The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1874-01-08
RALPH KELLER.
, he story of ..VagabOnd Advent urc..
From the Boston AdyertiserI

| neSaOry 0f''VagabOmd All Sems res -
| From the Boston AdvertiserI
The arrival of the United States steam.
er Juniata from Santiago dc Cuba leaves
little room tor doubt but that Mr.. Ralph
Keller, the special correspondent of the
Tribune, has met his death by falling over
board from the steamer which lett that
place about the 18th instant for Manza-
milo, as he was seen to go on board in
the morning, and was reported missing
BY the captain the next morning. What
little ia known about Ralph Keeler's ear
" life has been furnished by himself in
his "Vagabond Adventures" published
by ]. X. Osgood i Co. In 1870. 1t is
evident that his early home was not
pleasant one. lie was born in Ohio, and
at the mature age of eleven years took a
solemn vow that he would have nothing
more to do with the people OF his home
circle in Buffalo, or with any whatsoever
OF his relatives, some of whom had plac-
ed him there, and he runaway, leaving
at night with nothing save what he had
upon his back. lie soon got Job as
stewards assistant on the steamer Dis.
mOnd, which he had to give up because
his relatives had tracked him. lie then
shipped as cabin boy in the Baltic at ten
dollars q month, which he never got.
After lodging about the lake cities and
twice narrowly escaping falling into the
hands of his relatives, he got place as
key boy On the Northern Indiana. Here
he remained through the season, and
made enough to allow him to go to school.
This, however, he left within a month
or two, in order to have more time to
devote to negro minstrelsy. His talents
in this direction got him q place as train
boy ON the Michigan Southern & North
ern Indiana Railroad, and in the follow
ing summer an engagement with Johnny
BOXERS negro minstrels as jig dancer
at five dollars a week, and all expenses
paid. The company bursted at Pittsburg
q week after it left Toledo, but soon after
reorganized, with Keller as end man
with the tramborine. He subsequently
oiled an engagement with Mike Mitchell
and afterwsrd with DR.. Spslding as Jig
and wench dancer with his floating pal
ace show, where the work was 90 severe
that he became Disguised with negro
minstrelsy, and made up his mind to 20
back TO his books. st. Vincents College,
at Cape Girardeau, charmed him with its
beautiful exterior, and boldly going to
the President he stated his wishes, and
six months later started back there from
Galveston. The river was frozen and |
the journey by land SO expensive that he |
had but thirty-five dollars left when he |
reached there. The good President, Fa-
Their 8. V. Ryan, since made Roman Cath
ole Bishop Of Buffalo, did not turn him |
away, and there he spent sixteen happy |
months, after which he went to Toledo |
and got situation in the pOstofiice. He |
had been there but few months when |
the idea Of going to Europe seized him,
and he started with $1S1 in his pocket.
lie went from Toledo to New York as a |
cattle drover, bought steerage passage
to London, and reached the English cap
ital during the Worlds Fair, in 1862.
He went thence to Paris, and almost i'm
left the French capital for
capital of $50 would not
stand long sojOurn in Paris. Here he
became a student of the famous Karl
Rupert University, and while there made
pedestrian tours through Italy, the Ty-
rol. Switzerland, Belgium, and France,
always in the dress of Hankwerksbuche,
When he got back to Heidelberg at
Christmas, he had reached the end OF his
one hundred and eighty.one dollars. He
had written to innumsrable American
newspapers, but heard nothing at all
until Christmas, when he received f25
from an American paper, to which. be
,aid he had written twenty letters of
news and twenty five of duns. A subse-
luent letter containing $50 made Heidel-
1erg too small to hold him, and he start
ID down tho Rhine. He went through
Belgium and Holland, and . few months
ater turned up in An obscure garnet in
he Quarter Latin. In Paris he met
George Aired Townsend, who suggested
hat he try some English magazine. His
:aah capital then consisted OF twenty-five !
rancs and four sous. His article was !
and he went ID Florence, I
ghere he lived all the winter on the pros /
ecds. He then sent another article, ,
which was respectfully declined. He
ent the rejected manuscripts to less pre- ,
entious periodical in Edinburgh, and :
tarted for Leghorn. There he found an \
american captain who consented to take /
i'm homo and let him owe him fifty dol @
ars. Luckily enough, when he reached n
Iost0n, without cent 10 his pocket, he il
ound letter, which had been forward I,
d, containing draft on London for the ii
lmost forgotten article which he had d
ent 70 Edinburgh in sheer desperation. n
his enabled him to pay for his passage d
nd reach Toledo, his starting place, n
lier an absence of . little over two
ears, and an expense of little over K
,ree hundred dollars. n
Keller was then twenty-five years Of 81
,e. He seems TO have disappeared from Il
10 notice Of the public for some time A,
ntil the early part Of 1869, when he sent 70
the Atlantic his sketch ''Three Years v,
Negro Minstrel" This was published ri
July. Six months later he cent "a "
our of Europe for One hundred and n,
ighty-one Dollars" and received for r.
% article more than half as much az the m
hole trip cost him. This was printed W
July, and he presented himself at tie n,
ice for employment about that time. or
Or the rest of the year he wrote reviews cl
& tho Atlantic and revised the proofs q,
! January, 1870, Ecery Saturday became ~
illustrated periodical, and Mr.. Keller RI
lrted on . tour in search Of the pictur- M
que on the Mississippi. He was ac- cs
mpanied by Mr.. A. Il. Wsud, and the m
Iierprise was unprecedented in the an y;
10 Of periodicals.. The first of the
ries appeared in the issue Of Nay 20,
ID they Werejpublished, with har,ily q 10,
.gle hiatus, until November 81, during 40
hich every priacipsl city on,thc Missis. 80
ppi vas visited, and two or three bril- n
mt articles prepared On the Chicago al