The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-09-20
Greeley ArtobloEr.pnleAI'y con.In,

Greeley AEtObIOEr"PbIcGIiy COnsid-
cred.
The Ledger for September 2Isl, opens
with the sixth chapter of SIR. Greeiey's
busy life; in it he bids adieu TO New
Hampshire. TIE struggle lor liveli-
hood in that state Of "Petrified pud-
ding stone" ~ DIR. Holmes once called
It, had been q severe one, and in ls20,
when Horace WAS about nine years old,
his father became bankrupt. This
is the manner in which Mr.. Greeley
now writes OF the closing see mes in his
Iathsr's estate:
"AlI in yHiu. The times were what
Is termed "hard"-thAt Is, almost every
one owed, and scarcely any one could
pay. The rapid strides OF British man
ufactuIes, impelled by the steam en-
CINE, spinning Jenny, and power
loom. had utterly undermined the
honely household fabrications where
OF Londonderry WAS pTomi-
nent American focus; my mother still
caIded her wool and FAX, sPnn her
warn, and wUve her wooden, linen, and
low cloth; but they found no market at
living prices; ouT hops sold for little
more than the cost Of bagging; and III
short, we were bankrupt. l presume
my father had never been ont of debt
since he bought his place; but sickness,
rash Endorsements, Ia family falling
and bad luck generally, had swelIed his
Indebtedness 10 something like $1,000
which al! We had in the world would
not, at current prices, pay"
Family financial affairs at last reach
ed u crisis (: No.. ia,
"Monday morning, the Sheriff and
sundry other officials, with two or three
OF our principal creditors appeared
aud-tirst formally demanding pay
meut OF their claims-procseded TO
levy on farm, stock, implements,
household stuff, aud nearly all our
worldly possessions bat the clothes
We stood in. oar 1arm,
which had cost us 81, $50, and which had
been considerably improved in our
hands, was appraised and set otf TO
creditors at $500, out of which the legal
costs were first deducted. A barn full
of rye, grown by us on Another's land.
whereon We owned an undivided hall,
was attached by creditor, threshed
out by days work, and sold: the net re-
suit being an enlargement Of our debt
the grain falling to meet all the costs.
Thus, when night fell, We were as bank
rupt family as we'll could be.
Mr. GreeIey's father then left home
for the West, on foot, in quest OF work.
The narrative continues:
'IHe returned to US in due time, and,
on the LIST ofJanuHry, 1921, We started
in hired two-horse sleigh, with the
little worldly gear that was left US, for
the township OF Westhaven, Vermont
where Iather had hired for SIG per an
mum, a small house, in whichp after an
Intensely cold Journey, We were Install
ed three days later"
Here Mr.. Greeley leaves his readers,
and goes back TO his old home in New
Hampshire, ITO bid tia final adieu."
\ He sRys:
Poor as we were, no richer family
lived within sight OF our humble home
stead, though our western prospect was
only bounded by the Chestnut Hills
TWO or three miles away"
Which must have afforded a little
consolation, for misery likes company.
His mother used TO sing to him the bal
lads of the Revolutionary War, which
was not yet thirty years gone by when
he was born. Some OF our present-day
readers will be surprised To learn that
the "Wearing of the Green" was one of
these songs. Says Mr.. Greeley:
THE ballads of the late war with
England we're not so popular in our iIn
mediate neighborhood, though my
mother had good store OF these also,
and sang them with spirit and effect,
along with "Boyne Water" The tax
ing OF Quebec" by Wolfe, and even
''yYearfng oftha Green. which, though
dating from Ireland's '9S, has been re-
Viyed aud adapted in our day with so
vast and deserved an Irish popularity:
With the following picture OF their
simple and truly Democratic domestic
life, We close this sketch:
Eve were, in the truest sense, Demo-
Gratis, we Scotch Irish Eederalists. from
Londonderry. where Jefferson received
only two votes in the memorable stFug-
gle OF 1909; when, for a single year at
the Beard Farm our house echoed to
itt, NJ far1ata ahalFN srhNEa
natural abilities were humble, and
whose literary requirements were in
ferior even to ours; that servant always
ate with the family, even when we had
the ueIghbors as company and,
though her wages were but fifty cents
week, she had her party. and invited
the girls of the neighborhood 10 be her
guests at tea, precisely as IL she bad
been . daughter OF the house. No where
were manners eyer simpler, or society
freer from pretention o. erclgSiveness,
than 10 those turner's homes