The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1868-12-12
TAIts o. THE BsRBIas
R.CoLLEcTIONs OF FERGUSON
~ susa HiLLER.


| CHAPTER l.
.WF.rsusos. the saald and sIse.-- Busss.
/ have, believe, as little Of the egot;st i
my composition ~ most me3 nor would
deem the story of-my life. though by u
means UNMARRIED by incident, Of interes
enough to repay the trouble Of either writ
ing or perusing it, were ID the story OF n,
own life only but, though an obscure maj
myself, have been singularly fortunate Il
my friends. The party -colored tissue Of IN,
recollections is strangely interwoyen, IL
may so speak, with pieces Of the domesti
history Of men whose names have become q
familiar to our ears ~ that OF our countr'
itself; and have been induced to strugel
with the delicacy which renders one nnwll
ling TO speak much Of ons's self, and to over
come the dread Of exeTtion natural to
period OF life greatly advanced, through
desire OF preserving to my ceuntrymen
few notices, which would otherwise be los
to them, Of two u their great .st favs-ites
could once reckon among my deares' ant
most famiIiar friends, Robert Burns anS
Robert Ferguson.
tits now rather more than sixty years sine
studied for few weeks az toe University
Of st. Andrews. 1 was the son of very
poor parents, who resided in q seaport towI
on the western coast OF Scotland. Nv fathe,
was a house-carpenter, . quiet, serious man
Of industrious habits and great simplicity o.
character, but niserably depressed in his
circumstances, through q sickIy habit o.
body nv mother was a warm-hearted, ex
celleat woman, endowed with no ordinary
- r. L. r.
ing, and indefatigabe in her exertions foI
my father and the family. | was taught &c
read at very early age, by an old woman il
the neighborhood-snch a person rs Shen.
stone describes in his s'Schobfmisffess 4
and, being naturally of reflective turn,
had begun, long ere | bad attained nv tenth
wear, 10 drive almost my sole amusement
from books. | read necessarily; and after
exhaHsting the shelves Of all the neigtbors,
and reading every variety Of work that eel
II my wsy-from "The Pilgrims Progress,
Of Bunyan, and the Gospel Sonnets Of Frs
kline, to a treatise on fertilization by Vau.
ban, and the History of The Etavens" BY
the Able Piuche-I would have pined away
for lack of my accustomed exercise, had moi
. benevolent bsronet in the neighborhoOd,
for whom my father occasionally wrought,
taken a fancy to me, and thrown open 10 my
p.rusaf a large aid well selected library
Nor did has kindness terminate until, after
having secured TO me all of learning that the
parish school afforded, he had settled me
now in my seventeenth year, at the Uniyer
sIty.
Youth u the season OF warm frirndships
and romantic wishes and hopes. We say oi
the child, in lie first attempts to totter along
the wall, O. whee il has first harmed to rise
beside its mothers knee, tha: il Ia yet toe
weak to stand alone and we may employ
the same language III describing young and
ardent mind Il is, like the child, too weak
toe stand alone, and anxiously seeks oul
some kindred mind on which to lean. | had
had nv iutimates At school, who. though oi
no very superior cast, had served me. if
may 30 speak, as resting places, when wearied
with my studies, or when bad exhausted
my lighter reading and now, at 81. An
Gree's, where knew no one, began 10 ex
perience the unhappness of an unsatisfed
sociality. Ny schoolfellows were mostly
snff, illitefate lads, who, with little bad
Latin and worse Gre,k, plumed themselves
EntAAY VIZ tttSth ctott&tcAtR oH4 b@-
little lnducement to form any intimacie.
among them for, Of all men, the ignoran
scholar is the least amusing. Among th,
students Of .the upper classes, however
there was at least one individual With whom
longed 70 be acquainted. He was appar
emily much about my own ag,, rather below
than above the middle SIZE, and rather deli
cately than robustly formed but | hAy,
rarely seen more elegant figure or more in
leresting lace. HIS features were small, an'
there was What might perhaps BE- deemei |
too feminine delic4cy 10 the whole contour.
bus there was broad aud very high expaE|
SION Of forehead, which, even in those days
when we were acquainted with only IN
pirenology tsught by Plato, Eight be rc
garded as the index Of capscious and pow
erful mind and the brilliant light Of hi
large black eyes, see.nsd TO give earnest .
it's activity.
"Who, IN the name Of wonder, il that r
inquired Of class-feIIow, as this interestin
looking young man passed me for the hri
time.
ga clever, bn. very unsettled fellow iro1
Edinburgh" replisi the lsd "a capital nr
suist, for he gained our f-st bursary thrs
years ago but cur Pr lessor says he il. cel
tain be viii never do any good. He cars
nothing Cor the company sf scholars III
himself; and employs hinself-shougA
excels, / believe, w Eaelish composition
in writing vulgar Scotch rhymes, like Ala
Ramsay. H,s name Is Robert Ferguson.
I | tsIt, FROM this moment. : strong desil
TO rank among the friends Of or ~so cars