The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-12-26
Anecdotes of Greeley.

AbbCuObto w Uftoicls
One night in the spring of 1853, while
Dave Rhoades stood behind the counter
in the publication Office, in stumbled a
poor, hslf-drunk printer, whom rum had
thrown out of employment. lie had just
been up stairs and borrowed So of Her
ace, and now he was down stairs boast
ing of it. al struck the old man for o
flyer; how's thatw And he rung the
changes of self-congratulatio until Mr..
Greeley himself stepped into the publi-
cation Office. Instantly the able borrow
er approached him as though he had
never seen him before, and coolly asked
fer S.. Mr.. Greeley, mistalSing the ap-
plicant for another, said: "I let you
have IS three months ago, and you
promised to come ssd pay me in q
week." Applicant--I have called upon
you several times, but couldn't find you
in, II. G.-Yes; you never find me
when you have money to pay me but
you take good care to find me when you
want So.
Horace was teetotaller before teeto-
talism came UP. 1t happened one day
that neighbor stopped to take dinner
with the family, and, as a matter of
course, the bottle of rum was brought
out for his entertainment. Horace, il
appears, either tasted little or else took
disgust at the smell of the stuff, OF
perhaps was offended at the effects which
he saw it produced. An idea struck
him. He said, "Father, what will you
give me if l do not drink drop Of
liquor till am twenty-oneY" His faith
er, who took the question as joke, an.
swered, "Pll give you dollar" "Its
bargain" said Horace. And it was a
bargain, at least on his side, for he kept
tha pledge inviolate.
The Fremont campaign profoundly in.
terested Mr.. Greeley. In those days the
telegraph and mail facilities were moi
what they are to-day, and the election
returns were tardy and untrustworthy
He had compiled figures from various
sources and had a mass of document,
before him from which he expected Il
close his work. A number of friends de.
manded his attention, and while he wa
in conversation with them the Office boy
handed him an evening newspaper con
tanning what seemed o be q carefully
prepared table of the figures that he
needed. Mr.. Greeley grasped his scis
sors, cut out the table, made his com
ments upon the total, and sent it up t.
the printers. The next day any clos
observer of the eminent statistician coulC
have setn that he was deeply troubled
And he had reason ITO be-. The evening
newspaper had the reputation of being
habitually inaccurate in its political fig
ures, and in this case the totals that Mr.
Greeley had copied were erroneous b.
many thousands. Forgetting the sourc
whence he had taken his figures, MI
Greeley went to the composing room di
rect, demonstrated with Mr.. Rocker, tn
foreman, saying that be ought to b
kicked; then to the printers, that the,
ought to be kicked; and finally to tn
proor-reader, that he ought to be kicke
more soundly than all the rest. The lat
ter meekly produced the original manu-
} script of Mr.. Greeley, with the reprin
. from the evening newspaper. "Wha
|, paper is that cut from 7" said Mr.. Gree
ley. "The Evening -" replied tn
proof-reader. Mr.. Greeley, suddenly be
thinking himself of the character of tn
newspaper, promptly, with that sense c
, justice which was one of his greatest at
tributes, turned to the proofreader, an
J asked in sad and humiliated manner
would you like to kick me Z"