Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1872-12-06
Death Of Horace Greeley.

died at fifty minutes past six o clock this even
ing. He was conscious at the time, and his
passing away was peaceful.
Horace Greeley was born February Sd, 1871.
near n village which hlsancesiors named Lon
dondcrry, in the southern part Of New lamp
shire. His paternal and maternal ancestors
were Of Scolch-Irish descent, rigid Calynists
in their faith, not wealthy, but honest, cour-
ageous and intelligent people. His boyhood
was spent on farm owned by his father, not
celebrated for its fertility, but rather for the
perennial crop of stones which the plough
share kept turning to the surface He grew
mp as other boys Of his time, sturdy lad
whose muscles were strengthened and harden
ed by constant exercise, not according TO the
rules laid down in the hand-books of The gym
nasium, but in the more invigorating and use
full employments Of chopping wood, picking
stones, threshing rye with the fail, and kin
dred labors. Hop raising was in those days Il
profitable industry, aHd Horace seems TO have
enjoyed the hoppicting season with a zesi
that was not entirely consistent with his sub
seqncnt detestation. We quote from his IRE
collections :"
'llop-picking was the rural carnival, the
festive haryest-home Of those old times, an
swering TO the vintage Of Southern France or
Italy. The hop natures about the first Of
September, when the vines cut near the
ground, the poles pulled up and laid success
lively across forked sticks, lengthwisc Of a large
bin, into which busy fingers from either side
rapidly strip the hops each pole when strip
ped being laid aside and replaced by another
The bin having been filled, the hops are drawn
to he kiln, wherein they are cured by expo
sure for hours to constant drying heat from
a charcoal fire below after which they are
pressed like cotton into bales so compact and
dense AS 10 defy easy disintcgraton The
pickers are mainly young women. daughters
of neighboring farmers and the older chill
dren of both sexes, while the handling of the
poles demands masculine strength and energy.
The work is pushed with ardor, often by rival
groups employed at different bins racing to
see which will first have lis bin full. The eve
nings are devoted to social companionship and
rustic mcrrynakng; friends drop in 10 enjoy
ana increase the iestiyiiy, and if hop picking
is not now an agreeable labor, despite The sore
eyes sometimes caught from it, then rural life
in hop-growing districts has lost what was one
OF its pleasantest features halfa century ago ~
We cite this pleasant picture Of hop-peking
to show Mr.. Greeley's thorough sympathy
with rustic life, and rs an illustration Of how
tenderly he cherished the memories of his hum
BILE home. The schools in those days were not
what they are now, but such MS they were
Horace attended them in the winter, and prof
ted by the instruction therein received. His
first teacher was cripple who did great deal
OF fogging, but scarcely retained the mastery
OF the school. His next was a tall muscular
young man WHO rarely or never struck blow,
but governed by moral force Separated from
them by period of fifty years, he speaks
kindly of both; and in fact one of the pleas
ATTEST chapters in his autobiography is that in
which he discourses OF his schools and school
masters.
Mr.. Greeley's father, although man of OK
cellent sense, had no great faculty for getting
along in the world, and after cutivatine his
farm for some or eight or ten years, he found
himself hopelessly III debt. His creditors sez-
ed everything, the Sheriff sold him out of
house and home, and he emisraed to the State
of Vermont in the hope of lettering his for
tunes. Mr.. Greeley writes:
son the LIST of January 1921, we all started
in hired two-horse sleigh, with the little
worldly gear that was lett US, for the town
ship of Weslhaven, Vermont, where father had
hired for sixteen dollars per annum small
house. in which, after an intensely cold jour
ney, we were Installed three days later z We
now made the acquaintance of genuine power
ty-hot oegsary, nor dependence, but the
manly, American sort. Our sum total of
worldly goods, including furniture, bedding
and the clothes we stood in, may have been
worth 500; but rs we had alterward 10 nay
that amount on old New Hampshire debts our
material possessions may be fairly represented
by %, with credit for $500 worth Of cloth
ing and household stuff Yet we never need
ca nor ran INTO debt Tor anything, never were
| without meal, meat and wood, and very rare
~ without money. Father went TO chopping
AT nifty cents day, without repining or APP
prehension; and we children ali went to school
till spring, though there were no school funds
in those days, and rate-bils for four children
made quite hole in a gross income of SO per
week. The bread of our class in this section
was Almost exclusively made Of rye-Indian
corn being little grown on the clay soil of
| Western Vermont-and though there are al
ways about six women alive who know how to
make OF rye the best bread ever tasted. our
! mothef was not one of these, and never learn
| ed that admirable art Then the clay itself.
alternating with the weather from mire 10
rock, is not well adapted to bare feet; while
''ic ueteStaole CaHada ihiStlcS which iufest
every road and almost every field in Westha-
ven are not conducive TO placidity of temper or
proprety of speech. Having the sharp ances
OF these thistles dug out of my festered feet
| win needles was long my daily terror and my
nightly torture; The tough, horny iategument
with which their rough excrescences had COW
cred our naked feet rendering the dslodge-
| ment OF the thistle-beardS more laborious and
| painful than any soft-footed person can real
| lze. | have never since been able to appraise
sliif clay soils at their full value.''
These passages from Mr.. Greeley's biocra-
ply sufficiently show the humble estate in
which he was reared. But through all his
rough experience he showed a manly self-re-
lance and independence which did not desert
him TO the day of his death. We look upon
him with increased regard after reading this
passage in his ''Recollections:
The last summer that we lived in New
hampshire an offer was made by the leading
men OF our neig hborhood to send me 10 Phil
lips Academy at Exeter, and thence to the
college, the expense being so defrayed that no
part OF 1t should fall on my parents They lis
teneo thoughtiully TO the proposal briefly de-
liberated, then firmly, though gratefully. de-
eined II, saying that they would give their
children the best education they could afford
ana then stop. do not remember that had
.heh any decided opinion or wish in the pre-
miSes out now have, and from the bottom
Vi my heart thank my parents for their wise
and manly decision Much as nod ,a,3oa =