The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1872-12-20

HORACE AS A BOY.

P~ecaliarities Of the Early Life Of the Gre.,
J~eurnalist-A Mether's Inauence-Queer
Habit Of Readins.
Tennyson says that it is the mother
makes us most, and it was the fortune
OF Horace Greeley to have a mother
who, to the virtues she inherited from
the Woodburns, added many of her
own. Mrs. Greeley was the favorite of
the township, the natural protector Of
the weak, the born consider of the
afflicted, the inevitable friend and ally
OF every child in the neighborhood.
She was a great reader, and remembered
all she read. She loved agricultural
pursuits, was fond of flowers and of bees,
and had a passion for walking. After
working in the fields and the garden,
doing the labor of a mar and OF a wo.
man, too, during the day, she would tell
the old Irish stories she had learned
from her grandmother all the evening.
To these stories the boy Horace listened
greedily as he sat On the floor at her
feet, the glow from the wood fire lisLs.
ing up his pale face and white hair.
She spun as she narrated, while her
boys attention was divided between the
turning wheel and the animated eyes of
his mother. Doubtless these passages
awoke in the boys mind a thirst for
knowledge and q lively interest in
learning. How loon he learned to read
is impossible to state with any degree If
certainty. Some of his early friends
asserted that his mother taught him to
read before he could talk, but this is a
manifest absurdity, since the long words
would convey TO him no meaning. But
it is a fact that before he was quite two
years old, he would be upon his back
and holding the Bible in h,s tiny hands,
would pore over the leaves with a pecu.
liar solemnity OF countenance, and would
gravely a newspaper, Just as
other children play with the contents Of
mammals work-box. At three years of
age he could read easily and correctly
books prepared for children in words Of
one syllable, and at four he would un-
hesitatingly tackle any of the thirty or
forty volumes which comprised his
fathers library. One of his peculiarities
was the extraordinary variety Of pos.
lures in which he would read, SELDOM sit.
ting down comfortably like an ordinary
mortal, but generally prefsrring 10 lie
on his back, or to curl himself up into
an uneasy ball, or to stretch himself out
on his stomach. From this si~ngularity
it resulted that he could read a book
side up, upside down or sideways,
to the great establishment of the neigh.
bors, who looked upon him as a little
conjurer. About this time, though
under age, he attended the district
school of Londonderry, where, indeed,
he had no right to be, as his parents
lived in Amherst but his grandfather
the matter, and as everybody
liked the youthful prodigy, there was
40 contest.
GREELEYs FIRST ovERcOAr.
In June, 1880, the Northern Spectator
vas discontinued, and the printing office
broken up. The concern did not
pay. Horace Greeley, who had been in
he yearly receipt of $40, had not saved
! cent Of it. Neither had lie spent a
cent. All he could possibly spare was
'ent to his father, who had left West
raven, and was engaged in clearing wild
and in Pennsylv ma. When his con.
,ection with Mr.. Bliss closed, his ward.
ODE consisted OF two ragged shirts and
he peck et. handkerchief in which they
we're enveloped. with his last half years
wages Of $40. He had a sore leg, but in
Ipite OF TINS, he determined to walk to
pennsylvania. Before he Quilted East
.ooultney, the boarders Of the tavern
where he had 30 often held forth, and
,een the universal arbiter, determined
o display their friendly feelings and
,ood wishes in some way most useful
o him, 80 they presented him with an
.'vercoat, the first the young nan had
yer possessed ; for the good son rigor.
usly denied himself warm clothing
hrougn the fierce winters of Vermont
o that he might send the more to his
'arents, struggling with the difficulties
f wild land in Erie, Pa.