Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-05-10
GREELEY.
His Poverty, Toll and Genius-PersOnal
Traits--YigOr OF Character
Incidents.

His Poverty, Toll and Genius-PersOnal
Traits--YigOr Of Character
Incidents.
The Cincinnati Enquirer says that the
outlines of the biography Of Horace Gree
ley, published recently, give but q falnt
idea of the privation and suffering of his
early life. His personal history Is the
most interesting, the most strange, the
most romantic Of any man who ever
! figured on the American historical stage.
1t exceeds eventual of Benjamin Frank
lin. His trials somewhat resembled
those of the famous DIR. Samuel john
son, afterward so celebrated in English
literature. In the first few years OF his
existence his father wa a well-to-do
farmer in New Hampshire. Horace
exhibited such unusual p~recoeity for
books that at three years Of age he
could read any of those prepared for
children, and at four almost any other.
At the age OF seven his father was
utterly ruined and driven from his
home in New Hampshire on account
OF his Inducements for another per-
son. He enligrated TO Vermont, one
sleigh being sufficient to convey all his
family goods and ehattels. When they
arrived at Westhaven, in the latter
State, they were reduced to the last
stages of poverty, and for some Tune II
was a eve contest for existence.
Horaeeis taste for reading continued to
grow. At the age Of six he read me
Bible. the Arabian Nights at eight
Robinson CrusOe in his ninth, and
Shakespeare in his eleventh year. At
! twelve or thirteen he read Mrs. Heman's
and Lord Byron's poems, and they made
a profund impression upon him. he
has been so long a political character
| that il is nOtn0W generally known that,
when editor Of the NeiO Yorker, he him.
self wrote some Of the most beautiful
poems that have eve been written by
an American poems that viii not
siIfFar by comparison with those OF the
standard English poets. At the age Of
fourteen hesaw an advertisement that an
apprentice was wanted in the Spectator,
published at East Poultney, eleven
miles off. He walked over there, saw
the editor, who, after some conversation,
agreed to hire him. His pay was
TWENTY DOLLARS A YEAR,
I'm addition TO his subsistence. When
he was eleven e old, he, with seven
tv-iye cents in his pocket, with a bum
/ die of provisions and a stick over his
! shoulder. walked from Westhaven, Yer
mont, to Londonderry, New Hamp-
shire, a hundred and twenty miles dis
tant, and after staying there two or
three weeks walked back. After his
father had removed to a place near
Erie, Pennsylvania, six hundre miles
distant, Horace paid him two visits,
nearly all the distance being performed
on foot. At the age OF seventeen, al
the conclusion of one of these long and
tedious journeys, he was back at ms
fathers log hut in Erie for good, the
naper with which he had been connect
ed having "bursted up.p Hearing that
he could get employment at Lodi, a
place ffty miles distant, in New York,
he walked over there and secured a sit
uation on a country paper. At the end
of six weeks he left, finding that 1t was
impossible to get any pay. He next OBJ
tanned a position on the Erie ltenn.J
| Gazette, where he received twelve dol
lars a month and board. After seven
months on that paper, so great was his
~frugality, he had expended but six dol
lars for personal expenses. The remain
der of the money he had given to his
| father. When he arrived in New York
he had but
TEN DOLLARS IN HIS POCKET.
He engaged board at allow GROCERY
kept by an Irishman named McGorllek,
at twenty shillings a week. He was re-
fused work at the Journal OF Commerce,
by David Hale, because, in he opinion
Of the latter, he was a runaway aPpren-
tice. After searching all through New
York, and getting no work, he had
about concluded to give it up in despair
and walk home, when an Irish shoe
maker at McGorlick's referred him to
! West 4 Co.'s, .S5 Chatham street. a
Vermont printer there interceded in
his favor with the foreman, who was
| Colonel Porter, editor since of the sport
ing paper called the Spirit Of n Times.
That gentleman set kim to work on a
| Polyglot Testament which was very
difficult eeS95mqRPosition, an y IMSa Was hStp Of his
work. While at work the first day, Mr..
West, the proprietor, asked Porter,
NDfd YOU hire that id fOOl?" and,
upon being replied to in the affirmative,
added, "Well, for Gods sake pay him
off tonight, and let him go about his
business" But the style of his work
prevented it. From this time his for
tunes began to brighten. He obtained
work as a eOmpositOr, finally became a
master printer, and lastly a newspaper
publisher, but was still a number OF
years before he met with any marked
success. 1t was in this
HARD AND SEVERE SCHOOL.
that Horace Greeley was educated, and
out of it he emerged into renOwn. His
first successful venture was not in a pO-
litical, but in a literary, journal, called
the Nea0 Yorker. The first number of
that paper contains the following poem
upon the death Ofthe celebrated William
Writ, written when be was but twenty
three years of age:
aoS THB DEATH OF WILLIAM WRIT.
Grouse not the mutied drum,
Wake hot the martial trumpets mournful
For him whose mighty voice in death is dumb;
Who, in the zenith OF his high renown,
To the grave went down..
Invoke no lannon's breath
To swell the requiem Ger his ashes poured
silently bear him TO the house OF death:
The aching hearts by whom he was adored,
He won not with the sword.
"NoiIet afilction's tear
Re The sol sole = tribute lonsI to So his m m i1SfE, gPs sb{i
To souls like his in purity arrayed-
Never to fade.
sIloved thee, patriot Chief
I battled proud heath thy banner pure;
Mine is the breast OF wOe-the heart Of grief,
Which suffer on unmindful Of a cure
Proud to endure.
"But vain thasvoice of vail,
For thee, Tor this dim vail OF sorrow fled =
Earth hrs no spell whose magic shall not fail
To light the gloom that shrouds thy narrow
bed
Or WOO thee from the dead.
"Then take thy long repOse
Beneath the shelter OF the deep green sod; .
Death Int "A brighter halo Ger thee throws
Thy fame, thy soul alike have spurned the
clnd- !.