +profession, and as much pay for her work as for +that of men. And now came a great sorrow, +harder to bear than poverty. His little son Pickie, +called "the glorious boy with radiant beauty never +equalled," died suddenly. "When at length," he +said, "the struggle ended with his last breath, and +even his mother was convinced that his eyes would +never again open upon the scenes of this world, I +knew that the summer of my life was over; that +the chill breath of its autumn was at hand; and +that my future course must be along the down-hill +of life." He wrote to Margaret Fuller in Italy, +"Ah, Margaret, the world grows dark with us! +You grieve, for Rome is fallen; I mourn, for +Pickie is dead." His hopes were centered in this +child; and his great heart never regained its full +cheerfulness.</p> + +<p>In 1848 he was elected to Congress for three +months to fill out the unexpired term of a deceased +member, and did most effective work with regard to +the mileage system and the use of the public lands.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +To a high position had come the printer-boy. At +this time he was also prominently in the lecture-field, +speaking twice a week to large audiences all +over the country. In 1850 his first book was published +by the Harpers, "Hints toward Reform," +composed of ten lectures and twenty essays. The +following year he visited England as one of the +"jury" in the awarding of prizes; and while there +made a close study of philanthropic and social questions. +He always said, "He, who by voice or pen +strikes his best blow at the impostures or vices +whereby our race is debased and paralyzed, may +close his eyes in death, consoled and cheered by the +reflection that he has done what he could for the +emancipation and elevation of his kind."</p> + +<p>In 1855 he again visited Europe; and four years +later, California, where he was received with great +demonstrations of honor and respect. In 1860 he +was at the Chicago Convention, and helped to nominate +Abraham Lincoln in preference to William H. +Seward. Mr. Greeley had now become one of the +leading men of the nation. His paper molded the +opinions of hundreds of thousands. He had fought +against slavery with all the strength of his able pen; +but he advocated buying the slaves for four hundred +million dollars rather than going to war,—a cheaper +method than our subsequent conflict, with enormous +loss of life and money. When he found the war +inevitable, after General McClellan's defeat at the +Chickahominy, he urged upon Mr. Lincoln immedi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>ate +emancipation, which was soon adopted. The +"New York World" said after his death, "Mr. +Greeley will hold the first place with posterity on +the roll of emancipation."</p> + +<p>In the draft riots in New York, in 1863, the mob +burst into the Tribune Building, smashing the furniture, +and shouting, "Down with the old white coat!" +Mr. Greeley always wore a coat and hat of this hue. +Had he been present, doubtless he would have been +killed at once. When urged to arm the office, he +said, "No; all my life I have worked for the +workingmen; if they would now burn my office and +hang me, why, let them do it."</p> + +<p>The same year he began his "History of the Civil +War" for a Hartford publisher. Because so constantly +interrupted, he went to the Bible House, +and worked with an amanuensis from nine in the +morning till four in the afternoon, and then to the +"Tribune" office, and wrote on his paper till eleven +at night. These volumes, dedicated to John Bright, +have had a sale of several hundred thousand copies.</p> + +<p>After the war Mr. Greeley, while advocating +"impartial suffrage" for black as well as white, +advocated also "universal amnesty." He believed +nothing was to be gained by punishing a defeated +portion of our nation, and wanted the past buried +as quickly as possible. He was opposed to the +hanging of Jefferson Davis; and with Gerritt Smith, +a well-known abolitionist, and about twenty others, +he signed Mr. Davis's bail-bond for one hundred<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +thousand dollars, which released him from prison at +Fortress Monroe, where he had been for two years. +At once the North was aflame with indignation. No +criticism was too scathing; but Mr. Greeley took +the denunciations like a hero, because he had done +what his conscience approved. He said, "Seeing +how passion cools and wrath abates, I confidently +look forward to the time when thousands who have +cursed will thank me for what I have done and +dared in resistance to their own sanguinary impulses.... +Out of a life earnestly devoted to the +good of human kind, your children will select my +going to Richmond and signing that bail-bond as +the wisest act."</p> + +<p>In 1872 considerable disaffection having arisen +in the Republican party at the course pursued by +President Grant at the South, the "Liberal Republicans," +headed by Sumner, Schurz, and Trumbull, +held a convention at Cincinnati, and nominated +Horace Greeley for President. The Democratic +party saw the hopelessness of nominating a man in +opposition to Grant and Greeley, and accepted the +latter as their own candidate. The contest was +bitter and partisan in the extreme. Mr. Greeley +received nearly three million votes, while General +Grant received a half million majority.</p> + +<p>No doubt the defeat was a great disappointment +to one who had served his country and the Republican +party for so many years with very little political +reward. But just a month before the election came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +the crushing blow of his life, in the death of his +noble wife. He left his speech-making, and for +weeks attended her with the deepest devotion. A +few days before she died, he said, "I am a broken +down old man. I have not slept one hour in twenty-four +for a month. If she lasts, poor soul, another +week, I shall go before her."</p> + +<p>After her death he could not sleep at all, and +brain-fever soon set in. Friday, Nov. 29, the end +came. At noon he said distinctly, his only remaining +children, Ida and Gabriella, standing by his +bedside, "I know that my Redeemer liveth;" and +at half-past three, "It is done." He was ready for +the great change. He had written only a short time +before, "With an awe that is not fear, and a consciousness +of demerit which does not exclude hope, +I await the opening, before my steps, of the gates +of the eternal world." Dead at sixty-one! Overworked, +not having had "a good night's sleep in +fifteen years!"</p> + +<p>When his death became known, the whole nation +mourned for him. Newspapers from Maine to +Louisiana gave touching tributes to his greatness, +his purity, and his far-sightedness as a leader of the +people. The Union League Club, the Lotos, the +Typographical Society, the Associated Press, German +and colored clubs, and temperance organizations +passed resolutions of sorrow. Cornell University, +of whose Board he was a member, did him +honor. St. Louis, Albany, Indianapolis, Nash<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>ville, +and other cities held memorial meetings. +John Bright sent regrets over "our friend, Horace +Greeley." Congress passed resolutions of respect +for his "eminent services and personal purity and +worth."</p> + +<p>And then came the sad and impressive burial. +In the governor's room in the City Hall, draped in +black, surrounded by a guard of honor composed +of the leading men of New York, the body of the +great journalist lay in state. Over fifty thousand +persons, rich and poor, maimed soldiers and working +people, passed in one by one to look upon the +familiar face. Said one workman, "It is little +enough to lose a day for Horace Greeley, who spent +many a day working for us." Just as the doors of +the room were being closed for the night, a farmer +made his way, saying, "I've come a hundred miles +to be at the funeral of Horace Greeley. Can't you +possibly let me in to have one last look?" The +man stood a moment by the open coffin, and then, +pulling his hat low down to hide the tears, was lost +in the crowd.</p> + +<p>From there the body was taken to Dr. Chapin's +church, where it rested under a solid arch of flowers, +with the words, "I know that my Redeemer liveth"; +and in front of the pulpit, "It is done." The +coffin was nearly hidden by floral gifts; one of the +most touching being a plow made of white camelias +on a ground of violets, from the "Tribune" workmen,—a +gift to honor the man who honored labor, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +ennobled farm-life at his country home at Chappaqua, +a few miles from New York.</p> + +<p>And then through an enormous concourse of +people, Fifth Avenue being blocked for a mile, the +body was borne to Greenwood Cemetery. Stores +were closed, and houses along the route were draped +in black. Flags on the shipping, in the harbor, +were at half-mast; and bells tolled from one to +three o'clock. Two hundred and fifty carriages, +containing the President of the United States, governors, +senators, and other friends, were in the +procession. By the side of his wife and their three +little children the great man was laid to rest, the +two daughters stepping into the vault, and laying +flowers tenderly upon the coffin.</p> + +<p>The following Sabbath clergymen all over the +country preached about this wonderful life: its +struggles succeeded by world-wide honor. Mr. +Greeley's one great wish was gratified, "I cherish +the hope that the journal I projected and established +will live and flourish long after I shall have mouldered +into forgotten dust; and that the stone which +covers my ashes may bear to future eyes the still +intelligible inscription, 'Founder of the <span class="smcap">New York +Tribune</span>.'"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p> +<h2>WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON.</h2> + + +<p>For a great work God raises up a great man. +Usually he is trained in the hard school of +poverty, to give him courage and perseverance. +Usually he stands alone among a great multitude, +that he may have firmness and endurance.</p> + +<p>William Lloyd Garrison was born to be preëminently +the deliverer of the slave. For two hundred +years the curse of African slavery had rested upon +one of the fairest portions of our land. Everybody +thought it an evil to keep four million human beings +from even the knowledge of how to read and write, +and a cruelty to sell children away from parents, to +toil forever without home or kindred. Everybody +knew that slavery was as ruinous almost to master +as to slave; that labor was thereby despised, and +that luxury was sapping the vigor of a race. But +every slave meant money, and money is very dear +to mankind.</p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 433px;"> +<img src="images/illus-156.jpg" width="433" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON.</span> +</div> + +<p>Before the Declaration of Independence, three +hundred thousand slaves had been brought to this +country. Some of the colonists remonstrated, but +the traffic was not stopped till 1808. The Quakers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +were opposed to human bondage from the first, and +decided, in 1780, to free all their slaves. Vermont +had freed hers three years previously, and other +Northern States soon followed. Benjamin Franklin, +Alexander Hamilton, and others were outspoken +against the sin; but it continued to increase till, in +1810, we had over a million slaves.</p> + +<p>Five years before this time, in a plain, wooden +house in Newburyport, Mass., a boy was born who +was to electrify America, and the world even, on +this great subject. William Lloyd Garrison's father +was a sea-captain, a man who loved books and had +some literary ambition; the mother was a noble +woman, deeply religious, willing to bear all and +brave all for conscience' sake, and fearless in the +path of duty. She early taught her boy to hate +oppression of every kind, and to stand everywhere +for the right. Very poor, there was no chance for +William, either in school or college. When he was +seven, his mother, having found work for herself as +a nurse for the sick, placed the child with a deacon +of the town, where he learned to split wood and +other useful things. At nine, the careful mother +put him to the shoemaking trade, though he was +scarcely large enough to hold the lap-stone. He +was not happy here, longing for something that +made him think.</p> + +<p>Perhaps he would like to build tables and chairs +better, so he was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker; +but here he was no more satisfied than with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +monotony of sewing leather. At his own request, +the dealer cancelled the agreement, and the boy +found a place to set type on the Newburyport "Herald." +At last he had obtained the work he loved. +He would some day own a paper, he thought, and +write articles for it. Ah! how often poor boys and +rich build air-castles which tumble to the ground. It +is well that we build them, for life soon becomes +prosaic enough to the happiest of us.</p> + +<p>At sixteen he wrote an article for the "Herald," +signing it "An Old Bachelor." Imagine his surprise +and delight when he saw it really in print! Meantime +his mother, who was six hundred miles away, +wrote him devoted letters, ever encouraging and +stimulating him to be upright and temperate. A +year later she died, and William was left to fight his +battles alone. He missed the letters,—missed having +some one to whom he could tell a boy's hopes +and fears and temptations. That boy is especially +blest who has a mother to whom he can confide +everything; such a boy usually has a splendid +future, because by her wisdom and advice he +becomes well fitted for life, making no foolish +experiments.</p> + +<p>Reading as much as possible, at nineteen William +wrote some political articles for a Salem paper, and, +strange to say, they were attributed to Hon. Timothy +Pickering! Surely, he could do something in +the world now; so when his apprenticeship was +over and he had worked long and faithfully, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +started a paper for himself. He called it the "Free +Press." It was a good title, and a good paper; but, +like most first literary adventures, it proved a failure. +Perhaps he ought to have foreseen that one can do +little without capital; but youth is about as blind as +love, and rarely stops to reason.</p> + +<p>Did one failure discourage him? Oh, no! He went +to Boston, and found a place in a printing office. +He soon became the editor of the "National Philanthropist," +the first paper established to advocate +total abstinence from intoxicants. His motto was a +true one, not very popular, however, in those days, +"Moderate drinking is the down-hill road to drunkenness." +He was now twenty-two, poor, but God-fearing +and self-reliant. About this time there +came to Boston a man whose influence changed +young Garrison's whole life,—Benjamin Lundy, a +Quaker, thirty-nine years of age. Leaving his +father's home at nineteen, he had spent four years +at Wheeling, Va., where he learned the saddler's +trade, and learned also the cruelties of slave-holding. +After this he moved to Ohio, and in four years +earned three thousand dollars above his living expenses. +When he was twenty-six he organized an +Anti-slavery Society at his own house, and, promising +to become assistant editor of an abolition paper, +he went to St. Louis to dispose of his stock of saddlery. +Business was greatly depressed, the whole +region being agitated over the admission of Missouri +as a slave State; and, after spending two years,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +Lundy returned to Ohio, on foot, in winter, his property +entirely gone.</p> + +<p>None of his ardor for freedom having abated, he +determined to start a monthly paper, though poor +and entirely ignorant about printing. This sheet he +called the "Genius of Universal Emancipation," +printed twenty miles from his home, the edition being +carried on his back, each month, as he walked the +long distance. He moved shortly after to East Tennessee, +walking half of the eight hundred miles, and +gradually increased his subscription list. Several +times his life was in danger; but the slight, gentle +Quaker kept quietly on his course. In 1824 he set +out on foot for Baltimore, paying his way by saddlery +or harness-mending, living on the poorest fare; +and he subsequently established the "Genius" there. +While he was absent from home, his wife died, +leaving twins, and his five children were divided +among friends. Deeply sorrowing, he renewed his +resolve to devote his life to worse than motherless +children,—those sold into bondage,—and made his +way as best he could to Boston. Of such material +were the foundation stones of the anti-slavery cause.</p> + +<p>At his boarding-place Lundy met Garrison, and +told him his burning desire to rid the country of +slavery. The heart of the young printer was deeply +moved. He, too, was poor and unknown, but he +had not forgotten his mother's teachings and prayers. +After some time he agreed to go to Baltimore, and +help edit the "Genius of Universal Emancipation."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +Lundy was in favor of sending the slaves to the +West Indies or Africa as fast as their masters would +consent to free them, which was not very fast. +Garrison said, "The slaves are here by no fault of +their own, and do not deserve to be sent back to +barbarous Africa." He was in favor of immediate +freedom for every human being.</p> + +<p>Baltimore had slave-pens on the principal streets. +Vessel-loads of slaves, torn from their homes, were +sent hundreds of miles away to southern ports, and +the auction-block often witnessed heart-rending +scenes. The tender heart of Garrison was stirred +to its very depths. In the first issue of his paper +he declared for Immediate Emancipation, and soon +denounced the slave-trade between Baltimore and +New Orleans as "domestic piracy," giving the +names of several citizens engaged in the traffic, +among them a vessel-owner from his own town, +Newburyport. The Northern man immediately +arrested Garrison for "gross and malicious libel," +and he was found guilty by a slave-holding court, +and fined fifty dollars and costs. No one was ready +to give bail, and he was thrown into prison. The +young man was not in the least cast down, but, calm +and heroic, wrote two sonnets on the walls of his +cell.</p> + +<p>Meantime, a noble young Quaker at the North, +John G. Whittier, was deeply anxious for Garrison. +He had no money to pay his fine, but, greatly admiring +Henry Clay, whom he hoped to see President,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +wrote him urging that he aid the "guiltless prisoner." +Clay would doubtless have done so, but +Arthur Tappan, one of New York's noble men, sent +the money, releasing Garrison from his forty-nine +days' imprisonment. Wendell Phillips says of him, +"He was in jail for his opinions when he was just +twenty-four. He had confronted a nation in the +very bloom of his youth."</p> + +<p>Garrison had not been idle while in prison. He +had prepared several lectures on slavery, and these +he now gave when he could find a hearing. Large +churches were not opened to him, and nobody offered +him two hundred dollars a night! The free colored +people welcomed him gladly, but the whites were +usually indifferent or opposed to such "fanatical" +ideas. At last he came to Boston to start a paper,—that +city where brains and not wealth open the doors +to the best society. Here, with no money nor influential +friends, he started the "Liberator," with this +for his motto, "I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising +as justice. On this subject I do not +wish to speak or write with moderation. I am in +earnest. I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; +I will not retreat a single inch—<i>and I will be +heard!</i>"</p> + +<p>The North was bound hand and foot by the slave-trade +almost as effectually as the South. The great +plea was the fear lest the Union would be dissolved. +Cotton factories had sprung up on every hand, and +it was believed that slave-labor was essential to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +producing of cotton. Some thought it would not +be safe to free the slaves; that assassinations would +be the result. The real secret, however, was that +each slave meant several hundred dollars, and freedom +meant poverty to the masters. Meantime, the +"Liberator" was making itself felt, despite Garrison's +poverty. The Vigilance Association of South +Carolina offered a reward of $1,500 for the apprehension +and prosecution of any white person who might +be detected in distributing or circulating it. In +Raleigh, N.C., the grand jury found a bill against +the young editor, hoping to bring him to that State +for trial. Hon. Robert Y. Hayne, of South Carolina, +having received a paper by mail, wrote to Harrison +Gray Otis, Mayor of Boston, to ascertain the sender. +Mr. Otis caused an agent to visit the office of the +"Liberator," and returned answer to Mr. Hayne, that +he found it "an obscure hole, his only visible auxiliary +a negro boy; and his supporters a few very +insignificant persons of all colors."</p> + +<p>And where was this "obscure hole"? In the +third story of a business block, "the walls dingy," +says Mr. Oliver Johnson in "Garrison and his +Times"; "the small windows bespattered with +printers' ink; the press standing in one corner; the +long editorial and mailing table covered with newspapers; +the bed of the editor and publisher on the +floor—all these make a picture never to be forgotten." +Their food, what little they had, was procured +at a neighboring bakery.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p> + +<p>Soon Georgia passed a law offering $5,000 to any +person arresting and bringing to trial, under the laws +of the State, and punishing to conviction, the editor +or publisher of the "Liberator." What a wonder +that some ruffian at midnight did not break into the +"obscure hole," and drag the young man off to a +slave-vessel lying close by in the harbor! The leaven +of anti-slavery was beginning to work. Twelve +"fanatics" gathered one stormy night in the basement +of an African church in Boston, and organized +the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832.</p> + +<p>The following year, as the managers of the American +Colonization Society had sent an agent to England, +it was deemed best to send Garrison abroad to +tell Wilberforce and others who were working for the +suppression of slavery in the West Indies, that it +was not a wise plan to send the slaves to Africa. +It was difficult to raise the money needed; but self-sacrifice +usually leaves a good bank-account. The +"fanatic," only twenty-eight, was received with +open arms by such men as Lord Brougham, Wilberforce, +Clarkson, and Daniel O'Connell. Sir Thomas +Fowell Buxton gave a breakfast in his honor. +When the guests had arrived, among them Mr. Garrison, +Mr. Buxton held up both hands, exclaiming, +"Why, my dear sir, I thought you were a black +man!" This, Mr. Garrison used to say, was the +greatest compliment of his life, because it showed +how truly and heartily he had labored for the slave. +A great meeting was arranged for him at Exeter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +Hall, London. How inspiring all this for the +young reformer! Here he met the eloquent George +Thompson, and asked him to visit our country, which +invitation he accepted.</p> + +<p>On his return the American Anti-Slavery Society +was formed, Dec. 4, 1833, at Philadelphia, delegates +coming from eleven States. John G. Whittier was +chosen Secretary. The noble poet has often said +that he was more proud that his name should appear +signed to the Declaration of Principles adopted at +that meeting than on the title-page of any of his +volumes. Thus has he ever loved liberty.</p> + +<p>The contest over the slavery question was growing +extremely bitter. Prudence Crandall of Canterbury, +Conn., a young Quaker lady, admitted several colored +girls to her school, who came from Boston, +New York, and Philadelphia. The people were +indignant at such a commingling of races. Shopkeepers +refused to sell her anything; her well was +filled with refuse, and at last her house was nearly +torn down by a midnight mob. Lane Theological +Seminary, Cincinnati, Western Reserve College, +Hudson, O., with some others, were nearly broken +up by the conflict of opinion. Some anti-slavery +lecturers were tarred and feathered or thrown into +prison. In New York, a pro-slavery mob broke in +the doors and windows of a Presbyterian church, and +laid waste schoolhouses and dwellings of colored +people. In Philadelphia, the riots lasted three days, +forty-four houses of colored people being nearly or +quite destroyed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span></p> + +<p>In Boston, a "most respectable" mob, composed, +says Horace Greeley, "in good part of merchants," +dispersed a company of women belonging to the +Female Anti-Slavery Society, while its President +was engaged in prayer. Learning that Garrison +was in the adjoining office, they shouted, "We +must have Garrison! Out with him! Lynch him!"</p> + +<p>Attempting to escape by the advice of the Mayor, +who was present, he sought refuge in a carpenter's +shop, but the crowd drew him out, and coiling a +rope around his body, dragged him bareheaded +along the street. One man called out, "He shan't +be hurt; he is an American!" and this probably +saved his life, though many blows were aimed at +his head, and his clothes were nearly torn from his +body. The Mayor declaring that he could only +be saved by being lodged in jail, Garrison pressed +into a hack, and was driven as rapidly as possible +to the prison, the maddened crowd clinging to the +wheels, dashing against the doors and seizing hold +of the horses. At last he was behind the bars and +out of their reach. On the walls of his cell he +wrote:—</p> + +<p>"William Lloyd Garrison was put into this cell +on Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 21, 1835, to save +him from the violence of a respectable and influential +mob, who sought to destroy him for preaching +the abominable and dangerous doctrine that +'all men are created equal,' and that all oppression +is odious in the sight of God. Confine me as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +prisoner, but bind me not as a slave. Punish me +as a criminal, but hold me not as a chattel. Torture +me as a man, but drive me not like a beast. +Doubt my sanity, but acknowledge my immortality."</p> + +<p>The "respectable" mob had wrought wiser than +they knew. Garrison and his "Liberator" became +more widely known than ever. Famous men and +women now joined the despised Abolitionists. The +conflict was growing deeper. Elijah P. Lovejoy, +the ardent young preacher of Alton, Illinois, was +murdered by four balls at the hands of a pro-slavery +mob, who broke up his printing-press, and threw +it into the river. A public meeting was held in +Faneuil Hall to condemn such an outrage. A prominent +man in the gallery having risen to declare that +Lovejoy "died as the fool dieth," a young man, +unknown to most, stepped to the rostrum, and spoke +as though inspired. From that day Wendell Phillips +was the orator of America. From that day the +anti-slavery cause had a new consecration.</p> + +<p>From this time till 1860 the struggle between freedom +and slavery was continuous. The South needed +the Territories for her rapid increase of slaves. The +North was opposed; but in the year 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska +Act, devised by Stephen A. Douglas, +repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which +had prohibited slavery north of latitude 36° 30', the +southern boundary of Kansas. Kansas at once became +a battle-ground. Armed men came over from +Missouri to establish slavery. Men came from New +England determined that the soil should be free,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +if they spilled their blood to gain it. The Fugitive +Slave Law, whereby slaves were returned without +trial by jury, and slave-owners allowed to search +the North for their slaves, made great bitterness. +The brutal attack of Preston Brooks, of South Carolina, +on Charles Sumner, for his speech on Kansas, +and the hanging of John Brown by the State of Virginia +for his invasion of Harper's Ferry with seventeen +white men and five negroes, calling upon the +slaves to rise and demand their liberty, brought matters +to a crisis.</p> + +<p>Garrison was opposed to war; but after the firing +on Sumter, April 12, 1861, it was inevitable. For +two years after Abraham Lincoln's election to the +Presidency, Garrison waited impatiently for that +pen-stroke which set four million human beings +free. When the Emancipation Proclamation was +issued, Jan. 1. 1863, Garrison's life-work was +accomplished. Thirty-five years of untiring, heroic +struggle had not been in vain. When two years +later the stars and stripes were raised again over +Fort Sumter, he was invited by President Lincoln, +as a guest of the government, to witness the imposing +scene. When Mr. Garrison arrived in Charleston, +the colored people were nearly wild with joy. +Children sang and men shouted. A slave made an +address of welcome, his two daughters bearing a +wreath of flowers to their great benefactor. Garrison's +heart was full to overflowing as he replied, +"Not unto us, not unto us, but unto God be all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +the glory for what has been done in regard to your +emancipation.... Thank God, this day, that you +are free. And be resolved that, once free, you will +be free forever. Liberty or death, but never slavery! +While God gives me reason and strength, I shall +demand for you everything I claim for the whitest +of the white in this country."</p> + +<p>The same year he discontinued the publication of +the "Liberator," putting in type with his own +hands the official ratification of the Thirteenth +Amendment, forever prohibiting slavery in the +United States, and adding, "Hail, redeemed, +regenerated America! Hail, all nations, tribes, kindred, +and peoples, made of one blood, interested in +a common redemption, heirs of the same immortal +destiny! Hail, angels in glory; tune your harps +anew, singing, 'Great and marvellous are thy works, +Lord God Almighty!'"</p> + +<p>Two years after the war Mr. Garrison crossed the +ocean for the fourth time. He was no longer the +poor lad setting type at thirteen, or sleeping on the +hard floor of a printing-room, or lying in a Baltimore +jail, or the victim of a Boston mob. He was the +centre of a grand and famous circle. The Duke +and Duchess of Argyle and the Duchess of Sutherland +paid him special honors. John Bright presided +at a public breakfast given him at St. James' Hall, +London. Such men as John Stuart Mill, Herbert +Spencer, and Prof. Huxley, graced the feast. Mr. +Bright said in his opening address, concerning Mr<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>. +Garrison: "His is the creation of that opinion which +has made slavery hateful, and which has made freedom +possible in America. His name is venerated +in his own country; venerated in this country and +in Europe, wheresoever Christianity softens the +hearts and lessens the sorrows of men." Edinburgh +conferred upon him the freedom of the city, an honor +accorded to one other American only,—George Peabody. +Birmingham, Manchester, and other cities +held great public meetings to do him reverence.</p> + +<p>On his return, such friends as Sumner, Wilson, +Emerson, Longfellow, Lowell, Greeley, and others +presented him with $30,000. The remainder of his +life he devoted to temperance, woman-suffrage, and +every other reform calculated to make the world +better. His true character was shown when, years +before, appointed to the London Anti-Slavery Convention +as a delegate, he refused to take his seat +after his long journey across the ocean, because such +noble co-workers as Lucretia Mott, Mrs. Wendell +Phillips, and others, were denied their place as delegates. +Thus strenuous was he for right and justice +to all. Always modest, hopeful, and cheerful, he +was as gentle in his private life with his wife and +five children, as he was strong and fearless in his +public career. He died at the home of his daughter +in New York, May 24, 1879, his children singing +about his bed, at his request:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +"Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve,"<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>and,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +"Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings."<br /> +</p></div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p> + +<p>At sunset, in Forest Hills, they laid the brave man +to rest, a quartette of colored singers around his +open grave, singing, "I cannot always trace the +way."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The storm and peril overpast,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The hounding hatred shamed and still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go, soul of freedom! take at last<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The place which thou alone canst fill.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Confirm the lesson taught of old—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Life saved for self is lost, while they<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who lose it in His service hold<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The lease of God's eternal day."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p> +<h2>GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI.</h2> + + +<p>Few men come to greatness. Most drift on +with the current, having no special plan nor +aim. They live where their fathers lived, taking no +thought beyond their neighborhood or city, and die +in their little round of social life.</p> + +<p>Not so a boy born in Southern France, in 1807. +Giuseppe Garibaldi was the son of humble parents. +His father was a sailor, with a numerous family to +support, seemingly unskilled in keeping what little +property he had once acquired. His mother was a +woman of ambition, energy, and nobility of character. +If one looks for the cause of greatness in a +man, he seldom has to go further than the mother. +Hence the need of a highly educated, noble womanhood +all over the world. Such as Giuseppe Garibaldi +are not born of frivolous, fashionable women.</p> + +<p>Of his mother, the great soldier wrote in later +years, "She was a model for mothers. Her tender +affection for me has, perhaps, been excessive; but +do I not owe to her love, to her angel-like character, +the little good that belongs to mine? Often, amidst +the most arduous scenes of my tumultuous life, when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +I have passed unharmed through the breakers of +the ocean or the hail-storms of battle, she has +seemed present with me. I have, in fancy, seen +her on her knees before the Most High—my dear +mother!—imploring for the life of her son; and I +have believed in the efficacy of her prayers." No +wonder that, "Give me the mothers of the nation +to educate, and you may do what you like with the +boys," was one of his favorite maxims.</p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 435px;"> +<img src="images/illus-172.jpg" width="435" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI.</span> +</div> + +<p>Giuseppe was an ardent boy, fond of books, +loving to climb the lonely mountains around his +home, and eager for some part of the world's bustle. +Sometimes he earned his living among the fishermen +on the Riviera; sometimes he took sea-voyages +with his father. He had unusual tenderness of +heart, combined with fearlessness. One day he +caught a grasshopper, took it to his house, and, in +handling it, broke its leg. He was so grieved for +the poor little creature, that he went to his room +and wept bitterly for hours. Another time, standing +by a deep ditch, he discovered that a woman had +fallen from the bank as she was washing clothes. +With no thought for his own life, he sprang in and +rescued her.</p> + +<p>His parents, seeing that he was quick in mathematics +and the languages, desired him to study for +the ministry; but he loved the sea and adventure +too well for a sedentary life. Becoming tired of +study, at twelve years of age, he and some companions +procured a boat, put some provisions and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +fishing-tackle on board, and started to make their +fortune in the East. These visions of greatness +soon came to an inglorious end; for the paternal +Garibaldi put to sea at once, and soon overtook and +brought home the mortified and disappointed infantile +crew.</p> + +<p>At twenty-one, we find Garibaldi second in command +on the brig "Cortese," bound for the Black +Sea. Three times during the voyage they were +plundered by Greek pirates, their sails, charts, and +every article of clothing taken from them, the sailors +being obliged to cover their bodies with some matting, +left by chance in the hold of the ship. As a +result of this destitution, the young commander +became ill at Constantinople, and was cared for by +some Italian exiles. Poor, as are most who are +born to be leaders, he must work now to pay the +expenses incurred by this illness. Through the +kindness of his physician, he found a place to teach, +and when once more even with the world pecuniarily, +went back to sea, and was made captain.</p> + +<p>He was now twenty-seven years old. Since his +father had taken him when a mere boy to Rome, he +had longed for and prayed over his distracted Italy. +He saw what the Eternal City must have been in +her ancient splendor; he pictured her in the future, +again the pride and glory of a united nation. He +remembered how Italy had been the battle-ground +of France, Spain, and Austria, when kings, as they +have ever done, quarrelled for power. He saw<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +the conqueror of Europe himself conquered by the +dreadful Russian campaign: then the Congress of +Vienna parcelling out a prostrate people among the +nations. Austria took Lombardy and Venice; +Parma and Lucca were given to Marie Louise, the +second wife of Napoleon; and the Two Sicilies to +Ferdinand II., who ruled them with a rod of iron. +Citizens for small offences were lashed to death in +the public square. Filthy dungeons, excavated +under the sea, without light or air, were filled with +patriots, whose only crime was a desire for a free +country. The people revolted in Naples and Sardinia, +and asked for a constitution; but Austria +soon helped to restore despotism. Kings had divine +rights; the people had none. No man lessens his +power willingly. The only national safety is the +least possible power in the hands of any one person. +The rule of the many is liberty; of the few, +despotism.</p> + +<p>Garibaldi was writing all these things on his +heart. His blood boiled at the slavery of his race. +Mazzini, a young lawyer of Genoa, had just started +a society called "Young Italy," and was looking +hopefully, in a hopeless age, toward a republic for +his native country. Garibaldi was ready to help in +any manner possible. The plan proposed was to +seize the village of St. Julien, and begin the revolt; +but, as usual, there was a traitor in the camp: they +were detected; and Garibaldi, like the rest, was +sentenced to death. This was an unexpected turn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> +of events for the young sea-captain. Donning the +garb of a peasant, he escaped by mountain routes +to Nice, his only food being chestnuts, bade a hasty +farewell to his precious mother, and started for +South America. He had learned, alas, so soon, +the result of working for freedom in Italy!</p> + +<p>He arrived at Rio Janeiro, an exile and poor; +but, finding several of his banished countrymen, +they assisted him in buying a trading-vessel; and +he engaged in commerce. But his mind constantly +dwelt on freedom. The Republic of Rio Grande +had just organized and set up its authority against +Brazil. Here was a chance to fight for liberty. A +small cruiser was obtained, which he called "The +Mazzini," and, with twenty companions, he set out +to combat an empire. After capturing a boat loaded +with copper, the second vessel they met gave battle, +wounded Garibaldi in the neck, and made them all +prisoners.</p> + +<p>A little later, attempting to escape, he was brutally +beaten with a club, and then his wrists tied +together by a rope, which was flung over a beam. +He was suspended in the air for two hours. His +sufferings were indescribable. Fever parched his +body, and the rope cut his flesh. He was rescued +by a fearless lady, Senora Alemon, but for whom +he would have died. After two months, finding that +he would divulge nothing of the plans of his adopted +republic, he was released without trial, and entered +the war again at once.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span></p> + +<p>After several successful battles, his vessel was +shipwrecked, nearly all his friends were drowned, +and he escaped as by a miracle. His heart now +became desolate. He says in his diary, "I felt the +want of some one to love me, and a desire that such +a one might be very soon supplied, as my present +state of mind seemed insupportable." After all, +the brave young captain was human, and cried out +for a human affection. He had "always regarded +woman as the most perfect of creatures"; but he +had never thought it possible to marry with his +adventurous life.</p> + +<p>About this time he met a dark-haired, dark-eyed, +young woman, tall and commanding, and as brave +and fearless as himself. Anita belonged to a wealthy +family, and her father was incensed at the union, +though years after, when Garibaldi became famous, +he wrote them a letter of forgiveness. They idolized +each other; and the soldier's heart knew desolation +no longer, come now what would. She stood +beside him in every battle, waving her sword over +her head to encourage the men to their utmost. +When a soldier fell dead at her feet, she seized his +carbine, and kept up a constant fire. When urged +by her husband to go below, because almost frantic +with fear for her safety, she replied, "If I do, it +will be but to drive out those cowards who have +sought concealment there," and then return to the +fight. In one of the land-battles she was surrounded +by twenty or more of the enemy; but she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +put spurs to her horse, and dashed through their +midst. At first they seemed dazed, as though she +were something unearthly; then they fired, killing +her animal, which fell heavily to the ground; and +she was made a prisoner. Obtaining permission to +search among the dead for her husband, and, not +finding him, she determined to make her escape. +That night, while they slept, she seized a horse, +plunged into the forests, and for four days lived +without food. On the last night,—a stormy one,—closely +pursued by several of the enemy, she urged +her horse into a swollen river, five hundred yards +broad, and seizing fast hold of his tail, the noble +creature swam across, dragging her with him. +After eight days she reached her agonized husband, +and their joy was complete.</p> + +<p>After a year or more of battles and hardships, +their first child, Menotti, was born, named for the +great Italian Liberal. Garibaldi, fighting for a poor +republic, destitute of everything for his wife and +child, started across the marshes to purchase a few +articles of clothing. In his absence, their little +company was attacked by the Imperialists, and +Anita mounted her saddle in a pitiless storm, and +fled to the woods with her twelve-days-old infant. +Three months later the child came near dying, the +mother carrying him in a handkerchief tied round +her neck, and keeping him warm with her breath, +as they forded swamps and rivers.</p> + +<p>After six years of faithful service for the South<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +American Republic, Garibaldi determined to settle +down to a more quiet life, with his little family, and +sought a home at Montevideo, where he took up his +former occupation of teaching. But he was soon +drawn into war again, and his famous "Italian +Legion," of about four hundred men, made for +themselves a record throughout Europe and America +for bravery and success against fearful odds. The +grateful people made Garibaldi "General," and +placed a large tract of land at the disposal of the +Legion; but the leader said, "In obedience to the +cause of liberty alone did the Italians of Montevideo +take up arms, and not with any views of gain or +advancement," and the gift was declined. Yet so +poor was the family of Garibaldi, that they used to +go to bed at sunset because they had no candles; +and his only shirt he had given to a companion in +arms. When his destitution became known, the +minister of war sent him one hundred dollars. He +accepted half for Anita and her little ones, and +begged that the other half might be given to a poor +widow.</p> + +<p>Fourteen years had gone by since he left Italy +under sentence of death. He was now forty-one, in +the prime of his life and vigor. Italy had become +ripe for a revolution. Charles Albert, King of +Sardinia, had declared himself ready to give constitutional +liberty to his people, and to help throw off +the Austrian yoke. Garibaldi believed that his +hour had come, and saying good-bye to the Monte<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>videans, +who were loathe to part with him, he took +fifty-six of his brave Italian Legion, and sailed for +Nice, in the ship Esperanza. His beloved Anita +improvised a Sardinian flag, made from a counterpane, +a red shirt, and a bit of old green uniform; +and the little company gave themselves to earnest +plans and hopes. They met a hearty reception on +their arrival; Garibaldi's mother taking Anita and +her three children, Menotti, Meresita, and Ricciotti, +to her home. General Garibaldi at once presented +himself before Charles Albert, and offered his services. +He wore a striking costume, consisting of a +cap of scarlet cloth, a red blouse, and a white cloak +lined with red, with a dagger at his belt, besides +his sword. The King, perhaps remembering that +the brave soldier was once a Republican in sentiment, +made the great mistake of declining his aid. +Nothing daunted, he hurried to Milan, only to find +that the weak King had yielded it to Austria. Charles +Albert soon abdicated in favor of his son Victor +Emmanuel, and died from sorrow and defeat.</p> + +<p>Meantime Rome had declared herself a Republic, +and Pius IX. had fled the city. Garibaldi was +asked to defend her, and entered with his troops, +April 28, in 1849. England and France were urged +to remain neutral, while Rome fought for freedom. +But alas! Louis Napoleon, then President of the +French Republic, desired to please the Papal party, +and sent troops to reinstate the Pope! When Rome +found that this man at the head of a republic was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +willing to put a knife to her throat, her people +fought like tigers. They swarmed out of the workshops +armed with weapons of every kind, while +women urged them on with applause. For nearly +three months Rome held out against France and +Austria, Garibaldi showing himself an almost superhuman +leader, and then the end came. Pius IX. +re-entered the city, and the Republic was crushed by +monarchies.</p> + +<p>When all was lost, Garibaldi called his soldiers +together, and, leaping on horseback, shouted, "Venice +and Garibaldi do not surrender. Whoever will, +let him follow me! Italy is not yet dead!" and he +dashed off at full speed. By lonely mountain-paths, +he, with Anita and about two hundred of his troops, +arrived on the shore of the Adriatic, where thirteen +boats were waiting to carry them to Venice. Nine +were soon taken by the Austrians, the rest escaping, +though nearly all were finally captured and shot at +once. The General and his wife escaped to a cornfield, +where she lay very ill, her head resting on his +knee. Some peasants, though fearful that they would +be detected by the Austrians, brought a cart, and +carried the dying wife to the nearest cottage, where, +as soon as she was laid upon the bed, she breathed +her last, leaning on Garibaldi's arm. Overwhelmed +with the loss of his idol, he seemed benumbed, with +no care whether he was made a prisoner or not. At +last, urged for the sake of Italy to flee, he made the +peasants promise to bury Anita under the shade of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +the pine grove near by, and, hunted like a robber +from mountain to mountain, he found a hiding-place +among the rocks of the Island of Caprera. There +was nothing left now but to seek a refuge in the +great American Republic.</p> + +<p>Landing in New York, the noble General asked +aid from no one, but believing, as all true-minded +persons believe, that any labor is honorable, began +to earn his living by making candles. What a contrast +between an able general working in a tallow +factory, and some proud young men and women who +consent to be supported by friends, and thus live on +charity! Woe to America if her citizens shall ever +feel themselves too good to work!</p> + +<p>For a year and a half he labored patiently, his +children three thousand miles away with his mother. +Then he became captain of a merchant vessel +between China and Peru. When told that he could +bring some Chinese slaves to South America in his +cargo, he refused, saying, "Never will I become a +trafficker in human flesh." America might buy and +sell four millions of human beings, but not so Garibaldi. +After four years he decided to return to +Italy. With the little money he had saved, he +bought half the rocky island of Caprera, five miles +long, off the coast of Sardinia, whose boulders had +once sheltered him, built him a one-story plain house, +and took his three children there to live, his mother +having died.</p> + +<p>Meantime Cavour, the great Italian statesman,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +had not been idle in diplomacy. The Crimean War +had been fought, and Italy had helped England and +France against Russia. When Napoleon III. went +to war with Austria in 1859, Cavour was glad to +make Italy his ally. He called Garibaldi from +Caprera, and made him Major-General of the Alps. +At once the red blouse and white cloak seemed to +inspire the people with confidence. Lombardy +sprang to arms. Every house was open, and every +table spread for the Liberators. And then began a +series of battles, which, for bravery and dash and +skill, made the name of Garibaldi the terror of +Austria, and the hope and pride of Italy. Tuscany, +Modena, Parma, and Lucca declared for King Victor +Emmanuel. The battles of Magenta and Solferino +made Austria bite the dust, and gladly give up Lombardy.</p> + +<p>At last it seemed as if Italy were to be redeemed +and reunited. Garibaldi started with his famous +"Mille," or thousand men, to release the two Sicilies +from the hated rule of Francis, the son of Ferdinand +II. The first battle was fought at Palermo, the +Neapolitans who outnumbered the troops of Garibaldi +four to one being defeated after four hours' +hard fighting. Then the people dared to show their +true feelings. Peasants flocked in from the mountains, +and ladies wore red dresses and red feathers. +When the cars carried the soldiers from one town to +another, the people crowded the engine, and shouted +themselves hoarse. Drums were beaten, and trum<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>pets +blown, and women pressed forward to kiss the +hand or touch the cloak of the Lion of Italy. He +was everywhere the bravest of the brave. Once +when surrounded by four dragoons, who called upon +him to surrender, he drew his sword, and said, "I +am Garibaldi; you must surrender to me."</p> + +<p>And yet amid all this honor and success in war, +and supremacy in power, as he was the Dictator, he +was so poor that he would wash his red shirt in a +brook, and wait for it to dry while he ate his lunch +of bread and water, with a little fruit. No wonder +the Sicilians believed him to be a second Messiah, +and the French that he could shake the bullets from +his body into his loose red shirt, and empty them +out at his leisure! The sailor boy had become the +hero of all who loved liberty the world over. When +the war was ended, he resigned his Dictatorship, +handed the two Sicilies over to his sovereign, distributed +medals to his devoted soldiers, and returned +to his island home at Caprera, with barely three +dollars in his pocket, having borrowed one hundred +to pay his debts. How rarely does any age produce +such a man as Garibaldi!</p> + +<p>But Rome was not yet the capital of Italy. The +hero could not rest while the city was governed by a +Pope. At last, tired of waiting for the king to take +action, he started with three thousand men for Rome. +Victor Emmanuel, fearing to offend France, if the +Pope were molested, sent the royal troops against +Garibaldi at Aspromonte, who badly wounded him,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> +and carried him to a prison on the Gulf of Spezzia. +The people, indignant at the Government, crowded +around him, bearing gifts, and kissing the hem of +his raiment. They even bored a hole in the door of +the prison, that they might catch a glimpse of their +idol, as he lay on his iron bedstead, a gift from an +English friend.</p> + +<p>After his release and return to Caprera, he visited +England in 1864, the whole country doing him honor. +Stations were gaily decorated, streets arched with +flowers, ladies dressed in red; the Duke of Sutherland +entertained him; London gave him the freedom of +the city; Tennyson made him his guest at the Isle of +Wight; and crowds made it scarcely possible for him +to appear on the public thoroughfares. He refused +to receive a purse of money from his friends, and +went back to Caprera, majestic in his unselfishness.</p> + +<p>Again Italy called him to help her in her alliance +with Prussia against Austria in 1866, and again he +fought nobly. The year following he attempted to +take Rome, but was a second time arrested and +imprisoned for fear of Napoleon III. When that +monarch fell at Sedan, and the French troops were +withdrawn from the Eternal City, Victor Emmanuel +entered without a struggle, and Rome was free.</p> + +<p>In 1874, after helping the French Republic, the +brave Spartan was elected to Parliament. He was +now sixty-seven. As he entered Rome, the streets +were blocked with people, who several times +attempted to remove the horses, and draw the car<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>riage +themselves. Ah! if Anita had only been +there to have seen this homage of a grateful nation. +He entered the Senate House on the arm of his son +Menotti, and when he rose in his red shirt and gray +cloak to take the oath, so infirm that he was obliged +to be supported by two friends, men wept as they +recalled his struggles, and shouted frantically as he +took his seat.</p> + +<p>Seven years longer the grand old man lived at +Caprera, now beautified with gifts from all the world, +the recipient of a thank-offering of $10,000 yearly +from Italy. Around him were Francesca, whom he +married late in life, and their two children whom he +idolized,—Manlio and Clelia. He spent his time in +writing several books, in tilling the soil, and in telling +visitors the wonderful events of his life and of +Anita.</p> + +<p>On June 2, 1882, all day long he lay by the window, +looking out upon the sea. As the sun was +setting, a bird alighted on the sill, singing. The +great man stammered, "Quanti o allegro!" How +joyful it is! and closed his eyes in death. He +directed in his will that his body should be burned; +but, at the request of the Government and many +friends, it was buried at Caprera, to be transferred +at some future time to Rome, now the <a name="capital" id="capital"></a><ins title="Original has capitol">capital</ins> of +united Italy. Not alone does Italy honor her great +Liberator, whom she calls the "most blameless and +most beloved of men." Wherever a heart loves +liberty, there will Garibaldi's name be cherished and +honored.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p> +<h2>JEAN PAUL RICHTER.</h2> + + +<p>Vasari, who wrote the lives of the Italian +painters, truly said, "It is not by sleeping, +but by working, waking, and laboring continually, +that proficiency is attained and reputation acquired." +This was emphatically true of Richter, as +it is of every man or woman who wins a place in +the memory of men. The majority die after a +commonplace life, and are never heard of; they +were probably satisfied to drift along the current, +with no especial purpose, save to eat, drink, and be +merry.</p> + +<p>Not so with the German boy, born in the cold +Pine Mountains of Bavaria. His home was a low, +thatched building, made of beams of wood, filled in +with mortar, one part for the family, and the other +for corn and goats. This is still the custom in +Switzerland, the poor caring as tenderly for their +dumb beasts as for their children. Jean Paul was +born on the 21st of March, 1763: "My life and +the life of the spring began the same month," he +used to say in after years, and the thought of robin +red-breasts and spring flowers made the poor lad +happy amid the deepest trials.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span></p> + +<p>His father was an under-pastor and organist in +the little village of Wunsiedel, and lived on a pitiful +salary; but, generous to a fault, he stripped off his +own garments to clothe the poor, and sent the +schoolmaster a meal every day, because, if possible, +he was poorer than the preacher. In school, Jean +Paul was a studious boy, almost envying every one +who said his lessons well, and fond of his teachers +and mates; but one of the boys having cut Paul's +hand, the father at once took him home and became +his instructor. A painstaking and conscientious +man, he showed little aptness for his work, when he +gave his boy, at nine years of age, a Latin dictionary +to commit to memory! For four solid hours +in the morning, and three in the afternoon, Paul +and his brother learned grammatical lessons and +Latin verses of which they did not understand a +word. Still the boy grew more and more fond of +books, and of Nature,—made clocks with pendulums +and wheels; a sun-dial, drawing his figures on a +wooden plate with ink; invented a new language +from the calendar signs of the almanac; and composed +music on an old harpsichord whose only +tuning-hammer and tuning-master were the winds +and the weather.</p> + +<p>When Paul was thirteen, the family moved to +Schwarzenbach, where he made the acquaintance of +a young pastor, Vogel, who owned quite a valuable +library, and encouraged him to educate himself. +Given free access to the books, he began to read<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> +eagerly. Thinking that he should never own volumes +for himself, he made blank-books, of three +hundred pages each, from his father's sermon-paper, +and began the almost interminable labor of copying +whatever he thought he should need in law, medicine, +philosophy, theology, natural history, and +poetry. For nearly four years he worked thus, till +he had quite a library of his own, and a wealth of +information in his brain, which proved invaluable in +the writing of after years. Such a boy could not +fail of success.</p> + +<p>Paul's father, meantime, had become despondent +over his debts, small though they were, and died +when his son was sixteen. The grandfather on the +mother's side dying soon after, Frau Richter became +entitled by will to his property. The remaining +brothers and sisters at once went to law about +the matter, preferring to spend the estate in the +courts rather than have a favorite child enjoy it. +Two years later, at eighteen, Paul started for college +at Leipzig, hoping that in this cultured city he +might teach while pursuing his own studies. Alas! +scores had come with the same hope, and there was +no work to be obtained. He found himself alone +in a great city, poorly dressed, timid, sensitive, and +without a hand to help. Many boys had brought +letters of introduction to the professors, and thus of +course received attention. He wrote to his mother, +"The most renowned, whose esteem would be +useful to me, are oppressed with business, sur<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>rounded +by a multitude of respectable people, and +by a swarm of envious flatterers. If one would +speak to a professor without a special invitation, he +incurs the suspicion of vanity. But do not give up +your hopes. I will overcome all these difficulties. +I shall receive some little help, and at length I shall +not need it." All honor to the brave boy who +could write so encouragingly in the midst of want +and loneliness!</p> + +<p>He longed to make the acquaintance of some +learned people, but there was no opportunity. +Finally, getting deeper and deeper into debt, he +wrote to his mother, "As I have no longer any +funds, I must continue to be trusted. But what +can I at last expect? I must eat, and I cannot +continue to be trusted. I cannot freeze, but where +shall I get wood without money? I can no longer +take care of my health, for I have warm food +neither morning nor evening. It is now a long +time since I asked you for twenty-six dollars; when +they come, I shall scarcely be able to pay what I +already owe. Perhaps the project I have in my +head will enable me to earn for you and myself." +Poor lad! how many hearts have ached from poverty +just as did his. The mother was also in debt, +but in some way she managed to obtain the money; +for what will a mother not do for her child?</p> + +<p>Paul worked on, but was soon in debt again. +He could tell nobody but his devoted mother: "I +will not ask you for money to pay my victualler,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +he wrote, "to whom I owe twenty-four dollars; +nor my landlady to whom I am indebted ten; or +even for other debts, that amount to six dollars. +For these great sums I will ask no help, but for +the following you must not deny me your assistance. +I must every week pay the washerwoman, +who does not trust. I must drink some milk every +morning. I must have my boots soled by the cobbler, +who does not trust; my torn cap must be +repaired by the tailor, who does not trust; and I +must give something to the maid-servant, who of +course does not trust. Eight dollars of Saxon +money will satisfy all, and then I shall need your +help no longer."</p> + +<p>He was keeping up courage, because he was +writing a book! He told his mother, with his high +dreams of young authorship, that he should bring +home all his old shirts and stockings at vacation, +for he should buy new ones then! It is well that +all the mountains seem easy to climb in youth; +when we are older, we come to know their actual +height. The mother discouraged authorship, and +hoped her boy would become a preacher; but his +project was too dear to be given up. When his +book of satirical essays, called "Eulogy of Stupidity," +was finished, it was sent, with beating heart, +to a publisher. In vain Paul awaited its return. He +hoped it would be ready at Michaelmas fair, but the +publisher "so long and so kindly patronized the book +by letting it lie on his desk, that the fair was half<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +over before the manuscript was returned." The +boyish heart must have ached when the parcel +came. He had not learned, what most authors are +familiar with, the heart sickness from first rejected +manuscripts. He had not learned, too, that fame +is a hard ladder to climb, and that a "friend at +court" is often worth as much, or more, than merit. +Publishers are human, and cannot always see merit +till fame is won.</p> + +<p>For a whole year Paul tried in vain to find a +publisher. Then he said to the manuscript, "Lie +there in the corner together with school exercises, +for thou art no better. I will forget, for the world +would certainly have forgotten thee." Faint from +lack of food, he says, "I undertook again a wearisome +work, and created in six months a brand-new +satire." This book was called the "Greenland +Lawsuits," a queer title for a collection of essays +on theology, family pride, women, fops, and the like.</p> + +<p>Paul had now gained courage by failure. Instead +of writing a letter, he went personally to +every publisher in Leipzig, and offered his manuscript, +and every publisher refused it. Finally he +sent it to Voss of Berlin. On the last day of +December, as he sat in his room, hungry, and +shivering because there was no fire in the stove, +there was a knock at the door, and a letter from +Voss was handed in. He opened it hastily, and +found an offer of seventy dollars for the "Greenland +Lawsuits." Through his whole life he looked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> +back to this as one of its supreme moments. It +was not a great sum, only three dollars a week for +the six months, but it was the first fruit of his +brain given to the public. He was now nineteen. +What little property the mother had possessed had +wasted away in the lawsuits; one brother in his +despair had drowned himself, and another had +entered the army; but Paul still had hope in the +future.</p> + +<p>After a short vacation with his mother, he went +back to Leipzig. The second volume of the +"Greenland Lawsuits" was now published, and +for this he received one hundred and twenty-six +dollars,—nearly twice that given for the first volume. +This did not take with the public, and the third +volume was refused by every publisher. His +money was gone. What could he do? He would +try, as some other authors had done, the plan of +writing letters to distinguished people, telling them +his needs. He did so, but received no answers. +Then, spurred on by necessity, he took the manuscript +in his hand, and presented it himself at the +doors of the learned; but he was either not listened +to, or repulsed on every occasion. How one pities +this lad of nineteen! How many wealthy men +might have aided him, but they did not! He wrote +a few essays for various periodicals, but these +brought little money, and were seldom wanted. +His high hopes for a literary career began to +vanish.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was evident that he must give up college life, +for he could not get enough to eat. He had long +discontinued his evening meal, making his supper +of a few dried prunes. His boarding-mistress was +asking daily for her dues. He could bear the privation +and the disgrace no longer, and, packing his +satchel, and borrowing a coat from a college boy, +that he might not freeze, he stole away from Leipzig +in the darkness of the twilight, and went home +to his disconsolate mother. Is it any wonder that +the poor are disconsolate? Is it any wonder that +they regard the wealthy as usually cold and indifferent +to their welfare? Alas! that so many of us +have no wish to be our "brother's keeper."</p> + +<p>Perhaps some of the professors and students +wondered where the bright lad had gone; but the +world forgets easily. Frau Richter received her college +boy with a warm heart, but an empty purse. She +was living with her two children in one room, supporting +them as best she could by spinning, working +far into the night. In this room, where cooking, +washing, cleaning, and spinning were all carried +on, Paul placed his little desk and began to +write. Was the confusion trying to his thoughts? +Ah! necessity knows no law. He says, "I was +like a prisoner, without the prisoner's fare of bread +and water, for I had only the latter; and if a gulden +found its way into the house, the jubilee was +such that the windows were nearly broken with +joy." But with the strength of a noble and heroic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> +nature, he adds, "What is poverty that a man +should whine under it? It is but like the pain of +piercing the ears of a maiden, and you hang precious +jewels in the wound."</p> + +<p>The family were so needy, however, that they +must look somewhere for aid, and hesitatingly Paul +applied to Vogel, the young pastor, who loaned +them twenty-five gulden. Very soon the boarding-mistress +from Leipzig appeared, having walked the +whole way to Hof, and demanded her pay. In his +distress Paul sent her to another friend, Otto, who +became surety for the debt.</p> + +<p>Richter now began to work harder than ever. +His books of extracts were invaluable, as were his +hand-books of comical matters, touching incidents, +synonyms, etc. He made it a rule to write half a +day, and take long walks in the afternoon in the +open air, thinking out the plans for his books. Poor +as he was, he was always cheerful, sustaining by +his letters any who were downhearted. One of his +best friends, Herman, who had become a physician +through much struggle, died about this time, broken +on the wheel of poverty. Despite his own starving +condition, Paul sent him five dollars. Having an +opportunity to teach French to the brother of a +Leipzig friend, he accepted; but at the end of three +years, through the disappointing character of the +pupil, and the miserliness of the father, Paul +returned to his mother, broken in health and dispirited. +His heart ached for those who like himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> +were suffering, and now he made a resolution that +changed for life the course of his writing. He +would write satire no more. He said, "I will not +pour into the cup of humanity a single drop of gall." +Henceforward love, and hope, and tenderness, +breathe upon his every page.</p> + +<p>He now wrote ten essays on "What is Death?" +asking the noble-hearted Herder to send them to +Weiland for his magazine, lest they be overlooked +in his mass of papers, if Richter, unaided, should +venture to ask the favor. They were overlooked +for months; but finally Herder procured the insertion +of one essay in a different magazine, but +Richter never received any pay for it. Three years +had passed, and all this time the third volume of the +"Greenland Lawsuits" had been journeying from +one publishing house to another. At last it was +accepted, but little money came from it.</p> + +<p>Again he taught,—this time at Schwarzenbach, +where he used to go to school. Here his tenderness, +his tact, and good cheer won the hearts of the +pupils. There was no memorizing of Latin dictionaries, +but the exact work of all was kept in a "red +book" for parents to see. He instructed them +orally five hours a day, till they were eager for +astronomy, history, and biography. For four years +he taught, "his schoolroom being his Paradise," +every Sunday walking to Hof to see his mother. +Well might he say, "To the man who has had a +mother all women are sacred for her sake."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span></p> + +<p>Paul now determined to write a novel, and though +he had little knowledge of any sphere of life save +that in which poverty held sway, he would put his +own heart into the work. The "Invisible Lodge" +was written and sent to the Counsellor of the town, +asking, if the work pleased him, that he would assist +in its publication. At first Counsellor Moritz was +annoyed at the request; but as he read he became +deeply interested, and said, this is surely from +Goethe, Herder, or Weiland. The book was soon +published, and two hundred and twenty-six dollars +paid for it! The moment Richter received the first +instalment of seventy dollars, he hastened to Hof, +and there, late at night, found his mother spinning +by the light of the fire, and poured the whole of the +gold into her lap. The surprise, joy, and thanksgiving +of the poor woman can well be imagined. +Her son immediately moved her into a small but +more comfortable home.</p> + +<p>The new novel began to be talked about and +widely read. Fame was really coming. He began +at once to work on "Hesperus," one of his most +famous productions, though when published he +received only two hundred dollars for the four volumes. +Letters now came from scholars and famous +people. One admirer sent fifty Prussian dollars. +What joy must have swelled the heart of the poor +schoolteacher! "Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces" +followed shortly after, and Richter was indeed +famous. Learned ladies of Weimar wrote most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> +enthusiastic thanks. With his reverence for woman, +and delight in her intellectual equality with man, +these letters were most inspiring. Request after +request came for him to visit Weimar. Dare he go +and meet such people as Goethe, and Schiller, and +Herder, and Weiland, whom for twelve long years +he had hoped sometime to look upon? At last he +started, and upon reaching Weimar, was made the +lion of the day. His warm heart, generous and +unaffected nature, and brilliant and well-stored mind +made him admired by all. Herder said: "Heaven +has sent me a treasure in Richter. That I neither +deserved nor expected. He is all heart, all soul; +an harmonious tone in the great golden harp of +humanity." Caroline Herder, his wife, a very +gifted woman, was equally his friend and helper. +Noble and intellectual women gathered about him +to do him honor. Some fell in love with him; +but he studied them closely as models for future +characters in his books, giving only an ardent +friendship in return. He was even invited to court, +and gathered here the scenes for his greatest work, +"Titan." How grand all this seemed to the poor +man who had been hungering all his life for refined and +intellectual companionship! So rejoiced was he that +he wrote home, "I have lived twenty years in Weimar +in a few days. I am happy, wholly happy, not +merely beyond all expectation, but beyond all +description."</p> + +<p>He was now thirty-four. The poor, patient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> +mother had just died, but not till she had heard +the fame of her son spoken on every hand. +After her death, Paul found a faded manuscript in +which she had kept the record of those small gains +in spinning into the midnight hours. He carried it +next his heart, saying, "If all other manuscripts +are destroyed, yet will I keep this, good mother." +For weeks he was not able to write a letter, or mention +the loss of his parent.</p> + +<p>His youngest brother, Samuel, a talented boy, was +now ready for college; so Jean Paul determined to +make Leipzig his home while his brother pursued +his course. What changes the last few years had +wrought! Then he was stealing away from Leipzig +in debt for his board, cold, hungry, and desolate; +now he was coming, the brilliant author whom everybody +delighted to honor. When we are in want, +few are ready to help; when above want, the world +stands ready to lavish all upon us. After spending +some time in Leipzig, he visited Dresden to enjoy +the culture of that artistic city. During this visit, +Samuel, who had become dissipated, broke into his +brother's desk, stole all his hard-earned money, and +left the city. He led a wandering life thereafter, +dying in a hospital in Silesia. Paul never saw him +again, but sent him a yearly allowance, as soon as he +learned his abiding-place. What a noble character!</p> + +<p>He now returned to Weimar, dedicating his "Titan" +to the four daughters of the Duke of Mecklenburg, +one of whom became the mother of Emperor Wil<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>liam, +the famous and beautiful Louise of Prussia. +He visited her later in Berlin, where he writes, "I +have never been received in any city with such +idolatry. I have a watch-chain of the hair of three +sisters; and so much hair has been begged of me, +that if I were to make it a traffic, I could live as well +from the outside of my head as from what is inside +of it."</p> + +<p>In this city he met the woman who was to be +hereafter the very centre of his life. He had +had a passing fancy for several, but never for one +that seemed fitted, all in all, to make his life complete. +Caroline Myer, the daughter of one of the +most distinguished Prussian officers, was a refined, +intellectual, noble girl, with almost unlimited resources +within herself, devoted to her family and to +every good. Paul had met women who dressed +more elegantly, who were more sparkling in conversation, +who were more beautiful, but they did not +satisfy his heart. In his thirty-eighth year he had +found a character that seemed perfection. He wrote, +"Caroline has exactly that inexpressible love for all +beings that I have till now failed to find even in +those who in everything else possess the splendor +and purity of the diamond. She preserves in the +full harmony of her love to me the middle and lower +tones of sympathy for every joy and sorrow in +others."</p> + +<p>Her love for Richter was nearly adoration. Several +months after their marriage she wrote her father,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +"Richter is the purest, the holiest, the most godlike +man that lives. Could others be admitted, as I am, +to his inmost emotions, how much more would they +esteem him!" Richter also wrote to his best friend, +Otto, "Marriage has made me love her more romantically, +deeper, infinitely more than before." +At the birth of their first child, he wrote again to +Otto, "You will be as transported as I was when +the nurse brought me, as out of a cloud, my second +love, with the blue eyes wide open, a beautiful, high +brow, kiss-lipped, heart-touching. God is near at +the birth of every child."</p> + +<p>On Caroline's first birthday after their marriage, +he wrote, "I will be to thee father and mother! +Thou shalt be the happiest of human beings, that I +also may be happy."</p> + +<p>"Titan," now ten years in progress, was published, +and made a great sensation. The literary world was +indignant at the fate of "Linda," his heroine, but all +pronounced it a great book,—his masterpiece.</p> + +<p>Soon after he removed to Bayreuth, and settled +down to earnest work. Almost every day he might +be seen walking out into the country, where he rented +a room in a peasant's house for quiet and country +air. Whenever the day was pleasant he worked out +of doors. A son had now been born to him, and +life seemed complete. Now he played with his +home-treasures, and now talked at table about some +matter of art or science that all might be instructed. +He was especially fond of animals, having usually a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +mouse, a tame spider, a tree-frog, and dogs. So +good was he to his canary birds that he never left +the house without opening the door of their cage that +they might fly about and not be lonely. Often when +he wrote, they walked over his manuscript, scattering +water from the vase and mingling it with his +ink.</p> + +<p>His son Max, a boy of sixteen, had entered +school at Munich. He was a beautiful youth, conscientious, +sensitive, devoted to study, and the idol +of the household. At first he wept whole nights +from homesickness, denying himself sufficient fire, +food, and clothing, from a desire to save expense to +his parents. He was a fine scholar, but distrusted +his intellectual gifts. At the end of a year he came +home, pale and worn, and died at the age of +nineteen.</p> + +<p>To Richter this was a death-blow. He went on +writing, while the tears dropped upon his page. +He could never bear the sight of a book his boy had +touched, and the word "philology," his son's +favorite study, cut him to the heart. At the end +of three months he wrote to a friend, "My being has +suffered not merely a wound, but a complete cutting +off of all joy. My longing after him grows always +more painful." Broken in health he visited Dresden; +but the end was near. The sight of the left +eye at first failed him, then the right, till he was left +in complete darkness. He still hoped to finish his +autobiography, and the "Immortality of the Soul,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +begun on the very day Max was buried; but this +was denied him. Once only did his sorrows overpower +him, when pitifully looking toward the window, +he cried out as Ajax in the "Iliad":—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +"Light! light only, then may the enemy come!"<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>The devoted wife and two daughters grew unspeakably +dear to him. When tired with thinking, he +would seat himself at the piano, and play till he, as +well as those who heard him, would burst into tears. +On the 14th of November, 1825, he sat in his chamber, +his youngest child climbing on the back of his +chair, and laying her face against her father's. It +was only noon, but thinking it was night, Richter +said, "It is time to go to rest." He was wheeled +into his sleeping apartment, and some flowers laid +on the bed beside him. "My beautiful flowers! +My lovely flowers!" he said, as he folded his arms, +and soon fell asleep. His wife sat beside him, her +eyes fixed on the face of the man she loved. About +six the doctor arrived. The breath came shorter, +the face took on a heavenly expression, and grew +cold as marble. The end had come. He was buried +by torchlight, the unfinished manuscript of the "Immortality +of the Soul" being borne upon his coffin, +while the students sung Klopstock's hymn, "Thou +shalt arise, my Soul." His more than one hundred +volumes and his noble, generous life are his monuments. +He said, "I shall die without having seen +Switzerland or the ocean, but the ocean of eternity +I shall not fail to see."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p> +<h2>LEON GAMBETTA.</h2> + + +<p>On January 6, 1883, Paris presented a sad and +imposing spectacle. Her shops were closed; +her public buildings and her homes were draped in +black. Her streets were solid with hundreds of +thousands, all dispirited, and many in tears. A +large catafalque covered with black velvet upheld a +coffin shrouded with the tricolor. From a vase at +each corner rose burning perfume, whose vapor was +like sweet incense. Six black horses drew the +funeral car, and two hundred thousand persons followed +in the procession, many bearing aloft wreaths +of flowers, and shouting, "Vive la Republique! Vive +la Gambetta!"</p> + +<p>The maker of the Republic, the brilliant, eloquent +leader of the French people, was dead; dead in the +prime of his life at forty-five. The "Figaro" but +voiced the feeling of the world when it said, "The +Republic has lost its greatest man." America might +well mourn him as a friend, for he made her his +pattern for his beloved France. The "Pall-Mall +Gazette" said, "He will live in French history +among the most courageous"; and even Germany<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +courted him as the bravest of the brave, while she +breathed freer, saying in the "Berlin Press," "The +death of Gambetta delivers the peace of Europe +from great danger." The hand that would sometime +doubtless have reached out to take back sobbing +Alsace and Lorraine was palsied; the voice that +swayed the multitude, now with its sweet persuasiveness, +and now with its thunder like the rush of a +swollen torrent, was hushed; the supreme will that +held France like a willing child in its power, had +yielded to the inevitable,—death.</p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 427px;"> +<img src="images/illus-204.jpg" width="427" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">LEON GAMBETTA.</span> +</div> + +<p>Leon Gambetta was born at Cahors, April 2, +1838. His father was an Italian from Genoa, poor, +and of good character; his mother, a French woman, +singularly hopeful, energetic, and noble. They owned +a little bazaar and grocery, and here, Onasie, the +wife, day after day helped her husband to earn a +comfortable living. When their only son was seven +years old, he was sent to a Jesuits' preparatory +school at Monfaucon, his parents hoping that he +would become a priest. His mother had great pride +in him, and faith in his future. She taught him how +to read from the "National," a newspaper founded by +Thiers, republican in its tendencies. She saw with +delight that when very young he would learn the +speeches of Thiers and Guizot, which he found +in its columns, and declaim them as he roamed alone +the narrow streets, and by the quaint old bridges +and towers of Cahors. At Monfaucon, he gave his +orations before the other children, the mother send<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>ing +him the much-prized "National" whenever he +obtained good marks, and the Jesuits, whether +pleased or not, did not interfere with their boyish +republican.</p> + +<p>At eight years of age an unfortunate accident +happened which bade fair to ruin his hopes. While +watching a cutter drill the handle of a knife, the +foil broke, and a piece entered the right eye, spoiling +the sight. Twenty years afterward, when the +left, through sympathy, seemed to be nearly destroyed, +a glass eye was inserted, and the remaining +one was saved.</p> + +<p>When Leon was ten years old, the Revolution of +1848 deposed Louis Philippe, the Orleanist, and +Louis Napoleon was made President of the Republic. +Perhaps the people ought to have known that +no presidency would long satisfy the ambition of a +Bonaparte. He at once began to increase his +power by winning the Catholic Church to his side. +The Jesuits no longer allowed the boy Leon to talk +republicanism; they saw that it was doomed. +They scolded him, whipped him, took away the +"National," and finally expelled him, writing to his +parents, "You will never make a priest of him; he +has an utterly undisciplinable character."</p> + +<p>The father frowned when he returned home, and +the neighbors prophesied that he would end his life +in the Bastile for holding such radical opinions. +The poor mother blamed herself for putting the +"National" into his hands, and thus bringing all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> +this trouble upon him. Ah, she wrought better +than she knew! But for the "National," and Gambetta's +unconquerable love for a republic, France +might to-day be the plaything of an emperor.</p> + +<p>Meantime Louis Napoleon was putting his friends +into office, making tours about the country to win +adherents, and securing the army and the police +to his side. At seven o'clock, on the morning of +December 2, 1851, the famous Coup d'état came, +and the unscrupulous President had made himself +Emperor. Nearly two hundred and fifty deputies +were arrested and imprisoned, and the Republicans +who opposed the usurpation were quickly subdued +by the army. Then the French were graciously +permitted to say, by ballot, whether they were willing +to accept the empire. There was, of course, but +one judicious way to vote, and that was in the +affirmative, and they thus voted.</p> + +<p>Joseph Gambetta, the father, saw the political +storm which was coming, and fearing for his outspoken +son, locked him up in a lyceum at Cahors, +till he was seventeen. Here he attracted the notice +of his teachers by his fondness for reading, his great +memory, and his love of history and politics. At +sixteen he had read the Latin authors, and the +economical works of Proudhon. When he came +home, his father told him that he must now become +a grocer, and succeed to the business. He obeyed, +but his studious mind had no interest in the work. +He recoiled from spending his powers in persuad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>ing +the mayor's wife that a yard of Genoa velvet at +twenty francs was cheaper than the same measure +of the Lyon's article at thirteen. So tired and sick +of the business did he become, that he begged his +father to be allowed to keep the accounts, which he +did in a neat, delicate hand.</p> + +<p>His watchful mother saw that her boy's health +was failing. He was restless and miserable. He +longed to go to Paris to study law, and then teach +in some provincial town. He planned ways of +escape from the hated tasks, but he had no money, +and no friends in the great city.</p> + +<p>But his mother planned to some purpose. She +said to M. Menier, the chocolate-maker, "I have a +son of great promise, whom I want to send to +Paris against his father's will to study law. He +is a good lad, and no fool. But my husband, who +wants him to continue his business here, will, I +know, try to starve him into submission. What I +am about to propose is that if I buy your chocolate +at the rate you offer it, and buy it outright instead +of taking it to sell on commission, will you say +nothing if I enter it on the book at a higher price, +and you pay the difference to my son?" Menier, +interested to have the boy prosper, quickly agreed.</p> + +<p>After a time, she called her son aside and, placing +a bag of money in his hand, said, "This, my boy, +is to pay your way for a year. A trunk full of +clothes is ready for you. Try and come home +somebody. Start soon, and take care to let nobody<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +suspect you are going away. Do not say good-bye +to a single soul. I want to avoid a scene between +you and your father."</p> + +<p>Ambition welled up again in his heart, and the +bright expression came back into his face. The +next morning he slipped away, and was soon at +Paris. He drove to the Sorbonne, because he had +heard that lectures were given there. The cab-driver +recommended a cheap hotel close by, and, +obtaining a room in the garret, the youth, not +yet eighteen, began his studies. He rose early and +worked hard, attending lectures at the medical +school as well as at the law, buying his books at +second-hand shops along the streets. Though poverty +often pinched him as to food, and his clothes +were poor, he did not mind it, but bent all his energies +to his work. His mother wrote how angered +the father was at his leaving, and would not allow +his name to be mentioned in his presence. Poor +Joseph! how limited was his horizon.</p> + +<p>Leon's intelligence and originality won the esteem +of the professors, and one of them said, "Your +father acts stupidly. You have a true vocation. +Follow it. But go to the bar, where your voice, which +is one in a thousand, will carry you on, study and +intelligence aiding. The lecture-room is a narrow +theatre. If you like, I will write to your father to +tell him what my opinion of you is."</p> + +<p>Professor Valette wrote to Joseph Gambetta, +"The best investment you ever made would be to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +spend what money you can afford to divert from +your business in helping your son to become an +advocate."</p> + +<p>The letter caused a sensation in the Gambetta +family. The mother took courage and urged the +case of her darling child, while her sister, Jenny +Massabie, talked ardently for her bright nephew. +An allowance was finally made. In two years Leon +had mastered the civil, criminal, military, forest, and +maritime codes. Too young to be admitted to the +bar to plead, for nearly a year he studied Paris, +its treasures of art, and its varied life. It opened a +new and grand world to him. Accidentally he made +the acquaintance of the head usher at the Corps +Legislatif, who said to the young student, "You +are an excellent fellow, and I shall like to oblige you; +so if the debates of the Corps Legislatif interest +you, come there and ask for me, and I will find you +a corner in the galleries where you can hear and see +everything." Here Leon studied parliamentary +usage, and saw the repression of thought under an +empire. At the Café Procope, once the resort of +Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, and other literary celebrities, +the young man talked over the speeches he +had heard, with his acquaintances, and told what he +would do if he were in the House. An improbable +thing it seemed that a poor and unknown lad would +ever sit in the Corps Legislatif, as one of its members! +He organized a club for reading and debating, +and was of course made its head. It could not be +other than republican in sentiment.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span></p> + +<p>In 1860, at the age of twenty-two, Gambetta was +admitted to the bar. The father was greatly opposed +to his living in Paris, where he thought there +was no chance for a lawyer who had neither money +nor influential friends, and urged his returning to +Cahors. Again his aunt Jenny, whom he always +affectionately called "Tata," took his part. Having +an income of five hundred dollars a year, she +said to the father, "You do not see how you can +help your son in Paris, it may be for long years; but +next week I will go with him, and we shall stay together;" +and then, turning to her nephew, she added, +"And now, my boy, I will give you food and shelter, +and you will do the rest by your work."</p> + +<p>They took a small house in the Latin Quartier, +very plain and comfortless. His first brief came +after waiting eighteen months! Grepps, a deputy, +being accused of conspiracy against the Government, +Gambetta defended him so well that Crémieux, a +prominent lawyer, asked him to become his secretary. +The case was not reported in the papers, and was +therefore known only by a limited circle. For six +years the brilliant young scholar was virtually +chained to his desk. The only recreation was an +occasional gathering of a few newspaper men at his +rooms, for whom his aunt cooked the supper, willing +and glad to do the work, because she believed he +would some day come to renown from his genius.</p> + +<p>Finally his hour came. At the Coup d'état, Dr. +Baudin, a deputy, for defending the rights of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> +National Assembly, was shot on a barricade. On +All-Soul's Day, 1868, the Republicans, to the number +of a thousand, gathered at the grave in the +cemetery of Montmartre, to lay flowers upon it and +listen to addresses. The Emperor could not but see +that such demonstrations would do harm to his +throne. Dellschuzes, the leader, was therefore +arrested, and chose the unknown lawyer, Gambetta, +to defend him. He was a strong radical, and he +asked only one favor of his lawyer, that he would +"hit hard the Man of December," as those who +hated the Coup d'état of December 2, loved to call +Louis Napoleon.</p> + +<p>Gambetta was equal to the occasion. He likened +the Emperor to Catiline, declaring that as a highwayman, +he had taken France and felled her senseless. +"For seventeen years," he said, "you have +been masters of France, and you have never dared +to celebrate the Second of December. It is we who +take up the anniversary, which you no more dare +face than a fear-haunted murderer can his victim's +corpse." When finally, overcome with emotion, +Gambetta sank into his seat at the close of his +speech, the die was cast. He had become famous +from one end of France to the other, and the Empire +had received a blow from which it never recovered. +That night at the clubs, and in the press +offices, the name of Leon Gambetta was on every +lip.</p> + +<p>It is not strange that in the elections of the fol<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>lowing +year, he was asked to represent Belleville +and Marseilles, and chose the latter, saying to his +constituents that he was in "irreconcilable opposition +to the Empire." He at once became the leader +of a new party, the "Irreconcilables," and Napoleon's +downfall became from that hour only a +question of time. Gambetta spoke everywhere, +and was soon conceded to be the finest orator in +France. Worn in body, by the confinement of +the secretaryship, and the political campaign, +he repaired to Ems for a short time, where he met +Bismarck. "He will go far," said the Man of Iron. +"I pity the Emperor for having such an irreconcilable +enemy." The "National," under Madam +Gambetta's teaching in childhood, was bearing fruit.</p> + +<p>Napoleon saw that something must be done to +make his throne more stable in the hearts of his +people. He attempted a more liberal policy, with +Émile Ollivier at the head of affairs. But Gambetta +was still irreconcilable, saying in one of his +great speeches, "We accept you and your Constitutionalism +as a bridge to the Republic, but nothing +more." At last war was declared against Prussia, as +much with the hope of promoting peace at home as to +win honors in Germany. Everybody knows the rapid +and crushing defeat of the French, and the fall of +Napoleon at Sedan, September 2, when he wrote to +King William of Prussia, "Not having been able to +die at the head of my troops, I can only resign my +sword into the hands of your Majesty."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p> + +<p>When the news reached Paris on the following +day, the people were frantic. Had the Emperor +returned, a defeated man, he could never have +reached the Tuileries alive. Crowds gathered in +the streets, and forced their way into the hall of the +Corps Legislatif. Then the eloquent leader of the +Republican ranks, scarcely heard of two years +before, ascended the Tribune, and declared that, +"Louis Napoleon Bonaparte and his dynasty have +forever ceased to reign over France." With Jules +Favre, Ferry, Simon, and others, he hastened to the +Hotel de Ville, writing on slips of paper, and throwing +out to the multitude, the names of those who +were to be the heads of the provisional government. +Cool, fearless, heroic, Gambetta stood at the summit +of power, and controlled the people. They believed +in him because he believed in the Republic.</p> + +<p>Meantime the German armies were marching on +Paris. The people fortified their city, and prepared +to die if need be, in their homes. Before Paris was +cut off from the outside world by the siege, part of the +governing force retired to Tours. It became necessary +for Gambetta, in October, to visit this city for +conference, and to accomplish this he started in a +balloon, which was just grazed by the Prussian guns +as he passed over the lines. It was a hazardous step; +but the balloon landed in a forest near Amiens, and +he was safe. When he arrived in Tours there was +not a soldier in the place; in a month, by superhuman +energy, and the most consummate skill and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +wisdom, he had raised three armies of eight hundred +thousand men, provided by loan for their maintenance, +and directed their military operations. One +of the prominent officers on the German side says, +"This colossal energy is the most remarkable event +of modern history, and will carry down Gambetta's +name to remote posterity."</p> + +<p>He was now in reality the Dictator of France, at +thirty-two years of age. He gave the fullest liberty +to the press, had a pleasant "Bon jour, mon ami" +for a workman, no matter how overwhelmed with +cares he might be, and a self-possession, a quickness +of decision, and an indomitable will that made him +a master in every company and on every occasion. +He electrified France by his speeches; he renewed +her courage, and revived her patriotism. Even +after the bloody defeat of Bazaine at Gravelotte, +and his strange surrender of one hundred and seventy +thousand men at Metz, Gambetta did not despair +of France being able, at least, to demand an +honorable peace.</p> + +<p>But France had grown tired of battles. Paris +had endured a siege of four months, and the people +were nearly in a starving condition. The Communists, +too, were demanding impossible things. +Therefore, after seven months of war, the articles of +peace were agreed upon, by which France gave to +Germany fourteen hundred million dollars, to be +paid in three years, and ceded to her the provinces +of Alsace and Lorraine.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span></p> + +<p>Gambetta could never bring himself to consent to +these humiliating conditions, and on the day on +which the terms were ratified, he and his colleagues +from these two sections of the country, left the +assembly together. Just as they were passing out, +the venerable Jean Kuss, mayor of Strasburg, staggered +up to Gambetta, saying, "Let me grasp your +patriot's hand. It is the last time I shall shake +it. My heart is broken. Promise to redeem brave +Strasburg." He fell to the floor, and died almost +immediately. Gambetta retired to Spain, till recalled +by the elections of the following July.</p> + +<p>He now began again his heroic labors, speaking +all through France, teaching the people the true +principles of a republic; not communism, not lawlessness, +but order, prudence, and self-government. +He urged free, obligatory education, and the scattering +of books, libraries, and institutes everywhere. +When Thiers was made the first President, Gambetta +was his most important and truest ally, +though the former had called him "a furious fool"; +so ready was the Great Republican to forgive harshness.</p> + +<p>In 1877 he again saved his beloved Republic. +The Monarchists had become restless, and finally +displaced Thiers by Marshal MacMahon, a strong +Romanist, and a man devoted to the Empire. It +seemed evident that another coup d'état was meditated. +Gambetta stirred the country to action. +He declared that the President must "submit or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +resign," and for those words he was sentenced to +three months' imprisonment and a fine of four hundred +dollars, which sentence was never executed. +MacMahon seeing that the Republic was stronger +than he had supposed, soon after resigned his position, +and was succeeded by M. Grevy. Gambetta +was made President of the Assembly, and doubtless, +if he had lived, would have been made President +of the Republic.</p> + +<p>There were not wanting those who claimed that +he was ambitious for the supreme rule; but when +death came from the accidental discharge of a pistol, +producing a wound in the hand, all calumny +was hushed, and France beheld her idol in his true +light,—the incarnation of republicanism. Two +hours before his death, at his plain home just out of +Paris at Ville d'Avray, he said, "I am dying; +there is no use in denying it; but I have suffered so +much it will be a great deliverance." He longed to +last till the New Year, but died five minutes before +midnight, Dec. 31, 1882. The following day, fifteen +thousand persons called to see the great +statesman as he lay upon his single iron bedstead.</p> + +<p>Afterward the body lay in state at the Palais +Bourbon, the guard standing nearly to their knees +in flowers. Over two thousand wreaths were given +by friends. Alsace sent a magnificent crown of +roses. No grander nor sadder funeral was ever +seen in France. Paris was urgent that he be buried +in Père la Chaise, but his father would not consent;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> +so the body was carried to Nice to lie beside his +mother, who died a year before him, and his devoted +aunt, who died five years previously. Every day +Joseph Gambetta lays flowers upon the graves of +his dear ones.</p> + +<p>Circumstances helped to make the great orator, +but he also made circumstances. True, his opportunity +came at the trial, after the Baudin demonstration, +but he was ready for the opportunity. +He had studied the history of an empire under the +Cæsars, and he knew how republics are made and +lost. When in the Corps Legislatif a leader was +needed, he was ready, for he had carefully studied +men. When at Tours he directed the military, he +knew what he was doing, for he was conversant with +the details of our civil war. When others were +sauntering for pleasure along the Champs Élysees, +he had been poring over books in an attic opposite +the Sorbonne. He died early, but he accomplished +more than most men who live to be twice forty-five. +When, in the years to come, imperialists shall +strive again to wrest the government from the hands +of the people, the name of Leon Gambetta will be +an inspiration, a talisman of victory for the +Republic.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 434px;"> +<img src="images/illus-219.jpg" width="434" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">(From his Life, published by <span class="smcap">D. Appleton & Co.</span>)</span> +</div> + + +<h2>DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT.</h2> + + +<p>The possibilities of American life are strikingly +illustrated by the fact that the two names at +the head of the army and navy, Grant and Farragut, +represent self-made men. The latter was born +on a farm near Knoxville, Tennessee, July 5, 1801. +His mother, of Scotch descent, was a brave and +energetic woman. Once when the father was absent +in the Indian wars, the savages came to their plain +home and demanded admittance. She barred the +door as best she could, and sending her trembling +children into the loft, guarded the entrance with an +axe. The Indians thought discretion the better +part of valor, and stole quietly away.</p> + +<p>When David was seven years old, the family +having moved to New Orleans, as the father had +been appointed sailing master in the navy, the +noble mother died of yellow fever, leaving five +children, the youngest an infant. This was a most +severe blow. Fortunately, soon after, an act of +kindness brought its reward. The father of Commodore +Porter having died at the Farragut house, +the son determined to adopt one of the motherless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> +children, if one was willing to leave his home. +Little David was pleased with the uniform, and +said promptly that he would go.</p> + +<p>Saying good-bye forever to his father, he was +taken to Washington, and after a few months spent +in school, at the age of nine years and a half, was +made a midshipman. And now began a life full of +hardship, of adventure, and of brave deeds, which +have added lustre to the American navy, and have +made the name of Farragut immortal.</p> + +<p>His first cruise was along the coast, in the <i>Essex</i>, +after the war of 1812 with Great Britain had begun. +They had captured the <i>Alert</i> and other prizes, and +their ship was crowded with prisoners. One night +when the boy lay apparently asleep, the coxswain of +the <i>Alert</i> came to his hammock, pistol in hand. +David lay motionless till he passed on, and then +crept noiselessly to the cabin, and informed Captain +Porter. Springing from his cot, he shouted, "Fire! +fire!" The seamen rushed on deck, and the mutineers +were in irons before they had recovered from +their amazement. Evidently the boy had inherited +some of his mother's fearlessness.</p> + +<p>His second cruise was in the Pacific Ocean, where +they encountered a fearful storm going round Cape +Horn. An incident occurred at this time which +showed the mettle of the lad. Though only twelve, +he was ordered by Captain Porter to take a prize +vessel to Valparaiso, the captured captain being +required to navigate it. When David requested<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> +that the "maintopsail be filled away," the captain +replied that he would shoot any man who dared to +touch a rope without his orders, and then went below +for his pistols. David called one of the crew, told +him what had happened, and what he wanted done. +"Aye, aye, sir!" responded the faithful sailor, as +he began to execute the orders. The young midshipman +at once sent word to the captain not to +come on deck with his pistols unless he wished to +go overboard. From that moment the boy was +master of the vessel, and admired for his bravery.</p> + +<p>The following year,—1814,—while the <i>Essex</i> was +off the coast of Chili, she was attacked by the +British ships <i>Phœbe</i> and <i>Cherub</i>. The battle lasted +for two hours and a half, the <i>Phœbe</i> throwing seven +hundred eighteen-pound shots at the <i>Essex</i>.</p> + +<p>"I shall never forget," Farragut said years after, +"the horrid impression made upon me at the sight +of the first man I had ever seen killed. It staggered +and sickened me at first; but they soon began +to fall so fast that it all appeared like a dream, and +produced no effect upon my nerves.... Soon after +this some gun-primers were wanted, and I was sent +after them. In going below, while I was on the +ward-room ladder, the captain of the gun directly +opposite the hatchway was struck full in the face by +an eighteen-pound shot, and fell back on me. We +tumbled down the hatch together. I lay for some +moments stunned by the blow, but soon recovered +consciousness enough to rush up on deck. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +captain seeing me covered with blood, asked if I +was wounded; to which I replied, 'I believe not, +sir.' 'Then,' said he, 'where are the primers?' +This brought me completely to my senses, and I ran +below again and carried the primers on deck."</p> + +<p>When Porter had been forced to surrender, David +went below to help the surgeon in dressing wounds. +One brave young man, Lieutenant Cowell, said, +"O, Davy, I fear it is all up with me!" He could +have been saved, had his leg been amputated an +hour sooner; but when it was proposed to drop +another patient and attend to him, he said, "No, +Doctor, none of that; fair play is a jewel. One +man's life is as dear as another's; I would not cheat +any poor fellow out of his turn."</p> + +<p>Many brave men died, saying, "Don't give her +up! Hurrah for liberty!" One young Scotchman, +whose leg had been shot off, said to his comrades, +"I left my own country and adopted the United +States to fight for her. I hope I have this day +proved myself worthy of the country of my adoption. +I am no longer of any use to you or to her; +so good-bye!" saying which he threw himself overboard.</p> + +<p>When David was taken a prisoner on board the +<i>Phœbe</i>, he could not refrain from tears at his mortification.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, my little fellow," said the captain; +"it will be your turn next, perhaps."</p> + +<p>"I hope so," was the reply.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span></p> + +<p>Soon David's pet pig "Murphy" was brought on +board, and he immediately claimed it.</p> + +<p>"But," said the English sailor, "you are a +prisoner and your pig also."</p> + +<p>"We always respect private property," the boy +replied, seizing hold of "Murphy"; and after a +vigorous fight, the pet was given to its owner.</p> + +<p>On returning to Captain Porter's house at Chester, +Pa., David was put at school for the summer, +under a quaint instructor, one of Napoleon's celebrated +Guard, who used no book, but taught the +boys about plants and minerals, and how to climb +and swim. In the fall he was placed on a receiving-ship, +but gladly left the wild set of lads for a cruise +in the Mediterranean. Here he had the opportunity +of visiting Naples, Pompeii, and other places of +interest, but he encountered much that was harsh +and trying. Commodore C—— sometimes knocked +down his own son, and his son's friend as well,—not +a pleasant person to be governed by.</p> + +<p>In 1817, Chaplain Folsom of their ship was appointed +consul at Tunis. He loved David as a +brother, and begged the privilege of keeping him for +a time, "because," said he to the commodore, "he +is entirely destitute of the aids of fortune and the +influence of friends, other than those whom his +character may attach to him." For nearly nine +months he remained with the chaplain, studying +French, Italian, English literature, and mathematics, +and developing in manliness and refinement. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> +Danish consul showed great fondness for the frank, +ardent boy, now sixteen, and invited him to his +house at Carthage. Failing in his health, a horseback +trip toward the interior of the country was +recommended, and during the journey he received a +sunstroke, and his eyes were permanently weakened. +All his life, however, he had some one read to him, +and thus mitigate his misfortune.</p> + +<p>The time came to go back to duty on the ship, and +Chaplain Folsom clasped the big boy to his bosom, +fervently kissing him on each cheek, and giving him +his parting blessing mingled with his tears. Forty +years after, when the young midshipman had become +the famous Admiral, he sent a token of respect and +affection to his old friend.</p> + +<p>For some years, having been appointed acting +lieutenant, he cruised in the Gulf of Mexico, gaining +knowledge which he was glad to use later, and +in the West Indies, where for two years and a half, +he says, "I never owned a bed, but lay down to +rest wherever I found the most comfortable berth." +Sometimes he and his seamen pursued pirates who +infested the coast, cutting their way through thornbushes +and cactus plants, with their cutlasses; then +burning the houses of these robbers, and taking +their plunder out of their caves. It was an exciting +but wearing life.</p> + +<p>After a visit to his old home at New Orleans,—his +father had died, and his sister did not recognize +him,—he contracted yellow fever, and lay ill for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> +some time in a Washington hospital. Perhaps the +sailor was tired of his roving and somewhat lonely +life, and now married, at twenty-two, Miss Susan +Marchant of Norfolk, Virginia.</p> + +<p>For sixteen years she was an invalid, so that he +carried her often in his arms like a child. Now he +took her to New Haven for treatment, and improved +what time he could spare by attending Professor +Silliman's lectures at Yale College. Now he conducted +a school on a receiving-ship, so as to have her +with him. "She bore the sickness with unparalleled +resignation and patience," says Farragut in his journal, +"affording a beautiful example of calmness and +fortitude." One of her friends in Norfolk said, +"When Captain Farragut dies, he should have a +monument reaching to the skies, made by every wife +in the city contributing a stone to it." How the +world admires a brave man with a tender heart!</p> + +<p>Farragut was now nearly forty years of age; +never pushing himself forward, honors had come +slowly. Three years later, having been made commandant, +he married Miss Virginia Royall, also of +Norfolk, Va. At the beginning of the Mexican War, +he offered his services to the Government, but from +indifference, or the jealousy of officials, he was not +called upon. The next twelve years were spent, +partly in the Norfolk Navy Yard, giving weekly +lectures on gunnery, preparing a book on ordnance +regulations, and establishing a navy yard on the Pacific +Coast. Whatever he did was done thoroughly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +and faithfully. When asked by the Navy Department +to express a preference about a position, he +said, "I have no volition in the matter; your duty +is to give me orders, mine to obey.... I have made +it the rule of my life to ask no official favors, but to +await orders and then obey them."</p> + +<p>And now came the turning-point of his life. April +17, 1860, Virginia, by a vote of eighty-eight to fifty-five, +seceded from the United States. The next +morning, Farragut, then at Norfolk, expressed disapproval +of the acts of the convention, and said +President Lincoln would be justified in calling for +troops after the Southerners had taken forts and +arsenals. He was soon informed "that a person +with those sentiments could not live in Norfolk."</p> + +<p>"Well then, I can live somewhere else," was the +calm reply.</p> + +<p>Returning home, he announced to his wife that he +had determined to "stick to the flag."</p> + +<p>"This act of mine may cause years of separation +from your family; so you must decide quickly +whether you will go North or remain here."</p> + +<p>She decided at once to go with him, and, hastily +collecting a few articles, departed that evening for +Baltimore. That city was in commotion, the Massachusetts +troops having had a conflict with the mob. +He finally secured passage for New York on a canal-boat, +and with limited means rented a cottage at +Hastings-on-the-Hudson, for one hundred and fifty +dollars a year. He loved the South, and said, "God<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +forbid that I should have to raise my hand against +her"; but he was anxious to take part in the war +for the Union, and offered his services to that end.</p> + +<p>The Government had an important project in +hand. The Mississippi River was largely in the +control of the Confederacy, and was the great highway +for transporting her supplies. New Orleans +was the richest city of the South, receiving for shipment +at this time ninety-two million dollars worth of +cotton, and more than twenty-five million dollars +worth of sugar yearly. If this city could be captured, +and the river controlled by the North, the +South would be seriously crippled. But the lower +Mississippi was guarded by the strongest forts, Jackson +and St. Philip, which mounted one hundred and +fifteen guns, and were garrisoned by fifteen hundred +men. Above the forts were fifteen vessels of the +Confederate fleet, including the ironclad ram, <i>Manassas</i>, +and just below, a heavy iron chain across the +river bound together scores of cypress logs thirty +feet long, and four or five feet in diameter, thus +forming an immense obstruction. Sharpshooters +were stationed all along the banks.</p> + +<p>Who could be entrusted with such a formidable +undertaking as the capture of this stronghold? +Who sufficiently daring, skilful, and loyal? Several +naval officers were considered, but Gideon Welles, +Secretary of the Navy, said, "Farragut is the man." +The steam sloop-of-war, <i>Hartford</i>, of nineteen hundred +tons burden, and two hundred twenty-five feet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +long, was made ready as his flag-ship. His instructions +were, "The certain capture of the city of New +Orleans. The Department and the country require +of you success.... If successful, you open the +way to the sea for the Great West, never again to +be closed. The rebellion will be riven in the centre, +and the flag, to which you have been so faithful, +will recover its supremacy in every State."</p> + +<p>With a grateful heart that he had been thought +fitting for this high place, and believing in his ability +to win success, at sixty-one years of age he +started on his mission, saying, "If I die in the +attempt, it will only be what every officer has to +expect. He who dies in doing his duty to his country, +and at peace with his God, has played the drama +of life to the best advantage." He took with him six +sloops-of-war, sixteen gunboats, twenty-one schooners, +and five other vessels, forty-eight in all, the +fleet carrying over two hundred guns.</p> + +<p>April 18, 1862, they had all reached their positions +and were ready for the struggle. For six days +and nights the mortars kept up a constant fire on +Fort Jackson, throwing nearly six thousand shells. +Many persons were killed, but the fort did not yield. +The Confederates sent down the river five fire-rafts, +flat-boats filled with dry wood, smeared with tar and +turpentine, hoping that these would make havoc +among Farragut's ships; but his crews towed them +away to shore, or let them drift out to sea.</p> + +<p>Farragut now made up his mind to pass the forts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +at all hazards. It was a dangerous and heroic step. +If he won, New Orleans must fall; if he failed—but +he must not fail. Two gunboats were sent to cut +the chain across the river. All night long the commander +watched with intense anxiety the return of +the boats, which under a galling fire had succeeded +in breaking the chain, and thus making a passage +for the fleet.</p> + +<p>At half past three o'clock on the morning of April +24, the fleet was ready to start. The <i>Cayuga</i> led +off the first division of eight vessels. Both forts +opened fire. In ten minutes she had passed beyond +St. Philip only to be surrounded by eleven Confederate +gunboats. The <i>Varuna</i> came to her relief, +but was rammed by two Southern boats, and sunk +in fifteen minutes. The <i>Mississippi</i> encountered the +enemy's ram, <i>Manassas</i>, riddled her with shot, and +set her on fire, so that she drifted below the forts +and blew up.</p> + +<p>Then the centre division, led by the <i>Hartford</i>, +passed into the terrific fire. First she grounded in +avoiding a fire-raft; then a Confederate ram pushed +a raft against her, setting her on fire; but Farragut +gave his orders as calmly as though not in the utmost +peril. The flames were extinguished, and she +steamed on, doing terrible execution with her shells. +Then came the last division, led by the <i>Sciota</i>, and +Commander Porter's gunboats. In the darkness, +lighted only by the flashes of over two hundred +guns, the fleet had cut its way to victory, losing one +hundred and eighty-four in killed and wounded.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"In a twinkling the flames had risen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Half-way to maintop and mizzen,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Darting up the shrouds like snakes!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ah, how we clanked at the brakes!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And the deep steam-pumps throbbed under<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Sending a ceaseless glow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our top-men—a dauntless crowd—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swarmed in rigging and shroud;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">There ('twas a wonder!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The burning ratlins and strands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They quenched with their bare hard hands.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">But the great guns below<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Never silenced their thunder.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"At last, by backing and sounding,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When we were clear of grounding,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And under headway once more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The whole Rebel fleet came rounding<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The point. If we had it hot before,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">'Twas now, from shore to shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">One long, loud thundering roar,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such crashing, splintering, and pounding<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And smashing as you never heard before.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"But that we fought foul wrong to wreck,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And to save the land we loved so well,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You might have deemed our long gun-deck<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Two hundred feet of hell!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all above was battle,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Broadside, and blaze, and rattle,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Smoke and thunder alone;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But down in the sick-bay,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where our wounded and dying lay,<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> +<span class="i4">There was scarce a sob or a moan.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And at last, when the dim day broke,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sullen sun awoke,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Drearily blinking<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er the haze and the cannon-smoke,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That even such morning dulls,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There were thirteen traitor hulls<br /></span> +<span class="i4">On fire and sinking!"<br /></span> +</div> +<br /> +<span class="i4">—<i>Henry Howard Brownell</i><br /></span> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p>"Thus," says the son of Farragut, in his admirable +biography, "was accomplished a feat in naval +warfare which had no precedent, and which is still +without a parallel except the one furnished by Farragut +himself, two years later, at Mobile. Starting +with seventeen wooden vessels, he had passed with +all but three of them, against the swift current of a +river but half a mile wide, between two powerful +earthworks which had long been prepared for him, +his course impeded by blazing rafts, and immediately +thereafter had met the enemy's fleet of fifteen +vessels, two of them ironclads, and either captured +or destroyed every one of them. And all this +with a loss of but one ship from his squadron."</p> + +<p>The following day, he wrote:—</p> + +<p>"My dearest wife and boy,—I am so agitated +that I can scarcely write, and shall only tell you +that it has pleased Almighty God to preserve my +life through a fire such as the world has scarcely +known. He has permitted me to make a name for +my dear boy's inheritance, as well as for my comfort +and that of my family."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span></p> + +<p>The next day, at eleven o'clock in the morning, +by order of Farragut, "the officers and crews of the +fleet return thanks to Almighty God for His great +goodness and mercy in permitting us to pass through +the events of the last two days with so little loss of +life and blood."</p> + +<p>April 29, a battalion of two hundred and fifty +marines and two howitzers, manned by sailors from +the <i>Hartford</i>, marched through the streets of New +Orleans, hoisted the Union flag in place of the Confederate +on the city hall, and held possession till +General Butler arrived with his troops on May 1. +After the fall of the city, the forts surrendered to +Porter.</p> + +<p>From here Farragut went to Vicksburg with sixteen +vessels, "the <i>Hartford</i>," he says "like an old +hen taking care of her chickens," and passed the +batteries with fifteen killed and thirty wounded. +Three months later he received the thanks of Congress +on parchment for the gallant services of himself +and his men, and was made Rear-Admiral. He +remained on the river and gulf for some months, +doing effective work in sustaining the blockade, and +destroying the salt-works along the coast. When +the memorable passage of the batteries at Port Hudson +was made, where one hundred and thirteen +were killed or wounded, the <i>Hartford</i> taking the +lead, his idolized boy, Loyall, stood beside him. +When urged by the surgeon to let his son go below +to help about the wounded, because it was safer, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +replied, "No; that will not do. It is true our +only child is on board by chance, and he is not in +the service; but, being here, he will act as one of +my aids, to assist in conveying my orders during +the battle, and we will trust in Providence." +Neither would the lad listen to the suggestion; for +he "wanted to be stationed on deck and see the +fight." Farragut soon sent him back to his mother; +for he said, "I am too devoted a father to have my +son with me in troubles of this kind. The anxieties +of a father should not be added to those of a +commander."</p> + +<p>Every day was full of exciting incident. The +admiral needing some despatches taken down the +river, his secretary, Mr. Gabaudan, volunteered to +bear the message. A small dug-out was covered +with twigs, so as to resemble floating trees. At +night he lay down in his little craft, with paddle +and pistol by his side, and drifted with the current. +Once a Confederate boat pulled out into the +stream to investigate the somewhat large tree, but +returned to report that, "It was only a log." He +succeeded in reaching General Banks, who had taken +the place of General Butler, and when the fleet +returned to New Orleans, he was warmly welcomed +on board by his admiring companions.</p> + +<p>Farragut now returned to New York for a short +time, where all were anxious to meet the Hero of +New Orleans, and to see the historic <i>Hartford</i>, +which had been struck two hundred and forty times<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +by shot and shell in nineteen months' service. The +Union League Club presented him a beautiful sword, +the scabbard of gold and silver, and the hilt set in +brilliants.</p> + +<p>His next point of attack was Mobile Bay. Under +cover of the forts, Morgan, Gaines, and Powell, the +blockade was constantly broken. A good story is +told of the capture of one of these vessels, whose +merchant captain was brought before Farragut. +He proved to be an old acquaintance, who said he +was bound for Matamoras on the Rio Grande! The +admiral expressed amazement that he should be +three hundred miles out of his course, and said +good-naturedly, "I am sorry for you; but we shall +have to hold you for your thundering bad navigation!"</p> + +<p>And now occurred the most brilliant battle of his +career. Aug. 4, 1864, he wrote to his wife,—</p> + +<p>"I am going into Mobile Bay in the morning, if +God is my leader, as I hope He is, and in Him I +place my trust. God bless and preserve you, my +darling, and my dear boy, if anything should happen +to me.</p> + +<p>"Your devoted and affectionate husband, who +never for one moment forgot his love, duty, or +fidelity to you, his devoted and best of wives."</p> + +<p>At half past five on the morning of Aug. 5, +fourteen ships and four monitors, headed by the +<i>Brooklyn</i>, because she had apparatus for picking up +torpedoes, moved into action. Very soon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +<i>Tecumseh</i>, the monitor abreast of the <i>Brooklyn</i>, +went down with nearly every soul on board, sunk +by a torpedo. When the <i>Brooklyn</i> saw this disaster, +she began to back.</p> + +<p>"What's the trouble?" was shouted through the +trumpet.</p> + +<p>"Torpedoes."</p> + +<p>The supreme moment had come for decision. The +grand old admiral offered up this prayer in his heart, +"O God, direct me what to do. Shall I go on?" +And a voice seemed to answer, "Go on!"</p> + +<p>"Go ahead!" he shouted to his captain on the +<i>Hartford</i>; "give her all the steam you've got!" +And like a thing of life she swept on over the torpedoes +to the head of the fleet, where she became +the special target of the enemy. Her timbers +crashed, and her "wounded came pouring down,—cries +never to be forgotten." Twice the brave +admiral was lashed to the rigging by his devoted +men, lest in his exposed position he fall overboard +if struck by a ball. The fleet lost three hundred +and thirty-five men, but Farragut gained the day. +When all was over, and he looked upon the dead +laid out on the port side of his ship, he wept like a +child. The prisoners captured in the defences of +Mobile were one thousand four hundred and sixty-four, +with one hundred and four guns.</p> + +<p>On his return to New York he was welcomed with +the grandest demonstrations. Crowds gathered at +the Battery, a public reception was given him at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> +Custom House, and fifty thousand dollars with which +to buy a house in New York. Congress made him +Vice-Admiral. Prominent politicians asked him to +become a candidate for the Presidency; but he refused, +saying, "I have no ambition for anything +but what I am,—an admiral. I have worked hard +for three years, have been in eleven fights, and am +willing to fight eleven more if necessary, but +when I go home I desire peace and comfort."</p> + +<p>At Hastings-on-the-Hudson, the streets were +arched with the words "New Orleans," "Mobile," +"Jackson," "St. Philip," etc. Boston gave him a +welcome reception at Faneuil Hall, Oliver Wendell +Holmes reading a poem on the occasion. At Cambridge, +two hundred Harvard students took his horses +from the carriage, and attaching ropes to it, drew +him through the streets. On July 25, 1866, the rank +of admiral was created by Congress, and Farragut +was appointed to the place. Honors, and well-deserved +ones, had come at last to the brave midshipman.</p> + +<p>The next year, in command of the European +squadron, accompanied by Mrs. Farragut, who went +by special permission of the President, he visited +France, Russia, and other countries.</p> + +<p>Napoleon III. welcomed him to the Tuileries; the +Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, Duke of Edinburgh, +and Victor Emmanuel each made him their +guest; he dined with the King of Denmark and the +King of Greece, and Queen Victoria received him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +at the Osborne House. Two years later he visited +the navy yard on the Pacific Coast, which he had +established years before.</p> + +<p>He died Aug. 14, 1870, at the age of sixty-nine, +universally honored and regretted. Congress appropriated +twenty thousand dollars for his statue on +Farragut Square, Washington, and the work has +been executed by Vinnie Ream Hoxie.</p> + +<p>Success was not an accident with the Christian +admiral. It was the result of devotion to duty, real +bravery, and a life distinguished by purity of character +and the highest sense of honor.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></p> +<h2>EZRA CORNELL.</h2> + + +<p>In the winter of 1819 might have been seen +travelling from New Jersey to De Ruyter in +New York, a distance of two hundred and fifty +miles, some covered emigrant wagons, containing a +wife and six children in the first, and household +goods and farming utensils in the others. Sometimes +the occupants slept in a farmhouse, but +usually in their vehicles by a camp-fire in the woods.</p> + +<p>For two weeks they journeyed, sometimes +through an almost uninhabited wilderness and over +wellnigh impassable roads. The mother, with a +baby in her arms,—her oldest child, Ezra, a boy +of twelve,—must have been worn with this toilsome +journey; but patient and cheerful, no word of repining +escaped her lips. Elijah Cornell, a frank, +noble-hearted Quaker, was going West to make his +living as a potter and farmer combined.</p> + +<p>Like other pioneers, they made ready their little +home among the sterile hills; and there, for twenty +years, they struggled to rear a family that grew to +eleven children, instead of six. The boys of the +family were taught the simple mysteries of pottery-making +early in life, and thus formed habits of in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>dustry, +while their limited income necessarily made +them economical.</p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 433px;"> +<img src="images/illus-238.jpg" width="433" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">EZRA CORNELL.<br /> +(From his Biography, by Gov. A. B. Cornell.)</span> +</div> + +<p>The eldest boy, Ezra,—now sixteen,—was +growing anxious to be something more than a potter. +He was nearly six feet tall, thin, muscular, +and full of energy. He was studious, reading every +book within his reach, and desirous of an education, +which there was no money to procure. Determined, +if possible, to go to the common school one more +winter, he and his brother, fifteen years of age, +chopped and cleared four acres of heavy beech and +maple woodland, plowed, and planted it to corn, and +thus made themselves able to finish their education.</p> + +<p>Soon after the father engaged a carpenter to build +a large pottery. Ezra assisted, and began to think +he should like the trade of a carpenter. When the +structure was completed, taking his younger brother +to the forest, they cut timber, and erected for their +father's family a two-story dwelling, the best in the +town. Without any supervision, Ezra had made the +frame so that every part fitted in its exact place. +This, for a boy of seventeen, became the wonder of +the neighborhood. Master-builders prophesied a +rare carpenter for posterity.</p> + +<p>It was evident that the quiet town of De Ruyter +could not satisfy such a lad, and at eighteen he +started away from his affectionate mother to try the +world. She could trust him because he used neither +liquor nor tobacco; was truthful, honest, and willing +to work hard. If a young man desires to get his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> +living easily, or is very particular as to the kind of +work he undertakes, his future success may well be +doubted. Ezra found no carpentering, as he had +hoped; but in the vicinity of Syracuse, then a small +village, he engaged himself for two years, to get out +timber for shipment to New York by canal. The +following year he worked in a shop making wool-carding +machinery, and being now only twenty miles +from De Ruyter, he walked home every Saturday +evening and back Monday morning. Twenty miles +before a day's work would have been too long for +most boys. There was no danger that Ezra would +grow tender, either of foot or hand, through luxury.</p> + +<p>Hearing that there was a good outlook for business +at Ithaca, he walked forty miles thither, with +a spare suit of clothes, and a few dollars in his +pocket. Who would have said then that this unknown +lad, with no capital save courage and ambition, +would make the name of Ithaca, joined with +that of Cornell, known round the world?</p> + +<p>He obtained work as a carpenter, and was soon +offered the position of keeping a cotton-mill in +repair. This he gladly accepted, using what knowledge +he had gained in the machine-shop. A year +later, Colonel Beebe, proprietor of a flouring and +plaster mill, asked young Cornell to repair his +works; and so pleased was he with the mechanic +that he kept him for twelve years, making him his +confidential agent and general manager. When a +tunnel was needed to bring water from Fall Creek,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> +Cornell was made engineer-in-chief of the enterprise; +when labor-saving machinery was required, +the head of the <a name="enterprising" id="enterprising"></a><ins title="Original has enterprizing">enterprising</ins> young man invented it.</p> + +<p>Meantime he had married, at the age of twenty-four, +an intelligent girl, Mary Ann Wood, four +years his junior, the second in a family of eleven +children. As the young lady was not a Quaker, +Cornell was formally excommunicated from his +church for taking a person outside the fold. He +was offered forgiveness and re-instatement if he +would apologize and show proper regret, which he +refused to do, feeling that the church had no right +to decide upon the religious convictions of the person +he loved.</p> + +<p>He soon purchased a few acres of land near the +mill, and erected a simple home for his bride. Here +they lived for twenty years, and here their nine children +were born, four of whom died early. It was +happiness to go daily to his work, receive his comfortable +salary, and see his children grow up around +him with their needed wants supplied. But the +comfortable salary came to an end. Colonel Beebe +withdrew from active business, the mill was turned +into a woollen factory, and Cornell was thrown out +of work. Business depression was great all over +the country. In vain for months he sought for +employment. The helpless family must be supported; +at the age of thirty-six matters began to +look serious.</p> + +<p>Finally, he went to Maine in the endeavor to sell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> +the patent right of a new plow, recently invented. +He visited the "Maine Farmer," and met the editor, +Hon. F. O. J. Smith, a member of Congress, who +became much interested. He tried also to sell the +patent in the State of Georgia, walking usually +forty miles a day, but with little success. Again he +started for Maine, walking from Ithaca to Albany, +one hundred and sixty miles in four days, then, +going by rail to Boston, and once more on foot to +Portland. He was fond of walking, and used to +say, "Nature can in no way be so rationally enjoyed, +as through the opportunities afforded the +pedestrian."</p> + +<p>Entering the office of the "Maine Farmer" +again, he found "Mr. Smith on his knees in the +middle of his office floor, with a piece of chalk in +his hand, the mould-board of a plow lying by his +side, and with various chalk-marks on the floor +before him."</p> + +<p>Mr. Smith arose and grasped him cordially by the +hand, saying, "Cornell, you are the very man I +want to see. I have been trying to explain to +neighbor Robertson a machine that I want made, +but I cannot make him understand it. I want a +kind of scraper, or machine for digging a ditch for +laying our telegraph pipe under ground. Congress +has appropriated thirty thousand dollars to enable +Professor Morse to test the practicability of his +telegraph on a line between Washington and Baltimore. +I have taken the contract to lay the pipe at +one hundred dollars a mile."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mr. Cornell's ready brain soon saw what kind of +a machine was needed, and he sketched a rough +diagram of it.</p> + +<p>Without much hope of success, Smith said, "You +make a machine, and I will pay the expense whether +successful or not; if successful, I will pay you fifty +dollars, or one hundred, or any price you may +name."</p> + +<p>Mr. Cornell at once went to a machine shop, made +the patterns for the necessary castings, and then +the wood-work for the frame. The trial of the new +machine was made at Mr. Smith's homestead, four +yoke of oxen being attached to the strange-looking +plow, which cut a furrow two and one-half feet +deep, and one and one-fourth inches wide, and laid +the pipe in the bottom at the same time. It worked +successfully, and Mr. Cornell was asked to take +charge of the laying of the pipe between Baltimore +and Washington. He accepted, for he believed the +telegraph would become a vast instrument in civilization. +The loss of a position at the Beebe mill +proved the opening to a broader world; his energy +had found a field as wide as the universe.</p> + +<p>It was decided to put the first pipe between the +double tracks of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. +With an eight-mule team, horses being afraid of the +engines, nearly a mile of pipe was laid each day. +Soon Professor Morse came hurriedly, and calling +Mr. Cornell aside, said, "Can you not contrive to +stop this work for a few days in some manner, so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +the papers will not know that it has been purposely +interrupted? I want to make some experiments +before any more pipe is laid."</p> + +<p>Cornell had been expecting this, for he knew that +the pipes were defective, though other officials +would not permit Morse to be told of it. Replying +that he would do as requested, he stepped back to +his plow, and said, "Hurrah, boys, whip up your +mules; we must lay another length of pipe before +we quit to-night." Then he purposely let the +machine catch against a point of rock, making it a +perfect wreck.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cornell began now, at Professor Morse's request, +to experiment in the basement of the Patent +Office at Washington, studying what books he could +obtain on electrical science. It was soon found to +be wise to put the wires upon poles, as Cooke and +Wheatstone had done in England. The line between +Baltimore and Washington proved successful despite +its crudities; but what should be done with it? +Government did not wish to buy it, and private +capital was afraid to touch it.</p> + +<p>How could the world be made interested? Mr. +Cornell, who had now put his heart into the telegraph, +built a line from Milk Street, Boston, to +School Street, that the people might see for themselves +this new agent which was to enable nations +to talk with each other; but nobody cared to waste +a moment in looking at it. They were more interested +in selling a piece of cloth, or discovering the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +merits of a dead philosopher. Not delighted with +the indifference of Boston, he moved his apparatus +to New York in 1844, and constructed a line from +opposite Trinity Church on Broadway, to near the +site of the present Metropolitan Hotel; but New +York was even more indifferent than Boston.</p> + +<p>The "Tribune," "Express," and some other newspapers +gave cordial notices of the new enterprise, +but the "Herald" said plainly that it was opposed +to the telegraph, because now it could beat its rivals +by special couriers; but if the telegraph came into +use, then all would have an equal opportunity to +obtain news! During the whole winter Mr. Cornell +labored seemingly to no purpose, to introduce what +Morse had so grandly discovered. A man of less +will and less self-reliance would have become discouraged. +He met the fate of all reformers or +inventors. Nobody wants a thing till it is a great +success, and then everybody wants it at the same +moment.</p> + +<p>Finally, by the hardest struggle, the Magnetic +Telegraph Company was formed for erecting a +line between New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and +Washington, and Mr. Cornell for superintending it +was to receive one thousand dollars per annum. So +earnest was he for the matter that he subscribed +five hundred dollars to the stock of the company, +paying for it out of his meagre salary! Such men,—willing +to live on the merest pittance that a +measure of great practical good may succeed,—such +men deserve to win.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span></p> + +<p>The next line was between New York and Albany, +and Mr. Cornell, being the contractor, received his +first return for these years of labor six thousand +dollars in profits. The tide had turned; and though +afterward various obstacles had to be met and overcome, +the poor mechanic had started on the high-road +to fame and fortune. He next organized the +Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company, supposing +that the Western cities thus benefited would subscribe +to the stock; but even in Chicago, which now +pays three thousand dollars daily for telegraphic +service, it was impossible to raise a dollar.</p> + +<p>A year later, the New York and Erie telegraph +line was constructed through the southern part of +New York State. Mr. Cornell, believing most +heartily in the project, obligated himself heavily, +and the result proved his far-sightedness. But now +ruinous competition set in. Those who had been +unwilling to help at first were anxious to share +profits. To save all from bankruptcy in the cutting +of rates, Mr. Cornell and a few others consolidated +the various interests in the Western Union Telegraph +Company, now grown so large that it has +nearly five hundred thousand miles of wire, employs +twenty thousand persons, sends over forty-one million +messages yearly, and makes over seven and +one-half million dollars profits.</p> + +<p>For more than fifteen years he was the largest +stockholder in the company; it was not strange +therefore, that middle life found Ezra Cornell a mil<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>lionnaire. +This was better than making pottery in +the little town of De Ruyter. It had taken work, +however, to make this fortune. While others sauntered +and enjoyed life at leisure, he was working +early and late, away from his family most of the +time for twelve years.</p> + +<p>In 1857, when fifty years of age, he purchased +three hundred acres near Ithaca, planted orchards, +bought fine cattle and horses, and moved his family +thither. He was made president of the County Agricultural +Society, and in 1862 was chosen to represent +the State Agricultural Society at the International +Exposition in London. Taking his wife with +him, they travelled in Great Britain and on the Continent, +enjoying a few months of recreation, for the +first time since, when a youth, thirty years before, +he had walked into Ithaca.</p> + +<p>During the war he gave money and sympathy +freely, being often at the front, in hospitals, and on +battle-fields, caring for the wounded and their families, +and aiding those whom the war had left maimed +or impoverished. For six years he served acceptably +in the State Legislature. Self-reliant, calm, +unselfish, simple in dress and manner, he was, alike +the companion of distinguished scholars, and the +advocate of the people.</p> + +<p>The great question now before his mind was how +to spend his fortune most wisely. He recalled the +days when he cleared four acres of timber land, +that he might have three months of schooling. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> +had regretted all his life his lack of a college education. +He determined therefore to build "an institution +where <i>any</i> person can find instruction in <i>any</i> +study." Preparatory to this he built Cornell Library, +costing sixty-one thousand dollars. A workman, +losing one of his horses by accident in the construction +of the edifice, was called upon by the philanthropist, +who, after inquiring the value of the +animal, drew a check and handed it to the man, +remarking, with a kind smile, "I presume I can +better than you afford to lose the horse." A +man with money enough to build libraries does not +always remember a laborer!</p> + +<p>Mr. Cornell's first gift toward his university was +two hundred acres of his cherished farm, and five +hundred thousand dollars in money. The institution +was formally opened in 1868, Hon. Andrew D. +White, a distinguished graduate of Yale and of the +University of Berlin, being chosen president. Soon +over four hundred students gathered from over +twenty-seven States. Mr. Cornell's gifts afterward, +including his saving the Land Grant Fund from +depreciation, amounted to over three million dollars. +A wonderful present from a self-made mechanic! +Other men have followed his illustrious example. +Henry W. Sage has given three hundred thousand +dollars for the building of Sage College for women, +and the extensive conservatories of the Botanical +Department. Hiram Sibley, of Rochester, has given +fifty thousand dollars for the College of Mechanic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +Arts, and John McGraw, one hundred thousand for +the library and museum. Cornell University is now +one of the most liberally endowed institutions in the +country, and has already sent out over one thousand +graduates.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cornell did everything to enrich and develop +his own town. He brought manufactories of glass +and iron into her midst, held the presidency of the +First National Bank for a dozen years, made her as +far as possible a railroad centre, and gave generously +to her churches of whatever denomination. +The first question asked in any project was, "Have +you seen Ezra Cornell? He will take hold of the +work; and if he is for you, no one will be against +you, and success is assured, if success be possible."</p> + +<p>Dec. 9, 1874, at the age of sixty-seven, scarcely +able to stand, he arose from his bed and was +dressed that he might attend to some unfinished +business. Shortly after noon, it was finished by an +unseen hand. His body was carried to Library +Hall, and there, the Cornell Cadets standing as +guard of honor, thousands looked upon the renowned +giver. The day of the funeral, public and private +buildings were draped, shops were closed, and the +streets filled by a saddened throng. The casket +was borne into the cemetery between lines of students, +who owed to his generosity their royal opportunities +for scholarship. Various societies in +various cities passed resolutions of respect and +honor for the dead.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span></p> + +<p>Froude, the English historian, well said of him, +"There is something I admire even more than the +university, and that is the quiet, unpretending man +by whom the university was founded. We have +had such men in old times, and there are men in +England who make great fortunes and who make +claim to great munificence, but who manifest their +greatness in buying great estates and building +castles for the founding of peerages to be handed +down from father to son. Mr. Cornell has sought +for immortality, and the perpetuity of his name +among the people of a free nation. There stands +his great university, built upon a rock, built of +stone, as solid as a rock, to endure while the +American nation endures. When the herald's +parchment shall have crumbled into dust, and the +antiquarians are searching among the tombstones +for the records of these departed families, Mr. Cornell's +name will be still fresh and green through +generation after generation."</p> + +<p>Overlooking Ithaca and Cayuga Lake stands his +home, a beautiful Gothic villa in stone, finished a +year after his death. His motto, the motto of his +life, is carved over the principal entrance, "<span class="smcap">True +and Firm</span>."</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 373px;"> +<img src="images/illus-251.jpg" width="373" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">(From Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia).</span> +</div> + + +<h2>LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SHERIDAN.</h2> + + +<p>It is sometimes said that circumstances make the +man; but there must be something in the man, +or circumstances, however favorable, cannot develop +it. A poor lad, born of Irish parents in the little +western town of Somerset, Ohio, working at twenty-four +dollars a year, would never have come to the +lieutenant-generalship of the United States, unless +there was something noteworthy in the lad himself.</p> + +<p>Philip Henry Sheridan, a generous, active boy, +after having studied arithmetic, geography, and +spelling at the village school, began to work in a +country store in 1843, at the early age of twelve, +earning fifty cents a week, fortunately, still keeping +his home with his mother. He was fond of books, +especially of military history and biography; and +when he read of battles, he had dreams of one day +being a great soldier. Probably the keeper of the +store where Philip worked, and his boyish companions, +thought these dreams useless air-castles.</p> + +<p>After some months, quickness and attention to +business won a better position for him, where he +obtained one dollar and a half a week. So useful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> +had he become, that at seventeen he acted as bookkeeper +and manager of quite a business for the +munificent wages of three dollars a week.</p> + +<p>He had not forgotten his soldier ambition, and +applied to the member of Congress from his county, +Perry, for appointment to West Point. Hon. +Thomas Ritchey was pleased with the boy's determination +and energy, and though most of these +places were given to those whose fathers had served +in the Mexican War, Philip was not forgotten. He +took a preliminary examination in the common +branches, and much to his surprise, received the +appointment. Feeling greatly his need of more +knowledge, his room-mate, Henry W. Slocum, +afterward a major-general, assisted him in algebra +and geometry. The two boys would hang blankets +at the windows of their room, and study after the +usual limit for the putting out of lights and retiring.</p> + +<p>Graduating in 1853, he was made second lieutenant +in the United States Infantry, and assigned to +Fort Duncan on the western boundary of Texas, +which at that time seemed wellnigh out of the +world. Here he came much in contact with the +Apache and Comanche Indians, warlike and independent +tribes.</p> + +<p>One day, as Sheridan was outside the fort with +two other men, a band of Indians swooped down +upon them. The chief jumped from his horse to +seize his prisoners, when Sheridan instantly sprang +upon the animal's back, and galloped to Fort Dun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>can. +Hastily summoning his troops, he rushed +back to save his two friends. The enraged chief +sprang toward him, when a ball from Sheridan's +rifle laid him dead upon the ground. His ready +thought had saved his own life and that of his +friends.</p> + +<p>Two years later he was made first lieutenant, and +sent to Oregon as escort to an expedition surveying +for a branch of the Pacific Railway. The region +was wild and almost unknown, yet beautiful and +full of interest. This life must have seemed inspiring +compared with the quiet of the Somerset store.</p> + +<p>Chosen very soon to take charge of an Indian +campaign, his fearlessness, his quick decision and +cautiousness as well, made him a valuable leader. +The Indians could endure hardships; so could Sheridan. +Sometimes he carried his food for two weeks +in his blanket, slung over his shoulder, and made +the ground his bed at night. The Indians could +scale rocks and mountains; so could the young +officer.</p> + +<p>A severe encounter took place at the Cascades, +on the Columbia River, April 28, 1856, where, by +getting in the rear of the Indians, he completely +vanquished them. For this strategy, he was especially +commended by Lieutenant-General Scott. +However, he won the confidence of the Indian tribes +for probity and honesty in his dealings with them.</p> + +<p>When the Civil War began, he was eager to help +the cause of the Union, and in 1861 was made cap<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>tain +and chief quartermaster in south-western Missouri, +on the staff of Major-General Curtis. He +was quiet and unassuming, accurate in business +matters, and thoroughly courteous. Perhaps now +that he had learned more of army life by nine and a +half years of service, he was less sanguine of high +renown than in his boyish days; for he told a friend +that "he was the sixty-fourth captain on the list, +and with the chances of war, thought he might soon +be major."</p> + +<p>It required executive ability to provide for the +subsistence of a great army, but Sheridan organized +his depots of supplies and transportation trains with +economy and wisdom, for the brave men who fought +under Sigel. With a high sense of honor, Sheridan +objected to the taking of any private property from +the enemy, for self-aggrandizement, as was the case +with some officers, and asked to be relieved from +his present position.</p> + +<p>Fortunately he was appointed on the staff of +General Halleck in Tennessee, a man who soon +learned the faithfulness and ability of his captain; +and when the Governor of Michigan asked for a +good colonel for the Second Michigan Cavalry, +Sheridan was chosen. After sharing in several +engagements around Corinth, he was attacked July +1, 1862, at Booneville, by a force of nine regiments, +numbering nearly five thousand men. He had but +two regiments! What could he do? Selecting +ninety of his best men, armed with guns and sabres,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> +he sent them four miles around a curve to attack +the enemy's rear, and promised to attack at the +same time in front. When the moment came, he +rushed upon the foe as though he had an immense +army at his back, while the handful of men in the +rear charged with drawn sabres. The Confederates +were thrown into confusion, and, panic-stricken, +rushed from the field, leaving guns, knapsacks, and +coats behind them. Sheridan chased them for +twenty miles.</p> + +<p>This deed of valor won the admiration of General +Grant, who commended him to the War Department +for promotion. He was at once made brigadier-general. +Perhaps the boyish dreams of being +a great soldier would not turn out to be air-castles +after all. Men love to fight under a man who +knows what to do in an emergency, and Sheridan's +men, who called him "Little Phil," had the greatest +faith in him.</p> + +<p>In the fall, he was needed to defend Louisville +against General Bragg. This Confederate officer +had been told that he would find recruits and supplies +in abundance if he would come to Kentucky. +He came therefore, bringing arms for twenty thousand +men, but was greatly disappointed to find that +not half that number were willing to cast in their lot +with the Secessionists. General Buell, of the Union +army, received, on the contrary, over twenty thousand +new soldiers here. Bragg prepared to leave +the State, sending his provision train ahead, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> +made a stand at Perryville, Kentucky. Here Sheridan +played "a distinguished part, holding the key +of the Union position, and resisting the onsets of +the enemy again and again, with great bravery and +skill, driving them at last from the open ground in +front by a bayonet charge. The loss in Sheridan's +division in killed and wounded was over four hundred, +but his generalship had saved the army from +defeat."</p> + +<p>Bragg determined now to make one great effort +to hold Tennessee, and Dec. 31, 1862, gave battle +at Stone River, near Murfreesboro'. General +Rosecrans had succeeded Buell as commander of +the Army of the Cumberland. Being a Romanist, +high mass was celebrated in his tent just before the +battle, the officers, booted and spurred, standing +outside with heads uncovered. The conflict began +on the right wing, the enemy advancing six lines +deep. Our troops were mowed down as by a scythe. +Sheridan sustained four attacks of the enemy, and +four times repulsed them, swinging his hat or his +sword, as he rode among his men, and changing his +front under fire, till, his ammunition exhausted, he +brought out his shattered forces in close column, +with colors flying. Pointing sadly to them, he said +to Rosecrans, "Here is all that are left, General. +My loss is seventeen hundred and ninety-six,—my +three brigade commanders killed, and sixty-nine +other officers; in all seventy-two officers killed and +wounded." The men said proudly, "We came out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> +of the battle with compact ranks and empty cartridge-boxes!"</p> + +<p>Even after this Sheridan recaptured two pieces +of artillery, and routed the same men who had +driven him. For noble conduct on the field he was +made major-general of volunteers.</p> + +<p>General Rosecrans says of him in his official +report, "At Stone River he won universal admiration. +Upon being flanked and compelled to retire, +he withdrew his command more than a mile, under a +terrible fire, in remarkable order, at the same time +inflicting the severest punishment upon the foe. +The constancy and steadfastness of his troops on +the 31st of December enabled the reserve to reach +the right of our army in time to turn the tide of +battle, and changed a threatened rout into a victory."</p> + +<p>General Rosecrans showed himself dauntless in +courage. When a shell took off the head of his +faithful staff-officer, Garesché, riding by his side, to +whom he was most tenderly attached, he only said, +"I am <i>very</i> sorry; we cannot help it. This battle +must be won." Dashing up to a regiment lying on +the ground waiting to be called into action, he said, +while shot and shell were whizzing furiously around +him, "Men, do you wish to know how to be safe? +Shoot low. But do you wish to know how to be +safest of all? Give them a blizzard and then charge +with cold steel! Forward, men, and show what you +are made of!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span></p> + +<p>After the day's bloody battle, the troops lay all +night on the cold ground where they had fought. +"When," says the heroic General Rousseau, "I saw +them parch corn over a few little coals into which +they were permitted to blow a spark of life; when +they carved steak from the loins of a horse which +had been killed in battle, and ate, not simply without +murmuring, but made merry over their distress, tears +involuntarily rolled from my eyes."</p> + +<p>At midnight it rained upon the soldiers, and the +fields became masses of mud; yet before daylight +they stood at their guns. "On the third day," says +Rosecrans, "the firing was terrific and the havoc +terrible. The enemy retreated more rapidly than +they had advanced. In forty minutes they lost two +thousand men." All that night the Federals worked +to entrench the front of the army. Saturday hundreds +of wounded lay in the mud and rain, as the +enemy had destroyed so many of our hospital tents. +On Sunday morning it was found that the Confederates +had departed, leaving twenty-five hundred +of their wounded in Murfreesboro' for us to take +care of. Burial parties were now sent out to inter +the dead. The Union loss in killed and wounded +was eight thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight; +the enemy's loss ten thousand one hundred +and twenty-five.</p> + +<p>Sheridan's next heavy fighting was at Chickamauga. +The battle was begun by Bragg on Sept. 19, +1863. The right of our army had been broken to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> +pieces, but General Thomas, the idol of his men, +stood on the left like a rock, Sheridan assisting, and +refused to be driven from the field. General Henry +M. Cist, in his "Army of the Cumberland" says, +"There is nothing finer in history than Thomas at +Chickamauga." Sheridan lost over one-third of his +four thousand men and ninety-six officers. The +Federal loss was over sixteen thousand; the Confederate, +over twenty thousand.</p> + +<p>There were heroic deeds on this as on every battle-field. +When a division of the Reserve Corps—brave +men they were, too—wavered under the +storm of lead, General James B. Steedman rode up, +and taking the flag from the color-bearer, cried out, +"Go back, boys, go back, but the Flag can't go +with you!" and dashed into the fight. The men +rallied, closed their column, and fought bravely to +the death. Even the drummer-boy, Johnny Clem, +from Newark, Ohio, ten years old, near the close of +the battle, when one of Longstreet's colonels rode +up, and with an oath commanded him to surrender, +sent a bullet through the officer's heart. Rosecrans, +made him a sergeant, and the daughter of Secretary +Chase gave him a silver medal.</p> + +<p>Two months later, the battle of Chattanooga redeemed +the defeat of Chickamauga. Near the town +rises Lookout Mountain, abrupt, rocky cliffs twenty-four +hundred feet above the level of the sea, and +Missionary Ridge, both of which were held by the +enemy. On Nov. 24, Lookout was stormed and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> +carried by General Hooker in the "Battle above +the Clouds." On the following day Missionary +Ridge was to be assaulted. Sheridan held the extreme +left for General Thomas. Before him was +a wood, then an open plain, several hundred yards +to the enemy's rifle-pits; and then beyond, five hundred +yards covered with rocks and fallen timber to +the crest, where were Bragg's heaviest breastworks. +At three o'clock in the afternoon the signal to +advance—six guns fired at intervals of two seconds—was +given. As Sheridan shouted, "Remember +Chickamauga!" the men dashed over the plain at +double-quick, their glittering bayonets ready for +deadly work. Says Benjamin F. Taylor, who was +an eye-witness, "Never halting, never faltering, +they charged up to the first rifle-pits with a cheer, +forked out the rebels with their bayonets, and lay +there panting for breath. If the thunder of guns +had been terrible, it was now growing sublime. It +was rifles and musketry; it was grape and canister; +it was shell and shrapnel. Mission Ridge was volcanic; +a thousand torrents of red poured over its +brink and rushed together to its base.</p> + +<p>"They dash out a little way, and then slacken; +they creep up, hand over hand, loading and firing, +and wavering and halting, from the first line of +works to the second; they burst into a charge with +a cheer, and go over it. Sheets of flame baptize +them; plunging shot tear away comrades on left and +right; it is no longer shoulder to shoulder; it is God<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> +for us all! Under tree-trunks, among rocks, stumbling +over the dead, struggling with the living, facing +the steady fire of eight thousand infantry, they +wrestle with the Ridge.... Things are growing +desperate up aloft; the rebels tumble rocks upon +the rising line; they light the fusees and roll shells +down the steep; they load the guns with handfuls of +cartridges in their haste; and as if there were powder +in the word, they shout 'Chickamauga' down +upon the mounters. But it would not all do, and +just as the sun, weary of the scene, was sinking out +of sight, with magnificent bursts all along the line, +the advance surged over the crest, and in a minute +those flags fluttered along the fringe where fifty rebel +guns were, kennelled.... Men flung themselves +exhausted upon the ground. They laughed and +wept, shook hands, embraced; turned round, and +did all four over again. It was as wild as a +carnival."</p> + +<p>Grant had given the order for taking the first line +of rifle-pits only, but the men, first one regiment and +then another, swept up the hill, determined to be the +first to plant the colors there. "When I saw those +flags go up," said Sheridan afterward, "I knew we +should carry the ridge, and I took the responsibility." +Sheridan's horse was shot under him, after +which he led the assault on foot. Over twelve hundred +men made Missionary Ridge sacred to liberty +by their blood.</p> + +<p>All seemed heroes on that day. One poor fellow,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> +with his shoulder shattered, lay beside a rock. Two +comrades halted to bear him to the rear, when he +said, "Don't stop for me; I'm of no account; +for GOD'S sake, push right up with the boys!" and +on they went, to help scale the mountain.</p> + +<p>When the men were seen going up the hill, Grant +asked by whose orders that was done? "It is all +right if it turns out all right," he said; "but if not, +some one will suffer." But it turned out all right, +and Grant knew thereafter how fully he could trust +Sheridan.</p> + +<p>The following spring Sheridan was placed by +Grant in command of the cavalry of the Army of +the Potomac, numbering nearly twelve thousand +men. Here he was to add to his fame in the great +battles of the Shenandoah Valley. From May to +August Sheridan lost over five thousand men in +killed and wounded, in smaller battles as he protected +Grant's flank while he moved his forces to the +James River, or in cutting off Lee's supplies. Meantime +General Early had been spreading terror by his +attempt to take Washington, thus hoping also to +withdraw Grant's attention from Lee at Richmond.</p> + +<p>The time had come for decisive action. Grant's +orders were, "Put yourself south of the enemy and +follow him to the death. I feel every confidence +that you will do the best, and will leave you as +far as possible to act on your own judgment, and +not embarrass you with orders and instructions." +About the middle of September Grant visited Sheri<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>dan +with a plan of battle for him in his pocket, but +he said afterward, "I saw that there were but two +words of instruction necessary, 'Go in.' The result +was such that I have never since deemed it necessary +to visit General Sheridan before giving him +orders."</p> + +<p>The battle of Opequan was fought Sept. 19, +1864, Early being completely routed and losing +about four thousand men, five pieces of artillery, +and nine army flags, with an equal loss of men by +the Federals. The fight was a bitter one from +morning till evening, a regiment like the One Hundred +and Fourteenth New York going into the +battle with one hundred and eighty men, and coming +out with forty, their dead piled one above another! +Sheridan at first stood a little to the rear, so that he +might calmly direct the battle; but at last, swinging +his sword, and exclaiming, "I can't stand this!" he +rode into the conflict. The next day he telegraphed +to Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, "We have +just sent them whirling through Winchester, and +we are after them to-morrow. This army behaved +splendidly."</p> + +<p>This battle quickened the hope and courage of +the North, who begun to see the end of the devastating +war. "Whirling through Winchester" was +reported all over the land. Abraham Lincoln telegraphed, +"Have just heard of your great victory. +God bless you all, officers and men! Strongly +inclined to come up and see you." Grant ordered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> +each of his two Richmond armies to fire a salute of +one hundred guns.</p> + +<p>The next day Sheridan passed on after Early, and +gave battle at Fisher's Hill, the Confederates losing +sixteen guns and eleven hundred prisoners, besides +killed and wounded. Many of these belonged to +Stonewall Jackson's corps, and were the flower of +the Southern army. "Keep on," said Grant, "and +your good work will cause the fall of Richmond." +Secretary Stanton ordered one hundred guns to be +fired by various generals, fifteen hundred guns in +all, for Fisher's Hill. Early was now so thoroughly +beaten, that the Richmond mob wrote on the guns +forwarded to him by the South the satirical sentence, +"General Sheridan, care of General Early!" +Grant's orders were now to lay waste the valley, so +that Lee might have no base of supplies. Over two +thousand barns filled with grain, over seventy mills, +besides bridges and railroads were burned, and +seven thousand cattle and sheep appropriated by the +Union army. Such destruction seemed pitiful, but +if the war was thereby shortened, as it doubtless +was, then the saving of bloodshed was a blessing.</p> + +<p>Oct. 15 Sheridan was summoned to Washington +for consultation. Early, learning his absence, +and having been reinforced by twelve thousand +troops, decided at once to give battle at Cedar +Creek. His army marched at midnight, canteens +being left in camp, lest they make a noise. At +daybreak, Oct. 19, with the well-known "rebel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> +yell" the enemy rushed upon the sleeping camps of +the Union army. Nearly a thousand of our men +were taken prisoners, and eighteen guns. A panic +ensued, and in utter confusion, though there was +some brave fighting, our troops fell back to the +rear. Sheridan, on his way from Washington, had +slept at Winchester that night, twenty miles away. +At nine o'clock he rode out of the town on his +splendid black horse, unconscious of danger to his +army. Soon the sound of battle was heard, and +not a mile away he met the fugitives. He at once +ordered some troops to stop the stragglers, and +rushed on to the front as swiftly as his foaming +steed could carry him, swinging his hat, and shouting, +"Face the other way, boys! face the other +way! If I had been here, boys, this never should +have happened." Meeting a colonel who said, +"The army is whipped," he replied, "You are, +but the army isn't!"</p> + +<p>Rude breastworks of stones, rocks, and trees were +thrown up. Then came desperate fighting, and +then the triumphant charge. The first line was carried, +and then the second, Sheridan leading a +brigade in person. Early's army was thoroughly +routed. The captured guns were all retaken, besides +twenty-four pieces of artillery and sixteen +hundred prisoners. Early reported eighteen hundred +killed and wounded.</p> + +<p>Again the whole North rejoiced over this victory. +Sheridan was made a major-general in the regular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> +army "for the personal gallantry, military skill +and just confidence in the courage and gallantry of +your troops displayed by you on the 19th day of +October at Cedar Run," said Lincoln, "whereby, +under the blessing of Providence, your routed army +was reorganized, a great national disaster averted, +and a brilliant victory achieved over the rebels for +the third time in pitched battle within thirty days." +General Grant wrote from City Point, "Turning +what bid fair to be a disaster into a glorious victory +stamps Sheridan what I always thought him, one of +the ablest of generals."</p> + +<p>Well wrote Thomas Buchanan Read in that +immortal poem, "Sheridan's Ride":—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Hurrah! hurrah for Sheridan!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hurrah! hurrah for horse and man!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when their statues are placed on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Under the dome of the Union sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The American soldier's Temple of Fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There with the glorious General's name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be it said in letters both bold and bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Here is the steed that saved the day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By carrying Sheridan into the fight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Winchester, twenty miles away!'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The noble animal died in Chicago, October, 1878.</p> + +<p>"In eleven weeks," says General Adam Badeau, +"Sheridan had taken thirteen thousand prisoners, +forty-nine battle flags, and sixty guns, besides +recapturing eighteen cannon at Cedar Creek. He +must besides have killed and wounded at least nine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> +thousand men, so that he destroyed for the enemy +twenty-two thousand soldiers."</p> + +<p>And now the only work remaining was to join +Grant at Richmond in his capture of Lee. He had +passed the winter near Winchester, and now having +crossed the James River, April 1, 1865, was +attacked by General Pickett at Five Forks. After +a severe engagement about five thousand prisoners +were taken by Sheridan, with thirteen colors and +six guns. His magnetic influence over his men is +shown by an incident narrated by General Badeau. +"At the battle of Five Forks, a soldier, wounded +under his eyes, stumbled and was falling to the +rear, but Sheridan cried, 'Never mind, my man; +there's no harm done!' and the soldier went on +with a bullet in his brain, till he dropped dead on +the field."</p> + +<p>From here he pushed on to Appomattox Court +House, where he headed Lee's army, and waited for +Grant to come up. Richmond had surrendered to +Grant on the morning of April 3. On the 7th +of April Grant wrote to Lee, "The result of the +last week must convince you of the hopelessness +of further resistance on the part of the Army of +Northern Virginia in this struggle. I feel that it is +so, and regard it as my duty to shift from myself +the responsibility of any further effusion of blood, by +asking you to surrender that portion of the Confederate +States Army known as the Army of Northern +Virginia." Lee replied, "Though not entertaining<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> +the opinion you express on the hopelessness of further +resistance on the part of the Army of Northern +Virginia, I reciprocate your desire to avoid useless +effusion of blood, and therefore, before considering +your proposition, ask the terms you will offer on +condition of its surrender." The reply was the +only one that could be given. "The terms upon +which peace can be had are well understood. By +the South laying down their arms they will hasten +that most desirable event, save thousands of human +lives, and hundreds of millions of property not yet +destroyed."</p> + +<p>At one o'clock, April 9, 1865, the two able generals +met, and at four it was announced that the +Army of Northern Virginia, with over twenty-eight +thousand men, had surrendered to the Army of the +Potomac. Memorable day! that brought peace to +a nation tired of the horrors of war. In July, +Sheridan assumed command of the Military Division +of the Gulf. Ten years later, June 3, 1875, when +he was forty-four years old, he married Miss Irene +Rucker, the daughter of General D. H. Rucker, for +years his friend. She is a fine linguist, and a +charming woman. Their home in Chicago has +many souvenirs of war times, and tokens of appreciation +from those who realize General Sheridan's +great services to his country.</p> + +<p>He was made Lieutenant-General, March 4, 1869, +and when General Sherman retired from the position +of Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Nov. 1,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> +1883, Sheridan moved to Washington, to take his +place. The office of "Lieutenant-General" expires +with General Sheridan, he being the last of our three +great and famous generals,—Grant, Sherman, and +Sheridan. In this latter city he has a home purchased +by thirty-one of his leading friends from +Chicago. He is devoted to his wife and children, +honest, upright, and manly, and deserves the honors +he has won.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p>General Sheridan was taken ill of heart disease +about the middle of May, 1888. After three +months, he died at Nonquitt, Mass., near the ocean, +at twenty minutes past ten on the evening of +August 5, 1888. He left a wife and four children, +a girl of eight, a boy of six, and twin daughters +of four. After lying in state at Washington, +he was buried with military honors at Arlington +Heights, on Saturday, August 11, in the midst of +universal sorrow.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span></p> +<h2>THOMAS COLE.</h2> + + +<p>Four of my favorite pictures from childhood +have been Cole's "Voyage of Life." I have +studied the tiny infant in the boat surrounded by +roses, life's stream full of luxuriant vegetation; the +happy, ambitious youth, looking eagerly forward to +the Temple of Fame, steering the boat himself, with +no need of aid from his guardian angel; then the +worried and troubled man, his boat tossing and +whirling among the broken trees and frightful +storms that come to all; and lastly, perhaps most +beautiful, the old man sailing peacefully into the +ocean of eternity, the angel having returned to +guide him, and the way to heaven being filled with +celestial spirits. I have always hung these pictures +near my writing-table, and their lesson has been a +helpful and inspiring one.</p> + +<p>No wonder that Thorwaldsen, the great sculptor, +said when he looked upon them in Rome, "O great +artist! what beauty of conception! what an admirable +arrangement of parts! what an accurate study +of nature! what truth of detail!" He told Cole +that his work was entirely new and original, execut<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>ed +in a masterly manner, and he commended the +harmony of color.</p> + +<p>These pictures are hung in thousands of homes; +but how few persons know the history of the artist! +Born in England, Feb. 1, 1801, the only son in +a family of eight children, and the youngest but +one, we find him when a mere child, in some print-works, +learning to engrave simple designs for calico. +His father, a woolen manufacturer, had failed in +business, and the family were thrown upon themselves +for support. He was a kind and honest man, +always hoping to succeed, but never succeeding; +always trying new scenes to build up his fortune +and never building it. Like other fathers, especially +those who have been disappointed in life, he had +hopes that his boy would accomplish more than +himself.</p> + +<p>He wished to apprentice him to an attorney or to +an iron manufacturer, but Thomas saw no pleasure +in Blackstone, or in handling ponderous iron. A +boy of tender feelings, he found little companionship +with his fellow-operatives, most of whom were +rough; and he enjoyed most an old Scotchman who +could repeat ballads, and tell of the beautiful +hills and lakes of his native land. When he had +leisure, he wandered with his sister Sarah into the +surrounding country; and while she sang, he accompanied +her with his flute.</p> + +<p>With little opportunity for school, he was a great +reader; and when through with designs for calico<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> +for the day, he buried himself in books, especially +about foreign countries, and in imagination clambered +over high mountains, and sailed upon broad +rivers. He talked much to the family of the wonders +of the New World; and when he was eighteen, +they all sailed for America. The father rented a +little house and shop in Philadelphia, and began to +sell the small stock of dry-goods which he had +brought with him, while Thomas found work with a +person who supplied woodcuts for printers.</p> + +<p>The father soon became dissatisfied with his prospects, +and moved his family to Steubenville, Ohio, +where he hoped to find a land flowing with milk and +honey. Thomas remained behind, working on some +illustrations for Bunyan's "Holy War," keeping up +his spirits with his beloved flute; going to Steubenville +the next year, walking almost the entire way +from Philadelphia.</p> + +<p>Here he worked in his father's small manufactory +of paper-hangings; yet he had longings to do some +great work in the world, as he wandered alone in the +wild and charming scenery. He loved music, architecture, +and pictures, but he hardly dared breathe +his aspirations save in a few verses of poetry. +How in that quiet home a boy should be born who +had desires to win renown was a mystery. Nobody +knows whence the perilous but blessed gift of ambition +comes.</p> + +<p>About this time a portrait-painter by the name of +Stein came to the village. He took an interest in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> +the poetic boy, and loaned him an English illustrated +work on painting. Thomas had already acquired +some skill in drawing. Now his heart was on fire as +he read about Raphael, Claude Lorraine, and Titian, +and he resolved to make painting his life-work. +How little he knew of the obstacles before a poor +artist!</p> + +<p>He set to work to make his own brushes, obtaining +his colors from a chair-maker. His easel and palette +were of his own crude manufacture. The father +had serious misgivings for his son; but his mother +encouraged him to persevere in whatever his genius +seemed to lie. As a rule, women discover genius +sooner than men, and good Mary Cole had seen that +there was something uncommon in her boy. His +brushes ready, putting his scanty wearing apparel +and his flute in a green baize bag, hung over his +shoulder, the youth of twenty-one started for St. +Clairsville, thirty miles distant, to begin life as a +painter. He broke through the ice in crossing +a stream, and, wet to his breast, arrived at the +town, only to find that a German had just been +there, and had painted all the portraits which were +desired.</p> + +<p>However, a <a name="saddler" id="saddler"></a><ins title="Original has sadler">saddler</ins> was found who was willing to be +painted, and after five days of work from morning +till night, the young artist received a new saddle as +pay. A military officer gave him an old silver watch +for a portrait, and a dapper tradesman a chain and +key, which proved to be copper instead of gold.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> +For some other work he received a pair of shoes and +a dollar. All these, except the dollar, he was +obliged to give to his landlord for board, the man +being dissatisfied even with this bargain.</p> + +<p>From here Thomas walked one hundred miles to +Zanesville, and to his great sorrow, found that the +German had preceded him here also, and painted +the tavern-keeper and his family. The landlord +intimated that a historical picture would be taken in +payment for the young stranger's board. Accordingly +an impromptu studio was arranged. A few +patrons came at long intervals; but it was soon +evident that another field must be chosen. What, +however, was young Cole's astonishment to find +that the historical painting would not be received +for board, and that if thirty-five dollars were not at +once paid, he would be thrust into jail! Two or +three acquaintances became surety for the debt +to the unprincipled landlord, and the pale, slender +artist hastened toward Chillicothe with but a sixpence +in his pocket.</p> + +<p>After walking for three days, seventy-five miles, +he sat down under a tree by the roadside, wellnigh +discouraged, in the hot August day; but when the +tears gathered in his eyes, he took out his flute, and +playing a lively air, his courage returned. He had +two letters of introduction in his pocket, given him +at Zanesville, and these he would present, whispering +to himself that he must "hold up his head like +Michael Angelo" as he offered them. The men who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> +received them had little time or wish to aid the young +man. A few persons sat for their portraits, and a +few took lessons in drawing; but after a time he had +no money to pay for washing his linen, and at last +no linen even to be washed. Still enthusiastic over +art, and with visions of Italy floating in his mind, +yet penniless and footsore, he returned to Steubenville +to tell his sorrows to his sympathetic mother. +How her heart must have been moved as she looked +upon her boy's pale face, and great blue eyes, and +felt his eager desire for a place of honor in the +world, but knew, alas! that she was powerless to +aid him.</p> + +<p>He took a plain room for a studio, painted some +scenes for a society of amateur actors, and commenced +two pictures,—Ruth gleaning in the field +of Boaz, and the feast of Belshazzar. One Sunday, +some vicious boys broke into the studio, mixed the +paints, broke the brushes, and cut the paintings in +pieces. Learning that the boys were poor, Cole +could not bear to prosecute them; and the matter +was dropped. He soon departed to Pittsburgh, +whither his parents had moved, and began to assist +his father in making floor-cloths. Every moment of +leisure he was down by the banks of the Monongahela, +carefully drawing tree, or cloud, or hill-top.</p> + +<p>Finally the old longing became irresistible. He +packed his little trunk, his mother threw over his +shoulders the table cover, with her blessing and her +tears; and with six dollars in his purse, he said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> +good-bye to the family and started for Philadelphia. +Then followed, as he used to say in after years, the +"winter of his discontent." In a poor quarter of +the city, in an upper room, without a bed or fire or +furniture, struggled poor Thomas Cole. Timid, +friendless, his only food a baker's roll and a pitcher +of water, his only bedding at night the table cover, +he worked day by day, now copying in the Academy, +and now ornamenting bellows, brushes, or Japan +ware, with figures of birds or with flowers. Sometimes +he ran down a neighboring alley, whipping +his hands about him to keep his blood in circulation, +lest he be benumbed. He soon became the victim +of inflammatory rheumatism, and was a great sufferer. +He still saw before him, someway, somehow, +renown. Meantime his pure, noble soul found +solace in writing poetry and an occasional story +for the "Saturday Evening Post." After a year +and a half he put his goods on a wheelbarrow, had +them carried to the station, and started for New +York, whither his family had moved.</p> + +<p>He was now twenty-four. Life had been one +continuous struggle. Still he loved each beauty in +nature, and hoped for the good time to come. In +his father's garret in Greenwich Street, in a room +so narrow that he could scarcely work, and so poorly +lighted that he was "perpetually fighting a kind of +twilight," he labored for two years. Obstacles +seemed but to increase his determination to persevere. +Of such grand material are heroes made!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span></p> + +<p>His first five pictures were placed for exhibition +in the shop of an acquaintance, and were sold at +eight dollars apiece. Through the courtesy of a +gentleman who purchased three of these, he was +enabled to go up the Hudson and sketch from nature +among the Catskills. This was indeed a great +blessing. On his return, he painted "A View of +Fort Putnam," "Lake with dead trees," and "The +Falls of the Caterskills." These were purchased at +twenty-five dollars apiece by three artists,—Trumbull, +Dunlap, and Durand.</p> + +<p>Trumbull first discovered the merits of the pictures, +buying the "Falls" for his studio, and +invited Cole to meet Durand at his rooms. At the +hour appointed the sensitive artist made his appearance, +so timid that at first he could only reply to +their cordial questioning by monosyllables. Colonel +Trumbull said, "You surprise me, at your age, to +paint like this. You have already done what I, +with all my years and experience, am yet unable to +do." Through the new friends, attention was +called to his work, and he soon had abundant commissions. +How his hungry heart must have fed on +this appreciation! "From that time," said his +friend, William Cullen Bryant, "he had a fixed +reputation, and was numbered among the men of +whom our country had reason to be proud. I well +remember what an enthusiasm was awakened by +these early works of his,—the delight which was +expressed at the opportunity of contemplating pic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>tures +which carried the eye over scenes of wild +grandeur peculiar to our country, over our arid +mountain-tops with their mighty growth of forest +never touched by the axe, along the banks of +streams never deformed by culture, and into the +depth of skies bright with the hues of our own climate; +such skies as few but Cole could ever paint, +and through the transparent abysses of which it +seemed that you might send an arrow out of sight."</p> + +<p>The struggles were not all over, but the "renown" +of which the calico-designer had dreamed had +actually come. Down in the heart of Mary Cole +there must have been deep thanksgiving that she +had urged him on.</p> + +<p>He with a few others now founded the National +Academy of Design. He took lodgings in the Catskills +in the summer of 1826, and worked diligently. +He studied nature like a lover; now he sketched a +peculiar sunset, now a wild storm, now an exquisite +waterfall. "Why do not the younger landscape +painters walk—walk alone, and endlessly?" he +used to say. "How I have walked, day after day, +and all alone, to see if there was not something +among the old things which was new!" He knew +every chasm, every velvety bank, every dainty +flower growing in some tanglewood for miles around. +American scenery, with its untamed wilderness, +lake, and mountain, was his chief passion. He +found no pleasure, however, in hunting or fishing; +for his kind heart could not bear to inflict the slightest +injury.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p> + +<p>The following spring he exhibited at the National +Academy the "Garden of Eden and the Expulsion," +rich in poetic conception; and in the fall sketched +in the White Mountains, especially near North Conway, +which the lamented Starr King loved so well. +In the winter he was very happy, finishing his +"Chocorua Peak." A visitor said, "Your clouds, +sir, appear to move."</p> + +<p>"That," replied the artist, "is precisely the effect +I desire."</p> + +<p>He was now eager to visit Europe to study art; +but first he must see Niagara, of which he made several +sketches. He had learned the secret, that all +poets and artists finally learn,—that they must +identify themselves with some great event in history, +something grand in nature, or some immortal +name. Milton chose a sublime subject, Homer a +great war, just as some one will make our civil war +a famous epic two centuries hence.</p> + +<p>In June, 1829, he sailed for Europe, and there, +for two years, studied faithfully. In London, he +saw much of Turner, of whom he said, "I consider +him as one of the greatest landscape painters that +ever lived, and his 'Temple of Jupiter' as fine as +anything the world has produced. In landscapes, +my favorites are Claude Lorraine, and Gaspar +Poussin."</p> + +<p>Some of Cole's work was exhibited at the British +Gallery, but the autumn coloring was generally condemned +as false to nature! How little we know +about that which we have not seen!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span></p> + +<p>Paris he enjoyed greatly for its clear skies and +sunny weather,—essentials usually to those of +poetic temperament, though he was not over pleased +with the Venuses and Psyches of modern French art. +For nine months he found the "galleries of Florence +a paradise to a painter." He thought our skies +more gorgeous than the Italian, though theirs have +"a peculiar softness and beauty." At Rome, some +of his friends said, "Cole works like a crazy man." +He usually rose at five o'clock, worked till noon, +taking an hour for eating and rest, and then sketched +again till night.</p> + +<p>There was a reason for this. The support of the +family came upon him, besides the payment of debts +incurred by his father.</p> + +<p>He felt that every hour was precious. In Rome, +he found the Pantheon "simple and grand"; the +Apollo Belvidere "the most perfect of human productions," +while the Venus de Medici has "the +excellence of feminine form, destitute in a great +measure of intellectual expression"; the "Transfiguration," +"beautiful in color and chiaroscuro," +and Michael Angelo's "Moses," "one of the things +never to be forgotten."</p> + +<p>On his return to New York he took rooms at the +corner of Wall Street and Broadway. Here he won +the friendship of Luman Reed, for whom he promised +to paint pictures for one room, to cost five +thousand dollars. The chief pictures for Mr. Reed, +who died before their completion, were five, called<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> +"The Course of Empire," representing man in the +different phases of savage life, high civilization, and +ruin through sin, the idea coming to him while in +Rome. Of this group, Cooper, the novelist, said, +"I consider the 'Course of Empire' the work of +the highest genius this country has ever produced, +and one of the noblest works of art that has ever +been wrought."</p> + +<p>In November, 1836, Mr. Cole was married to +Maria Bartow, a young lady of refinement and +loveliness of character. Soon after, both of his parents +died. The "Departure and Return" were now +painted, "among his noblest works," says Bryant, +followed by the "Voyage of Life," for Mr. Samuel +Ward, who, like Mr. Reed, died before the set was +finished. This series was sold in 1876 for three +thousand one hundred dollars. These pictures he +had worked upon with great care and intensity. He +used to say, "Genius has but one wing, and, unless +sustained on the other side by the well-regulated +wing of assiduity, will quickly fall to the ground. +The artist must work always; his eye and mind can +work even when his pen is idle. He must, like a +magician, draw a circle round him, and exclude all +intrusive spirits. And above all, if he would attain +that serene atmosphere of mind in which float the +highest conceptions of the soul in which the sublimest +works have been produced, he must be possessed +of a holy and reasonable faith."</p> + +<p>The "Voyage of Life" was well received. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> +engraver, Mr. Smilie, found one morning before the +second of the series, "Youth," a person in middle +life looking as though in deep thought. "Sir," he +said at length, "I am a stranger in the city, and in +great trouble of mind. But the sight of these pictures +has done me great good. I go away from this +place quieted, and much strengthened to do my +duty."</p> + +<p>In 1841, worn in health, Cole determined to visit +Europe again. He wrote from Kenilworth Castle +to his wife, "Every flower and mass of ivy, every +picturesque effect, waked my regret that you were +not by my side.... How can I paint without you +to praise, or to criticize, and little Theddy to come for +papa to go to dinner, and little Mary with her +black eyes to come and kiss the figures in the pictures?... +My life will be burdened with sadness +until I return to my wife and family." In Rome he +received much attention, as befitted one in his +position.</p> + +<p>On his return, he painted several European scenes, +the "Roman Campagna," "Angels Ministering to +Christ in the Wilderness," "Mountain Ford" (sold +in 1876 for nine hundred dollars), "The Good +Shepherd," "Hunter's Return," "Mill at Sunset," +and many others. For his "Mount Etna," painted +in five days, he received five hundred dollars. How +different these days from that pitiful winter in +Philadelphia!</p> + +<p>He dreaded interruptions in his work. His "St.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> +John the Baptist in the Wilderness" was destroyed +by an unexpected visit from some ladies and gentlemen, +who quenched the fire of heart in which he +was working. He sorrowfully turned the canvas +to the wall, and never finished it. He had now +come to the zenith of his power, yet he modestly +said, "I have only learned how to paint." He +built a new studio in the Catskills, in the Italian +villa style, and hoped to erect a gallery for several +paintings he had in contemplation, illustrating the +cross and the world, and the immortality of the +soul.</p> + +<p>But the overworked body at forty-seven years of +age could no longer bear the strain. On Saturday, +Feb. 5, 1848, he laid his colors under water, +and cleansed his palette as he left his studio. The +next day he was seized with inflammation of the +lungs. The following Friday, after the communion +service at his bedside, he said, "I want to be quiet." +These were his last words. The tired artist had finished +his work. The voyage of life was over. He +had won enduring fame.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span></p> +<h2>OLE BULL.</h2> + + +<p>In the quaint old town of Bergen, Norway, so +strange with its narrow streets, peculiar costumes, +and open-hearted people, that no traveller +can ever forget it, was born, Feb. 5, 1810, Ole +Bull, the oldest in a family of ten children. His +father was an able chemist, and his mother a woman +of fine manners and much intelligence. All the +relatives were musical, and at the little gatherings +for the purpose of cultivating this talent, the child +Ole would creep under table or sofa, and listen enraptured +for hours, often receiving a whipping when +discovered.</p> + +<p>He loved music intensely, fancying when he +played alone in the meadows, that he heard nature +sing, as the bluebells were moved among the grasses +by the wind. When he was four years old, his +uncle gave him a yellow violin, which he kissed +with great delight, learning the notes at the same +time as his primer. Although forbidden to play till +study-hours were over, he sometimes disobeyed, and +was punished both at home and at school.</p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 425px;"> +<img src="images/illus-284.jpg" width="425" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">(From his Memoirs, by <span class="smcap">Sara C. Bull</span>.)</span> +</div> + +<p>Finally, at eight, through the good sense of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> +mother, a music-teacher was provided, and his +father bought him a new red violin. The child +could not sleep for thinking of it; so the first night +after its purchase he stole into the room where it +lay, in his night-clothes, to take one peep at the +precious thing. He said years after, with tears in +his eyes at the painful remembrance, "The violin +was so red, and the pretty pearl screws did smile at +me so! I pinched the strings just a little with my +fingers. It smiled at me ever more and more. I +took up the bow and looked at it. It said to me it +would be pleasant to try it across the strings. So +I did try it, just a very, very little, and it did sing +to me so sweetly. At first, I did play very soft. +But presently I did begin a capriccio, which I like +very much, and it do go ever louder and louder; and +I forgot that it was midnight and that everybody was +asleep. Presently I hear something crack! and the +next minute I feel my father's whip across my +shoulders. My little red violin dropped on the +floor, and was broken. I weep much for it, but it +did no good. They did have a doctor to it next +day, but it never recovered its health."</p> + +<p>Pitiful it is that sometimes parents are so lacking +in judgment as to stifle the best things in a child's +nature! Guiding is wise; forcing usually ends in +disaster. In two years, Ole could play pieces which +his teacher found it impossible to perform. He +began to compose melodies, imitating nature in the +song of birds, brooks, and the roar of waterfalls;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> +and would hide in caves or in clumps of bushes, +where he could play his own weird improvisations. +When he could not make his violin do as he wished, +he would fling it away impetuously, and not touch it +again for a long time. Then he would perhaps get +up in the middle of the night, and play at his open +window, forgetting that anybody might be awakened +by it. Sometimes he played incessantly for days, +scarcely eating or sleeping. He had no pleasure in +fishing or shooting, on account of the pain inflicted,—a +feeling seemingly common to noble and refined +natures,—though he greatly enjoyed anything +athletic.</p> + +<p>At fourteen, having heard of Paganini, he went to +his grandparent, of whom he was very fond, and +said, "Dear grandmother, can't I have some of +Paganini's music?"</p> + +<p>"Don't tell any one," was the reply; "but I will +try to buy a piece of his for you if you are a good +child."</p> + +<p>Shortly after this an old miser, of whom the +Bergen boys were afraid, called Ole into his house +one day as he was passing, and said, "Are you the +boy that plays the fiddle?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"Then come with me. I have a fiddle I bought +in England, that I want to show you."</p> + +<p>The fiddle needed a bridge and sounding-post, and +these the boy gladly whittled out, and then played +for the old man his favorite air, "God save the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> +King." He was treated to cakes and milk, and +promised to come again. The next afternoon, what +was his surprise to receive four pairs of doves, with +a blue ribbon around the neck of one, and a card +attached bearing the name of "Ole Bull." This +present was more precious than the diamonds he received +in later years from the hands of royalty.</p> + +<p>Ole's father, with a practical turn of mind, urged +his being a clergyman, as he honored that profession, +and well knew that music and art usually furnish a +small bank account. A private tutor, Musæus by +name, was therefore engaged. This man had the +unique habit of kneeling down to pray before he +whipped a boy, and asking that the punishment +might redound to the good of the lad. He soon +made up his mind that Ole's violin and theology were +incompatible, and forbade his playing it. Ole and +his brothers bore his harsh methods as long as possible, +when one morning at half past four, as the +teacher was dragging the youngest boy out of bed, +Ole sprang upon him and gave him a vigorous beating. +The smaller boys put their heads out from +under the bed-clothes and cried out, "Don't give up, +Ole! Don't give up! Give it to him with all your +might!" The whole household soon appeared upon +the scene, and though little was said, the private +feeling seemed to be that a salutary lesson had been +imparted.</p> + +<p>At eighteen, Ole was sent to the University of +Christiana, his father beseeching him that he would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> +not yield to his passion for music. On his arrival, +some Bergen students asked him to play for a charitable +association.</p> + +<p>"But," said Ole, "my father has forbidden me +to play."</p> + +<p>"Would your father prevent your doing an act +of charity?"</p> + +<p>"Well, this alters the case a little, and I can +write to him, and claim his pardon."</p> + +<p>After this he played nearly all night at the home +of one of the professors, saying to himself that his +father would be pleased if the Faculty liked him, +and the next morning failed in his Latin examinations! +In despair, he stated the case to the professor, +who replied, "My good fellow, this is the +very best thing that could have happened to you! +Do you believe yourself fitted for a curacy in Finmark +or a mission among the Laps? Certainly +not! It is the opinion of your friends that you +should travel abroad. Meanwhile, old Thrane +having been taken ill, you are appointed <i>ad interim</i> +Musical Director of the Philharmonic and Dramatic +Societies." A month later, by the death of Thrane, +he came into this position, having gained the pardon +of his disappointed father.</p> + +<p>But he was restless at Christiana. He desired +to know whether he really had genius or not, and +determined to go to Cassell, to see Louis Spohr, +who was considered a master. The great man was +not sufficiently great to be interested in an unknown<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> +lad, and coolly said, when Ole remarked politely, +"I have come more than five hundred miles to hear +you," "Very well, you can now go to Nordhausen; +I am to attend a musical festival there."</p> + +<p>Ole went to the festival, and was so disappointed +because the methods and interpretation were different +from his own, that he resolved to go back to +classic studies, feeling that he had no genius for +music. Still he was not satisfied. He would go to +Paris, and hear Berlioz and other great men. Giving +three concerts at Trondhjeim and Bergen, by +which he made five hundred dollars, he found himself +in possession of the needed funds. When he +arrived in this great city, everybody was eagerly +looking out for himself. Some were in pursuit of +pleasure; but most, as is the case everywhere, were +in pursuit of bread and shelter. Nobody cared to +hear his violin. Nobody cared about his recommendations +from far-off Norway. In vain he tried +to make engagements. He had no one to speak for +him, and the applicants were numberless.</p> + +<p>Madam Malibran was singing nightly to crowded +houses, and the poor violinist would now and then +purchase one of the topmost seats, and listen to +that marvellous voice. His money was gradually +melting away. Finally, an elderly gentleman who +boarded at the same house, having begged him to +take what little money he possessed out of the bank, +as it was not a safe place, stole every cent, together +with Ole's clothes, and left him entirely destitute<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>.</p> + +<p>An acquaintance now told him of a boarding-place +where there were several music-teachers, and gave +security for his board for one month,—twelve dollars. +Soon the friend and the boarding-mistress +grew cold and suspicious. Nothing tries friendship +like asking the loan of money. At last his condition +becoming known to a person, whom he afterward +learned was Vidocq, the noted Chief of Police, +he was shown by him to a gaming-table, where he +made one hundred and sixty dollars. "What a +hideous joy I felt," he said afterward; "what a +horrid pleasure to hold in the hand one's own soul +saved by the spoil of others!" He could not gamble +again, though starvation actually stared him in +the face.</p> + +<p>Cholera was sweeping through the city, and had +taken two persons from the house where he lodged. +He was again penniless and wellnigh despairing. +But he would not go back to Christiana. The +river Seine looked inviting, and he thought death +would be a relief. He was nervous and his brain +throbbed. Finally he saw a placard in a window, +"Furnished rooms to let." He was exhausted, but +would make one more effort.</p> + +<p>An elderly lady answered his query by saying +that they had no vacant rooms, when her pretty +granddaughter, Alexandrine Félicie, called out, +"Look at him, grandmamma!" Putting on her +glasses, the tears filled her eyes, as she saw a +striking resemblance to her son who had died. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> +next day found him at Madam Villeminot's house, +very ill of brain fever. When he regained consciousness, +she assured him that he need not worry +about the means for payment. When, however, +the Musical Lyceum of Christiana learned of his +struggles, they sent him eight hundred dollars.</p> + +<p>Becoming acquainted about this time with Monsieur +Lacour, a dealer in violins, who thought he +had discovered that a certain kind of varnish would +increase sweetness of tone, Ole Bull was requested +to play on one of his instruments at a soirée, given +by a Duke of the Italian Legation. An elegant +company were present. The intense heat soon +brought out the odor of assafœtida in the varnish. +The young man became embarrassed and then excited, +and played as though beside himself. The +player was advertised, whether Monsieur Lacour's +instruments were or not; for Marshal Ney's son, +the Duke of Montebello, at once invited him to +breakfast, and presided over a concert for him, +whereby the violinist made three hundred dollars. +The tide had turned at last, and little Félicie Villeminot +had done it with her "Look at him, grandmamma!"</p> + +<p>As the Grand Opera was still closed to him, he +made a concert tour through Switzerland and Italy. +In Milan, one of the musical journals said, "He is +not master of himself; he has no style; he is an +untrained musician. If he be a diamond, he is certainly +in the rough and unpolished."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span></p> + +<p>Ole Bull went at once to the publisher and asked +who had written the article. "If you want the responsible +person," said the editor, "I am he."</p> + +<p>"No," said the artist, "I have not come to call +the writer to account, but to thank him. The man +who wrote that article understands music; but it is +not enough to tell me my faults; he must tell me +how to rid myself of them."</p> + +<p>"You have the spirit of the true artist," replied +the journalist.</p> + +<p>The same evening he took Ole Bull to the critic, a +man over seventy, from whom he learned much that +was valuable. He at once gave six months to study +under able masters, before again appearing in public. +He was, however, an earnest student all through +life, never being satisfied with his attainments.</p> + +<p>At Venice he was highly praised, but at Bologna +he won the celebrity which continued through life. +Malibran was to sing in two concerts, but feigned +illness when she learned that the man she loved, De +Beriot, was to receive a smaller sum than herself, +and would not appear. The manager of the theatre +was in despair. Meantime, in a poor hotel, in an +upper room, Ole Bull was composing his concerto in +the daytime, and playing on his violin at night by his +open window. Rossini's first wife heard the music, +and said, "It must be a violin, but a divine one. +That will be a substitute for De Beriot and Malibran. +I must go and tell Zampieri" (the manager).</p> + +<p>On the night of the concert, after Ole Bull had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> +been two hours in bed from weariness, Zampieri +appeared, and asked him to improvise. He was +delighted, and exclaiming, "Malibran may now +have her headaches," hurried the young artist off to +the theatre. The audience was of course cold and +disappointed till Ole Bull began to play. Then the +people seemed to hold their breath. When the curtain +fell, he almost swooned with exhaustion, but the +house shook with applause. Flowers were showered +upon him. He was immediately engaged for the +next concert; a large theatre was offered him free of +expense, one man buying one hundred tickets, and +the admiring throng drew his carriage to the hotel, +while a procession with torchlights acted as guard of +honor.</p> + +<p>Ole Bull had stepped into the glory of fame in a +single night. Henceforth, while there was to be +much of trial and disappointment, as come to all, he +was to be forever the idol of two continents, drawing +crowded houses, honored by the great, and universally +mourned at his death. He had come to fame +as by accident, but he had made himself worthy of +fame.</p> + +<p>Malibran at first seemed hurt at his wonderful +success in her stead, but she soon became one of his +warmest friends, saying, "It is your own fault that +I did not treat you as you deserved. A man like +you should step forth with head erect in the full +light of day, that we may recognize his noble +blood."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span></p> + +<p>From here he played with great success at Florence +and Rome, at the latter city composing his celebrated +"Polacca Guerriera" in a single night, writing till +four o'clock in the morning. It was first conceived +while he stood alone at Naples, at midnight, watching +Mount Vesuvius aflame.</p> + +<p>Returning to Paris, he found the Grand Opera +open to him. Here, at his first performance, his +a-string snapped; he turned deathly pale, but he +transposed the remainder of the piece, and finished +it on three strings. Meyerbeer, who was present, +could not believe it possible that the string had really +broken.</p> + +<p>He was now twenty-six, famous and above want. +What more fitting than that he should marry pretty +Félicie Villeminot, and share with her the precious +life she had saved? They were married in the summer +of 1836, and their love was a beautiful and +enduring one until her death twenty-six years afterward. +Though absent from her much of the time +necessarily, his letters breathe a pure and ardent +affection. Going to England soon after, and being +at the house of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, +he writes, "How long does the time seem +that deprives me of seeing you! I embrace you +very tenderly. The word <i>home</i> has above all others +the greatest charm for me."</p> + +<p>In London, from three to seven thousand persons +crowded to hear him. The "Times" said, "His +command of the instrument, from the top to the bot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>tom +of the scale—and he has a scale of his own of +three complete octaves on each string—is absolutely +perfect." At Liverpool he received four thousand +dollars for a single night, taking the place of Malibran, +who had brought on a hemorrhage resulting in +death, by forcing a tone, and holding it so long that +the audience were astonished. Ole Bull came near +sharing her fate. In playing "Polacca," the hall +being large and the orchestra too strong, he ruptured +a blood vessel, and his coat had to be cut from him.</p> + +<p>In sixteen months he gave two hundred and +seventy-four concerts in the United Kingdom. +Afterwards, at St. Petersburg, he played to five +thousand persons, the Emperor sending him an +autograph letter of affection, and the Empress +an emerald ring set with one hundred and forty +diamonds. Shortly after this his father died, speaking +with pride of Ole, and thinking he heard divine +music.</p> + +<p>On his return to Norway, at the request of the +King, he gave five concerts at Stockholm, the last +netting him five thousand dollars. So moved was +the King when Ole Bull played before him at the +palace, that he rose and stood till the "Polacca" +was finished. He presented the artist with the +Order of Vasa, set in brilliants.</p> + +<p>In Christiana, the students gave him a public +dinner, and crowned him with laurel. He often +played for the peasants here and in Bergen, and +was beloved by the poor as by the rich. At Copen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>hagen +he was presented at Court, the King giving +him a snuff-box set in diamonds. Hans Andersen +became his devoted friend, as did Thorwaldsen +while he was in Rome. He now went to Cassell, +and Spohr hastened to show him every attention, as +though to make amends for the coldness when Ole +Bull was poor and unknown. At Salzburg he +invited the wife of Mozart to his concerts. For her +husband he had surpassing admiration. He used to +say that no mortal could write Mozart's "Requiem" +and live.</p> + +<p>While in Hungary, his first child, Ole, died. He +wrote his wife, "God knows how much I have suffered! +I still hope and work, not for myself,—for +you, my family, my country, my Norway, of which +I am proud."</p> + +<p>All this time he was working very hard. He +said, "I must correspond with the directors of the +theatres; must obtain information regarding the +people with whom I am to deal; I must make my +appointments for concerts and rehearsals; have my +music copied, correct the scores, compose, play, +travel nights. I am always cheated, and in everlasting +trouble. I reproach myself when everything +does not turn out for the best, and am consumed +with grief. I really believe I should succumb to +all these demands and fatigues if it were not for +my drinking cold water, and bathing in it every +morning and evening."</p> + +<p>In November, 1843, urged by Fanny Elssler, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> +visited America. At first, in New York, some of +the prominent violinists opposed him; but he steadily +made his way. When Mr. James Gordon Bennett +offered him the columns of the "Herald," that he +might reply to those who were assailing him, he said +in his broken English, "I tink, Mr. Bennett, it is +best tey writes against me, and I plays against +tem." Of his playing in New York, Mrs. Lydia +Maria Child wrote, "His bow touched the strings as +if in sport, and brought forth light leaps of sound, +with electric rapidity, yet clear in their distinctness. +He played on four strings at once, and produced the +rich harmony of four instruments. While he was +playing, the rustling of a leaf might have been +heard; and when he closed, the tremendous bursts +of applause told how the hearts of thousands leaped +like one. His first audience were beside themselves +with delight, and the orchestra threw down their +instruments in ecstatic wonder."</p> + +<p>From New York he took a successful trip South. +That he was not effeminate while deeply poetic, a +single incident will show. After a concert, a man +came to him and said he wished the diamond in his +violin bow, given him by the Duke of Devonshire. +Ole Bull replied that as it was a gift, he could +neither sell it nor give it away.</p> + +<p>"But I am going to have that stone!" said the +man as he drew a bowie knife from his coat. In an +instant Ole Bull had felled the man to the floor +with the edge of his hand across his throat. "The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> +next time I would kill you," said the musician, with +his foot on the man's chest; "but you may go +now." So much did the ruffian admire the muscle +and skill of the artist, that he begged him to accept +the knife which he had intended to use upon him.</p> + +<p>During this visit to America he gave two hundred +concerts, netting him, said the "New York Herald," +fully eighty thousand dollars, besides twenty +thousand given to charitable associations, and +fifteen thousand paid to assistant artists. "No +artist has ever visited our country and received so +many honors. Poems by the hundreds have been +written to him; gold vases, pencils, medals, have +been presented to him by various corporations. +His whole remarkable appearance in this country +is really unexampled in glory and fame," said the +same newspaper. Ole Bull was kindness itself to +the sick or afflicted. Now he played for Alice and +Phœbe Carey, when unable to leave their home, +and now for insane and blind asylums and at hospitals. +He loved America, and called himself "her +adopted son."</p> + +<p>On his return to Norway, after great success in +Spain, the Queen bestowing upon him the order of +Charles III. and the Portuguese order of Christus, +he determined to build a National Theatre in Bergen, +his birthplace, for the advancement of his +nation in the drama and in music. By great +energy, and the bestowal of a large sum of money, +the place was opened in 1850, Ole Bull leading the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> +orchestra. But the Storthing, or Parliament, declined +to give it a yearly appropriation,—perhaps +the development of home talent tended too strongly +toward republicanism. The burden was too great +for one man to carry, and the project did not prove +a success.</p> + +<p>The next plan of the philanthropist-musician was +to buy one hundred and twenty-five thousand acres +of land on the Susquehanna River, in Pennsylvania, +and "found a New Norway, consecrated to liberty, +baptized with independence, and protected by the +Union's mighty flag." Soon three hundred houses +were built, a country inn, store, and church, erected +by the founder. To pay the thousands needed for +this enterprise he worked constantly at concert-giving, +taking scarcely time to eat his meals. He +laid out five new villages, made arrangements with +the government to cast cannon for her fortresses, +and took out patents for a new smelting-furnace.</p> + +<p>While in California, where he was ill with yellow +fever, a crushing blow fell upon him. He learned +that he had purchased the land through a swindling +company, his title was invalid, and his fortune was +lost. He could only buy enough land to protect +those who had already come from Norway, and had +settled there, and soon became deeply involved in +lawsuits. Hon. E. W. Stoughton of New York, +who had never met Ole Bull personally, volunteered +to assist him, and a few thousands were wrested +from the defrauding agent.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span></p> + +<p>On his return to Norway he was accused of +speculating with the funds of his countrymen, which +cut him to the heart. A little later, in 1862, his +wife died, worn with ill health, and with her husband's +misfortunes, and his son Thorvald fell from +the mast of a sailing-vessel in the Mediterranean, +and was killed.</p> + +<p>In the autumn of 1868 he returned to America, +and nearly lost his life in a steamboat collision on +the Ohio. He swam to land, saving also his precious +violin. Two years afterward he was married to Miss +Thorp of Madison, Wis., an accomplished lady much +his junior in years, who has lived to write an admirable +life of her illustrious husband. A daughter, +Olea, came to gladden his home two years later. +When he was sixty-six years old, he celebrated his +birthday by playing his violin on the top of the +great pyramid, Cheops, at the suggestion of King +Oscar of Norway and Sweden.</p> + +<p>In the Centennial year he returned to America, +and made his home at Cambridge, in the house of +James Russell Lowell, while he was Minister to +England. Here he enjoyed the friendship of such +as Longfellow, who says of him in his "Tales of a +Wayside Inn":—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The angel with the violin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Painted by Raphael, he seemed,<br /></span> +</div> +<hr style="margin-left:0;width: 20%;" /><br /> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when he played, the atmosphere<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Was filled with magic, and the ear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Caught echoes of that Harp of Gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose music had so weird a sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hunted stag forgot to bound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The leaping rivulet backward rolled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The birds came down from bush and tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dead came from beneath the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The maiden to the harper's knee!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The friend of the highest, he never forgot the +lowest. When a colored barber in Hartford, a lad +who was himself a good fiddler, heard Ole Bull play, +the latter having sent him a ticket to his concert, he +said, "Mister, can't you come down to the shop to-morrow +to get shaved, and show me those tricks? I +feel powerful bad."</p> + +<p>And Ole Bull went to the shop, and showed him +how the wonderful playing was accomplished.</p> + +<p>In 1880 Ole Bull sailed, for the last time, to +Europe, to his lovely home at Lysö, an island in the +sea, eighteen miles from Bergen. Ill on the voyage, +he was thankful to reach the cherished place. Here, +planned by his own hand, was his elegant home +overlooking the ocean; here his choice music-room +upheld by delicate columns and curiously wrought +arches; here the shell-roads he had built; and here +the flower-beds he had planted. The end came +soon, on a beautiful day full of sunshine.</p> + +<p>The body lay in state in the great music-room till +a larger steamer came to bear it to Bergen. This +was met by a convoy of sixteen steamers ranged on +either side; and as the fleet approached the city, all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> +flags were at half-mast, and guns were fired, which +re-echoed through the mountains. The quay was +covered with juniper, and the whole front festooned +with green. As the boat touched the shore, one of +Ole Bull's inimitable melodies was played. Young +girls dressed in black bore the trophies of his success, +and distinguished men carried his gold crown +and order, in the procession. The streets were +strewn with flowers, and showered upon the coffin. +When the service had been read at the grave by the +pastor, Björnson, the famous author, gave an +address. After the coffin had been lowered and the +mourners had departed, hundreds of peasants came, +bringing a green bough, a sprig of fern, or a flower, +and quite filled the grave. Beautiful tribute to a +beautiful life!</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 423px;"> +<img src="images/illus-303.jpg" width="423" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">MEISSONIER.</span> +</div> + + +<h2>MEISSONIER.</h2> + + +<p>The old maxim, that "the gods reward all things +to labor," has had fit illustration in Meissonier. +His has been a life of constant, unvaried toil. He +came to Paris a poor, unknown boy, and has worked +over fifty years, till he stands a master in French +art.</p> + +<p>Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier was born at Lyons, +in 1811. His early life was passed in poverty so +grinding that the great artist never speaks of it, and +in such obscurity that scarcely anything is known +of his boyhood. At nineteen he came to Paris to +try his fate in one of the great centres of the world. +He, of course, found no open doors, nobody standing +ready to assist genius. Genius must ever open +doors for itself.</p> + +<p>The lad was a close observer, and had learned to +draw accurately. He could give every variety of +costume, and express almost any emotion in the face +of his subject. But he was unknown. He might +do good work, but nobody wanted it. He used to +paint by the side of Daubigny in the Louvre, it is +said, for one dollar a yard. Now his "Amateurs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> +in Painting," a chef-d'œuvre of six inches in size, +is bought by Leon Say for six thousand dollars. +Such is fame.</p> + +<p>Time was so necessary in this struggle for bread, +that he could sleep only every other night; and for +six months his finances were so low, it is stated, +that he existed on ten cents a week! No wonder +that the sorrows of those days are never mentioned.</p> + +<p>His earliest work was painting the tops of bon-bon +boxes, and fans. Once he grew brave enough to +take four little sepia drawings to an editor to illustrate +a fairy tale in a magazine for children. The +editor said the drawings were charming, but he +could not afford to have them engraved, and so +"returned them with thanks."</p> + +<p>His first illustrations in some unknown journal +were scenes from the life of "The Old Bachelor." +In the first picture he is represented making his +toilet before the mirror, his wig spread out on the +table; in the second, dining with two friends; in +the third, being abused by his housekeeper; in the +fourth, on his death-bed, surrounded by greedy relations; +and in the fifth, the servants ransacking the +death-chamber for the property.</p> + +<p>For a universal history he drew figures of Isaiah, +St. Paul, and Charlemagne, besides almost numberless +ornamental letters and headings of chapters. +Of course he longed for more remunerative work, +for fame; but he must plod on for months yet. He +worked conscientiously, taking the greatest pains +with every detail.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span></p> + +<p>His first picture, exhibited in 1833, when he was +twenty-two, called "The Visitors," an interior +view of a house, with an old gentleman receiving +two visitors, all dressed in the costume of James I., +admirable for its light and shade, was bought by the +Society of the Friends of Art, for twenty dollars. +Two years later he made illustrations for the Bible +of the Sieur Raymond, of Holofernes invading +Judea, and Judith appearing before Holofernes. +For "Paul and Virginia" he made forty-three beautiful +landscapes. "They contain evidence of long +and careful work in the hot-houses of the 'Jardin des +Plantes,' and in front of the old bric-a-brac dealer's +stalls, which used to stand about the entrance to the +Louvre. And how admirably, with the help of these +slowly and scrupulously finished studies, he could +reproduce, in an ornamental letter or floral ornament, +a lily broken by the storm, or a sheaf of Indian +arms and musical instruments."</p> + +<p>In 1836, his "Chess Players," two men watching +intently the moves of chess, and "The Little Messenger," +attracted a crowd of admirers. Each sold +for twenty dollars. He had now struggled for six +years in Paris. It was high time that his unremitting +and patient work should find approval. The +people were amazed at so vast an amount of labor +in so small a space. They looked with their magnifying +glasses, and found the work exquisite in +detail. They had been accustomed to great canvases, +glowing colors, and heroic or romantic sen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span>timents; +but here there was wonderful workmanship.</p> + +<p>When the people began to admire, critics began +to criticize. They said "Meissonier can depict +homelike or ordinary scenes, but not historic." He +said nothing, but soon brought out "Diderot" +among the philosophers, Grimm, D'Alembert, Baron +Holbach, and others in the seventeenth century. +Then they said he can draw interiors only, and "on +a canvas not much larger than his thumb-nail." +He soon produced the "Portrait of the Sergeant," +"one of the most daring experiments in the painting +of light, in modern art. The man stands out +there in the open by himself, literally bathed in +light, and he makes a perfect picture." Then they +were sure that he could not paint movement. He +replied by painting "Rixe," two ruffians who are +striving to fight, but are withheld by friends. This +was given by Louis Napoleon to the Prince Consort.</p> + +<p>Meissonier also showed that he could depict grand +scenes, by "Moreau and Dessoles on the eve of the +battle of Hohenlinden," the "Retreat from Russia," +and the "Emperor at Solferino." Into these he +put his admiration for Napoleon the Great, and his +adoration for his defeated country. In the former +picture, the two generals are standing on a precipice, +surveying the snow-covered battle-field with +a glass; the trees are bending under a strong wind, +and the cloaks of the generals are fluttering behind +them. One feels the power of this picture.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span></p> + +<p>In painting the "Retreat from Russia," the artist +borrowed the identical coat worn by Napoleon, and +had it copied, crease for crease, and button for +button. "When I painted that picture," he said, +"I executed a great portion of it out of doors. It +was midwinter, and the ground was covered with +snow. Sometimes I sat at my easel for five or six +hours together, endeavoring to seize the exact +aspect of the winter atmosphere. My servant placed +a hot foot-stove under my feet, which he renewed +from time to time, but I used to get half-frozen and +terribly tired."</p> + +<p>He had a wooden horse made in imitation of the +white charger of the Emperor; and seating himself +on this, he studied his own figure in a mirror. His +studies for this picture were almost numberless,—a +horse's head, an uplifted leg, cuirasses, helmets, +models of horses in red wax, etc. He also prepared +a miniature landscape, strewn with white +powder resembling snow, with models of heavy +wheels running through it, that he might study the +furrow made in that terrible march home from burning +Moscow. All this was work,—hard, patient, +exacting work.</p> + +<p>It had now become evident to the world, and to +the critics as well, that Meissonier was a master; +that he was not confined to small canvases nor +home scenes.</p> + +<p>In 1855 he received the grand medal; in 1856 he +was made an officer of the Legion of Honor; in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> +1861, a member of the Institute; and in 1867, at +the International Exhibition, he received the grand +medal again. When the prizes were given by the +Emperor, the "Battle of Solferino" was placed in +the centre of the space cleared for the ceremony, +with the works of Reimers, the Russian painter, +Knaus of Prussia, Rousseau, the French landscape-painter, +and others. This painting represents +Napoleon III. in front of his staff, looking upon the +battle "as a cool player studies a chess-board. On +the right, in the foreground, some artillery-men are +manœuvring their guns. The corpses of a French +soldier and two white Austrians, torn to rags by +some explosion, show where the battle had passed +by."</p> + +<p>Meissonier's paintings now brought enormous +prices. His "Marshal Saxe and his Staff" brought +eight thousand six hundred dollars in New York; +the "Soldiers at Cards," in 1876, in the same city, +eleven thousand five hundred dollars; in 1867, his +"Cavalry Charge" was sold to Mr. Probasco of +Cincinnati, for thirty thousand dollars; and the +"Battle of Friedland," upon which he is said to +have worked fifteen years, to A. T. Stewart, of New +York, for sixty thousand dollars. Every figure in +this was drawn from life, and the horses moulded +in wax. It represents Napoleon on horseback, on +a slight elevation, his marshals grouped around him, +holding aloft his cocked hat in salutation, as the +soldiers pass hurriedly before him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span></p> + +<p>Edmund About once wrote, "To cover M. +Meissonier's pictures with gold pieces simply would +be to buy them for nothing; and the practice has +now been established of covering them with bank +notes."</p> + +<p>"The Blacksmith," shoeing a patient old cart-horse, +perfect in anatomy; "La Halte," some +soldiers at an inn, now in Hertford House gallery; +and "La Barricade," a souvenir of the civil war, +are among the favorite pictures of this famous man. +And yet as one looks at some of the exquisite work +about a convivial scene, the words of the great +Boston painter, William Hunt, come to mind. +Being shown a picture, very fine in technique, by a +Munich artist, of a drunken man, holding a half-filled +glass of wine, he said, "It's skilfully done, +but <i>what is</i> the <i>use</i> of <i>doing</i> it! The subject isn't +worthy of the painter."</p> + +<p>Rarely does a woman appear in Meissonier's pictures. +He has done nothing to deprave morals, +which is more than can be said of some French art. +His portrait of Madame Henri Thénard was greatly +admired, while that of Mrs. Mackay was not satisfactory, +and was said to have been destroyed by +her. Few persons, however, can afford to destroy +a Meissonier. When told once that "he was a fortunate +man, as he could possess as many Meissoniers +as he pleased," he replied, "No, no, I cannot; that +would ruin me. They are a great deal too dear."</p> + +<p>He lives in the Boulevard Malesherbes, near the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> +lovely Parc Monceau, in the heart of the artists' +quarter in Paris. His handsome home, designed by +himself in every detail, is in the Italian Renaissance +style. He has two studies,—one a quiet nook, +where he can escape interruptions; and one very +large, where are gathered masterpieces from every +part of the world. Here is "a courtyard of the +time of Louis XIII., brilliantly crowded with figures +in gala dress; a bride of the same period, stepping +into an elegant carriage of a crimson color, for which +Meissonier had a miniature model built by a coach-maker, +to study from; a superb work of Titian,—a +figure of an Italian woman in a robe of green velvet, +the classic outline of her head shown against a +crimson velvet curtain in the background; a sketch +of Bonaparte on horseback, at the head of his picturesquely +dressed staff, reviewing the young conscripts +of the army of Italy, who are cheering as he +passes;" and many more valuable pictures. Here, +too, are bridles of black leather, with silver ornaments, +once the property of Murat.</p> + +<p>One picture here, of especial interest, was painted +at his summer home at Poissy, when his house was +crowded with German soldiers in the war of 1871. +"To escape their company," says M. Claretie, "in +the rage that he experienced at the national defeat, +he shut himself up in his studio, and threw upon the +canvas the most striking, the most vivid, the most +avenging of allegories: he painted Paris, enveloped +in a veil of mourning, defending herself against the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> +enemy, with her soldiers and her dying grouped +round a tattered flag; sailors, officers, and fusiliers, +soldiers, national guards, suffering women, and dying +children; and, hovering in the air above them, +with the Prussian eagle by her side, was Famine, +wan and haggard Famine, accomplishing the work +that the bombardment had failed to achieve."</p> + +<p>His summer home, like the one in Paris, is fitted +up luxuriously. He designed most of the furniture +and the silver service for his table. Flowers, especially +geraniums and tea roses, blossom in profusion +about the grounds, while great trees and fountains +make it a restful and inviting place. The walls of +the dining-room are hung with crimson and gold +satin damask, against which are several of his own +pictures. An engraver at work, clad in a red dressing-gown, +and seated in a room hung with ancient +tapestry, has the face of his son Charles, also an +artist, looking out from the frame. One of Madame +Meissonier also adorns this room.</p> + +<p>Near by are his well-filled stables, his favorite +horse, Rivoli, being often used for his model. He +is equally fond of dogs, and has several expensive +hounds. How strange all this, compared with those +early days of pinching poverty! He is rarely seen +in public, because he has learned—what, alas! +some people learn too late in life—that there is no +success without one commands his or her time. It +must be frittered away neither by calls nor parties; +neither by idle talk nor useless visits. Painting or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> +writing for an hour a day never made greatness. +Art and literature will give no masterships except +to devotees. The young lady, sauntering down +town to look at ribbons, never makes a George +Eliot. The young man, sauntering down town to +look at the buyers of ribbons, never makes a Meissonier. +Nature is rigid in her laws. Her gifts +only grow to fruitage in the hands of workers.</p> + +<p>Meissonier is now seventy-four, with long gray +beard and hair, round, full face, and bright hazel +eyes. His friend, Claretie, says of him, "This +man, who lives in a palace, is as moderate as a +soldier on the march. This artist, whose canvases +are valued by the half-million, is as generous as a +nabob. He will give to a charity sale a picture +worth the price of a house. Praised as he is by all, +he has less conceit in his nature than a wholesale +painter."</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p>January 31, 1891, at his home in Paris, the great +artist passed away. His illness was very brief. +The funeral services took place at the Church of +the Madeleine, which was thronged with the leaders +of art and letters. An imposing military cortege +accompanied the body to its last resting-place at +Poissy, the summer home of the artist, on the Seine, +ten miles from Versailles.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 426px;"> +<img src="images/illus-313.jpg" width="426" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">GEORGE WILLIAM CHILDS.</span> +</div> + + +<h2>GEORGE W. CHILDS.</h2> + + +<p>The "Public Ledger" of Philadelphia, and its +owner, are known the world over. Would we +see the large-hearted, hospitable millionaire, who +has come to honor through his own industry, let us +enter the elegant building occupied by his newspaper.</p> + +<p>Every portion is interesting. The rooms where +editors and assistants work are large, light, and +airy, and as tasteful as parlors. Alas! how unhomelike +and barren are some of the newspaper +offices, where gifted men toil from morning till +night, with little time for sleep, and still less for +recreation. Mr. Childs has thought of the comfort +and health of his workmen, for he, too, was a poor +boy, and knows what it is to labor.</p> + +<p>He has also been generous with his men in the +matter of wages. "He refused to reduce the rate +of payment of his compositors, notwithstanding +that the Typographical Union had formerly sanctioned +a reduction, and notwithstanding that the +reduced scale was operative in every printing-office +in Philadelphia except his own. He said, 'My<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> +business is prosperous; why should not my men +share in my prosperity?' This act of graciousness, +while it endeared him to the hearts of his beneficiaries, +was commented on most favorably at home +and abroad. That his employés, in a formal interview +with him, expressed their willingness to accept +the reduced rates, simply augments the generosity +of his act." Strikes among laborers would be few +and far between if employers were like George W. +Childs.</p> + +<p>Each person in his employ has a summer vacation +of two or more weeks, his wages being continued +meantime, and paid in advance, with a +liberal sum besides. On Christmas every man, +woman, and boy receives a present, amounting, of +course, to many thousands of dollars annually. +Mr. Childs has taken care of many who have +become old or disabled in his service. The foreman +of his composing-room had worked for him +less than twelve months before he failed in health. +For years this man has drawn his weekly pay, +though never going to the establishment. This is +indeed practical Christianity.</p> + +<p>Besides caring for the living, in 1868 this wise +employer of labor purchased two thousand feet in +Woodlands for a printers' cemetery, and gave it to +the Philadelphia Typographical Society, with a sum +of money to keep the grounds in good order yearly. +The first person buried beyond the handsome marble +gothic gateway was a destitute and aged printer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> +who had died at the almshouse and whose dying +message to Mr. Childs was that he could not bear +to fill a pauper's grave. His wish was cordially +granted.</p> + +<p>But after seeing the admirable provision made for +his workmen, we must enter the private office of +Mr. Childs. He is most accessible to all, with no +airs of superior position, welcoming persons from +every clime daily, between the hours of eleven and +one. He listens courteously to any requests, and +then bids you make yourself at home in this elegant +office, that certainly has no superior in the world, +perhaps no rival.</p> + +<p>The room itself in the Queen Anne style, with +exquisite wood-carving, marble tiles, brass ornaments, +and painted glass, is a gem. Here is his +motto, a noble one, and thoroughly American, +"Nihil sine labore," and well his life has illustrated +it. All honor to every man or woman who helps to +make labor honored in this country. The design +of the ceiling was suggested by a room in Coombe +Abbey, Warwickshire, the seat of the Earls Craven, +fitted up by one of its lords for the reception of +Queen Elizabeth. Over a dozen valuable clocks are +seen, one made in Amsterdam over two hundred +years ago, which, besides the time of day, gives +the phases of the moon, the days of the week, and +the month; another, a clock constructed by David +Rittenhouse, the astronomer of the Revolution, in +the old colonial days, which plays a great variety of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> +music, has a little planetarium attached, and nearly +six thousand teeth in wheels. It was made for +Joseph Potts, who paid six hundred and forty dollars +for it. The Spanish Minister in 1778 offered +eight hundred for it, that he might present it to his +sovereign. Mr. Childs has about fifty rare clocks +in his various homes, one of these costing six thousand +dollars.</p> + +<p>Here is a marble statuette of Savonarola, the +Florentine preacher of the fifteenth century; the +little green harp which belonged to Tom Moore, and +on which he used to play in the homes of the great; +a colossal suit of antique French armor, one hundred +and fifty years old; a miniature likeness of +George Washington, handsomely encased in gold, +bequeathed by him to a relative, a lock of his hair +in the back of the picture; a miniature ship, made +from the wood of the <i>Alliance Frigate</i>, the only one +of our first navy, of the class of frigates, which +escaped capture or destruction during the Revolutionary +war. This boat, and a silver waiter, presented +after the famous battle of New Orleans, +were both the property of President Jackson, and +were taken by him to the Hermitage. Here, also, +is a photograph of "Old Ironsides" Stewart, in a +frame made from the frigate <i>Constitution</i>, in which +great victories were achieved, besides many portraits +given by famous people, with their autographs.</p> + +<p>After a delightful hour spent in looking at these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> +choice things, Mr. Childs bids us take our choice of +some rare china cups and saucers. We choose one +dainty with red birds, and carry it away as a pleasant +remembrance of a princely giver, in a princely +apartment.</p> + +<p>Mr. Childs has had a most interesting history. +Born in Baltimore, he entered the United States +navy at thirteen, where he remained for fifteen +months. At fourteen he came to Philadelphia, +poor, but with courage and a quick mind, and +found a place to work in a bookstore. Here he +remained for four years, doing his work faithfully, +and to the best of his ability. At the end of these +years he had saved a few hundred dollars, and +opened a little store for himself in the Ledger +Building, where the well-known newspaper, the +"Public Ledger," was published.</p> + +<p>He was ambitious, as who is not, that comes to +prominence; and one day he made the resolution +that he would sometime be the owner of this great +paper and its building! Probably had this resolution +been known, his acquaintances would have +regarded the youth as little less than crazy. But +the boy who willed this had a definite aim. Besides, +he was never idle, he was economical, his +habits were the best, and why should not such a +boy succeed?</p> + +<p>In three years, when he was twenty-one, he had +become the head of a publishing house,—Childs +& Peterson. He had a keen sense of what the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> +public needed. He brought out Kane's "Arctic +Expedition," from which the author, Dr. Kane, +realized seventy thousand dollars. Two hundred +thousand copies of Peterson's "Familiar Science" +were sold. Allibone dedicated his great work, +"Dictionary of English and American Authors," +to the energetic and appreciative young publisher.</p> + +<p>He had now acquired wealth, sooner almost than +he could have hoped. Before him were bright prospects +as a publisher; but the prize that he had set +out to win was to own the "Public Ledger."</p> + +<p>The opportunity came in December, 1864. But +his paper was losing money. His friends advised +against taking such a burden; he would surely fail. +But Mr. Childs had faith in himself. He expected +to win where others lost. He bought the property, +doubled the subscription rates, lowered the advertising, +excluded everything questionable from the columns +of his paper, made his editorials brief, yet +comprehensive, until under his judicious management +the journal reached the large circulation of ninety +thousand daily. For ten years he has given the +"Ledger Almanac" to every subscriber, costing +five thousand dollars annually. The yearly profits, +it is stated, have been four hundred thousand dollars. +All this has not been accomplished without +thought and labor.</p> + +<p>Fortune, of course, had come, and fame. He built +homes, elegant ones, in Philadelphia and at Newport, +but these are not simply places in which to +spend money, but centres of hospitality and culture.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span></p> + +<p>His library is one of the most charming places in +this country. The wood-work is carved ebony with +gold, the bookshelves six feet high on every side, +and the ceiling built in sunken panels, blue and +gold. In the centre is a table made from ebony, +brought from Africa by Paul du Chaillu. One looks +with interest upon the handsome volumes of the +standard authors, but other things are of deeper +interest.</p> + +<p>Here is an original sermon of Rev. Cotton Mather; +the poems of Leigh Hunt, which he presented to +Charles Dickens; the original manuscript of Nathaniel +Hawthorne's "Consular Experiences"; the first +edition of the "Scarlet Letter," with a note to Mr. +Childs from the great novelist; Bryant's manuscript +of the "First Book of the Iliad"; James Russell +Lowell's "June Idyl," begun in 1850 and finished +eighteen years afterward; the manuscript of James +Fenimore Cooper's "Life of Captain Richard Somers"; +and Edgar Allan Poe's "Murders in the Rue +Morgue," seventeen pages of large paper written +small and close.</p> + +<p>Here is an autograph letter from Poe, in which he +offers to his publishers thirty-three short stories, +enough to fill two large volumes, "On the terms +which you allowed me before; that is, you receive +all profits and allow me twenty copies for distribution +to friends." From this it seems that Poe had +the <i>usual</i> struggles of literary people.</p> + +<p>One of the most unique things of the library is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> +the manuscript of "Our Mutual Friend," bound in +fine brown morocco. The skeleton of the novel is +written through several pages, showing how carefully +Dickens thought out his plan and his characters; +the paper is light blue, written over with dark +blue ink, with many erasures and changes. Here +are also fifty-six volumes of Dickens' works, with +an autograph letter in each, from the author to +Mr. Childs. Here is Lord Byron's desk on which +he wrote "Don Juan." Now we look upon the +smallest book ever printed, Dante's "Divina Commedia," +bound in Turkey gilt, less than two and +one-fourth inches long by one and one-half inches +wide.</p> + +<p>The collection of Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, now +the property of Mr. Childs, letters and manuscripts +from Lamb, Hawthorne, Mary Somerville, Harriet +Martineau, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Browning, and +hundreds of others, is of almost priceless value. In +1879 Mrs. Hall gave the Bible of Tom Moore to +Mr. Childs, "an honored and much loved citizen of +the United States, as the best and most valuable +offering she could make to him, as a grateful tribute +of respect, regard, and esteem."</p> + +<p>Another valuable book is made up of the portraits +of the presidents, with an autograph letter from +each. Dom Pedro of Brazil sent, in 1876, a work +on his empire, with his picture and his autograph. +George Peabody sat for a full-length portrait for Mr. +Childs. The album of Mrs. Childs contains the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> +autographs of a great number of the leading men +and women of the world.</p> + +<p>One could linger here for days, but we must see +the lovely country-seat called "Wootton," some +distance out from the city. The house is in Queen +Anne style, surrounded by velvety lawns, a wealth +of evergreen and exquisite plants, brought over +from South America and Africa. The farm adjoining +is a delight to see. Here is the dairy built of +white flintstone, while the milkroom has stained +glass windows, as though it were a chapel. The +beautiful grounds are open every Thursday to +visitors.</p> + +<p>Here have been entertained the Duke and Duchess +of Buckingham, the Duke of Sutherland, Lord +Rosse, Lord Dufferin, Sir Stafford Northcote, Herbert +Spencer, John Waller, M.P., of the "London +Times," Dean Stanley, Thomas Hughes, Dickens, +Grant, Evarts; indeed, the famous of two hemispheres.</p> + +<p>With all this elegance, befitting royalty, Mr. +Childs has been a constant and generous giver. +For his own city he was one of the foremost to +secure Fairmount Park, and helped originate the +Zoölogical Gardens, the Pennsylvania Museum, and +the School of Industrial Arts. He gave ten thousand +dollars for a Centennial Exposition. He has +been one of General Grant's most generous helpers; +yet while doing for the great, he does not forget the +unknown. He gives free excursions to poor chil<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span>dren, +a dinner annually to the newsboys, and aids +hundreds who are in need of an education.</p> + +<p>He has placed a stained glass window in Westminster +Abbey, in commemoration of George Herbert +and William Cowper; given largely to a memorial +window for Thomas Moore at Bronham, England; +for a stone to mark Leigh Hunt's resting-place +in Kensal Green; and toward a monument for Poe.</p> + +<p>Mr. Childs has come to eminence by energy, integrity, +and true faith in himself. He has had a noble +ambition, and has worked towards it. He has +proved to all other American boys that worth and +honest dealing will win success, in a greater or less +degree. That well-known scientist, Prof. Joseph +Henry, of the Smithsonian Institute, said, "Mr. +Childs is a wonderful man. His ability to apply +the power of money in advancing the well-being of +his fellow-men is unrivalled. He is naturally kind +and sympathetic, and these generous feelings are +exalted, not depressed, by his success in accumulating +a fortune.... Like man in the classification of +animals, he forms a genus in himself. He stands +alone; there is not another in the wide world like +him."</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p>Mr. Childs died at 3.01 <small>A.M.</small> February 3, 1894 +from the effects of a stroke of paralysis sustained +at the Ledger office on January 18. He was nearly +sixty-five years of age. He was buried on February +6, in the Drexel Mausoleum in Woodland Cemetery +beside his life long friend.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 459px;"> +<img src="images/illus-323.jpg" width="459" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">DWIGHT L. MOODY</span> +</div> + + +<h2>DWIGHT L. MOODY.</h2> + + +<p>"There's no chance to get in there. There's +six thousand persons inside, and two thousand +outside."</p> + +<p>This was said to Dr. Magoun, President of Iowa +College, and myself, after we had waited for +nearly an hour, outside of Spurgeon's Tabernacle, +in London, in the hope of hearing Mr. Moody +preach. Finally, probably through courtesy to +Americans, we obtained seats. The six thousand +in this great church were sitting as though spellbound. +The speaker was a man in middle life, +rugged, strong, and plain in dress and manner. +His words were so simple that a child could understand +them. Now tears came into the eyes of +most of the audience, as he told some touching +incident, and now faces grew sober as the people +examined their own hearts under the searching +words. There was no consciousness about the +preacher; no wild gesture nor loud tone. Only +one expression seemed applicable, "a man dead in +earnest."</p> + +<p>And who was this man whom thousands came to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span> +hear? Not a learned man, not a rich man, but one +of the greatest evangelists the world has ever seen. +Circumstances were all against him, but he conquered +circumstances.</p> + +<p>Dwight Lyman Moody was born at Northfield, +Mass., Feb. 5, 1837. His father, a stone-mason +and farmer, died when the boy was four years old, +broken down with reverses in business. His mother +was left with seven sons and two daughters, the +eldest a boy only fifteen. What happened to this lad +was well told by Mr. Moody, a few years since. +"Soon after my father's death the creditors came in +and took everything. One calamity after another +swept over the entire household. Twins were +added to the family, and my mother was taken sick. +To the eldest boy my mother looked as a stay in her +calamity; but all at once that boy became a wanderer. +He had been reading some of the trashy +novels, and the belief had seized him that he had +only to go away, to make a fortune. Away he +went. I can remember how eagerly she used to +look for tidings of that boy; how she used to send +us to the post-office to see if there was a letter from +him, and recollect how we used to come back with +the sad news, 'No letter!' I remember how in the +evenings we used to sit beside her in that New +England home, and we would talk about our father; +but the moment the name of that boy was mentioned +she would hush us into silence. Some nights, +when the wind was very high, and the house, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> +was upon a hill, would tremble at every gust, the +voice of my mother was raised in prayer for that +wanderer, who had treated her so unkindly. I used +to think she loved him better than all of us put together, +and I believe she did.</p> + +<p>"On a Thanksgiving day she used to set a chair +for him, thinking he would return home. Her +family grew up, and her boys left home. When I +got so that I could write, I sent letters all over the +country, but could find no trace of him. One day, +while in Boston, the news reached me that he had +returned. While in that city, I remember how I +used to look for him in every store—he had a mark +on his face—but I never got any trace. One day, +while my mother was sitting at the door, a stranger +was seen coming toward the house, and when he +came to the door he stopped. My mother didn't +know her boy. He stood there with folded arms +and great beard flowing down his breast, his tears +trickling down his face. When my mother saw +those tears, she cried, 'Oh, it's my lost son!' and +entreated him to come in. But he stood still, 'No, +mother,' he said, 'I will not come in until I hear +that you have forgiven me.' She rushed to the +threshold, threw her arms around him, and breathed +forgiveness."</p> + +<p>Dwight grew to be a strong, self-willed lad, +working on the farm, fond of fun rather than of +study, held in check only by his devotion to his +mother. She was urged to put the children into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span> +different homes, on account of their extreme +poverty, but by tilling their garden, and doing some +work for their neighbors, she managed to keep her +little flock together. A woman who could do this +had remarkable energy and courage.</p> + +<p>What little schooling Dwight received was not +greatly enjoyed, because the teacher was a quick-tempered +man, who used a rattan on the boys' backs. +Years after, he told how a happy change was effected +in that school. "After a while there was +somebody who began to get up a movement in favor +of controlling the school by love. I remember how +we thought of the good time we should have that +winter, when the rattan would be out of school. +We thought we would then have all the fun we +wanted. I remember who the teacher was—a lady—and +she opened the school with prayer. We +hadn't seen it done before, and we were impressed, +especially when she prayed that she might have +grace and strength to rule the school with love. +The school went on several weeks, and we saw no +rattan; but at last the rules were broken, and I +think I was the first boy to break them. She told +me to wait till after school, and then she would see +me. I thought the rattan was coming out sure, and +stretched myself up in warlike attitude. After +school, however, she sat down by me and told me +how she loved me, and how she had prayed to be +able to rule that school by love, and concluded by +saying, 'I want to ask you one favor, that is, if you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span> +love me, try and be a good boy;' and I never gave +her trouble again."</p> + +<p>He was very susceptible to kindness. When an +old man, who had the habit of giving every new boy +who came into the town a cent, put his hand on +Dwight's head, and told him he had a Father in +heaven, he never forgot the pressure of that old +man's hand.</p> + +<p>Farming among Northfield rocks was not exciting +work enough for the energetic boy; so with his +mother's consent, he started for Boston, when he +was seventeen, to look for work. He had the same +bitter experience that other homeless boys have. +He says, "I went to the post-office two or three +times a day to see if there was a letter for me. I +knew there was not, as there was but one mail a day. +I had not any employment and was very homesick, +and so went constantly to the post-office, thinking +perhaps when the mail did come in, my letter had +been mislaid. At last, however, I got a letter. It +was from my youngest sister,—the first letter she +ever wrote me. I opened it with a light heart thinking +there was some good news from home, but the +burden of the whole letter was that she had heard +there were pickpockets in Boston, and warned me to +take care of them. I thought I had better get some +money in hand first, and then I might take care of +pickpockets."</p> + +<p>The homesick boy finally applied to an uncle, +a shoe-dealer, who hesitated much about taking the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> +country lad into his employ. He agreed to do so +on the conditions that the boy would heed his advice, +and attend regularly the Mount Vernon Church +and Sunday-school. The preaching of Dr. Kirk, +the pastor, was scholarly and eloquent, but quite +above the lad's comprehension. His Sunday-school +teacher, Mr. Edward Kimball, was a devoted +man, and withal had the tact to win a boy's confidence. +One day he came into the store where young +Moody worked, and going behind the counter, placed +his hand on the boy's shoulder and talked about his +becoming a Christian. Such interest touched +Dwight's heart, and he soon took a stand on the +right side. Years afterward, Moody was the means +of the conversion of the son of Mr. Kimball, at seventeen, +just his own age at this time.</p> + +<p>His earnest nature made him eager to do Christian +work; but so poor was his command of language, +and his sentences were so awkward, that he was not +accepted to the membership of the church for a year +after he had made his application. They thought +him very "unlikely ever to become a Christian of +clear and decided views of gospel truth; still less to +fill any extended sphere of public usefulness." +Alas! how the best of us sometimes have our eyes +shut to the treasures lying at our feet.</p> + +<p>He longed for a wider field of usefulness, and in +the fall of 1856, when he was nineteen, started for +Chicago, taking with him testimonials which secured +him a place as salesman in a shoe store. He joined<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> +Plymouth Church, and at once rented four pews for +the young men whom he intended to bring in. Here, +it is said, some of the more cultured assured him +that his silence would be more effective for good +than his speech! Certainly not encouraging to a +young convert.</p> + +<p>He offered his services to a mission school as a +teacher. "He was welcome, if he would bring his +own scholars," they said. The next Sunday, to +their astonishment, young Moody walked in at the +head of eighteen ragged urchins whom he had gathered +from the streets. He distributed tracts among +the seamen at the wharfs, and did not fear to go into +saloons and talk with the inmates.</p> + +<p>Finally he wanted a larger field still, and opened +an old saloon, which had been vacated, as a Sunday-school +room. It was in the neighborhood of two +hundred saloons and gambling-dens! His heart was +full of love for the poor and the outcasts, and they +did not mind about his grammar. A friend came to +see him in these dingy quarters, and found him holding +a colored child, while he read, by the dim light +of some tallow candles, the story of the Prodigal +Son to his little congregation. "I have got only +one talent," said the unassuming Moody. "I have +no education, but I love the Lord Jesus Christ, and +I want to do something for him. I want you to pray +for me."</p> + +<p>Thirteen years later, when all Great Britain was +aflame with the sermons of this same man, he wrote<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> +his friend, "Pray for me every day; pray now that +the Lord will keep me humble."</p> + +<p>Soon the Sunday-school outgrew the shabby +saloon, and was moved to a hall, where a thousand +scholars gathered. Still attending to business as a +travelling salesman, for six years he swept and +made ready his Sunday-school room. He had great +tact with his pupils, and won them by kindness. +One day a boy came, who was very unruly, sticking +pins into the backs of the other boys. Mr. Moody +patted him kindly on the head, and asked him to +come again. After a short time he became a Christian, +and then was anxious about his mother, whom +Mr. Moody had been unable to influence. One +night the lad threw his arms about her neck, and +weeping told her how he had stopped swearing, and +how he wanted her to love the Saviour. When she +passed his room, she heard him praying, "Oh, God, +convert my dear mother." The next Sunday he led +her into the Sabbath-school, and she became an +earnest worker.</p> + +<p>He also has great tact with his young converts. +"Every man can do something," he says. "I had +a Swede converted in Chicago. I don't know how. +I don't suppose he was converted by my sermons, +because he couldn't understand much. The Lord +converted him into one of the happiest men you ever +saw. His face shone all over. He came to me, and +he had to speak through an interpreter. This interpreter +said this Swede wanted to have me give him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> +something to do. I said to myself, 'What in the +world will I set this man to doing? He can't talk +English!' So I gave him a bundle of little handbills, +and put him out on the corner of the greatest +thoroughfare of Chicago, and let him give them out, +inviting people to come up and hear me preach. A +man would come along and take it, and see 'Gospel +meeting,' and would turn around and curse the fellow; +but the Swede would laugh, because he didn't know +but he was blessing him. He couldn't tell the difference. +A great many men were impressed by +that man's being so polite and kind. There he +stood, and when winter came and the nights got so +dark they could not read those little handbills, he +went and got a little transparency and put it up on +the corner, and there he took his stand, hot or cold, +rain or shine. Many a man was won to Christ by +his efforts."</p> + +<p>In 1860, when Moody was twenty-three, he made +up his mind to give all his time to Christian work. +He was led to this by the following incident. He +says, "In the Sunday-school I had a pale, delicate +young man as one of the teachers. I knew his burning +piety, and assigned him to the worst class in the +school. They were all girls, and it was an awful +class. They kept gadding around in the schoolroom, +and were laughing and carrying on all the +while. One Sunday he was absent, and I tried myself +to teach the class, but couldn't do anything with +them; they seemed farther off than ever from any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> +concern about their souls. Well, the day after his +absence, early Monday morning, the young man +came into the store where I worked, and, tottering +and bloodless, threw himself down on some boxes.</p> + +<p>"'What's the matter?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'I have been bleeding at the lungs, and they +have given me up to die,' he said.</p> + +<p>"'But you are not afraid to die?' I questioned.</p> + +<p>"'No,' said he, 'I am not afraid to die; but I +have got to stand before God and give an account +of my stewardship, and not one of my Sabbath-school +scholars has been brought to Jesus. I have failed to +bring one, and haven't any strength to do it now.'</p> + +<p>"He was so weighed down that I got a carriage +and took that dying man in it, and we called at the +homes of every one of his scholars, and to each one +he said, as best his faint voice would let him, 'I have +come to just ask you to come to the Saviour,' and +then he prayed as I never heard before. And for +ten days he labored in that way, sometimes walking +to the nearest houses. And at the end of that ten +days, every one of that large class had yielded to +the Saviour.</p> + +<p>"Full well I remember the night before he went +away (for the doctors said he must hurry to the +South); how we held a true love-feast. It was the +very gate of heaven, that meeting. He prayed, and +they prayed; he didn't ask them, he didn't think +they could pray; and then we sung, 'Blest be the +tie that binds.' It was a beautiful night in June<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> +that he left on the Michigan Southern, and I was +down to the train to help him off. And those girls +every one gathered there again, all unknown to each +other; and the depot seemed a second gate to +heaven, in the joyful, yet tearful, communion and +farewells between these newly-redeemed souls and +him whose crown of rejoicing it will be that he led +them to Jesus. At last the gong sounded, and, supported +on the platform, the dying man shook hands +with each one, and whispered, 'I will meet you +yonder.'</p> + +<p>"From this," says Mr. Moody, "I got the first +impulse to work solely for the conversion of men."</p> + +<p>When he told his employer that he was going to +give up business, he was asked, "Where will you +get your support?"</p> + +<p>"God will provide for me if he wishes me to keep +on, and I shall keep on till I am obliged to stop," +was the reply.</p> + +<p>To keep his expenses as low as possible, he slept +at night on a hard bench in the rooms of the Young +Men's Christian Association, and ate the plainest +food. Thus was the devoted work of this Christian +hero begun. He was soon made city missionary for +a time. Then the civil war began, and a camp +was established near Chicago. He saw his wonderful +opportunity now to reach men who were soon to +be face to face with death. The first tent erected +was used as a place of prayer. Ministers and friends +came to his aid. He labored day and night, some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span>times +eight or ten prayer-meetings being held at the +same time in the various tents.</p> + +<p>He did not desert these men on the field of battle. +He was with the army at Pittsburgh Landing, Shiloh, +Murfreesboro', and Chattanooga. Nine times, in the +interests of the Christian Commission, he visited our +men at the front, on his errands of mercy. He tells +this incident in a hospital at Murfreesboro'.</p> + +<p>"One night after midnight, I was woke up and +told that there was a man in one of the wards who +wanted to see me. I went to him, and he called me +'chaplain,'—I wasn't a chaplain,—and he said he +wanted me to help him die. And I said, 'I'd take +you right up in my arms and carry you into the kingdom +of God, if I could; but I can't do it; I can't help +you to die.'</p> + +<p>"And he said, 'Who can?'</p> + +<p>"I said, 'The Lord Jesus Christ can. He came +for that purpose.' He shook his head and said, 'He +can't save me; I have sinned all my life.'</p> + +<p>"And I said, 'But he came to save sinners.' I +thought of his mother in the north, and I knew that +she was anxious that he should die right, and I +thought I'd stay with him. I prayed two or three +times, and repeated all the promises I could, and I +knew that in a few hours he would be gone. I said +I wanted to read him a conversation that Christ had +with a man who was anxious about his soul. I +turned to the third chapter of John. His eyes were +riveted on me, and when I came to the fourteenth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> +and fifteenth verses, he caught up the words, 'As +Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even +so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever +believeth in him should not perish, but have +eternal life.'</p> + +<p>"He stopped me, and said, 'Is that there?' I +said, 'Yes;' and he asked me to read it again, and +I did so. He leaned his elbows on the cot and +clasped his hands together, and said, 'That's good; +won't you read it again?' I read it the third time, +and then went on with the rest of the chapter. +When I finished his eyes were closed, his hands +were folded, and there was a smile on his face. +Oh, how it was lit up! What a change had come +over it. I saw his lips quiver, and I leaned over +him, and heard in a faint whisper, 'As Moses lifted +up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of +man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth on him +should not perish, but have eternal life.'</p> + +<p>"He opened his eyes and said, 'That's enough; +don't read any more.' He lingered a few hours, +and then pillowed his head on those two verses, and +went up in one of Christ's chariots and took his seat +in the kingdom of God."</p> + +<p>On the 28th of August, 1862, Mr. Moody married +Miss Emma C. Revell, a most helpful assistant in +his meetings, and a young lady of noble character. +A daughter and a son came to gladden their simple +cottage, and there was no happier home in all Chicago. +One morning he said to his wife, "I have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> +no money, and the house is without supplies. It +looks as if the Lord had had enough of me in this +mission work, and is going to send me back again +to sell boots and shoes." But very soon two checks +came, one of fifty dollars for himself, and another +for his school. Six years after his marriage, his +friends gave him the lease of a pleasant furnished +house.</p> + +<p>This home had a welcome for all who sought the +true way to live. One day a gentleman called at +the office, bringing a young man who had recently +come out of the penitentiary. The latter shrunk +from going into the office, but Mr. Moody said, +"Bring him in." Mr. Moody took him by the +hand, told him he was glad to see him, and invited +him to his house. When the young man called, +Mr. Moody introduced him as his friend. When +his little daughter came into the room, he said, +"Emma, this is papa's friend." She went up and +kissed him, and the man sobbed aloud.</p> + +<p>When she left the room, Mr. Moody said, "What +is the matter?"</p> + +<p>"Oh sir," was the reply, "I have not had a kiss +for years. The last kiss I had was from my mother, +and she was dying. I thought I would never have +another kiss again."</p> + +<p>No wonder people are saved from sin by visiting +a home like this!</p> + +<p>In 1863, those who had been converted under this +beloved leader wanted a church of their own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span> +where they could worship together. A building was +erected, costing twenty thousand dollars. Four +years later, Mr. Moody was made President of the +Young Men's Christian Association, and Farwell +Hall was speedily built.</p> + +<p>He was loved and honored everywhere. Once he +was invited to the opening of a great billiard hall. +He saw the owners, and asked if he might bring a +friend. They said yes, but asked who he was. +Mr. Moody said it wasn't necessary to tell, but he +never went without him. They understood his +meaning, and said, "Come, we don't want any +praying."</p> + +<p>"You've given me an invitation, and I am going +to come," he replied.</p> + +<p>"But if you come, you needn't pray."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll tell you what we'll do," was the +answer; "we'll compromise the matter, and if you +don't want me to come and pray for you when you +open, let me pray for you both now," to which they +agreed.</p> + +<p>Mr. Moody prayed that their business might go +to pieces, which it did in a very few months. After +the failure, one of the partners determined to kill +himself; but when he was about to plunge the knife +into his breast, he seemed to hear again the words +of his dying mother, "Johnny, if you get into trouble, +pray." That voice changed his purpose and his +life. He prayed for forgiveness and obtained it.</p> + +<p>In 1871, the terrible fire in Chicago swept away<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> +Moody's home and church. Two years later, having +been invited to Great Britain by two prominent +Christian men, he decided to take his friend, Mr. +Ira D. Sankey, who had already won a place in the +hearts of the people by his singing, and together +they would attempt some work for their Lord. +They landed in Liverpool, June 17. The two +friends who had invited them were dead. The +clergy did not know them, and the world was wholly +indifferent. At their first meeting in York, England, +only four persons were present, but Mr. Moody +said it was one of the best meetings they ever held. +They labored here for some weeks, and about two +hundred were converted.</p> + +<p>From here they went to Sunderland and Newcastle, +the numbers and interest constantly increasing. +Union prayer meetings had been held in +Edinburgh for two months in anticipation of their +coming. When they arrived, two thousand persons +crowded Music Hall, and hundreds were necessarily +turned away. As a result of these efforts, over +three thousand persons united with the various +churches. In Dundee over ten thousand persons +gathered in the open air, and at Glasgow nearly +thirty thousand, Mr. Moody preaching from his carriage. +The press reported all these sermons, and +his congregations were thus increased a hundred-fold +all over the country. The farmer boy of Northfield, +the awkward young convert of Mount Vernon +Church, Boston, had become famous. Scholarly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> +ministers came to him to learn how to influence men +toward religion. Infidels were reclaimed, and rich +and poor alike found the Bible precious, from his +simple and beautiful teaching.</p> + +<p>In Ireland the crowds sometimes covered six acres, +and inquiry meetings lasted for eight hours. Four +months were spent in London, where it is believed +over two and a half million persons attended the +meetings.</p> + +<p>Mr. Moody had been fearless in his work. When +a church member who was a distiller became troubled +in conscience over his business, he came and asked +if the evangelist thought a man could not be an honest +distiller.</p> + +<p>Mr. Moody replied, "You should do whatever +you do for the glory of God. If you can get down +and pray about a barrel of whiskey, and say when +you sell it, 'O Lord God, let this whiskey be blessed +to the world,' it is probably honest!"</p> + +<p>On his return to America, Mr. Moody was eagerly +welcomed. Philadelphia utilized an immense freight +depot for the meetings, putting in it ten thousand +chairs, and providing a choir of six hundred singers. +Over four thousand conversions resulted. In New +York the Hippodrome was prepared by an expenditure +of ten thousand dollars, and as many conversions +were reported here. Boston received him with +open arms. Ninety churches co-operated in the +house-to-house visitation in connection with the +meetings, and a choir of two thousand singers was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> +provided. Mr. Moody, with his wonderful executive +ability and genius in organizing, was like a general +at the head of his army.</p> + +<p>Chicago received him home thankfully and proudly, +as was her right. A church had been built for him +during his absence, costing one hundred thousand +dollars.</p> + +<p>For the past ten years his work has been a marvel +to the world and, doubtless, to himself. Great +Britain has been a second time stirred to its centre +by his presence. His sermons have been scattered +broadcast by the hundreds of thousands. He receives +no salary, never allowing a contribution to be +taken for himself, but his wants have been supplied. +A pleasant home at his birthplace, Northfield, has +been given him by his friends, made doubly dear by +the presence of his mother, now over eighty years +old. He has established two schools here, one for +boys and another for girls, with three hundred pupils, +trained in all that ennobles life.</p> + +<p>The results from Mr. Moody's work are beyond +computing. In his first visit to London a noted man +of wealth was converted. He at once sold his +hunting dogs and made his country house a centre +of missionary effort. During Mr. Moody's second +visit the two sons at Cambridge University professed +Christianity. One goes to China, having induced +some other students to accompany him as missionaries; +the other, just married to a lord's daughter, +has begun mission work among the slums in the +East End of London.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span></p> + +<p>The work of such a life as Mr. Moody's goes on +forever. His influence will be felt in almost countless +homes after he has passed away from earth. +He has wrought without means, and with no fortuitous +circumstances. He is a devoted student of +the Bible, rising at five o'clock for study in some of +his most laborious seasons. He is a man consecrated +to a single purpose,—that of winning souls.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p>Mr. Moody died at his home at East Northfield, +Mass., at noon, Friday, December 22, 1899. He was +taken ill during a series of meetings at Kansas City, +a few weeks previously, and heart disease resulted +from overwork. He was conscious to the last. He +said to his two sons who were standing by his bedside: +"I have always been an ambitious man, not ambitious +to lay up wealth, but to leave you work to +do, and you're going to continue the work of the +schools in East Northfield and Mount Hermon and +of the Chicago Bible Institute." Just as death +came he awoke as if from sleep and said joyfully, +"I have been within the gate; earth is receding; +heaven is opening; God is calling me; do not call +me back," and a moment later expired. He was +buried Tuesday, December 26, at Round Top, on the +seminary grounds, where thousands have gathered +yearly at the summer meetings conducted by the +great evangelist.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span></p> +<h2>ABRAHAM LINCOLN.</h2> + + +<p>In Gentryville, Indiana, in the year 1816, might +have been seen a log cabin without doors or +window-glass, a dirt floor, a bed made of dried +leaves, and a stool or two and table formed of +logs. The inmates were Thomas Lincoln, a good-hearted +man who could neither read nor write; +Nancy Hanks, his wife, a pale-faced, sensitive, +gentle woman, strangely out of place in her miserable +surroundings; a girl of ten, Sarah; and a tall, +awkward boy of eight, Abraham.</p> + +<p>The family had but recently moved from a similar +cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky, cutting their +way through the wilderness with an ax, and living +off the game they could obtain with a gun.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lincoln possessed but one book in the +world, the Bible; and from this she taught her children +daily. Abraham had been to school for two or +three months, at such a school as the rude country +afforded, and had learned to read. Of quick mind +and retentive memory, he soon came to know the +Bible wellnigh by heart, and to look upon his gentle +teacher as the embodiment of all the good pre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span>cepts +in the book. Afterward, when he governed +thirty million people, he said, "All that I am or +hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. Blessings +on her memory!"</p> + +<div class="figcenter padbase" style="width: 452px;"> +<img src="images/illus-342.jpg" width="452" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">ABRAHAM LINCOLN.</span> +</div> + +<p>When he was ten years old, the saintly mother +faded like a flower amid these hardships of pioneer +life, died of consumption, and was buried in a plain +box under the trees near the cabin. The blow for +the girl, who also died at fifteen, was hard; but for +the boy the loss was irreparable. Day after day he +sat on the grave and wept. A sad, far-away look +crept into his eyes, which those who saw him in the +perils of his later life well remember.</p> + +<p>Nine months after this, Abraham wrote a letter to +Parson Elkins, a good minister whom they used to +know in Kentucky, asking him to come and preach +a funeral sermon on his mother. He came, riding +on horseback over one hundred miles; and one +bright Sabbath morning, when the neighbors from +the whole country around had gathered, some in +carts and some on horseback, he spoke, over the +open grave, of the precious, Christian life of her +who slept beneath. She died early, but not till she +had laid well the foundation-stones in one of the +grandest characters in history.</p> + +<p>The boy, communing with himself, longed to read +and know something beyond the stumps between +which he planted his corn. He borrowed a copy of +Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," and read and re-read +it till he could repeat much of it. Then some one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span> +loaned him "Æsop's Fables" and "Robinson Crusoe," +and these he pored over with eager delight. +There surely was a great world beyond Kentucky +and Indiana, and perhaps he would some day +see it.</p> + +<p>After a time Thomas Lincoln married a widow, +an old friend of Nancy Hanks, and she came to the +cabin, bringing her three children; besides, she +brought what to Abraham and Sarah seemed unheard-of +elegance,—a bureau, some chairs, a table, +and bedding. Abraham had heretofore climbed to +the loft of the cabin on pegs, and had slept on a +sack filled with corn-husks: now a real bed would +seem indeed luxurious.</p> + +<p>The children were glad to welcome the new mother +to the desolate home; and a good, true mother she +became to the orphans. She put new energy into +her somewhat easy-going husband, and made the +cabin comfortable, even attractive. What was +better still, she encouraged Abraham to read more +and more, to be thorough, and to be somebody. +Besides, she gave his great heart something to love, +and well she repaid the affection.</p> + +<p>He now obtained a much-worn copy of Weem's +"Life of Washington," and the little cabin grew to +be a paradise, as he read how one great man had +accomplished so much. The barefoot boy, in buckskin +breeches so shrunken that they reached only +half way between the knee and ankle, actually asked +himself whether there were not some great place in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span> +the world for him to fill. No wonder, when, a few +days after, making a noise with some of his fun-loving +companions, a good woman said to him, +"Now, Abe, what on earth do you s'pose'll ever +become of ye? What'll ye be good for if ye keep +a-goin' on in this way?" He replied slowly, "Well, +I reckon I'm goin' to be President of the United +States one of these days."</p> + +<p>The treasured "Life of Washington" came to +grief. One stormy night the rain beat between the +logs of the cabin, and flooded the volume as it lay +on a board upheld by two pegs. Abraham sadly +carried it back to its owner, and worked three days, +at twenty-five cents a day, to pay damages, and +thus made the book his own.</p> + +<p>The few months of schooling had already come to +an end, and he was "living out," hoeing, planting, +and chopping wood for the farmers, and giving the +wages to his parents. In this way, in the daytime +he studied human nature, and in the evenings he +read "Plutarch's Lives" and the "Life of Benjamin +Franklin." He was liked in these humble homes, +for he could tend baby, tell stories, make a good +impromptu speech, recite poetry, even making +rhymes himself, and could wrestle and jump as well +as the best.</p> + +<p>While drinking intoxicants was the fashion all +about him, taught by his first mother not to touch +them, he had solemnly carried out her wishes. But +his tender heart made him kind to the many who, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> +this pioneer life, had been ruined through drink. +One night, as he was returning from a house-raising, +he and two or three friends found a man in the +ditch benumbed with the cold, and his patient horse +waiting beside him. They lifted the man upon the +animal, and held him on till they reached the nearest +house, where Abraham cared for him through the +night, and thus saved his life.</p> + +<p>At eighteen he had found a situation in a small +store, but he was not satisfied to stand behind a +counter; he had read too much about Washington +and Franklin. Fifteen miles from Gentryville, +courts were held at certain seasons of the year; and +when Abraham could find a spare day he walked +over in the morning and back at night, listening to +the cases. Meantime he had borrowed a strange +book for a poor country-lad,—"The Revised Statutes +of Indiana."</p> + +<p>One day a man on trial for murder had secured +the able lawyer, John A. Breckenridge, to defend +him. Abraham listened as he made his appeal to +the jury. He had never heard anything so eloquent. +When the court adjourned the tall, homely boy, his +face beaming with admiration for the great man, +pressed forward to grasp his hand; but, with a +contemptuous air, the lawyer passed on without +speaking. Thirty years later the two met in Washington, +when Abraham Lincoln was the President of +the United States; and then he thanked Mr. Breckenridge +for his great speech in Indiana.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span></p> + +<p>In March, 1828, the long-hoped-for opportunity +to see the world outside of Gentryville had come. +Abraham was asked by a man who knew his honesty +and willingness to work, to take a flat-boat down +the Mississippi River to New Orleans. He was paid +only two dollars a week and his rations; and as a +flat-boat could not come up the river, but must be +sold for lumber at the journey's end, he was obliged +to walk the whole distance back. The big-hearted, +broad-shouldered youth, six feet and four inches +tall, had seen in this trip what he would never forget; +had seen black men in chains, and men and +women sold like sheep in the slave-marts of New +Orleans. Here began his horror of human slavery, +which years after culminated in the Emancipation +Proclamation.</p> + +<p>Two years later, when he had become of age, +Abraham helped move his father's family to Illinois, +driving the four yoke of oxen which drew the household +goods over the muddy roads and through the +creeks. Then he joined his adopted brothers in +building a log house, plowed fifteen acres of prairie +land for corn, split rails to fence it in, and then +went out into the world to earn for himself, his +scanty wages heretofore belonging legally to his +father. He did not always receive money for his +work, for once, for a Mrs. Miller, he split four +hundred rails for every yard of brown jeans, dyed +with white walnut bark, necessary to make a pair of +trowsers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span></p> + +<p>He had no trade, and no money, and must do +whatever came to hand. For a year he worked for +one farmer and another, and then he and his half-brother +were hired by a Mr. Offutt to build and take +a flat-boat to New Orleans. So pleased was the +owner, that on Abraham's return, he was at once +engaged to manage a mill and store at New Salem. +Here he went by the name of "Honest Abe," +because he was so fair in his dealings. On one +occasion, having sold a woman a bill of goods +amounting to two dollars and six and a quarter +cents, he found that in adding the items, he had +taken six and a quarter cents too much. It was +night, and locking the store, he walked two or three +miles to return the money to his astonished customer. +Another time a woman bought a half pound +of tea. He discovered afterward that he had used +a four-ounce weight on the scales, and at once +walked a long way to deliver the four ounces which +were her due. No wonder the world, like Diogenes, +is always looking for an honest man.</p> + +<p>He insisted on politeness before women. One +day as he was showing goods, a boorish man came +in and began to use profanity. Young Lincoln +leaned over the desk, and begged him to desist +before ladies. When they had gone, the man +became furious. Finding that he really desired to +fight, Lincoln said, "Well, if you must be whipped, +I suppose I may as well whip you as any other +man," and suiting the action to the word, gave him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span> +a severe punishing. The man became a better +citizen from that day, and Lincoln's life-long friend.</p> + +<p>Years afterward, when in the Presidential chair, +a man used profanity in his presence, he said, "I +thought Senator C. had sent me a gentleman. I +was mistaken. There is the door, and I wish you +good-night."</p> + +<p>Hearing that a grammar could be purchased six +miles away, the young store-keeper walked thither +and obtained it. When evening came, as candles +were too expensive for his limited wages, he burnt +one shaving after another to give light, and thus +studied the book which was to be so valuable in +after years, when he should stand before the great +and cultured of the land. He took the "Louisville +Journal," because he must be abreast of the politics +of the day, and made careful notes from every book +he read.</p> + +<p>Mr. Offutt soon failed, and Abraham Lincoln was +again adrift. War had begun with Blackhawk, the +chief of the Sacs, and the Governor of Illinois was +calling for volunteers. A company was formed in +New Salem, and "Honest Abe" was chosen captain. +He won the love of his men for his thoughtfulness +of them rather than himself, and learned +valuable lessons in military matters for the future. +A strange thing now happened,—he was asked to +be a candidate for the State Legislature! At first +he thought his friends were ridiculing him, and said +he should be defeated as he was not widely known.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Never mind!" said James Rutledge, the president +of their little debating club. "They'll know +you better after you've stumped the county. Any +how, it'll do you good to try."</p> + +<p>Lincoln made some bright, earnest stump speeches, +and though he was defeated, the young man of twenty-three +received two hundred and seventy-seven +votes out of the two hundred and eighty cast in New +Salem. This surely was a pleasant indication of +his popularity. It was a common saying, that +"Lincoln had nothing, only plenty of friends."</p> + +<p>The County-surveyor needed an assistant. He +called upon Lincoln, bringing a book for him to +study, if he would fit himself to take hold of the +matter. This he did gladly, and for six weeks +studied and recited to a teacher, thus making himself +skilled and accurate for a new country. Whenever +he had an hour's leisure from his work, however, +he was poring over his law-books, for he had +fully made up his mind to be a lawyer.</p> + +<p>He was modest, but ambitious, and was learning +the power within him. But as though the developing +brain and warm heart needed an extra stimulus, +there came into his life, at this time, a beautiful +affection, that left a deeper look in the far-away +eyes, when it was over. Ann Rutledge, the +daughter of his friend, was one of the most intelligent +and lovely girls in New Salem. When Lincoln +came to her father's house to board, she was already +engaged to a bright young man in the neighborhood,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span> +who, shortly before their intended marriage, was +obliged to visit New York on business. He wrote +back of his father's illness and death, and then his +letters ceased.</p> + +<p>Mouths passed away. Meantime the young +lawyer had given her the homage of his strong +nature. At first she could not bring herself to forget +her recreant lover, but the following year, won +by Lincoln's devotion, she accepted him. He +seemed now supremely happy. He studied day and +night, eager to fill such a place that Ann Rutledge +would be proud of him. He had been elected to +the Legislature, and, borrowing some money to purchase +a suit of clothes, he walked one hundred miles +to the State capitol. He did not talk much in the +Assembly, but he worked faithfully upon committees, +and studied the needs of his State.</p> + +<p>The following summer days seemed to pass all +too swiftly in his happiness. Then the shadows +gathered. The girl he idolized was sinking under +the dreadful strain upon her young heart. The +latter part of August she sent for Lincoln to come +to her bedside. What was said in that last farewell +has never been known. It is stated by some that +her former lover had returned, as fond of her as +ever, his silence having been caused by a long illness. +But on the twenty-fifth of August, death +took her from them both.</p> + +<p>Lincoln was overwhelmed with anguish; insane, +feared and believed his friends. He said, "I can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span> +never be reconciled to have the snow, rains, and +storms beat upon her grave." Years after he was +heard to say, "My heart lies buried in the grave of +that girl." A poem by William Knox, found and +read at this time, became a favorite and a comfort +through life,—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +"Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?"<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>Mr. Herndon, his law partner, said, "The love and +death of that girl shattered Lincoln's purposes and +tendencies. He threw off his infinite sorrow only +by leaping wildly into the political arena." The +memory of that love never faded from his heart, nor +the sadness from his face.</p> + +<p>The following year, 1837, when he was twenty-eight, +he was admitted to the bar, and moved from +New Salem to the larger town of Springfield, forming +a partnership with Mr. J. P. Stuart of whom he +had borrowed his law-books. Too poor even yet +to pay much for board, he slept on a narrow lounge +in the law-office. He was again elected to the legislature, +and in the Harrison Presidential campaign, +was chosen one of the electors, speaking through +the State for the Whig party. To so prominent a +position, already, had come the backwoods boy.</p> + +<p>Four years after Ann Rutledge's death, he married, +Nov. 4, 1839, Mary Todd, a bright, witty, +somewhat handsome girl, of good family, from Kentucky. +She admired his ability, and believed in his +success; he needed comfort in his utter loneliness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span> +Till his death he was a true husband, and an idolizing +father to his children,—Robert, Willie, and Tad +(Thomas).</p> + +<p>In 1846, seven years after his marriage, having +steadily gained in the reputation of an honest, able +lawyer, who would never take a case unless sure he +was on the right side, Mr. Lincoln was elected to +Congress by an uncommonly large majority. Opposed +to the war with Mexico, and to the extension +of slavery, he spoke his mind fearlessly. The +"Compromise measures of 1850," by which, while +California was admitted as a free State, and the +slave-trade was abolished in the District of Columbia, +the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, giving +the owners of slaves the right to recapture them in +any free State, had disheartened all lovers of freedom. +Lincoln said gloomily to his law partner, +Mr. Herndon, "How hard, oh, how hard it is to die +and leave one's country no better than if one had +never lived for it!"</p> + +<p>His father died about this time, his noble son +sending him this message, "to remember to call +upon and confide in our great and good and merciful +Maker, who will not turn away from him in +any extremity. He notes the fall of the sparrow, +and numbers the hairs of our heads; and He will +not forget the dying man who puts his trust in +Him."</p> + +<p>In 1854, through the influence of Stephen A. +Douglas, a brilliant senator from Illinois, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span> +Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, whereby those +States were left to judge for themselves whether +they would have slaves or not. But by the Missouri +Compromise of 1820, it was expressly +stated that slavery should be forever prohibited in +this locality. The whole North grew to white heat. +When Douglas returned to his Chicago home the +people refused to hear him speak. Illinois said, +"His arguments must be answered, and Abraham +Lincoln is the man to answer them!"</p> + +<p>At the State Fair at Springfield, in October, a +great company were gathered. Douglas spoke with +marked ability and eloquence, and then on the following +day, Abraham Lincoln spoke for three hours. +His heart was in his words. He quivered with +emotion. The audience were still as death, but +when the address was finished, men shouted and +women waved their handkerchiefs. Lincoln and +the right had triumphed. After this, the two men +spoke in all the large towns of the State, to +immense crowds. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill +worked out its expected results. Blood flowed in +the streets, as pro-slavery and anti-slavery men +contested the ground, newspaper offices were torn +down by mobs, and Douglas lost the great prize he +had in view,—the Presidency of the United States.</p> + +<p>When the new party, the Republican, held its +second convention in Philadelphia, June 17, 1856, +Abraham Lincoln received one hundred and ten +votes for Vice President. What would Nancy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span> +Hanks Lincoln have said if she could have looked +now upon the boy to whom she taught the Bible in +the log cabin!</p> + +<p>An incident occurred about this time which increased +his fame. A man was murdered at a camp-meeting, +and two young men were arrested. One +was a very poor youth, whose mother, Hannah +Armstrong, had been kind to Lincoln in the early +years. She wrote to the prominent lawyer about +her troubles, because she believed her son to be +innocent. The trial came on. The people were +clamorous for Armstrong to be hanged. The principal +witness testified that "by the aid of the +brightly shining moon, he saw the prisoner inflict +the death-blow with a slung shot."</p> + +<p>After careful questioning, Mr. Lincoln showed +the perjury of the witness, by the almanac, no moon +being visible on the night in question. The jury +were melted to tears by the touching address, and +their sympathy went out to the wronged youth and +his poor old mother, who fainted in his arms. +Tears, too, poured down the face of Mr. Lincoln, as +the young man was acquitted. "Why, Hannah," +he said, when the grateful woman asked what she +should try to pay him, "I shan't charge you a cent; +never." She had been well repaid for her friendliness +to a penniless boy.</p> + +<p>The next year he was invited to deliver a lecture +at Cooper Institute, New York. He was not very well +known at the East. He had lived unostentatiously in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span> +the two-story frame-house in Springfield, and when +seen at all by the people, except in his addresses, +was usually drawing one of his babies in a wagon +before his door, with hat and coat off, deeply buried +in thought. When the crowd gathered at Cooper +Institute, they expected to hear a fund of stories +and a "Western stump speech." But they did not +hear what they expected. They heard a masterly +review of the history of slavery in this country, and +a prophecy concerning the future of the slavery +question. They were amazed at its breadth and its +eloquence. The "New York Tribune" said, "No +man ever before made such an impression on his +first appeal to a New York audience."</p> + +<p>After this Mr. Lincoln spoke in various cities to +crowded houses. A Yale professor took notes and +gave a lecture to his students on the address. Surprised +at his success among learned men, Mr. Lincoln +once asked a prominent professor "what made +the speeches interest?"</p> + +<p>The reply was, "The clearness of your statements, +the unanswerable style of your reasoning +and your illustrations, which were romance, and +pathos, and fun, and logic, all welded together."</p> + +<p>Mr. Lincoln said, "I am very much obliged to +you for this. It throws light on a subject which +has been dark to me. Certainly I have had a wonderful +success for a man of my limited education."</p> + +<p>The sabbath he spent in New York, he found his +way to the Sunday-school at Five Points. He was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span> +alone. The superintendent noticing his interest, +asked him to say a few words. The children were +so pleased that when he attempted to stop, they +cried, "Go on, oh! do go on!" No one knew his +name, and on being asked who he was, he replied, +"Abraham Lincoln of Illinois." After visiting his +son Robert at Harvard College, he returned home.</p> + +<p>When the Republican State Convention met, May +9, 1860, at Springfield, Ill., Mr. Lincoln was invited +to a seat on the platform, and as no way could +be made through the dense throng, he was carried +over the people's heads. Ten days later, at the National +Convention at Chicago, though William H. +Seward of New York was a leading candidate, the +West gained the nomination, with their idolized Lincoln. +Springfield was wild with joy. When the +news of his success was carried to him, he said quietly, +"Well, gentlemen, there's a little woman at +our house who is probably more interested in this +dispatch than I am; and if you will excuse me, I +will take it up and let her see it."</p> + +<p>The resulting canvass was one of the most remarkable +in our history. The South said, "War will +result if he is elected." The North said, "The time +has come for decisive action." The popular vote +for Abraham Lincoln was nearly two millions +(1,857,610), while Stephen A. Douglas received +something over a million (1,291,574). The country +was in a fever of excitement. The South made +itself ready for war by seizing the forts. Before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span> +the inauguration most of the Southern States had +seceded.</p> + +<p>Sad farewells were uttered as Mr. Lincoln left +Springfield for Washington. To his law partner he +said, "You and I have been together more than +twenty years, and have never passed a word. Will +you let my name stay on the old sign till I come +back from Washington?"</p> + +<p>The tears came into Mr. Herndon's eyes, as he +said, "I will never have any other partner while +you live," and he kept his word. Old Hannah Armstrong +told him that she should never see him again; +that something told her so; his enemies would +assassinate him. He smiled and said, "Hannah, if +they do kill me, I shall never die another death."</p> + +<p>He went away without fear, but feeling the awful +responsibility of his position. He found an empty +treasury and the country drifting into the blackness +of war. He spoke few words, but the lines grew +deeper on his face, and his eyes grew sadder.</p> + +<p>In his inaugural address he said, "In your hands, +my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, +is the momentous issue of civil war. The government +will not assail you. You can have no conflict +without being yourselves the aggressors.... Physically +speaking we cannot separate."</p> + +<p>The conflict began April 12, 1861, by the enemy +firing on Fort Sumter. That sound reverberated +throughout the North. The President called for +seventy-five thousand men. The choicest from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span> +thousands of homes quickly responded. Young +men left their college-halls and men their places of +business. "The Union must and shall be preserved," +was the eager cry. Then came the call for +forty-two thousand men for three years.</p> + +<p>The President began to study war in earnest. +He gathered military books, sought out on maps +every creek and hill and valley in the enemy's country, +and took scarcely time to eat or sleep. May 24, +the brilliant young Colonel Ellsworth had been shot +at Alexandria by a hotel-keeper, because he pulled +down the secession flag. He was buried from the +east room in the White House, and the North was +more aroused than ever. The press and people +were eager for battle, and July 21, 1861, the Union +army, under General McDowell, attacked the Confederates +at Bull Run and were defeated. The +South was jubilant, and the North learned, once for +all, that the war was to be long and bloody. Congress, +at the request of the President, at once voted +five hundred thousand men, and five hundred million +dollars to carry on the war.</p> + +<p>Vast work was to be done. The Southern ports +must be blockaded, and the traffic on the Mississippi +River discontinued. A great and brave army of +Southerners, fighting on their own soil, every foot +of which they knew so well, must be conquered if +the nation remained intact. The burdens of the +President grew more and more heavy. Men at the +North, who sympathized with the South,—for we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span> +were bound together as one family in a thousand +ways,—said the President was going too far in his +authority; others said he moved too slowly, and was +too lenient to the slave power. The South gained +strength from the sympathy of England, and only +by careful leadership was war avoided with that +country.</p> + +<p>General McClellan had fought some hard battles +in Virginia—Fair Oaks, Mechanicsville, Malvern +Hill, and others—with varying success, losing thousands +of men in the Chickahominy swamps, and +after the battle of Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862, one of +the severest of the war, when each side lost over +ten thousand men, he was relieved of his command, +and succeeded by General Burnside. There had +been some successes at the West under Grant, at +Fort Donelson and Shiloh, and at the South under +Farragut, but the outlook for the country was not +hopeful. Mr. Lincoln had met with a severe affliction +in his own household. His beautiful son Willie +had died in February. He used to walk the +room in those dying hours, saying sadly, "This is +the hardest trial of my life; why is it? why is it?"</p> + +<p>This made him, perhaps, even more tender of the +lives of others' sons. A young sentinel had been +sentenced to be shot for sleeping at his post; but +the President pardoned him, saying, "I could not +think of going into eternity with the blood of the +poor young man on my skirts. It is not to be wondered +at that a boy raised on a farm, probably in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span> +the habit of going to bed at dark, should, when +required to watch, fall asleep, and I cannot consent +to shoot him for such an act." This youth was +found among the slain on the field of Fredericksburg, +wearing next his heart a photograph of his +preserver, with the words, "God bless President +Lincoln."</p> + +<p>An army officer once went to Washington to see +about the execution of twenty-four deserters, who +had been sentenced by court-martial to be shot. +"Mr. President," said he, "unless these men are +made an example of, the army itself is in danger. +Mercy to the few is cruelty to the many."</p> + +<p>"Mr. General," was the reply, "there are already +too many weeping widows in the United States. +For God's sake, don't ask me to add to the number, +for I won't do it." At another time he said, +"Well, I think the boy can do us more good above +ground than under ground."</p> + +<p>A woman in a faded shawl and hood came to see +the President, begging that, as her husband and all +her sons—three—had enlisted, and her husband +had been killed, he would release the oldest, that +he might care for his mother. Mr. Lincoln quickly +consented. When the poor woman reached the +hospital where her boy was to be found, he was +dead. Returning sadly to Mr. Lincoln, he said, +"I know what you wish me to do now, and I shall +do it without your asking; I shall release your second +son.... Now <i>you</i> have one, and <i>I</i> one of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span> +other two left: that is no more than right." Tears +filled the eyes of both as she reverently laid her +hand on his head, saying, "The Lord bless you, Mr. +President. May you live a thousand years, and +always be at the head of this great nation!"</p> + +<p>Through all these months it had become evident +that slavery must be destroyed, or we should live +over again these dreadful war-scenes in years to +come. Mr. Lincoln had been waiting for the right +time to free the slaves. General McClellan had +said, "A declaration of radical views, especially +upon slavery, will rapidly disintegrate our present +armies"; but Sept. 22, 1862, Mr. Lincoln told his +Cabinet, "I have promised my God that I will do +it"; and he issued the immortal Emancipation +Proclamation, by which four million human beings +stepped out from bondage into freedom. He knew +what he was doing. Two years afterward he said, +"It is the central act of my administration, and the +great event of the nineteenth century."</p> + +<p>The following year, 1863, brought even deeper +sorrows. The "Draft Act," by which men were +obliged to enter the army when their names were +drawn, occasioned in July a riot in New York city, +with the loss of many lives. Grant had taken +Vicksburg on July 4, and General Meade had won +at the dreadful three days' fight at Gettysburg, +July 1-4, with a loss of more than twenty thousand +on either side; but the nation was being held +together at a fearful cost. When Mr. Lincoln<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span> +announced to the people the victory at Gettysburg, +he expressed the desire that, in the customary observance +of the Fourth of July, "He whose will, +not ours, should everywhere be done, be everywhere +reverenced with profoundest gratitude." He reverenced +God, himself, most devoutly. "I have been +driven many times upon my knees," he said, "by +the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere +else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about +me seemed insufficient for that day."</p> + +<p>On Nov. 19, of this year, this battle-field was +dedicated, with solemn ceremonies, as one of the +national cemeteries. Mr. Lincoln made a very +brief address, in words that will last while America +lasts, "The world will little note, nor long remember, +what we say here; but it can never forget what +they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be +dedicated here to the unfinished work which they +who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. +It is, rather, for us to be here dedicated to the great +task remaining for us, that from these honored dead +we take increased devotion to the cause for which +they gave the last full measure of devotion; that +we here highly resolve that these dead shall not +have died in vain; that this nation, under God, +shall have a new birth of freedom, and that the +government of the people, by the people, and for +the people, shall not perish from the earth."</p> + +<p>Emerson says of these words, "This, and one +other American speech, that of John Brown to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span> +court that tried him, and a part of Kossuth's speech +at Birmingham, can only be compared with each +other, and no fourth."</p> + +<p>The next year, Feb. 29, 1864, the Hero of Vicksburg +was called to the Lieutenant-Generalship of +the army, and for the first time Mr. Lincoln felt +somewhat a sense of relief from burdens. He said, +"Wherever Grant is, things move." He now called +for five hundred thousand more men, and the beginning +of the end was seen. Sherman swept through +to the sea. Grant went below Richmond, where he +said, "I propose to fight it out on this line if it +takes all summer."</p> + +<p>Mr. Lincoln had been re-elected to the Presidency +for a second term, giving that beautiful inaugural +address to the people, "With malice toward none, +with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as +God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish +the work we are in; to bind up the nation's +wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the +battle, and for his widows and orphans; to do all +which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting +peace among ourselves and with all nations." On +April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, +and the long war was ended. The people +gathered in their churches to praise God amid their +tears. Abraham Lincoln's name was on every lip. +The colored people said of their deliverer, "He is +eberywhere. He is like de bressed Lord; he walks +de waters and de land."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span></p> + +<p>An old colored woman came to the door of the +White House and met the President as he was coming +out, and said she wanted to see "Abraham the +Second."</p> + +<p>"And who was Abraham the First?" asked the +good man.</p> + +<p>"Why, Lor' bless you, we read about Abraham de +First in de Bible, and Abraham de Second is de +President."</p> + +<p>"Here he is!" said the President, turning away +to hide his tears.</p> + +<p>Well did the noble-hearted man say, "I have +never willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom."</p> + +<p>Five days after the surrender of General Lee, +Mr. Lincoln went to Ford's Theatre, because it would +rest him and please the people to see him. He used +to say, "The tired part of me is inside and out of +reach.... I feel a presentiment that I shall not +outlast the rebellion. When it is over, my work +will be done."</p> + +<p>While Mr. Lincoln was enjoying the play, John +Wilkes Booth, an actor, came into the box behind +him and fired a bullet into his brain; then sprang +upon the stage, shouting, "Sic semper tyrannis! +The South is avenged!" The President scarcely +moved in his chair, and, unconscious, was taken to a +house near by, where he died at twenty-two minutes +past seven, April 15, 1865. Booth was caught +twelve days later, and shot in a burning barn.</p> + +<p>The nation seemed as though struck dumb; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span> +then, from the Old World as well as the New, came +an agonizing wail of sorrow. Death only showed +to their view how sublime was the character of him +who had carried them through the war. While the +body, embalmed, lay in state in the east room of the +White House tens of thousands crowded about it. +And then, accompanied by the casket of little Willie, +the body of Abraham Lincoln took its long journey +of fifteen hundred miles, to the home of his early +life, for burial. Nothing in this country like that +funeral pageant has ever been witnessed. In New +York, in Philadelphia, and in every other city along +the way, houses were trimmed with mourning, bells +tolled, funeral marches were played, and the rooms +where the body rested were filled with flowers. +Hundreds of thousands looked upon the tired, noble +face of the martyred President.</p> + +<p>In Oak Ridge Cemetery, at Springfield, Illinois, +in the midst of a dense multitude, a choir of two +hundred and fifty singing by the open grave of him +who dearly loved music,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +"Children of the Heavenly King,"<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>Abraham Lincoln was buried, Bishop Simpson, +now dead, spoke eloquently, quoting Mr. Lincoln's +words, "Before high Heaven and in the face of +the world I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, +as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and +my love."</p> + +<p>Charles Sumner said, "There are no accidents<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span> +in the Providence of God." Such lives as that of +Abraham Lincoln are not accidents in American history. +They are rather the great books from whose +pages we catch inspiration, and in which we read +God's purposes for the progress of the human race.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<h2>BOOKS BY SARAH K. BOLTON.</h2> + +<p class="center">"<i>Mrs. Bolton never fails to interest and instruct her +readers.</i>"—<span class="smcap">Chicago Inter-ocean.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +POOR BOYS WHO BECAME FAMOUS<br /> +GIRLS WHO BECAME FAMOUS<br /> +FAMOUS MEN OF SCIENCE<br /> +FAMOUS AMERICAN STATESMEN<br /> +FAMOUS ENGLISH STATESMEN<br /> +FAMOUS AMERICAN AUTHORS<br /> +FAMOUS ENGLISH AUTHORS<br /> +FAMOUS EUROPEAN ARTISTS<br /> +FAMOUS TYPES OF WOMANHOOD<br /> +FAMOUS VOYAGERS AND EXPLORERS<br /> +FAMOUS LEADERS AMONG MEN<br /> +FAMOUS LEADERS AMONG WOMEN<br /> +FAMOUS GIVERS AND THEIR GIFTS<br /> +EMERSON<br /> +RAPHAEL<br /> +FROM HEART AND NATURE (Poems)<br /> +THE INEVITABLE (Poems)<br /> +</p></div> + +<p class="center"><i>For Sale by all Booksellers. Send for Catalogue.</i></p> + +<p class="padbase center"> +NEW YORK:<br /> +THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.<br /> +PUBLISHERS.<br /> +</p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<h2>Transcriber's Notes</h2> + +<p>Punctuation has been standardised.</p> + +<p>Minor printer errors (e.g. omitted, superfluous or transposed +characters) have been fixed.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Page 72, "Amodeus" changed to "<a href="#amadeus">Amadeus</a>" (Amadeus Mozart was)</p> + +<p>Page 134, "tamborine" changed to "<a href="#tamb">tambourine</a>" (beating the tambourine)</p> + +<p>Page 186, "capitol" changed to "<a href="#capital">capital</a>" (capital of united Italy)</p> + +<p>Page 241, "enterprizing" changed to "<a href="#enterprising">enterprising</a>" (enterprising young +man)</p> + +<p>Page 273, "sadler" changed to "<a href="#saddler">saddler</a>" (a saddler was found)</p> +</div> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lives of Poor Boys Who Became Famous, by +Sarah K. 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mode 100644 index 0000000..d66e907 --- /dev/null +++ b/35950.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9214 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Lives of Poor Boys Who Became Famous, by Sarah K. Bolton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lives of Poor Boys Who Became Famous + +Author: Sarah K. Bolton + +Release Date: April 24, 2011 [EBook #35950] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVE OF POOR BOYS *** + + + + +Produced by Darleen Dove, Sharon Verougstraete and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + LIVES + OF + POOR BOYS WHO BECAME FAMOUS. + + BY + SARAH K. BOLTON. + + + "_There is properly no History, only Biography._" + --EMERSON. + + _Human portraits, faithfully drawn, are of all pictures the + welcomest on human walls._ + --CARLYLE. + + + _FORTY-FIRST THOUSAND._ + + NEW YORK + THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. + PUBLISHERS + + + + + _Copyright,_ + BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. + 1885. + + + Norwood Press: + J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith. + Boston, Mass., U.S.A. + + + + + TO + MY ONLY SISTER, + + Mrs. Halsey D. Miller, + + IN REMEMBRANCE OF + MANY HAPPY HOURS. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +These characters have been chosen from various countries and from varied +professions, that the youth who read this book may see that poverty is +no barrier to success. It usually develops ambition, and nerves people +to action. Life at best has much of struggle, and we need to be cheered +and stimulated by the careers of those who have overcome obstacles. + +If Lincoln and Garfield, both farmer-boys, could come to the Presidency, +then there is a chance for other farmer-boys. If Ezra Cornell, a +mechanic, could become the president of great telegraph companies, and +leave millions to a university, then other mechanics can come to fame. +If Sir Titus Salt, working and sorting wool in a factory at nineteen, +could build one of the model towns of the world for his thousands of +workingmen, then there is encouragement and inspiration for other +toilers in factories. These lives show that without WORK and WILL no +great things are achieved. + +I have selected several characters because they were the centres of +important historical epochs. With Garibaldi is necessarily told the +story of Italian unity; with Garrison and Greeley, the fall of slavery; +and with Lincoln and Sheridan, the battles of our Civil War. + + S. K. B. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + GEORGE PEABODY Merchant 1 + + BAYARD TAYLOR Traveller 13 + + Captain JAMES B. EADS Civil Engineer 26 + + JAMES WATT Inventor 33 + + Sir JOSIAH MASON Manufacturer 46 + + BERNARD PALISSY Potter 54 + + BERTEL THORWALDSEN Sculptor 65 + + WOLFGANG MOZART Composer 72 + + SAMUEL JOHNSON Author 83 + + OLIVER GOLDSMITH Poet and Writer 90 + + MICHAEL FARADAY Scientist 96 + + Sir HENRY BESSEMER Maker of Steel 112 + + Sir TITUS SALT Philanthropist 124 + + JOSEPH MARIE JACQUARD Silk Weaver 130 + + HORACE GREELEY Editor 138 + + WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON Reformer 156 + + GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI Patriot 172 + + JEAN PAUL RICHTER Novelist 187 + + LEON GAMBETTA Statesman 204 + + DAVID G. FARRAGUT Sailor 219 + + EZRA CORNELL Mechanic 238 + + Lieut.-General SHERIDAN Soldier 251 + + THOMAS COLE Painter 270 + + OLE BULL Violinist 284 + + MEISSONIER Artist 303 + + GEO. W. CHILDS Journalist 313 + + DWIGHT L. MOODY Evangelist 323 + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN President 342 + + + + +[Illustration: GEORGE PEABODY.] + +GEORGE PEABODY. + + +If America had been asked who were to be her most munificent givers in +the nineteenth century, she would scarcely have pointed to two grocer's +boys, one in a little country store at Danvers, Mass., the other in +Baltimore; both poor, both uneducated; the one leaving seven millions to +Johns Hopkins University and Hospital, the other nearly nine millions to +elevate humanity. George Peabody was born in Danvers, Feb. 18, 1795. His +parents were respectable, hard-working people, whose scanty income +afforded little education for their children. George grew up an +obedient, faithful son, called a "mother-boy" by his companions, from +his devotion to her,--a title of which any boy may well be proud. + +At eleven years of age he must go out into the world to earn his living. +Doubtless his mother wished to keep her child in school; but there was +no money. A place was found with a Mr. Proctor in a grocery-store, and +here, for four years, he worked day by day, giving his earnings to his +mother, and winning esteem for his promptness and honesty. But the boy +at fifteen began to grow ambitious. He longed for a larger store and a +broader field. Going with his maternal grandfather to Thetford, Vt., he +remained a year, when he came back to work for his brother in a +dry-goods store in Newburyport. Perhaps now in this larger town his +ambition would be satisfied, when, lo! the store burned, and George was +thrown out of employment. + +His father had died, and he was without a dollar in the world. Ambition +seemed of little use now. However, an uncle in Georgetown, D.C., hearing +that the boy needed work, sent for him, and thither he went for two +years. Here he made many friends, and won trade, by his genial manner +and respectful bearing. His tact was unusual. He never wounded the +feelings of a buyer of goods, never tried him with unnecessary talk, +never seemed impatient, and was punctual to the minute. Perhaps no one +trait is more desirable than the latter. A person who breaks his +appointments, or keeps others waiting for him, loses friends, and +business success as well. + +A young man's habits are always observed. If he is worthy, and has +energy, the world has a place for him, and sooner or later he will find +it. A wholesale dry-goods dealer, Mr. Riggs, had been watching young +Peabody. He desired a partner of energy, perseverance, and honesty. +Calling on the young clerk, he asked him to put his labor against his, +Mr. Riggs's, capital. "But I am only nineteen years of age," was the +reply. + +This was considered no objection, and the partnership was formed. A year +later, the business was moved to Baltimore. The boyish partner travelled +on horseback through the western wilds of New York, Pennsylvania, +Maryland, and Virginia, selling goods, and lodging over night with +farmers or planters. In seven years the business had so increased, that +branch houses were established in Philadelphia and New York. Finally Mr. +Riggs retired from the firm; and George Peabody found himself, at the +age of thirty-five, at the head of a large and wealthy establishment, +which his own energy, industry, and honesty had helped largely to build. +He had bent his life to one purpose, that of making his business a +success. No one person can do many things well. + +Having visited London several times in matters of trade, he determined +to make that great city his place of residence. He had studied finance +by experience as well as close observation, and believed that he could +make money in the great metropolis. Having established himself as a +banker at Wanford Court, he took simple lodgings, and lived without +display. When Americans visited London, they called upon the genial, +true-hearted banker, whose integrity they could always depend upon, and +transacted their business with him. + +In 1851, the World's Fair was opened at the Crystal Palace, London, +Prince Albert having worked earnestly to make it a great success. +Congress neglected to make the needed appropriations for America; and +her people did not care, apparently, whether Powers' Greek Slave, Hoe's +wonderful printing-press, or the McCormick Reaper were seen or not. But +George Peabody cared for the honor of his nation, and gave fifteen +thousand dollars to the American exhibitors, that they might make their +display worthy of the great country which they were to represent. The +same year, he gave his first Fourth of July dinner to leading Americans +and Englishmen, headed by the Duke of Wellington. While he remembered +and honored the day which freed us from England, no one did more than he +to bind the two nations together by the great kindness of a great heart. + +Mr. Peabody was no longer the poor grocery boy, or the dry-goods clerk. +He was fine looking, most intelligent from his wide reading, a total +abstainer from liquors and tobacco, honored at home and abroad, and very +rich. Should he buy an immense estate, and live like a prince? Should he +give parties and grand dinners, and have servants in livery? Oh, no! Mr. +Peabody had acquired his wealth for a different purpose. He loved +humanity. "How could he elevate the people?" was the one question of his +life. He would not wait till his death, and let others spend his money; +he would have the satisfaction of spending it himself. + +And now began a life of benevolence which is one of the brightest in our +history. Unmarried and childless, he made other wives and children happy +by his boundless generosity. If the story be true, that he was once +engaged to a beautiful American girl, who gave him up for a former poor +lover, the world has been the gainer by her choice. + +In 1852, Mr. Peabody gave ten thousand dollars to help fit out the +second expedition under Dr. Kane, in his search for Sir John Franklin; +and for this gift a portion of the newly-discovered country was justly +called Peabody Land. This same year, the town of Danvers, his +birthplace, decided to celebrate its centennial. Of course the rich +London banker was invited as one of the guests. He was too busy to be +present, but sent a letter, to be opened on the day of the celebration. +The seal was broken at dinner, and this was the toast, or sentiment, it +contained: "EDUCATION--_a debt due from present to future generations._" +A check was enclosed for twenty thousand dollars for the purpose of +building an Institute, with a free library and free course of lectures. +Afterward this gift was increased to two hundred and fifty thousand +dollars. The poor boy had not forgotten the home of his childhood. + +Four years later, when Peabody Institute was dedicated, the giver, who +had been absent from America twenty years, was present. New York and +other cities offered public receptions; but he declined all save +Danvers. A great procession was formed, the houses along the streets +being decorated, all eager to do honor to their noble townsman. The +Governor of Massachusetts, Edward Everett, and others made eloquent +addresses, and then the kind-faced, great-hearted man responded:-- + +"Though Providence has granted me an unvaried and unusual success in the +pursuit of fortune in other lands, I am still in heart the humble boy +who left yonder unpretending dwelling many, _very_ many years ago.... +There is not a youth within the sound of my voice whose early +opportunities and advantages are not very much greater than were my own; +and I have since achieved nothing that is impossible to the most humble +boy among you. Bear in mind, that, to be truly great, it is not +necessary that you should gain wealth and importance. Steadfast and +undeviating _truth_, fearless and straightforward _integrity_, and an +_honor_ ever unsullied by an unworthy word or action, make their +possessor greater than worldly success or prosperity. These qualities +constitute greatness." + +Soon after this, Mr. Peabody determined to build an Institute, combining +a free library and lectures with an Academy of Music and an Art Gallery, +in the city of Baltimore. For this purpose he gave over one million +dollars--a princely gift indeed! Well might Baltimore be proud of the +day when he sought a home in her midst. + +But the merchant-prince had not finished his giving. He saw the poor of +the great city of London, living in wretched, desolate homes. Vice and +poverty were joining hands. He, too, had been poor. He could sympathize +with those who knew not how to make ends meet. What would so stimulate +these people to good citizenship as comfortable and cheerful +abiding-places? March 12, 1862, he called together a few of his trusted +friends in London, and placed in their hands, for the erection of neat, +tasteful dwellings for the poor, the sum of seven hundred and fifty +thousand dollars. Ah, what a friend the poor had found! not the gift of +a few dollars, which would soon be absorbed in rent, but homes which for +a small amount might be enjoyed as long as they lived. + +At once some of the worst portions of London were purchased; tumble-down +structures were removed; and plain, high brick blocks erected, around +open squares, where the children could find a playground. Gas and water +were supplied, bathing and laundry rooms furnished. Then the poor came +eagerly, with their scanty furniture, and hired one or two rooms for +twenty-five or fifty cents a week,--cab-men, shoemakers, tailors, and +needle-women. Tenants were required to be temperate and of good moral +character. Soon tiny pots of flowers were seen in the windows, and a +happier look stole into the faces of hard-working fathers and mothers. + +Mr. Peabody soon increased his gift to the London poor to three million +dollars, saying, "If judiciously managed for two hundred years, its +accumulation will amount to a sum sufficient to buy the city of London." + +No wonder that these gifts of millions began to astonish the world. +London gave him the freedom of the city in a gold box,--an honor rarely +bestowed,--and erected his bronze statue near the Royal Exchange. Queen +Victoria wished to make him a baron; but he declined all titles. What +gift, then, would he accept, was eagerly asked. "A letter from the Queen +of England, which I may carry across the Atlantic, and deposit as a +memorial of one of her most faithful sons," was the response. It is not +strange that so pure and noble a man as George Peabody admired the +purity and nobility of character of her who governs England so wisely. + +A beautiful letter was returned by the Queen, assuring him how deeply +she appreciated his noble act of more than princely munificence,--an +act, as the Queen believes, "wholly without parallel," and asking him to +accept a miniature portrait of herself. The portrait, in a massive gold +frame, is fourteen inches long and ten inches wide, representing the +Queen in robes of state,--the largest miniature ever attempted in +England, and for the making of which a furnace was especially built. The +cost is believed to have been over fifty thousand dollars in gold. It is +now preserved, with her letter, in the Peabody Institute near Danvers. + +Oct. 25, 1866, the beautiful white marble Institute in Baltimore was to +be dedicated. Mr. Peabody had crossed the ocean to be present. Besides +the famous and the learned, twenty thousand children with Peabody badges +were gathered to meet him. The great man's heart was touched as he said, +"Never have I seen a more beautiful sight than this vast collection of +interesting children. The review of the finest army, attended by the +most delightful strains of martial music, could never give me half the +pleasure." He was now seventy-one years old. He had given nearly five +millions; could the world expect any more? He realized that the freed +slaves at the South needed an education. They were poor, and so were a +large portion of the white race. He would give for their education three +million dollars, the same amount he had bestowed upon the poor of +London. To the trustees having this gift in charge he said, "With my +advancing years, my attachment to my native land has but become more +devoted. My hope and faith in its successful and glorious future have +grown brighter and stronger. But, to make her prosperity more than +superficial, her moral and intellectual development should keep pace +with her material growth. I feel most deeply, therefore, that it is the +duty and privilege of the more favored and wealthy portions of our +nation to assist those who are less fortunate." Noble words! Mr. +Peabody's health was beginning to fail. What he did must now be done +quickly. Yale College received a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for +a Museum of Natural History; Harvard the same, for a Museum of +Archaeology and Ethnology; to found the Peabody Academy of Science at +Salem a hundred and forty thousand dollars; to Newburyport Library, +where the fire threw him out of employment, and thus probably broadened +his path in life, fifteen thousand dollars; twenty-five thousand dollars +each to various institutions of learning throughout the country; ten +thousand dollars to the Sanitary Commission during the war, besides four +million dollars to his relatives; making in all thirteen million +dollars. Just before his return to England, he made one of the most +tender gifts of his life. The dear mother whom he idolized was dead, but +he would build her a fitting monument; not a granite shaft, but a +beautiful Memorial Church at Georgetown, Mass., where for centuries, +perhaps, others will worship the God she worshipped. On a marble tablet +are the words, "Affectionately consecrated by her children, George and +Judith, to the memory of Mrs. Judith Peabody." Whittier wrote the hymn +for its dedication:-- + + "The heart, and not the hand, has wrought, + From sunken base to tower above, + The image of a tender thought, + The memory of a deathless love." + +Nov. 4, 1869, Mr. Peabody lay dying at the house of a friend in London. +The Queen sent a special telegram of inquiry and sympathy, and desired +to call upon him in person; but it was too late. "It is a great +mystery," said the dying man feebly; "but I shall know all soon." At +midnight he passed to his reward. + +Westminster Abbey opened her doors for a great funeral, where statesmen +and earls bowed their heads in honor of the departed. Then the Queen +sent her noblest man-of-war, "Monarch," to bear in state, across the +Atlantic, "her friend," the once poor boy of Danvers. Around the coffin, +in a room draped in black, stood immense wax candles, lighted. When the +great ship reached America, Legislatures adjourned, and went with +Governors and famous men to receive the precious freight. The body was +taken by train to Peabody, and then placed on a funeral car, eleven feet +long and ten feet high, covered with black velvet, trimmed with silver +lace and stars. Under the casket were winged cherubs in silver. The car +was drawn by six horses covered with black and silver, while corps of +artillery preceded the long procession. At sunset the Institute was +reached, and there, surrounded by the English and American flags draped +with crape, the guard kept silent watch about the dead. At the funeral, +at the church, Hon. Robert C. Winthrop pronounced the eloquent eulogy, +of the "brave, honest, noble-hearted friend of mankind," and then, amid +a great concourse of people, George Peabody was buried at Harmony Grove, +by the side of the mother whom he so tenderly loved. Doubtless he looked +out upon this greensward from his attic window when a child or when he +labored in the village store. Well might two nations unite in doing +honor to this man, both good and great, who gave nine million dollars to +bless humanity. + +[The building fund of L500,000 left by Mr. Peabody for the benefit of +the poor of London has now been increased by rents and interest to +L857,320. The whole of this great sum of money is in active employment, +together with L340,000 which the trustees have borrowed. A total of +L1,170,787 has been expended during the time the fund has been in +existence, of which L80,903 was laid out during 1884. The results of +these operations are seen in blocks of artisans' dwellings built on land +purchased by the trustees and let to working men at rents within their +means, containing conveniences and comforts not ordinarily attainable by +them, thus fulfilling the benevolent intentions of Mr. Peabody. At the +present time 4551 separate dwellings have been erected, containing +10,144 rooms, inhabited by 18,453 persons. Thirteen new blocks of +buildings are now in course of erection and near completion. Indeed, +there is no cessation in the work of fulfilling the intentions of the +noble bequest.--_Boston Journal_, Mar. 7, 1885.] + + + + +[Illustration: BAYARD TAYLOR.] + +BAYARD TAYLOR. + + +Since Samuel Johnson toiled in Grub Street, London, literature has +scarcely furnished a more pathetic or inspiring illustration of struggle +to success than that of Bayard Taylor. Born of Quaker parentage in the +little town of Kennett Square, near Philadelphia, Jan. 11, 1825, he grew +to boyhood in the midst of fresh air and the hard work of farm-life. His +mother, a refined and intelligent woman, who taught him to read at four, +and who early discovered her child's love for books, shielded him as far +as possible from picking up stones and weeding corn, and set him to +rocking the baby to sleep. What was her amazement one day, on hearing +loud cries from the infant, to find Bayard absorbed in reading, and +rocking his own chair furiously, supposing it to be the cradle! It was +evident, that, though such a boy might become a fine literary man, he +could not be a successful baby-tender. + +He was especially eager to read poetry and travels, and, before he was +twelve years old, had devoured the contents of their small circulating +library, as well as Cooper's novels, and the histories of Gibbon, +Robertson, and Hume. The few books which he owned were bought with money +earned by selling nuts which he had gathered. He read Milton, Scott, +Byron, and Wordsworth; and his mother would often hear him repeating +poetry to his brother after they had gone to bed. He was always planning +journeys in Europe, which seemed very far from being realized. At +fourteen he began to study Latin and French, and at fifteen, Spanish; +and a year later he assisted in teaching at the academy where he was +attending school. + +He was ambitious; but there seemed no open door. There is never an open +door to fame or prosperity, except we open it for ourselves. The world +is too busy to help others; and assistance usually weakens rather than +strengthens us. About this time he received, through request, an +autograph from Charles Dickens, then lecturing in this country. The boy +of sixteen wrote in his journal: "It was not without a feeling of +ambition that I looked upon it; that as he, a humble clerk, had risen to +be the guest of a mighty nation, so I, a humble pedagogue, might, by +unremitted and arduous intellectual and moral exertion, become a light, +a star, among the names of my country. May it be!... I believe all poets +are possessed in a greater or less degree of ambition. I think this is +never given without a mind of sufficient power to sustain it, and to +achieve its lofty object." + +At seventeen, Bayard's schooling was over. He sketched well, and would +gladly have gone to Philadelphia to study engraving; but he had no +money. One poem had been published in the "Saturday Evening Post." Those +only who have seen their first poem in print can experience his joy. But +writing poetry would not earn him a living. He had no liking for +teaching, but, as that seemed the only thing at hand, he would try to +obtain a school. He did not succeed, however, and apprenticed himself +for four years to a printer. He worked faithfully, using all his spare +hours in reading and writing poetry. + +Two years later, he walked to Philadelphia and back--thirty miles each +way--to see if fifteen of his poems could not be printed in a book! His +ambition evidently had not abated. Of course no publisher would take the +book at his own risk. There was no way of securing its publication, +therefore, but to visit his friends, and solicit them to buy copies in +advance. This was a trying matter for a refined nature; but it was a +necessity. He hoped thus to earn a little money for travel, and "to win +a name that the person who shall be chosen to share with me the toils of +life will not be ashamed to own." This "person" was Mary Agnew, whose +love and that of Bayard Taylor form one of the saddest and tenderest +pictures in our literature. + +At last the penniless printer boy had determined to see Europe. For two +years he had read every thing he could find upon travels abroad. His +good mother mourned over the matter, and his acquaintances prophesied +dire results from such a roving disposition. He would go again to +Philadelphia, and see if the newspapers did not wish correspondence from +Europe. All the editors politely declined the ardent boy's proposals. +Probably he did not know that "unknown writers" are not wanted. + +About to return home, "not in despair," he afterwards wrote, "but in a +state of wonder as to where my funds would come from, for I felt certain +they would come," the editor of the "Saturday Evening Post" offered him +four dollars a letter for twelve letters,--fifty dollars,--with the +promise of taking more if they were satisfactory. The "United States +Gazette" made a similar offer, and, after selling a few manuscript poems +which he had with him, he returned home in triumph, with a hundred and +forty dollars in his pocket! "This," he says, "seemed sufficient to +carry me to the end of the world." + +Immediately Bayard and his cousin started on foot for Washington, a +hundred miles, to see the member of Congress from their district, and +obtain passports from him. Reaching a little village on their way +thither, they were refused lodgings at the tavern because of the +lateness of the hour,--nine o'clock!--and walked on till near midnight. +Then seeing a house brilliantly lighted, as for a wedding, they +approached, and asked the proprietor whether a tavern were near by. The +man addressed turned fiercely upon the lads, shouting, "Begone! Leave +the place instantly. Do you hear? Off!" The amazed boys hastened away, +and at three o'clock in the morning, footsore and faint, after a walk of +nearly forty miles, slept in a cart standing beside an old farmhouse. + +And now at nineteen, he was in New York, ready for Europe. He called +upon the author, N. P. Willis, who had once written a kind note to him; +and this gentleman, with a ready nature in helping others,--alas! not +always found among writers--gave him several letters of introduction to +newspaper men. Mr. Greeley said bluntly when applied to, "I am sick of +descriptive letters, and will have no more of them. But I should like +some sketches of German life and society, after you have been there, and +know something about it. If the letters are good, you shall be paid for +them; but don't write _until you know something_." + +July 1, 1844, Bayard and two young friends, after paying ten dollars +each for steerage passage, started out for this eventful voyage. No +wonder that, as land faded from sight, and he thought of gentle Mary +Agnew and his devoted mother, his heart failed him, and he quite broke +down. After twenty-eight days they landed in Liverpool, strangers, poor, +knowing almost nothing of the world, but full of hope and enthusiasm. +They spent three weeks in Scotland and the north of England, and then +travelled through Belgium to Heidelberg. Bayard passed the first winter +in Frankfort, in the plainest quarters, and then, with his knapsack on +his back, visited Leipzig, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, and Munich. After +this he walked over the Alps, and through Northern Italy, spending four +months in Florence, and then visiting Rome. Often he was so poor that he +lived on twenty cents a day. Sometimes he was without food for nearly +two days, writing his natural and graphic letters when his ragged +clothes were wet through, and his body faint from fasting. But the +manly, enthusiastic youth always made friends by his good cheer and +unselfishness. + +At last he was in London, with but thirty cents to buy food and lodging. +But he had a poem of twelve hundred lines in his knapsack, which he +supposed any London publisher would be glad to accept. He offered it; +but it was "declined with thanks." The youth had not learned that Bayard +Taylor unknown, and Bayard Taylor famous in two hemispheres, were two +different names upon the title-page of a book. Publishers cannot usually +afford to do missionary work in their business; they print what will +sell. "Weak from sea-sickness," he says, "hungry, chilled, and without a +single acquaintance in the great city, my situation was about as +hopeless as it is possible to conceive." + +Possibly he could obtain work in a printer's shop. This he tried hour +after hour, and failed. Finally he spent his last twopence for bread, +and found a place to sleep in a third-rate chop-house, among sailors, +and actors from the lower theatres. He rose early, so as not to be asked +to pay for his bed, and again sought work. Fortunately he met an +American publisher, who loaned him five dollars, and with a thankful +heart he returned to pay for his lodging. For six weeks he staid in his +humble quarters, wrote letters home to the newspapers, and also sent +various poems to the English journals, which were all returned to him. +For two years he supported himself on two hundred and fifty dollars a +year, earning it all by writing. "I saw," he says, "almost nothing of +intelligent European society; but literature and art were, nevertheless, +open to me, and a new day had dawned in my life." + +On his return to America he found that his published letters had been +widely read. He was advised to put them in a book; and "Views Afoot," +with a preface by N. P. Willis, were soon given to the world. Six +editions were sold the first year; and the boy who had seen Europe in +the midst of so much privation, found himself an author, with the +prospect of fame. Not alone had poverty made these two years hard to +bear. He was allowed to hold no correspondence with Mary Agnew, because +her parents steadily refused to countenance the young lovers. He had +wisely made his mother his confidante, and she had counselled patience +and hope. The rising fame possibly smoothed the course of true love, +for at twenty-one, Bayard became engaged to the idol of his heart. She +was an intelligent and beautiful girl, with dark eyes and soft brown +hair, and to the ardent young traveller seemed more angel than human. He +showed her his every poem, and laid before her every purpose. He wrote +her, "I have often dim, vague forebodings that an eventful destiny is in +store for me"; and then he added in quaint, Quaker dialect, "I have told +thee that existence would not be endurable without thee; I feel further +that thy aid will be necessary to work out the destinies of the +future.... I am really glad that thou art pleased with my poetry. One +word from thee is dearer to me than the cold praise of all the critics +in the land." + +For the year following his return home, he edited a country paper, and +thereby became involved in debts which required the labors of the next +three years to cancel. He now decided to go to New York if possible, +where there would naturally be more literary society, and openings for a +writer. He wrote to editors and publishers; but there were no vacancies +to be filled. Finally he was offered enough to pay his board by +translating, and this he gladly accepted. By teaching literature in a +young ladies' school, he increased his income to nine dollars a week. +Not a luxurious amount, surely. + +For a year he struggled on, saving every cent possible, and then Mr. +Greeley gave him a place on the "Tribune," at twelve dollars a week. He +worked constantly, often writing poetry at midnight, when his day's +duties were over. He made true friends, such as Stedman and Stoddard, +published a new book of poems; and in the beginning of 1849 life began +to look full of promise. Sent by his paper to write up California, for +six months he lived in the open air, his saddle for his pillow, and on +his return wrote his charming book "El-dorado." He was now twenty-five, +out of debt, and ready to marry Mary Agnew. But a dreadful cloud had +meantime gathered and burst over their heads. The beautiful girl had +been stricken with consumption. The May day bridal had been postponed. +"God help me, if I lose her!" wrote the young author to Mr. Stoddard +from her bedside. Oct. 24 came, and the dying girl was wedded to the man +she loved. Four days later he wrote: "We have had some heart-breaking +hours, talking of what is before us, and are both better and calmer for +it." And, later still: "She is radiantly beautiful; but it is not the +beauty of earth.... We have loved so long, so intimately, and so wholly, +that the footsteps of her life have forever left their traces in mine. +If my name should be remembered among men, hers will not be forgotten." +Dec. 21, 1850, she went beyond; and Bayard Taylor at twenty-six was +alone in the world, benumbed, unfitted for work of any kind. "I am not +my true self more than half the time. I cannot work with any spirit: +another such winter will kill me, I am certain. I shall leave next fall +on a journey somewhere--no matter where," he wrote a friend. + +Fortunately he took a trip to the Far East, travelling in Egypt, Asia +Minor, India, and Japan for two years, writing letters which made him +known the country over. On his return, he published three books of +travel, and accepted numerous calls in the lecture-field. His stock in +the "Tribune" had become productive, and he was gaining great success. + +His next long journey was to Northern Europe, when he took his brother +and two sisters with him, as he could enjoy nothing selfishly. This time +he saw much of the Brownings and Thackeray, and spent two days as the +guest of Tennyson. He was no longer the penniless youth, vainly looking +for work in London to pay his lodging, but the well-known traveller, +lecturer, and poet. Oct. 27, 1857, seven years after the death of Mary +Agnew, he married the daughter of a distinguished German astronomer, +Marie Hansen, a lady of great culture, whose companionship has ever +proved a blessing. + +Tired of travel, Mr. Taylor now longed for a home for his wife and +infant daughter, Lilian. He would erect on the old homestead, where he +played when a boy, such a house as a poet would love to dwell in, and +such as poet friends would delight to visit. So, with minutest care and +thought, "Cedarcroft," a beautiful structure, was built in the midst of +two hundred acres. Every flower, every tree, was planted with as much +love as Scott gave to "Abbotsford." But, when it was completed, the old +story had been told again, of expenses going far beyond expectations, +and, instead of anticipated rest, toil and struggle to pay debts, and +provide for constant outgoes. + +But Bayard Taylor was not the man to be disturbed by obstacles. He at +once set to work to earn more than ever by his books and lectures. With +his characteristic generosity he brought his parents and his sisters to +live in his home, and made everybody welcome to his hospitality. The +"Poet's Journal," a poem of exquisite tenderness, was written here, and +"Hannah Thurston," a novel, of which fifteen thousand were soon sold. + +Shortly after the beginning of our civil war, Mr. Taylor was made +Secretary of Legation at Russia. He was now forty years of age, loved, +well-to-do, and famous. His novels--"John Godfrey's Fortunes" and the +"Story of Kennett"--were both successful. The "Picture of St. John," +rich and stronger than his other poems, added to his fame. But the +gifted and versatile man was breaking in health. Again he travelled +abroad, and wrote "Byways in Europe." On his return he translated, with +great care and study, "Faust," which will always be a monument to his +learning and literary skill. He published "Lars, a Norway pastoral," and +gave delightful lectures on German literature at Cornell University, +and Lowell and Peabody Institutes, at Boston and Baltimore. + +At last he wearied of the care and constant expense of "Cedarcroft." He +needed to be near the New York libraries. Mr. Greeley had died, his +newspaper stock had declined, and he could not sell his home, as he had +hoped. There was no alternative but to go back in 1871 into the daily +work of journalism in the "Tribune" office. The rest which he had longed +for was never to come. For four years he worked untiringly, delivering +the Centennial Ode at our Exposition, and often speaking before learned +societies. + +In 1878, President Hayes bestowed upon him a well-deserved honor, by +appointing him minister to Berlin. Germany rejoiced that a lover of her +life and literature had been sent to her borders. The best of New York +gathered to say good-by to the noted author. Arriving in Berlin, Emperor +William gave him cordial welcome, and Bismark made him a friend. A +pleasant residence was secured, and furniture purchased. At last he was +to find time to complete a long-desired work, the Lives of Goethe and +Schiller. "Prince Deukalion," his last noble poem, had just reached him. +All was ready for the best and strongest work of his life, when, lo! the +overworked brain and body gave way. He did not murmur. Only once, Dec. +19, he groaned, "I want--I want--oh, you know what I mean, that _stuff +of life_!" It was too late. At fifty-three the great heart, the +exquisite brain, the tired body, were still. + + "Dead he lay among his books; + The peace of God was in his looks." + +Germany as well as America wept over the bier of the once poor Quaker +lad, who travelled over Europe with scarce a shilling in his pocket, +now, by his own energy, brought to one of the highest positions in the +gift of his country. Dec. 22, the great of Germany gathered about his +coffin, Bertold Auerbach speaking beautiful words. + +March 13, 1879, the dead poet lay in state in the City Hall at New York, +in the midst of assembled thousands. The following day the body was +borne to "Cedarcroft," and, surrounded by literary associates and tender +friends, laid to rest. Public memorial meetings were held in various +cities, where Holmes, Longfellow, Whittier, and others gave their loving +tributes. A devoted student, a successful diplomat, a true friend, a +noble poet, a gifted traveller, a man whose life will never cease to be +an inspiration. + + + + +CAPTAIN JAMES B. EADS. + + +On the steamship "Germanic" I played chess with the great civil +engineer, Captain Eads, stimulated by the thought that to beat him was +to defeat the man who had twice conquered the Mississippi. But I didn't +defeat him. + +The building of a ship-canal across the Isthmus of Suez made famous the +Frenchman, Ferdinand de Lesseps: so the opening-up of the mouth of the +Mississippi River has distinguished Captain Eads. To-day both these men +are struggling for the rare honor of joining, at the Isthmus of Panama, +the waters of the great Atlantic and Pacific; a magnificent scheme, +which, if successful, will save annually thousands of miles of dangerous +sea-voyage around Cape Horn, besides millions of money. + +The "Great West" seems to delight in producing self-made men like +Lincoln, Grant, Eads, and others. + +James B. Eads was born in Indiana in 1820. He is slender in form, neat +in dress, genial, courteous, and over sixty years of age. In 1833, his +father started down the Ohio River with his family, proposing to settle +in Wisconsin. The boat caught fire, and his scanty furniture and +clothing were burned. Young Eads barely escaped ashore with his +pantaloons, shirt, and cap. Taking passage on another boat, this boy of +thirteen landed at St. Louis with his parents; his little bare feet +first touching the rocky shore of the city on the very spot where he +afterwards located and built the largest steel bridge in the world, over +the Mississippi,--one of the most difficult feats of engineering ever +performed in America. + +At the age of nine, young Eads made a short trip on the Ohio, when the +engineer of the steamboat explained to him so clearly the construction +of the steam-engine, that, before he was a year older, he built a little +working model of it, so perfect in its parts and movements, that his +schoolmates would frequently go home with him after school to see it +work. A locomotive engine driven by a concealed rat was one of his next +juvenile feats in mechanical engineering. From eight to thirteen he +attended school; after which, from necessity, he was placed as clerk in +a dry-goods store. + +How few young people of the many to whom poverty denies an education, +either understand the value of the saying, "knowledge is power," or +exercise will sufficient to overcome obstacles. Willpower and thirst for +knowledge elevated General Garfield from driving canal horses to the +Presidency of the United States. + +Over the store in St. Louis, where he was engaged, his employer lived. +He was an old bachelor, and, having observed the tastes of his clerk, +gave him his first book in engineering. The old gentleman's library +furnished evening companions for him during the five years he was thus +employed. Finally, his health failing, at the age of nineteen he went on +a Mississippi River steamer; from which time to the present day that +great river has been to him an all-absorbing study. + +Soon afterwards he formed a partnership with a friend, and built a small +boat to raise cargoes of vessels sunken in the Mississippi. While this +boat was building, he made his first venture in submarine engineering, +on the lower rapids of the river, by the recovery of several hundred +tons of lead. He hired a scow or flat-boat, and anchored it over the +wreck. An experienced diver, clad in armor, who had been hired at +considerable expense in Buffalo, was lowered into the water; but the +rapids were so swift that the diver, though incased in the strong armor, +feared to be sunk to the bottom. Young Eads determined to succeed, and, +finding it impracticable to use the armor, went ashore, purchased a +whiskey-barrel, knocked out the head, attached the air-pump hose to it, +fastened several heavy weights to the open end of the barrel; then, +swinging it on a derrick, he had a practical diving-bell--the best use I +ever heard made of a whiskey-barrel. + +Neither the diver, nor any of the crew, would go down in this +contrivance: so the dauntless young engineer, having full confidence in +what he had read in books, was lowered within the barrel down to the +bottom; the lower end of the barrel being open. The water was sixteen +feet deep, and very swift. Finding the wreck, he remained by it a full +hour, hitching ropes to pig-lead till a ton or more was safely hoisted +into his own boat. Then, making a signal by a small line attached to the +barrel, he was lifted on deck, and in command again. The sunken cargo +was soon successfully raised, and was sold, and netted a handsome +profit, which, increased by other successes, enabled energetic Eads to +build larger boats, with powerful pumps, and machinery on them for +lifting entire vessels. He surprised all his friends in floating even +immense sunken steamers--boats which had long been given up as lost. + +When the Rebellion came, it was soon evident that a strong fleet must be +put upon Western rivers to assist our armies. Word came from the +government to Captain Eads to report in Washington. His thorough +knowledge of the "Father of Waters" and its tributaries, and his +practical suggestions, secured an order to build seven gunboats, and +soon after an order for the eighth was given. + +In forty-eight hours after receiving this authority, his agents and +assistants were at work; and suitable ship-timber was felled in half a +dozen Western States for their hulls. Contracts were awarded to large +engine and iron works in St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati; and +within one hundred days, eight powerful ironclad gunboats, carrying over +one hundred large cannon, and costing a million dollars, were achieving +victories no less important for the Mississippi valley than those which +Ericsson's famous "Cheese-box Monitor" afterwards won on the James +River. + +These eight gunboats, Commodore Foote ably employed in his brave attacks +on Forts McHenry and Donaldson. They were the first ironclads the United +States ever owned. Captain Eads covered the boats with iron: Commodore +Foote covered them with glory. + +Eads built not less than fourteen of these gunboats. During the war, the +models were exhibited by request to the German and other governments. +His next work was to throw across the mighty Mississippi River, nearly +half a mile wide, at St. Louis, a monstrous steel bridge, supported by +three arches, the spans of two being five hundred and two feet long, and +the central one five hundred and twenty feet. The huge piles were +ingeniously sunk in the treacherous sand, one hundred and thirty-six +feet below the flood-level to the solid rock, through ninety feet of +sand. This bridge and its approaches cost eighty millions of dollars, +and is used by ten or twelve railroad companies. Above the tracks is a +big street with carriage-roads, street-cars, and walks for +foot-passengers. + +The honor of building the finest bridge in the world would have +satisfied most men, but not ambitious Captain Eads. He actually loved +the noble river in which De Soto, its discoverer, was buried, and fully +realized the vast, undeveloped resources of its rich valleys. Equally +well he understood what a gigantic work in the past the river and its +fifteen hundred sizable tributaries had accomplished in times of +freshets, by depositing soil and sand north of the original Gulf of +Mexico, forming an alluvial plain five hundred miles long, sixty miles +wide, and of unknown depth, and having a delta extending out into the +Gulf, sixty miles long, and as many miles wide, and probably a mile +deep. And yet this heroic man, although jealously opposed for years by +West Point engineers, having a sublime confidence in the laws of nature, +and actuated by intense desire to benefit mankind, dared to stand on the +immense sand-bars at the mouth of this defiant stream, and, making use +of the jetty system, bid the river itself dig a wide, deep channel into +the seas beyond, for the world's commerce. + +Captain Eads, who had studied the improvements on the Danube, Maas, and +other European rivers, observed that all rivers flow faster in their +narrow channels, and carry along in the swift water, sand, gravel, and +even stones. This familiar law he applied at the South Pass of the +Mississippi River, where the waters, though deep above, escaped from the +banks into the Gulf, and spread sediment far and wide. + +The water on the sand-bars of the three principal passes varied from +eight to thirteen feet in depth. Many vessels require twice the depth. +Two piers, twelve hundred feet apart, were built from land's end, a mile +into the sea. They were made from willows, timber, gravel, concrete, and +stone. Mattresses, a hundred feet long, from twenty-five to fifty feet +wide, and two feet thick, were constructed from small willows placed at +right angles, and bound securely together. These were floated into +position, and sunk with gravel, one mattress upon another, which the +river soon filled with sand that firmly held them in their place. The +top was finished with heavy concrete blocks, to resist the waves. These +piers are called "jetties," and the swift collected waters have already +carried over five million cubic yards of sand into the deep gulf, and +made a ship-way over thirty feet deep. The five million dollars paid by +the United States was little enough for so priceless a service. + + * * * * * + +In June, 1884, Captain Eads received the Albert medal of the British +Society of Arts, the first American upon whom this honor has been +conferred. Before his great enterprise of the Tehuantepec ship railroad +had been completed, he died at Nassau, New Providence, Bahama Islands, +March 8, 1887, after a brief illness, of pneumonia, at the age of +sixty-seven. + + + + +[Illustration: JAMES WATT.] + +JAMES WATT. + + +The history of inventors is generally the same old struggle with +poverty. Sir Richard Arkwright, the youngest of thirteen children, with +no education, a barber, shaving in a cellar for a penny to each +customer, dies worth two and one-half million dollars, after being +knighted by the King for his inventions in spinning. Elias Howe, Jr., in +want and sorrow, lives on beans in a London attic, and dies at +forty-five, having received over two million dollars from his +sewing-machines in thirteen years. Success comes only through hard work +and determined perseverance. The steps to honor, or wealth, or fame, are +not easy to climb. + +The history of James Watt, the inventor of the steam-engine, is no +exception to the rule of struggling to win. He was born in the little +town of Greenock, Scotland, 1736. Too delicate to attend school, he was +taught reading by his mother, and a little writing and arithmetic by his +father. When six years of age, he would draw mechanical lines and +circles on the hearth, with a colored piece of chalk. His favorite play +was to take to pieces his little carpenter tools, and make them into +different ones. He was an obedient boy, especially devoted to his +mother, a cheerful and very intelligent woman, who always encouraged +him. She would say in any childish quarrels, "Let James speak; from him +I always hear the truth." Old George Herbert said, "One good mother is +worth a hundred schoolmasters"; and such a one was Mrs. Watt. + +When sent to school, James was too sensitive to mix with rough boys, and +was very unhappy with them. When nearly fourteen, his parents sent him +to a friend in Glasgow, who soon wrote back that they must come for +their boy, for he told so many interesting stories that he had read, +that he kept the family up till very late at night. + +His aunt wrote that he would sit "for an hour taking off the lid of the +teakettle, and putting it on, holding now a cup and now a silver spoon +over the steam, watching how it rises from the spout, and catching and +condensing the drops of hot water it falls into." + +Before he was fifteen, he had read a natural philosophy twice through, +as well as every other book he could lay his hands on. He had made an +electrical machine, and startled his young friends by some sudden +shocks. He had a bench for his special use, and a forge, where he made +small cranes, pulleys, pumps, and repaired instruments used on ships. He +was fond of astronomy, and would lie on his back on the ground for +hours, looking at the stars. + +Frail though he was in health, yet he must prepare himself to earn a +living. When he was eighteen, with many tender words from his mother, +her only boy started for Glasgow to learn the trade of making +mathematical instruments. In his little trunk, besides his "best +clothes," which were a ruffled shirt, a velvet waistcoat, and silk +stockings, were a leather apron and some carpenter tools. Here he found +a position with a man who sold and mended spectacles, repaired fiddles, +and made fishing nets and rods. + +Finding that he could learn very little in this shop, an old +sea-captain, a friend of the family, took him to London. Here, day after +day, he walked the streets, asking for a situation; but nobody wanted +him. Finally he offered to work for a watchmaker without pay, till he +found a place to learn his trade. This he at last obtained with a Mr. +Morgan, to whom he agreed to give a hundred dollars for the year's +teaching. As his father was poorly able to help him, the conscientious +boy lived on two dollars a week, earning most of this pittance by rising +early, and doing odd jobs before his employer opened his shop in the +morning. He labored every evening until nine o'clock, except Saturday, +and was soon broken in health by hunger and overwork. His mother's heart +ached for him, but, like other poor boys, he must make his way alone. + +At the end of the year he went to Glasgow to open a shop for himself; +but other mechanics were jealous of a new-comer, and would not permit +him to rent a place. A professor at the Glasgow University knew the +deserving young man, and offered him a room in the college, which he +gladly accepted. He and the lad who assisted him could earn only ten +dollars a week, and there was little sale for the instruments after they +were made: so, following the example of his first master, he began to +make and mend flutes, fiddles, and guitars, though he did not know one +note from another. One of his customers wanted an organ built, and at +once Watt set to work to learn the theory of music. When the organ was +finished, a remarkable one for those times, the young machinist had +added to it several inventions of his own. + +This earning a living was a hard matter; but it brought energy, +developed thought, and probably helped more than all else to make him +famous. The world in general works no harder than circumstances compel. + +Poverty is no barrier to falling in love, and, poor though he was, he +now married Margaret Miller, his cousin, whom he had long tenderly +loved. Their home was plain and small; but she had the sweetest of +dispositions, was always happy, and made his life sunny even in its +darkest hours of struggling. + +Meantime he had made several intellectual friends in the college, one of +whom talked much to him about a steam-carriage. Steam was not by any +means unknown. Hero, a Greek physician who lived at Alexandria a century +before the Christian era, tells how the ancients used it. Some crude +engines were made in Watt's time, the best being that of Thomas +Newcomen, called an atmospheric engine, and used in raising water from +coal-mines. It could do comparatively little, however; and many of the +mines were now useless because the water nearly drowned the miners. + +Watt first experimented with common vials for steam-reservoirs, and +canes hollowed out for steam-pipes. For months he went on working night +and day, trying new plans, testing the powers of steam, borrowing a +brass syringe a foot long for his cylinder, till finally the essential +principles of the steam-engine were born in his mind. He wrote to a +friend, "My whole thoughts are bent on this machine. I can think of +nothing else." He hired an old cellar, and for two months worked on his +model. His tools were poor; his foreman died; and the engine, when +completed, leaked in all parts. His old business of mending instruments +had fallen off; he was badly in debt, and had no money to push forward +the invention. He believed he had found the right principle; but he +could not let his family starve. Sick at heart, and worn in body, he +wrote: "Of all things in life there is nothing more foolish than +inventing." Poor Watt! + +His great need was money,--money to buy food, money to buy tools, money +to give him leisure for thought. Finally, a friend induced Dr. Roebuck, +an iron-dealer, to become Watt's partner, pay his debts of five thousand +dollars, take out a patent, and perfect the engine. Watt went to London +for his patent, but so long was he delayed by indifferent officials, +that he wrote home to his young wife, quite discouraged. With a brave +heart in their pinching poverty, Margaret wrote back, "I beg that you +will not make yourself uneasy, though things should not succeed to your +wish. If the engine will not do, _something else will; never despair_." + +On his return home, for six months he worked in setting up his engine. +The cylinder, having been badly cast, was almost worthless; the piston, +though wrapped in cork, oiled rags, and old hat, let the air in and the +steam out; and the model proved a failure. "To-day," he said, "I enter +the thirty-fifth year of my life, and I think I have hardly yet done +thirty-five pence worth of good in the world: but I cannot help it." The +path to success was not easy. + +Dr. Roebuck was getting badly in debt, and could not aid him as he had +promised; so Watt went sadly back to surveying, a business he had taken +up to keep the wolf from the door. In feeble health, out in the worst +weather, his clothes often wet through, life seemed almost unbearable. +When absent on one of these surveying excursions, word was brought that +Margaret, his beloved wife, was dead. He was completely unnerved. Who +would care for his little children, or be to him what he had often +called her, "the comfort of his life"? After this he would often pause +on the threshold of his humble home to summon courage to enter, since +she was no longer there to welcome him. She had shared his poverty, but +was never to share his fame and wealth. + +And now came a turning-point in his life, though the struggles were by +no means over. At Birmingham, lived Matthew Boulton, a rich +manufacturer, eight years older than Watt. He employed over a thousand +men in his hardware establishment, and in making clocks, and reproducing +rare vases. He was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, with whom he had +corresponded about the steam-engine, and he had also heard of Watt and +his invention through Dr. Roebuck. He was urged to assist. But Watt +waited three years longer for aid. Nine years had passed since he made +his invention; he was in debt, without business, and in poor health. +What could he do? He seemed likely to finish life without any success. + +Finally Boulton was induced to engage in the manufacture of engines, +giving Watt one-third of the profits, if any were made. One engine was +constructed by Boulton's men, and it worked admirably. Soon orders came +in for others, as the mines were in bad condition, and the water must be +pumped out. Fortunes, like misfortunes, rarely come singly. Just at this +time the Russian Government offered Watt five thousand dollars yearly if +he would go to that country. Such a sum was an astonishment. How he +wished Margaret could have lived to see this proud day! + +He could not well be spared from the company now; so he lived on at +Birmingham, marrying a second time, Anne Macgregor of Scotland, to care +for his children and his home. She was a very different woman from +Margaret Miller; a neat housekeeper, but seemingly lacking in the +lovable qualities which make sunshine even in the plainest home. + +As soon as the Boulton and Watt engines were completed, and success +seemed assured, obstacles arose from another quarter. Engines had been +put into several Cornwall mines, which bore the singular names of "Ale +and Cakes," "Wheat Fanny," "Wheat Abraham," "Cupboard," and "Cook's +Kitchen." As soon as the miners found that these engines worked well, +they determined to destroy the patent by the cry that Boulton and Watt +had a monopoly of a thing which the world needed. Petitions were +circulated, giving great uneasiness to both the partners. Several +persons also stole the principle of the engine, either by bribing the +engine-men, or by getting them drunk so that they would tell the secrets +of their employers. The patent was constantly infringed upon. Every hour +was a warfare. Watt said, "The rascality of mankind is almost past +belief." + +Meantime Boulton, with his many branches of business, and the low state +of trade, had gotten deeply in debt, and was pressed on every side for +the tens of thousands which he owed. Watt was nearly insane with this +trouble. He wrote to Boulton: "I cannot rest in my bed until these money +matters have assumed some determinate form. I am plagued with the blues. +I am quite eaten up with the mulligrubs." + +Soon after this, Watt invented the letter-copying press, which at first +was greatly opposed, because it was thought that forged names and +letters would result. After a time, however, there was great demand for +it. Watt was urged by Boulton to invent a rotary engine; but this was +finally done by their head workman, William Murdock, the inventor of +lighting by gas. He also made the first model of a locomotive, which +frightened the village preacher nearly out of his senses, as it came +puffing down the street one evening. Though devoted to his employers, +sometimes working all night for them, they counselled him to give up all +thought about his locomotive, lest by developing it he might in time +withdraw from their firm. Alas for the selfishness of human nature! He +was never made a partner, and, though he thought out many inventions +after his day's work was done, he remained faithful to their service +till the end of his life. Mr. Buckle tells this good story of Murdock. +Having found that fish-skins could be used instead of isinglass, he came +to London to inform the brewers, and took board in a handsome house. +Fancying himself in his laboratory, he went on with his experiments. +Imagine the horror of the landlady when she entered his room, and found +her elegant wall-paper covered with wet fish-skins, hung up to dry! The +inventor took an immediate departure with his skins. When the rotary +engine was finished, the partners sought to obtain a charter, when lo! +The millers and mealmen all opposed it, because, said they, "If flour is +ground by steam, the wind and water-mills will stop, and men will be +thrown out of work." Boulton and Watt viewed with contempt this new +obstacle of ignorance. "Carry out this argument," said the former, "and +we must annihilate water-mills themselves, and go back again to the +grinding of corn by hand labor." Presently a large mill was burned by +incendiaries, with a loss of fifty thousand dollars. + +Watt about this time invented his "Parallel Motion," and the Governor, +for regulating the speed of the engine. Large orders began to come in, +even from America and the West Indies; but not till they had expended +two hundred thousand dollars were there any profits. Times were +brightening for the hard-working inventor. He lost his despondency, and +did not long for death, as he had previously. + +After a time, he built a lovely home at Heathfield, in the midst of +forty acres of trees, flowers, and tasteful walks. Here gathered some of +the greatest minds of the world,--Dr. Priestley who discovered oxygen, +Sir William Herschel, Dr. Darwin, Josiah Wedgwood, and scores of others, +who talked of science and literature. Mrs. Watt so detested dirt, and so +hated the sight of her husband's leather apron and soiled hands, that he +built for himself a "garret," where he could work unmolested by his +wife, or her broom and dustpan. She never allowed even her two pug-dogs +to cross the hall without wiping their feet on the mat. She would seize +and carry away her husband's snuff-box, wherever she found it, because +she considered snuff as dirt. At night, when she retired from the +dining-room, if Mr. Watt did not follow at the time fixed by her, she +sent a servant to remove the lights. If friends were present, he would +say meekly, "We must go," and walk slowly out of the room. Such conduct +must have been about as trying as the failure of his engines. For days +together he would stay in his garret, not even coming down to his meals, +cooking his food in his frying-pan and Dutch oven, which he kept by him. +One cannot help wondering, whether, sometimes, as he worked up there +alone, he did not think of Margaret, whose face would have brightened +even that dingy room. + +A crushing sorrow now came to him. His only daughter, Jessie, died, and +then his pet son, Gregory, the dearest friend of Humphry Davy, a young +man of brilliant scholarship and oratorical powers. Boulton died before +his partner, loved and lamented by all, having followed the precept he +once gave to Watt: "Keep your mind and your heart pleasant, if possible; +for the way to go through life sweetly is not to regard rubs." + +Watt died peacefully Aug. 19, 1819, in his eighty-third year, and was +buried in beautiful Handsworth Church. Here stands Chantrey's +masterpiece, a sitting statue of the great inventor. Another is in +Westminster Abbey. When Lord Brougham was asked to write the inscription +for this monument, he said, "I reckon it one of the chief honors of my +life." Sir James Mackintosh placed him "at the head of all inventors in +all ages and nations"; and Wordsworth regarded him, "Considering both +the magnitude and the universality of his genius, as perhaps the most +extraordinary man that this country has ever produced." + +After all the struggle came wealth and fame. The mine opens up its +treasures only to those who are persevering enough to dig into it; and +life itself yields little, only to such as have the courage and the will +to overcome obstacles. + +Heathfield has passed into other hands; but the quiet garret is just as +James Watt left it at death. Here is a large sculpture machine, and many +busts partly copied. Here is his handkerchief tied to the beam on which +he rested his head. The beam itself is crumbling to dust. Little pots of +chemicals on the shelves are hardened by age. A bunch of withered grapes +is on a dish, and the ashes are in the grate as when he sat before it. +Close by is the hair trunk of his beloved Gregory, full of his +schoolbooks, his letters, and his childish toys. This the noble old man +kept beside him to the last. + + + + +SIR JOSIAH MASON. + + +One sunny morning in June, I went out five miles from the great +manufacturing city of Birmingham, England, to the pretty town called +Erdington, to see the Mason Orphanage. I found an immense brick +structure, with high Gothic towers, in the midst of thirteen acres of +velvety lawn. Over the portals of the building were the words, "DO DEEDS +OF LOVE." Three hundred happy children were scattered over the premises, +the girls in brown dresses with long white aprons: some were in the +great play-room, some doing the housework, and some serving at dinner. +Sly Cupid creeps into an orphan-asylum even; and the matron had to watch +carefully lest the biggest pieces of bread and butter be given by the +girls to the boys they liked best. + +In the large grounds, full of flowers and trees, among the children he +so tenderly loved and called by name, the founder, Sir Josiah Mason, and +his wife, are buried, in a beautiful mausoleum, a Gothic chapel, with +stone carving and stained-glass windows. + +[Illustration: SIR JOSIAH MASON.] + +And who was this founder? + +In a poor, plain home in Kidderminster, Feb. 23 1795, Sir Josiah Mason +was born. His father was a weaver, and his mother the daughter of a +laborer. At eight years of age, with of course little education, the boy +began the struggle of earning a living. His mother fitted up two baskets +for him, and these he filled with baker's cakes, and sold them about the +streets. Little Joe became so great a favorite, that the buyers often +gave him an extra penny. Finally a donkey was obtained; and a bag +containing cakes in one end, and fruit and vegetables in the other, was +strapped across his back. In this way, for seven years, Joe peddled from +door to door. Did anybody ever think then that he would be rich and +famous? + +The poor mother helped him with her scanty means, and both parents +allowed him to keep all he could make. His father's advice used to be, +"Joe, thee'st got a few pence; never let anybody know how much thee'st +got in thee pockets." And well the boy carried out his father's +injunction in afterlife. + +When he was fifteen, his brother had become a confirmed invalid, and +needed a constant attendant. The father was away at the shop, and the +mother busy with her cares: so Joe, who thought of others always before +himself, determined to be nurse, and earn some money also. He set about +becoming a shoemaker, having learned the trade from watching an old man +who lived near their house; but he could make only a bare pittance. Then +he taught himself writing, and earned a trifle for composing letters and +Valentines for his poor neighbors. This money he spent in books, for he +was eager for an education. He read no novels nor poetry, but books of +history, science, and theology. + +Finally the mother started a small grocery and bakery, and Joe assisted. +Many of their customers were tramps and beggars, who could buy only an +ounce or half-ounce of tea; but even a farthing was welcome to the +Masons. Later, Josiah took up carpet-weaving and blacksmithing; but he +could never earn more than five dollars a week, and he became restless +and eager for a broader field. He had courage, was active and +industrious, and had good habits. + +He was now twenty-one. He decided to go to Birmingham on Christmas Day, +to visit an uncle whom he had never seen. He went, and this was the +turning-point of his life. His uncle gave him work in making gilt toys; +and, what was perhaps better still for the poor young man, he fell in +love with his cousin Annie Griffiths, and married her the following +year. This marriage proved a great blessing, and for fifty-two years, +childless, they two were all in all to each other. For six years the +young husband worked early and late, with the promise of succeeding to +the small business; but at the end of these years the promise was +broken, and Mason found himself at thirty, out of work, and owning less +than one hundred dollars. + +Walking down the street one day in no very happy frame of mind, a +stranger stepped up to him, and said, "Mr. Mason?" + +"Yes," was the answer. + +"You are now, I understand, without employment. I know some one who +wants just such a man as you, and I will introduce him to you. Will you +meet me to-morrow morning at Mr. Harrison's, the split-ring maker?" + +"I will." + +The next day the stranger said to Mr. Harrison, "I have brought you the +very man you want." + +The business man eyed Mason closely, saying, "I've had a good many young +men come here; but they are afraid of dirtying their fingers." + +Mason opened his somewhat calloused hands, and, looking at them, said, +"Are _you_ ashamed of dirtying yourselves to get your own living?" + +Mason was at once employed, and a year later Mr. Harrison offered him +the business at twenty-five hundred dollars. Several men, observing the +young man's good qualities, had offered to loan him money when he should +go into trade for himself. He bethought him of these friends, and called +upon them; but they all began to make excuse. The world's proffers of +help or friendship we can usually discount by half. Seeing that not a +dollar could be borrowed, Mr. Harrison generously offered to wait for +the principal till it could be earned out of the profits. This was a +noble act, and Mr. Mason never ceased to be grateful for it. + +He soon invented a machine for bevelling hoop-rings, and made five +thousand dollars the first year from its use. Thenceforward his life +reads like a fairy-tale. One day, seeing some steel pens on a card, in a +shop-window, he went in and purchased one for twelve cents. That evening +he made three, and enclosed one in a letter to Perry of London, the +maker, paying eighteen cents' postage, which now would be only two +cents. + +His pen was such an improvement that Mr. Perry at once wrote for all he +could make. In a few years, Mason became the greatest pen-maker in the +world, employing a thousand persons, and turning out over five million +pens per week. Sixty tons of pens, containing one and a half million +pens to the ton, were often in his shops. What a change from peddling +cakes from door to door in Kidderminster! + +Later he became the moneyed partner in the great electro-plating trade +of the Elkingtons, whose beautiful work at the Centennial Exposition we +all remember. + +Mr. Mason never forgot his laborers. When he established copper-smelting +works in Wales, he built neat cottages for the workmen, and schools for +the three hundred and fifty children. The Welsh refused to allow their +children to attend school where they would be taught English. Mr. Mason +overcame this by distributing hats, bonnets, and other clothing to the +pupils, and, once in school, they needed no urging to remain. The +manufacturer was as hard a worker as any of his men. For years he was +the first person to come to his factory, and the last to leave it. He +was quick to decide a matter, and act upon it, and the most rigid +economist of time. He allowed nobody to waste his precious hours with +idle talk, nor did he waste theirs. He believed, with Shakespeare, that +"Talkers are no good doers." His hours were regular. He took much +exercise on foot, and lived with great simplicity. He was always +cheerful, and had great self-control. Finally he began to ask himself +how he could best use his money before he died. He remembered his poor +struggling mother in his boyish days. His first gift should be a home +for aged women--a noble thought!--his next should be for orphans, as he +was a great lover of children. For eight years he watched the beautiful +buildings of his Orphanage go up, and then saw the happy children +gathered within, bringing many of them from Kidderminster, who were as +destitute as himself when a boy. He seemed to know and love each child, +for whose benefit he had included even his own lovely home, a million +dollars in all. The annual income for the Orphanage is about fifty +thousand dollars. What pleasure he must have had as he saw them swinging +in the great playgrounds, where he had even thought to make triple +columns so that they could the better play hide-and-seek! At eight, he +was trudging the streets to earn bread; they should have an easier lot +through his generosity. + +For this and other noble deeds Queen Victoria made him a knight. What +would his poor mother have said to such an honor for her boy, had she +been alive! + +What would the noble man, now over eighty, do next with his money? He +recalled how hard it had been for him to obtain knowledge. The colleges +were patronized largely by the rich. He would build a great School of +Science, free to all who depended upon themselves for support. They +might study mathematics, languages, chemistry, civil engineering, +without distinction of sex or race. For five years he watched the +elegant brick and stone structure in Birmingham rise from its +foundations. And then, Oct. 1, 1880, in the midst of assembled +thousands, and in the presence of such men as Fawcett, Bright, and Max +Muller, Mason Science College was formally opened. Professor Huxley, R. +W. Dale, and others made eloquent addresses. In the evening, a thousand +of the best of England gathered at the college, made beautiful by +flowers and crimson drapery. On a dais sat the noble giver, in his +eighty-sixth year. The silence was impressive as the grand old man +arose, handing the key of his college, his million-dollar gift, to the +trustees. Surely truth is stranger than fiction! To what honor and +renown had come the humble peddler! + +On the following 25th of June, Sir Josiah Mason was borne to his grave, +in the Erdington mausoleum. Three hundred and fifty orphan-children +followed his coffin, which was carried by eight servants or workingmen, +as he had requested. After the children had sung a hymn, they covered +the coffin-lid with flowers, which he so dearly loved. He sleeps in the +midst of his gifts, one of England's noble benefactors. + + + + +BERNARD PALISSY. + + +In the Louvre in Paris, preserved among almost priceless gems, are +several pieces of exquisite pottery called Palissy ware. Thousands +examine them every year, yet but few know the struggles of the man who +made such beautiful works of art. + +Born in the south of France in 1509, in a poor, plain home, Bernard +Palissy grew to boyhood, sunny-hearted and hopeful, learning the trade +of painting on glass from his father. He had an ardent love for nature, +and sketched rocks, birds, and flowers with his boyish hands. When he +was eighteen, he grew eager to see the world, and, with a tearful +good-by from his mother, started out to seek his fortune. For ten years +he travelled from town to town, now painting on glass for some rich +lord, and now sketching for a peasant family in return for food. +Meantime he made notes about vegetation, and the forming of crystals in +the mountains of Auvergne, showing that he was an uncommon boy. + +[Illustration: BERNARD PALISSY.] + +Finally, like other young people, he fell in love, and was married at +twenty-eight. He could not travel about the country now, so he settled +in the little town of Saintes. Then a baby came into their humble home. +How could he earn more money, since the poor people about him had no +need for painted glass? Every time he tried to plan some new way to grow +richer, his daily needs weighed like a millstone around his neck. + +About this time he was shown an elegant enamelled cup from Italy. "What +if I could be the first and only maker of such ware in France?" thought +he. But he had no knowledge of clay, and no money to visit Italy, where +alone the secret could be obtained. + +The Italians began making such pottery about the year 1300. Two +centuries earlier, the Pagan King of Majorca, in the Mediterranean Sea, +was said to keep confined in his dungeons twenty thousand Christians. +The Archbishop of Pisa incited his subjects to make war upon such an +infidel king, and after a year's struggle, the Pisans took the island, +killed the ruler, and brought home his heir, and great booty. Among the +spoils were exquisite Moorish plates, which were so greatly admired that +they were hung on the walls of Italian churches. At length the people +learned to imitate this Majolica ware, which brought very high prices. + +The more Palissy thought about this beautiful pottery, the more +determined he became to attempt its making. But he was like a man +groping in the dark. He had no knowledge of what composed the enamel on +the ware; but he purchased some drugs, and ground them to powder. Then +he bought earthen pots, broke them in pieces, spread the powder upon the +fragments, and put them in a furnace to bake. He could ill afford to +build a furnace, or even to buy the earthenware; but he comforted his +young wife with the thought that as soon as he had discovered what would +produce white enamel they would become rich. + +When the pots had been heated sufficiently, as he supposed, he took them +out, but, lo! the experiment had availed nothing. Either he had not hit +upon the right ingredients, or the baking had been too long or too short +in time. He must of course try again. For days and weeks he pounded and +ground new materials; but no success came. The weeks grew into months. +Finally his supply of wood became exhausted, and the wife was losing her +patience with these whims of an inventor. They were poor, and needed +present income rather than future prospects. She had ceased to believe +Palissy's stories of riches coming from white enamel. Had she known that +she was marrying an inventor, she might well have hesitated, lest she +starve in the days of experimenting; but now it was too late. + +His wood used up, Palissy was obliged to make arrangements with a potter +who lived three miles away, to burn the broken pieces in his furnace. +His enthusiasm made others hopeful; so that the promise to pay when +white enamel was discovered was readily accepted. To make matters sure +of success at this trial, he sent between three and four hundred pieces +of earthenware to his neighbor's furnace. Some of these would surely +come back with the powder upon them melted, and the surface would be +white. Both himself and wife waited anxiously for the return of the +ware; she much less hopeful than he, however. When it came, he says in +his journal, "I received nothing but shame and loss, because it turned +out good for nothing." + +Two years went by in this almost hopeless work, then a third,--three +whole years of borrowing money, wood, and chemicals; three years of +consuming hope and desperate poverty. Palissy's family had suffered +extremely. One child had died, probably from destitution. The poor wife +was discouraged, and at last angered at his foolishness. Finally the +pottery fever seemed to abate, and Palissy went back to his drudgery of +glass-painting and occasional surveying. Nobody knew the struggle it had +cost to give up the great discovery; but it must be done. + +Henry II., who was then King of France, had placed a new tax on salt, +and Palissy was appointed to make maps of all the salt-marshes of the +surrounding country. Some degree of comfort now came back to his family. +New clothes were purchased for the children, and the overworked wife +repented of her lack of patience. When the surveying was completed, a +little money had been saved, but, alas! the pottery fever had returned. + +Three dozen new earthen pots were bought, chemicals spread over them as +before, and these taken to a glass-furnace, where the heat would be much +greater. He again waited anxiously, and when they were returned, some of +the powder had actually melted, and run over the earthenware. This added +fuel to the flame of his hope and ambition. And now, for two whole years +more, he went between his house and the glass-furnace, always hoping, +always failing. + +His home had now become like a pauper's. For five years he had chased +this will-o'-the-wisp of white enamel; and the only result was the +sorrow of his relatives and the scorn of his neighbors. Finally he +promised his heart-broken wife that he would make but one more trial, +and if this failed, he would give up experimenting, and support her and +the children. He resolved that this should be an almost superhuman +effort. In some unknown way he raised the money for new pots and three +hundred mixtures of chemicals. Then, with the feelings of a man who has +but one chance for life, he walked beside the person who carried his +precious stock to the furnace. He sat down before the mouth of the great +hot oven, and waited four long hours. With what a sinking heart he +watched the pieces as they were taken out! He hardly dared look, because +it would probably be the old story of failure. But, lo! some were +melted, and as they hardened, oh, joy unspeakable, they turned white! +He hastened home with unsteady step, like one intoxicated, to tell his +wife the overwhelming truth. Surely he could not stop now in this great +work; and all must be done in secret, lest other potters learn the art. + +Fears, no doubt, mingled with the new-born hopes of Mrs. Palissy, for +there was no regular work before her husband, and no steady income for +hungry little mouths. Besides, he must needs build a furnace in the shed +adjoining their home. But how could he obtain the money? Going to the +brick yard, he pledged some of the funds he hoped to receive in the +future, and brought home the bricks upon his back. Then he spent seven +long months experimenting in clay vessels, that he might get the best +shapes and quality to take the enamel. For another month, from early +morning till late at night, he pounded his preparations of tin, lead, +iron, and copper, and mixed them, as he hoped, in proper proportions. +When his furnace was ready, he put in his clay pots, and seated himself +before the mouth. + +All day and all night, he fed the fire, his little children bringing him +soup, which was all the food the house afforded. A second day and night +he watched the results eagerly; but the enamel did not melt. Covered +with perspiration, and faint from loss of sleep and food, with the +desperation of hope that is akin to despair, for six days and six +nights, catching scarcely a moment of sleep, he watched the earthen +pots; but still the enamel did not melt. At last, thinking that his +proportions in his mixtures might have been wrong, he began once more to +pound and grind the materials without letting his furnace cool. His clay +vessels which he had spent seven months in making were also useless, so +he hastened to the shops, and bought new ones. + +The family were now nearly frantic with poverty and the pottery madness +of the father. To make matters quite unbearable, the wood had given out, +and the furnace-fires must not stop. Almost wild with hope deferred, and +the necessities of life pressing upon him, Palissy tore up the fence +about his garden, and thrust it into the furnace-mouth. Still the enamel +did not melt. He rushed into the house, and began breaking up the table +and chairs for fuel. His wife and children were horrified. They ran +through the streets, crying out that Palissy was tearing the house down, +and had become crazy. The neighbors gathered, and begged him to desist, +but all to no purpose. He tore up the floors of the house, and threw +them in. The town jeered at him, and said, "It is right that he die of +hunger, seeing that he has left off following his trade." He was +exhausted and dried up by the heat of the furnace; but still he could +not yield. Finally the enamel melted. But now he was more crazy than +before. He must go forward, come what might. + +With his family nearer than ever to starvation, he hired an assistant +potter, promising the old promise,--to pay when the discovery had been +perfected. The town of Saintes must have become familiar with that +promise. An innkeeper boarded the potter for six months, and charged it +to Palissy, to be paid, like all the other bills, in the future. +Probably Mrs. Palissy did not wish to board the assistant, even had she +possessed the necessary food. At the end of the six months the potter +departed, receiving, as pay, nearly all Palissy's wearing-apparel, which +probably was scarcely worth carrying away. + +He now felt obliged to build an improved furnace, tearing down the old +one to recover the bricks, nearly turned to stone by the intense heat. +His hands were fearfully bruised and cut in the work. He begged and +borrowed more money, and once more started his furnace, with the boast +that this time he would draw three or four hundred francs from it. When +the ware was drawn out, the creditors came, eager for their share; but, +alas! there was no share for them. The mortar had been full of flints, +which adhered to the vessels; and Palissy broke the spoiled lot in +pieces. The neighbors called him a fool; the wife joined in the +maledictions--and who could blame her? + +Under all this disappointment his spirit gave way, and he fled to his +chamber, and threw himself upon the bed. Six of his children had died +from want during the last ten years of struggle. What agony for the fond +mother! "I was so wasted in person," he quaintly wrote afterwards, +"that there was no form nor prominence of muscle on my arms or legs; +also the said legs were throughout of one size, so that the garters with +which I tied my stockings were at once, when I walked, down upon my +heels, with the stockings too. I was despised and mocked by all." + +But the long lane turned at last. He stopped for a year, and took up his +old work to support his dying family, and then perfected his discovery. +For five or six years there were many failures,--the furnaces were too +hot, or the proportions were wrong; but finally the work became very +beautiful. His designs from nature were perfect, and his coloring +marvellous. His fame soon spread abroad; and such nobles as Montmorenci, +who stood next in rank to the King, and counts and barons, were his +patrons. He designed tiles for the finest palaces, ideal heads of the +Saviour, and dainty forms from Greek mythology. + +Invited by Catherine de Medicis, wife of King Henry II., Palissy removed +to Paris, and was thenceforward called "Bernard of the Tuileries." He +was now rich and famous. What a change from that day when his +half-starved wife and children fled along the streets of Saintes, their +furniture broken up for furnace-fires! And yet, but for this blind +devotion to a single object, he would have remained a poor, unknown +glass-painter all his life. While in Paris, he published two or three +books which showed wide knowledge of history, mines, springs, metals, +and philosophy. He founded a Museum of Natural History, and for eight +years gave courses of lectures, attended by all the learned men of the +day. When his great learning was commented upon, he replied, "I have had +no other book than the sky and the earth, known to all." A wonderful man +indeed! + +All his life Palissy was a devoted Huguenot, not fearing to read his +Bible, and preach to the people daily from it. Once he was imprisoned at +Bordeaux, and but for his genius, and his necessity to the beautifying +of palaces and chapels, he would have been put to death. When he was +seventy-six, under the brutal Henry III., he was shut up in the +Bastille. After nearly four years, the curled and vain monarch visited +him, and said, "My good man, you have been forty-five years in the +service of the Queen my mother, or in mine, and we have suffered you to +live in your own religion, amidst all the executions and the massacres. +Now, however, I am so pressed by the Guise party and my people, that I +have been compelled, in spite of myself, to imprison these two poor +women and you; they are to be burnt to-morrow, and you also, if you will +not be converted." + +"Sire," answered the old man, "you have said several times that you feel +pity for me; but it is I who pity you, who have said, 'I am compelled.' +That is not speaking like a King. These girls and I, who have part in +the kingdom of heaven, we will teach you to talk royally. The Guisarts, +all your people, and yourself, cannot compel a potter to bow down to +images of clay." + +The two girls were burnt a few months afterward. The next year, 1589, +Henry III. was stabbed by a monk who knelt before his throne; and the +same year, Palissy died in the Bastille, at the age of eighty. + + + + +[Illustration: THORWALDSEN.] + +BERTEL THORWALDSEN. + + +A few months ago we visited a plain old house in Copenhagen, the boyhood +home of the great Danish sculptor. Here he worked with his father, a +poor wood-carver, who, thinking his boy would be a more skilful workman +if he learned to draw, sent him to the Free Royal Academy of Fine Arts +when he was twelve years old. At the end of four years he took a prize, +and the fact was mentioned in the newspapers. The next day, one of the +teachers asked, "Thorwaldsen, is it your brother who has carried off the +prize?" + +Bertel's cheeks colored with pride as he said, "No, sir; it is I." The +teacher changed his tone, and replied, "Mr. Thorwaldsen, you will go up +immediately to the first rank." + +Years afterward, when he had become famous, he said no praise was ever +so sweet as being called "Mr." when he was poor and unknown. + +Two years later, he won another prize; but he was now obliged to stay at +home half the time to help support the large family. Obtaining a small +gold medal from the Academy, although so modest that, after the +examination, he escaped from the midst of the candidates by a private +staircase, he determined to try for the large gold medal. If he could +obtain this, he would receive a hundred and twenty dollars a year for +three years, and study art in Italy. He at once began to give +drawing-lessons, taught modelling to wealthy boys, and helped illustrate +books, working from early morning till late at night. He was rarely seen +to smile, so hard was the struggle for daily bread. But he tried for the +medal, and won. + +What visions of fame must have come before him now, as he said good-by +to his poor parents, whom, alas, he was never to see again, and, taking +his little dog Hector, started for far-away Italy! When he arrived, he +was so ill and homesick that several times he decided to give up art and +go back. He copied diligently the works of the old masters, and tried in +vain to earn a little money. He sent some small works of his own to +Copenhagen; but nobody bought them. He made "Jason with the Golden +Fleece," and, when no one ordered it, the discouraged artist broke it in +pieces. The next year he modelled another Jason, a lady furnishing the +means; and while everybody praised it, and Canova said, "This young Dane +has produced a work in a new and grand style," it did not occur to any +one to buy the statue in marble. + +An artist could not live on praise alone. Anxious days came and went, +and he was destitute and wretched. He must leave Rome, and go back to +the wood-carving in Copenhagen; for no one wanted beautiful things, +unless the maker was famous. He deferred going from week to week, till +at last his humble furniture had been sold, and his trunks waited at the +door. As he was leaving the house, his travelling companion said to him, +"We must wait till to-morrow, from a mistake in our passports." + +A few hours later, Mr. Thomas Hope, an English banker, entered his +studio, and, struck with the grandeur of his model of Jason, asked the +cost in marble. "Six hundred sequins" (over twelve hundred dollars), he +answered, not daring to hope for such good fortune. "That is not enough; +you should ask eight," said the generous man, who at once ordered it. + +And this was the turning-point in Bertel's life. How often a rich man +might help a struggling artist, and save a genius to the world, as did +this banker! Young Thorwaldsen now made the acquaintance of the Danish +ambassador to Naples, who introduced him to the family of Baron Wilhelm +von Humboldt, where the most famous people in Rome gathered. Soon a +leading countess commissioned him to cut four marble statues,--Bacchus, +Ganymede, Apollo, and Venus. Two years later, he was made professor in +the Royal Academy of Florence. + +The Academy of Copenhagen now sent him five hundred dollars as an +expression of their pride in him. How much more he needed it when he was +near starving, all those nine years in Rome! The bashful student had +become the genial companion and interesting talker. Louis of Bavaria, +who made Munich one of the art centres of the world, was his admirer and +friend. The Danish King urged him to return to Copenhagen; but, as the +Quirinal was to be decorated with great magnificence, Rome could not +spare him. For this, he made in three months his famous "Entry of +Alexander into Babylon," and soon after his exquisite bas-reliefs, +"Night" and "Morning,"--the former, a goddess carrying in her arms two +children, Sleep and Death; the latter, a goddess flying through the air, +scattering flowers with both hands. + +In 1816, when he was forty-six, he finished his Venus, after having made +_thirty_ models of the figure. He threw away the first attempt, and +devoted three years to the completion of the second. Three statues were +made, one of which is at Chatsworth, the elegant home of the Duke of +Devonshire; and one was lost at sea. A year later, he carved his +exquisite Byron, now at Trinity College, Cambridge. + +He was now made a member of three other famous academies. Having been +absent from Denmark twenty-three years, the King urged his return for a +visit, at least. The Royal Palace of Charlottenburg was prepared for his +reception The students of the Academy escorted him with bands of music, +cannon were fired, poems read, cantatas sung; and the King created him +councillor of state. + +Was the wood-carver's son proud of all these honors? No. The first +person he met at the palace was the old man who had served as a model +for the boys when Thorwaldsen was at school. So overcome was he as he +recalled those days of toil and poverty, that he fell upon the old man's +neck, and embraced him heartily. + +After some of the grandest work of his life in the Frue Kirke,--Christ +and the Twelve Apostles, and others,--he returned to Rome, visiting, on +the way, Alexander of Russia, who, after Thorwaldsen had made his bust, +presented the artist with a diamond ring. + +Although a Protestant, accounted now the greatest living sculptor, he +was made president of the Academy of St. Luke, a position held by Canova +when he was alive, and was commissioned to build the monument of Pius +VII. in St. Peters. Mendelssohn, the great composer, had become his warm +friend, and used to play for him as he worked in his studio. Sir Walter +Scott came to visit the artist, and as the latter could speak scarcely a +word of English, the two shook hands heartily, and clapped each other on +the shoulder as they parted. + +When Thorwaldsen was sixty-eight years old, he left Rome to end his +days among his own people. The enthusiasm on his arrival was unbounded. +The whole city waited nearly three days for his coming. Boats decked +with flowers went out to meet him, and so many crowded on board his +vessel that it was feared she would sink. The members of the Academy +came in a body; and the crowd took the horses from the carriage, and +drew it themselves through the streets to the Palace of Charlottenburg. +In the evening there was a grand torchlight procession, followed by a +constant round of parties. + +So beset was he with invitations to dinner, that, to save a little time +for himself, he told his servant Wilkins, that he would dine with him +and his wife. Wilkins, greatly confused, replied, "What would the world +think if it found out that the chancellor dined with his servant?" + +"The world--the world! Have I not told you a thousand times that I don't +care in the least what the world thinks about these things?" Sometimes +he refused even to dine with the King. Finding at last that society +would give him no rest, he went to live with some friends at Nyso, seven +hours by boat from Copenhagen. + +Once more he visited Rome, for a year, receiving royal attentions all +through Germany. Two years after, as he was sitting in the theatre, he +rose to let a lady pass. She saw him bending toward the floor, and +asked, "Have you dropped something?" + +The great man made no answer; he was dead. The funeral was a grand +expression of love and honor. His body lay in state in the Royal Palace, +laurel about his brow, the coffin ornamented with floral crowns--one +made by the Queen of Denmark; his chisel laid in the midst of laurel and +palm, and his great works of art placed about him. Houses were draped in +black, bells tolled in all the churches, women threw flowers from their +windows before the forty artists who carried the coffin, and the King +and Prince royal received it in person at the Frue Kirke. + +Then it was borne to the large museum which Copenhagen had built to +receive his work, and buried in the centre of the inner court, which had +been prepared under his own hand. A low granite coping surrounds the +grave, which is entirely covered with ivy, and on the side is his boyish +name, Bertel (Bartholomew) Thorwaldsen. + + + + +MOZART. + + +The quaint old city of Salzburg, Austria, built into the mountain-side, +is a Mecca for all who love music, and admire the immortal Mozart. When +he was alive, his native city allowed him nearly to starve; when he was +dead, she built him a beautiful monument, and preserved his home, a +plain two-story, stuccoed building, for thousands of travellers to look +upon sadly and tenderly. + +Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born Jan. 27, 1756, a delicate, sensitive +child, who would ask a dozen times a day whether his friends loved him, +and, if answered in the negative, would burst into tears. At three, he +began to show his passion for music. He would listen intensely as his +father taught his little sister, Nannerl, seven years old; would move +his playthings from one room to another, to the sound of the violin; and +at four, composed pieces which astonished his sire. + +[Illustration: W. A. MOZART.] + +Two years later, the proud father took Wolfgang and his sister on a +concert tour to Vienna. So well did the boy play, that the Empress Maria +Theresa held him in her arms, and kissed him heartily. One day as he +was walking between two of her daughters, he slipped on the polished +floor and fell. Marie Antoinette, afterward Empress of France, raised +him up, whereupon he said, "You are very kind; I will marry you." The +father was alarmed at this seeming audacity; but the lovely Princess +playfully kissed him. + +The next year he was taken to Paris, and here two sets of sonatas, the +works of a boy of seven, were brought out, dedicated to Marie +Antoinette. The children sat at the royal table, poems were written +about them, and everywhere they excited wonder and admiration; yet so +excessively modest was young Mozart, that he cried when praised too +much. In London, Bach took the boy between his knees, and alternately +they played his own great works and those of Handel at sight. Royalty +gave them "gold snuffboxes enough to set up a shop," wrote home the +father; "but in money I am poor." Wolfgang was now taken ill of +inflammatory fever; but he could not give up his music. A board was laid +across the bed, and on this he wrote out his thoughts in the notes. +Finally, with ardor dampened at their lack of pecuniary success, Leopold +Mozart took his dear ones back to quiet Salzburg. + +Here the cold archbishop, discrediting the reports of the boy's genius, +shut him up alone for a week to compose an oratorio, the text furnished +by himself. Mozart, only ten years old, stood the test brilliantly. The +next year a second tour was taken to Vienna, to be present at the +marriage of the Archduchess Maria Josepha. The bride died from smallpox +shortly after their arrival: and poor Wolfgang took the disease, and was +blind for nine days. When he recovered, the musicians, moved by envy and +jealousy, would not be outdone by a boy of twelve, who was equally at +home in German or Italian opera, and determined to hiss off the stage +whatever he might compose. Sad at heart, and disappointed, again the +Mozarts went back to the old home. + +Two years later, after much self-sacrifice, the father took his boy to +Italy for study. The first day in Passion Week they went to the Sistine +Chapel to hear the famous "Miserere" of Allegri, which was considered so +sacred, that the musicians were forbidden to take home any part of it, +or copy it out of the chapel, on pain of excommunication. Wolfgang, as +soon as he reached his lodgings, wrote it out from memory; which +remarkable feat for a boy of fourteen astonished all Rome. So +wonderfully did he play, that the audience at Naples declared there was +witchcraft in the ring which he wore on his left hand, and he was +obliged to remove it. At Milan, when he was nearly fifteen, he composed +the opera "Mithridate," conducting it himself, which was given twenty +nights in succession to enthusiastic audiences. After this came requests +for operas from Maria Theresa, Munich, and elsewhere. He was busy every +moment. Overworked, he was often ill; but the need for money to meet +heavy expenses made constant work a necessity. All this time he wrote +beautiful letters to his mother and sister. "Kiss mamma's hand for me a +thousand billion times," is the language of his loving heart. He could +scarcely be said to have had any childhood; but he kept his tenderness +and affection to the last of his life. + +After their return to Salzburg, finding the new archbishop even less +cordial than the old--the former had allowed Wolfgang the munificent +salary of five dollars and a fourth yearly!--it was deemed wise to try +to find a new field for employment. The father, now sixty years of age, +must earn a pittance for the family by giving music-lessons, while the +mother accompanied the son to Paris. The separation was a hard one for +the devoted father, who could not say good-by to his idolized son, and +poor Nannerl wept the whole day long. Mozart, now twenty-one, and +famous, well repaid this affection by his pure character. He wrote: "I +have God always before me. Whatever is according to his will is also +according to mine; therefore I cannot fail to be happy and contented." + +Stopping for a time at Mannheim, he attempted to gain the position of +tutor to the elector's children, but was disappointed. Here he fell in +love with Aloysia Weber, a pretty girl of fifteen, whose father, a +prompter at the National Theatre, earned only two hundred dollars yearly +for the support of his wife and six children. The girl had a fine +voice; and Mozart, blinded by love, asked no higher joy than to write +operas in which she might be the star. The good old father, who had +spent all his life in helping his son to win fame, was nearly +heart-broken when he learned of this foolish affection, and wrote him +tenderly but firmly: "Off with you to Paris; get the great folks on your +side; _aut Caesar, aut nihil_. From Paris, the name and fame of a man of +great talent goes through the whole world." + +The young man, carrying out his childish motto, "God first, and then +papa," reluctantly started for Paris. Here he did not meet with great +success, for scores of applicants waited for every position. His loving +mother soon died, perhaps from over economy in her cold, dark lodgings; +and the young musician took his lonely way back to Salzburg, begging his +father's consent to his stopping at Mannheim to see the Webers. Finding +that Aloysia had gone upon the stage at Munich, he hastened to see her. +She had been offered a good salary. Meantime Mozart had won no new +laurels at Paris. He was small in stature, and poor; and the girl who +wept at his departure a few months previously professed now scarcely to +have seen his face before. The young lover, cut to the heart, yet proud, +seated himself at the piano, and played, + + "I leave the girl gladly who cares not for me," + +and then hastened away to Salzburg. Aloysia married a comedian, and +lived a most unhappy life, gaining some fame from singing the music +which Mozart wrote for her. + +He remained at home for a year and a half, till called to Munich to +write the opera "Idomeneo," and later to Vienna. Here, unfortunately, he +met the Webers again, and, their father having died, he boarded in their +house, and gave lessons to Constance, a younger sister of Aloysia. She +was a plain, good-hearted girl, without much energy, but with a great +appreciation of her gifted teacher. The result came naturally; he fell +in love with the penniless girl, and, despite the distress of his aged +father at his choice, married her when he was twenty-six and she +eighteen. + +Henceforward there was no hope of any thing save the direst poverty. To +marry without love is a grave mistake; to marry simply for love is +sometimes a mistake equally grave. He could of course do nothing now for +his aged father or sister. Unsteady employment, a rapidly-increasing +family, and a wife ill most of the time, made the struggle for existence +ten times harder than before his marriage. Once when he had prepared to +visit his father for the first time after the wedding, and had waited +months for the necessary funds, he was arrested for a debt of fifteen +dollars, just as he was stepping into the carriage. + +The Emperor Joseph said to him one day, "Why did you not marry a rich +wife?" With dignity Mozart at once replied, "Sire, I trust that my +genius will always enable me to support the woman I love"; but +unfortunately it did not. He wrote after his marriage: "The moment we +were made one, my wife as well as myself began to weep, which touched +every one, even the priest, and they all cried when they witnessed how +our hearts were moved." How little they dreamed that they should weep +more seriously when hunger stared their six children in the face! + +From the time of his marriage till his death, nine years, says Rev. Mr. +Haweis, "his life can be compared to nothing but a torch burning out +rapidly in the wind." It was a period of incessant, astonishing labor. +He dedicated six quartets to his dear friend Joseph Haydn, who said, +"Mozart is the greatest composer who has ever lived"; wrote "Figaro" +when he was twenty-nine, which had the greatest popularity, "Don +Giovanni" at thirty-one, and the "Flauto Magico" gratis, for the benefit +of the theatre director, who was in want. The two latter creations were +hailed with delight. Goethe wrote to Schiller later of "Don Giovanni," +"That piece stands entirely alone; and Mozart's death has rendered all +hope of any thing like it idle." + +Whenever he appeared at the theatre, he was called upon the stage from +all parts of the house; yet all this time he could not earn enough to +live. He received only a hundred dollars from his "Don Giovanni," and +less for the others. He gave lessons every hour he could spare, concerts +in the open air, borrowed from his friends, scrimped himself, to send +money to his sick wife at Baden, pawned his silver plate to make one +more unsuccessful journey to win the aid of indifferent princes, and +fainted often at his tasks after midnight. Still he wrote to "the best +and dearest wife of my heart," "If I only had a letter from you, all +would be right," and promised her to work harder than ever to earn +money. + +When Constance was at home with him, if he left her in the morning +before she awakened, he would leave a note for her with the words, +"Good-morning, my darling wife. I shall be at home at -- o'clock +precisely." Once when she had been ill for eight months, and Mozart was +composing beside her as she slept, suddenly a noisy messenger entered. +Alarmed lest his wife should be disturbed, he rose hastily, when the +penknife in his hand fell, and buried itself in his foot. Without a word +escaping his lips, he left the room, a surgeon was called, and, though +lame for some time, the wife was not told of the accident. + +His compositions found few purchasers, for the people generally could +not comprehend them. Publishers' shops were closed to him, unless he +would write in the popular style. "Then I can make no more by my pen," +he said bitterly, "and I had better starve and go to destruction at +once." So poor had his family become, that, with no fuel in the house, +he and his wife were found by a friend, waltzing to keep warm. + +About this time a sepulchral-looking man called to ask that a "Requiem" +be written on the death of the wife of an Austrian nobleman, who was to +be considered the author, and thus his intense grief be shown, though +manifested through a lie. Mozart consulted with his wife, as was his +custom, and, as she indorsed it, he accepted the commission for fifty +dollars. Overworked, harassed by debts which he could not pay, hurt at +the jealousies and intrigues of several musicians, disappointed at the +reception of his new opera at Prague, his hopeful nature forsook him, +and he told Constance that the "Requiem" would be written for himself. + +In the midst of this wretchedness their sixth child was born. The poor +wife forgot her own sorrows, and prevailed upon him to give up work for +a time; but the active brain could not rest, and he wrote as he lay on +his sick-bed. On the day before he died, Dec. 4, 1791, at two o'clock, +he persisted in having a portion of the "Requiem" sung by the friends +who stood about his bed, and, joining with them in the alto, burst into +tears, saying, "Did I not say that I was writing the 'Requiem' for +myself?" Soon after he said, "Constance, oh that I could only hear my +'Flauto Magico!'" and a friend playing it, he was cheered. + +A messenger now arrived to tell him that he was appointed organist at +St. Stephen's Cathedral, a position for which he had longed for years; +but it came too late. Death was unwelcome to him. "Now must I go," he +said, "just as I should be able to live in peace; I must leave my +family, my poor children, at the very instant in which I should have +been able to provide for their welfare." Cold applications were ordered +by the physicians for his burning head; he became delirious for two +hours, and died at midnight, only thirty-five years old. Constance was +utterly prostrated, and threw herself upon his bed, hoping to die also. + +Mozart's body was laid beside his piano, and then, in a pouring rain, +buried in a "common grave," in the plainest manner possible, with nobody +present except the keepers of the cemetery. Weeks after, when the wife +visited the spot, she found a new grave-digger, who could not tell where +her beloved husband was buried, and to this day the author of fourteen +Italian operas, seventeen symphonies, and dozens of cantatas and +serenades, about eight hundred compositions in all, sleeps in an unknown +grave. The Emperor Leopold aided her in a concert to raise fifteen +hundred dollars to pay her husband's debts, and provide a little for +herself. Eighteen years afterward she married the Danish councillor, +Baron von Missen, who educated her two sons, four other children having +died. Salzburg waited a half-century before she erected a bronze statue +to her world-renowned genius, in the Square of St. Michael; and, seventy +years after his death, Vienna built him a monument in the Cemetery of +St. Mark. History scarcely furnishes a more pathetic life. He filled the +world with music, yet died in want and sorrow. + + + + +[Illustration: SAMUEL JOHNSON.] + +DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. + + +In a quaint old house in Lichfield, England, now used as a draper's +shop, Samuel Johnson, son of a poor bookseller and bookbinder, was born. +Here, as in Westminster Abbey, a statue is erected to his memory. Near +by is the schoolhouse where Addison and Garrick studied. + +When Samuel was two and a half years old, diseased with scrofula, his +good mother, with ten dollars sewed in her skirt so that nobody could +steal it, took him to London that, with two hundred others, he might be +touched by Queen Anne, and thus, as superstitious people believed, be +healed. On this journey she bought him a silver cup and spoon. The +latter he kept till his dying-day, and parted with the cup only in the +dire poverty of later years. + +The touch of the Queen did no good, for he became blind in one eye; with +the other he could not see a friend half a yard off, and his face was +sadly disfigured. Being prevented thus from sharing the sports of other +boys, much time was spent in reading. He was first taught at a little +school kept by Widow Oliver, who years after, when he was starting for +Oxford, brought him a present of gingerbread, telling him he was the +best scholar she ever had. After a time he studied Latin under a master +who "whipped it into him." The foolish teacher would ask the boy the +Latin word for candlestick, or some unexpected thing, and then whip him, +saying, "This I do to save you from the gallows!" + +Naturally indolent, Samuel had to struggle against this tendency. He +had, however, the greatest ambition to excel, and to this he attributed +his later success. He was also inquisitive, and had a wonderful memory. +When he wore short dresses, his mother gave him the Prayer-Book one day, +and, pointing to the Collect, said, "You must get this by heart." She +went up stairs, but no sooner had she reached the second floor than she +heard him following. He could repeat it perfectly, having looked it over +but twice. He left school at sixteen, spending two years at home in +helping his parents, and studying earnestly. One day, his father, being +ill, asked him to go to a neighboring town and take his place in selling +books at a stall on market-day. He was proud, and did not go. Fifty +years afterward, in his greatness, then an old man, he went to this +stall, and, with uncovered head, remained for an hour in the rain where +his father had formerly stood, exposed to the sneers of the bystanders +and the inclemency of the weather. It showed the repentance of a noble +soul for disobedience to a parent. + +At nineteen, he entered Pembroke College, Oxford, where he acted as +servant. He used to go daily to his friend Taylor, and get lectures +second-hand, till his feet, showing through his worn-out shoes, were +perceived by the students, and he ceased going. A rich young man +secretly put a pair of new shoes at his door, which he indignantly threw +out of the window. He was willing to work and earn, but would not +receive charity. At the end of three years he became so poor that he was +obliged to leave college, his father dying soon after. + +After various experiences, he sought the position of usher at a school, +but was refused because it was thought that the boys would make fun of +his ugliness. He finally obtained such a place, was treated with great +harshness, and left in a few months. Strange to say, the poor, lonely +scholar, only twenty-six, now fell in love with a widow forty-eight +years old. After obtaining his mother's consent, he married her, and the +union proved a most happy one. With the little money his wife possessed, +he started a school, and advertised for pupils; but only three came, and +the school soon closed. In despair he determined to try London, and see +if an author could there earn his bread. In that great city he lived for +some time on nine cents a day. One publisher to whom he applied +suggested to him that the wisest course would be to become a porter and +carry trunks. + +A poem written at this time, entitled "London," for which he received +fifty dollars, one line of which was in capital letters, + + "SLOW RISES WORTH BY POVERTY DEPRESSED," + +attracted attention; and Pope, who was then at the height of his fame, +asked Dublin University to give to the able scholar the degree of M.A., +that he might thus be able to take the principalship of a school, and +earn three hundred dollars a year; but this was refused. Out of such +struggles come heroic souls. + +When he was forty, he published the "Vanity of Human Wishes," receiving +seventy-five dollars, asserted by many to be the most impressive thing +of its kind in the language. The lines, + + "There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, + Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail," + +show his struggles. A drama soon after, played by the great actor, David +Garrick, brought him nearly a thousand dollars; but the play itself was +a failure. When asked by his friends how he felt about his ill success, +he replied, "Like the monument," meaning that he continued firm and +unmoved, like a column of granite. Fame was coming at last, after he had +struggled in London for thirteen years--and what bitterness they had +brought! + +For two years he worked almost constantly on a paper called the +"Rambler." When his wife said that, well as she had thought of him +before, she had never considered him equal to this, he was more pleased +than with any praise he ever received. She died three days after the +last copy was published, and Johnson was utterly prostrated. He buried +himself in hard work in his garret, a most inconvenient room; but he +said, "In that room I never saw Mrs. Johnson." Her wedding-ring was +placed in a little box, and tenderly kept till his death. + +Three years afterward, his great work, his Dictionary, appeared, for +which he received eight thousand dollars; but, as he had been obliged to +employ six assistants for seven years, he was still poor, but now +famous. The Universities of Oxford and Dublin, when he no longer needed +their assistance, hastened to bestow their degrees upon him. Even George +III. invited him to the royal palace,--a strange contrast to a few years +before, when Samuel Johnson was under arrest for a debt of thirty +dollars! When asked by Reynolds how he had obtained his accuracy and +flow of language in conversation, he replied, "By trying to do my best +on every occasion and in every company." About this time his aged mother +died, and in the evenings of one week, to defray her funeral expenses, +he wrote "Rasselas," and received five hundred dollars for it. He wrote +in his last letter to her, "You have been the best mother, and I believe +the best woman, in the world. I thank you for your indulgence to me, and +beg forgiveness of all that I have done ill, and of all that I have +omitted to do well." His last great work was "The Lives of the Poets." + +He received now a pension of fifteen hundred dollars a year, for his +valuable services to literature, but never used more than four hundred +dollars for himself. He took care of a blind woman of whom he said, "She +was a friend to my poor wife, and was in the house when she died, she +has remained in it ever since," of a mother and daughter dependent upon +an old family physician, and of two men whom nobody else would care for. +Once when he found a poor woman on the street late at night, he took her +home, and kept her till she was restored to health. His pockets were +always filled with pennies for street Arabs; and, if he found poor +children asleep on a threshold, he would slip money into their hands +that, when they awakened, they might buy a breakfast. When a servant was +dying who had been in the family for forty-three years, he prayed with +her and kissed her, the tears falling down his cheeks. He wrote in his +diary, "We kissed and parted--I humbly hope to meet again, and part no +more." He held, rightly, that Christianity levels all distinctions of +rank. + +He was very tender to animals. Once, when in Wales, a gardener brought +into the house a hare which had been caught in the potatoes, and was +told to give it to the cook. Dr. Johnson asked to have it placed in his +arms; then, taking it to the window, he let it go, shouting to it to +run as fast as possible. He would buy oysters for his cat, Hodge, that +the servants, from seeing his fondness for it, might be led to treat it +kindly. + +He died at the age of seventy-five, such men as Burke and Reynolds +standing by his bedside. Of the latter, he begged that he would "read +his Bible, and never paint on Sundays." His last words were to a young +lady who had asked his blessing: "God bless you, my dear!" He was buried +with appropriate honors in Westminster Abbey, and monuments are erected +to him in St. Paul's Cathedral, and at Lichfield. The poor boy, nearly +blind, became "the brightest ornament of the eighteenth century." + + + + +OLIVER GOLDSMITH. + + +On a low slab in a quiet spot, just north of the Church of Knight +Templars, in London, are the simple words, "Here lies Oliver Goldsmith." +The author of the "Vicar of Wakefield" needs no grander monument; for he +lives in the hearts of the people. + +Oliver Goldsmith was born in Pallas, Ireland, in 1728, the son of a poor +minister, who, by means of tilling some fields and assisting in a parish +outside his own, earned two hundred dollars a year for his wife and +seven children! When about six years old, Oliver nearly died of +smallpox, and his pitted face made him an object of jest among the boys. +At eight he showed great fondness for books, and began to write verses. +His mother pleaded for a college education for him, but there seemed +little prospect of it. One day, when a few were dancing at his uncle's +house, the little boy sprang upon the floor and began to dance. The +fiddler, to make fun of his short figure and homely face, exclaimed, +"AEsop!" The boy, stung to the quick, replied:-- + + "Heralds, proclaim aloud! all saying, + 'See AEsop dancing and his monkey playing;'" + +when, of course, the fiddler became much chagrined. + +[Illustration: OLIVER GOLDSMITH.] + +All his school life Oliver was painfully diffident, but a good scholar. +His father finally earned a better salary, and the way seemed open for +college, when, lo! his sister, who had the opportunity of marrying a +rich man, was obliged--so thought the public opinion of the day--to have +a marriage portion of $2,000, and poor Oliver's educational hopes were +blasted. He must now enter Trinity College, Dublin, as a sizar +(servant), wear a coarse black gown without sleeves, a red cap,--the +badge of servitude,--sweep the courts, carry dishes, and be treated with +contempt, which nearly crushed his sensitive nature. + +A year and a half later his father died, and his scanty means ceased +from that source. To keep from starving he wrote ballads, selling them +to street musicians at $1.25 apiece, and stole out at night to hear them +sung. Often he shared this pittance with some one more wretched than +himself. One cold night he gave his blankets to a person with five +children, and crawled into the ticking of his bed for warmth. When a +kind friend, who often brought him food, came in the morning, he was +obliged to break in the door, as Goldsmith could not extricate himself +from his bed. + +Obtaining a small scholarship, he gave a little party in his room in +honor of the event. A savage tutor appeared in the midst of the +festivities, and knocked him down. So incensed was Goldsmith that he ran +away from college, and with twenty-five cents in his pocket started for +Cork. For three days he lived on eight cents a day, and, by degrees, +parted with nearly all his clothes for food. + +Though wholly unfitted for the ministry, Goldsmith was urged by his +relatives to enter the church, because he would then have a living. Too +young to be accepted, he remained at home for two years, assisting his +brother Henry in the village school; and then offering himself as a +candidate, was refused, it was said, because he appeared before the +right reverend in scarlet trousers! After being tutor for a year, his +uncle gave him $250, that he might go to Dublin and study law. On +arriving, he met an old friend, lost all his money in playing cards with +him, and, ashamed and penniless, returned and begged the forgiveness of +his relative. + +A little more money was given him, and with this he studied medicine in +Edinburgh for over a year, earning later some money by teaching. +Afterward he travelled in Italy and France, begging his way by singing +or playing on his flute at the doors of the peasants, returning to +England at twenty-eight years of age without a cent in his pocket. +Living among the beggars in Axe Lane, he asked to spread plasters, or +pound in the mortars of the apothecaries, till, finally, a chemist hired +him out of pity. Through the aid of a fellow-student, he finally opened +a doctor's office, but few came to a stranger, and these usually so +poor as to be unable to pay. + +Attending one day upon a workman, he held his hat close to his breast, +so as to cover a big patch in his second-hand clothes, while he felt the +patient's pulse. Half guessing the young doctor's poverty, the sick man +told him about his master, the author of the famous old novel, "Clarissa +Harlowe," and how he had befriended writers. Goldsmith at once applied +for work, and became press corrector in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street. + +Later he was employed as a reviewer on a magazine. Being obliged to +submit all his reviews to an illiterate bookseller and his wife, the +engagement soon came to an end. He lived now in a garret, was dunned +even for his milk-bill, wrote a book for a college friend, under whose +name it was published, and began a work of his own, "Polite Learning in +Europe," writing to a wealthy relative for aid to publish, which letter +was never answered, though it was greatly regretted after Goldsmith +became famous. + +With no hope in London, he was promised a position in the East Indies. +Life began to look bright, though his Fleet Street garret, with one +chair, was surrounded by swarms of children and dirt. The promise was +not kept, and he applied for the position of hospital mate. His clothes +being too poor for him to be seen on the streets, he pledged the money +to be received for four articles, bought a new suit, went up to the +court of examiners, and was rejected! Had any of these positions been +obtained, the world, doubtless, would never have known the genius of +Oliver Goldsmith. + +He went back to his garret to write, pawned his clothes to pay the +landlady, who was herself to be turned out of the wretched lodgings, +sold his "Life of Voltaire" for twenty dollars, and published his +"Polite Learning in Europe," anonymously. The critics attacked it, and +Goldsmith's day of fame had dawned at last. "The Citizen of the World," +a good-natured satire on society, next appeared, and was a success. Dr. +Johnson became his friend, and made him a member of his club with +Reynolds, Burke, and other noted men. The "Traveller" was next +published, with an immense sale. Goldsmith now moved into the buildings +which bear his name, near Temple Church, and, for once, had flowers and +green grass to look out upon. + +He was still poor, doubtless spending what money he received with little +wisdom. His landlady arrested him for room-rent, upon hearing which, Dr. +Johnson came at once to see him, gave him money, took from his desk the +manuscript of the "Vicar of Wakefield," and sold it to a publisher for +three hundred dollars. This was the fruit of much labor, and the world +received it cordially. Some of his essays were now reprinted sixteen +times. What a change from the Fleet Street garret! + +The "Deserted Village" was published five years later, Goldsmith having +spent two whole years in reviewing it after it was written, so careful +was he that every word should be the best that could be chosen. This was +translated at once into German by Goethe, who was also a great admirer +of the "Vicar of Wakefield." He also wrote an English History, a Roman, +a Grecian, several dramas, of which "She Stoops to Conquer" was the most +popular, and eight volumes of the "History of the Earth and Animated +Nature," for which he received five hundred dollars a volume, leaving +this unfinished. + +Still in debt, overworked, laboring sometimes far into the morning +hours, not leaving his desk for weeks together, even for exercise, +Goldsmith died at forty-five, broken with the struggle of life, but with +undying fame. When he was buried, one April day, 1774, Brick Court and +the stairs of the building were filled with the poor and the forsaken +whom he had befriended. His monument is in the Poets' Corner at +Westminster Abbey, the greatest honor England could offer. True, she let +him nearly starve, but she crowned him at the last. He conquered the +world by hard work, kindness, and a gentleness as beautiful as his +genius was great. + + + + +MICHAEL FARADAY. + + +In the heart of busy London, over a stable, lived James and Margaret +Faraday, with their four little children. The father was a blacksmith, +in feeble health, unable to work for a whole day at a time, a kind, good +man to his household; the mother, like himself, was uneducated, but neat +and industrious, and devoted to her family. The children learned the +rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic at school, and then, of +course, were obliged to earn their living. + +Michael, the third child, born 1791, became, at thirteen years of age, +an errand-boy in a bookseller's shop. His first duty was to carry +newspapers in the morning to customers, who read them for an hour or two +for a trifle, a penny probably, and then gave them to the newsboy to be +re-loaned. Often on Sunday morning the patrons would say, "You must call +again," forgetting that the next place might be a mile away, and that +the young boy was quite as desirous as they, to go to church with his +parents. Years after this, when he had become famous the world over, he +said, "I always feel a tenderness for those boys, because I once +carried newspapers myself." + +[Illustration: MICHAEL FARADAY.] + +The following year, 1805, he was apprenticed to a bookseller for seven +years, to learn the trade of binding and selling books. Here was hard +work before him till he was twenty-one; not a cheerful prospect for one +who loved play as well as other boys. Whenever he had a spare moment, he +was looking inside the books he was binding. Mrs. Marcet's +"Conversations in Chemistry" delighted him; and when he was given the +"Encyclopedia Britannica" to bind, the article on Electricity seemed a +treasure-house of wonders. He soon made an electrical machine,--not an +expensive one,--simply a glass vial, and other apparatus of a similar +kind; and afterwards with a real cylinder. These cost only a few pence a +week, but they gave a vast amount of pleasure to the blacksmith's son. + +One day he saw in a shop-window a notice that a Mr. Tatum was to give at +his own house some lectures on Natural Philosophy. The charge for each +was twenty-five cents. No bookseller's apprentice would have such an +amount of money to spend weekly as that. However, his brother Robert, +three years older, himself a blacksmith, with some pride, perhaps, that +Michael was interested in such weighty matters, furnished the money, and +a lodger at the home of the bookseller taught him drawing, so that he +might be able, in taking notes, to illustrate the experiments. He +attended the lectures, wrote them out carefully in a clear hand, bound +them in four volumes, and dedicated them to his employer. + +A customer at the shop had become interested in a boy who cared so much +for science, and took him to hear four lectures given by Sir Humphry +Davy at the Royal Institution. This was an unexpected pleasure. He was +beginning to sigh for something beyond book-binding. "Oh, if I could +only help in some scientific work, no matter how humble!" he thought to +himself. He says in his journal, "In my ignorance of the world, and +simplicity of my mind, I wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the +Royal Society." No answer was ever returned to the request for a +situation. Could the president have realized that some day ten thousand +people would know the name of Michael Faraday where one knew the name of +Sir Joseph Banks, probably he would have answered the boy's letter. +Blessings on the great man or woman who takes time, however briefly, to +answer every letter received! Such a man was Garfield, and such is +Whittier. A civil question demands a civil answer, whether the person +addressed be king or peasant. + +About the time his apprenticeship ended, in 1812, he summoned courage to +write directly to the great Sir Humphry Davy, sending the full notes he +had made at that gentleman's lectures. Sir Humphry, possibly remembering +that he, too, had been a poor boy, the son of a widowed milliner, wrote +a polite note, saying, that "Science was a harsh mistress, and, in a +pecuniary point of view, but poorly rewarding those who devoted +themselves to her service;" that he was going out of town, but would see +if he could some time aid him. + +Meantime Michael was making crude galvanic experiments. He bought some +malleable zinc, cut out seven plates, each the size of a half-penny, +covered these with the copper half-pennies, placing between them six +pieces of paper soaked in a solution of muriate of soda, and with this +simple battery, decomposed sulphate of magnesia. So pleased was he that +he wrote a letter to one of his boy friends, telling of the experiment, +and adding, "Time is all I require. Oh, that I could purchase at a cheap +rate some of our modern gent's spare hours, nay, days! I think it would +be a good bargain, both for them and for me." The youth had learned the +first secret of success,--not to waste time; not to throw it away on +useless persons or useless subjects. + +He had learned another secret, that of choosing right companions. To +this same young friend, Abbott, he wrote, "A companion cannot be a good +one, unless he is morally so. I have met a good companion in the lowest +path of life, and I have found such as I despised in a rank far superior +to mine.... I keep regular hours, and enter not intentionally into +pleasures productive of evil." London's highest circles possessed no +purer spirit than this young mechanic. + +Faraday now began work at his trade of book-binding for a Frenchman in +London, who, having no children, promised him the business, if he would +remain with him always; but the employer's temper was so hasty that the +position became almost unbearable. The young man was growing depressed +in spirits, when one night, just as he was preparing for bed, a loud +knock on the door startled him. On looking out of the window, he espied +a grand carriage, with a footman in livery, who left a note. This was a +request from Sir Humphry Davy to see him in the morning. Was there, +then, the possibility of a place in the Royal Institution? Between +conflicting hopes and fears, he went to sleep, and in the morning +hastened to see the great chemist. The result was an engagement at six +dollars a week, with two rooms at the top of the house! He was to clean +the instruments, move them to and from the lecture-room, and in all ways +to make himself useful. Now he could say good-by to book-binding; and, +though six dollars a week was not a munificent sum, yet he could +actually handle beautiful instruments,--not copper half-pence and bits +of zinc,--and could listen to stimulating lectures. + +And now work began in earnest. He joined the City Philosophical Society, +an association of thirty or forty persons in moderate circumstances, who +met each Wednesday evening, one of their number giving a lecture. Then a +half dozen friends came together once a week to read, criticise, and +correct each other in pronunciation and conversation. How eagerly would +such a young man have attended college! There was no opportunity to hear +polished talk in elegant drawing-rooms, no chance to improve manners in +so-called "best society." He did what is in the power of everybody,--he +educated himself. Did he not need recreation after the hard day's work? +Every person has to make his choice. Amusements do not make scholars: +pleasure and knowledge do not go hand in hand. Faraday chose the topmost +story of the Royal Institution, and books for companions, and immortal +fame was the result. + +The experiments with Davy soon became absorbing, and often dangerous. +Now they extracted sugar from beet-root; now they treated chloride of +nitrogen, wearing masks of glass upon their faces, which, +notwithstanding, were sometimes badly cut by the explosions. Seven +months after this, Sir Humphry decided to travel upon the Continent, and +asked Faraday to be his amanuensis. This was a rare opportunity for the +young assistant. For a year and a half they visited France, Switzerland, +Italy, and Germany, climbing Vesuvius, enjoying art-galleries, and +meeting the learned and famous of the age. The journey had its +disagreeable side; for Faraday was made more or less a servant by Davy +and his sometimes inconsiderate wife; but it had great and lasting +advantages for one who had never been but twelve miles from London. + +His heart turned longingly back to the poor ones he had left behind. He +wrote to his mother, "The first and last thing in my mind is England, +home, and friends. When sick, when cold, when tired, the thoughts of +those at home are a warm and refreshing balm to my heart.... These are +the first and greatest sweetness in the life of man.... I am almost +contented except with my ignorance, which becomes more visible to me +every day." And again, "I have several times been more than half decided +to return hastily home: I am only restrained by the wish of +improvement." To his sister he wrote, "Give my love with a kiss to +mother, the first thing you do on reading this letter, and tell her how +much I think of her." To Abbott he wrote something intended for his eyes +only, but headed, "I do not wish that my mother should remain ignorant +of it. I _have no secrets from her_." His heart bounded with joy at the +prospect of meeting them again, and "enjoying the pleasure of their +conversation, from which he had been excluded." No absorption in science +could make him outgrow his parents and his humble home. + +On his return to England his salary was increased to $500 yearly, and he +was promoted to Laboratory Assistant. He was now twenty-four. He had +noted carefully Davy's researches in iodine and chlorine, had seen him +develop his safety-lamp, which has proved an untold blessing to miners, +had made many experiments from his own thinking; and now he too was to +give his first course of six lectures before his friends in the City +Philosophical Society, on Chemical Affinity, and kindred topics. He +wrote them out with great care; for whatever he did was well done. This +year he published his first paper in the "Quarterly Journal of Science" +on caustic lime. Encouraged by the approving words of Sir Humphry, the +following year he wrote six papers for the "Quarterly," giving his +experiments with gases and minerals, and gave another course of lectures +before the Philosophical Society. To improve himself in delivering +these, he attended lectures on oratory, taking copious notes. + +Seven years had now gone by in his apprenticeship to Science. He had +published thirty-seven papers in the "Quarterly," had a book ready for +the press, on the alloys of steel, and had read a paper before the Royal +Society itself, on two new compounds of chlorine and carbon, and a new +compound of iodine, carbon, and hydrogen. But the young and now +brilliant student had other weighty matters in hand. Five years before +this, he had written in his diary: + + "What is't that comes in false, deceitful guise, + Making dull fools of those that 'fore were wise? + 'Tis love. + What's that the wise man always strives to shun, + Though still it ever o'er the world has run? + 'Tis love." + +But now, whether he tried to shun it or no, he became thoroughly in love +with Sarah Barnard, an intelligent and sweet-tempered girl, the +daughter of a silversmith. Distracted by fears lest he might not win +her, he wrote her. "In whatever way I can best minister to your +happiness, either by assiduity or by absence, it shall be done. Do not +injure me by withdrawing your friendship, or punish me for aiming to be +more than a friend by making me less." + +The girl showed this to her father, who replied that love made +philosophers say very foolish things. She hesitated about accepting him, +and went away to the seaside to consider it; but the ardent lover +followed, determined to learn the worst if need be. They walked on the +cliffs overhanging the ocean, and Faraday wrote in his journal as the +day drew near its close, "My thoughts saddened and fell, from the fear I +should never enjoy such happiness again. I could not master my feelings, +or prevent them from sinking, and I actually at last shamed myself by +moist eyes." He blamed himself because he did not know "the best means +to secure the heart he wished to gain." He knew how to fathom the depths +of chemical combinations, but he could not fathom the depths of Sarah +Barnard's heart. + +At last the hour of her decision came; and both were made supremely +happy by it. A week later he wrote her, "Every moment offers me fresh +proof of the power you have over me. I could not at one time have +thought it possible that I, that any man, could have been under the +dominion of feelings so undivided and so intense: now I think that no +other man can have felt or feel as I do." A year later they were married +very quietly, he desiring their wedding day to be "just like any other +day." Twenty-eight years later he wrote among the important dates and +discoveries of his life, "June 12, 1821, he married,--an event which, +more than any other, contributed to his earthly happiness and healthful +state of mind. The union has nowise changed, except in the depth and +strength of its character." + +For forty-seven years "his dear Sarah" made life a joy to him. He rarely +left home; but if so, as at the great gathering of British Scientists at +Birmingham, he wrote back, "After all, there is no pleasure like the +tranquil pleasure of home; and here, even here, the moment I leave the +table, I wish I were with you IN QUIET. Oh, what happiness is ours! My +runs into the world in this way only serve to make me esteem that +happiness the more." + +And now came twenty years in science that made Faraday the wonder and +ornament of his age. Elected an F.R.S., he began at once twelve lectures +in Chemical Manipulation before the London Institution, six on Chemical +Philosophy before the Royal Society, published six papers on +electromagnetism, and began a course of juvenile lectures which +continued for nineteen years. This was one of the beautiful things of +Faraday's life,--a great man living in a whirl of work, yet taking time +to make science plain to the young. When asked at what age he would +teach science, he replied that he had never found a child too young to +understand him. For twenty years he lectured at the Royal Academy at +Woolwich, became scientific adviser to the government with regard to +lighthouses and buoys, not for gain, but for the public good, drew all +London to his eloquent lectures with his brilliant experiments, Prince +Albert attending with his sons; and published one hundred and +fifty-eight scientific essays and thirty series of "Experimental +Researches in Electricity," which latter, says Dr. Gladstone, "form one +of the most marvellous monuments of intellectual work; one of the rarest +treasure-houses of newly-discovered knowledge, with which the world has +ever been enriched." + +He not only gathered into his vast brain what other men had learned of +science, but he tested every step to prove the facts, and became, says +Professor Tyndall, "the greatest experimental philosopher the world has +ever seen." He loved science as he loved his family and his God, and +played with Nature as with a petted child. When he lectured, "there was +a gleaming in his eyes which no painter could copy, and which no poet +could describe. His audience took fire with him, and every face was +flushed." + +In his earlier discoveries in compressing gases into liquids, he +obtained from one thousand cubic feet of coal gas one gallon of fluid +from which he distilled benzine. In 1845 the chemist Hofman found this +same substance in coal-tar, from which come our beautiful aniline dyes. + +After eighteen years of studying the wonderful results of Galvani's +discovery at the University of Bologna, that the legs of a dead frog +contract under the electric current; and of Volta, in 1799, with his +voltaic pile of copper, zinc, and leather, in salt-water; and of +Christian Oersted at the University of Copenhagen; and Ampere and Arago, +that electricity will produce magnets, Faraday made the great discovery +of magneto-electricity,--that magnets will produce electricity. At once +magneto-electric machines were made for generating electricity for the +electric light, electro-plating, etc. This discovery, says Professor +Tyndall, "is the greatest experimental result ever attained by an +investigator, the Mont Blanc of Faraday's achievements." + +Soon after he made another great discovery, that of electric induction, +or that one electric current will induce another current in an adjoining +wire. Others had suspected this, but had sought in vain to prove it. The +Bell telephone, which Sir William Thompson calls "the wonder of +wonders," depends upon this principle. Here no battery is required; for +the vibration of a thin iron plate is made to generate the currents. +After this, Faraday proved that the various kinds of electricity are +identical; and that the electricity of the Voltaic pile is produced by +chemical action, and not by contact of metals, as Volta had supposed. +The world meantime had showered honors upon the great scientist. Great +Britain had made him her idol. The Cambridge Philosophical Society, the +Institution of Civil Engineers, of British Architects, of Philosophy and +of Medicine, and the leading associations of Scotland had made him an +honorary member. Paris had elected him corresponding member of all her +great societies. St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Berlin, Palermo, +Modena, Lisbon, Heidelberg, Frankfort, and our own Boston and +Philadelphia had sent tokens of admiration. Eminent men from all the +world came to see him. + +How proud his mother must have felt at this wonderful success! She was +not able to enter into her son's pursuits from lack of early education; +but she talked much about him, calling him ever, "my Michael"; and would +do nothing whatever without his advice. He supported her in her +declining years; and she seemed perfectly happy. His father had died in +his boyhood; but Faraday ever honored his occupation. He used to say, "I +love a smith-shop, and anything relating to smithing. My father was a +blacksmith." + +He was now forty-nine. The overtaxed brain refused to work longer. +Memory was losing her grasp, and but for the sweet and careful presence +of Sarah Faraday, the life-work would doubtless have been finished at +this time. She took him to Switzerland, where he walked beside the lakes +and over the mountains with "my companion, dear wife, and partner in +all things." For four years he made scarcely any experiments in original +research, and then the tired brain seemed to regain its wonted power, +and go on to other discoveries. + +An Italian philosopher, Morichini, was the first to announce the +magnetizing power of the solar rays. Mrs. Somerville covered one-half of +a sewing-needle with paper, and exposed the other half to the violet +rays. In two hours the exposed end had acquired magnetism. Faraday, by +long and difficult experiments, showed the converse of this: he +magnetized a ray of light,--an experiment "high, beautiful, and alone," +says Mr. Tyndall. He also showed the magnetic condition of all matter. + +He was always at work. He entered the laboratory in the morning, and +often worked till eleven at night, hardly stopping for his meals. He +seldom went into society, for time was too precious. If he needed a +change, he read aloud Shakspeare, Byron, or Macaulay to his wife in the +evening, or corresponded with Herschel, Humboldt, and other great men. +In the midst of exhausting labors he often preached on the Sabbath, +believing more earnestly in the word of God the more he studied science. + +When he was sixty-four the great brain began to show signs of decline. +Belgium, Munich, Vienna, Madrid, Rome, Naples, Turin, Rotterdam, Upsala, +Lombardy, and Moscow had sent him medals, or made him a member of their +famous societies. Napoleon III. made him commander of the Legion of +Honor, a rare title; and the French exhibition awarded him the grand +medal of honor. The Queen asked him to dine with her at Windsor Castle, +and, at the request of Prince Albert her husband, she presented him with +a lovely home at Hampton Court. + +At seventy-one he wrote to Mrs. Faraday from Glasgow, "My head is full, +and my heart also; but my recollection rapidly fails. You will have to +resume your old function of being a pillow to my mind, and a rest,--a +happy-making wife." Still he continued to make able reports to the +government on lighthouses, electric machines, steam-engines, and the +like. + +And then for two years the memory grew weaker, the body feebler, and he +was, as he told a friend, "just waiting." He died in his chair in his +study, August 25th, 1867, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery. +Westminster Abbey would have opened her doors to him, but he requested +to be buried "in the simplest earthly place, with a gravestone of the +most ordinary kind." On a plain marble slab in the midst of clustering +ivy are his name and the dates of his birth and death. One feels a +strange tenderness of heart as he stands beside this sacred spot where +rests one, who, though elected to seventy societies, and offered nearly +one hundred titles and tokens of honor, said he "would remain plain +Michael Faraday to the last." + +Wonderful man! great in mind, noble in heart, and gentle in manner, +having brought a strong nature under the most complete discipline. His +energy, his devotion to a single object, his untiring work, and his +beautiful character carried the blacksmith's son to the highest +success. + + + + +SIR HENRY BESSEMER. + + +A little way from London, England, at Denmark Hill, looking toward the +Crystal Palace, is a mansion which is fit for royalty. The grounds, +covering from thirty to forty acres, are beautifully terraced, dotted +here and there with lakelets, fountains, and artificial caverns, while +the great clumps of red rhododendron, yellow laburnum, pink hawthorne, +and white laurel make an exquisitely colored picture. The home itself is +spacious and inviting, with its elegant conservatory and rare works of +art. The owner of this house, Sir Henry Bessemer, is cordial and +gracious; and from his genial face and manner, no one would imagine that +his life had been one long struggle with obstacles. + +Born in Charlton, a little county town in Hertfordshire, Jan. 19, 1813, +he received the rudiments of an education like other boys in the +neighborhood. His father, Anthony Bessemer, an inventor, seeing that his +son was inclined to mechanics, bought him, in London, a five-inch +foot-lathe, and a book which described the art of turning. Day after +day, in the quiet of his country home, he studied and practised turning, +and modelling in clay. + +[Illustration: SIR HENRY BESSEMER.] + +At eighteen years of age he went to London, "knowing no one," he says, +"and myself unknown,--a mere cipher in a vast sea of human enterprise." +He soon found a place to work as modeller and designer, engraving a +large number of original designs on steel, with a diamond point, for +patent-medicine labels. A year later he exhibited one of his models at +the Royal Academy. His inventive brain and observing eye were always +alert in some new direction. Having ascertained that the Government lost +thousands of pounds annually by the transfer of adhesive stamps from old +deeds to new ones, he determined to devise a stamp which could not be +used twice. + +For several months he worked earnestly, at night after his daily tasks +were over, and in secret, thinking how richly the Government would +reward him if he succeeded. At last he produced a die of unique design, +which perforated a parchment deed with four hundred little holes. He +hastened to the Stamp officials to show his work. They were greatly +pleased, and asked him which he preferred for his reward, a sum of +money, or the position of Superintendent of Stamps, with a salary of +three or four thousand dollars a year. He delightedly chose the latter, +as that would make him comfortable for life. There was another reason +for his delight; for being engaged to be married, he would have no +solicitude now about daily needs: life would flow on as smoothly as a +river. + +At once he visited the young lady, and told her of his great success. +She listened eagerly, and then said, "Yes, I understand this; but +surely, if all stamps had a _date_ put upon them, they could not at a +future time be used without detection." His spirits fell. He confessed +afterward that, "while he felt pleased and proud of the clever and +simple suggestion of the young lady, he saw also that all his more +elaborate system, the result of months of toil, was shattered to pieces +by it." What need for four hundred holes in a die, when a single date +was more effective? He soon worked out a die with movable dates, and +with frankness and honor presented it before the Government officials. +They saw its preferableness: the new plan was adopted by Act of +Parliament; the old stamps were called in and new ones issued; and then +the young inventor was informed that his services as Superintendent of +Stamps, at three thousand dollars a year, were not needed. + +But surely the Government, which was to save a half million dollars a +year, would repay him for his months of labor and thought! Associations, +like individuals, are very apt to forget favors, when once the desired +end is attained. The Premier had resigned; and, after various promises +and excuses, a lawyer in the Stamp Office informed him that he made the +new stamp of his own free will, and there was no money to be given him. +"Sad and dispirited, and with a burning sense of injustice overpowering +all other feelings," says young Bessemer, "I went my way from the Stamp +Office, too proud to ask as a favor that which was indubitably my +right." + +Alas! that he must learn thus early the selfishness of the world! But he +took courage; for, had he not made one real invention? and it must be in +his power to make others. When he was twenty-five he produced a +type-casting machine; but so opposed was it by the compositors, that it +was finally abandoned. He also invented a machine for making figured +Utrecht velvet; and some of his productions were used in the state +apartments of Windsor Castle. + +A little later his attention was accidentally called to bronze powder, +he having bought a small portion to ornament his sister's album. The +powder, made in Germany, cost only twenty-two cents a pound in the raw +material, and sold for twenty-two dollars. Here was a wonderful profit. +Why could he not discover the process of making it? He worked for +eighteen months, trying all sorts of experiments, and failed. But +failure to a great mind never really means failure; so, after six +months, he tried again, and--succeeded. He knew little about patents, +had been recently defrauded by the Government; and he determined that +this discovery should be kept a secret. He made a small apparatus, and +worked it himself, sending out a travelling-man with the product. That +which cost him less than one dollar was sold for eighteen. A fortune +seemed now really within his grasp. + +A friend, assured of his success, put fifty thousand dollars into the +business. Immediately Bessemer made plans of all the machinery required, +sent various parts to as many different establishments, lest his secret +be found out, and then put the pieces of his self-acting machines +together. Five assistants were engaged at high wages, under pledge of +secrecy. At first he made one thousand per cent profit; and now, in +these later years, the profit is three hundred per cent. Three of the +assistants have died; and Mr. Bessemer has turned over the business and +the factory to the other two. The secret of making the bronze powder has +never been told. Even Mr. Bessemer's oldest son had reached manhood +before he ever entered the locked room where it was made. + +For ten years the inventor now turned his attention to the construction +of railway carriages, centrifugal pumps, etc. His busy brain could not +rest. When frequent explosions in coal-mines occasioned discussion +throughout the country, he made, at large expense, a working model for +ventilating mines, and offered to explain it to a committee of the House +of Commons. His offer was declined with thanks. A little investigation +on the part of great statesmen would have been scarcely out of place. + +At the great exhibition in London in 1851, he exhibited several +machines,--one for grinding and polishing plate glass, and another for +draining, in an hour, an acre of land covered with water a foot deep. +The crowd looked at them, called the inventor "the ingenious Mr. +Bessemer," and passed on. Two years later he made some improvements in +war implements, and submitted his plans to the Woolwich Arsenal; but +they were declined, without thanks even. Some other men might have +become discouraged; but Mr. Bessemer knew that obstacles only strengthen +and develop men. + +The improved ordnance having been brought to the knowledge of Napoleon +III., he encouraged the inventor, and furnished the money to carry +forward the experiments. While the guns were being tested at Vincennes, +an officer remarked, "If you cannot get stronger metal for your guns, +such heavy projectiles will be of little use." And then Mr. Bessemer +began to ask himself if he could not improve iron. But he had never +studied metallurgy. This, however, did not deter him; for he immediately +obtained the best books on the subject, and visited the iron-making +districts. Then he bought an old factory at Baxter House, where Richard +Baxter used to live, and began to experiment for himself. After a whole +year of labor he succeeded in greatly improving cast-iron, making it +almost as white as steel. + +Could he not improve steel also? For eighteen months he built and pulled +down one furnace after another, at great expense. At last "the idea +struck him," he says, of making cast-iron malleable by forcing air into +the metal when in a fluid state, cast-iron being a combination of iron +and carbon. When oxygen is forced in, it unites with the carbon, and +thus the iron is left nearly pure. The experiment was tried at the +factory, in the midst of much trepidation, as the union of the +compressed air and the melted iron produced an eruption like a volcano; +but when the combustion was over, the result was steel. + +Astonished and delighted, after two years and a half of labor, Bessemer +at once took out a patent; and the following week, by request, Aug. 11, +1856, read a paper before the British Association, on "The manufacture +of malleable iron and steel without fuel." There was great ridicule made +beforehand. Said one leading steel-maker to another. "I want you to go +with me this morning. There is a fellow who has come down from London to +read a paper on making steel from cast-iron without fuel! Ha! ha! ha!" + +The paper was published in the "Times," and created a great sensation. +Crowds hastened to Baxter House to see the wonderful process. In three +weeks Mr. Bessemer had sold one hundred thousand dollars worth of +licenses to make steel by the new and rapid method. Fame, as well as +great wealth, seemed now assured, when lo! in two months, it being found +that only certain kinds of iron could be worked, the newspapers began to +ridicule the new invention, and scientists and business men declared +the method visionary, and worse than useless. + +Mr. Bessemer collected a full portfolio of these scathing criticisms; +but he was not the man to be disconcerted or cast down. Again he began +the labor of experimenting, and found that phosphorus in the iron was +the real cause of the failure. For three long years he pursued his +investigations. His best friends tried to make him desist from what the +world had proved to be an impracticable thing. Sometimes he almost +distrusted himself, and thought he would give up trying, and then the +old desire came back more strongly than ever. At last, success was +really assured, but nobody would believe it. Every one said, "Oh, this +is the thing which made such a blaze two or three years ago, and which +was a failure." + +Mr. Bessemer took several hundredweight of the new steel to some +Manchester friends, that their workmen might try it, without knowing +from whence it came. They detected no difference between this which cost +thirty dollars a ton, and what they were then using at three hundred +dollars a ton. + +But nobody wanted to buy the new steel. Two years went by in this +fruitless urging for somebody to take up the manufacture of the new +metal. Finally, Bessemer induced a friend to unite with him, and they +erected works, and began to make steel. At first the dealers would buy +only twenty or thirty pounds; then the demand steadily increased. At +last the large manufacturers awoke to the fact that Bessemer was +underselling them by one hundred dollars a ton, and they hastened to pay +a royalty for making steel by the new process. + +But all obstacles were not yet overcome. The Government refused to make +steel guns; the shipbuilders were afraid to touch it; and when the +engineer of the London and North-western Railway was asked to use steel +rails, he exclaimed, excitedly, "Mr. Bessemer, do you wish to see me +tried for manslaughter?" Now, steel rails are used the world over, at +the same cost as iron formerly, and are said to last twenty times as +long as iron rails. + +Prejudice at last wore away, and in 1866, the "Bessemer process," the +conversion of crude iron into steel by forcing cold air through it for +fifteen or twenty minutes, was bringing to its inventor an income of +five hundred thousand dollars a year! Fame had now come, as well as +wealth. In 1874, he was made President of the Iron and Steel Institute, +to succeed the Duke of Devonshire. The Institute of Civil Engineers gave +him the Telford Gold Medal; the Society of Arts, the Albert Gold Medal. +Sweden made him honorary member of her Iron Board; Hamburg gave him the +freedom of the city; and the Emperor of Austria conferred upon him the +honor of Knight Commander of the Order of Francis Joseph, sending a +complimentary letter in connection with the jewelled cross and circular +collar of the order. Napoleon III. wished to give him the Grand Cross of +the Legion of Honor, but the English Government would not permit him to +wear it; the Emperor therefore presented him in person with a gold medal +weighing twelve ounces. Berlin and the King of Wurtemburg sent him gold +medals. In 1879 he was made Fellow of the Royal Society, and the same +year was knighted by Queen Victoria. In 1880 the freedom of the city of +London was presented to him in a gold casket; the only other great +discoverers who have received this distinction being Dr. Jenner, who +introduced vaccination, and Sir Rowland Hill, the author of penny +postage. In the United States, which gives no ribbons or decorations, +Indiana has appropriately named a flourishing town after him. + +It is estimated that Sir Henry Bessemer's one discovery of making steel +has saved the world, in the last twenty-one years, above five thousand +million dollars. + +When his patent expired in 1870, he had received in royalties over five +million dollars. In his steel works at Sheffield, after buying in all +the licenses sold in 1856, when the new process seemed a failure, the +profits every two months equalled the original capital, or in fourteen +years the company increased the original capital eighty-one times by the +profits. + +How wise it proved that the country lad did not obtain the permanent +position of superintendent of stamps, at three thousand dollars a year! + +Rich beyond his highest hopes, the friend of such eminent and +progressive men as the King of the Belgians, who visits Denmark Hill, +Sir Henry has not ceased his inventions. Knowing the terrors of +sea-sickness, he designed a great swinging saloon, seventy feet by +thirty, in the midst of a sea-going vessel named the "Bessemer." The +experiment cost one hundred thousand dollars, but has not yet proved +successful. In 1877, when sixty-four years old, he began to devote +himself to the study of Herschel's works on optics, and has since +constructed an immense and novel telescope, which magnifies five +thousand times. The instrument is placed in a comfortable observatory, +so that the investigator can either sit or stand while making his +observations. "The observing room, with its floor, windows, and dome, +revolve and keep pace automatically with every motion of the telescope." +This is accomplished by hydraulic power. + +No wonder that Bessemer has been called the "great captain of modern +civilization." He has revolutionized one of the most important of the +world's industries; he has fought obstacles at every step,--poverty, the +ridicule of the press, the indifference of his countrymen, and the +cupidity of men who would steal his inventions or appropriate the +results. He has earned leisure, but he rarely takes it. His has been a +life of labor, prosecuted with indomitable will and energy. He has taken +out one hundred and twenty patents, for which the specifications and +drawings fill seven large volumes, all made by himself. The world had at +last come to know and honor the boy who came to London at the age of +eighteen, "a mere cipher in a vast sea of human enterprise." He made his +way to greatness unaided, save by his helpful wife. + +Sir Henry died on the fifteenth of March, 1898, leaving an immense +fortune, which, nevertheless, was not inordinate when compared with the +services rendered by him to mankind; and a stainless name. The unfair +treatment which had embittered his earlier days had been atoned for by +the Queen granting him a title in recognition of his invention accepted +by the Post-Office, and he had come to be regarded as one of the +greatest benefactors of modern times. Such a life, crowned with such a +success, is calculated to be a mighty inspiration to every ambitious +youth. + + + + +SIR TITUS SALT. + + +I spent a day, with great interest, in visiting the worsted mills and +warehouses at Saltaire, just out from Bradford, England, which cover +about ten acres. The history of the proprietor, Sir Titus Salt, reads +like a romance. A poor boy, the son of a plain Yorkshire man, at +nineteen in a loose blouse he was sorting and washing wool; a little +later, a good salesman, a faithful Christian worker and the +superintendent of a Sunday school. + +At thirty-three, happening to be in Liverpool, he observed on the docks +some huge pieces of dirty-looking alpaca wool. They had long lain in the +warehouses, and becoming a nuisance to the owners, were soon to be +reshipped to Peru. Young Salt took away a handful of the wool in his +handkerchief, scoured and combed it, and was amazed at its attractive +appearance. His father and friends advised him strongly to have nothing +to do with the dirty stuff, as he could sell it to no one; and if he +attempted to make cloth from it himself, he ran a great risk of failure. +Finally he said, "I am going into this alpaca affair right and left, and +I'll either make myself a man or a mouse." + +[Illustration: SIR TITUS SALT.] + +Returning to Liverpool, he bought the whole three hundred bales for a +small sum, and toiled diligently till proper machinery was made for the +new material. The result was a great success. In three years over two +million pounds of alpaca wool were imported, and now four million pounds +are brought to Bradford alone. Employment was soon furnished to +thousands, laborers coming from all over Great Britain and Germany. Ten +years later Mr. Salt was made mayor of Bradford; ten years after this a +member of Parliament, and ten years later still a baronet by Queen +Victoria,--a great change from the boy in his soiled coarse blouse, but +he deserved it all. He was a remarkable man in many ways. Even when +worth his millions, and giving lavishly on every hand, he would save +blank leaves and scraps of paper for writing, and lay them aside for +future use. He was an early riser, always at the works before the +engines were started. It used to be said of him, "Titus Salt makes a +thousand pounds before others are out of bed." He was punctual to the +minute, most exact, and unostentatious. After he was knighted, it was no +uncommon thing for him to take a poor woman and her baby in the carriage +beside him, or a tired workman, or scatter hundreds of tracts in a +village where he happened to be. Once a gypsy, not knowing who he was, +asked him to buy a broom. To her astonishment, he bought all she was +carrying! + +The best of his acts, one which he had thought out carefully, as he +said, "to do good to his fellow-men," was the building of Saltaire for +his four thousand workmen. When asked once what he had been reading of +late, he replied. "Alpaca. If you had four or five thousand people to +provide for every day, you would not have much time left for reading." +Saltaire is a beautiful place on the banks of the river Aire, clean and +restful. In the centre of the town stands the great six-story mill, +well-ventilated, lighted, and warmed, five hundred and forty-five feet +long, of light-colored stone, costing over a half million dollars. The +four engines of eighteen hundred horse-power consume fifteen thousand +tons of coal per year. The weaving shed, covering two acres, holds +twelve hundred looms, which make eighteen miles of fabric per day. + +The homes of the work-people are an honor to the capitalist. They are of +light stone, like the mill, two stories high, each containing parlor, +kitchen, pantry, and three bedrooms or more, well ventilated and +tasteful. Flower beds are in every front yard, with a vegetable garden +in the rear. No broken carts or rubbish are to be seen. Not satisfied to +make Saltaire simply healthful, by proper sanitary measures, and +beautiful, for which Napoleon III. made him one of the Legion of Honor, +Mr. Salt provided school buildings at a cost of $200,000, a +Congregational church, costing $80,000, Italian in style,--as are the +other buildings,--a hospital for sick or injured, and forty-five pretty +almshouses, like Italian villas, where the aged and infirm have a +comfortable home. Each married man and his wife receive $2.50 weekly, +and each single man or woman $1.87 for expenses. Once a year Mr. Salt +and his family used to take tea with the inmates, which was a source of +great delight. + +Believing that "indoor washing is most pernicious, and a fruitful source +of disease, especially to the young," he built twenty-four baths, at a +cost of $35,000, and public wash-houses. These are supplied with three +steam engines and six washing machines. Each person bringing clothes is +provided with a rubbing and boiling tub, into which steam and hot and +cold water are conveyed by pipes. The clothes are dried by hot air, and +can be washed, dried, mangled, and folded in an hour. In Sweden, I found +the same dislike to having washing done in the homes, and clothes are +usually carried to the public wash-houses. + +Perhaps the most interesting of all Mr. Salt's gifts to his workmen is +the Saltaire Club and Institute, costing $125,000; a handsome building, +with large reading-room supplied with daily papers and current +literature, a library, lecture-hall for eight hundred persons, a "School +of Art," with models, drawings, and good teachers, a billiard-room with +four tables, a room for scientific study, each student having proper +appliances for laboratory work, a gymnasium and drill-room nearly sixty +feet square, an armory for rifle-practice, and a smoking-room, though +Mr. Salt did not smoke. The membership fee for all this study and +recreation is only thirty seven cents for each three months. Opposite +the great mill is a dining-hall, where a plate of meat can be purchased +for four cents, a bowl of soup for two cents, and a cup of tea or coffee +for one cent. If the men prefer to bring their own food, it is cooked +free of charge. The manager has a fixed salary, so that there is no +temptation to scrimp the buyers. + +Still another gift was made to the work-people; a park of fourteen +acres, with croquet and archery grounds, music pavilion, places for +boating and swimming, and walks with beautiful flowers. No saloon has +ever been allowed in Saltaire. Without the temptation of the beer-shops, +the boys have grown to intelligent manhood, and the girls to virtuous +womanhood. Sir Titus Salt's last gift to his workmen was a Sunday-school +building costing $50,000, where are held the "model Sunday schools of +the country," say those who have attended the meetings. No wonder, at +the death of this man, 40,000 people came to his burial,--members of +Parliament, clergymen, workingmen's unions, and ragged schools. No +wonder that statues have been erected to his memory, and that thousands +go every year to Saltaire, to see what one capitalist has done for his +laborers. No fear of strikes in his workshops; no socialism talked in +the clean and pretty homes of the men; no squalid poverty, no depraving +ignorance. + +That capital is feeling its responsibility in this matter of homes for +laborers is one of the hopeful signs of the times. We shall come, +sometime, to believe with the late President Chadbourne, "The rule now +commonly acted upon is that business must be cared for, and men must +care for themselves. The principle of action, in the end, must be that +_men must be cared for_, and business must be subservient to this great +work." + +If, as Spurgeon has well said, "Home is the grandest of all +institutions," capital can do no better work than look to the homes of +the laborer. It is not the mansion which the employer builds for +himself, but the home which he builds for his employe, which will insure +a safe country for his children to dwell in. If discontent and poverty +surround his palace, its foundations are weak; if intelligence has been +disseminated, and comfort promoted by his unselfish thought for others, +then he leaves a goodly heritage for his children. + + + + +JOSEPH MARIE JACQUARD. + + +The small world which lives in elegant houses knows little of the great +world in dingy apartments with bare walls and empty cupboards. Those who +walk or ride in the sunshine often forget the darkness of the mines, or +the tiresome treadmill of the factories. + +Over a century ago, in Lyons, France, lived a man who desired to make +the lives of the toilers brighter and happier. Joseph Jacquard, the son +of a silk-weaver who died early, began his young manhood, the owner of +two looms and a comfortable little home. He had married Claudine +Boichon, the daughter of a goldsmith who expected to give his daughter a +marriage portion, but was unable from loss of property. Jacquard loved +her just as devotedly, however, as though she had brought him money. A +pretty boy was born into their home, and no family was happier in all +France. But the young loom-owner saw the poor weavers working from four +in the morning till nine at night, in crowded rooms, whole families +often bending over a loom, their chests shrunken and their cheeks +sallow from want of air and sunlight; and their faces dull and vacant +from the monotony of unvaried toil. There were no holidays, no walks in +the fields among the flowers, no reading of books, nothing but the +constant routine which wore out body and mind together. There was no +home-life; little children grew pinched and old; and mothers went too +early to their graves. If work stopped, they ate the bread of charity, +and went to the almshouse. The rich people of Lyons were not +hard-hearted, but they did not _think_; they were too busy with their +parties and their marriages; too busy buying and selling that they might +grow richer. But Jacquard was always thinking how he could lighten the +labor of the silk-weavers by some invention. + +The manufacture of silk had become a most important industry. Seventeen +hundred years before Christ the Chinese had discovered the making of +silk from silk-worms, and had cultivated mulberry-trees. They forbade +anybody to export the eggs or to disclose the process of making the +fabric, under penalty of death. The Roman Emperor Justinian determined +to wrest this secret from China, and thus revive the resources of his +empire. He sent two monks, who ostensibly preached Christianity, but in +reality studied silk-worms, and, secreting some eggs in two hollow +reeds, returned to Justinian, and breaking these canes, laid the eggs on +the lap of the beautiful Empress Theodora. From this the art spread into +Italy, and thence into France. + +The more Jacquard thought how he could help the silk-weavers of France +the more he became absorbed, and forgot that money was needed to support +his family. Soon the looms had to be sold at auction, with his small +home. The world ridiculed, and his relatives blamed him; but Claudine +his wife encouraged him, and prophesied great fame for him in the +future. She sold her little treasures, and even her bed, to pay his +debts. Finally, when there was no food in the house, with tears in his +eyes, Jacquard left his wife and child, to become a laborer for a +lime-burner in a neighboring town. Claudine went to work in a +straw-bonnet factory; and for sixteen years they battled with poverty. + +Then the French Revolution burst upon Lyons in 1793. Her crime before +such murderers as Robespierre and Marat was that she was the friend of +Louis XVI. Sixty thousand men were sent against her by the so-called +Republicans, who were commanded to utterly destroy her, and write over +the ruins, "Lyons made war upon liberty; Lyons is no more." Six thousand +persons were put to death, their houses burned, and twelve thousand +exiled; among them Jacquard. + +His only child, a brave boy of sixteen, had joined the Republican ranks, +that he might fight against the foreign armies of England, Austria, and +Naples, who had determined, under Pitt, to crush out the new government. +At the boy's earnest request his father enlisted with him, and together +they marched toward the Rhine. In one of the first battles a +cannon-ball struck the idolized son, who fell expiring in Jacquard's +arms. Covered with the blood of his only child, he dug a grave for him +on the battle-field; and exhausted and heart-broken went to the hospital +till his discharge was obtained. + +He returned to Lyons and sought his poor wife. At last he found her in +the outskirts of the city, living in a hay-loft, and earning the barest +pittance by spreading out linen for the laundresses to dry. She divided +her crusts with her husband, while they wept together over their +irreparable loss. She soon died of grief, but, with her last words, bade +Jacquard go forward in developing his genius, and have trust in God, who +would yet show him the way of success. Blessed Claudine! A sweet, +beautiful soul, shining like a star in the darkness of the French +Revolution. + +Jacquard with all earthly ties severed went back to the seclusion of +inventing. After his day's work was done as a laborer, he studied on his +machine for silk-weaving. Finally, after seven years,--a long time to +patiently develop an idea,--he had produced a loom which would decrease +the number of workmen at each machine, by one person. The model was +placed at the Paris Industrial Exposition in 1801; and the maker was +awarded a bronze medal. In gratitude for this discovery he went to the +image of the Virgin which stood on a high hill, and for nine days +ascended daily the steps of the sacred place. Then he returned to his +work, and seating himself before a Vaucanson loom, which contained the +germ of his own, he consecrated himself anew to the perfecting of his +invention. + +Jacques de Vaucanson, who died when Jacquard was thirty years old, was +one of the most celebrated mechanicians of France. His automatons were +the wonder of the age. He exhibited a duck which, when moved, ate and +drank like a live one. The figure would stretch out its neck for food, +and swallow it: walk, swim, dabble in the water, and quack most +naturally. His musician, playing the flageolet with the left hand, and +beating the tambourine with the right, executing many pieces of +difficult music with great accuracy, was an astonishment to every body. +He had been appointed inspector of silk-factories at Lyons, and, because +he made some improvements in machines, he was pelted with stones by the +workmen, who feared that they would thereby lose their labor. He +revenged himself by making a machine which wove, brocaded, and colored +at the same time, and was worked by a donkey! + +It remained for Jacquard to make the Vaucanson loom of the utmost +practical use to Lyons and to the world. After a time he was not only +able to dispense with one workman at each loom, but he made machinery do +the work of three men and two women at each frame. The city authorities +sent a model of this machine to Paris, that the Emperor Napoleon might +examine it. So pleased was he that he at once sent for Jacquard to come +to Paris. The latter had previously invented a machine for making +fishing-nets, now used in producing Nottingham lace. When brought before +Bonaparte, and Carnot the Minister of the Interior, the latter asked, +"Is it you then, who pretend to do a thing which is impossible for +man,--to make a knot upon a tight thread?" + +Jacquard answered the brusque inquiry by setting up a machine, and +letting the incredulous minister see for himself. + +The Emperor made Jacquard welcome to the _Conservatoire des Arts et +Metiers_, where he could study books and machines to his heart's +content, and gave him a pension of about twelve hundred dollars for his +discovery. When he had, with his own hands, woven a magnificent brocaded +silk dress for the Empress Josephine, he returned to Lyons to set up the +Jacquard looms. His name began to be lauded everywhere. Claudine's +prophecies had at last come true. She had given her life to help him; +but she could not live to share his honors. + +Soon, however, the tide of praise turned. Whole families found +themselves forced into the street for lack of work, as the looms were +doing what their hands had done. Bands of unemployed men were shouting, +"Behold the traitor! Let him provide for our wives and children now +driven as mendicants from door to door; or let him, the destroyer of +the peoples' labor, share in the death which he has prepared for us!" +The authorities seemed unable to quell the storm, and by their orders +the new loom was broken in pieces on the public square. "The iron," says +Jacquard, "was sold as old iron; the wood, for fuel." One day he was +seized by a crowd of starving workmen, who knocked him down, and dragged +him to the banks of the Rhone, where he would have been drowned at once, +had not the police rescued him, bleeding and nearly dead. He left the +city overwhelmed with astonishment and sorrow. Soon Switzerland, +Germany, Italy, and America were using the Jacquard looms, largely +increasing the manufacture and sale of silk, and therefore the number of +laborers. The poor men of Lyons awoke to the sad fact, that by breaking +up Jacquard's machines, they had put the work of silk-weaving into other +hands all over the world; and idleness was proving their ruin. They +might have doubled and trebled the number of their factories, and +benefited labor a thousand-fold. + +The inventor refused to take out a patent for himself, nor would he +accept any offers made him by foreigners, because he thought all his +services belonged to France. He loved the working people, who, for +twenty years, were too blind to see it. + +He removed to a little home and garden at Oullins, near Lyons, the use +of which had been given him for life, where he could hear the sound of +his precious looms on which he had worked for sixty years, and which +his city had at last adopted. Here he attended his garden, and went +every morning to early church, distributing each day some small pieces +of money to poor children. As old age came on, Lyons realized the +gratitude due her great inventor. A silver medal was awarded him, and +then the grand distinction of the cross of the Legion of Honor. + +People from the neighboring towns visited Oullins, and pointed out with +pride the noble old man at eighty-four, sitting by his garden-wall, +dressed like a workman in his long black tunic, but wearing his broad +red ribbon with his cross of honor. Illustrious travellers and statesmen +visited him whose fame was now spread through Europe and America. + +Toinette, a faithful servant who had known and loved Claudine, watched +over the pure-hearted Jacquard till death came, Aug. 7, 1834. Six years +after, Lyons, which once broke his machine and nearly killed him, raised +a beautiful statue of him in the public square. The more than seventy +thousand looms in the city, employing two hundred thousand workmen, are +grander monuments even than the statue. The silk-weavers are better +housed and fed than formerly. The struggling, self-sacrificing man, who +might have been immensely rich as well as famous, was an untold blessing +to labor and to the world. + + + + +HORACE GREELEY. + + +Among the hills of New Hampshire, in a lonely, unpainted house, Horace +Greeley was born, Feb. 3, 1811, the third of seven children. His father +was a plain farmer, hard-working, yet not very successful, but aided by +a wife of uncommon energy and good spirits, notwithstanding her many +cares. Besides her housework, and spinning, and making the children's +clothes, she hoed in the garden, raked and loaded hay to help her +husband, laughing and singing all day long, and telling her feeble +little son, Horace, stories and legends all the evening. Her first two +children having died, this boy was especially dear. Mrs. Greeley was a +great reader of such books as she could obtain, and remembered all she +read. It requires no great discernment to see from whence Horace Greeley +derived his intense love for reading, and his boundless energy. + +[Illustration: HORACE GREELEY.] + +He learned to read, one can scarcely tell how. When two years old, he +would pore over the Bible, as he lay on the floor, and ask questions +about the letters; at three, he went to the "district school," often +carried through the deep snow on the shoulders of one of his aunts, or +on the back of an older boy. He soon stood at the head of his little +class in spelling and reading, "and took it so much to heart when he did +happen to lose his place, that he would cry bitterly; so that some boys, +when they had gained the right to get above him, declined the honor, +because it hurt Horace's feelings so." + +Before he was six years old he had read the Bible through, and +"Pilgrim's Progress." Their home contained only about twenty books, and +these he read and re-read. As he grew older, every book within seven +miles was borrowed, and perused after the hard day's work of farming was +over. He gathered a stock of pine knots, and, lighting one each night, +lay down by the hearth, and read, oblivious to all around him. The +neighbors came and made their friendly visits, and ate apples and drank +cider, as was the fashion, but the lad never noticed their coming or +their going. When really forced to leave his precious books for bed, he +would repeat the information he had learned, or the lessons for the next +day, to his brother, who usually, most ungraciously, fell asleep before +the conversation was half completed. + +When Horace was nearly ten years old, his father, who had speculated in +a small way in lumber, became a bankrupt; his house and furniture were +sold by the sheriff, and he was obliged to flee from the State to avoid +arrest. Some of these debts were paid, thirty years afterward, by his +noble son. Going to Westhaven, Vt., Mr. Greeley obtained work on a farm, +and moved his family thither. They were very poor, the children sitting +on the floor and eating their porridge together out of a tin pan; but +they were happy in the midst of their hard work and plain food. The +father and the boys chopped logs, and the little sisters, with the +mother, gathered them in heaps, the voice of the latter, says Mr. James +Parton, in his biography, "ringing out in laughter from the tangled +brushwood in which she was often buried." Would there were thousands +more of such women, who can laugh at disaster, and keep their children +and themselves from getting soured with life. Everybody has troubles; +and very wise are they who do not tell them, either in their faces or by +their words. + +Horace earned a few pennies all his own; sometimes by selling nuts, or +bundles of the roots of pitch-pine for kindling, which he carried on his +back to the store. This money he spent in books, buying Mrs. Hemans's +poetry and "Shakspeare." No wonder that the minister of the town said, +"Mark my words; that boy was not made for nothing." + +He could go to school no longer, and must now support himself. From +earliest childhood he had determined to be a printer; so, when eleven +years of age, he walked nine miles to see the publisher of a newspaper, +and obtain a situation. The editor looked at the small, tow-haired boy, +shook his head, and said, "You are too young." With a heavy heart the +child walked the long nine miles back again. But he must do something; +and, a little later, with seventy-five cents in his pocket, and some +food tied in a bundle, which he hung on the end of a stick, slung over +his shoulder, he walked one hundred and twenty miles back to New +Hampshire, to see his relatives. After some weeks he returned, with a +few more cents in his purse than when he started! + +The father Greeley ought to have foreseen that such energy and will +would produce results; but because Horace, in a fit of abstraction, +tried to yoke the "off" ox on the "near" side, he said, "Ah! that boy +will never get along in the world. He'll never know more than enough to +come in when it rains." Alas! for the blindness of Zaccheus Greeley, +whose name even would not be remembered but for his illustrious son. + +When Horace was fourteen, he read in a newspaper that an apprentice was +wanted in a printing-office eleven miles distant. He hastened thither, +and, though unprepossessing, from his thin voice, short pantaloons, lack +of stockings, and worn hat, he was hired on trial. The first day he +worked at the types in silence. Finally the boys began to tease him with +saucy remarks, and threw type at him; but he paid no attention. On the +third day, one of the apprentices took a large black ball, used to put +ink on the type, and remarking that Horace's hair was too light, daubed +his head four times. The pressman and editor both stopped their labors +to witness a fight; but they were disappointed, for the boy never turned +from his work. He soon left his desk, spent an hour in washing the ink +from his hair, and returned to his duties. Seeing that he could not be +irritated, and that he was determined to work, he became a great +favorite. + +When at his type, he would often compose paragraphs for the paper, +setting up the words without writing them out. He soon joined a debating +society, composed of the best-informed persons of the little town of +East Poultney,--the minister, the doctor, the lawyer, the +schoolteachers, and the like. What was their surprise to find that the +young printer knew almost every thing, and was always ready to speak, or +read an essay. + +He was often laughed at because of his poor clothes, and pitied because, +slender and pale as he was, he never wore an overcoat; but he used to +say, "I guess I'd better wear my old clothes than run in debt for new +ones." Ah! they did not know that every penny was saved and sent to the +father, struggling to clear a farm in the wilderness in Pennsylvania. +During his four years' apprenticeship he visited his parents twice, +though six hundred miles distant, and walked most of the way. + +Soon after he had learned his trade, the newspaper suspended, and he was +thrown out of work. The people with whom he boarded gave him a brown +overcoat, not new, and with moistened eyes said good-by to the poor +youth whom they had learned to love as their own. He remained a few +weeks with his family, then walked fifty miles east to a town in New +York State, where he found plenty of work, but no money, and in six +weeks returned to the log-cabin. After trying various towns, he found a +situation in Erie, taking the place of a workman who was ill, and for +seven months he did not lose a day. Out of his wages--eighty-four +dollars--he had used only six, less than one dollar a mouth! Putting +fifteen dollars in his pocket, he took the balance of sixty-three in a +note, and gave it to his father. A noble son indeed, who would not buy a +single garment for himself, but carried the money home, so as to make +the poor ones a trifle more comfortable! + +He had become tired of working in the small towns; he determined to go +to the great city of New York, and "be somebody." He walked a part of +the way by the tow-path along the canal, and sometimes rode in a scow. +Finally, at sunrise, Friday, Aug. 18, 1831, he landed close to the +Battery, with ten dollars in his pocket, knowing, he says, "no human +being within two hundred miles." His first need was a boarding-place. +Over a saloon, kept by an Irishman, he found room and board for two +dollars and a half a week. Fortunately, though it was the almost +universal custom to use liquors, Horace was a teetotaler, and despised +chewing or smoking tobacco, which he regarded "as the vilest, most +detestable abuse of his corrupted sensual appetites whereof depraved man +is capable;" therefore he had no fear of temptation from these sources. + +All day Friday and Saturday he walked the streets of New York, looking +for work. The editor of the "Journal of Commerce" told him plainly that +he was a runaway apprentice from the country, and he did not want him. +"I returned to my lodging on Saturday evening, thoroughly weary, +disheartened, disgusted with New York, and resolved to shake its dust +from my feet next Monday morning, while I could still leave with money +in my pocket, and before its almshouse could foreclose upon me." On +Sunday he went to church, both morning and afternoon. Late in the day, a +friend who called upon the owner of the house, learning that the printer +wanted work, said he had heard of a vacancy at Mr. West's, 85 Chatham +Street. + +The next morning Horace was at the shop at half-past five! New York was +scarcely awake; even the newsboys were asleep in front of the paper +offices. He waited for an hour and a half,--a day, it seemed to +him,--when one of the journey-men arrived, and, finding the door locked, +sat down beside the stranger. He, too, was a Vermonter, and he +determined to help young Greeley, if possible. He took him to the +foreman, who decided to try him on a Polyglot Testament, with marginal +references, such close work that most of the men refused to do it. Mr. +West came an hour or two later, and said, in anger, "Did you hire that +fool?" + +"Yes; we need help, and he was the best I could get," said the foreman. + +"Well, pay him off to-night, and let him go about his business." + +When night came, however, the country youth had done more and better +work, than anybody who had tried the Testament. By beginning his labors +before six in the morning, and not leaving his desk till nine in the +evening, working by the light of a candle stuck in a bottle, he could +earn six dollars a week. At first his fellow-workmen called him "the +ghost," from his white hair and complexion; but they soon found him +friendly, and willing to lend money, which, as a rule, was never +returned to him; they therefore voted him to be a great addition to the +shop. As usual, though always scrupulously clean, he wore his poor +clothes, no stockings, and his wristbands tied together with twine. Once +he bought a second-hand black suit of a Jew, for five dollars, but it +proved a bad bargain. His earnings were sent, as before, to his parents. + +After a year, business grew dull, and he was without a place. For some +months he worked on various papers, when a printer friend, Mr. Story, +suggested that they start in business, their combined capital being one +hundred and fifty dollars. They did so, and their first work was the +printing of a penny "Morning Post," which suspended in three weeks, they +losing sixty dollars. The partner was drowned shortly after, and his +brother-in-law took his place. + +Young Greeley, now twenty-three, and deeply interested in politics, +determined to start a weekly paper. Fifteen of his friends promised to +subscribe for it. The "New Yorker" was begun, and so well conducted was +it that three hundred papers throughout the country gave it +complimentary notices. It grew to a subscription list of nine thousand +persons; but much of the business was done on trust, times were hard, +and, after seven years, the enterprise had to be abandoned. This was a +severe trial to the hard-working printer, who had known nothing but +struggles all his life. Years after this he wrote, "Through most of this +time I was very poor, and for four years really bankrupt, though always +paying my notes, and keeping my word, but living as poorly as possible. +My embarrassments were sometimes dreadful; not that I feared +destitution, but the fear of involving my friends in my misfortunes was +very bitter.... I would rather be a convict in a State prison, a slave +in a rice-swamp, than to pass through life under the harrow of debt. +Hunger, cold, rags, hard work, contempt, suspicion, unjust reproach, are +disagreeable, but debt is infinitely worse than them all. Avoid +pecuniary obligation as you would pestilence or famine. If you have but +fifty cents, and can get no more for a week, buy a peck of corn, parch +it, and live on it, rather than owe any man a dollar." + +Meantime the young editor had married Miss Mary Y. Cheney, a +schoolteacher of unusual mind and strength of character. It was, of +course, a comfort to have some one to share his sorrows; but it pained +his tender heart to make another help bear his burdens. Beside editing +the "New Yorker," he had also taken charge of the "Jeffersonian," a +weekly campaign paper published at Albany, and the "Log-Cabin," +established to aid in the election of General Harrison to the +Presidency. The latter paper was a great success, the circulation +running up to ninety thousand, though very little money was made; but it +gave Mr. Greeley a reputation in all parts of the country for +journalistic ability. + +President Harrison died after having been a month in office; and seven +days after his death, Mr. Greeley started, April 10, 1841, a new paper, +the "New York Tribune," with the dying words of Harrison as its motto: +"I desire you to understand the true principles of the government. I +wish them carried out. I ask nothing more." The paper had scarcely any +money for its foundation,--only a thousand dollars loaned by a +friend,--but it had a _true man_ at its head, strong in his hatred of +slavery, and the oppression of the laboring man, and fearless in the +advocacy of what he believed to be right. + +Success did not come at first. Of the five thousand copies published and +to be sold at a cent each, Mr. Greeley says, "We found some difficulty +in giving them away." The expenses for the first week were five hundred +and twenty-five dollars; receipts, ninety-two. But the boy who could +walk nearly six hundred miles to see his parents, and be laughed at for +poor clothes, while he saved his money for their use, was not to be +overcome at thirty years of age, by the failure of one or of a dozen +papers. Some of the New York journals fought the new sheet; but it lived +and grew till, on the seventh week, it had eleven thousand subscribers. +A good business-manager was obtained as partner. Mr. Greeley worked +sixteen hours a day. He wrote four columns of editorial matter (his +copy, wittily says Junius Henri Browne, "strangers mistook for diagrams +of Boston"), dozens of letters, often forgot whether he had been to his +meals, and was ready to see and advise with everybody. When told that he +was losing time by thus seeing people, he said, "I know it; but I'd +rather be beset by loafers, and stopped in my work, than be cooped up +where I couldn't be got at by men who really wanted to and had a right +to see me." So warm as this were his sympathies with all humanity! + +In 1842, when he was thirty-one, he visited Washington, Niagara, and +his parents in Pennsylvania, and wrote delightful letters back to his +paper. How proud the mother must have felt of the growing fame of her +son! What did Zaccheus think now of his boy of whom he prophesied "would +never know more than enough to come in when it rains"? + +The years passed on. Margaret Fuller came upon the editorial staff; for +Mr. Greeley was ever the advocate of the fullest liberty for woman in +any profession, and as much pay for her work as for that of men. And now +came a great sorrow, harder to bear than poverty. His little son Pickie, +called "the glorious boy with radiant beauty never equalled," died +suddenly. "When at length," he said, "the struggle ended with his last +breath, and even his mother was convinced that his eyes would never +again open upon the scenes of this world, I knew that the summer of my +life was over; that the chill breath of its autumn was at hand; and that +my future course must be along the down-hill of life." He wrote to +Margaret Fuller in Italy, "Ah, Margaret, the world grows dark with us! +You grieve, for Rome is fallen; I mourn, for Pickie is dead." His hopes +were centered in this child; and his great heart never regained its full +cheerfulness. + +In 1848 he was elected to Congress for three months to fill out the +unexpired term of a deceased member, and did most effective work with +regard to the mileage system and the use of the public lands. To a high +position had come the printer-boy. At this time he was also prominently +in the lecture-field, speaking twice a week to large audiences all over +the country. In 1850 his first book was published by the Harpers, "Hints +toward Reform," composed of ten lectures and twenty essays. The +following year he visited England as one of the "jury" in the awarding +of prizes; and while there made a close study of philanthropic and +social questions. He always said, "He, who by voice or pen strikes his +best blow at the impostures or vices whereby our race is debased and +paralyzed, may close his eyes in death, consoled and cheered by the +reflection that he has done what he could for the emancipation and +elevation of his kind." + +In 1855 he again visited Europe; and four years later, California, where +he was received with great demonstrations of honor and respect. In 1860 +he was at the Chicago Convention, and helped to nominate Abraham Lincoln +in preference to William H. Seward. Mr. Greeley had now become one of +the leading men of the nation. His paper molded the opinions of hundreds +of thousands. He had fought against slavery with all the strength of his +able pen; but he advocated buying the slaves for four hundred million +dollars rather than going to war,--a cheaper method than our subsequent +conflict, with enormous loss of life and money. When he found the war +inevitable, after General McClellan's defeat at the Chickahominy, he +urged upon Mr. Lincoln immediate emancipation, which was soon adopted. +The "New York World" said after his death, "Mr. Greeley will hold the +first place with posterity on the roll of emancipation." + +In the draft riots in New York, in 1863, the mob burst into the Tribune +Building, smashing the furniture, and shouting, "Down with the old white +coat!" Mr. Greeley always wore a coat and hat of this hue. Had he been +present, doubtless he would have been killed at once. When urged to arm +the office, he said, "No; all my life I have worked for the workingmen; +if they would now burn my office and hang me, why, let them do it." + +The same year he began his "History of the Civil War" for a Hartford +publisher. Because so constantly interrupted, he went to the Bible +House, and worked with an amanuensis from nine in the morning till four +in the afternoon, and then to the "Tribune" office, and wrote on his +paper till eleven at night. These volumes, dedicated to John Bright, +have had a sale of several hundred thousand copies. + +After the war Mr. Greeley, while advocating "impartial suffrage" for +black as well as white, advocated also "universal amnesty." He believed +nothing was to be gained by punishing a defeated portion of our nation, +and wanted the past buried as quickly as possible. He was opposed to the +hanging of Jefferson Davis; and with Gerritt Smith, a well-known +abolitionist, and about twenty others, he signed Mr. Davis's bail-bond +for one hundred thousand dollars, which released him from prison at +Fortress Monroe, where he had been for two years. At once the North was +aflame with indignation. No criticism was too scathing; but Mr. Greeley +took the denunciations like a hero, because he had done what his +conscience approved. He said, "Seeing how passion cools and wrath +abates, I confidently look forward to the time when thousands who have +cursed will thank me for what I have done and dared in resistance to +their own sanguinary impulses.... Out of a life earnestly devoted to the +good of human kind, your children will select my going to Richmond and +signing that bail-bond as the wisest act." + +In 1872 considerable disaffection having arisen in the Republican party +at the course pursued by President Grant at the South, the "Liberal +Republicans," headed by Sumner, Schurz, and Trumbull, held a convention +at Cincinnati, and nominated Horace Greeley for President. The +Democratic party saw the hopelessness of nominating a man in opposition +to Grant and Greeley, and accepted the latter as their own candidate. +The contest was bitter and partisan in the extreme. Mr. Greeley received +nearly three million votes, while General Grant received a half million +majority. + +No doubt the defeat was a great disappointment to one who had served his +country and the Republican party for so many years with very little +political reward. But just a month before the election came the +crushing blow of his life, in the death of his noble wife. He left his +speech-making, and for weeks attended her with the deepest devotion. A +few days before she died, he said, "I am a broken down old man. I have +not slept one hour in twenty-four for a month. If she lasts, poor soul, +another week, I shall go before her." + +After her death he could not sleep at all, and brain-fever soon set in. +Friday, Nov. 29, the end came. At noon he said distinctly, his only +remaining children, Ida and Gabriella, standing by his bedside, "I know +that my Redeemer liveth;" and at half-past three, "It is done." He was +ready for the great change. He had written only a short time before, +"With an awe that is not fear, and a consciousness of demerit which does +not exclude hope, I await the opening, before my steps, of the gates of +the eternal world." Dead at sixty-one! Overworked, not having had "a +good night's sleep in fifteen years!" + +When his death became known, the whole nation mourned for him. +Newspapers from Maine to Louisiana gave touching tributes to his +greatness, his purity, and his far-sightedness as a leader of the +people. The Union League Club, the Lotos, the Typographical Society, the +Associated Press, German and colored clubs, and temperance organizations +passed resolutions of sorrow. Cornell University, of whose Board he was +a member, did him honor. St. Louis, Albany, Indianapolis, Nashville, +and other cities held memorial meetings. John Bright sent regrets over +"our friend, Horace Greeley." Congress passed resolutions of respect for +his "eminent services and personal purity and worth." + +And then came the sad and impressive burial. In the governor's room in +the City Hall, draped in black, surrounded by a guard of honor composed +of the leading men of New York, the body of the great journalist lay in +state. Over fifty thousand persons, rich and poor, maimed soldiers and +working people, passed in one by one to look upon the familiar face. +Said one workman, "It is little enough to lose a day for Horace Greeley, +who spent many a day working for us." Just as the doors of the room were +being closed for the night, a farmer made his way, saying, "I've come a +hundred miles to be at the funeral of Horace Greeley. Can't you possibly +let me in to have one last look?" The man stood a moment by the open +coffin, and then, pulling his hat low down to hide the tears, was lost +in the crowd. + +From there the body was taken to Dr. Chapin's church, where it rested +under a solid arch of flowers, with the words, "I know that my Redeemer +liveth"; and in front of the pulpit, "It is done." The coffin was nearly +hidden by floral gifts; one of the most touching being a plow made of +white camelias on a ground of violets, from the "Tribune" workmen,--a +gift to honor the man who honored labor, and ennobled farm-life at his +country home at Chappaqua, a few miles from New York. + +And then through an enormous concourse of people, Fifth Avenue being +blocked for a mile, the body was borne to Greenwood Cemetery. Stores +were closed, and houses along the route were draped in black. Flags on +the shipping, in the harbor, were at half-mast; and bells tolled from +one to three o'clock. Two hundred and fifty carriages, containing the +President of the United States, governors, senators, and other friends, +were in the procession. By the side of his wife and their three little +children the great man was laid to rest, the two daughters stepping into +the vault, and laying flowers tenderly upon the coffin. + +The following Sabbath clergymen all over the country preached about this +wonderful life: its struggles succeeded by world-wide honor. Mr. +Greeley's one great wish was gratified, "I cherish the hope that the +journal I projected and established will live and flourish long after I +shall have mouldered into forgotten dust; and that the stone which +covers my ashes may bear to future eyes the still intelligible +inscription, 'Founder of the NEW YORK TRIBUNE.'" + + + + +WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. + + +For a great work God raises up a great man. Usually he is trained in the +hard school of poverty, to give him courage and perseverance. Usually he +stands alone among a great multitude, that he may have firmness and +endurance. + +William Lloyd Garrison was born to be preeminently the deliverer of the +slave. For two hundred years the curse of African slavery had rested +upon one of the fairest portions of our land. Everybody thought it an +evil to keep four million human beings from even the knowledge of how to +read and write, and a cruelty to sell children away from parents, to +toil forever without home or kindred. Everybody knew that slavery was as +ruinous almost to master as to slave; that labor was thereby despised, +and that luxury was sapping the vigor of a race. But every slave meant +money, and money is very dear to mankind. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON.] + +Before the Declaration of Independence, three hundred thousand slaves +had been brought to this country. Some of the colonists remonstrated, +but the traffic was not stopped till 1808. The Quakers were opposed to +human bondage from the first, and decided, in 1780, to free all their +slaves. Vermont had freed hers three years previously, and other +Northern States soon followed. Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, +and others were outspoken against the sin; but it continued to increase +till, in 1810, we had over a million slaves. + +Five years before this time, in a plain, wooden house in Newburyport, +Mass., a boy was born who was to electrify America, and the world even, +on this great subject. William Lloyd Garrison's father was a +sea-captain, a man who loved books and had some literary ambition; the +mother was a noble woman, deeply religious, willing to bear all and +brave all for conscience' sake, and fearless in the path of duty. She +early taught her boy to hate oppression of every kind, and to stand +everywhere for the right. Very poor, there was no chance for William, +either in school or college. When he was seven, his mother, having found +work for herself as a nurse for the sick, placed the child with a deacon +of the town, where he learned to split wood and other useful things. At +nine, the careful mother put him to the shoemaking trade, though he was +scarcely large enough to hold the lap-stone. He was not happy here, +longing for something that made him think. + +Perhaps he would like to build tables and chairs better, so he was +apprenticed to a cabinet-maker; but here he was no more satisfied than +with the monotony of sewing leather. At his own request, the dealer +cancelled the agreement, and the boy found a place to set type on the +Newburyport "Herald." At last he had obtained the work he loved. He +would some day own a paper, he thought, and write articles for it. Ah! +how often poor boys and rich build air-castles which tumble to the +ground. It is well that we build them, for life soon becomes prosaic +enough to the happiest of us. + +At sixteen he wrote an article for the "Herald," signing it "An Old +Bachelor." Imagine his surprise and delight when he saw it really in +print! Meantime his mother, who was six hundred miles away, wrote him +devoted letters, ever encouraging and stimulating him to be upright and +temperate. A year later she died, and William was left to fight his +battles alone. He missed the letters,--missed having some one to whom he +could tell a boy's hopes and fears and temptations. That boy is +especially blest who has a mother to whom he can confide everything; +such a boy usually has a splendid future, because by her wisdom and +advice he becomes well fitted for life, making no foolish experiments. + +Reading as much as possible, at nineteen William wrote some political +articles for a Salem paper, and, strange to say, they were attributed to +Hon. Timothy Pickering! Surely, he could do something in the world now; +so when his apprenticeship was over and he had worked long and +faithfully, he started a paper for himself. He called it the "Free +Press." It was a good title, and a good paper; but, like most first +literary adventures, it proved a failure. Perhaps he ought to have +foreseen that one can do little without capital; but youth is about as +blind as love, and rarely stops to reason. + +Did one failure discourage him? Oh, no! He went to Boston, and found a +place in a printing office. He soon became the editor of the "National +Philanthropist," the first paper established to advocate total +abstinence from intoxicants. His motto was a true one, not very popular, +however, in those days, "Moderate drinking is the down-hill road to +drunkenness." He was now twenty-two, poor, but God-fearing and +self-reliant. About this time there came to Boston a man whose influence +changed young Garrison's whole life,--Benjamin Lundy, a Quaker, +thirty-nine years of age. Leaving his father's home at nineteen, he had +spent four years at Wheeling, Va., where he learned the saddler's trade, +and learned also the cruelties of slave-holding. After this he moved to +Ohio, and in four years earned three thousand dollars above his living +expenses. When he was twenty-six he organized an Anti-slavery Society at +his own house, and, promising to become assistant editor of an abolition +paper, he went to St. Louis to dispose of his stock of saddlery. +Business was greatly depressed, the whole region being agitated over the +admission of Missouri as a slave State; and, after spending two years, +Lundy returned to Ohio, on foot, in winter, his property entirely gone. + +None of his ardor for freedom having abated, he determined to start a +monthly paper, though poor and entirely ignorant about printing. This +sheet he called the "Genius of Universal Emancipation," printed twenty +miles from his home, the edition being carried on his back, each month, +as he walked the long distance. He moved shortly after to East +Tennessee, walking half of the eight hundred miles, and gradually +increased his subscription list. Several times his life was in danger; +but the slight, gentle Quaker kept quietly on his course. In 1824 he set +out on foot for Baltimore, paying his way by saddlery or +harness-mending, living on the poorest fare; and he subsequently +established the "Genius" there. While he was absent from home, his wife +died, leaving twins, and his five children were divided among friends. +Deeply sorrowing, he renewed his resolve to devote his life to worse +than motherless children,--those sold into bondage,--and made his way as +best he could to Boston. Of such material were the foundation stones of +the anti-slavery cause. + +At his boarding-place Lundy met Garrison, and told him his burning +desire to rid the country of slavery. The heart of the young printer was +deeply moved. He, too, was poor and unknown, but he had not forgotten +his mother's teachings and prayers. After some time he agreed to go to +Baltimore, and help edit the "Genius of Universal Emancipation." Lundy +was in favor of sending the slaves to the West Indies or Africa as fast +as their masters would consent to free them, which was not very fast. +Garrison said, "The slaves are here by no fault of their own, and do not +deserve to be sent back to barbarous Africa." He was in favor of +immediate freedom for every human being. + +Baltimore had slave-pens on the principal streets. Vessel-loads of +slaves, torn from their homes, were sent hundreds of miles away to +southern ports, and the auction-block often witnessed heart-rending +scenes. The tender heart of Garrison was stirred to its very depths. In +the first issue of his paper he declared for Immediate Emancipation, and +soon denounced the slave-trade between Baltimore and New Orleans as +"domestic piracy," giving the names of several citizens engaged in the +traffic, among them a vessel-owner from his own town, Newburyport. The +Northern man immediately arrested Garrison for "gross and malicious +libel," and he was found guilty by a slave-holding court, and fined +fifty dollars and costs. No one was ready to give bail, and he was +thrown into prison. The young man was not in the least cast down, but, +calm and heroic, wrote two sonnets on the walls of his cell. + +Meantime, a noble young Quaker at the North, John G. Whittier, was +deeply anxious for Garrison. He had no money to pay his fine, but, +greatly admiring Henry Clay, whom he hoped to see President, wrote him +urging that he aid the "guiltless prisoner." Clay would doubtless have +done so, but Arthur Tappan, one of New York's noble men, sent the money, +releasing Garrison from his forty-nine days' imprisonment. Wendell +Phillips says of him, "He was in jail for his opinions when he was just +twenty-four. He had confronted a nation in the very bloom of his youth." + +Garrison had not been idle while in prison. He had prepared several +lectures on slavery, and these he now gave when he could find a hearing. +Large churches were not opened to him, and nobody offered him two +hundred dollars a night! The free colored people welcomed him gladly, +but the whites were usually indifferent or opposed to such "fanatical" +ideas. At last he came to Boston to start a paper,--that city where +brains and not wealth open the doors to the best society. Here, with no +money nor influential friends, he started the "Liberator," with this for +his motto, "I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as +justice. On this subject I do not wish to speak or write with +moderation. I am in earnest. I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I +will not retreat a single inch--_and I will be heard!_" + +The North was bound hand and foot by the slave-trade almost as +effectually as the South. The great plea was the fear lest the Union +would be dissolved. Cotton factories had sprung up on every hand, and it +was believed that slave-labor was essential to the producing of cotton. +Some thought it would not be safe to free the slaves; that +assassinations would be the result. The real secret, however, was that +each slave meant several hundred dollars, and freedom meant poverty to +the masters. Meantime, the "Liberator" was making itself felt, despite +Garrison's poverty. The Vigilance Association of South Carolina offered +a reward of $1,500 for the apprehension and prosecution of any white +person who might be detected in distributing or circulating it. In +Raleigh, N.C., the grand jury found a bill against the young editor, +hoping to bring him to that State for trial. Hon. Robert Y. Hayne, of +South Carolina, having received a paper by mail, wrote to Harrison Gray +Otis, Mayor of Boston, to ascertain the sender. Mr. Otis caused an agent +to visit the office of the "Liberator," and returned answer to Mr. +Hayne, that he found it "an obscure hole, his only visible auxiliary a +negro boy; and his supporters a few very insignificant persons of all +colors." + +And where was this "obscure hole"? In the third story of a business +block, "the walls dingy," says Mr. Oliver Johnson in "Garrison and his +Times"; "the small windows bespattered with printers' ink; the press +standing in one corner; the long editorial and mailing table covered +with newspapers; the bed of the editor and publisher on the floor--all +these make a picture never to be forgotten." Their food, what little +they had, was procured at a neighboring bakery. + +Soon Georgia passed a law offering $5,000 to any person arresting and +bringing to trial, under the laws of the State, and punishing to +conviction, the editor or publisher of the "Liberator." What a wonder +that some ruffian at midnight did not break into the "obscure hole," and +drag the young man off to a slave-vessel lying close by in the harbor! +The leaven of anti-slavery was beginning to work. Twelve "fanatics" +gathered one stormy night in the basement of an African church in +Boston, and organized the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832. + +The following year, as the managers of the American Colonization Society +had sent an agent to England, it was deemed best to send Garrison abroad +to tell Wilberforce and others who were working for the suppression of +slavery in the West Indies, that it was not a wise plan to send the +slaves to Africa. It was difficult to raise the money needed; but +self-sacrifice usually leaves a good bank-account. The "fanatic," only +twenty-eight, was received with open arms by such men as Lord Brougham, +Wilberforce, Clarkson, and Daniel O'Connell. Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton +gave a breakfast in his honor. When the guests had arrived, among them +Mr. Garrison, Mr. Buxton held up both hands, exclaiming, "Why, my dear +sir, I thought you were a black man!" This, Mr. Garrison used to say, +was the greatest compliment of his life, because it showed how truly and +heartily he had labored for the slave. A great meeting was arranged for +him at Exeter Hall, London. How inspiring all this for the young +reformer! Here he met the eloquent George Thompson, and asked him to +visit our country, which invitation he accepted. + +On his return the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed, Dec. 4, +1833, at Philadelphia, delegates coming from eleven States. John G. +Whittier was chosen Secretary. The noble poet has often said that he was +more proud that his name should appear signed to the Declaration of +Principles adopted at that meeting than on the title-page of any of his +volumes. Thus has he ever loved liberty. + +The contest over the slavery question was growing extremely bitter. +Prudence Crandall of Canterbury, Conn., a young Quaker lady, admitted +several colored girls to her school, who came from Boston, New York, and +Philadelphia. The people were indignant at such a commingling of races. +Shopkeepers refused to sell her anything; her well was filled with +refuse, and at last her house was nearly torn down by a midnight mob. +Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, Western Reserve College, Hudson, +O., with some others, were nearly broken up by the conflict of opinion. +Some anti-slavery lecturers were tarred and feathered or thrown into +prison. In New York, a pro-slavery mob broke in the doors and windows of +a Presbyterian church, and laid waste schoolhouses and dwellings of +colored people. In Philadelphia, the riots lasted three days, forty-four +houses of colored people being nearly or quite destroyed. + +In Boston, a "most respectable" mob, composed, says Horace Greeley, "in +good part of merchants," dispersed a company of women belonging to the +Female Anti-Slavery Society, while its President was engaged in prayer. +Learning that Garrison was in the adjoining office, they shouted, "We +must have Garrison! Out with him! Lynch him!" + +Attempting to escape by the advice of the Mayor, who was present, he +sought refuge in a carpenter's shop, but the crowd drew him out, and +coiling a rope around his body, dragged him bareheaded along the street. +One man called out, "He shan't be hurt; he is an American!" and this +probably saved his life, though many blows were aimed at his head, and +his clothes were nearly torn from his body. The Mayor declaring that he +could only be saved by being lodged in jail, Garrison pressed into a +hack, and was driven as rapidly as possible to the prison, the maddened +crowd clinging to the wheels, dashing against the doors and seizing hold +of the horses. At last he was behind the bars and out of their reach. On +the walls of his cell he wrote:-- + +"William Lloyd Garrison was put into this cell on Wednesday afternoon, +Oct. 21, 1835, to save him from the violence of a respectable and +influential mob, who sought to destroy him for preaching the abominable +and dangerous doctrine that 'all men are created equal,' and that all +oppression is odious in the sight of God. Confine me as a prisoner, but +bind me not as a slave. Punish me as a criminal, but hold me not as a +chattel. Torture me as a man, but drive me not like a beast. Doubt my +sanity, but acknowledge my immortality." + +The "respectable" mob had wrought wiser than they knew. Garrison and his +"Liberator" became more widely known than ever. Famous men and women now +joined the despised Abolitionists. The conflict was growing deeper. +Elijah P. Lovejoy, the ardent young preacher of Alton, Illinois, was +murdered by four balls at the hands of a pro-slavery mob, who broke up +his printing-press, and threw it into the river. A public meeting was +held in Faneuil Hall to condemn such an outrage. A prominent man in the +gallery having risen to declare that Lovejoy "died as the fool dieth," a +young man, unknown to most, stepped to the rostrum, and spoke as though +inspired. From that day Wendell Phillips was the orator of America. From +that day the anti-slavery cause had a new consecration. + +From this time till 1860 the struggle between freedom and slavery was +continuous. The South needed the Territories for her rapid increase of +slaves. The North was opposed; but in the year 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska +Act, devised by Stephen A. Douglas, repealed the Missouri Compromise of +1820, which had prohibited slavery north of latitude 36 deg. 30', the +southern boundary of Kansas. Kansas at once became a battle-ground. +Armed men came over from Missouri to establish slavery. Men came from +New England determined that the soil should be free, if they spilled +their blood to gain it. The Fugitive Slave Law, whereby slaves were +returned without trial by jury, and slave-owners allowed to search the +North for their slaves, made great bitterness. The brutal attack of +Preston Brooks, of South Carolina, on Charles Sumner, for his speech on +Kansas, and the hanging of John Brown by the State of Virginia for his +invasion of Harper's Ferry with seventeen white men and five negroes, +calling upon the slaves to rise and demand their liberty, brought +matters to a crisis. + +Garrison was opposed to war; but after the firing on Sumter, April 12, +1861, it was inevitable. For two years after Abraham Lincoln's election +to the Presidency, Garrison waited impatiently for that pen-stroke which +set four million human beings free. When the Emancipation Proclamation +was issued, Jan. 1. 1863, Garrison's life-work was accomplished. +Thirty-five years of untiring, heroic struggle had not been in vain. +When two years later the stars and stripes were raised again over Fort +Sumter, he was invited by President Lincoln, as a guest of the +government, to witness the imposing scene. When Mr. Garrison arrived in +Charleston, the colored people were nearly wild with joy. Children sang +and men shouted. A slave made an address of welcome, his two daughters +bearing a wreath of flowers to their great benefactor. Garrison's heart +was full to overflowing as he replied, "Not unto us, not unto us, but +unto God be all the glory for what has been done in regard to your +emancipation.... Thank God, this day, that you are free. And be resolved +that, once free, you will be free forever. Liberty or death, but never +slavery! While God gives me reason and strength, I shall demand for you +everything I claim for the whitest of the white in this country." + +The same year he discontinued the publication of the "Liberator," +putting in type with his own hands the official ratification of the +Thirteenth Amendment, forever prohibiting slavery in the United States, +and adding, "Hail, redeemed, regenerated America! Hail, all nations, +tribes, kindred, and peoples, made of one blood, interested in a common +redemption, heirs of the same immortal destiny! Hail, angels in glory; +tune your harps anew, singing, 'Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord +God Almighty!'" + +Two years after the war Mr. Garrison crossed the ocean for the fourth +time. He was no longer the poor lad setting type at thirteen, or +sleeping on the hard floor of a printing-room, or lying in a Baltimore +jail, or the victim of a Boston mob. He was the centre of a grand and +famous circle. The Duke and Duchess of Argyle and the Duchess of +Sutherland paid him special honors. John Bright presided at a public +breakfast given him at St. James' Hall, London. Such men as John Stuart +Mill, Herbert Spencer, and Prof. Huxley, graced the feast. Mr. Bright +said in his opening address, concerning Mr. Garrison: "His is the +creation of that opinion which has made slavery hateful, and which has +made freedom possible in America. His name is venerated in his own +country; venerated in this country and in Europe, wheresoever +Christianity softens the hearts and lessens the sorrows of men." +Edinburgh conferred upon him the freedom of the city, an honor accorded +to one other American only,--George Peabody. Birmingham, Manchester, and +other cities held great public meetings to do him reverence. + +On his return, such friends as Sumner, Wilson, Emerson, Longfellow, +Lowell, Greeley, and others presented him with $30,000. The remainder of +his life he devoted to temperance, woman-suffrage, and every other +reform calculated to make the world better. His true character was shown +when, years before, appointed to the London Anti-Slavery Convention as a +delegate, he refused to take his seat after his long journey across the +ocean, because such noble co-workers as Lucretia Mott, Mrs. Wendell +Phillips, and others, were denied their place as delegates. Thus +strenuous was he for right and justice to all. Always modest, hopeful, +and cheerful, he was as gentle in his private life with his wife and +five children, as he was strong and fearless in his public career. He +died at the home of his daughter in New York, May 24, 1879, his children +singing about his bed, at his request: + + "Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve," + +and, + + "Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings." + +At sunset, in Forest Hills, they laid the brave man to rest, a quartette +of colored singers around his open grave, singing, "I cannot always +trace the way." + + "The storm and peril overpast, + The hounding hatred shamed and still, + Go, soul of freedom! take at last + The place which thou alone canst fill. + + "Confirm the lesson taught of old-- + Life saved for self is lost, while they + Who lose it in His service hold + The lease of God's eternal day." + + + + +GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI. + + +Few men come to greatness. Most drift on with the current, having no +special plan nor aim. They live where their fathers lived, taking no +thought beyond their neighborhood or city, and die in their little round +of social life. + +Not so a boy born in Southern France, in 1807. Giuseppe Garibaldi was +the son of humble parents. His father was a sailor, with a numerous +family to support, seemingly unskilled in keeping what little property +he had once acquired. His mother was a woman of ambition, energy, and +nobility of character. If one looks for the cause of greatness in a man, +he seldom has to go further than the mother. Hence the need of a highly +educated, noble womanhood all over the world. Such as Giuseppe Garibaldi +are not born of frivolous, fashionable women. + +Of his mother, the great soldier wrote in later years, "She was a model +for mothers. Her tender affection for me has, perhaps, been excessive; +but do I not owe to her love, to her angel-like character, the little +good that belongs to mine? Often, amidst the most arduous scenes of my +tumultuous life, when I have passed unharmed through the breakers of +the ocean or the hail-storms of battle, she has seemed present with me. +I have, in fancy, seen her on her knees before the Most High--my dear +mother!--imploring for the life of her son; and I have believed in the +efficacy of her prayers." No wonder that, "Give me the mothers of the +nation to educate, and you may do what you like with the boys," was one +of his favorite maxims. + +[Illustration: GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI.] + +Giuseppe was an ardent boy, fond of books, loving to climb the lonely +mountains around his home, and eager for some part of the world's +bustle. Sometimes he earned his living among the fishermen on the +Riviera; sometimes he took sea-voyages with his father. He had unusual +tenderness of heart, combined with fearlessness. One day he caught a +grasshopper, took it to his house, and, in handling it, broke its leg. +He was so grieved for the poor little creature, that he went to his room +and wept bitterly for hours. Another time, standing by a deep ditch, he +discovered that a woman had fallen from the bank as she was washing +clothes. With no thought for his own life, he sprang in and rescued her. + +His parents, seeing that he was quick in mathematics and the languages, +desired him to study for the ministry; but he loved the sea and +adventure too well for a sedentary life. Becoming tired of study, at +twelve years of age, he and some companions procured a boat, put some +provisions and fishing-tackle on board, and started to make their +fortune in the East. These visions of greatness soon came to an +inglorious end; for the paternal Garibaldi put to sea at once, and soon +overtook and brought home the mortified and disappointed infantile crew. + +At twenty-one, we find Garibaldi second in command on the brig +"Cortese," bound for the Black Sea. Three times during the voyage they +were plundered by Greek pirates, their sails, charts, and every article +of clothing taken from them, the sailors being obliged to cover their +bodies with some matting, left by chance in the hold of the ship. As a +result of this destitution, the young commander became ill at +Constantinople, and was cared for by some Italian exiles. Poor, as are +most who are born to be leaders, he must work now to pay the expenses +incurred by this illness. Through the kindness of his physician, he +found a place to teach, and when once more even with the world +pecuniarily, went back to sea, and was made captain. + +He was now twenty-seven years old. Since his father had taken him when a +mere boy to Rome, he had longed for and prayed over his distracted +Italy. He saw what the Eternal City must have been in her ancient +splendor; he pictured her in the future, again the pride and glory of a +united nation. He remembered how Italy had been the battle-ground of +France, Spain, and Austria, when kings, as they have ever done, +quarrelled for power. He saw the conqueror of Europe himself conquered +by the dreadful Russian campaign: then the Congress of Vienna parcelling +out a prostrate people among the nations. Austria took Lombardy and +Venice; Parma and Lucca were given to Marie Louise, the second wife of +Napoleon; and the Two Sicilies to Ferdinand II., who ruled them with a +rod of iron. Citizens for small offences were lashed to death in the +public square. Filthy dungeons, excavated under the sea, without light +or air, were filled with patriots, whose only crime was a desire for a +free country. The people revolted in Naples and Sardinia, and asked for +a constitution; but Austria soon helped to restore despotism. Kings had +divine rights; the people had none. No man lessens his power willingly. +The only national safety is the least possible power in the hands of any +one person. The rule of the many is liberty; of the few, despotism. + +Garibaldi was writing all these things on his heart. His blood boiled at +the slavery of his race. Mazzini, a young lawyer of Genoa, had just +started a society called "Young Italy," and was looking hopefully, in a +hopeless age, toward a republic for his native country. Garibaldi was +ready to help in any manner possible. The plan proposed was to seize the +village of St. Julien, and begin the revolt; but, as usual, there was a +traitor in the camp: they were detected; and Garibaldi, like the rest, +was sentenced to death. This was an unexpected turn of events for the +young sea-captain. Donning the garb of a peasant, he escaped by mountain +routes to Nice, his only food being chestnuts, bade a hasty farewell to +his precious mother, and started for South America. He had learned, +alas, so soon, the result of working for freedom in Italy! + +He arrived at Rio Janeiro, an exile and poor; but, finding several of +his banished countrymen, they assisted him in buying a trading-vessel; +and he engaged in commerce. But his mind constantly dwelt on freedom. +The Republic of Rio Grande had just organized and set up its authority +against Brazil. Here was a chance to fight for liberty. A small cruiser +was obtained, which he called "The Mazzini," and, with twenty +companions, he set out to combat an empire. After capturing a boat +loaded with copper, the second vessel they met gave battle, wounded +Garibaldi in the neck, and made them all prisoners. + +A little later, attempting to escape, he was brutally beaten with a +club, and then his wrists tied together by a rope, which was flung over +a beam. He was suspended in the air for two hours. His sufferings were +indescribable. Fever parched his body, and the rope cut his flesh. He +was rescued by a fearless lady, Senora Alemon, but for whom he would +have died. After two months, finding that he would divulge nothing of +the plans of his adopted republic, he was released without trial, and +entered the war again at once. + +After several successful battles, his vessel was shipwrecked, nearly all +his friends were drowned, and he escaped as by a miracle. His heart now +became desolate. He says in his diary, "I felt the want of some one to +love me, and a desire that such a one might be very soon supplied, as my +present state of mind seemed insupportable." After all, the brave young +captain was human, and cried out for a human affection. He had "always +regarded woman as the most perfect of creatures"; but he had never +thought it possible to marry with his adventurous life. + +About this time he met a dark-haired, dark-eyed, young woman, tall and +commanding, and as brave and fearless as himself. Anita belonged to a +wealthy family, and her father was incensed at the union, though years +after, when Garibaldi became famous, he wrote them a letter of +forgiveness. They idolized each other; and the soldier's heart knew +desolation no longer, come now what would. She stood beside him in every +battle, waving her sword over her head to encourage the men to their +utmost. When a soldier fell dead at her feet, she seized his carbine, +and kept up a constant fire. When urged by her husband to go below, +because almost frantic with fear for her safety, she replied, "If I do, +it will be but to drive out those cowards who have sought concealment +there," and then return to the fight. In one of the land-battles she was +surrounded by twenty or more of the enemy; but she put spurs to her +horse, and dashed through their midst. At first they seemed dazed, as +though she were something unearthly; then they fired, killing her +animal, which fell heavily to the ground; and she was made a prisoner. +Obtaining permission to search among the dead for her husband, and, not +finding him, she determined to make her escape. That night, while they +slept, she seized a horse, plunged into the forests, and for four days +lived without food. On the last night,--a stormy one,--closely pursued +by several of the enemy, she urged her horse into a swollen river, five +hundred yards broad, and seizing fast hold of his tail, the noble +creature swam across, dragging her with him. After eight days she +reached her agonized husband, and their joy was complete. + +After a year or more of battles and hardships, their first child, +Menotti, was born, named for the great Italian Liberal. Garibaldi, +fighting for a poor republic, destitute of everything for his wife and +child, started across the marshes to purchase a few articles of +clothing. In his absence, their little company was attacked by the +Imperialists, and Anita mounted her saddle in a pitiless storm, and fled +to the woods with her twelve-days-old infant. Three months later the +child came near dying, the mother carrying him in a handkerchief tied +round her neck, and keeping him warm with her breath, as they forded +swamps and rivers. + +After six years of faithful service for the South American Republic, +Garibaldi determined to settle down to a more quiet life, with his +little family, and sought a home at Montevideo, where he took up his +former occupation of teaching. But he was soon drawn into war again, and +his famous "Italian Legion," of about four hundred men, made for +themselves a record throughout Europe and America for bravery and +success against fearful odds. The grateful people made Garibaldi +"General," and placed a large tract of land at the disposal of the +Legion; but the leader said, "In obedience to the cause of liberty alone +did the Italians of Montevideo take up arms, and not with any views of +gain or advancement," and the gift was declined. Yet so poor was the +family of Garibaldi, that they used to go to bed at sunset because they +had no candles; and his only shirt he had given to a companion in arms. +When his destitution became known, the minister of war sent him one +hundred dollars. He accepted half for Anita and her little ones, and +begged that the other half might be given to a poor widow. + +Fourteen years had gone by since he left Italy under sentence of death. +He was now forty-one, in the prime of his life and vigor. Italy had +become ripe for a revolution. Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, had +declared himself ready to give constitutional liberty to his people, and +to help throw off the Austrian yoke. Garibaldi believed that his hour +had come, and saying good-bye to the Montevideans, who were loathe to +part with him, he took fifty-six of his brave Italian Legion, and sailed +for Nice, in the ship Esperanza. His beloved Anita improvised a +Sardinian flag, made from a counterpane, a red shirt, and a bit of old +green uniform; and the little company gave themselves to earnest plans +and hopes. They met a hearty reception on their arrival; Garibaldi's +mother taking Anita and her three children, Menotti, Meresita, and +Ricciotti, to her home. General Garibaldi at once presented himself +before Charles Albert, and offered his services. He wore a striking +costume, consisting of a cap of scarlet cloth, a red blouse, and a white +cloak lined with red, with a dagger at his belt, besides his sword. The +King, perhaps remembering that the brave soldier was once a Republican +in sentiment, made the great mistake of declining his aid. Nothing +daunted, he hurried to Milan, only to find that the weak King had +yielded it to Austria. Charles Albert soon abdicated in favor of his son +Victor Emmanuel, and died from sorrow and defeat. + +Meantime Rome had declared herself a Republic, and Pius IX. had fled the +city. Garibaldi was asked to defend her, and entered with his troops, +April 28, in 1849. England and France were urged to remain neutral, +while Rome fought for freedom. But alas! Louis Napoleon, then President +of the French Republic, desired to please the Papal party, and sent +troops to reinstate the Pope! When Rome found that this man at the head +of a republic was willing to put a knife to her throat, her people +fought like tigers. They swarmed out of the workshops armed with weapons +of every kind, while women urged them on with applause. For nearly three +months Rome held out against France and Austria, Garibaldi showing +himself an almost superhuman leader, and then the end came. Pius IX. +re-entered the city, and the Republic was crushed by monarchies. + +When all was lost, Garibaldi called his soldiers together, and, leaping +on horseback, shouted, "Venice and Garibaldi do not surrender. Whoever +will, let him follow me! Italy is not yet dead!" and he dashed off at +full speed. By lonely mountain-paths, he, with Anita and about two +hundred of his troops, arrived on the shore of the Adriatic, where +thirteen boats were waiting to carry them to Venice. Nine were soon +taken by the Austrians, the rest escaping, though nearly all were +finally captured and shot at once. The General and his wife escaped to a +cornfield, where she lay very ill, her head resting on his knee. Some +peasants, though fearful that they would be detected by the Austrians, +brought a cart, and carried the dying wife to the nearest cottage, +where, as soon as she was laid upon the bed, she breathed her last, +leaning on Garibaldi's arm. Overwhelmed with the loss of his idol, he +seemed benumbed, with no care whether he was made a prisoner or not. At +last, urged for the sake of Italy to flee, he made the peasants promise +to bury Anita under the shade of the pine grove near by, and, hunted +like a robber from mountain to mountain, he found a hiding-place among +the rocks of the Island of Caprera. There was nothing left now but to +seek a refuge in the great American Republic. + +Landing in New York, the noble General asked aid from no one, but +believing, as all true-minded persons believe, that any labor is +honorable, began to earn his living by making candles. What a contrast +between an able general working in a tallow factory, and some proud +young men and women who consent to be supported by friends, and thus +live on charity! Woe to America if her citizens shall ever feel +themselves too good to work! + +For a year and a half he labored patiently, his children three thousand +miles away with his mother. Then he became captain of a merchant vessel +between China and Peru. When told that he could bring some Chinese +slaves to South America in his cargo, he refused, saying, "Never will I +become a trafficker in human flesh." America might buy and sell four +millions of human beings, but not so Garibaldi. After four years he +decided to return to Italy. With the little money he had saved, he +bought half the rocky island of Caprera, five miles long, off the coast +of Sardinia, whose boulders had once sheltered him, built him a +one-story plain house, and took his three children there to live, his +mother having died. + +Meantime Cavour, the great Italian statesman, had not been idle in +diplomacy. The Crimean War had been fought, and Italy had helped England +and France against Russia. When Napoleon III. went to war with Austria +in 1859, Cavour was glad to make Italy his ally. He called Garibaldi +from Caprera, and made him Major-General of the Alps. At once the red +blouse and white cloak seemed to inspire the people with confidence. +Lombardy sprang to arms. Every house was open, and every table spread +for the Liberators. And then began a series of battles, which, for +bravery and dash and skill, made the name of Garibaldi the terror of +Austria, and the hope and pride of Italy. Tuscany, Modena, Parma, and +Lucca declared for King Victor Emmanuel. The battles of Magenta and +Solferino made Austria bite the dust, and gladly give up Lombardy. + +At last it seemed as if Italy were to be redeemed and reunited. +Garibaldi started with his famous "Mille," or thousand men, to release +the two Sicilies from the hated rule of Francis, the son of Ferdinand +II. The first battle was fought at Palermo, the Neapolitans who +outnumbered the troops of Garibaldi four to one being defeated after +four hours' hard fighting. Then the people dared to show their true +feelings. Peasants flocked in from the mountains, and ladies wore red +dresses and red feathers. When the cars carried the soldiers from one +town to another, the people crowded the engine, and shouted themselves +hoarse. Drums were beaten, and trumpets blown, and women pressed +forward to kiss the hand or touch the cloak of the Lion of Italy. He was +everywhere the bravest of the brave. Once when surrounded by four +dragoons, who called upon him to surrender, he drew his sword, and said, +"I am Garibaldi; you must surrender to me." + +And yet amid all this honor and success in war, and supremacy in power, +as he was the Dictator, he was so poor that he would wash his red shirt +in a brook, and wait for it to dry while he ate his lunch of bread and +water, with a little fruit. No wonder the Sicilians believed him to be a +second Messiah, and the French that he could shake the bullets from his +body into his loose red shirt, and empty them out at his leisure! The +sailor boy had become the hero of all who loved liberty the world over. +When the war was ended, he resigned his Dictatorship, handed the two +Sicilies over to his sovereign, distributed medals to his devoted +soldiers, and returned to his island home at Caprera, with barely three +dollars in his pocket, having borrowed one hundred to pay his debts. How +rarely does any age produce such a man as Garibaldi! + +But Rome was not yet the capital of Italy. The hero could not rest while +the city was governed by a Pope. At last, tired of waiting for the king +to take action, he started with three thousand men for Rome. Victor +Emmanuel, fearing to offend France, if the Pope were molested, sent the +royal troops against Garibaldi at Aspromonte, who badly wounded him, +and carried him to a prison on the Gulf of Spezzia. The people, +indignant at the Government, crowded around him, bearing gifts, and +kissing the hem of his raiment. They even bored a hole in the door of +the prison, that they might catch a glimpse of their idol, as he lay on +his iron bedstead, a gift from an English friend. + +After his release and return to Caprera, he visited England in 1864, the +whole country doing him honor. Stations were gaily decorated, streets +arched with flowers, ladies dressed in red; the Duke of Sutherland +entertained him; London gave him the freedom of the city; Tennyson made +him his guest at the Isle of Wight; and crowds made it scarcely possible +for him to appear on the public thoroughfares. He refused to receive a +purse of money from his friends, and went back to Caprera, majestic in +his unselfishness. + +Again Italy called him to help her in her alliance with Prussia against +Austria in 1866, and again he fought nobly. The year following he +attempted to take Rome, but was a second time arrested and imprisoned +for fear of Napoleon III. When that monarch fell at Sedan, and the +French troops were withdrawn from the Eternal City, Victor Emmanuel +entered without a struggle, and Rome was free. + +In 1874, after helping the French Republic, the brave Spartan was +elected to Parliament. He was now sixty-seven. As he entered Rome, the +streets were blocked with people, who several times attempted to remove +the horses, and draw the carriage themselves. Ah! if Anita had only +been there to have seen this homage of a grateful nation. He entered the +Senate House on the arm of his son Menotti, and when he rose in his red +shirt and gray cloak to take the oath, so infirm that he was obliged to +be supported by two friends, men wept as they recalled his struggles, +and shouted frantically as he took his seat. + +Seven years longer the grand old man lived at Caprera, now beautified +with gifts from all the world, the recipient of a thank-offering of +$10,000 yearly from Italy. Around him were Francesca, whom he married +late in life, and their two children whom he idolized,--Manlio and +Clelia. He spent his time in writing several books, in tilling the soil, +and in telling visitors the wonderful events of his life and of Anita. + +On June 2, 1882, all day long he lay by the window, looking out upon the +sea. As the sun was setting, a bird alighted on the sill, singing. The +great man stammered, "Quanti o allegro!" How joyful it is! and closed +his eyes in death. He directed in his will that his body should be +burned; but, at the request of the Government and many friends, it was +buried at Caprera, to be transferred at some future time to Rome, now +the capital of united Italy. Not alone does Italy honor her great +Liberator, whom she calls the "most blameless and most beloved of men." +Wherever a heart loves liberty, there will Garibaldi's name be cherished +and honored. + + + + +JEAN PAUL RICHTER. + + +Vasari, who wrote the lives of the Italian painters, truly said, "It is +not by sleeping, but by working, waking, and laboring continually, that +proficiency is attained and reputation acquired." This was emphatically +true of Richter, as it is of every man or woman who wins a place in the +memory of men. The majority die after a commonplace life, and are never +heard of; they were probably satisfied to drift along the current, with +no especial purpose, save to eat, drink, and be merry. + +Not so with the German boy, born in the cold Pine Mountains of Bavaria. +His home was a low, thatched building, made of beams of wood, filled in +with mortar, one part for the family, and the other for corn and goats. +This is still the custom in Switzerland, the poor caring as tenderly for +their dumb beasts as for their children. Jean Paul was born on the 21st +of March, 1763: "My life and the life of the spring began the same +month," he used to say in after years, and the thought of robin +red-breasts and spring flowers made the poor lad happy amid the deepest +trials. + +His father was an under-pastor and organist in the little village of +Wunsiedel, and lived on a pitiful salary; but, generous to a fault, he +stripped off his own garments to clothe the poor, and sent the +schoolmaster a meal every day, because, if possible, he was poorer than +the preacher. In school, Jean Paul was a studious boy, almost envying +every one who said his lessons well, and fond of his teachers and mates; +but one of the boys having cut Paul's hand, the father at once took him +home and became his instructor. A painstaking and conscientious man, he +showed little aptness for his work, when he gave his boy, at nine years +of age, a Latin dictionary to commit to memory! For four solid hours in +the morning, and three in the afternoon, Paul and his brother learned +grammatical lessons and Latin verses of which they did not understand a +word. Still the boy grew more and more fond of books, and of +Nature,--made clocks with pendulums and wheels; a sun-dial, drawing his +figures on a wooden plate with ink; invented a new language from the +calendar signs of the almanac; and composed music on an old harpsichord +whose only tuning-hammer and tuning-master were the winds and the +weather. + +When Paul was thirteen, the family moved to Schwarzenbach, where he made +the acquaintance of a young pastor, Vogel, who owned quite a valuable +library, and encouraged him to educate himself. Given free access to the +books, he began to read eagerly. Thinking that he should never own +volumes for himself, he made blank-books, of three hundred pages each, +from his father's sermon-paper, and began the almost interminable labor +of copying whatever he thought he should need in law, medicine, +philosophy, theology, natural history, and poetry. For nearly four years +he worked thus, till he had quite a library of his own, and a wealth of +information in his brain, which proved invaluable in the writing of +after years. Such a boy could not fail of success. + +Paul's father, meantime, had become despondent over his debts, small +though they were, and died when his son was sixteen. The grandfather on +the mother's side dying soon after, Frau Richter became entitled by will +to his property. The remaining brothers and sisters at once went to law +about the matter, preferring to spend the estate in the courts rather +than have a favorite child enjoy it. Two years later, at eighteen, Paul +started for college at Leipzig, hoping that in this cultured city he +might teach while pursuing his own studies. Alas! scores had come with +the same hope, and there was no work to be obtained. He found himself +alone in a great city, poorly dressed, timid, sensitive, and without a +hand to help. Many boys had brought letters of introduction to the +professors, and thus of course received attention. He wrote to his +mother, "The most renowned, whose esteem would be useful to me, are +oppressed with business, surrounded by a multitude of respectable +people, and by a swarm of envious flatterers. If one would speak to a +professor without a special invitation, he incurs the suspicion of +vanity. But do not give up your hopes. I will overcome all these +difficulties. I shall receive some little help, and at length I shall +not need it." All honor to the brave boy who could write so +encouragingly in the midst of want and loneliness! + +He longed to make the acquaintance of some learned people, but there was +no opportunity. Finally, getting deeper and deeper into debt, he wrote +to his mother, "As I have no longer any funds, I must continue to be +trusted. But what can I at last expect? I must eat, and I cannot +continue to be trusted. I cannot freeze, but where shall I get wood +without money? I can no longer take care of my health, for I have warm +food neither morning nor evening. It is now a long time since I asked +you for twenty-six dollars; when they come, I shall scarcely be able to +pay what I already owe. Perhaps the project I have in my head will +enable me to earn for you and myself." Poor lad! how many hearts have +ached from poverty just as did his. The mother was also in debt, but in +some way she managed to obtain the money; for what will a mother not do +for her child? + +Paul worked on, but was soon in debt again. He could tell nobody but his +devoted mother: "I will not ask you for money to pay my victualler," he +wrote, "to whom I owe twenty-four dollars; nor my landlady to whom I am +indebted ten; or even for other debts, that amount to six dollars. For +these great sums I will ask no help, but for the following you must not +deny me your assistance. I must every week pay the washerwoman, who does +not trust. I must drink some milk every morning. I must have my boots +soled by the cobbler, who does not trust; my torn cap must be repaired +by the tailor, who does not trust; and I must give something to the +maid-servant, who of course does not trust. Eight dollars of Saxon money +will satisfy all, and then I shall need your help no longer." + +He was keeping up courage, because he was writing a book! He told his +mother, with his high dreams of young authorship, that he should bring +home all his old shirts and stockings at vacation, for he should buy new +ones then! It is well that all the mountains seem easy to climb in +youth; when we are older, we come to know their actual height. The +mother discouraged authorship, and hoped her boy would become a +preacher; but his project was too dear to be given up. When his book of +satirical essays, called "Eulogy of Stupidity," was finished, it was +sent, with beating heart, to a publisher. In vain Paul awaited its +return. He hoped it would be ready at Michaelmas fair, but the publisher +"so long and so kindly patronized the book by letting it lie on his +desk, that the fair was half over before the manuscript was returned." +The boyish heart must have ached when the parcel came. He had not +learned, what most authors are familiar with, the heart sickness from +first rejected manuscripts. He had not learned, too, that fame is a hard +ladder to climb, and that a "friend at court" is often worth as much, or +more, than merit. Publishers are human, and cannot always see merit till +fame is won. + +For a whole year Paul tried in vain to find a publisher. Then he said to +the manuscript, "Lie there in the corner together with school exercises, +for thou art no better. I will forget, for the world would certainly +have forgotten thee." Faint from lack of food, he says, "I undertook +again a wearisome work, and created in six months a brand-new satire." +This book was called the "Greenland Lawsuits," a queer title for a +collection of essays on theology, family pride, women, fops, and the +like. + +Paul had now gained courage by failure. Instead of writing a letter, he +went personally to every publisher in Leipzig, and offered his +manuscript, and every publisher refused it. Finally he sent it to Voss +of Berlin. On the last day of December, as he sat in his room, hungry, +and shivering because there was no fire in the stove, there was a knock +at the door, and a letter from Voss was handed in. He opened it hastily, +and found an offer of seventy dollars for the "Greenland Lawsuits." +Through his whole life he looked back to this as one of its supreme +moments. It was not a great sum, only three dollars a week for the six +months, but it was the first fruit of his brain given to the public. He +was now nineteen. What little property the mother had possessed had +wasted away in the lawsuits; one brother in his despair had drowned +himself, and another had entered the army; but Paul still had hope in +the future. + +After a short vacation with his mother, he went back to Leipzig. The +second volume of the "Greenland Lawsuits" was now published, and for +this he received one hundred and twenty-six dollars,--nearly twice that +given for the first volume. This did not take with the public, and the +third volume was refused by every publisher. His money was gone. What +could he do? He would try, as some other authors had done, the plan of +writing letters to distinguished people, telling them his needs. He did +so, but received no answers. Then, spurred on by necessity, he took the +manuscript in his hand, and presented it himself at the doors of the +learned; but he was either not listened to, or repulsed on every +occasion. How one pities this lad of nineteen! How many wealthy men +might have aided him, but they did not! He wrote a few essays for +various periodicals, but these brought little money, and were seldom +wanted. His high hopes for a literary career began to vanish. + +It was evident that he must give up college life, for he could not get +enough to eat. He had long discontinued his evening meal, making his +supper of a few dried prunes. His boarding-mistress was asking daily for +her dues. He could bear the privation and the disgrace no longer, and, +packing his satchel, and borrowing a coat from a college boy, that he +might not freeze, he stole away from Leipzig in the darkness of the +twilight, and went home to his disconsolate mother. Is it any wonder +that the poor are disconsolate? Is it any wonder that they regard the +wealthy as usually cold and indifferent to their welfare? Alas! that so +many of us have no wish to be our "brother's keeper." + +Perhaps some of the professors and students wondered where the bright +lad had gone; but the world forgets easily. Frau Richter received her +college boy with a warm heart, but an empty purse. She was living with +her two children in one room, supporting them as best she could by +spinning, working far into the night. In this room, where cooking, +washing, cleaning, and spinning were all carried on, Paul placed his +little desk and began to write. Was the confusion trying to his +thoughts? Ah! necessity knows no law. He says, "I was like a prisoner, +without the prisoner's fare of bread and water, for I had only the +latter; and if a gulden found its way into the house, the jubilee was +such that the windows were nearly broken with joy." But with the +strength of a noble and heroic nature, he adds, "What is poverty that a +man should whine under it? It is but like the pain of piercing the ears +of a maiden, and you hang precious jewels in the wound." + +The family were so needy, however, that they must look somewhere for +aid, and hesitatingly Paul applied to Vogel, the young pastor, who +loaned them twenty-five gulden. Very soon the boarding-mistress from +Leipzig appeared, having walked the whole way to Hof, and demanded her +pay. In his distress Paul sent her to another friend, Otto, who became +surety for the debt. + +Richter now began to work harder than ever. His books of extracts were +invaluable, as were his hand-books of comical matters, touching +incidents, synonyms, etc. He made it a rule to write half a day, and +take long walks in the afternoon in the open air, thinking out the plans +for his books. Poor as he was, he was always cheerful, sustaining by his +letters any who were downhearted. One of his best friends, Herman, who +had become a physician through much struggle, died about this time, +broken on the wheel of poverty. Despite his own starving condition, Paul +sent him five dollars. Having an opportunity to teach French to the +brother of a Leipzig friend, he accepted; but at the end of three years, +through the disappointing character of the pupil, and the miserliness of +the father, Paul returned to his mother, broken in health and +dispirited. His heart ached for those who like himself were suffering, +and now he made a resolution that changed for life the course of his +writing. He would write satire no more. He said, "I will not pour into +the cup of humanity a single drop of gall." Henceforward love, and hope, +and tenderness, breathe upon his every page. + +He now wrote ten essays on "What is Death?" asking the noble-hearted +Herder to send them to Weiland for his magazine, lest they be overlooked +in his mass of papers, if Richter, unaided, should venture to ask the +favor. They were overlooked for months; but finally Herder procured the +insertion of one essay in a different magazine, but Richter never +received any pay for it. Three years had passed, and all this time the +third volume of the "Greenland Lawsuits" had been journeying from one +publishing house to another. At last it was accepted, but little money +came from it. + +Again he taught,--this time at Schwarzenbach, where he used to go to +school. Here his tenderness, his tact, and good cheer won the hearts of +the pupils. There was no memorizing of Latin dictionaries, but the exact +work of all was kept in a "red book" for parents to see. He instructed +them orally five hours a day, till they were eager for astronomy, +history, and biography. For four years he taught, "his schoolroom being +his Paradise," every Sunday walking to Hof to see his mother. Well might +he say, "To the man who has had a mother all women are sacred for her +sake." + +Paul now determined to write a novel, and though he had little knowledge +of any sphere of life save that in which poverty held sway, he would put +his own heart into the work. The "Invisible Lodge" was written and sent +to the Counsellor of the town, asking, if the work pleased him, that he +would assist in its publication. At first Counsellor Moritz was annoyed +at the request; but as he read he became deeply interested, and said, +this is surely from Goethe, Herder, or Weiland. The book was soon +published, and two hundred and twenty-six dollars paid for it! The +moment Richter received the first instalment of seventy dollars, he +hastened to Hof, and there, late at night, found his mother spinning by +the light of the fire, and poured the whole of the gold into her lap. +The surprise, joy, and thanksgiving of the poor woman can well be +imagined. Her son immediately moved her into a small but more +comfortable home. + +The new novel began to be talked about and widely read. Fame was really +coming. He began at once to work on "Hesperus," one of his most famous +productions, though when published he received only two hundred dollars +for the four volumes. Letters now came from scholars and famous people. +One admirer sent fifty Prussian dollars. What joy must have swelled the +heart of the poor schoolteacher! "Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces" +followed shortly after, and Richter was indeed famous. Learned ladies of +Weimar wrote most enthusiastic thanks. With his reverence for woman, +and delight in her intellectual equality with man, these letters were +most inspiring. Request after request came for him to visit Weimar. Dare +he go and meet such people as Goethe, and Schiller, and Herder, and +Weiland, whom for twelve long years he had hoped sometime to look upon? +At last he started, and upon reaching Weimar, was made the lion of the +day. His warm heart, generous and unaffected nature, and brilliant and +well-stored mind made him admired by all. Herder said: "Heaven has sent +me a treasure in Richter. That I neither deserved nor expected. He is +all heart, all soul; an harmonious tone in the great golden harp of +humanity." Caroline Herder, his wife, a very gifted woman, was equally +his friend and helper. Noble and intellectual women gathered about him +to do him honor. Some fell in love with him; but he studied them closely +as models for future characters in his books, giving only an ardent +friendship in return. He was even invited to court, and gathered here +the scenes for his greatest work, "Titan." How grand all this seemed to +the poor man who had been hungering all his life for refined and +intellectual companionship! So rejoiced was he that he wrote home, "I +have lived twenty years in Weimar in a few days. I am happy, wholly +happy, not merely beyond all expectation, but beyond all description." + +He was now thirty-four. The poor, patient mother had just died, but not +till she had heard the fame of her son spoken on every hand. After her +death, Paul found a faded manuscript in which she had kept the record of +those small gains in spinning into the midnight hours. He carried it +next his heart, saying, "If all other manuscripts are destroyed, yet +will I keep this, good mother." For weeks he was not able to write a +letter, or mention the loss of his parent. + +His youngest brother, Samuel, a talented boy, was now ready for college; +so Jean Paul determined to make Leipzig his home while his brother +pursued his course. What changes the last few years had wrought! Then he +was stealing away from Leipzig in debt for his board, cold, hungry, and +desolate; now he was coming, the brilliant author whom everybody +delighted to honor. When we are in want, few are ready to help; when +above want, the world stands ready to lavish all upon us. After spending +some time in Leipzig, he visited Dresden to enjoy the culture of that +artistic city. During this visit, Samuel, who had become dissipated, +broke into his brother's desk, stole all his hard-earned money, and left +the city. He led a wandering life thereafter, dying in a hospital in +Silesia. Paul never saw him again, but sent him a yearly allowance, as +soon as he learned his abiding-place. What a noble character! + +He now returned to Weimar, dedicating his "Titan" to the four daughters +of the Duke of Mecklenburg, one of whom became the mother of Emperor +William, the famous and beautiful Louise of Prussia. He visited her +later in Berlin, where he writes, "I have never been received in any +city with such idolatry. I have a watch-chain of the hair of three +sisters; and so much hair has been begged of me, that if I were to make +it a traffic, I could live as well from the outside of my head as from +what is inside of it." + +In this city he met the woman who was to be hereafter the very centre of +his life. He had had a passing fancy for several, but never for one that +seemed fitted, all in all, to make his life complete. Caroline Myer, the +daughter of one of the most distinguished Prussian officers, was a +refined, intellectual, noble girl, with almost unlimited resources +within herself, devoted to her family and to every good. Paul had met +women who dressed more elegantly, who were more sparkling in +conversation, who were more beautiful, but they did not satisfy his +heart. In his thirty-eighth year he had found a character that seemed +perfection. He wrote, "Caroline has exactly that inexpressible love for +all beings that I have till now failed to find even in those who in +everything else possess the splendor and purity of the diamond. She +preserves in the full harmony of her love to me the middle and lower +tones of sympathy for every joy and sorrow in others." + +Her love for Richter was nearly adoration. Several months after their +marriage she wrote her father, "Richter is the purest, the holiest, the +most godlike man that lives. Could others be admitted, as I am, to his +inmost emotions, how much more would they esteem him!" Richter also +wrote to his best friend, Otto, "Marriage has made me love her more +romantically, deeper, infinitely more than before." At the birth of +their first child, he wrote again to Otto, "You will be as transported +as I was when the nurse brought me, as out of a cloud, my second love, +with the blue eyes wide open, a beautiful, high brow, kiss-lipped, +heart-touching. God is near at the birth of every child." + +On Caroline's first birthday after their marriage, he wrote, "I will be +to thee father and mother! Thou shalt be the happiest of human beings, +that I also may be happy." + +"Titan," now ten years in progress, was published, and made a great +sensation. The literary world was indignant at the fate of "Linda," his +heroine, but all pronounced it a great book,--his masterpiece. + +Soon after he removed to Bayreuth, and settled down to earnest work. +Almost every day he might be seen walking out into the country, where he +rented a room in a peasant's house for quiet and country air. Whenever +the day was pleasant he worked out of doors. A son had now been born to +him, and life seemed complete. Now he played with his home-treasures, +and now talked at table about some matter of art or science that all +might be instructed. He was especially fond of animals, having usually +a mouse, a tame spider, a tree-frog, and dogs. So good was he to his +canary birds that he never left the house without opening the door of +their cage that they might fly about and not be lonely. Often when he +wrote, they walked over his manuscript, scattering water from the vase +and mingling it with his ink. + +His son Max, a boy of sixteen, had entered school at Munich. He was a +beautiful youth, conscientious, sensitive, devoted to study, and the +idol of the household. At first he wept whole nights from homesickness, +denying himself sufficient fire, food, and clothing, from a desire to +save expense to his parents. He was a fine scholar, but distrusted his +intellectual gifts. At the end of a year he came home, pale and worn, +and died at the age of nineteen. + +To Richter this was a death-blow. He went on writing, while the tears +dropped upon his page. He could never bear the sight of a book his boy +had touched, and the word "philology," his son's favorite study, cut him +to the heart. At the end of three months he wrote to a friend, "My being +has suffered not merely a wound, but a complete cutting off of all joy. +My longing after him grows always more painful." Broken in health he +visited Dresden; but the end was near. The sight of the left eye at +first failed him, then the right, till he was left in complete darkness. +He still hoped to finish his autobiography, and the "Immortality of the +Soul," begun on the very day Max was buried; but this was denied him. +Once only did his sorrows overpower him, when pitifully looking toward +the window, he cried out as Ajax in the "Iliad":-- + + "Light! light only, then may the enemy come!" + +The devoted wife and two daughters grew unspeakably dear to him. When +tired with thinking, he would seat himself at the piano, and play till +he, as well as those who heard him, would burst into tears. On the 14th +of November, 1825, he sat in his chamber, his youngest child climbing on +the back of his chair, and laying her face against her father's. It was +only noon, but thinking it was night, Richter said, "It is time to go to +rest." He was wheeled into his sleeping apartment, and some flowers laid +on the bed beside him. "My beautiful flowers! My lovely flowers!" he +said, as he folded his arms, and soon fell asleep. His wife sat beside +him, her eyes fixed on the face of the man she loved. About six the +doctor arrived. The breath came shorter, the face took on a heavenly +expression, and grew cold as marble. The end had come. He was buried by +torchlight, the unfinished manuscript of the "Immortality of the Soul" +being borne upon his coffin, while the students sung Klopstock's hymn, +"Thou shalt arise, my Soul." His more than one hundred volumes and his +noble, generous life are his monuments. He said, "I shall die without +having seen Switzerland or the ocean, but the ocean of eternity I shall +not fail to see." + + + + +LEON GAMBETTA. + + +On January 6, 1883, Paris presented a sad and imposing spectacle. Her +shops were closed; her public buildings and her homes were draped in +black. Her streets were solid with hundreds of thousands, all +dispirited, and many in tears. A large catafalque covered with black +velvet upheld a coffin shrouded with the tricolor. From a vase at each +corner rose burning perfume, whose vapor was like sweet incense. Six +black horses drew the funeral car, and two hundred thousand persons +followed in the procession, many bearing aloft wreaths of flowers, and +shouting, "Vive la Republique! Vive la Gambetta!" + +The maker of the Republic, the brilliant, eloquent leader of the French +people, was dead; dead in the prime of his life at forty-five. The +"Figaro" but voiced the feeling of the world when it said, "The Republic +has lost its greatest man." America might well mourn him as a friend, +for he made her his pattern for his beloved France. The "Pall-Mall +Gazette" said, "He will live in French history among the most +courageous"; and even Germany courted him as the bravest of the brave, +while she breathed freer, saying in the "Berlin Press," "The death of +Gambetta delivers the peace of Europe from great danger." The hand that +would sometime doubtless have reached out to take back sobbing Alsace +and Lorraine was palsied; the voice that swayed the multitude, now with +its sweet persuasiveness, and now with its thunder like the rush of a +swollen torrent, was hushed; the supreme will that held France like a +willing child in its power, had yielded to the inevitable,--death. + +[Illustration: LEON GAMBETTA.] + +Leon Gambetta was born at Cahors, April 2, 1838. His father was an +Italian from Genoa, poor, and of good character; his mother, a French +woman, singularly hopeful, energetic, and noble. They owned a little +bazaar and grocery, and here, Onasie, the wife, day after day helped her +husband to earn a comfortable living. When their only son was seven +years old, he was sent to a Jesuits' preparatory school at Monfaucon, +his parents hoping that he would become a priest. His mother had great +pride in him, and faith in his future. She taught him how to read from +the "National," a newspaper founded by Thiers, republican in its +tendencies. She saw with delight that when very young he would learn the +speeches of Thiers and Guizot, which he found in its columns, and +declaim them as he roamed alone the narrow streets, and by the quaint +old bridges and towers of Cahors. At Monfaucon, he gave his orations +before the other children, the mother sending him the much-prized +"National" whenever he obtained good marks, and the Jesuits, whether +pleased or not, did not interfere with their boyish republican. + +At eight years of age an unfortunate accident happened which bade fair +to ruin his hopes. While watching a cutter drill the handle of a knife, +the foil broke, and a piece entered the right eye, spoiling the sight. +Twenty years afterward, when the left, through sympathy, seemed to be +nearly destroyed, a glass eye was inserted, and the remaining one was +saved. + +When Leon was ten years old, the Revolution of 1848 deposed Louis +Philippe, the Orleanist, and Louis Napoleon was made President of the +Republic. Perhaps the people ought to have known that no presidency +would long satisfy the ambition of a Bonaparte. He at once began to +increase his power by winning the Catholic Church to his side. The +Jesuits no longer allowed the boy Leon to talk republicanism; they saw +that it was doomed. They scolded him, whipped him, took away the +"National," and finally expelled him, writing to his parents, "You will +never make a priest of him; he has an utterly undisciplinable +character." + +The father frowned when he returned home, and the neighbors prophesied +that he would end his life in the Bastile for holding such radical +opinions. The poor mother blamed herself for putting the "National" into +his hands, and thus bringing all this trouble upon him. Ah, she wrought +better than she knew! But for the "National," and Gambetta's +unconquerable love for a republic, France might to-day be the plaything +of an emperor. + +Meantime Louis Napoleon was putting his friends into office, making +tours about the country to win adherents, and securing the army and the +police to his side. At seven o'clock, on the morning of December 2, +1851, the famous Coup d'etat came, and the unscrupulous President had +made himself Emperor. Nearly two hundred and fifty deputies were +arrested and imprisoned, and the Republicans who opposed the usurpation +were quickly subdued by the army. Then the French were graciously +permitted to say, by ballot, whether they were willing to accept the +empire. There was, of course, but one judicious way to vote, and that +was in the affirmative, and they thus voted. + +Joseph Gambetta, the father, saw the political storm which was coming, +and fearing for his outspoken son, locked him up in a lyceum at Cahors, +till he was seventeen. Here he attracted the notice of his teachers by +his fondness for reading, his great memory, and his love of history and +politics. At sixteen he had read the Latin authors, and the economical +works of Proudhon. When he came home, his father told him that he must +now become a grocer, and succeed to the business. He obeyed, but his +studious mind had no interest in the work. He recoiled from spending his +powers in persuading the mayor's wife that a yard of Genoa velvet at +twenty francs was cheaper than the same measure of the Lyon's article at +thirteen. So tired and sick of the business did he become, that he +begged his father to be allowed to keep the accounts, which he did in a +neat, delicate hand. + +His watchful mother saw that her boy's health was failing. He was +restless and miserable. He longed to go to Paris to study law, and then +teach in some provincial town. He planned ways of escape from the hated +tasks, but he had no money, and no friends in the great city. + +But his mother planned to some purpose. She said to M. Menier, the +chocolate-maker, "I have a son of great promise, whom I want to send to +Paris against his father's will to study law. He is a good lad, and no +fool. But my husband, who wants him to continue his business here, will, +I know, try to starve him into submission. What I am about to propose is +that if I buy your chocolate at the rate you offer it, and buy it +outright instead of taking it to sell on commission, will you say +nothing if I enter it on the book at a higher price, and you pay the +difference to my son?" Menier, interested to have the boy prosper, +quickly agreed. + +After a time, she called her son aside and, placing a bag of money in +his hand, said, "This, my boy, is to pay your way for a year. A trunk +full of clothes is ready for you. Try and come home somebody. Start +soon, and take care to let nobody suspect you are going away. Do not +say good-bye to a single soul. I want to avoid a scene between you and +your father." + +Ambition welled up again in his heart, and the bright expression came +back into his face. The next morning he slipped away, and was soon at +Paris. He drove to the Sorbonne, because he had heard that lectures were +given there. The cab-driver recommended a cheap hotel close by, and, +obtaining a room in the garret, the youth, not yet eighteen, began his +studies. He rose early and worked hard, attending lectures at the +medical school as well as at the law, buying his books at second-hand +shops along the streets. Though poverty often pinched him as to food, +and his clothes were poor, he did not mind it, but bent all his energies +to his work. His mother wrote how angered the father was at his leaving, +and would not allow his name to be mentioned in his presence. Poor +Joseph! how limited was his horizon. + +Leon's intelligence and originality won the esteem of the professors, +and one of them said, "Your father acts stupidly. You have a true +vocation. Follow it. But go to the bar, where your voice, which is one +in a thousand, will carry you on, study and intelligence aiding. The +lecture-room is a narrow theatre. If you like, I will write to your +father to tell him what my opinion of you is." + +Professor Valette wrote to Joseph Gambetta, "The best investment you +ever made would be to spend what money you can afford to divert from +your business in helping your son to become an advocate." + +The letter caused a sensation in the Gambetta family. The mother took +courage and urged the case of her darling child, while her sister, Jenny +Massabie, talked ardently for her bright nephew. An allowance was +finally made. In two years Leon had mastered the civil, criminal, +military, forest, and maritime codes. Too young to be admitted to the +bar to plead, for nearly a year he studied Paris, its treasures of art, +and its varied life. It opened a new and grand world to him. +Accidentally he made the acquaintance of the head usher at the Corps +Legislatif, who said to the young student, "You are an excellent fellow, +and I shall like to oblige you; so if the debates of the Corps +Legislatif interest you, come there and ask for me, and I will find you +a corner in the galleries where you can hear and see everything." Here +Leon studied parliamentary usage, and saw the repression of thought +under an empire. At the Cafe Procope, once the resort of Voltaire, +Diderot, Rousseau, and other literary celebrities, the young man talked +over the speeches he had heard, with his acquaintances, and told what he +would do if he were in the House. An improbable thing it seemed that a +poor and unknown lad would ever sit in the Corps Legislatif, as one of +its members! He organized a club for reading and debating, and was of +course made its head. It could not be other than republican in +sentiment. + +In 1860, at the age of twenty-two, Gambetta was admitted to the bar. The +father was greatly opposed to his living in Paris, where he thought +there was no chance for a lawyer who had neither money nor influential +friends, and urged his returning to Cahors. Again his aunt Jenny, whom +he always affectionately called "Tata," took his part. Having an income +of five hundred dollars a year, she said to the father, "You do not see +how you can help your son in Paris, it may be for long years; but next +week I will go with him, and we shall stay together;" and then, turning +to her nephew, she added, "And now, my boy, I will give you food and +shelter, and you will do the rest by your work." + +They took a small house in the Latin Quartier, very plain and +comfortless. His first brief came after waiting eighteen months! Grepps, +a deputy, being accused of conspiracy against the Government, Gambetta +defended him so well that Cremieux, a prominent lawyer, asked him to +become his secretary. The case was not reported in the papers, and was +therefore known only by a limited circle. For six years the brilliant +young scholar was virtually chained to his desk. The only recreation was +an occasional gathering of a few newspaper men at his rooms, for whom +his aunt cooked the supper, willing and glad to do the work, because she +believed he would some day come to renown from his genius. + +Finally his hour came. At the Coup d'etat, Dr. Baudin, a deputy, for +defending the rights of the National Assembly, was shot on a barricade. +On All-Soul's Day, 1868, the Republicans, to the number of a thousand, +gathered at the grave in the cemetery of Montmartre, to lay flowers upon +it and listen to addresses. The Emperor could not but see that such +demonstrations would do harm to his throne. Dellschuzes, the leader, was +therefore arrested, and chose the unknown lawyer, Gambetta, to defend +him. He was a strong radical, and he asked only one favor of his lawyer, +that he would "hit hard the Man of December," as those who hated the +Coup d'etat of December 2, loved to call Louis Napoleon. + +Gambetta was equal to the occasion. He likened the Emperor to Catiline, +declaring that as a highwayman, he had taken France and felled her +senseless. "For seventeen years," he said, "you have been masters of +France, and you have never dared to celebrate the Second of December. It +is we who take up the anniversary, which you no more dare face than a +fear-haunted murderer can his victim's corpse." When finally, overcome +with emotion, Gambetta sank into his seat at the close of his speech, +the die was cast. He had become famous from one end of France to the +other, and the Empire had received a blow from which it never recovered. +That night at the clubs, and in the press offices, the name of Leon +Gambetta was on every lip. + +It is not strange that in the elections of the following year, he was +asked to represent Belleville and Marseilles, and chose the latter, +saying to his constituents that he was in "irreconcilable opposition to +the Empire." He at once became the leader of a new party, the +"Irreconcilables," and Napoleon's downfall became from that hour only a +question of time. Gambetta spoke everywhere, and was soon conceded to be +the finest orator in France. Worn in body, by the confinement of the +secretaryship, and the political campaign, he repaired to Ems for a +short time, where he met Bismarck. "He will go far," said the Man of +Iron. "I pity the Emperor for having such an irreconcilable enemy." The +"National," under Madam Gambetta's teaching in childhood, was bearing +fruit. + +Napoleon saw that something must be done to make his throne more stable +in the hearts of his people. He attempted a more liberal policy, with +Emile Ollivier at the head of affairs. But Gambetta was still +irreconcilable, saying in one of his great speeches, "We accept you and +your Constitutionalism as a bridge to the Republic, but nothing more." +At last war was declared against Prussia, as much with the hope of +promoting peace at home as to win honors in Germany. Everybody knows the +rapid and crushing defeat of the French, and the fall of Napoleon at +Sedan, September 2, when he wrote to King William of Prussia, "Not +having been able to die at the head of my troops, I can only resign my +sword into the hands of your Majesty." + +When the news reached Paris on the following day, the people were +frantic. Had the Emperor returned, a defeated man, he could never have +reached the Tuileries alive. Crowds gathered in the streets, and forced +their way into the hall of the Corps Legislatif. Then the eloquent +leader of the Republican ranks, scarcely heard of two years before, +ascended the Tribune, and declared that, "Louis Napoleon Bonaparte and +his dynasty have forever ceased to reign over France." With Jules Favre, +Ferry, Simon, and others, he hastened to the Hotel de Ville, writing on +slips of paper, and throwing out to the multitude, the names of those +who were to be the heads of the provisional government. Cool, fearless, +heroic, Gambetta stood at the summit of power, and controlled the +people. They believed in him because he believed in the Republic. + +Meantime the German armies were marching on Paris. The people fortified +their city, and prepared to die if need be, in their homes. Before Paris +was cut off from the outside world by the siege, part of the governing +force retired to Tours. It became necessary for Gambetta, in October, to +visit this city for conference, and to accomplish this he started in a +balloon, which was just grazed by the Prussian guns as he passed over +the lines. It was a hazardous step; but the balloon landed in a forest +near Amiens, and he was safe. When he arrived in Tours there was not a +soldier in the place; in a month, by superhuman energy, and the most +consummate skill and wisdom, he had raised three armies of eight +hundred thousand men, provided by loan for their maintenance, and +directed their military operations. One of the prominent officers on the +German side says, "This colossal energy is the most remarkable event of +modern history, and will carry down Gambetta's name to remote +posterity." + +He was now in reality the Dictator of France, at thirty-two years of +age. He gave the fullest liberty to the press, had a pleasant "Bon jour, +mon ami" for a workman, no matter how overwhelmed with cares he might +be, and a self-possession, a quickness of decision, and an indomitable +will that made him a master in every company and on every occasion. He +electrified France by his speeches; he renewed her courage, and revived +her patriotism. Even after the bloody defeat of Bazaine at Gravelotte, +and his strange surrender of one hundred and seventy thousand men at +Metz, Gambetta did not despair of France being able, at least, to demand +an honorable peace. + +But France had grown tired of battles. Paris had endured a siege of four +months, and the people were nearly in a starving condition. The +Communists, too, were demanding impossible things. Therefore, after +seven months of war, the articles of peace were agreed upon, by which +France gave to Germany fourteen hundred million dollars, to be paid in +three years, and ceded to her the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. + +Gambetta could never bring himself to consent to these humiliating +conditions, and on the day on which the terms were ratified, he and his +colleagues from these two sections of the country, left the assembly +together. Just as they were passing out, the venerable Jean Kuss, mayor +of Strasburg, staggered up to Gambetta, saying, "Let me grasp your +patriot's hand. It is the last time I shall shake it. My heart is +broken. Promise to redeem brave Strasburg." He fell to the floor, and +died almost immediately. Gambetta retired to Spain, till recalled by the +elections of the following July. + +He now began again his heroic labors, speaking all through France, +teaching the people the true principles of a republic; not communism, +not lawlessness, but order, prudence, and self-government. He urged +free, obligatory education, and the scattering of books, libraries, and +institutes everywhere. When Thiers was made the first President, +Gambetta was his most important and truest ally, though the former had +called him "a furious fool"; so ready was the Great Republican to +forgive harshness. + +In 1877 he again saved his beloved Republic. The Monarchists had become +restless, and finally displaced Thiers by Marshal MacMahon, a strong +Romanist, and a man devoted to the Empire. It seemed evident that +another coup d'etat was meditated. Gambetta stirred the country to +action. He declared that the President must "submit or resign," and for +those words he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment and a fine of +four hundred dollars, which sentence was never executed. MacMahon seeing +that the Republic was stronger than he had supposed, soon after resigned +his position, and was succeeded by M. Grevy. Gambetta was made President +of the Assembly, and doubtless, if he had lived, would have been made +President of the Republic. + +There were not wanting those who claimed that he was ambitious for the +supreme rule; but when death came from the accidental discharge of a +pistol, producing a wound in the hand, all calumny was hushed, and +France beheld her idol in his true light,--the incarnation of +republicanism. Two hours before his death, at his plain home just out of +Paris at Ville d'Avray, he said, "I am dying; there is no use in denying +it; but I have suffered so much it will be a great deliverance." He +longed to last till the New Year, but died five minutes before midnight, +Dec. 31, 1882. The following day, fifteen thousand persons called to see +the great statesman as he lay upon his single iron bedstead. + +Afterward the body lay in state at the Palais Bourbon, the guard +standing nearly to their knees in flowers. Over two thousand wreaths +were given by friends. Alsace sent a magnificent crown of roses. No +grander nor sadder funeral was ever seen in France. Paris was urgent +that he be buried in Pere la Chaise, but his father would not consent; +so the body was carried to Nice to lie beside his mother, who died a +year before him, and his devoted aunt, who died five years previously. +Every day Joseph Gambetta lays flowers upon the graves of his dear ones. + +Circumstances helped to make the great orator, but he also made +circumstances. True, his opportunity came at the trial, after the Baudin +demonstration, but he was ready for the opportunity. He had studied the +history of an empire under the Caesars, and he knew how republics are +made and lost. When in the Corps Legislatif a leader was needed, he was +ready, for he had carefully studied men. When at Tours he directed the +military, he knew what he was doing, for he was conversant with the +details of our civil war. When others were sauntering for pleasure along +the Champs Elysees, he had been poring over books in an attic opposite +the Sorbonne. He died early, but he accomplished more than most men who +live to be twice forty-five. When, in the years to come, imperialists +shall strive again to wrest the government from the hands of the people, +the name of Leon Gambetta will be an inspiration, a talisman of victory +for the Republic. + + + + +[Illustration: D. G. FARRAGUT. + +(From his Life, published by D. APPLETON & CO.)] + +DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT. + + +The possibilities of American life are strikingly illustrated by the +fact that the two names at the head of the army and navy, Grant and +Farragut, represent self-made men. The latter was born on a farm near +Knoxville, Tennessee, July 5, 1801. His mother, of Scotch descent, was a +brave and energetic woman. Once when the father was absent in the Indian +wars, the savages came to their plain home and demanded admittance. She +barred the door as best she could, and sending her trembling children +into the loft, guarded the entrance with an axe. The Indians thought +discretion the better part of valor, and stole quietly away. + +When David was seven years old, the family having moved to New Orleans, +as the father had been appointed sailing master in the navy, the noble +mother died of yellow fever, leaving five children, the youngest an +infant. This was a most severe blow. Fortunately, soon after, an act of +kindness brought its reward. The father of Commodore Porter having died +at the Farragut house, the son determined to adopt one of the +motherless children, if one was willing to leave his home. Little David +was pleased with the uniform, and said promptly that he would go. + +Saying good-bye forever to his father, he was taken to Washington, and +after a few months spent in school, at the age of nine years and a half, +was made a midshipman. And now began a life full of hardship, of +adventure, and of brave deeds, which have added lustre to the American +navy, and have made the name of Farragut immortal. + +His first cruise was along the coast, in the _Essex_, after the war of +1812 with Great Britain had begun. They had captured the _Alert_ and +other prizes, and their ship was crowded with prisoners. One night when +the boy lay apparently asleep, the coxswain of the _Alert_ came to his +hammock, pistol in hand. David lay motionless till he passed on, and +then crept noiselessly to the cabin, and informed Captain Porter. +Springing from his cot, he shouted, "Fire! fire!" The seamen rushed on +deck, and the mutineers were in irons before they had recovered from +their amazement. Evidently the boy had inherited some of his mother's +fearlessness. + +His second cruise was in the Pacific Ocean, where they encountered a +fearful storm going round Cape Horn. An incident occurred at this time +which showed the mettle of the lad. Though only twelve, he was ordered +by Captain Porter to take a prize vessel to Valparaiso, the captured +captain being required to navigate it. When David requested that the +"maintopsail be filled away," the captain replied that he would shoot +any man who dared to touch a rope without his orders, and then went +below for his pistols. David called one of the crew, told him what had +happened, and what he wanted done. "Aye, aye, sir!" responded the +faithful sailor, as he began to execute the orders. The young midshipman +at once sent word to the captain not to come on deck with his pistols +unless he wished to go overboard. From that moment the boy was master of +the vessel, and admired for his bravery. + +The following year,--1814,--while the _Essex_ was off the coast of +Chili, she was attacked by the British ships _Phoebe_ and _Cherub_. +The battle lasted for two hours and a half, the _Phoebe_ throwing +seven hundred eighteen-pound shots at the _Essex_. + +"I shall never forget," Farragut said years after, "the horrid +impression made upon me at the sight of the first man I had ever seen +killed. It staggered and sickened me at first; but they soon began to +fall so fast that it all appeared like a dream, and produced no effect +upon my nerves.... Soon after this some gun-primers were wanted, and I +was sent after them. In going below, while I was on the ward-room +ladder, the captain of the gun directly opposite the hatchway was struck +full in the face by an eighteen-pound shot, and fell back on me. We +tumbled down the hatch together. I lay for some moments stunned by the +blow, but soon recovered consciousness enough to rush up on deck. The +captain seeing me covered with blood, asked if I was wounded; to which I +replied, 'I believe not, sir.' 'Then,' said he, 'where are the primers?' +This brought me completely to my senses, and I ran below again and +carried the primers on deck." + +When Porter had been forced to surrender, David went below to help the +surgeon in dressing wounds. One brave young man, Lieutenant Cowell, +said, "O, Davy, I fear it is all up with me!" He could have been saved, +had his leg been amputated an hour sooner; but when it was proposed to +drop another patient and attend to him, he said, "No, Doctor, none of +that; fair play is a jewel. One man's life is as dear as another's; I +would not cheat any poor fellow out of his turn." + +Many brave men died, saying, "Don't give her up! Hurrah for liberty!" +One young Scotchman, whose leg had been shot off, said to his comrades, +"I left my own country and adopted the United States to fight for her. I +hope I have this day proved myself worthy of the country of my adoption. +I am no longer of any use to you or to her; so good-bye!" saying which +he threw himself overboard. + +When David was taken a prisoner on board the _Phoebe_, he could not +refrain from tears at his mortification. + +"Never mind, my little fellow," said the captain; "it will be your turn +next, perhaps." + +"I hope so," was the reply. + +Soon David's pet pig "Murphy" was brought on board, and he immediately +claimed it. + +"But," said the English sailor, "you are a prisoner and your pig also." + +"We always respect private property," the boy replied, seizing hold of +"Murphy"; and after a vigorous fight, the pet was given to its owner. + +On returning to Captain Porter's house at Chester, Pa., David was put at +school for the summer, under a quaint instructor, one of Napoleon's +celebrated Guard, who used no book, but taught the boys about plants and +minerals, and how to climb and swim. In the fall he was placed on a +receiving-ship, but gladly left the wild set of lads for a cruise in the +Mediterranean. Here he had the opportunity of visiting Naples, Pompeii, +and other places of interest, but he encountered much that was harsh and +trying. Commodore C---- sometimes knocked down his own son, and his +son's friend as well,--not a pleasant person to be governed by. + +In 1817, Chaplain Folsom of their ship was appointed consul at Tunis. He +loved David as a brother, and begged the privilege of keeping him for a +time, "because," said he to the commodore, "he is entirely destitute of +the aids of fortune and the influence of friends, other than those whom +his character may attach to him." For nearly nine months he remained +with the chaplain, studying French, Italian, English literature, and +mathematics, and developing in manliness and refinement. The Danish +consul showed great fondness for the frank, ardent boy, now sixteen, and +invited him to his house at Carthage. Failing in his health, a horseback +trip toward the interior of the country was recommended, and during the +journey he received a sunstroke, and his eyes were permanently weakened. +All his life, however, he had some one read to him, and thus mitigate +his misfortune. + +The time came to go back to duty on the ship, and Chaplain Folsom +clasped the big boy to his bosom, fervently kissing him on each cheek, +and giving him his parting blessing mingled with his tears. Forty years +after, when the young midshipman had become the famous Admiral, he sent +a token of respect and affection to his old friend. + +For some years, having been appointed acting lieutenant, he cruised in +the Gulf of Mexico, gaining knowledge which he was glad to use later, +and in the West Indies, where for two years and a half, he says, "I +never owned a bed, but lay down to rest wherever I found the most +comfortable berth." Sometimes he and his seamen pursued pirates who +infested the coast, cutting their way through thornbushes and cactus +plants, with their cutlasses; then burning the houses of these robbers, +and taking their plunder out of their caves. It was an exciting but +wearing life. + +After a visit to his old home at New Orleans,--his father had died, and +his sister did not recognize him,--he contracted yellow fever, and lay +ill for some time in a Washington hospital. Perhaps the sailor was +tired of his roving and somewhat lonely life, and now married, at +twenty-two, Miss Susan Marchant of Norfolk, Virginia. + +For sixteen years she was an invalid, so that he carried her often in +his arms like a child. Now he took her to New Haven for treatment, and +improved what time he could spare by attending Professor Silliman's +lectures at Yale College. Now he conducted a school on a receiving-ship, +so as to have her with him. "She bore the sickness with unparalleled +resignation and patience," says Farragut in his journal, "affording a +beautiful example of calmness and fortitude." One of her friends in +Norfolk said, "When Captain Farragut dies, he should have a monument +reaching to the skies, made by every wife in the city contributing a +stone to it." How the world admires a brave man with a tender heart! + +Farragut was now nearly forty years of age; never pushing himself +forward, honors had come slowly. Three years later, having been made +commandant, he married Miss Virginia Royall, also of Norfolk, Va. At the +beginning of the Mexican War, he offered his services to the Government, +but from indifference, or the jealousy of officials, he was not called +upon. The next twelve years were spent, partly in the Norfolk Navy Yard, +giving weekly lectures on gunnery, preparing a book on ordnance +regulations, and establishing a navy yard on the Pacific Coast. Whatever +he did was done thoroughly and faithfully. When asked by the Navy +Department to express a preference about a position, he said, "I have no +volition in the matter; your duty is to give me orders, mine to obey.... +I have made it the rule of my life to ask no official favors, but to +await orders and then obey them." + +And now came the turning-point of his life. April 17, 1860, Virginia, by +a vote of eighty-eight to fifty-five, seceded from the United States. +The next morning, Farragut, then at Norfolk, expressed disapproval of +the acts of the convention, and said President Lincoln would be +justified in calling for troops after the Southerners had taken forts +and arsenals. He was soon informed "that a person with those sentiments +could not live in Norfolk." + +"Well then, I can live somewhere else," was the calm reply. + +Returning home, he announced to his wife that he had determined to +"stick to the flag." + +"This act of mine may cause years of separation from your family; so you +must decide quickly whether you will go North or remain here." + +She decided at once to go with him, and, hastily collecting a few +articles, departed that evening for Baltimore. That city was in +commotion, the Massachusetts troops having had a conflict with the mob. +He finally secured passage for New York on a canal-boat, and with +limited means rented a cottage at Hastings-on-the-Hudson, for one +hundred and fifty dollars a year. He loved the South, and said, "God +forbid that I should have to raise my hand against her"; but he was +anxious to take part in the war for the Union, and offered his services +to that end. + +The Government had an important project in hand. The Mississippi River +was largely in the control of the Confederacy, and was the great highway +for transporting her supplies. New Orleans was the richest city of the +South, receiving for shipment at this time ninety-two million dollars +worth of cotton, and more than twenty-five million dollars worth of +sugar yearly. If this city could be captured, and the river controlled +by the North, the South would be seriously crippled. But the lower +Mississippi was guarded by the strongest forts, Jackson and St. Philip, +which mounted one hundred and fifteen guns, and were garrisoned by +fifteen hundred men. Above the forts were fifteen vessels of the +Confederate fleet, including the ironclad ram, _Manassas_, and just +below, a heavy iron chain across the river bound together scores of +cypress logs thirty feet long, and four or five feet in diameter, thus +forming an immense obstruction. Sharpshooters were stationed all along +the banks. + +Who could be entrusted with such a formidable undertaking as the capture +of this stronghold? Who sufficiently daring, skilful, and loyal? Several +naval officers were considered, but Gideon Welles, Secretary of the +Navy, said, "Farragut is the man." The steam sloop-of-war, _Hartford_, +of nineteen hundred tons burden, and two hundred twenty-five feet long, +was made ready as his flag-ship. His instructions were, "The certain +capture of the city of New Orleans. The Department and the country +require of you success.... If successful, you open the way to the sea +for the Great West, never again to be closed. The rebellion will be +riven in the centre, and the flag, to which you have been so faithful, +will recover its supremacy in every State." + +With a grateful heart that he had been thought fitting for this high +place, and believing in his ability to win success, at sixty-one years +of age he started on his mission, saying, "If I die in the attempt, it +will only be what every officer has to expect. He who dies in doing his +duty to his country, and at peace with his God, has played the drama of +life to the best advantage." He took with him six sloops-of-war, sixteen +gunboats, twenty-one schooners, and five other vessels, forty-eight in +all, the fleet carrying over two hundred guns. + +April 18, 1862, they had all reached their positions and were ready for +the struggle. For six days and nights the mortars kept up a constant +fire on Fort Jackson, throwing nearly six thousand shells. Many persons +were killed, but the fort did not yield. The Confederates sent down the +river five fire-rafts, flat-boats filled with dry wood, smeared with tar +and turpentine, hoping that these would make havoc among Farragut's +ships; but his crews towed them away to shore, or let them drift out to +sea. + +Farragut now made up his mind to pass the forts at all hazards. It was +a dangerous and heroic step. If he won, New Orleans must fall; if he +failed--but he must not fail. Two gunboats were sent to cut the chain +across the river. All night long the commander watched with intense +anxiety the return of the boats, which under a galling fire had +succeeded in breaking the chain, and thus making a passage for the +fleet. + +At half past three o'clock on the morning of April 24, the fleet was +ready to start. The _Cayuga_ led off the first division of eight +vessels. Both forts opened fire. In ten minutes she had passed beyond +St. Philip only to be surrounded by eleven Confederate gunboats. The +_Varuna_ came to her relief, but was rammed by two Southern boats, and +sunk in fifteen minutes. The _Mississippi_ encountered the enemy's ram, +_Manassas_, riddled her with shot, and set her on fire, so that she +drifted below the forts and blew up. + +Then the centre division, led by the _Hartford_, passed into the +terrific fire. First she grounded in avoiding a fire-raft; then a +Confederate ram pushed a raft against her, setting her on fire; but +Farragut gave his orders as calmly as though not in the utmost peril. +The flames were extinguished, and she steamed on, doing terrible +execution with her shells. Then came the last division, led by the +_Sciota_, and Commander Porter's gunboats. In the darkness, lighted only +by the flashes of over two hundred guns, the fleet had cut its way to +victory, losing one hundred and eighty-four in killed and wounded. + + "In a twinkling the flames had risen + Half-way to maintop and mizzen, + Darting up the shrouds like snakes! + Ah, how we clanked at the brakes! + And the deep steam-pumps throbbed under + Sending a ceaseless glow. + Our top-men--a dauntless crowd-- + Swarmed in rigging and shroud; + There ('twas a wonder!) + The burning ratlins and strands + They quenched with their bare hard hands. + But the great guns below + Never silenced their thunder. + + "At last, by backing and sounding, + When we were clear of grounding, + And under headway once more, + The whole Rebel fleet came rounding + The point. If we had it hot before, + 'Twas now, from shore to shore, + One long, loud thundering roar,-- + Such crashing, splintering, and pounding + And smashing as you never heard before. + + "But that we fought foul wrong to wreck, + And to save the land we loved so well, + You might have deemed our long gun-deck + Two hundred feet of hell! + For all above was battle, + Broadside, and blaze, and rattle, + Smoke and thunder alone; + But down in the sick-bay, + Where our wounded and dying lay, + There was scarce a sob or a moan. + + "And at last, when the dim day broke, + And the sullen sun awoke, + Drearily blinking + O'er the haze and the cannon-smoke, + That even such morning dulls, + There were thirteen traitor hulls + On fire and sinking!" + + --_Henry Howard Brownell_ + + * * * * * + +"Thus," says the son of Farragut, in his admirable biography, "was +accomplished a feat in naval warfare which had no precedent, and which +is still without a parallel except the one furnished by Farragut +himself, two years later, at Mobile. Starting with seventeen wooden +vessels, he had passed with all but three of them, against the swift +current of a river but half a mile wide, between two powerful earthworks +which had long been prepared for him, his course impeded by blazing +rafts, and immediately thereafter had met the enemy's fleet of fifteen +vessels, two of them ironclads, and either captured or destroyed every +one of them. And all this with a loss of but one ship from his +squadron." + +The following day, he wrote:-- + +"My dearest wife and boy,--I am so agitated that I can scarcely write, +and shall only tell you that it has pleased Almighty God to preserve my +life through a fire such as the world has scarcely known. He has +permitted me to make a name for my dear boy's inheritance, as well as +for my comfort and that of my family." + +The next day, at eleven o'clock in the morning, by order of Farragut, +"the officers and crews of the fleet return thanks to Almighty God for +His great goodness and mercy in permitting us to pass through the events +of the last two days with so little loss of life and blood." + +April 29, a battalion of two hundred and fifty marines and two +howitzers, manned by sailors from the _Hartford_, marched through the +streets of New Orleans, hoisted the Union flag in place of the +Confederate on the city hall, and held possession till General Butler +arrived with his troops on May 1. After the fall of the city, the forts +surrendered to Porter. + +From here Farragut went to Vicksburg with sixteen vessels, "the +_Hartford_," he says "like an old hen taking care of her chickens," and +passed the batteries with fifteen killed and thirty wounded. Three +months later he received the thanks of Congress on parchment for the +gallant services of himself and his men, and was made Rear-Admiral. He +remained on the river and gulf for some months, doing effective work in +sustaining the blockade, and destroying the salt-works along the coast. +When the memorable passage of the batteries at Port Hudson was made, +where one hundred and thirteen were killed or wounded, the _Hartford_ +taking the lead, his idolized boy, Loyall, stood beside him. When urged +by the surgeon to let his son go below to help about the wounded, +because it was safer, he replied, "No; that will not do. It is true our +only child is on board by chance, and he is not in the service; but, +being here, he will act as one of my aids, to assist in conveying my +orders during the battle, and we will trust in Providence." Neither +would the lad listen to the suggestion; for he "wanted to be stationed +on deck and see the fight." Farragut soon sent him back to his mother; +for he said, "I am too devoted a father to have my son with me in +troubles of this kind. The anxieties of a father should not be added to +those of a commander." + +Every day was full of exciting incident. The admiral needing some +despatches taken down the river, his secretary, Mr. Gabaudan, +volunteered to bear the message. A small dug-out was covered with twigs, +so as to resemble floating trees. At night he lay down in his little +craft, with paddle and pistol by his side, and drifted with the current. +Once a Confederate boat pulled out into the stream to investigate the +somewhat large tree, but returned to report that, "It was only a log." +He succeeded in reaching General Banks, who had taken the place of +General Butler, and when the fleet returned to New Orleans, he was +warmly welcomed on board by his admiring companions. + +Farragut now returned to New York for a short time, where all were +anxious to meet the Hero of New Orleans, and to see the historic +_Hartford_, which had been struck two hundred and forty times by shot +and shell in nineteen months' service. The Union League Club presented +him a beautiful sword, the scabbard of gold and silver, and the hilt set +in brilliants. + +His next point of attack was Mobile Bay. Under cover of the forts, +Morgan, Gaines, and Powell, the blockade was constantly broken. A good +story is told of the capture of one of these vessels, whose merchant +captain was brought before Farragut. He proved to be an old +acquaintance, who said he was bound for Matamoras on the Rio Grande! The +admiral expressed amazement that he should be three hundred miles out of +his course, and said good-naturedly, "I am sorry for you; but we shall +have to hold you for your thundering bad navigation!" + +And now occurred the most brilliant battle of his career. Aug. 4, 1864, +he wrote to his wife,-- + +"I am going into Mobile Bay in the morning, if God is my leader, as I +hope He is, and in Him I place my trust. God bless and preserve you, my +darling, and my dear boy, if anything should happen to me. + +"Your devoted and affectionate husband, who never for one moment forgot +his love, duty, or fidelity to you, his devoted and best of wives." + +At half past five on the morning of Aug. 5, fourteen ships and four +monitors, headed by the _Brooklyn_, because she had apparatus for +picking up torpedoes, moved into action. Very soon the _Tecumseh_, the +monitor abreast of the _Brooklyn_, went down with nearly every soul on +board, sunk by a torpedo. When the _Brooklyn_ saw this disaster, she +began to back. + +"What's the trouble?" was shouted through the trumpet. + +"Torpedoes." + +The supreme moment had come for decision. The grand old admiral offered +up this prayer in his heart, "O God, direct me what to do. Shall I go +on?" And a voice seemed to answer, "Go on!" + +"Go ahead!" he shouted to his captain on the _Hartford_; "give her all +the steam you've got!" And like a thing of life she swept on over the +torpedoes to the head of the fleet, where she became the special target +of the enemy. Her timbers crashed, and her "wounded came pouring +down,--cries never to be forgotten." Twice the brave admiral was lashed +to the rigging by his devoted men, lest in his exposed position he fall +overboard if struck by a ball. The fleet lost three hundred and +thirty-five men, but Farragut gained the day. When all was over, and he +looked upon the dead laid out on the port side of his ship, he wept like +a child. The prisoners captured in the defences of Mobile were one +thousand four hundred and sixty-four, with one hundred and four guns. + +On his return to New York he was welcomed with the grandest +demonstrations. Crowds gathered at the Battery, a public reception was +given him at the Custom House, and fifty thousand dollars with which to +buy a house in New York. Congress made him Vice-Admiral. Prominent +politicians asked him to become a candidate for the Presidency; but he +refused, saying, "I have no ambition for anything but what I am,--an +admiral. I have worked hard for three years, have been in eleven fights, +and am willing to fight eleven more if necessary, but when I go home I +desire peace and comfort." + +At Hastings-on-the-Hudson, the streets were arched with the words "New +Orleans," "Mobile," "Jackson," "St. Philip," etc. Boston gave him a +welcome reception at Faneuil Hall, Oliver Wendell Holmes reading a poem +on the occasion. At Cambridge, two hundred Harvard students took his +horses from the carriage, and attaching ropes to it, drew him through +the streets. On July 25, 1866, the rank of admiral was created by +Congress, and Farragut was appointed to the place. Honors, and +well-deserved ones, had come at last to the brave midshipman. + +The next year, in command of the European squadron, accompanied by Mrs. +Farragut, who went by special permission of the President, he visited +France, Russia, and other countries. + +Napoleon III. welcomed him to the Tuileries; the Grand Duke Constantine +of Russia, Duke of Edinburgh, and Victor Emmanuel each made him their +guest; he dined with the King of Denmark and the King of Greece, and +Queen Victoria received him at the Osborne House. Two years later he +visited the navy yard on the Pacific Coast, which he had established +years before. + +He died Aug. 14, 1870, at the age of sixty-nine, universally honored and +regretted. Congress appropriated twenty thousand dollars for his statue +on Farragut Square, Washington, and the work has been executed by Vinnie +Ream Hoxie. + +Success was not an accident with the Christian admiral. It was the +result of devotion to duty, real bravery, and a life distinguished by +purity of character and the highest sense of honor. + + + + +EZRA CORNELL. + + +In the winter of 1819 might have been seen travelling from New Jersey to +De Ruyter in New York, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles, some +covered emigrant wagons, containing a wife and six children in the +first, and household goods and farming utensils in the others. Sometimes +the occupants slept in a farmhouse, but usually in their vehicles by a +camp-fire in the woods. + +For two weeks they journeyed, sometimes through an almost uninhabited +wilderness and over wellnigh impassable roads. The mother, with a baby +in her arms,--her oldest child, Ezra, a boy of twelve,--must have been +worn with this toilsome journey; but patient and cheerful, no word of +repining escaped her lips. Elijah Cornell, a frank, noble-hearted +Quaker, was going West to make his living as a potter and farmer +combined. + +Like other pioneers, they made ready their little home among the sterile +hills; and there, for twenty years, they struggled to rear a family that +grew to eleven children, instead of six. The boys of the family were +taught the simple mysteries of pottery-making early in life, and thus +formed habits of industry, while their limited income necessarily made +them economical. + +[Illustration: EZRA CORNELL. + +(From his Biography, by Gov. A. B. Cornell.)] + +The eldest boy, Ezra,--now sixteen,--was growing anxious to be something +more than a potter. He was nearly six feet tall, thin, muscular, and +full of energy. He was studious, reading every book within his reach, +and desirous of an education, which there was no money to procure. +Determined, if possible, to go to the common school one more winter, he +and his brother, fifteen years of age, chopped and cleared four acres of +heavy beech and maple woodland, plowed, and planted it to corn, and thus +made themselves able to finish their education. + +Soon after the father engaged a carpenter to build a large pottery. Ezra +assisted, and began to think he should like the trade of a carpenter. +When the structure was completed, taking his younger brother to the +forest, they cut timber, and erected for their father's family a +two-story dwelling, the best in the town. Without any supervision, Ezra +had made the frame so that every part fitted in its exact place. This, +for a boy of seventeen, became the wonder of the neighborhood. +Master-builders prophesied a rare carpenter for posterity. + +It was evident that the quiet town of De Ruyter could not satisfy such a +lad, and at eighteen he started away from his affectionate mother to try +the world. She could trust him because he used neither liquor nor +tobacco; was truthful, honest, and willing to work hard. If a young man +desires to get his living easily, or is very particular as to the kind +of work he undertakes, his future success may well be doubted. Ezra +found no carpentering, as he had hoped; but in the vicinity of Syracuse, +then a small village, he engaged himself for two years, to get out +timber for shipment to New York by canal. The following year he worked +in a shop making wool-carding machinery, and being now only twenty miles +from De Ruyter, he walked home every Saturday evening and back Monday +morning. Twenty miles before a day's work would have been too long for +most boys. There was no danger that Ezra would grow tender, either of +foot or hand, through luxury. + +Hearing that there was a good outlook for business at Ithaca, he walked +forty miles thither, with a spare suit of clothes, and a few dollars in +his pocket. Who would have said then that this unknown lad, with no +capital save courage and ambition, would make the name of Ithaca, joined +with that of Cornell, known round the world? + +He obtained work as a carpenter, and was soon offered the position of +keeping a cotton-mill in repair. This he gladly accepted, using what +knowledge he had gained in the machine-shop. A year later, Colonel +Beebe, proprietor of a flouring and plaster mill, asked young Cornell to +repair his works; and so pleased was he with the mechanic that he kept +him for twelve years, making him his confidential agent and general +manager. When a tunnel was needed to bring water from Fall Creek, +Cornell was made engineer-in-chief of the enterprise; when labor-saving +machinery was required, the head of the enterprising young man invented +it. + +Meantime he had married, at the age of twenty-four, an intelligent girl, +Mary Ann Wood, four years his junior, the second in a family of eleven +children. As the young lady was not a Quaker, Cornell was formally +excommunicated from his church for taking a person outside the fold. He +was offered forgiveness and re-instatement if he would apologize and +show proper regret, which he refused to do, feeling that the church had +no right to decide upon the religious convictions of the person he +loved. + +He soon purchased a few acres of land near the mill, and erected a +simple home for his bride. Here they lived for twenty years, and here +their nine children were born, four of whom died early. It was happiness +to go daily to his work, receive his comfortable salary, and see his +children grow up around him with their needed wants supplied. But the +comfortable salary came to an end. Colonel Beebe withdrew from active +business, the mill was turned into a woollen factory, and Cornell was +thrown out of work. Business depression was great all over the country. +In vain for months he sought for employment. The helpless family must be +supported; at the age of thirty-six matters began to look serious. + +Finally, he went to Maine in the endeavor to sell the patent right of a +new plow, recently invented. He visited the "Maine Farmer," and met the +editor, Hon. F. O. J. Smith, a member of Congress, who became much +interested. He tried also to sell the patent in the State of Georgia, +walking usually forty miles a day, but with little success. Again he +started for Maine, walking from Ithaca to Albany, one hundred and sixty +miles in four days, then, going by rail to Boston, and once more on foot +to Portland. He was fond of walking, and used to say, "Nature can in no +way be so rationally enjoyed, as through the opportunities afforded the +pedestrian." + +Entering the office of the "Maine Farmer" again, he found "Mr. Smith on +his knees in the middle of his office floor, with a piece of chalk in +his hand, the mould-board of a plow lying by his side, and with various +chalk-marks on the floor before him." + +Mr. Smith arose and grasped him cordially by the hand, saying, "Cornell, +you are the very man I want to see. I have been trying to explain to +neighbor Robertson a machine that I want made, but I cannot make him +understand it. I want a kind of scraper, or machine for digging a ditch +for laying our telegraph pipe under ground. Congress has appropriated +thirty thousand dollars to enable Professor Morse to test the +practicability of his telegraph on a line between Washington and +Baltimore. I have taken the contract to lay the pipe at one hundred +dollars a mile." + +Mr. Cornell's ready brain soon saw what kind of a machine was needed, +and he sketched a rough diagram of it. + +Without much hope of success, Smith said, "You make a machine, and I +will pay the expense whether successful or not; if successful, I will +pay you fifty dollars, or one hundred, or any price you may name." + +Mr. Cornell at once went to a machine shop, made the patterns for the +necessary castings, and then the wood-work for the frame. The trial of +the new machine was made at Mr. Smith's homestead, four yoke of oxen +being attached to the strange-looking plow, which cut a furrow two and +one-half feet deep, and one and one-fourth inches wide, and laid the +pipe in the bottom at the same time. It worked successfully, and Mr. +Cornell was asked to take charge of the laying of the pipe between +Baltimore and Washington. He accepted, for he believed the telegraph +would become a vast instrument in civilization. The loss of a position +at the Beebe mill proved the opening to a broader world; his energy had +found a field as wide as the universe. + +It was decided to put the first pipe between the double tracks of the +Baltimore and Ohio railroad. With an eight-mule team, horses being +afraid of the engines, nearly a mile of pipe was laid each day. Soon +Professor Morse came hurriedly, and calling Mr. Cornell aside, said, +"Can you not contrive to stop this work for a few days in some manner, +so the papers will not know that it has been purposely interrupted? I +want to make some experiments before any more pipe is laid." + +Cornell had been expecting this, for he knew that the pipes were +defective, though other officials would not permit Morse to be told of +it. Replying that he would do as requested, he stepped back to his plow, +and said, "Hurrah, boys, whip up your mules; we must lay another length +of pipe before we quit to-night." Then he purposely let the machine +catch against a point of rock, making it a perfect wreck. + +Mr. Cornell began now, at Professor Morse's request, to experiment in +the basement of the Patent Office at Washington, studying what books he +could obtain on electrical science. It was soon found to be wise to put +the wires upon poles, as Cooke and Wheatstone had done in England. The +line between Baltimore and Washington proved successful despite its +crudities; but what should be done with it? Government did not wish to +buy it, and private capital was afraid to touch it. + +How could the world be made interested? Mr. Cornell, who had now put his +heart into the telegraph, built a line from Milk Street, Boston, to +School Street, that the people might see for themselves this new agent +which was to enable nations to talk with each other; but nobody cared to +waste a moment in looking at it. They were more interested in selling a +piece of cloth, or discovering the merits of a dead philosopher. Not +delighted with the indifference of Boston, he moved his apparatus to New +York in 1844, and constructed a line from opposite Trinity Church on +Broadway, to near the site of the present Metropolitan Hotel; but New +York was even more indifferent than Boston. + +The "Tribune," "Express," and some other newspapers gave cordial notices +of the new enterprise, but the "Herald" said plainly that it was opposed +to the telegraph, because now it could beat its rivals by special +couriers; but if the telegraph came into use, then all would have an +equal opportunity to obtain news! During the whole winter Mr. Cornell +labored seemingly to no purpose, to introduce what Morse had so grandly +discovered. A man of less will and less self-reliance would have become +discouraged. He met the fate of all reformers or inventors. Nobody wants +a thing till it is a great success, and then everybody wants it at the +same moment. + +Finally, by the hardest struggle, the Magnetic Telegraph Company was +formed for erecting a line between New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, +and Washington, and Mr. Cornell for superintending it was to receive one +thousand dollars per annum. So earnest was he for the matter that he +subscribed five hundred dollars to the stock of the company, paying for +it out of his meagre salary! Such men,--willing to live on the merest +pittance that a measure of great practical good may succeed,--such men +deserve to win. + +The next line was between New York and Albany, and Mr. Cornell, being +the contractor, received his first return for these years of labor six +thousand dollars in profits. The tide had turned; and though afterward +various obstacles had to be met and overcome, the poor mechanic had +started on the high-road to fame and fortune. He next organized the Erie +and Michigan Telegraph Company, supposing that the Western cities thus +benefited would subscribe to the stock; but even in Chicago, which now +pays three thousand dollars daily for telegraphic service, it was +impossible to raise a dollar. + +A year later, the New York and Erie telegraph line was constructed +through the southern part of New York State. Mr. Cornell, believing most +heartily in the project, obligated himself heavily, and the result +proved his far-sightedness. But now ruinous competition set in. Those +who had been unwilling to help at first were anxious to share profits. +To save all from bankruptcy in the cutting of rates, Mr. Cornell and a +few others consolidated the various interests in the Western Union +Telegraph Company, now grown so large that it has nearly five hundred +thousand miles of wire, employs twenty thousand persons, sends over +forty-one million messages yearly, and makes over seven and one-half +million dollars profits. + +For more than fifteen years he was the largest stockholder in the +company; it was not strange therefore, that middle life found Ezra +Cornell a millionnaire. This was better than making pottery in the +little town of De Ruyter. It had taken work, however, to make this +fortune. While others sauntered and enjoyed life at leisure, he was +working early and late, away from his family most of the time for twelve +years. + +In 1857, when fifty years of age, he purchased three hundred acres near +Ithaca, planted orchards, bought fine cattle and horses, and moved his +family thither. He was made president of the County Agricultural +Society, and in 1862 was chosen to represent the State Agricultural +Society at the International Exposition in London. Taking his wife with +him, they travelled in Great Britain and on the Continent, enjoying a +few months of recreation, for the first time since, when a youth, thirty +years before, he had walked into Ithaca. + +During the war he gave money and sympathy freely, being often at the +front, in hospitals, and on battle-fields, caring for the wounded and +their families, and aiding those whom the war had left maimed or +impoverished. For six years he served acceptably in the State +Legislature. Self-reliant, calm, unselfish, simple in dress and manner, +he was, alike the companion of distinguished scholars, and the advocate +of the people. + +The great question now before his mind was how to spend his fortune most +wisely. He recalled the days when he cleared four acres of timber land, +that he might have three months of schooling. He had regretted all his +life his lack of a college education. He determined therefore to build +"an institution where _any_ person can find instruction in _any_ study." +Preparatory to this he built Cornell Library, costing sixty-one thousand +dollars. A workman, losing one of his horses by accident in the +construction of the edifice, was called upon by the philanthropist, who, +after inquiring the value of the animal, drew a check and handed it to +the man, remarking, with a kind smile, "I presume I can better than you +afford to lose the horse." A man with money enough to build libraries +does not always remember a laborer! + +Mr. Cornell's first gift toward his university was two hundred acres of +his cherished farm, and five hundred thousand dollars in money. The +institution was formally opened in 1868, Hon. Andrew D. White, a +distinguished graduate of Yale and of the University of Berlin, being +chosen president. Soon over four hundred students gathered from over +twenty-seven States. Mr. Cornell's gifts afterward, including his saving +the Land Grant Fund from depreciation, amounted to over three million +dollars. A wonderful present from a self-made mechanic! Other men have +followed his illustrious example. Henry W. Sage has given three hundred +thousand dollars for the building of Sage College for women, and the +extensive conservatories of the Botanical Department. Hiram Sibley, of +Rochester, has given fifty thousand dollars for the College of Mechanic +Arts, and John McGraw, one hundred thousand for the library and museum. +Cornell University is now one of the most liberally endowed institutions +in the country, and has already sent out over one thousand graduates. + +Mr. Cornell did everything to enrich and develop his own town. He +brought manufactories of glass and iron into her midst, held the +presidency of the First National Bank for a dozen years, made her as far +as possible a railroad centre, and gave generously to her churches of +whatever denomination. The first question asked in any project was, +"Have you seen Ezra Cornell? He will take hold of the work; and if he is +for you, no one will be against you, and success is assured, if success +be possible." + +Dec. 9, 1874, at the age of sixty-seven, scarcely able to stand, he +arose from his bed and was dressed that he might attend to some +unfinished business. Shortly after noon, it was finished by an unseen +hand. His body was carried to Library Hall, and there, the Cornell +Cadets standing as guard of honor, thousands looked upon the renowned +giver. The day of the funeral, public and private buildings were draped, +shops were closed, and the streets filled by a saddened throng. The +casket was borne into the cemetery between lines of students, who owed +to his generosity their royal opportunities for scholarship. Various +societies in various cities passed resolutions of respect and honor for +the dead. + +Froude, the English historian, well said of him, "There is something I +admire even more than the university, and that is the quiet, +unpretending man by whom the university was founded. We have had such +men in old times, and there are men in England who make great fortunes +and who make claim to great munificence, but who manifest their +greatness in buying great estates and building castles for the founding +of peerages to be handed down from father to son. Mr. Cornell has sought +for immortality, and the perpetuity of his name among the people of a +free nation. There stands his great university, built upon a rock, built +of stone, as solid as a rock, to endure while the American nation +endures. When the herald's parchment shall have crumbled into dust, and +the antiquarians are searching among the tombstones for the records of +these departed families, Mr. Cornell's name will be still fresh and +green through generation after generation." + +Overlooking Ithaca and Cayuga Lake stands his home, a beautiful Gothic +villa in stone, finished a year after his death. His motto, the motto of +his life, is carved over the principal entrance, "TRUE AND FIRM." + + + + +[Illustration: P. H. Sheridan. + +(From Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia).] + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SHERIDAN. + + +It is sometimes said that circumstances make the man; but there must be +something in the man, or circumstances, however favorable, cannot +develop it. A poor lad, born of Irish parents in the little western town +of Somerset, Ohio, working at twenty-four dollars a year, would never +have come to the lieutenant-generalship of the United States, unless +there was something noteworthy in the lad himself. + +Philip Henry Sheridan, a generous, active boy, after having studied +arithmetic, geography, and spelling at the village school, began to work +in a country store in 1843, at the early age of twelve, earning fifty +cents a week, fortunately, still keeping his home with his mother. He +was fond of books, especially of military history and biography; and +when he read of battles, he had dreams of one day being a great soldier. +Probably the keeper of the store where Philip worked, and his boyish +companions, thought these dreams useless air-castles. + +After some months, quickness and attention to business won a better +position for him, where he obtained one dollar and a half a week. So +useful had he become, that at seventeen he acted as bookkeeper and +manager of quite a business for the munificent wages of three dollars a +week. + +He had not forgotten his soldier ambition, and applied to the member of +Congress from his county, Perry, for appointment to West Point. Hon. +Thomas Ritchey was pleased with the boy's determination and energy, and +though most of these places were given to those whose fathers had served +in the Mexican War, Philip was not forgotten. He took a preliminary +examination in the common branches, and much to his surprise, received +the appointment. Feeling greatly his need of more knowledge, his +room-mate, Henry W. Slocum, afterward a major-general, assisted him in +algebra and geometry. The two boys would hang blankets at the windows of +their room, and study after the usual limit for the putting out of +lights and retiring. + +Graduating in 1853, he was made second lieutenant in the United States +Infantry, and assigned to Fort Duncan on the western boundary of Texas, +which at that time seemed wellnigh out of the world. Here he came much +in contact with the Apache and Comanche Indians, warlike and independent +tribes. + +One day, as Sheridan was outside the fort with two other men, a band of +Indians swooped down upon them. The chief jumped from his horse to seize +his prisoners, when Sheridan instantly sprang upon the animal's back, +and galloped to Fort Duncan. Hastily summoning his troops, he rushed +back to save his two friends. The enraged chief sprang toward him, when +a ball from Sheridan's rifle laid him dead upon the ground. His ready +thought had saved his own life and that of his friends. + +Two years later he was made first lieutenant, and sent to Oregon as +escort to an expedition surveying for a branch of the Pacific Railway. +The region was wild and almost unknown, yet beautiful and full of +interest. This life must have seemed inspiring compared with the quiet +of the Somerset store. + +Chosen very soon to take charge of an Indian campaign, his fearlessness, +his quick decision and cautiousness as well, made him a valuable leader. +The Indians could endure hardships; so could Sheridan. Sometimes he +carried his food for two weeks in his blanket, slung over his shoulder, +and made the ground his bed at night. The Indians could scale rocks and +mountains; so could the young officer. + +A severe encounter took place at the Cascades, on the Columbia River, +April 28, 1856, where, by getting in the rear of the Indians, he +completely vanquished them. For this strategy, he was especially +commended by Lieutenant-General Scott. However, he won the confidence of +the Indian tribes for probity and honesty in his dealings with them. + +When the Civil War began, he was eager to help the cause of the Union, +and in 1861 was made captain and chief quartermaster in south-western +Missouri, on the staff of Major-General Curtis. He was quiet and +unassuming, accurate in business matters, and thoroughly courteous. +Perhaps now that he had learned more of army life by nine and a half +years of service, he was less sanguine of high renown than in his boyish +days; for he told a friend that "he was the sixty-fourth captain on the +list, and with the chances of war, thought he might soon be major." + +It required executive ability to provide for the subsistence of a great +army, but Sheridan organized his depots of supplies and transportation +trains with economy and wisdom, for the brave men who fought under +Sigel. With a high sense of honor, Sheridan objected to the taking of +any private property from the enemy, for self-aggrandizement, as was the +case with some officers, and asked to be relieved from his present +position. + +Fortunately he was appointed on the staff of General Halleck in +Tennessee, a man who soon learned the faithfulness and ability of his +captain; and when the Governor of Michigan asked for a good colonel for +the Second Michigan Cavalry, Sheridan was chosen. After sharing in +several engagements around Corinth, he was attacked July 1, 1862, at +Booneville, by a force of nine regiments, numbering nearly five thousand +men. He had but two regiments! What could he do? Selecting ninety of his +best men, armed with guns and sabres, he sent them four miles around a +curve to attack the enemy's rear, and promised to attack at the same +time in front. When the moment came, he rushed upon the foe as though he +had an immense army at his back, while the handful of men in the rear +charged with drawn sabres. The Confederates were thrown into confusion, +and, panic-stricken, rushed from the field, leaving guns, knapsacks, and +coats behind them. Sheridan chased them for twenty miles. + +This deed of valor won the admiration of General Grant, who commended +him to the War Department for promotion. He was at once made +brigadier-general. Perhaps the boyish dreams of being a great soldier +would not turn out to be air-castles after all. Men love to fight under +a man who knows what to do in an emergency, and Sheridan's men, who +called him "Little Phil," had the greatest faith in him. + +In the fall, he was needed to defend Louisville against General Bragg. +This Confederate officer had been told that he would find recruits and +supplies in abundance if he would come to Kentucky. He came therefore, +bringing arms for twenty thousand men, but was greatly disappointed to +find that not half that number were willing to cast in their lot with +the Secessionists. General Buell, of the Union army, received, on the +contrary, over twenty thousand new soldiers here. Bragg prepared to +leave the State, sending his provision train ahead, and made a stand at +Perryville, Kentucky. Here Sheridan played "a distinguished part, +holding the key of the Union position, and resisting the onsets of the +enemy again and again, with great bravery and skill, driving them at +last from the open ground in front by a bayonet charge. The loss in +Sheridan's division in killed and wounded was over four hundred, but his +generalship had saved the army from defeat." + +Bragg determined now to make one great effort to hold Tennessee, and +Dec. 31, 1862, gave battle at Stone River, near Murfreesboro'. General +Rosecrans had succeeded Buell as commander of the Army of the +Cumberland. Being a Romanist, high mass was celebrated in his tent just +before the battle, the officers, booted and spurred, standing outside +with heads uncovered. The conflict began on the right wing, the enemy +advancing six lines deep. Our troops were mowed down as by a scythe. +Sheridan sustained four attacks of the enemy, and four times repulsed +them, swinging his hat or his sword, as he rode among his men, and +changing his front under fire, till, his ammunition exhausted, he +brought out his shattered forces in close column, with colors flying. +Pointing sadly to them, he said to Rosecrans, "Here is all that are +left, General. My loss is seventeen hundred and ninety-six,--my three +brigade commanders killed, and sixty-nine other officers; in all +seventy-two officers killed and wounded." The men said proudly, "We came +out of the battle with compact ranks and empty cartridge-boxes!" + +Even after this Sheridan recaptured two pieces of artillery, and routed +the same men who had driven him. For noble conduct on the field he was +made major-general of volunteers. + +General Rosecrans says of him in his official report, "At Stone River he +won universal admiration. Upon being flanked and compelled to retire, he +withdrew his command more than a mile, under a terrible fire, in +remarkable order, at the same time inflicting the severest punishment +upon the foe. The constancy and steadfastness of his troops on the 31st +of December enabled the reserve to reach the right of our army in time +to turn the tide of battle, and changed a threatened rout into a +victory." + +General Rosecrans showed himself dauntless in courage. When a shell took +off the head of his faithful staff-officer, Garesche, riding by his +side, to whom he was most tenderly attached, he only said, "I am _very_ +sorry; we cannot help it. This battle must be won." Dashing up to a +regiment lying on the ground waiting to be called into action, he said, +while shot and shell were whizzing furiously around him, "Men, do you +wish to know how to be safe? Shoot low. But do you wish to know how to +be safest of all? Give them a blizzard and then charge with cold steel! +Forward, men, and show what you are made of!" + +After the day's bloody battle, the troops lay all night on the cold +ground where they had fought. "When," says the heroic General Rousseau, +"I saw them parch corn over a few little coals into which they were +permitted to blow a spark of life; when they carved steak from the loins +of a horse which had been killed in battle, and ate, not simply without +murmuring, but made merry over their distress, tears involuntarily +rolled from my eyes." + +At midnight it rained upon the soldiers, and the fields became masses of +mud; yet before daylight they stood at their guns. "On the third day," +says Rosecrans, "the firing was terrific and the havoc terrible. The +enemy retreated more rapidly than they had advanced. In forty minutes +they lost two thousand men." All that night the Federals worked to +entrench the front of the army. Saturday hundreds of wounded lay in the +mud and rain, as the enemy had destroyed so many of our hospital tents. +On Sunday morning it was found that the Confederates had departed, +leaving twenty-five hundred of their wounded in Murfreesboro' for us to +take care of. Burial parties were now sent out to inter the dead. The +Union loss in killed and wounded was eight thousand seven hundred and +seventy-eight; the enemy's loss ten thousand one hundred and +twenty-five. + +Sheridan's next heavy fighting was at Chickamauga. The battle was begun +by Bragg on Sept. 19, 1863. The right of our army had been broken to +pieces, but General Thomas, the idol of his men, stood on the left like +a rock, Sheridan assisting, and refused to be driven from the field. +General Henry M. Cist, in his "Army of the Cumberland" says, "There is +nothing finer in history than Thomas at Chickamauga." Sheridan lost over +one-third of his four thousand men and ninety-six officers. The Federal +loss was over sixteen thousand; the Confederate, over twenty thousand. + +There were heroic deeds on this as on every battle-field. When a +division of the Reserve Corps--brave men they were, too--wavered under +the storm of lead, General James B. Steedman rode up, and taking the +flag from the color-bearer, cried out, "Go back, boys, go back, but the +Flag can't go with you!" and dashed into the fight. The men rallied, +closed their column, and fought bravely to the death. Even the +drummer-boy, Johnny Clem, from Newark, Ohio, ten years old, near the +close of the battle, when one of Longstreet's colonels rode up, and with +an oath commanded him to surrender, sent a bullet through the officer's +heart. Rosecrans, made him a sergeant, and the daughter of Secretary +Chase gave him a silver medal. + +Two months later, the battle of Chattanooga redeemed the defeat of +Chickamauga. Near the town rises Lookout Mountain, abrupt, rocky cliffs +twenty-four hundred feet above the level of the sea, and Missionary +Ridge, both of which were held by the enemy. On Nov. 24, Lookout was +stormed and carried by General Hooker in the "Battle above the Clouds." +On the following day Missionary Ridge was to be assaulted. Sheridan held +the extreme left for General Thomas. Before him was a wood, then an open +plain, several hundred yards to the enemy's rifle-pits; and then beyond, +five hundred yards covered with rocks and fallen timber to the crest, +where were Bragg's heaviest breastworks. At three o'clock in the +afternoon the signal to advance--six guns fired at intervals of two +seconds--was given. As Sheridan shouted, "Remember Chickamauga!" the men +dashed over the plain at double-quick, their glittering bayonets ready +for deadly work. Says Benjamin F. Taylor, who was an eye-witness, "Never +halting, never faltering, they charged up to the first rifle-pits with a +cheer, forked out the rebels with their bayonets, and lay there panting +for breath. If the thunder of guns had been terrible, it was now growing +sublime. It was rifles and musketry; it was grape and canister; it was +shell and shrapnel. Mission Ridge was volcanic; a thousand torrents of +red poured over its brink and rushed together to its base. + +"They dash out a little way, and then slacken; they creep up, hand over +hand, loading and firing, and wavering and halting, from the first line +of works to the second; they burst into a charge with a cheer, and go +over it. Sheets of flame baptize them; plunging shot tear away comrades +on left and right; it is no longer shoulder to shoulder; it is God for +us all! Under tree-trunks, among rocks, stumbling over the dead, +struggling with the living, facing the steady fire of eight thousand +infantry, they wrestle with the Ridge.... Things are growing desperate +up aloft; the rebels tumble rocks upon the rising line; they light the +fusees and roll shells down the steep; they load the guns with handfuls +of cartridges in their haste; and as if there were powder in the word, +they shout 'Chickamauga' down upon the mounters. But it would not all +do, and just as the sun, weary of the scene, was sinking out of sight, +with magnificent bursts all along the line, the advance surged over the +crest, and in a minute those flags fluttered along the fringe where +fifty rebel guns were, kennelled.... Men flung themselves exhausted upon +the ground. They laughed and wept, shook hands, embraced; turned round, +and did all four over again. It was as wild as a carnival." + +Grant had given the order for taking the first line of rifle-pits only, +but the men, first one regiment and then another, swept up the hill, +determined to be the first to plant the colors there. "When I saw those +flags go up," said Sheridan afterward, "I knew we should carry the +ridge, and I took the responsibility." Sheridan's horse was shot under +him, after which he led the assault on foot. Over twelve hundred men +made Missionary Ridge sacred to liberty by their blood. + +All seemed heroes on that day. One poor fellow, with his shoulder +shattered, lay beside a rock. Two comrades halted to bear him to the +rear, when he said, "Don't stop for me; I'm of no account; for GOD'S +sake, push right up with the boys!" and on they went, to help scale the +mountain. + +When the men were seen going up the hill, Grant asked by whose orders +that was done? "It is all right if it turns out all right," he said; +"but if not, some one will suffer." But it turned out all right, and +Grant knew thereafter how fully he could trust Sheridan. + +The following spring Sheridan was placed by Grant in command of the +cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, numbering nearly twelve thousand +men. Here he was to add to his fame in the great battles of the +Shenandoah Valley. From May to August Sheridan lost over five thousand +men in killed and wounded, in smaller battles as he protected Grant's +flank while he moved his forces to the James River, or in cutting off +Lee's supplies. Meantime General Early had been spreading terror by his +attempt to take Washington, thus hoping also to withdraw Grant's +attention from Lee at Richmond. + +The time had come for decisive action. Grant's orders were, "Put +yourself south of the enemy and follow him to the death. I feel every +confidence that you will do the best, and will leave you as far as +possible to act on your own judgment, and not embarrass you with orders +and instructions." About the middle of September Grant visited Sheridan +with a plan of battle for him in his pocket, but he said afterward, "I +saw that there were but two words of instruction necessary, 'Go in.' The +result was such that I have never since deemed it necessary to visit +General Sheridan before giving him orders." + +The battle of Opequan was fought Sept. 19, 1864, Early being completely +routed and losing about four thousand men, five pieces of artillery, and +nine army flags, with an equal loss of men by the Federals. The fight +was a bitter one from morning till evening, a regiment like the One +Hundred and Fourteenth New York going into the battle with one hundred +and eighty men, and coming out with forty, their dead piled one above +another! Sheridan at first stood a little to the rear, so that he might +calmly direct the battle; but at last, swinging his sword, and +exclaiming, "I can't stand this!" he rode into the conflict. The next +day he telegraphed to Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, "We have just +sent them whirling through Winchester, and we are after them to-morrow. +This army behaved splendidly." + +This battle quickened the hope and courage of the North, who begun to +see the end of the devastating war. "Whirling through Winchester" was +reported all over the land. Abraham Lincoln telegraphed, "Have just +heard of your great victory. God bless you all, officers and men! +Strongly inclined to come up and see you." Grant ordered each of his +two Richmond armies to fire a salute of one hundred guns. + +The next day Sheridan passed on after Early, and gave battle at Fisher's +Hill, the Confederates losing sixteen guns and eleven hundred prisoners, +besides killed and wounded. Many of these belonged to Stonewall +Jackson's corps, and were the flower of the Southern army. "Keep on," +said Grant, "and your good work will cause the fall of Richmond." +Secretary Stanton ordered one hundred guns to be fired by various +generals, fifteen hundred guns in all, for Fisher's Hill. Early was now +so thoroughly beaten, that the Richmond mob wrote on the guns forwarded +to him by the South the satirical sentence, "General Sheridan, care of +General Early!" Grant's orders were now to lay waste the valley, so that +Lee might have no base of supplies. Over two thousand barns filled with +grain, over seventy mills, besides bridges and railroads were burned, +and seven thousand cattle and sheep appropriated by the Union army. Such +destruction seemed pitiful, but if the war was thereby shortened, as it +doubtless was, then the saving of bloodshed was a blessing. + +Oct. 15 Sheridan was summoned to Washington for consultation. Early, +learning his absence, and having been reinforced by twelve thousand +troops, decided at once to give battle at Cedar Creek. His army marched +at midnight, canteens being left in camp, lest they make a noise. At +daybreak, Oct. 19, with the well-known "rebel yell" the enemy rushed +upon the sleeping camps of the Union army. Nearly a thousand of our men +were taken prisoners, and eighteen guns. A panic ensued, and in utter +confusion, though there was some brave fighting, our troops fell back to +the rear. Sheridan, on his way from Washington, had slept at Winchester +that night, twenty miles away. At nine o'clock he rode out of the town +on his splendid black horse, unconscious of danger to his army. Soon the +sound of battle was heard, and not a mile away he met the fugitives. He +at once ordered some troops to stop the stragglers, and rushed on to the +front as swiftly as his foaming steed could carry him, swinging his hat, +and shouting, "Face the other way, boys! face the other way! If I had +been here, boys, this never should have happened." Meeting a colonel who +said, "The army is whipped," he replied, "You are, but the army isn't!" + +Rude breastworks of stones, rocks, and trees were thrown up. Then came +desperate fighting, and then the triumphant charge. The first line was +carried, and then the second, Sheridan leading a brigade in person. +Early's army was thoroughly routed. The captured guns were all retaken, +besides twenty-four pieces of artillery and sixteen hundred prisoners. +Early reported eighteen hundred killed and wounded. + +Again the whole North rejoiced over this victory. Sheridan was made a +major-general in the regular army "for the personal gallantry, military +skill and just confidence in the courage and gallantry of your troops +displayed by you on the 19th day of October at Cedar Run," said Lincoln, +"whereby, under the blessing of Providence, your routed army was +reorganized, a great national disaster averted, and a brilliant victory +achieved over the rebels for the third time in pitched battle within +thirty days." General Grant wrote from City Point, "Turning what bid +fair to be a disaster into a glorious victory stamps Sheridan what I +always thought him, one of the ablest of generals." + +Well wrote Thomas Buchanan Read in that immortal poem, "Sheridan's +Ride":-- + + "Hurrah! hurrah for Sheridan! + Hurrah! hurrah for horse and man! + And when their statues are placed on high, + Under the dome of the Union sky, + The American soldier's Temple of Fame, + There with the glorious General's name, + Be it said in letters both bold and bright, + 'Here is the steed that saved the day, + By carrying Sheridan into the fight + From Winchester, twenty miles away!'" + +The noble animal died in Chicago, October, 1878. + +"In eleven weeks," says General Adam Badeau, "Sheridan had taken +thirteen thousand prisoners, forty-nine battle flags, and sixty guns, +besides recapturing eighteen cannon at Cedar Creek. He must besides have +killed and wounded at least nine thousand men, so that he destroyed for +the enemy twenty-two thousand soldiers." + +And now the only work remaining was to join Grant at Richmond in his +capture of Lee. He had passed the winter near Winchester, and now having +crossed the James River, April 1, 1865, was attacked by General Pickett +at Five Forks. After a severe engagement about five thousand prisoners +were taken by Sheridan, with thirteen colors and six guns. His magnetic +influence over his men is shown by an incident narrated by General +Badeau. "At the battle of Five Forks, a soldier, wounded under his eyes, +stumbled and was falling to the rear, but Sheridan cried, 'Never mind, +my man; there's no harm done!' and the soldier went on with a bullet in +his brain, till he dropped dead on the field." + +From here he pushed on to Appomattox Court House, where he headed Lee's +army, and waited for Grant to come up. Richmond had surrendered to Grant +on the morning of April 3. On the 7th of April Grant wrote to Lee, "The +result of the last week must convince you of the hopelessness of further +resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this +struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my duty to shift from +myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood, by asking +you to surrender that portion of the Confederate States Army known as +the Army of Northern Virginia." Lee replied, "Though not entertaining +the opinion you express on the hopelessness of further resistance on the +part of the Army of Northern Virginia, I reciprocate your desire to +avoid useless effusion of blood, and therefore, before considering your +proposition, ask the terms you will offer on condition of its +surrender." The reply was the only one that could be given. "The terms +upon which peace can be had are well understood. By the South laying +down their arms they will hasten that most desirable event, save +thousands of human lives, and hundreds of millions of property not yet +destroyed." + +At one o'clock, April 9, 1865, the two able generals met, and at four it +was announced that the Army of Northern Virginia, with over twenty-eight +thousand men, had surrendered to the Army of the Potomac. Memorable day! +that brought peace to a nation tired of the horrors of war. In July, +Sheridan assumed command of the Military Division of the Gulf. Ten years +later, June 3, 1875, when he was forty-four years old, he married Miss +Irene Rucker, the daughter of General D. H. Rucker, for years his +friend. She is a fine linguist, and a charming woman. Their home in +Chicago has many souvenirs of war times, and tokens of appreciation from +those who realize General Sheridan's great services to his country. + +He was made Lieutenant-General, March 4, 1869, and when General Sherman +retired from the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Nov. 1, +1883, Sheridan moved to Washington, to take his place. The office of +"Lieutenant-General" expires with General Sheridan, he being the last of +our three great and famous generals,--Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan. In +this latter city he has a home purchased by thirty-one of his leading +friends from Chicago. He is devoted to his wife and children, honest, +upright, and manly, and deserves the honors he has won. + + * * * * * + +General Sheridan was taken ill of heart disease about the middle of May, +1888. After three months, he died at Nonquitt, Mass., near the ocean, at +twenty minutes past ten on the evening of August 5, 1888. He left a wife +and four children, a girl of eight, a boy of six, and twin daughters of +four. After lying in state at Washington, he was buried with military +honors at Arlington Heights, on Saturday, August 11, in the midst of +universal sorrow. + + + + +THOMAS COLE. + + +Four of my favorite pictures from childhood have been Cole's "Voyage of +Life." I have studied the tiny infant in the boat surrounded by roses, +life's stream full of luxuriant vegetation; the happy, ambitious youth, +looking eagerly forward to the Temple of Fame, steering the boat +himself, with no need of aid from his guardian angel; then the worried +and troubled man, his boat tossing and whirling among the broken trees +and frightful storms that come to all; and lastly, perhaps most +beautiful, the old man sailing peacefully into the ocean of eternity, +the angel having returned to guide him, and the way to heaven being +filled with celestial spirits. I have always hung these pictures near my +writing-table, and their lesson has been a helpful and inspiring one. + +No wonder that Thorwaldsen, the great sculptor, said when he looked upon +them in Rome, "O great artist! what beauty of conception! what an +admirable arrangement of parts! what an accurate study of nature! what +truth of detail!" He told Cole that his work was entirely new and +original, executed in a masterly manner, and he commended the harmony +of color. + +These pictures are hung in thousands of homes; but how few persons know +the history of the artist! Born in England, Feb. 1, 1801, the only son +in a family of eight children, and the youngest but one, we find him +when a mere child, in some print-works, learning to engrave simple +designs for calico. His father, a woolen manufacturer, had failed in +business, and the family were thrown upon themselves for support. He was +a kind and honest man, always hoping to succeed, but never succeeding; +always trying new scenes to build up his fortune and never building it. +Like other fathers, especially those who have been disappointed in life, +he had hopes that his boy would accomplish more than himself. + +He wished to apprentice him to an attorney or to an iron manufacturer, +but Thomas saw no pleasure in Blackstone, or in handling ponderous iron. +A boy of tender feelings, he found little companionship with his +fellow-operatives, most of whom were rough; and he enjoyed most an old +Scotchman who could repeat ballads, and tell of the beautiful hills and +lakes of his native land. When he had leisure, he wandered with his +sister Sarah into the surrounding country; and while she sang, he +accompanied her with his flute. + +With little opportunity for school, he was a great reader; and when +through with designs for calico for the day, he buried himself in +books, especially about foreign countries, and in imagination clambered +over high mountains, and sailed upon broad rivers. He talked much to the +family of the wonders of the New World; and when he was eighteen, they +all sailed for America. The father rented a little house and shop in +Philadelphia, and began to sell the small stock of dry-goods which he +had brought with him, while Thomas found work with a person who supplied +woodcuts for printers. + +The father soon became dissatisfied with his prospects, and moved his +family to Steubenville, Ohio, where he hoped to find a land flowing with +milk and honey. Thomas remained behind, working on some illustrations +for Bunyan's "Holy War," keeping up his spirits with his beloved flute; +going to Steubenville the next year, walking almost the entire way from +Philadelphia. + +Here he worked in his father's small manufactory of paper-hangings; yet +he had longings to do some great work in the world, as he wandered alone +in the wild and charming scenery. He loved music, architecture, and +pictures, but he hardly dared breathe his aspirations save in a few +verses of poetry. How in that quiet home a boy should be born who had +desires to win renown was a mystery. Nobody knows whence the perilous +but blessed gift of ambition comes. + +About this time a portrait-painter by the name of Stein came to the +village. He took an interest in the poetic boy, and loaned him an +English illustrated work on painting. Thomas had already acquired some +skill in drawing. Now his heart was on fire as he read about Raphael, +Claude Lorraine, and Titian, and he resolved to make painting his +life-work. How little he knew of the obstacles before a poor artist! + +He set to work to make his own brushes, obtaining his colors from a +chair-maker. His easel and palette were of his own crude manufacture. +The father had serious misgivings for his son; but his mother encouraged +him to persevere in whatever his genius seemed to lie. As a rule, women +discover genius sooner than men, and good Mary Cole had seen that there +was something uncommon in her boy. His brushes ready, putting his scanty +wearing apparel and his flute in a green baize bag, hung over his +shoulder, the youth of twenty-one started for St. Clairsville, thirty +miles distant, to begin life as a painter. He broke through the ice in +crossing a stream, and, wet to his breast, arrived at the town, only to +find that a German had just been there, and had painted all the +portraits which were desired. + +However, a saddler was found who was willing to be painted, and after +five days of work from morning till night, the young artist received a +new saddle as pay. A military officer gave him an old silver watch for a +portrait, and a dapper tradesman a chain and key, which proved to be +copper instead of gold. For some other work he received a pair of shoes +and a dollar. All these, except the dollar, he was obliged to give to +his landlord for board, the man being dissatisfied even with this +bargain. + +From here Thomas walked one hundred miles to Zanesville, and to his +great sorrow, found that the German had preceded him here also, and +painted the tavern-keeper and his family. The landlord intimated that a +historical picture would be taken in payment for the young stranger's +board. Accordingly an impromptu studio was arranged. A few patrons came +at long intervals; but it was soon evident that another field must be +chosen. What, however, was young Cole's astonishment to find that the +historical painting would not be received for board, and that if +thirty-five dollars were not at once paid, he would be thrust into jail! +Two or three acquaintances became surety for the debt to the +unprincipled landlord, and the pale, slender artist hastened toward +Chillicothe with but a sixpence in his pocket. + +After walking for three days, seventy-five miles, he sat down under a +tree by the roadside, wellnigh discouraged, in the hot August day; but +when the tears gathered in his eyes, he took out his flute, and playing +a lively air, his courage returned. He had two letters of introduction +in his pocket, given him at Zanesville, and these he would present, +whispering to himself that he must "hold up his head like Michael +Angelo" as he offered them. The men who received them had little time +or wish to aid the young man. A few persons sat for their portraits, and +a few took lessons in drawing; but after a time he had no money to pay +for washing his linen, and at last no linen even to be washed. Still +enthusiastic over art, and with visions of Italy floating in his mind, +yet penniless and footsore, he returned to Steubenville to tell his +sorrows to his sympathetic mother. How her heart must have been moved as +she looked upon her boy's pale face, and great blue eyes, and felt his +eager desire for a place of honor in the world, but knew, alas! that she +was powerless to aid him. + +He took a plain room for a studio, painted some scenes for a society of +amateur actors, and commenced two pictures,--Ruth gleaning in the field +of Boaz, and the feast of Belshazzar. One Sunday, some vicious boys +broke into the studio, mixed the paints, broke the brushes, and cut the +paintings in pieces. Learning that the boys were poor, Cole could not +bear to prosecute them; and the matter was dropped. He soon departed to +Pittsburgh, whither his parents had moved, and began to assist his +father in making floor-cloths. Every moment of leisure he was down by +the banks of the Monongahela, carefully drawing tree, or cloud, or +hill-top. + +Finally the old longing became irresistible. He packed his little trunk, +his mother threw over his shoulders the table cover, with her blessing +and her tears; and with six dollars in his purse, he said good-bye to +the family and started for Philadelphia. Then followed, as he used to +say in after years, the "winter of his discontent." In a poor quarter of +the city, in an upper room, without a bed or fire or furniture, +struggled poor Thomas Cole. Timid, friendless, his only food a baker's +roll and a pitcher of water, his only bedding at night the table cover, +he worked day by day, now copying in the Academy, and now ornamenting +bellows, brushes, or Japan ware, with figures of birds or with flowers. +Sometimes he ran down a neighboring alley, whipping his hands about him +to keep his blood in circulation, lest he be benumbed. He soon became +the victim of inflammatory rheumatism, and was a great sufferer. He +still saw before him, someway, somehow, renown. Meantime his pure, noble +soul found solace in writing poetry and an occasional story for the +"Saturday Evening Post." After a year and a half he put his goods on a +wheelbarrow, had them carried to the station, and started for New York, +whither his family had moved. + +He was now twenty-four. Life had been one continuous struggle. Still he +loved each beauty in nature, and hoped for the good time to come. In his +father's garret in Greenwich Street, in a room so narrow that he could +scarcely work, and so poorly lighted that he was "perpetually fighting a +kind of twilight," he labored for two years. Obstacles seemed but to +increase his determination to persevere. Of such grand material are +heroes made! + +His first five pictures were placed for exhibition in the shop of an +acquaintance, and were sold at eight dollars apiece. Through the +courtesy of a gentleman who purchased three of these, he was enabled to +go up the Hudson and sketch from nature among the Catskills. This was +indeed a great blessing. On his return, he painted "A View of Fort +Putnam," "Lake with dead trees," and "The Falls of the Caterskills." +These were purchased at twenty-five dollars apiece by three +artists,--Trumbull, Dunlap, and Durand. + +Trumbull first discovered the merits of the pictures, buying the "Falls" +for his studio, and invited Cole to meet Durand at his rooms. At the +hour appointed the sensitive artist made his appearance, so timid that +at first he could only reply to their cordial questioning by +monosyllables. Colonel Trumbull said, "You surprise me, at your age, to +paint like this. You have already done what I, with all my years and +experience, am yet unable to do." Through the new friends, attention was +called to his work, and he soon had abundant commissions. How his hungry +heart must have fed on this appreciation! "From that time," said his +friend, William Cullen Bryant, "he had a fixed reputation, and was +numbered among the men of whom our country had reason to be proud. I +well remember what an enthusiasm was awakened by these early works of +his,--the delight which was expressed at the opportunity of +contemplating pictures which carried the eye over scenes of wild +grandeur peculiar to our country, over our arid mountain-tops with their +mighty growth of forest never touched by the axe, along the banks of +streams never deformed by culture, and into the depth of skies bright +with the hues of our own climate; such skies as few but Cole could ever +paint, and through the transparent abysses of which it seemed that you +might send an arrow out of sight." + +The struggles were not all over, but the "renown" of which the +calico-designer had dreamed had actually come. Down in the heart of Mary +Cole there must have been deep thanksgiving that she had urged him on. + +He with a few others now founded the National Academy of Design. He took +lodgings in the Catskills in the summer of 1826, and worked diligently. +He studied nature like a lover; now he sketched a peculiar sunset, now a +wild storm, now an exquisite waterfall. "Why do not the younger +landscape painters walk--walk alone, and endlessly?" he used to say. +"How I have walked, day after day, and all alone, to see if there was +not something among the old things which was new!" He knew every chasm, +every velvety bank, every dainty flower growing in some tanglewood for +miles around. American scenery, with its untamed wilderness, lake, and +mountain, was his chief passion. He found no pleasure, however, in +hunting or fishing; for his kind heart could not bear to inflict the +slightest injury. + +The following spring he exhibited at the National Academy the "Garden of +Eden and the Expulsion," rich in poetic conception; and in the fall +sketched in the White Mountains, especially near North Conway, which the +lamented Starr King loved so well. In the winter he was very happy, +finishing his "Chocorua Peak." A visitor said, "Your clouds, sir, appear +to move." + +"That," replied the artist, "is precisely the effect I desire." + +He was now eager to visit Europe to study art; but first he must see +Niagara, of which he made several sketches. He had learned the secret, +that all poets and artists finally learn,--that they must identify +themselves with some great event in history, something grand in nature, +or some immortal name. Milton chose a sublime subject, Homer a great +war, just as some one will make our civil war a famous epic two +centuries hence. + +In June, 1829, he sailed for Europe, and there, for two years, studied +faithfully. In London, he saw much of Turner, of whom he said, "I +consider him as one of the greatest landscape painters that ever lived, +and his 'Temple of Jupiter' as fine as anything the world has produced. +In landscapes, my favorites are Claude Lorraine, and Gaspar Poussin." + +Some of Cole's work was exhibited at the British Gallery, but the autumn +coloring was generally condemned as false to nature! How little we know +about that which we have not seen! + +Paris he enjoyed greatly for its clear skies and sunny +weather,--essentials usually to those of poetic temperament, though he +was not over pleased with the Venuses and Psyches of modern French art. +For nine months he found the "galleries of Florence a paradise to a +painter." He thought our skies more gorgeous than the Italian, though +theirs have "a peculiar softness and beauty." At Rome, some of his +friends said, "Cole works like a crazy man." He usually rose at five +o'clock, worked till noon, taking an hour for eating and rest, and then +sketched again till night. + +There was a reason for this. The support of the family came upon him, +besides the payment of debts incurred by his father. + +He felt that every hour was precious. In Rome, he found the Pantheon +"simple and grand"; the Apollo Belvidere "the most perfect of human +productions," while the Venus de Medici has "the excellence of feminine +form, destitute in a great measure of intellectual expression"; the +"Transfiguration," "beautiful in color and chiaroscuro," and Michael +Angelo's "Moses," "one of the things never to be forgotten." + +On his return to New York he took rooms at the corner of Wall Street and +Broadway. Here he won the friendship of Luman Reed, for whom he promised +to paint pictures for one room, to cost five thousand dollars. The chief +pictures for Mr. Reed, who died before their completion, were five, +called "The Course of Empire," representing man in the different phases +of savage life, high civilization, and ruin through sin, the idea coming +to him while in Rome. Of this group, Cooper, the novelist, said, "I +consider the 'Course of Empire' the work of the highest genius this +country has ever produced, and one of the noblest works of art that has +ever been wrought." + +In November, 1836, Mr. Cole was married to Maria Bartow, a young lady of +refinement and loveliness of character. Soon after, both of his parents +died. The "Departure and Return" were now painted, "among his noblest +works," says Bryant, followed by the "Voyage of Life," for Mr. Samuel +Ward, who, like Mr. Reed, died before the set was finished. This series +was sold in 1876 for three thousand one hundred dollars. These pictures +he had worked upon with great care and intensity. He used to say, +"Genius has but one wing, and, unless sustained on the other side by the +well-regulated wing of assiduity, will quickly fall to the ground. The +artist must work always; his eye and mind can work even when his pen is +idle. He must, like a magician, draw a circle round him, and exclude all +intrusive spirits. And above all, if he would attain that serene +atmosphere of mind in which float the highest conceptions of the soul in +which the sublimest works have been produced, he must be possessed of a +holy and reasonable faith." + +The "Voyage of Life" was well received. The engraver, Mr. Smilie, found +one morning before the second of the series, "Youth," a person in middle +life looking as though in deep thought. "Sir," he said at length, "I am +a stranger in the city, and in great trouble of mind. But the sight of +these pictures has done me great good. I go away from this place +quieted, and much strengthened to do my duty." + +In 1841, worn in health, Cole determined to visit Europe again. He wrote +from Kenilworth Castle to his wife, "Every flower and mass of ivy, every +picturesque effect, waked my regret that you were not by my side.... How +can I paint without you to praise, or to criticize, and little Theddy to +come for papa to go to dinner, and little Mary with her black eyes to +come and kiss the figures in the pictures?... My life will be burdened +with sadness until I return to my wife and family." In Rome he received +much attention, as befitted one in his position. + +On his return, he painted several European scenes, the "Roman Campagna," +"Angels Ministering to Christ in the Wilderness," "Mountain Ford" (sold +in 1876 for nine hundred dollars), "The Good Shepherd," "Hunter's +Return," "Mill at Sunset," and many others. For his "Mount Etna," +painted in five days, he received five hundred dollars. How different +these days from that pitiful winter in Philadelphia! + +He dreaded interruptions in his work. His "St. John the Baptist in the +Wilderness" was destroyed by an unexpected visit from some ladies and +gentlemen, who quenched the fire of heart in which he was working. He +sorrowfully turned the canvas to the wall, and never finished it. He had +now come to the zenith of his power, yet he modestly said, "I have only +learned how to paint." He built a new studio in the Catskills, in the +Italian villa style, and hoped to erect a gallery for several paintings +he had in contemplation, illustrating the cross and the world, and the +immortality of the soul. + +But the overworked body at forty-seven years of age could no longer bear +the strain. On Saturday, Feb. 5, 1848, he laid his colors under water, +and cleansed his palette as he left his studio. The next day he was +seized with inflammation of the lungs. The following Friday, after the +communion service at his bedside, he said, "I want to be quiet." These +were his last words. The tired artist had finished his work. The voyage +of life was over. He had won enduring fame. + + + + +OLE BULL. + + +In the quaint old town of Bergen, Norway, so strange with its narrow +streets, peculiar costumes, and open-hearted people, that no traveller +can ever forget it, was born, Feb. 5, 1810, Ole Bull, the oldest in a +family of ten children. His father was an able chemist, and his mother a +woman of fine manners and much intelligence. All the relatives were +musical, and at the little gatherings for the purpose of cultivating +this talent, the child Ole would creep under table or sofa, and listen +enraptured for hours, often receiving a whipping when discovered. + +He loved music intensely, fancying when he played alone in the meadows, +that he heard nature sing, as the bluebells were moved among the grasses +by the wind. When he was four years old, his uncle gave him a yellow +violin, which he kissed with great delight, learning the notes at the +same time as his primer. Although forbidden to play till study-hours +were over, he sometimes disobeyed, and was punished both at home and at +school. + +[Illustration: Ole Bull. + +(From his Memoirs, by SARA C. BULL.)] + +Finally, at eight, through the good sense of his mother, a +music-teacher was provided, and his father bought him a new red violin. +The child could not sleep for thinking of it; so the first night after +its purchase he stole into the room where it lay, in his night-clothes, +to take one peep at the precious thing. He said years after, with tears +in his eyes at the painful remembrance, "The violin was so red, and the +pretty pearl screws did smile at me so! I pinched the strings just a +little with my fingers. It smiled at me ever more and more. I took up +the bow and looked at it. It said to me it would be pleasant to try it +across the strings. So I did try it, just a very, very little, and it +did sing to me so sweetly. At first, I did play very soft. But presently +I did begin a capriccio, which I like very much, and it do go ever +louder and louder; and I forgot that it was midnight and that everybody +was asleep. Presently I hear something crack! and the next minute I feel +my father's whip across my shoulders. My little red violin dropped on +the floor, and was broken. I weep much for it, but it did no good. They +did have a doctor to it next day, but it never recovered its health." + +Pitiful it is that sometimes parents are so lacking in judgment as to +stifle the best things in a child's nature! Guiding is wise; forcing +usually ends in disaster. In two years, Ole could play pieces which his +teacher found it impossible to perform. He began to compose melodies, +imitating nature in the song of birds, brooks, and the roar of +waterfalls; and would hide in caves or in clumps of bushes, where he +could play his own weird improvisations. When he could not make his +violin do as he wished, he would fling it away impetuously, and not +touch it again for a long time. Then he would perhaps get up in the +middle of the night, and play at his open window, forgetting that +anybody might be awakened by it. Sometimes he played incessantly for +days, scarcely eating or sleeping. He had no pleasure in fishing or +shooting, on account of the pain inflicted,--a feeling seemingly common +to noble and refined natures,--though he greatly enjoyed anything +athletic. + +At fourteen, having heard of Paganini, he went to his grandparent, of +whom he was very fond, and said, "Dear grandmother, can't I have some of +Paganini's music?" + +"Don't tell any one," was the reply; "but I will try to buy a piece of +his for you if you are a good child." + +Shortly after this an old miser, of whom the Bergen boys were afraid, +called Ole into his house one day as he was passing, and said, "Are you +the boy that plays the fiddle?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then come with me. I have a fiddle I bought in England, that I want to +show you." + +The fiddle needed a bridge and sounding-post, and these the boy gladly +whittled out, and then played for the old man his favorite air, "God +save the King." He was treated to cakes and milk, and promised to come +again. The next afternoon, what was his surprise to receive four pairs +of doves, with a blue ribbon around the neck of one, and a card attached +bearing the name of "Ole Bull." This present was more precious than the +diamonds he received in later years from the hands of royalty. + +Ole's father, with a practical turn of mind, urged his being a +clergyman, as he honored that profession, and well knew that music and +art usually furnish a small bank account. A private tutor, Musaeus by +name, was therefore engaged. This man had the unique habit of kneeling +down to pray before he whipped a boy, and asking that the punishment +might redound to the good of the lad. He soon made up his mind that +Ole's violin and theology were incompatible, and forbade his playing it. +Ole and his brothers bore his harsh methods as long as possible, when +one morning at half past four, as the teacher was dragging the youngest +boy out of bed, Ole sprang upon him and gave him a vigorous beating. The +smaller boys put their heads out from under the bed-clothes and cried +out, "Don't give up, Ole! Don't give up! Give it to him with all your +might!" The whole household soon appeared upon the scene, and though +little was said, the private feeling seemed to be that a salutary lesson +had been imparted. + +At eighteen, Ole was sent to the University of Christiana, his father +beseeching him that he would not yield to his passion for music. On his +arrival, some Bergen students asked him to play for a charitable +association. + +"But," said Ole, "my father has forbidden me to play." + +"Would your father prevent your doing an act of charity?" + +"Well, this alters the case a little, and I can write to him, and claim +his pardon." + +After this he played nearly all night at the home of one of the +professors, saying to himself that his father would be pleased if the +Faculty liked him, and the next morning failed in his Latin +examinations! In despair, he stated the case to the professor, who +replied, "My good fellow, this is the very best thing that could have +happened to you! Do you believe yourself fitted for a curacy in Finmark +or a mission among the Laps? Certainly not! It is the opinion of your +friends that you should travel abroad. Meanwhile, old Thrane having been +taken ill, you are appointed _ad interim_ Musical Director of the +Philharmonic and Dramatic Societies." A month later, by the death of +Thrane, he came into this position, having gained the pardon of his +disappointed father. + +But he was restless at Christiana. He desired to know whether he really +had genius or not, and determined to go to Cassell, to see Louis Spohr, +who was considered a master. The great man was not sufficiently great to +be interested in an unknown lad, and coolly said, when Ole remarked +politely, "I have come more than five hundred miles to hear you," "Very +well, you can now go to Nordhausen; I am to attend a musical festival +there." + +Ole went to the festival, and was so disappointed because the methods +and interpretation were different from his own, that he resolved to go +back to classic studies, feeling that he had no genius for music. Still +he was not satisfied. He would go to Paris, and hear Berlioz and other +great men. Giving three concerts at Trondhjeim and Bergen, by which he +made five hundred dollars, he found himself in possession of the needed +funds. When he arrived in this great city, everybody was eagerly looking +out for himself. Some were in pursuit of pleasure; but most, as is the +case everywhere, were in pursuit of bread and shelter. Nobody cared to +hear his violin. Nobody cared about his recommendations from far-off +Norway. In vain he tried to make engagements. He had no one to speak for +him, and the applicants were numberless. + +Madam Malibran was singing nightly to crowded houses, and the poor +violinist would now and then purchase one of the topmost seats, and +listen to that marvellous voice. His money was gradually melting away. +Finally, an elderly gentleman who boarded at the same house, having +begged him to take what little money he possessed out of the bank, as it +was not a safe place, stole every cent, together with Ole's clothes, and +left him entirely destitute. + +An acquaintance now told him of a boarding-place where there were +several music-teachers, and gave security for his board for one +month,--twelve dollars. Soon the friend and the boarding-mistress grew +cold and suspicious. Nothing tries friendship like asking the loan of +money. At last his condition becoming known to a person, whom he +afterward learned was Vidocq, the noted Chief of Police, he was shown by +him to a gaming-table, where he made one hundred and sixty dollars. +"What a hideous joy I felt," he said afterward; "what a horrid pleasure +to hold in the hand one's own soul saved by the spoil of others!" He +could not gamble again, though starvation actually stared him in the +face. + +Cholera was sweeping through the city, and had taken two persons from +the house where he lodged. He was again penniless and wellnigh +despairing. But he would not go back to Christiana. The river Seine +looked inviting, and he thought death would be a relief. He was nervous +and his brain throbbed. Finally he saw a placard in a window, "Furnished +rooms to let." He was exhausted, but would make one more effort. + +An elderly lady answered his query by saying that they had no vacant +rooms, when her pretty granddaughter, Alexandrine Felicie, called out, +"Look at him, grandmamma!" Putting on her glasses, the tears filled her +eyes, as she saw a striking resemblance to her son who had died. The +next day found him at Madam Villeminot's house, very ill of brain fever. +When he regained consciousness, she assured him that he need not worry +about the means for payment. When, however, the Musical Lyceum of +Christiana learned of his struggles, they sent him eight hundred +dollars. + +Becoming acquainted about this time with Monsieur Lacour, a dealer in +violins, who thought he had discovered that a certain kind of varnish +would increase sweetness of tone, Ole Bull was requested to play on one +of his instruments at a soiree, given by a Duke of the Italian Legation. +An elegant company were present. The intense heat soon brought out the +odor of assafoetida in the varnish. The young man became embarrassed +and then excited, and played as though beside himself. The player was +advertised, whether Monsieur Lacour's instruments were or not; for +Marshal Ney's son, the Duke of Montebello, at once invited him to +breakfast, and presided over a concert for him, whereby the violinist +made three hundred dollars. The tide had turned at last, and little +Felicie Villeminot had done it with her "Look at him, grandmamma!" + +As the Grand Opera was still closed to him, he made a concert tour +through Switzerland and Italy. In Milan, one of the musical journals +said, "He is not master of himself; he has no style; he is an untrained +musician. If he be a diamond, he is certainly in the rough and +unpolished." + +Ole Bull went at once to the publisher and asked who had written the +article. "If you want the responsible person," said the editor, "I am +he." + +"No," said the artist, "I have not come to call the writer to account, +but to thank him. The man who wrote that article understands music; but +it is not enough to tell me my faults; he must tell me how to rid myself +of them." + +"You have the spirit of the true artist," replied the journalist. + +The same evening he took Ole Bull to the critic, a man over seventy, +from whom he learned much that was valuable. He at once gave six months +to study under able masters, before again appearing in public. He was, +however, an earnest student all through life, never being satisfied with +his attainments. + +At Venice he was highly praised, but at Bologna he won the celebrity +which continued through life. Malibran was to sing in two concerts, but +feigned illness when she learned that the man she loved, De Beriot, was +to receive a smaller sum than herself, and would not appear. The manager +of the theatre was in despair. Meantime, in a poor hotel, in an upper +room, Ole Bull was composing his concerto in the daytime, and playing on +his violin at night by his open window. Rossini's first wife heard the +music, and said, "It must be a violin, but a divine one. That will be a +substitute for De Beriot and Malibran. I must go and tell Zampieri" (the +manager). + +On the night of the concert, after Ole Bull had been two hours in bed +from weariness, Zampieri appeared, and asked him to improvise. He was +delighted, and exclaiming, "Malibran may now have her headaches," +hurried the young artist off to the theatre. The audience was of course +cold and disappointed till Ole Bull began to play. Then the people +seemed to hold their breath. When the curtain fell, he almost swooned +with exhaustion, but the house shook with applause. Flowers were +showered upon him. He was immediately engaged for the next concert; a +large theatre was offered him free of expense, one man buying one +hundred tickets, and the admiring throng drew his carriage to the hotel, +while a procession with torchlights acted as guard of honor. + +Ole Bull had stepped into the glory of fame in a single night. +Henceforth, while there was to be much of trial and disappointment, as +come to all, he was to be forever the idol of two continents, drawing +crowded houses, honored by the great, and universally mourned at his +death. He had come to fame as by accident, but he had made himself +worthy of fame. + +Malibran at first seemed hurt at his wonderful success in her stead, but +she soon became one of his warmest friends, saying, "It is your own +fault that I did not treat you as you deserved. A man like you should +step forth with head erect in the full light of day, that we may +recognize his noble blood." + +From here he played with great success at Florence and Rome, at the +latter city composing his celebrated "Polacca Guerriera" in a single +night, writing till four o'clock in the morning. It was first conceived +while he stood alone at Naples, at midnight, watching Mount Vesuvius +aflame. + +Returning to Paris, he found the Grand Opera open to him. Here, at his +first performance, his a-string snapped; he turned deathly pale, but he +transposed the remainder of the piece, and finished it on three strings. +Meyerbeer, who was present, could not believe it possible that the +string had really broken. + +He was now twenty-six, famous and above want. What more fitting than +that he should marry pretty Felicie Villeminot, and share with her the +precious life she had saved? They were married in the summer of 1836, +and their love was a beautiful and enduring one until her death +twenty-six years afterward. Though absent from her much of the time +necessarily, his letters breathe a pure and ardent affection. Going to +England soon after, and being at the house of the Duke of Devonshire at +Chatsworth, he writes, "How long does the time seem that deprives me of +seeing you! I embrace you very tenderly. The word _home_ has above all +others the greatest charm for me." + +In London, from three to seven thousand persons crowded to hear him. The +"Times" said, "His command of the instrument, from the top to the +bottom of the scale--and he has a scale of his own of three complete +octaves on each string--is absolutely perfect." At Liverpool he received +four thousand dollars for a single night, taking the place of Malibran, +who had brought on a hemorrhage resulting in death, by forcing a tone, +and holding it so long that the audience were astonished. Ole Bull came +near sharing her fate. In playing "Polacca," the hall being large and +the orchestra too strong, he ruptured a blood vessel, and his coat had +to be cut from him. + +In sixteen months he gave two hundred and seventy-four concerts in the +United Kingdom. Afterwards, at St. Petersburg, he played to five +thousand persons, the Emperor sending him an autograph letter of +affection, and the Empress an emerald ring set with one hundred and +forty diamonds. Shortly after this his father died, speaking with pride +of Ole, and thinking he heard divine music. + +On his return to Norway, at the request of the King, he gave five +concerts at Stockholm, the last netting him five thousand dollars. So +moved was the King when Ole Bull played before him at the palace, that +he rose and stood till the "Polacca" was finished. He presented the +artist with the Order of Vasa, set in brilliants. + +In Christiana, the students gave him a public dinner, and crowned him +with laurel. He often played for the peasants here and in Bergen, and +was beloved by the poor as by the rich. At Copenhagen he was presented +at Court, the King giving him a snuff-box set in diamonds. Hans Andersen +became his devoted friend, as did Thorwaldsen while he was in Rome. He +now went to Cassell, and Spohr hastened to show him every attention, as +though to make amends for the coldness when Ole Bull was poor and +unknown. At Salzburg he invited the wife of Mozart to his concerts. For +her husband he had surpassing admiration. He used to say that no mortal +could write Mozart's "Requiem" and live. + +While in Hungary, his first child, Ole, died. He wrote his wife, "God +knows how much I have suffered! I still hope and work, not for +myself,--for you, my family, my country, my Norway, of which I am +proud." + +All this time he was working very hard. He said, "I must correspond with +the directors of the theatres; must obtain information regarding the +people with whom I am to deal; I must make my appointments for concerts +and rehearsals; have my music copied, correct the scores, compose, play, +travel nights. I am always cheated, and in everlasting trouble. I +reproach myself when everything does not turn out for the best, and am +consumed with grief. I really believe I should succumb to all these +demands and fatigues if it were not for my drinking cold water, and +bathing in it every morning and evening." + +In November, 1843, urged by Fanny Elssler, he visited America. At +first, in New York, some of the prominent violinists opposed him; but he +steadily made his way. When Mr. James Gordon Bennett offered him the +columns of the "Herald," that he might reply to those who were assailing +him, he said in his broken English, "I tink, Mr. Bennett, it is best tey +writes against me, and I plays against tem." Of his playing in New York, +Mrs. Lydia Maria Child wrote, "His bow touched the strings as if in +sport, and brought forth light leaps of sound, with electric rapidity, +yet clear in their distinctness. He played on four strings at once, and +produced the rich harmony of four instruments. While he was playing, the +rustling of a leaf might have been heard; and when he closed, the +tremendous bursts of applause told how the hearts of thousands leaped +like one. His first audience were beside themselves with delight, and +the orchestra threw down their instruments in ecstatic wonder." + +From New York he took a successful trip South. That he was not +effeminate while deeply poetic, a single incident will show. After a +concert, a man came to him and said he wished the diamond in his violin +bow, given him by the Duke of Devonshire. Ole Bull replied that as it +was a gift, he could neither sell it nor give it away. + +"But I am going to have that stone!" said the man as he drew a bowie +knife from his coat. In an instant Ole Bull had felled the man to the +floor with the edge of his hand across his throat. "The next time I +would kill you," said the musician, with his foot on the man's chest; +"but you may go now." So much did the ruffian admire the muscle and +skill of the artist, that he begged him to accept the knife which he had +intended to use upon him. + +During this visit to America he gave two hundred concerts, netting him, +said the "New York Herald," fully eighty thousand dollars, besides +twenty thousand given to charitable associations, and fifteen thousand +paid to assistant artists. "No artist has ever visited our country and +received so many honors. Poems by the hundreds have been written to him; +gold vases, pencils, medals, have been presented to him by various +corporations. His whole remarkable appearance in this country is really +unexampled in glory and fame," said the same newspaper. Ole Bull was +kindness itself to the sick or afflicted. Now he played for Alice and +Phoebe Carey, when unable to leave their home, and now for insane and +blind asylums and at hospitals. He loved America, and called himself +"her adopted son." + +On his return to Norway, after great success in Spain, the Queen +bestowing upon him the order of Charles III. and the Portuguese order of +Christus, he determined to build a National Theatre in Bergen, his +birthplace, for the advancement of his nation in the drama and in music. +By great energy, and the bestowal of a large sum of money, the place was +opened in 1850, Ole Bull leading the orchestra. But the Storthing, or +Parliament, declined to give it a yearly appropriation,--perhaps the +development of home talent tended too strongly toward republicanism. The +burden was too great for one man to carry, and the project did not prove +a success. + +The next plan of the philanthropist-musician was to buy one hundred and +twenty-five thousand acres of land on the Susquehanna River, in +Pennsylvania, and "found a New Norway, consecrated to liberty, baptized +with independence, and protected by the Union's mighty flag." Soon three +hundred houses were built, a country inn, store, and church, erected by +the founder. To pay the thousands needed for this enterprise he worked +constantly at concert-giving, taking scarcely time to eat his meals. He +laid out five new villages, made arrangements with the government to +cast cannon for her fortresses, and took out patents for a new +smelting-furnace. + +While in California, where he was ill with yellow fever, a crushing blow +fell upon him. He learned that he had purchased the land through a +swindling company, his title was invalid, and his fortune was lost. He +could only buy enough land to protect those who had already come from +Norway, and had settled there, and soon became deeply involved in +lawsuits. Hon. E. W. Stoughton of New York, who had never met Ole Bull +personally, volunteered to assist him, and a few thousands were wrested +from the defrauding agent. + +On his return to Norway he was accused of speculating with the funds of +his countrymen, which cut him to the heart. A little later, in 1862, his +wife died, worn with ill health, and with her husband's misfortunes, and +his son Thorvald fell from the mast of a sailing-vessel in the +Mediterranean, and was killed. + +In the autumn of 1868 he returned to America, and nearly lost his life +in a steamboat collision on the Ohio. He swam to land, saving also his +precious violin. Two years afterward he was married to Miss Thorp of +Madison, Wis., an accomplished lady much his junior in years, who has +lived to write an admirable life of her illustrious husband. A daughter, +Olea, came to gladden his home two years later. When he was sixty-six +years old, he celebrated his birthday by playing his violin on the top +of the great pyramid, Cheops, at the suggestion of King Oscar of Norway +and Sweden. + +In the Centennial year he returned to America, and made his home at +Cambridge, in the house of James Russell Lowell, while he was Minister +to England. Here he enjoyed the friendship of such as Longfellow, who +says of him in his "Tales of a Wayside Inn":-- + + "The angel with the violin, + Painted by Raphael, he seemed, + + * * * * * + + And when he played, the atmosphere + Was filled with magic, and the ear + Caught echoes of that Harp of Gold, + Whose music had so weird a sound, + The hunted stag forgot to bound, + The leaping rivulet backward rolled, + The birds came down from bush and tree, + The dead came from beneath the sea, + The maiden to the harper's knee!" + +The friend of the highest, he never forgot the lowest. When a colored +barber in Hartford, a lad who was himself a good fiddler, heard Ole Bull +play, the latter having sent him a ticket to his concert, he said, +"Mister, can't you come down to the shop to-morrow to get shaved, and +show me those tricks? I feel powerful bad." + +And Ole Bull went to the shop, and showed him how the wonderful playing +was accomplished. + +In 1880 Ole Bull sailed, for the last time, to Europe, to his lovely +home at Lyso, an island in the sea, eighteen miles from Bergen. Ill on +the voyage, he was thankful to reach the cherished place. Here, planned +by his own hand, was his elegant home overlooking the ocean; here his +choice music-room upheld by delicate columns and curiously wrought +arches; here the shell-roads he had built; and here the flower-beds he +had planted. The end came soon, on a beautiful day full of sunshine. + +The body lay in state in the great music-room till a larger steamer came +to bear it to Bergen. This was met by a convoy of sixteen steamers +ranged on either side; and as the fleet approached the city, all flags +were at half-mast, and guns were fired, which re-echoed through the +mountains. The quay was covered with juniper, and the whole front +festooned with green. As the boat touched the shore, one of Ole Bull's +inimitable melodies was played. Young girls dressed in black bore the +trophies of his success, and distinguished men carried his gold crown +and order, in the procession. The streets were strewn with flowers, and +showered upon the coffin. When the service had been read at the grave by +the pastor, Bjornson, the famous author, gave an address. After the +coffin had been lowered and the mourners had departed, hundreds of +peasants came, bringing a green bough, a sprig of fern, or a flower, and +quite filled the grave. Beautiful tribute to a beautiful life! + + + + +[Illustration: MEISSONIER.] + +MEISSONIER. + + +The old maxim, that "the gods reward all things to labor," has had fit +illustration in Meissonier. His has been a life of constant, unvaried +toil. He came to Paris a poor, unknown boy, and has worked over fifty +years, till he stands a master in French art. + +Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier was born at Lyons, in 1811. His early life +was passed in poverty so grinding that the great artist never speaks of +it, and in such obscurity that scarcely anything is known of his +boyhood. At nineteen he came to Paris to try his fate in one of the +great centres of the world. He, of course, found no open doors, nobody +standing ready to assist genius. Genius must ever open doors for itself. + +The lad was a close observer, and had learned to draw accurately. He +could give every variety of costume, and express almost any emotion in +the face of his subject. But he was unknown. He might do good work, but +nobody wanted it. He used to paint by the side of Daubigny in the +Louvre, it is said, for one dollar a yard. Now his "Amateurs in +Painting," a chef-d'oeuvre of six inches in size, is bought by Leon +Say for six thousand dollars. Such is fame. + +Time was so necessary in this struggle for bread, that he could sleep +only every other night; and for six months his finances were so low, it +is stated, that he existed on ten cents a week! No wonder that the +sorrows of those days are never mentioned. + +His earliest work was painting the tops of bon-bon boxes, and fans. Once +he grew brave enough to take four little sepia drawings to an editor to +illustrate a fairy tale in a magazine for children. The editor said the +drawings were charming, but he could not afford to have them engraved, +and so "returned them with thanks." + +His first illustrations in some unknown journal were scenes from the +life of "The Old Bachelor." In the first picture he is represented +making his toilet before the mirror, his wig spread out on the table; in +the second, dining with two friends; in the third, being abused by his +housekeeper; in the fourth, on his death-bed, surrounded by greedy +relations; and in the fifth, the servants ransacking the death-chamber +for the property. + +For a universal history he drew figures of Isaiah, St. Paul, and +Charlemagne, besides almost numberless ornamental letters and headings +of chapters. Of course he longed for more remunerative work, for fame; +but he must plod on for months yet. He worked conscientiously, taking +the greatest pains with every detail. + +His first picture, exhibited in 1833, when he was twenty-two, called +"The Visitors," an interior view of a house, with an old gentleman +receiving two visitors, all dressed in the costume of James I., +admirable for its light and shade, was bought by the Society of the +Friends of Art, for twenty dollars. Two years later he made +illustrations for the Bible of the Sieur Raymond, of Holofernes invading +Judea, and Judith appearing before Holofernes. For "Paul and Virginia" +he made forty-three beautiful landscapes. "They contain evidence of long +and careful work in the hot-houses of the 'Jardin des Plantes,' and in +front of the old bric-a-brac dealer's stalls, which used to stand about +the entrance to the Louvre. And how admirably, with the help of these +slowly and scrupulously finished studies, he could reproduce, in an +ornamental letter or floral ornament, a lily broken by the storm, or a +sheaf of Indian arms and musical instruments." + +In 1836, his "Chess Players," two men watching intently the moves of +chess, and "The Little Messenger," attracted a crowd of admirers. Each +sold for twenty dollars. He had now struggled for six years in Paris. It +was high time that his unremitting and patient work should find +approval. The people were amazed at so vast an amount of labor in so +small a space. They looked with their magnifying glasses, and found the +work exquisite in detail. They had been accustomed to great canvases, +glowing colors, and heroic or romantic sentiments; but here there was +wonderful workmanship. + +When the people began to admire, critics began to criticize. They said +"Meissonier can depict homelike or ordinary scenes, but not historic." +He said nothing, but soon brought out "Diderot" among the philosophers, +Grimm, D'Alembert, Baron Holbach, and others in the seventeenth century. +Then they said he can draw interiors only, and "on a canvas not much +larger than his thumb-nail." He soon produced the "Portrait of the +Sergeant," "one of the most daring experiments in the painting of light, +in modern art. The man stands out there in the open by himself, +literally bathed in light, and he makes a perfect picture." Then they +were sure that he could not paint movement. He replied by painting +"Rixe," two ruffians who are striving to fight, but are withheld by +friends. This was given by Louis Napoleon to the Prince Consort. + +Meissonier also showed that he could depict grand scenes, by "Moreau and +Dessoles on the eve of the battle of Hohenlinden," the "Retreat from +Russia," and the "Emperor at Solferino." Into these he put his +admiration for Napoleon the Great, and his adoration for his defeated +country. In the former picture, the two generals are standing on a +precipice, surveying the snow-covered battle-field with a glass; the +trees are bending under a strong wind, and the cloaks of the generals +are fluttering behind them. One feels the power of this picture. + +In painting the "Retreat from Russia," the artist borrowed the identical +coat worn by Napoleon, and had it copied, crease for crease, and button +for button. "When I painted that picture," he said, "I executed a great +portion of it out of doors. It was midwinter, and the ground was covered +with snow. Sometimes I sat at my easel for five or six hours together, +endeavoring to seize the exact aspect of the winter atmosphere. My +servant placed a hot foot-stove under my feet, which he renewed from +time to time, but I used to get half-frozen and terribly tired." + +He had a wooden horse made in imitation of the white charger of the +Emperor; and seating himself on this, he studied his own figure in a +mirror. His studies for this picture were almost numberless,--a horse's +head, an uplifted leg, cuirasses, helmets, models of horses in red wax, +etc. He also prepared a miniature landscape, strewn with white powder +resembling snow, with models of heavy wheels running through it, that he +might study the furrow made in that terrible march home from burning +Moscow. All this was work,--hard, patient, exacting work. + +It had now become evident to the world, and to the critics as well, that +Meissonier was a master; that he was not confined to small canvases nor +home scenes. + +In 1855 he received the grand medal; in 1856 he was made an officer of +the Legion of Honor; in 1861, a member of the Institute; and in 1867, +at the International Exhibition, he received the grand medal again. When +the prizes were given by the Emperor, the "Battle of Solferino" was +placed in the centre of the space cleared for the ceremony, with the +works of Reimers, the Russian painter, Knaus of Prussia, Rousseau, the +French landscape-painter, and others. This painting represents Napoleon +III. in front of his staff, looking upon the battle "as a cool player +studies a chess-board. On the right, in the foreground, some +artillery-men are manoeuvring their guns. The corpses of a French +soldier and two white Austrians, torn to rags by some explosion, show +where the battle had passed by." + +Meissonier's paintings now brought enormous prices. His "Marshal Saxe +and his Staff" brought eight thousand six hundred dollars in New York; +the "Soldiers at Cards," in 1876, in the same city, eleven thousand five +hundred dollars; in 1867, his "Cavalry Charge" was sold to Mr. Probasco +of Cincinnati, for thirty thousand dollars; and the "Battle of +Friedland," upon which he is said to have worked fifteen years, to A. T. +Stewart, of New York, for sixty thousand dollars. Every figure in this +was drawn from life, and the horses moulded in wax. It represents +Napoleon on horseback, on a slight elevation, his marshals grouped +around him, holding aloft his cocked hat in salutation, as the soldiers +pass hurriedly before him. + +Edmund About once wrote, "To cover M. Meissonier's pictures with gold +pieces simply would be to buy them for nothing; and the practice has now +been established of covering them with bank notes." + +"The Blacksmith," shoeing a patient old cart-horse, perfect in anatomy; +"La Halte," some soldiers at an inn, now in Hertford House gallery; and +"La Barricade," a souvenir of the civil war, are among the favorite +pictures of this famous man. And yet as one looks at some of the +exquisite work about a convivial scene, the words of the great Boston +painter, William Hunt, come to mind. Being shown a picture, very fine in +technique, by a Munich artist, of a drunken man, holding a half-filled +glass of wine, he said, "It's skilfully done, but _what is_ the _use_ of +_doing_ it! The subject isn't worthy of the painter." + +Rarely does a woman appear in Meissonier's pictures. He has done nothing +to deprave morals, which is more than can be said of some French art. +His portrait of Madame Henri Thenard was greatly admired, while that of +Mrs. Mackay was not satisfactory, and was said to have been destroyed by +her. Few persons, however, can afford to destroy a Meissonier. When told +once that "he was a fortunate man, as he could possess as many +Meissoniers as he pleased," he replied, "No, no, I cannot; that would +ruin me. They are a great deal too dear." + +He lives in the Boulevard Malesherbes, near the lovely Parc Monceau, in +the heart of the artists' quarter in Paris. His handsome home, designed +by himself in every detail, is in the Italian Renaissance style. He has +two studies,--one a quiet nook, where he can escape interruptions; and +one very large, where are gathered masterpieces from every part of the +world. Here is "a courtyard of the time of Louis XIII., brilliantly +crowded with figures in gala dress; a bride of the same period, stepping +into an elegant carriage of a crimson color, for which Meissonier had a +miniature model built by a coach-maker, to study from; a superb work of +Titian,--a figure of an Italian woman in a robe of green velvet, the +classic outline of her head shown against a crimson velvet curtain in +the background; a sketch of Bonaparte on horseback, at the head of his +picturesquely dressed staff, reviewing the young conscripts of the army +of Italy, who are cheering as he passes;" and many more valuable +pictures. Here, too, are bridles of black leather, with silver +ornaments, once the property of Murat. + +One picture here, of especial interest, was painted at his summer home +at Poissy, when his house was crowded with German soldiers in the war of +1871. "To escape their company," says M. Claretie, "in the rage that he +experienced at the national defeat, he shut himself up in his studio, +and threw upon the canvas the most striking, the most vivid, the most +avenging of allegories: he painted Paris, enveloped in a veil of +mourning, defending herself against the enemy, with her soldiers and +her dying grouped round a tattered flag; sailors, officers, and +fusiliers, soldiers, national guards, suffering women, and dying +children; and, hovering in the air above them, with the Prussian eagle +by her side, was Famine, wan and haggard Famine, accomplishing the work +that the bombardment had failed to achieve." + +His summer home, like the one in Paris, is fitted up luxuriously. He +designed most of the furniture and the silver service for his table. +Flowers, especially geraniums and tea roses, blossom in profusion about +the grounds, while great trees and fountains make it a restful and +inviting place. The walls of the dining-room are hung with crimson and +gold satin damask, against which are several of his own pictures. An +engraver at work, clad in a red dressing-gown, and seated in a room hung +with ancient tapestry, has the face of his son Charles, also an artist, +looking out from the frame. One of Madame Meissonier also adorns this +room. + +Near by are his well-filled stables, his favorite horse, Rivoli, being +often used for his model. He is equally fond of dogs, and has several +expensive hounds. How strange all this, compared with those early days +of pinching poverty! He is rarely seen in public, because he has +learned--what, alas! some people learn too late in life--that there is +no success without one commands his or her time. It must be frittered +away neither by calls nor parties; neither by idle talk nor useless +visits. Painting or writing for an hour a day never made greatness. Art +and literature will give no masterships except to devotees. The young +lady, sauntering down town to look at ribbons, never makes a George +Eliot. The young man, sauntering down town to look at the buyers of +ribbons, never makes a Meissonier. Nature is rigid in her laws. Her +gifts only grow to fruitage in the hands of workers. + +Meissonier is now seventy-four, with long gray beard and hair, round, +full face, and bright hazel eyes. His friend, Claretie, says of him, +"This man, who lives in a palace, is as moderate as a soldier on the +march. This artist, whose canvases are valued by the half-million, is as +generous as a nabob. He will give to a charity sale a picture worth the +price of a house. Praised as he is by all, he has less conceit in his +nature than a wholesale painter." + + * * * * * + +January 31, 1891, at his home in Paris, the great artist passed away. +His illness was very brief. The funeral services took place at the +Church of the Madeleine, which was thronged with the leaders of art and +letters. An imposing military cortege accompanied the body to its last +resting-place at Poissy, the summer home of the artist, on the Seine, +ten miles from Versailles. + + + + +[Illustration: GEORGE WILLIAM CHILDS.] + +GEORGE W. CHILDS. + + +The "Public Ledger" of Philadelphia, and its owner, are known the world +over. Would we see the large-hearted, hospitable millionaire, who has +come to honor through his own industry, let us enter the elegant +building occupied by his newspaper. + +Every portion is interesting. The rooms where editors and assistants +work are large, light, and airy, and as tasteful as parlors. Alas! how +unhomelike and barren are some of the newspaper offices, where gifted +men toil from morning till night, with little time for sleep, and still +less for recreation. Mr. Childs has thought of the comfort and health of +his workmen, for he, too, was a poor boy, and knows what it is to labor. + +He has also been generous with his men in the matter of wages. "He +refused to reduce the rate of payment of his compositors, +notwithstanding that the Typographical Union had formerly sanctioned a +reduction, and notwithstanding that the reduced scale was operative in +every printing-office in Philadelphia except his own. He said, 'My +business is prosperous; why should not my men share in my prosperity?' +This act of graciousness, while it endeared him to the hearts of his +beneficiaries, was commented on most favorably at home and abroad. That +his employes, in a formal interview with him, expressed their +willingness to accept the reduced rates, simply augments the generosity +of his act." Strikes among laborers would be few and far between if +employers were like George W. Childs. + +Each person in his employ has a summer vacation of two or more weeks, +his wages being continued meantime, and paid in advance, with a liberal +sum besides. On Christmas every man, woman, and boy receives a present, +amounting, of course, to many thousands of dollars annually. Mr. Childs +has taken care of many who have become old or disabled in his service. +The foreman of his composing-room had worked for him less than twelve +months before he failed in health. For years this man has drawn his +weekly pay, though never going to the establishment. This is indeed +practical Christianity. + +Besides caring for the living, in 1868 this wise employer of labor +purchased two thousand feet in Woodlands for a printers' cemetery, and +gave it to the Philadelphia Typographical Society, with a sum of money +to keep the grounds in good order yearly. The first person buried beyond +the handsome marble gothic gateway was a destitute and aged printer who +had died at the almshouse and whose dying message to Mr. Childs was that +he could not bear to fill a pauper's grave. His wish was cordially +granted. + +But after seeing the admirable provision made for his workmen, we must +enter the private office of Mr. Childs. He is most accessible to all, +with no airs of superior position, welcoming persons from every clime +daily, between the hours of eleven and one. He listens courteously to +any requests, and then bids you make yourself at home in this elegant +office, that certainly has no superior in the world, perhaps no rival. + +The room itself in the Queen Anne style, with exquisite wood-carving, +marble tiles, brass ornaments, and painted glass, is a gem. Here is his +motto, a noble one, and thoroughly American, "Nihil sine labore," and +well his life has illustrated it. All honor to every man or woman who +helps to make labor honored in this country. The design of the ceiling +was suggested by a room in Coombe Abbey, Warwickshire, the seat of the +Earls Craven, fitted up by one of its lords for the reception of Queen +Elizabeth. Over a dozen valuable clocks are seen, one made in Amsterdam +over two hundred years ago, which, besides the time of day, gives the +phases of the moon, the days of the week, and the month; another, a +clock constructed by David Rittenhouse, the astronomer of the +Revolution, in the old colonial days, which plays a great variety of +music, has a little planetarium attached, and nearly six thousand teeth +in wheels. It was made for Joseph Potts, who paid six hundred and forty +dollars for it. The Spanish Minister in 1778 offered eight hundred for +it, that he might present it to his sovereign. Mr. Childs has about +fifty rare clocks in his various homes, one of these costing six +thousand dollars. + +Here is a marble statuette of Savonarola, the Florentine preacher of the +fifteenth century; the little green harp which belonged to Tom Moore, +and on which he used to play in the homes of the great; a colossal suit +of antique French armor, one hundred and fifty years old; a miniature +likeness of George Washington, handsomely encased in gold, bequeathed by +him to a relative, a lock of his hair in the back of the picture; a +miniature ship, made from the wood of the _Alliance Frigate_, the only +one of our first navy, of the class of frigates, which escaped capture +or destruction during the Revolutionary war. This boat, and a silver +waiter, presented after the famous battle of New Orleans, were both the +property of President Jackson, and were taken by him to the Hermitage. +Here, also, is a photograph of "Old Ironsides" Stewart, in a frame made +from the frigate _Constitution_, in which great victories were achieved, +besides many portraits given by famous people, with their autographs. + +After a delightful hour spent in looking at these choice things, Mr. +Childs bids us take our choice of some rare china cups and saucers. We +choose one dainty with red birds, and carry it away as a pleasant +remembrance of a princely giver, in a princely apartment. + +Mr. Childs has had a most interesting history. Born in Baltimore, he +entered the United States navy at thirteen, where he remained for +fifteen months. At fourteen he came to Philadelphia, poor, but with +courage and a quick mind, and found a place to work in a bookstore. Here +he remained for four years, doing his work faithfully, and to the best +of his ability. At the end of these years he had saved a few hundred +dollars, and opened a little store for himself in the Ledger Building, +where the well-known newspaper, the "Public Ledger," was published. + +He was ambitious, as who is not, that comes to prominence; and one day +he made the resolution that he would sometime be the owner of this great +paper and its building! Probably had this resolution been known, his +acquaintances would have regarded the youth as little less than crazy. +But the boy who willed this had a definite aim. Besides, he was never +idle, he was economical, his habits were the best, and why should not +such a boy succeed? + +In three years, when he was twenty-one, he had become the head of a +publishing house,--Childs & Peterson. He had a keen sense of what the +public needed. He brought out Kane's "Arctic Expedition," from which the +author, Dr. Kane, realized seventy thousand dollars. Two hundred +thousand copies of Peterson's "Familiar Science" were sold. Allibone +dedicated his great work, "Dictionary of English and American Authors," +to the energetic and appreciative young publisher. + +He had now acquired wealth, sooner almost than he could have hoped. +Before him were bright prospects as a publisher; but the prize that he +had set out to win was to own the "Public Ledger." + +The opportunity came in December, 1864. But his paper was losing money. +His friends advised against taking such a burden; he would surely fail. +But Mr. Childs had faith in himself. He expected to win where others +lost. He bought the property, doubled the subscription rates, lowered +the advertising, excluded everything questionable from the columns of +his paper, made his editorials brief, yet comprehensive, until under his +judicious management the journal reached the large circulation of ninety +thousand daily. For ten years he has given the "Ledger Almanac" to every +subscriber, costing five thousand dollars annually. The yearly profits, +it is stated, have been four hundred thousand dollars. All this has not +been accomplished without thought and labor. + +Fortune, of course, had come, and fame. He built homes, elegant ones, in +Philadelphia and at Newport, but these are not simply places in which to +spend money, but centres of hospitality and culture. + +His library is one of the most charming places in this country. The +wood-work is carved ebony with gold, the bookshelves six feet high on +every side, and the ceiling built in sunken panels, blue and gold. In +the centre is a table made from ebony, brought from Africa by Paul du +Chaillu. One looks with interest upon the handsome volumes of the +standard authors, but other things are of deeper interest. + +Here is an original sermon of Rev. Cotton Mather; the poems of Leigh +Hunt, which he presented to Charles Dickens; the original manuscript of +Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Consular Experiences"; the first edition of the +"Scarlet Letter," with a note to Mr. Childs from the great novelist; +Bryant's manuscript of the "First Book of the Iliad"; James Russell +Lowell's "June Idyl," begun in 1850 and finished eighteen years +afterward; the manuscript of James Fenimore Cooper's "Life of Captain +Richard Somers"; and Edgar Allan Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue," +seventeen pages of large paper written small and close. + +Here is an autograph letter from Poe, in which he offers to his +publishers thirty-three short stories, enough to fill two large volumes, +"On the terms which you allowed me before; that is, you receive all +profits and allow me twenty copies for distribution to friends." From +this it seems that Poe had the _usual_ struggles of literary people. + +One of the most unique things of the library is the manuscript of "Our +Mutual Friend," bound in fine brown morocco. The skeleton of the novel +is written through several pages, showing how carefully Dickens thought +out his plan and his characters; the paper is light blue, written over +with dark blue ink, with many erasures and changes. Here are also +fifty-six volumes of Dickens' works, with an autograph letter in each, +from the author to Mr. Childs. Here is Lord Byron's desk on which he +wrote "Don Juan." Now we look upon the smallest book ever printed, +Dante's "Divina Commedia," bound in Turkey gilt, less than two and +one-fourth inches long by one and one-half inches wide. + +The collection of Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, now the property of Mr. +Childs, letters and manuscripts from Lamb, Hawthorne, Mary Somerville, +Harriet Martineau, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Browning, and hundreds of +others, is of almost priceless value. In 1879 Mrs. Hall gave the Bible +of Tom Moore to Mr. Childs, "an honored and much loved citizen of the +United States, as the best and most valuable offering she could make to +him, as a grateful tribute of respect, regard, and esteem." + +Another valuable book is made up of the portraits of the presidents, +with an autograph letter from each. Dom Pedro of Brazil sent, in 1876, a +work on his empire, with his picture and his autograph. George Peabody +sat for a full-length portrait for Mr. Childs. The album of Mrs. Childs +contains the autographs of a great number of the leading men and women +of the world. + +One could linger here for days, but we must see the lovely country-seat +called "Wootton," some distance out from the city. The house is in Queen +Anne style, surrounded by velvety lawns, a wealth of evergreen and +exquisite plants, brought over from South America and Africa. The farm +adjoining is a delight to see. Here is the dairy built of white +flintstone, while the milkroom has stained glass windows, as though it +were a chapel. The beautiful grounds are open every Thursday to +visitors. + +Here have been entertained the Duke and Duchess of Buckingham, the Duke +of Sutherland, Lord Rosse, Lord Dufferin, Sir Stafford Northcote, +Herbert Spencer, John Waller, M.P., of the "London Times," Dean Stanley, +Thomas Hughes, Dickens, Grant, Evarts; indeed, the famous of two +hemispheres. + +With all this elegance, befitting royalty, Mr. Childs has been a +constant and generous giver. For his own city he was one of the foremost +to secure Fairmount Park, and helped originate the Zoological Gardens, +the Pennsylvania Museum, and the School of Industrial Arts. He gave ten +thousand dollars for a Centennial Exposition. He has been one of General +Grant's most generous helpers; yet while doing for the great, he does +not forget the unknown. He gives free excursions to poor children, a +dinner annually to the newsboys, and aids hundreds who are in need of an +education. + +He has placed a stained glass window in Westminster Abbey, in +commemoration of George Herbert and William Cowper; given largely to a +memorial window for Thomas Moore at Bronham, England; for a stone to +mark Leigh Hunt's resting-place in Kensal Green; and toward a monument +for Poe. + +Mr. Childs has come to eminence by energy, integrity, and true faith in +himself. He has had a noble ambition, and has worked towards it. He has +proved to all other American boys that worth and honest dealing will win +success, in a greater or less degree. That well-known scientist, Prof. +Joseph Henry, of the Smithsonian Institute, said, "Mr. Childs is a +wonderful man. His ability to apply the power of money in advancing the +well-being of his fellow-men is unrivalled. He is naturally kind and +sympathetic, and these generous feelings are exalted, not depressed, by +his success in accumulating a fortune.... Like man in the classification +of animals, he forms a genus in himself. He stands alone; there is not +another in the wide world like him." + + * * * * * + +Mr. Childs died at 3.01 A.M. February 3, 1894 from the effects of a +stroke of paralysis sustained at the Ledger office on January 18. He was +nearly sixty-five years of age. He was buried on February 6, in the +Drexel Mausoleum in Woodland Cemetery beside his life long friend. + + + + +[Illustration: DWIGHT L. MOODY] + +DWIGHT L. MOODY. + + +"There's no chance to get in there. There's six thousand persons inside, +and two thousand outside." + +This was said to Dr. Magoun, President of Iowa College, and myself, +after we had waited for nearly an hour, outside of Spurgeon's +Tabernacle, in London, in the hope of hearing Mr. Moody preach. Finally, +probably through courtesy to Americans, we obtained seats. The six +thousand in this great church were sitting as though spellbound. The +speaker was a man in middle life, rugged, strong, and plain in dress and +manner. His words were so simple that a child could understand them. Now +tears came into the eyes of most of the audience, as he told some +touching incident, and now faces grew sober as the people examined their +own hearts under the searching words. There was no consciousness about +the preacher; no wild gesture nor loud tone. Only one expression seemed +applicable, "a man dead in earnest." + +And who was this man whom thousands came to hear? Not a learned man, +not a rich man, but one of the greatest evangelists the world has ever +seen. Circumstances were all against him, but he conquered +circumstances. + +Dwight Lyman Moody was born at Northfield, Mass., Feb. 5, 1837. His +father, a stone-mason and farmer, died when the boy was four years old, +broken down with reverses in business. His mother was left with seven +sons and two daughters, the eldest a boy only fifteen. What happened to +this lad was well told by Mr. Moody, a few years since. "Soon after my +father's death the creditors came in and took everything. One calamity +after another swept over the entire household. Twins were added to the +family, and my mother was taken sick. To the eldest boy my mother looked +as a stay in her calamity; but all at once that boy became a wanderer. +He had been reading some of the trashy novels, and the belief had seized +him that he had only to go away, to make a fortune. Away he went. I can +remember how eagerly she used to look for tidings of that boy; how she +used to send us to the post-office to see if there was a letter from +him, and recollect how we used to come back with the sad news, 'No +letter!' I remember how in the evenings we used to sit beside her in +that New England home, and we would talk about our father; but the +moment the name of that boy was mentioned she would hush us into +silence. Some nights, when the wind was very high, and the house, which +was upon a hill, would tremble at every gust, the voice of my mother was +raised in prayer for that wanderer, who had treated her so unkindly. I +used to think she loved him better than all of us put together, and I +believe she did. + +"On a Thanksgiving day she used to set a chair for him, thinking he +would return home. Her family grew up, and her boys left home. When I +got so that I could write, I sent letters all over the country, but +could find no trace of him. One day, while in Boston, the news reached +me that he had returned. While in that city, I remember how I used to +look for him in every store--he had a mark on his face--but I never got +any trace. One day, while my mother was sitting at the door, a stranger +was seen coming toward the house, and when he came to the door he +stopped. My mother didn't know her boy. He stood there with folded arms +and great beard flowing down his breast, his tears trickling down his +face. When my mother saw those tears, she cried, 'Oh, it's my lost son!' +and entreated him to come in. But he stood still, 'No, mother,' he said, +'I will not come in until I hear that you have forgiven me.' She rushed +to the threshold, threw her arms around him, and breathed forgiveness." + +Dwight grew to be a strong, self-willed lad, working on the farm, fond +of fun rather than of study, held in check only by his devotion to his +mother. She was urged to put the children into different homes, on +account of their extreme poverty, but by tilling their garden, and doing +some work for their neighbors, she managed to keep her little flock +together. A woman who could do this had remarkable energy and courage. + +What little schooling Dwight received was not greatly enjoyed, because +the teacher was a quick-tempered man, who used a rattan on the boys' +backs. Years after, he told how a happy change was effected in that +school. "After a while there was somebody who began to get up a movement +in favor of controlling the school by love. I remember how we thought of +the good time we should have that winter, when the rattan would be out +of school. We thought we would then have all the fun we wanted. I +remember who the teacher was--a lady--and she opened the school with +prayer. We hadn't seen it done before, and we were impressed, especially +when she prayed that she might have grace and strength to rule the +school with love. The school went on several weeks, and we saw no +rattan; but at last the rules were broken, and I think I was the first +boy to break them. She told me to wait till after school, and then she +would see me. I thought the rattan was coming out sure, and stretched +myself up in warlike attitude. After school, however, she sat down by me +and told me how she loved me, and how she had prayed to be able to rule +that school by love, and concluded by saying, 'I want to ask you one +favor, that is, if you love me, try and be a good boy;' and I never +gave her trouble again." + +He was very susceptible to kindness. When an old man, who had the habit +of giving every new boy who came into the town a cent, put his hand on +Dwight's head, and told him he had a Father in heaven, he never forgot +the pressure of that old man's hand. + +Farming among Northfield rocks was not exciting work enough for the +energetic boy; so with his mother's consent, he started for Boston, when +he was seventeen, to look for work. He had the same bitter experience +that other homeless boys have. He says, "I went to the post-office two +or three times a day to see if there was a letter for me. I knew there +was not, as there was but one mail a day. I had not any employment and +was very homesick, and so went constantly to the post-office, thinking +perhaps when the mail did come in, my letter had been mislaid. At last, +however, I got a letter. It was from my youngest sister,--the first +letter she ever wrote me. I opened it with a light heart thinking there +was some good news from home, but the burden of the whole letter was +that she had heard there were pickpockets in Boston, and warned me to +take care of them. I thought I had better get some money in hand first, +and then I might take care of pickpockets." + +The homesick boy finally applied to an uncle, a shoe-dealer, who +hesitated much about taking the country lad into his employ. He agreed +to do so on the conditions that the boy would heed his advice, and +attend regularly the Mount Vernon Church and Sunday-school. The +preaching of Dr. Kirk, the pastor, was scholarly and eloquent, but quite +above the lad's comprehension. His Sunday-school teacher, Mr. Edward +Kimball, was a devoted man, and withal had the tact to win a boy's +confidence. One day he came into the store where young Moody worked, and +going behind the counter, placed his hand on the boy's shoulder and +talked about his becoming a Christian. Such interest touched Dwight's +heart, and he soon took a stand on the right side. Years afterward, +Moody was the means of the conversion of the son of Mr. Kimball, at +seventeen, just his own age at this time. + +His earnest nature made him eager to do Christian work; but so poor was +his command of language, and his sentences were so awkward, that he was +not accepted to the membership of the church for a year after he had +made his application. They thought him very "unlikely ever to become a +Christian of clear and decided views of gospel truth; still less to fill +any extended sphere of public usefulness." Alas! how the best of us +sometimes have our eyes shut to the treasures lying at our feet. + +He longed for a wider field of usefulness, and in the fall of 1856, when +he was nineteen, started for Chicago, taking with him testimonials which +secured him a place as salesman in a shoe store. He joined Plymouth +Church, and at once rented four pews for the young men whom he intended +to bring in. Here, it is said, some of the more cultured assured him +that his silence would be more effective for good than his speech! +Certainly not encouraging to a young convert. + +He offered his services to a mission school as a teacher. "He was +welcome, if he would bring his own scholars," they said. The next +Sunday, to their astonishment, young Moody walked in at the head of +eighteen ragged urchins whom he had gathered from the streets. He +distributed tracts among the seamen at the wharfs, and did not fear to +go into saloons and talk with the inmates. + +Finally he wanted a larger field still, and opened an old saloon, which +had been vacated, as a Sunday-school room. It was in the neighborhood of +two hundred saloons and gambling-dens! His heart was full of love for +the poor and the outcasts, and they did not mind about his grammar. A +friend came to see him in these dingy quarters, and found him holding a +colored child, while he read, by the dim light of some tallow candles, +the story of the Prodigal Son to his little congregation. "I have got +only one talent," said the unassuming Moody. "I have no education, but I +love the Lord Jesus Christ, and I want to do something for him. I want +you to pray for me." + +Thirteen years later, when all Great Britain was aflame with the sermons +of this same man, he wrote his friend, "Pray for me every day; pray now +that the Lord will keep me humble." + +Soon the Sunday-school outgrew the shabby saloon, and was moved to a +hall, where a thousand scholars gathered. Still attending to business as +a travelling salesman, for six years he swept and made ready his +Sunday-school room. He had great tact with his pupils, and won them by +kindness. One day a boy came, who was very unruly, sticking pins into +the backs of the other boys. Mr. Moody patted him kindly on the head, +and asked him to come again. After a short time he became a Christian, +and then was anxious about his mother, whom Mr. Moody had been unable to +influence. One night the lad threw his arms about her neck, and weeping +told her how he had stopped swearing, and how he wanted her to love the +Saviour. When she passed his room, she heard him praying, "Oh, God, +convert my dear mother." The next Sunday he led her into the +Sabbath-school, and she became an earnest worker. + +He also has great tact with his young converts. "Every man can do +something," he says. "I had a Swede converted in Chicago. I don't know +how. I don't suppose he was converted by my sermons, because he couldn't +understand much. The Lord converted him into one of the happiest men you +ever saw. His face shone all over. He came to me, and he had to speak +through an interpreter. This interpreter said this Swede wanted to have +me give him something to do. I said to myself, 'What in the world will +I set this man to doing? He can't talk English!' So I gave him a bundle +of little handbills, and put him out on the corner of the greatest +thoroughfare of Chicago, and let him give them out, inviting people to +come up and hear me preach. A man would come along and take it, and see +'Gospel meeting,' and would turn around and curse the fellow; but the +Swede would laugh, because he didn't know but he was blessing him. He +couldn't tell the difference. A great many men were impressed by that +man's being so polite and kind. There he stood, and when winter came and +the nights got so dark they could not read those little handbills, he +went and got a little transparency and put it up on the corner, and +there he took his stand, hot or cold, rain or shine. Many a man was won +to Christ by his efforts." + +In 1860, when Moody was twenty-three, he made up his mind to give all +his time to Christian work. He was led to this by the following +incident. He says, "In the Sunday-school I had a pale, delicate young +man as one of the teachers. I knew his burning piety, and assigned him +to the worst class in the school. They were all girls, and it was an +awful class. They kept gadding around in the schoolroom, and were +laughing and carrying on all the while. One Sunday he was absent, and I +tried myself to teach the class, but couldn't do anything with them; +they seemed farther off than ever from any concern about their souls. +Well, the day after his absence, early Monday morning, the young man +came into the store where I worked, and, tottering and bloodless, threw +himself down on some boxes. + +"'What's the matter?' I asked. + +"'I have been bleeding at the lungs, and they have given me up to die,' +he said. + +"'But you are not afraid to die?' I questioned. + +"'No,' said he, 'I am not afraid to die; but I have got to stand before +God and give an account of my stewardship, and not one of my +Sabbath-school scholars has been brought to Jesus. I have failed to +bring one, and haven't any strength to do it now.' + +"He was so weighed down that I got a carriage and took that dying man in +it, and we called at the homes of every one of his scholars, and to each +one he said, as best his faint voice would let him, 'I have come to just +ask you to come to the Saviour,' and then he prayed as I never heard +before. And for ten days he labored in that way, sometimes walking to +the nearest houses. And at the end of that ten days, every one of that +large class had yielded to the Saviour. + +"Full well I remember the night before he went away (for the doctors +said he must hurry to the South); how we held a true love-feast. It was +the very gate of heaven, that meeting. He prayed, and they prayed; he +didn't ask them, he didn't think they could pray; and then we sung, +'Blest be the tie that binds.' It was a beautiful night in June that he +left on the Michigan Southern, and I was down to the train to help him +off. And those girls every one gathered there again, all unknown to each +other; and the depot seemed a second gate to heaven, in the joyful, yet +tearful, communion and farewells between these newly-redeemed souls and +him whose crown of rejoicing it will be that he led them to Jesus. At +last the gong sounded, and, supported on the platform, the dying man +shook hands with each one, and whispered, 'I will meet you yonder.' + +"From this," says Mr. Moody, "I got the first impulse to work solely for +the conversion of men." + +When he told his employer that he was going to give up business, he was +asked, "Where will you get your support?" + +"God will provide for me if he wishes me to keep on, and I shall keep on +till I am obliged to stop," was the reply. + +To keep his expenses as low as possible, he slept at night on a hard +bench in the rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association, and ate the +plainest food. Thus was the devoted work of this Christian hero begun. +He was soon made city missionary for a time. Then the civil war began, +and a camp was established near Chicago. He saw his wonderful +opportunity now to reach men who were soon to be face to face with +death. The first tent erected was used as a place of prayer. Ministers +and friends came to his aid. He labored day and night, sometimes eight +or ten prayer-meetings being held at the same time in the various tents. + +He did not desert these men on the field of battle. He was with the army +at Pittsburgh Landing, Shiloh, Murfreesboro', and Chattanooga. Nine +times, in the interests of the Christian Commission, he visited our men +at the front, on his errands of mercy. He tells this incident in a +hospital at Murfreesboro'. + +"One night after midnight, I was woke up and told that there was a man +in one of the wards who wanted to see me. I went to him, and he called +me 'chaplain,'--I wasn't a chaplain,--and he said he wanted me to help +him die. And I said, 'I'd take you right up in my arms and carry you +into the kingdom of God, if I could; but I can't do it; I can't help you +to die.' + +"And he said, 'Who can?' + +"I said, 'The Lord Jesus Christ can. He came for that purpose.' He shook +his head and said, 'He can't save me; I have sinned all my life.' + +"And I said, 'But he came to save sinners.' I thought of his mother in +the north, and I knew that she was anxious that he should die right, and +I thought I'd stay with him. I prayed two or three times, and repeated +all the promises I could, and I knew that in a few hours he would be +gone. I said I wanted to read him a conversation that Christ had with a +man who was anxious about his soul. I turned to the third chapter of +John. His eyes were riveted on me, and when I came to the fourteenth +and fifteenth verses, he caught up the words, 'As Moses lifted up the +serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: +that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal +life.' + +"He stopped me, and said, 'Is that there?' I said, 'Yes;' and he asked +me to read it again, and I did so. He leaned his elbows on the cot and +clasped his hands together, and said, 'That's good; won't you read it +again?' I read it the third time, and then went on with the rest of the +chapter. When I finished his eyes were closed, his hands were folded, +and there was a smile on his face. Oh, how it was lit up! What a change +had come over it. I saw his lips quiver, and I leaned over him, and +heard in a faint whisper, 'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the +wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever +believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.' + +"He opened his eyes and said, 'That's enough; don't read any more.' He +lingered a few hours, and then pillowed his head on those two verses, +and went up in one of Christ's chariots and took his seat in the kingdom +of God." + +On the 28th of August, 1862, Mr. Moody married Miss Emma C. Revell, a +most helpful assistant in his meetings, and a young lady of noble +character. A daughter and a son came to gladden their simple cottage, +and there was no happier home in all Chicago. One morning he said to his +wife, "I have no money, and the house is without supplies. It looks as +if the Lord had had enough of me in this mission work, and is going to +send me back again to sell boots and shoes." But very soon two checks +came, one of fifty dollars for himself, and another for his school. Six +years after his marriage, his friends gave him the lease of a pleasant +furnished house. + +This home had a welcome for all who sought the true way to live. One day +a gentleman called at the office, bringing a young man who had recently +come out of the penitentiary. The latter shrunk from going into the +office, but Mr. Moody said, "Bring him in." Mr. Moody took him by the +hand, told him he was glad to see him, and invited him to his house. +When the young man called, Mr. Moody introduced him as his friend. When +his little daughter came into the room, he said, "Emma, this is papa's +friend." She went up and kissed him, and the man sobbed aloud. + +When she left the room, Mr. Moody said, "What is the matter?" + +"Oh sir," was the reply, "I have not had a kiss for years. The last kiss +I had was from my mother, and she was dying. I thought I would never +have another kiss again." + +No wonder people are saved from sin by visiting a home like this! + +In 1863, those who had been converted under this beloved leader wanted a +church of their own where they could worship together. A building was +erected, costing twenty thousand dollars. Four years later, Mr. Moody +was made President of the Young Men's Christian Association, and Farwell +Hall was speedily built. + +He was loved and honored everywhere. Once he was invited to the opening +of a great billiard hall. He saw the owners, and asked if he might bring +a friend. They said yes, but asked who he was. Mr. Moody said it wasn't +necessary to tell, but he never went without him. They understood his +meaning, and said, "Come, we don't want any praying." + +"You've given me an invitation, and I am going to come," he replied. + +"But if you come, you needn't pray." + +"Well, I'll tell you what we'll do," was the answer; "we'll compromise +the matter, and if you don't want me to come and pray for you when you +open, let me pray for you both now," to which they agreed. + +Mr. Moody prayed that their business might go to pieces, which it did in +a very few months. After the failure, one of the partners determined to +kill himself; but when he was about to plunge the knife into his breast, +he seemed to hear again the words of his dying mother, "Johnny, if you +get into trouble, pray." That voice changed his purpose and his life. He +prayed for forgiveness and obtained it. + +In 1871, the terrible fire in Chicago swept away Moody's home and +church. Two years later, having been invited to Great Britain by two +prominent Christian men, he decided to take his friend, Mr. Ira D. +Sankey, who had already won a place in the hearts of the people by his +singing, and together they would attempt some work for their Lord. They +landed in Liverpool, June 17. The two friends who had invited them were +dead. The clergy did not know them, and the world was wholly +indifferent. At their first meeting in York, England, only four persons +were present, but Mr. Moody said it was one of the best meetings they +ever held. They labored here for some weeks, and about two hundred were +converted. + +From here they went to Sunderland and Newcastle, the numbers and +interest constantly increasing. Union prayer meetings had been held in +Edinburgh for two months in anticipation of their coming. When they +arrived, two thousand persons crowded Music Hall, and hundreds were +necessarily turned away. As a result of these efforts, over three +thousand persons united with the various churches. In Dundee over ten +thousand persons gathered in the open air, and at Glasgow nearly thirty +thousand, Mr. Moody preaching from his carriage. The press reported all +these sermons, and his congregations were thus increased a hundred-fold +all over the country. The farmer boy of Northfield, the awkward young +convert of Mount Vernon Church, Boston, had become famous. Scholarly +ministers came to him to learn how to influence men toward religion. +Infidels were reclaimed, and rich and poor alike found the Bible +precious, from his simple and beautiful teaching. + +In Ireland the crowds sometimes covered six acres, and inquiry meetings +lasted for eight hours. Four months were spent in London, where it is +believed over two and a half million persons attended the meetings. + +Mr. Moody had been fearless in his work. When a church member who was a +distiller became troubled in conscience over his business, he came and +asked if the evangelist thought a man could not be an honest distiller. + +Mr. Moody replied, "You should do whatever you do for the glory of God. +If you can get down and pray about a barrel of whiskey, and say when you +sell it, 'O Lord God, let this whiskey be blessed to the world,' it is +probably honest!" + +On his return to America, Mr. Moody was eagerly welcomed. Philadelphia +utilized an immense freight depot for the meetings, putting in it ten +thousand chairs, and providing a choir of six hundred singers. Over four +thousand conversions resulted. In New York the Hippodrome was prepared +by an expenditure of ten thousand dollars, and as many conversions were +reported here. Boston received him with open arms. Ninety churches +co-operated in the house-to-house visitation in connection with the +meetings, and a choir of two thousand singers was provided. Mr. Moody, +with his wonderful executive ability and genius in organizing, was like +a general at the head of his army. + +Chicago received him home thankfully and proudly, as was her right. A +church had been built for him during his absence, costing one hundred +thousand dollars. + +For the past ten years his work has been a marvel to the world and, +doubtless, to himself. Great Britain has been a second time stirred to +its centre by his presence. His sermons have been scattered broadcast by +the hundreds of thousands. He receives no salary, never allowing a +contribution to be taken for himself, but his wants have been supplied. +A pleasant home at his birthplace, Northfield, has been given him by his +friends, made doubly dear by the presence of his mother, now over eighty +years old. He has established two schools here, one for boys and another +for girls, with three hundred pupils, trained in all that ennobles life. + +The results from Mr. Moody's work are beyond computing. In his first +visit to London a noted man of wealth was converted. He at once sold his +hunting dogs and made his country house a centre of missionary effort. +During Mr. Moody's second visit the two sons at Cambridge University +professed Christianity. One goes to China, having induced some other +students to accompany him as missionaries; the other, just married to a +lord's daughter, has begun mission work among the slums in the East End +of London. + +The work of such a life as Mr. Moody's goes on forever. His influence +will be felt in almost countless homes after he has passed away from +earth. He has wrought without means, and with no fortuitous +circumstances. He is a devoted student of the Bible, rising at five +o'clock for study in some of his most laborious seasons. He is a man +consecrated to a single purpose,--that of winning souls. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Moody died at his home at East Northfield, Mass., at noon, Friday, +December 22, 1899. He was taken ill during a series of meetings at +Kansas City, a few weeks previously, and heart disease resulted from +overwork. He was conscious to the last. He said to his two sons who were +standing by his bedside: "I have always been an ambitious man, not +ambitious to lay up wealth, but to leave you work to do, and you're +going to continue the work of the schools in East Northfield and Mount +Hermon and of the Chicago Bible Institute." Just as death came he awoke +as if from sleep and said joyfully, "I have been within the gate; earth +is receding; heaven is opening; God is calling me; do not call me back," +and a moment later expired. He was buried Tuesday, December 26, at Round +Top, on the seminary grounds, where thousands have gathered yearly at +the summer meetings conducted by the great evangelist. + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + +In Gentryville, Indiana, in the year 1816, might have been seen a log +cabin without doors or window-glass, a dirt floor, a bed made of dried +leaves, and a stool or two and table formed of logs. The inmates were +Thomas Lincoln, a good-hearted man who could neither read nor write; +Nancy Hanks, his wife, a pale-faced, sensitive, gentle woman, strangely +out of place in her miserable surroundings; a girl of ten, Sarah; and a +tall, awkward boy of eight, Abraham. + +The family had but recently moved from a similar cabin in Hardin County, +Kentucky, cutting their way through the wilderness with an ax, and +living off the game they could obtain with a gun. + +Mrs. Lincoln possessed but one book in the world, the Bible; and from +this she taught her children daily. Abraham had been to school for two +or three months, at such a school as the rude country afforded, and had +learned to read. Of quick mind and retentive memory, he soon came to +know the Bible wellnigh by heart, and to look upon his gentle teacher as +the embodiment of all the good precepts in the book. Afterward, when +he governed thirty million people, he said, "All that I am or hope to +be, I owe to my angel mother. Blessings on her memory!" + +[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.] + +When he was ten years old, the saintly mother faded like a flower amid +these hardships of pioneer life, died of consumption, and was buried in +a plain box under the trees near the cabin. The blow for the girl, who +also died at fifteen, was hard; but for the boy the loss was +irreparable. Day after day he sat on the grave and wept. A sad, far-away +look crept into his eyes, which those who saw him in the perils of his +later life well remember. + +Nine months after this, Abraham wrote a letter to Parson Elkins, a good +minister whom they used to know in Kentucky, asking him to come and +preach a funeral sermon on his mother. He came, riding on horseback over +one hundred miles; and one bright Sabbath morning, when the neighbors +from the whole country around had gathered, some in carts and some on +horseback, he spoke, over the open grave, of the precious, Christian +life of her who slept beneath. She died early, but not till she had laid +well the foundation-stones in one of the grandest characters in history. + +The boy, communing with himself, longed to read and know something +beyond the stumps between which he planted his corn. He borrowed a copy +of Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," and read and re-read it till he could +repeat much of it. Then some one loaned him "AEsop's Fables" and +"Robinson Crusoe," and these he pored over with eager delight. There +surely was a great world beyond Kentucky and Indiana, and perhaps he +would some day see it. + +After a time Thomas Lincoln married a widow, an old friend of Nancy +Hanks, and she came to the cabin, bringing her three children; besides, +she brought what to Abraham and Sarah seemed unheard-of elegance,--a +bureau, some chairs, a table, and bedding. Abraham had heretofore +climbed to the loft of the cabin on pegs, and had slept on a sack filled +with corn-husks: now a real bed would seem indeed luxurious. + +The children were glad to welcome the new mother to the desolate home; +and a good, true mother she became to the orphans. She put new energy +into her somewhat easy-going husband, and made the cabin comfortable, +even attractive. What was better still, she encouraged Abraham to read +more and more, to be thorough, and to be somebody. Besides, she gave his +great heart something to love, and well she repaid the affection. + +He now obtained a much-worn copy of Weem's "Life of Washington," and the +little cabin grew to be a paradise, as he read how one great man had +accomplished so much. The barefoot boy, in buckskin breeches so shrunken +that they reached only half way between the knee and ankle, actually +asked himself whether there were not some great place in the world for +him to fill. No wonder, when, a few days after, making a noise with some +of his fun-loving companions, a good woman said to him, "Now, Abe, what +on earth do you s'pose'll ever become of ye? What'll ye be good for if +ye keep a-goin' on in this way?" He replied slowly, "Well, I reckon I'm +goin' to be President of the United States one of these days." + +The treasured "Life of Washington" came to grief. One stormy night the +rain beat between the logs of the cabin, and flooded the volume as it +lay on a board upheld by two pegs. Abraham sadly carried it back to its +owner, and worked three days, at twenty-five cents a day, to pay +damages, and thus made the book his own. + +The few months of schooling had already come to an end, and he was +"living out," hoeing, planting, and chopping wood for the farmers, and +giving the wages to his parents. In this way, in the daytime he studied +human nature, and in the evenings he read "Plutarch's Lives" and the +"Life of Benjamin Franklin." He was liked in these humble homes, for he +could tend baby, tell stories, make a good impromptu speech, recite +poetry, even making rhymes himself, and could wrestle and jump as well +as the best. + +While drinking intoxicants was the fashion all about him, taught by his +first mother not to touch them, he had solemnly carried out her wishes. +But his tender heart made him kind to the many who, in this pioneer +life, had been ruined through drink. One night, as he was returning from +a house-raising, he and two or three friends found a man in the ditch +benumbed with the cold, and his patient horse waiting beside him. They +lifted the man upon the animal, and held him on till they reached the +nearest house, where Abraham cared for him through the night, and thus +saved his life. + +At eighteen he had found a situation in a small store, but he was not +satisfied to stand behind a counter; he had read too much about +Washington and Franklin. Fifteen miles from Gentryville, courts were +held at certain seasons of the year; and when Abraham could find a spare +day he walked over in the morning and back at night, listening to the +cases. Meantime he had borrowed a strange book for a poor +country-lad,--"The Revised Statutes of Indiana." + +One day a man on trial for murder had secured the able lawyer, John A. +Breckenridge, to defend him. Abraham listened as he made his appeal to +the jury. He had never heard anything so eloquent. When the court +adjourned the tall, homely boy, his face beaming with admiration for the +great man, pressed forward to grasp his hand; but, with a contemptuous +air, the lawyer passed on without speaking. Thirty years later the two +met in Washington, when Abraham Lincoln was the President of the United +States; and then he thanked Mr. Breckenridge for his great speech in +Indiana. + +In March, 1828, the long-hoped-for opportunity to see the world outside +of Gentryville had come. Abraham was asked by a man who knew his honesty +and willingness to work, to take a flat-boat down the Mississippi River +to New Orleans. He was paid only two dollars a week and his rations; and +as a flat-boat could not come up the river, but must be sold for lumber +at the journey's end, he was obliged to walk the whole distance back. +The big-hearted, broad-shouldered youth, six feet and four inches tall, +had seen in this trip what he would never forget; had seen black men in +chains, and men and women sold like sheep in the slave-marts of New +Orleans. Here began his horror of human slavery, which years after +culminated in the Emancipation Proclamation. + +Two years later, when he had become of age, Abraham helped move his +father's family to Illinois, driving the four yoke of oxen which drew +the household goods over the muddy roads and through the creeks. Then he +joined his adopted brothers in building a log house, plowed fifteen +acres of prairie land for corn, split rails to fence it in, and then +went out into the world to earn for himself, his scanty wages heretofore +belonging legally to his father. He did not always receive money for his +work, for once, for a Mrs. Miller, he split four hundred rails for every +yard of brown jeans, dyed with white walnut bark, necessary to make a +pair of trowsers. + +He had no trade, and no money, and must do whatever came to hand. For a +year he worked for one farmer and another, and then he and his +half-brother were hired by a Mr. Offutt to build and take a flat-boat to +New Orleans. So pleased was the owner, that on Abraham's return, he was +at once engaged to manage a mill and store at New Salem. Here he went by +the name of "Honest Abe," because he was so fair in his dealings. On one +occasion, having sold a woman a bill of goods amounting to two dollars +and six and a quarter cents, he found that in adding the items, he had +taken six and a quarter cents too much. It was night, and locking the +store, he walked two or three miles to return the money to his +astonished customer. Another time a woman bought a half pound of tea. He +discovered afterward that he had used a four-ounce weight on the scales, +and at once walked a long way to deliver the four ounces which were her +due. No wonder the world, like Diogenes, is always looking for an honest +man. + +He insisted on politeness before women. One day as he was showing goods, +a boorish man came in and began to use profanity. Young Lincoln leaned +over the desk, and begged him to desist before ladies. When they had +gone, the man became furious. Finding that he really desired to fight, +Lincoln said, "Well, if you must be whipped, I suppose I may as well +whip you as any other man," and suiting the action to the word, gave +him a severe punishing. The man became a better citizen from that day, +and Lincoln's life-long friend. + +Years afterward, when in the Presidential chair, a man used profanity in +his presence, he said, "I thought Senator C. had sent me a gentleman. I +was mistaken. There is the door, and I wish you good-night." + +Hearing that a grammar could be purchased six miles away, the young +store-keeper walked thither and obtained it. When evening came, as +candles were too expensive for his limited wages, he burnt one shaving +after another to give light, and thus studied the book which was to be +so valuable in after years, when he should stand before the great and +cultured of the land. He took the "Louisville Journal," because he must +be abreast of the politics of the day, and made careful notes from every +book he read. + +Mr. Offutt soon failed, and Abraham Lincoln was again adrift. War had +begun with Blackhawk, the chief of the Sacs, and the Governor of +Illinois was calling for volunteers. A company was formed in New Salem, +and "Honest Abe" was chosen captain. He won the love of his men for his +thoughtfulness of them rather than himself, and learned valuable lessons +in military matters for the future. A strange thing now happened,--he +was asked to be a candidate for the State Legislature! At first he +thought his friends were ridiculing him, and said he should be defeated +as he was not widely known. + +"Never mind!" said James Rutledge, the president of their little +debating club. "They'll know you better after you've stumped the county. +Any how, it'll do you good to try." + +Lincoln made some bright, earnest stump speeches, and though he was +defeated, the young man of twenty-three received two hundred and +seventy-seven votes out of the two hundred and eighty cast in New Salem. +This surely was a pleasant indication of his popularity. It was a common +saying, that "Lincoln had nothing, only plenty of friends." + +The County-surveyor needed an assistant. He called upon Lincoln, +bringing a book for him to study, if he would fit himself to take hold +of the matter. This he did gladly, and for six weeks studied and recited +to a teacher, thus making himself skilled and accurate for a new +country. Whenever he had an hour's leisure from his work, however, he +was poring over his law-books, for he had fully made up his mind to be a +lawyer. + +He was modest, but ambitious, and was learning the power within him. But +as though the developing brain and warm heart needed an extra stimulus, +there came into his life, at this time, a beautiful affection, that left +a deeper look in the far-away eyes, when it was over. Ann Rutledge, the +daughter of his friend, was one of the most intelligent and lovely girls +in New Salem. When Lincoln came to her father's house to board, she was +already engaged to a bright young man in the neighborhood, who, shortly +before their intended marriage, was obliged to visit New York on +business. He wrote back of his father's illness and death, and then his +letters ceased. + +Mouths passed away. Meantime the young lawyer had given her the homage +of his strong nature. At first she could not bring herself to forget her +recreant lover, but the following year, won by Lincoln's devotion, she +accepted him. He seemed now supremely happy. He studied day and night, +eager to fill such a place that Ann Rutledge would be proud of him. He +had been elected to the Legislature, and, borrowing some money to +purchase a suit of clothes, he walked one hundred miles to the State +capitol. He did not talk much in the Assembly, but he worked faithfully +upon committees, and studied the needs of his State. + +The following summer days seemed to pass all too swiftly in his +happiness. Then the shadows gathered. The girl he idolized was sinking +under the dreadful strain upon her young heart. The latter part of +August she sent for Lincoln to come to her bedside. What was said in +that last farewell has never been known. It is stated by some that her +former lover had returned, as fond of her as ever, his silence having +been caused by a long illness. But on the twenty-fifth of August, death +took her from them both. + +Lincoln was overwhelmed with anguish; insane, feared and believed his +friends. He said, "I can never be reconciled to have the snow, rains, +and storms beat upon her grave." Years after he was heard to say, "My +heart lies buried in the grave of that girl." A poem by William Knox, +found and read at this time, became a favorite and a comfort through +life,-- + + "Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?" + +Mr. Herndon, his law partner, said, "The love and death of that girl +shattered Lincoln's purposes and tendencies. He threw off his infinite +sorrow only by leaping wildly into the political arena." The memory of +that love never faded from his heart, nor the sadness from his face. + +The following year, 1837, when he was twenty-eight, he was admitted to +the bar, and moved from New Salem to the larger town of Springfield, +forming a partnership with Mr. J. P. Stuart of whom he had borrowed his +law-books. Too poor even yet to pay much for board, he slept on a narrow +lounge in the law-office. He was again elected to the legislature, and +in the Harrison Presidential campaign, was chosen one of the electors, +speaking through the State for the Whig party. To so prominent a +position, already, had come the backwoods boy. + +Four years after Ann Rutledge's death, he married, Nov. 4, 1839, Mary +Todd, a bright, witty, somewhat handsome girl, of good family, from +Kentucky. She admired his ability, and believed in his success; he +needed comfort in his utter loneliness. Till his death he was a true +husband, and an idolizing father to his children,--Robert, Willie, and +Tad (Thomas). + +In 1846, seven years after his marriage, having steadily gained in the +reputation of an honest, able lawyer, who would never take a case unless +sure he was on the right side, Mr. Lincoln was elected to Congress by an +uncommonly large majority. Opposed to the war with Mexico, and to the +extension of slavery, he spoke his mind fearlessly. The "Compromise +measures of 1850," by which, while California was admitted as a free +State, and the slave-trade was abolished in the District of Columbia, +the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, giving the owners of slaves the right +to recapture them in any free State, had disheartened all lovers of +freedom. Lincoln said gloomily to his law partner, Mr. Herndon, "How +hard, oh, how hard it is to die and leave one's country no better than +if one had never lived for it!" + +His father died about this time, his noble son sending him this message, +"to remember to call upon and confide in our great and good and merciful +Maker, who will not turn away from him in any extremity. He notes the +fall of the sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads; and He will not +forget the dying man who puts his trust in Him." + +In 1854, through the influence of Stephen A. Douglas, a brilliant +senator from Illinois, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, whereby +those States were left to judge for themselves whether they would have +slaves or not. But by the Missouri Compromise of 1820, it was expressly +stated that slavery should be forever prohibited in this locality. The +whole North grew to white heat. When Douglas returned to his Chicago +home the people refused to hear him speak. Illinois said, "His arguments +must be answered, and Abraham Lincoln is the man to answer them!" + +At the State Fair at Springfield, in October, a great company were +gathered. Douglas spoke with marked ability and eloquence, and then on +the following day, Abraham Lincoln spoke for three hours. His heart was +in his words. He quivered with emotion. The audience were still as +death, but when the address was finished, men shouted and women waved +their handkerchiefs. Lincoln and the right had triumphed. After this, +the two men spoke in all the large towns of the State, to immense +crowds. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill worked out its expected results. Blood +flowed in the streets, as pro-slavery and anti-slavery men contested the +ground, newspaper offices were torn down by mobs, and Douglas lost the +great prize he had in view,--the Presidency of the United States. + +When the new party, the Republican, held its second convention in +Philadelphia, June 17, 1856, Abraham Lincoln received one hundred and +ten votes for Vice President. What would Nancy Hanks Lincoln have said +if she could have looked now upon the boy to whom she taught the Bible +in the log cabin! + +An incident occurred about this time which increased his fame. A man was +murdered at a camp-meeting, and two young men were arrested. One was a +very poor youth, whose mother, Hannah Armstrong, had been kind to +Lincoln in the early years. She wrote to the prominent lawyer about her +troubles, because she believed her son to be innocent. The trial came +on. The people were clamorous for Armstrong to be hanged. The principal +witness testified that "by the aid of the brightly shining moon, he saw +the prisoner inflict the death-blow with a slung shot." + +After careful questioning, Mr. Lincoln showed the perjury of the +witness, by the almanac, no moon being visible on the night in question. +The jury were melted to tears by the touching address, and their +sympathy went out to the wronged youth and his poor old mother, who +fainted in his arms. Tears, too, poured down the face of Mr. Lincoln, as +the young man was acquitted. "Why, Hannah," he said, when the grateful +woman asked what she should try to pay him, "I shan't charge you a cent; +never." She had been well repaid for her friendliness to a penniless +boy. + +The next year he was invited to deliver a lecture at Cooper Institute, +New York. He was not very well known at the East. He had lived +unostentatiously in the two-story frame-house in Springfield, and when +seen at all by the people, except in his addresses, was usually drawing +one of his babies in a wagon before his door, with hat and coat off, +deeply buried in thought. When the crowd gathered at Cooper Institute, +they expected to hear a fund of stories and a "Western stump speech." +But they did not hear what they expected. They heard a masterly review +of the history of slavery in this country, and a prophecy concerning the +future of the slavery question. They were amazed at its breadth and its +eloquence. The "New York Tribune" said, "No man ever before made such an +impression on his first appeal to a New York audience." + +After this Mr. Lincoln spoke in various cities to crowded houses. A Yale +professor took notes and gave a lecture to his students on the address. +Surprised at his success among learned men, Mr. Lincoln once asked a +prominent professor "what made the speeches interest?" + +The reply was, "The clearness of your statements, the unanswerable style +of your reasoning and your illustrations, which were romance, and +pathos, and fun, and logic, all welded together." + +Mr. Lincoln said, "I am very much obliged to you for this. It throws +light on a subject which has been dark to me. Certainly I have had a +wonderful success for a man of my limited education." + +The sabbath he spent in New York, he found his way to the Sunday-school +at Five Points. He was alone. The superintendent noticing his interest, +asked him to say a few words. The children were so pleased that when he +attempted to stop, they cried, "Go on, oh! do go on!" No one knew his +name, and on being asked who he was, he replied, "Abraham Lincoln of +Illinois." After visiting his son Robert at Harvard College, he returned +home. + +When the Republican State Convention met, May 9, 1860, at Springfield, +Ill., Mr. Lincoln was invited to a seat on the platform, and as no way +could be made through the dense throng, he was carried over the people's +heads. Ten days later, at the National Convention at Chicago, though +William H. Seward of New York was a leading candidate, the West gained +the nomination, with their idolized Lincoln. Springfield was wild with +joy. When the news of his success was carried to him, he said quietly, +"Well, gentlemen, there's a little woman at our house who is probably +more interested in this dispatch than I am; and if you will excuse me, I +will take it up and let her see it." + +The resulting canvass was one of the most remarkable in our history. The +South said, "War will result if he is elected." The North said, "The +time has come for decisive action." The popular vote for Abraham Lincoln +was nearly two millions (1,857,610), while Stephen A. Douglas received +something over a million (1,291,574). The country was in a fever of +excitement. The South made itself ready for war by seizing the forts. +Before the inauguration most of the Southern States had seceded. + +Sad farewells were uttered as Mr. Lincoln left Springfield for +Washington. To his law partner he said, "You and I have been together +more than twenty years, and have never passed a word. Will you let my +name stay on the old sign till I come back from Washington?" + +The tears came into Mr. Herndon's eyes, as he said, "I will never have +any other partner while you live," and he kept his word. Old Hannah +Armstrong told him that she should never see him again; that something +told her so; his enemies would assassinate him. He smiled and said, +"Hannah, if they do kill me, I shall never die another death." + +He went away without fear, but feeling the awful responsibility of his +position. He found an empty treasury and the country drifting into the +blackness of war. He spoke few words, but the lines grew deeper on his +face, and his eyes grew sadder. + +In his inaugural address he said, "In your hands, my dissatisfied +fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. +The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without +being yourselves the aggressors.... Physically speaking we cannot +separate." + +The conflict began April 12, 1861, by the enemy firing on Fort Sumter. +That sound reverberated throughout the North. The President called for +seventy-five thousand men. The choicest from thousands of homes quickly +responded. Young men left their college-halls and men their places of +business. "The Union must and shall be preserved," was the eager cry. +Then came the call for forty-two thousand men for three years. + +The President began to study war in earnest. He gathered military books, +sought out on maps every creek and hill and valley in the enemy's +country, and took scarcely time to eat or sleep. May 24, the brilliant +young Colonel Ellsworth had been shot at Alexandria by a hotel-keeper, +because he pulled down the secession flag. He was buried from the east +room in the White House, and the North was more aroused than ever. The +press and people were eager for battle, and July 21, 1861, the Union +army, under General McDowell, attacked the Confederates at Bull Run and +were defeated. The South was jubilant, and the North learned, once for +all, that the war was to be long and bloody. Congress, at the request of +the President, at once voted five hundred thousand men, and five hundred +million dollars to carry on the war. + +Vast work was to be done. The Southern ports must be blockaded, and the +traffic on the Mississippi River discontinued. A great and brave army of +Southerners, fighting on their own soil, every foot of which they knew +so well, must be conquered if the nation remained intact. The burdens of +the President grew more and more heavy. Men at the North, who +sympathized with the South,--for we were bound together as one family +in a thousand ways,--said the President was going too far in his +authority; others said he moved too slowly, and was too lenient to the +slave power. The South gained strength from the sympathy of England, and +only by careful leadership was war avoided with that country. + +General McClellan had fought some hard battles in Virginia--Fair Oaks, +Mechanicsville, Malvern Hill, and others--with varying success, losing +thousands of men in the Chickahominy swamps, and after the battle of +Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862, one of the severest of the war, when each side +lost over ten thousand men, he was relieved of his command, and +succeeded by General Burnside. There had been some successes at the West +under Grant, at Fort Donelson and Shiloh, and at the South under +Farragut, but the outlook for the country was not hopeful. Mr. Lincoln +had met with a severe affliction in his own household. His beautiful son +Willie had died in February. He used to walk the room in those dying +hours, saying sadly, "This is the hardest trial of my life; why is it? +why is it?" + +This made him, perhaps, even more tender of the lives of others' sons. A +young sentinel had been sentenced to be shot for sleeping at his post; +but the President pardoned him, saying, "I could not think of going into +eternity with the blood of the poor young man on my skirts. It is not to +be wondered at that a boy raised on a farm, probably in the habit of +going to bed at dark, should, when required to watch, fall asleep, and I +cannot consent to shoot him for such an act." This youth was found among +the slain on the field of Fredericksburg, wearing next his heart a +photograph of his preserver, with the words, "God bless President +Lincoln." + +An army officer once went to Washington to see about the execution of +twenty-four deserters, who had been sentenced by court-martial to be +shot. "Mr. President," said he, "unless these men are made an example +of, the army itself is in danger. Mercy to the few is cruelty to the +many." + +"Mr. General," was the reply, "there are already too many weeping widows +in the United States. For God's sake, don't ask me to add to the number, +for I won't do it." At another time he said, "Well, I think the boy can +do us more good above ground than under ground." + +A woman in a faded shawl and hood came to see the President, begging +that, as her husband and all her sons--three--had enlisted, and her +husband had been killed, he would release the oldest, that he might care +for his mother. Mr. Lincoln quickly consented. When the poor woman +reached the hospital where her boy was to be found, he was dead. +Returning sadly to Mr. Lincoln, he said, "I know what you wish me to do +now, and I shall do it without your asking; I shall release your second +son.... Now _you_ have one, and _I_ one of the other two left: that is +no more than right." Tears filled the eyes of both as she reverently +laid her hand on his head, saying, "The Lord bless you, Mr. President. +May you live a thousand years, and always be at the head of this great +nation!" + +Through all these months it had become evident that slavery must be +destroyed, or we should live over again these dreadful war-scenes in +years to come. Mr. Lincoln had been waiting for the right time to free +the slaves. General McClellan had said, "A declaration of radical views, +especially upon slavery, will rapidly disintegrate our present armies"; +but Sept. 22, 1862, Mr. Lincoln told his Cabinet, "I have promised my +God that I will do it"; and he issued the immortal Emancipation +Proclamation, by which four million human beings stepped out from +bondage into freedom. He knew what he was doing. Two years afterward he +said, "It is the central act of my administration, and the great event +of the nineteenth century." + +The following year, 1863, brought even deeper sorrows. The "Draft Act," +by which men were obliged to enter the army when their names were drawn, +occasioned in July a riot in New York city, with the loss of many lives. +Grant had taken Vicksburg on July 4, and General Meade had won at the +dreadful three days' fight at Gettysburg, July 1-4, with a loss of more +than twenty thousand on either side; but the nation was being held +together at a fearful cost. When Mr. Lincoln announced to the people +the victory at Gettysburg, he expressed the desire that, in the +customary observance of the Fourth of July, "He whose will, not ours, +should everywhere be done, be everywhere reverenced with profoundest +gratitude." He reverenced God, himself, most devoutly. "I have been +driven many times upon my knees," he said, "by the overwhelming +conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all +about me seemed insufficient for that day." + +On Nov. 19, of this year, this battle-field was dedicated, with solemn +ceremonies, as one of the national cemeteries. Mr. Lincoln made a very +brief address, in words that will last while America lasts, "The world +will little note, nor long remember, what we say here; but it can never +forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be +dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have +thus far so nobly advanced. It is, rather, for us to be here dedicated +to the great task remaining for us, that from these honored dead we take +increased devotion to the cause for which they gave the last full +measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall +not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new +birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, +and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." + +Emerson says of these words, "This, and one other American speech, that +of John Brown to the court that tried him, and a part of Kossuth's +speech at Birmingham, can only be compared with each other, and no +fourth." + +The next year, Feb. 29, 1864, the Hero of Vicksburg was called to the +Lieutenant-Generalship of the army, and for the first time Mr. Lincoln +felt somewhat a sense of relief from burdens. He said, "Wherever Grant +is, things move." He now called for five hundred thousand more men, and +the beginning of the end was seen. Sherman swept through to the sea. +Grant went below Richmond, where he said, "I propose to fight it out on +this line if it takes all summer." + +Mr. Lincoln had been re-elected to the Presidency for a second term, +giving that beautiful inaugural address to the people, "With malice +toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God +gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are +in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne +the battle, and for his widows and orphans; to do all which may achieve +and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all +nations." On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, and +the long war was ended. The people gathered in their churches to praise +God amid their tears. Abraham Lincoln's name was on every lip. The +colored people said of their deliverer, "He is eberywhere. He is like de +bressed Lord; he walks de waters and de land." + +An old colored woman came to the door of the White House and met the +President as he was coming out, and said she wanted to see "Abraham the +Second." + +"And who was Abraham the First?" asked the good man. + +"Why, Lor' bless you, we read about Abraham de First in de Bible, and +Abraham de Second is de President." + +"Here he is!" said the President, turning away to hide his tears. + +Well did the noble-hearted man say, "I have never willingly planted a +thorn in any man's bosom." + +Five days after the surrender of General Lee, Mr. Lincoln went to Ford's +Theatre, because it would rest him and please the people to see him. He +used to say, "The tired part of me is inside and out of reach.... I feel +a presentiment that I shall not outlast the rebellion. When it is over, +my work will be done." + +While Mr. Lincoln was enjoying the play, John Wilkes Booth, an actor, +came into the box behind him and fired a bullet into his brain; then +sprang upon the stage, shouting, "Sic semper tyrannis! The South is +avenged!" The President scarcely moved in his chair, and, unconscious, +was taken to a house near by, where he died at twenty-two minutes past +seven, April 15, 1865. Booth was caught twelve days later, and shot in a +burning barn. + +The nation seemed as though struck dumb; and then, from the Old World +as well as the New, came an agonizing wail of sorrow. Death only showed +to their view how sublime was the character of him who had carried them +through the war. While the body, embalmed, lay in state in the east room +of the White House tens of thousands crowded about it. And then, +accompanied by the casket of little Willie, the body of Abraham Lincoln +took its long journey of fifteen hundred miles, to the home of his early +life, for burial. Nothing in this country like that funeral pageant has +ever been witnessed. In New York, in Philadelphia, and in every other +city along the way, houses were trimmed with mourning, bells tolled, +funeral marches were played, and the rooms where the body rested were +filled with flowers. Hundreds of thousands looked upon the tired, noble +face of the martyred President. + +In Oak Ridge Cemetery, at Springfield, Illinois, in the midst of a dense +multitude, a choir of two hundred and fifty singing by the open grave of +him who dearly loved music, + + "Children of the Heavenly King," + +Abraham Lincoln was buried, Bishop Simpson, now dead, spoke eloquently, +quoting Mr. Lincoln's words, "Before high Heaven and in the face of the +world I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the +land of my life, my liberty, and my love." + +Charles Sumner said, "There are no accidents in the Providence of God." +Such lives as that of Abraham Lincoln are not accidents in American +history. They are rather the great books from whose pages we catch +inspiration, and in which we read God's purposes for the progress of the +human race. + + * * * * * + + + + +BOOKS BY SARAH K. BOLTON. + + "_Mrs. Bolton never fails to interest and instruct her + readers._"--CHICAGO INTER-OCEAN. + + + POOR BOYS WHO BECAME FAMOUS + GIRLS WHO BECAME FAMOUS + FAMOUS MEN OF SCIENCE + FAMOUS AMERICAN STATESMEN + FAMOUS ENGLISH STATESMEN + FAMOUS AMERICAN AUTHORS + FAMOUS ENGLISH AUTHORS + FAMOUS EUROPEAN ARTISTS + FAMOUS TYPES OF WOMANHOOD + FAMOUS VOYAGERS AND EXPLORERS + FAMOUS LEADERS AMONG MEN + FAMOUS LEADERS AMONG WOMEN + FAMOUS GIVERS AND THEIR GIFTS + EMERSON + RAPHAEL + FROM HEART AND NATURE (Poems) + THE INEVITABLE (Poems) + + + _For Sale by all Booksellers. Send for Catalogue._ + + NEW YORK: + THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. + PUBLISHERS. + + * * * * * + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: + + +Punctuation has been standardised. + +Minor printer errors (e.g. omitted, superfluous & transposed characters) +have been fixed. + + Page 72, "Amodeus" changed to "Amadeus" (Amadeus Mozart was) + + Page 134, "tamborine" changed to "tambourine" (beating the tambourine) + + Page 186, "capitol" changed to "capital" (capital of united Italy) + + Page 241, "enterprizing" changed to "enterprising" (enterprising young) + + Page 273, "sadler" changed to "saddler" (a saddler was found) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lives of Poor Boys Who Became Famous, by +Sarah K. 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