The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1861-04-03
From the Utica Herald.
The Self Ruined Man.


There are few printers in Utica, or, indeed,
in New York State, who do not know "BTLL
PHILLrPs." He was for twelve years the
publisher Of the Madison County Whig, at
Cazenovia, in our neighboring county Of Mad
ison, and while there was an influential and
active politician, noted for his ability as a
writer and stump speaker. II rum had
been out of the question, it would have been
no surprising matter to see the name of Hon.
w. H. Phillips, NJ. c., from the Madison
and Oswego District. Phillips Cazenovia
friends were faithful to him for years. They
gave him the post office under President Tay-
lor, and repeatedly established him in the
newspaper business. But all was Of no avail;
the rum demon had clutch upon him that
could not be shaken off. We find the fol
lowing concerning the selfruined man in the
Newark, IN. j. Mercury,
On Friday last, as is our everyday habit,
we dropped in at the Station House to see
what items might be gathered from the GRIM
tale slate of the attentive Chief, and having
gathered all that was of interest to us, were
about passing out, when we met in the door,
way one of the most loathsome human beings
that it has ever been our lot to encounter
We stepped aside, quite willing to give the
rag muffled man--for he had been man
once-the largest privilege in passing, and
were astonished indeed when catching
glance at us he advanced, presented his hand
and called us by name. OF course we took
hrs trembling hand, though at first we could
discover nothing in his haggard features that
at all reminded us of a former acquaintance,
but when he mentioned his name and the
name of the paper on which we learned the
first beginnings Of the cart preservative Of
all arts" the veritable "Bill Philips" an old
fellow w-apprentice, stood revealed before us.
We had toiled side by side as embryo COM
positors, ina newspaper office (the Lycoming
Gazette) bearing the name of the county in
which it was located, in the northern part of
Pennsylvania, and we had known him then
as an uncommonly bright boy, natural wit
pet among his fellows, and withal the
quickest and most correct compositor in the
office. Leaving the office and business our
self on account of i'll 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 his benef;.ctor, and had but once been
heard of as leading rather dissipated life in
the city of Philadelphia.
We sat down by the side Of Bin on one Of
the station house benches, and listened as he
recounted his adventures, from the unlucky
day on which he threw his wardrobe" over
his shoulder and turned his back upon the
kindest Of employers, down to the time ofour
accidental meeting at the staton-house door,
where he had come to procure lodgings for
the night. 1t was the old story-the old re-
suits had followed his first step in wrong
doing-and there he was, after twenty years
of wandering, poor miserable friendless dis.
sipated creature, whom to deprive of his
glass was to remove the only prop which
now alone served to sustain life. We took
the poor fellow to better quarters, and turn
ell thoughtfully to contrast the career of the
fellow apprentice we had just left with thai
of others, who in the same Office served ou
their apprenticeship, and afterwards filled
some of the highest positions in their native
State. There was the Hon. b. Lewis, unit
lately the Chief Justice of the Supreme Cour
of Pennsylvania, who not only served his ap
premiership there, but afterwards owned
and edited the Gazette, leaving it only to FL
! still higher and more responsible position
Then there was another, round faced smar
boy, with nothing like the mother wit tina
Bill Phillips possessed, but he was steady il
{ his habits, served his employer faithfully
and to-day William F. Packer, the able an
honored Governor of Pennsylvania, no doub
recurs to that period when he was, by hon
esty and steadily serving out his allotte
time, laying the foundation for that succes
in life which has SO abundantly crowned al
his efforts. Look to it boys! There ar
but two methods for accomplishing the jour
ney of life among the closing growing year
, which intervene between the beginning an
the end; the one leads you through caree
of honor and usefulness, and the other tel
r inmates where Bill Phill;ps will soon Law hi
weary bones-in Potter's field.