The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1861-03-16
Prom he rssca Herald.
THF SELF RUINED Man.

I
deed. in New York State, Who do not Ina.
ABILL PHrLLsrs." He was for twe,v. -s.,,
the publisher Of the Madison Counts Th;a
at Cazenovia, in our neighborina coun,- q
Madison, and while there was an inauan,;.,
and active POLITICIAN, noted for h;s ah,I;s,
IS writer aud stump speaker. II rum
nao been out OF the question. il world have
Desn no surprising matter to see the name
Of Hon. W. Il. Phillips, NJ. c., from the
Msoison and Oswego District. Phillips
OazenosIa friends were faithful to him Tor
years. They gave him the post Office under
President Taylor, and repeatedly establish
60 him IN the newspaper business. But all
vas OF no avail; the rum demon had a
q ifcn upon him that could not be shaken
OF. We End the following concerning the
ssi-ruinsd man in the Newark. On. J.l
Mercury:
On Friday last, as is our erery day habit.
We dropped in At the Station House to see
what items might be gathered from the
criminal docket Of the ob,iging Justice or
To tell tale slate of the a;teltive Chief, and
having gathered all that was of interes, TO
Us, were about passing out, when we met in
the doorway one Of the most loathsome
human beings tina, it has ever been our lo.
to encounter. We stepped aside, quite
wiling to give the rag-mufled man-for he
mad been man once-the largest privilege
IN passing, and were astonished indeed when
Catching a glance at rs he advanced, pre-
sented his hand and called US BIZ name. Of
curse We took his trembling haad, though
a. hrss we could discover nothing in his hay
gtfd features that at all reminded US of a
f'rmer acquaintance, but when be mentioned
his name and the name of the paper on
ahich We learned the first beginnings of the
Art preseryative of all arts,o the veriiable
BILL Phillips an old fellow-apprentice,
stood revealed before us. We had toiied
side by side as embryo composltors, in a
newspaper Office (the Lycomipg Gaze,,e)
bearing the name of the county in which It
was located, IN the northern part of Penn
sylsania, and we had known him then rs an
ancommonly bright boy, natural wit,
pet among his fellows, and withal the quick
st and most orre;t compesitor in the Office.
Leaving the Office ami business ourself on
account OF ill health, before we had half
completed our profession, we heard little of
Bill except that for some trivial cause he
had run away from his employer, who was
also bis benefactor, and had but once been
heard Of as leading Il rather dissipated life
in the city of Philadelphia.
We sat down by the side Of Bill on one of
the station-h house benches, and listened as
he recounted his adventures, from the I'M
lucky day on which he threw his wardrobe
over his shoulder and turned his back upon
tGs kindest of employer down to the time
of our ,sccidental meeting at the station
house door. where he had come to procure
lodgings for The night. Ii was the old
story-the old results had followed his first
step in wrong aoins-an d there he was, after
twenty years of wandering, apoor miseraoie
frIendess dissipated creature, whom TO ue-
prive Of his glass was to remove the only
prop which now alone served 20 sustain
life. We took the poor fellow to better
quarters, and turned though fully to con-
trast the career of the fellow apprentice we
had just left with that of others, who 10 the
same Office served out their apprenticeship,
and afterwards filed some of the highest
positions in their native State. There was
the Hon. Z. Lewis, until lately the Chief
Justice 9th Supreme Court Of Pennsyl-
vania, who not only served his apprentice
ship there, but afterwards owned and edited
the Gazette, leaving it only to fiji! still
higher aud more responsible position.
ineu there was another, a round faced
smart boy, with nothing like the mother wit
that Bill Phillips possessed, but he was
steady in his habits, served his employer
faithfully, and to day William f. Packer,
the able and houored Governor of Penn
sylvania, no doubt recurs to that period
when he was, by honesty and steadily serv-
ing out his allotted time, laying the founda-
ton for that success in life which has so
abundantly crowned all bis efforts. Look to
it boys! There are but two methods for
accomplishing the journey of life among the
the closing growing years which intervene
between the beginning and the end; the one
leads you through career of honor and
usefulness, and the other terminates where
Bill Phillips will soon lay his weary bones
in Potter's field.