Butte record., 1854-06-24
THE oUAKEa's APPRENTICE.

Ii Is now twenty years; SAYS the last
ern journal, since We hung upon peg
in the old New Hampshire Statesman
Office, at Connecticut, n. H, a little
brown jacket and blue cap, and com
nenced "learning the eases" We re-
member that cap and Jacket well It
was the best cap We had then ever owned,
and We remember that lis yapor had a
green lining which we fancied might be
great benefit 10 the cyes-and we re-
member how our mother sat up for sew
eral nights, after the other members of
the family were abed, to get that little
brown suit ready by the day appointed
for her boy to lsaYe home and enter upon
his seven years apprenticeship. Well,
we were a little fellow then, (we ar9 pot
very large now.) but we were SO short
that we had to endure The laughing OF
the big boys at our necessity Of mount
ing chair to get at our work.
But we have not set down to write
about that cap Or jacket, or the expert
ence Of those seven years, or to tell Of
the score Of young men We met in that
printing ofice-all ROW scattered; the
maj part have passed to ''that bourne
whence no traveller returns" Peace to
their ashes. But we want to tell of il
couple of men, in those days living in
Concord, engaged in the bookbinding
business. Charles II was man in
idle life, a Quaker, and generally very
sensible and very clever man. But he
vas man of intense and very controls
able temper, When excited he wagged
a very saucy tongue, and sometimes
dealt in blows. lis best friends were
not uafrcquently the objects of his vio-
lent abuse. Oliver L. s. was the
other bookbinder lie was a young,
quiet man, Of not many words, but Of
attentive industrious habits. For sew
eral years he hal been an apprentice to
the irascible Quaker-frequently subjec.
ted TO the unreasonable rage. with scarce
a pretext for a cause, and was at last
driven from his shop, his master enpha-
sizing his imprecations by the fourishes
of an iron press-bar.
Some sixteen or seventeen years since,
the Quaker moved West A few years
later tie other binder moved to the city
Of Portland where he has since been ex-
tensively aad successfully engaged in
book and newspaper publishing.
Day before yesterday we were in Port
land, and in the counting room of his
news paper establishment met with our
old acqnintancc agdin. The CONVERSE
tion of course, turned upon oIden tines,
and the gentleman gave US a bit of his
history OF his old master since his av-
ing Concord He first pitched his tent
at Utica, n Y, whege in trade. he
fell into the hands Of rogue, and lost
al his Iittle property. With his inter
es;ing family, for ne had a good wife and
fine troop oflittle ones, he pushed far
ther West But misfortune kept in COM
pany, and he was reduced to extreme
want
Nine years ago, his old apprentice at
Portland, heard rumor Of his circum-
stances, and that, in his extremity he
had Leen obliged to sell his shoes from
his feet to purchase bread for his chill
dren. At once, like man with heart
beneath his jacket, he forgot all about
their parting, and set his old master one
hundyed and tfly dollars. 1t was an act
Of Christian, (alas that our world wit
nesses so few Of the kind, aud it was
done in time. and il saved the man and
his family. With hundred dollars of
the money, the man made purchase Of
tract Of rich prairie, twenty-five miles
from Chicago. His family went with
him upon the land Not q board could
then be obtained nearer than Chicago
and they had not the means Of buying,
were lumber ever SO plenty The house
consisted of a cooking stove sheltered by
three boards. But they had the land and
kept their hearts, and bountiful crops
followed their industry, aud in few
years the Sl50, with many blessings,
found its way back to Portland
Last year the Portland man was ira<-
cling to the West, and finding himself
within one hundred and fifty miles of the
home he had enabled his old master to
possess, be turned off from his journey
to make the family visit He says he
found them on the most charming spot
of earth he has Jet seen.
T., Al ,,,,J~4 &c tbo -,obozt ,>.,;..o,