Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1823-10-02
From The Trenton Emporium.
THE VILLAGE squire.

4
THE VILLAGE SQUIRE. ~
'ersll Oaks from little Acorns grows
To one who has 10 ambitions to
crafty, 10 jcalousies to irritate him,
and no interests to serve; to one, who,
from the peaceful retirement of his
cottage locks out at the great world
aud contemplates its whims and chan.
ges with sober mind, it is not a little
amusing 10 trace the various gradations
by which men travel from ebscurity
upwards. Minds of no ordinary capa-
city have been fred in the pursuit even
of village greatness. Caesar held it
only secondary object in estimation
l dimly remember Squire Frost; my
father, however, was quite intimate
with him. He was, at least in one re.
specs, like the great julius. Peace to
his memory, though he has left many
q better man behind him.
Plain Joseph Frost was the first
born of an itinerant schoolmaster; after
he had acquired sufficient strength,
and learned his A, d, G., he travelled
with his father, and at each location
acted as kind of usher to the haxen
headed urchins who were from time TO
time, committed to the pious Keeping
of the knight of the peterborough
water and wood to the school house,
and trotted at noon to the lodging
house for warm potatoe or bit of
duDpling to relish the contents of the
old school house dinner basket. In
this worthy vocation, he passed the
early part of his boyhood, learning
others, and acquiring a knowledge OF
the spelling book himself
nprocess OF time, his father, deep
ly lamenting the necessity of the mea-
sure, which grew out of the disrepute
into which the calling and occupation
Of schoolmaster was growing, and
the little prospect il offered of advance
ment, apprenticcd him TO shoemaker,
the only one in the village who took
newspaper. 1t was a lucky bit; Jo~
seph0read it to the last line of the last
advertisement every week, and as his
master was a quiet sort Of man sim.
ply made shoes, and went twice
week to Friends Meeting without
plaguing his head about politics or
news, he became before long the most
learned parsonage in the village, and
used to collect every evening large
assortment of tag rag and bobtail com
panlons round the cellar door, to tell
them what was going on in the great
world.
Ambition once excited. sometimesis
a wonder woI king medicine. Joseph
heard himself praised-he resolved to
become more and more worthy of it,
and taking the opportunity of spending
his winter evenings witha journeyman
who knew how to write, acquired the
art himself. In later days, he acquired
a knowledge Of arithmetic, sufficiently
to enable him 10 cast up an account and
carry out charge for shoes, mending
and strings, &c. With these accom-
piishments, he came out in the world
as shoemaker; bought second hand
razor and sirop; subscribed to news
paper on his own account, and pur-
chased of strolling pedlar a copy Of
the Declaration of Independence, with
Articles of Confederation, an old book
of Speeches, and Dictionary. This
was some years after the war of 10
Being favored with ready tongue,
and an exhaustless fund of two-penny
ideas, which, in matters of popularity
are very blessed tsiDgs, Joseph speed
lily arrived at the reputation of being a
very shrewd politician and man of
wonderful information. His politics
were moulded by the paper he read /
and with scarcely the knowledge that
there was another side to the question,
he became noisy advocate of the
Dutch party, but whether in principle !