Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1862-06-20
MORNING LEADER.
Poor RoYs b che soulh.
fFrom tho s.. Louis Daily Union ]

From the So. Louis Daily Unlon.l
10 lis sometimes useful to speculate upon
what might have been the destiny Of prem
inent men under altered circumstances. II
General Butler had grown up in the North
west, he would only have appeared sooner
and more prominently before The country.
What would have been his lot had his pa
rents in their poverty, have resided IN a
slave Stete2 he would have been one Of
the rhce Of mean tphifss, and would have
grown IN with the surroundings Of mean
white lie would have lived whore there
are no common schools, where half Of the
white population not only do not know, but
are content not 70 know, how to read and
write, where, consequently, the poor boy,
even Il he has the opportunity to learn, yet
lacks the greater and yet more important
aid. the incentive, the stimulus to knowl-
edge. In the circumstances Of his birth,
Gen. Butler resembles another Massachu-
sets General, Banks, who, born in the
hnmblest condition, worked in factory at
Waltham, theua small village, and AFTER
his daily toll, frequently walked nine miles
q enioy, in the evening, the treasures OF
Boston library. Luckily for these men,
poor and lowly as was their condition they
we're born where there was good school
for the poorest and the lowliest, and where
thepoor boy goes to that school as natural
" as he goes to bed at night.
What was still more lucky for hem and
of far more Importance they we're born in
a land Of intellectual activity on soil
Z % which nature has denied all fertility,
but where, nevertheless, the tree Of know
ledge lourishes and is ever green among
Geld and biting airs, but where ne germ Of
talent rises thatis not fostered into full
and vigorous maturity, These two boys,
before they had entered a school-house,
saw how much value every one around
them set upon knowledge. At school, &C
cordintly, they studied and strOve, and got
that knowledge that made all other know
ledge tributary to them. Just beginning
10 understand, they heard in their own
families or among the neighboTs, the news
paper read, its articles discussed, criti-
.ciled. or controverted. They heard in the
village the Il greasy mechanic, the ''mud-
ssIlaH the 0white slaves discussing, af-
g ter their daily work, questions Of politics,
Of literature, even Of science; going to
reading-rooms, to the village lyceum, to
the lecture, to the debating club. The fac
torv bov Nat Ia mudsin, q "white
save ptSuLlta AAeA win nv Ns9LiN ~
get more knowledge than be can obtain
from the ordinary sources. He has read
all the books in his fathers house, all the
books he can borrow from the neighbOrs,
(Rnd these are not few, and now he
walks, sitter hard days work all the way
70 Boston, to spend few precious hours in
q library. Let it be remarked in passing,
that in that same city to which the boy
walked, there is now q magnificent libra
ry-one Of the largest in the United
States-to which any man or woman, boy
or girl, however poor or lowly, can resort
and enjoy all its privileges, without pay
ing one cent, without asking favor OF
sny one. The boy Ben, growing up under
these Influences, has desire 10 study law,
finds time and opportunity, and becomes
one ofthe first lawyers in the country.