Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1875-12-11
HIS OWN STORY.
What the Late Vice-President Wilson had
TO say Of his Own life.


Wilson. in his conversation, very seldom
referred to the events of his early life,
although it was not subject that he
ever avoided. Only few months ago,
he spoke to me with unusual feeling in
regard to some cruel newspaper reports
affecting the memory of his mother.
He said that their publication hurt him
more than any personal abuse he had
ever received during his whole public
life. The reports were utterly untrue,
for his mother was one of the very best
women that ever lived, and to her teach
ing more than to almost any other or all
other early influences he owed the for
nation of the best traits of his charac-
ter. He asked me if it would be proper
for him to take public notice of these
untrue reports, as he was anxious to do
everything that would be proper to de-
fend his mothers memory. I heard
him speak of his father only once, but it
is hardly necessary to deny report 1
have sometimes seen in print that his
parents were gypsies; they were re-
spectacle but very poor New England
people.
In conversation about two years ago
on the subject of labor organizations,
and the condition of the laboring classes
of this country now when compared with
what it was fifty or even thirty years
ago, he gave me brief sketch of his
boyhood and early manhood, and al
though the leading facts which he re-
cited have before been published, the
narrative as he related it will be none
the less interesting, and l transcribe it
from notes which made at the time:
81 was born" he said, Sin 1872, and
at the age of ten years was put out asan
apprentice to farmer. From the day
of my birth to the day was twenty-one
years old never had q dollar in money
to spend for anything. During the
whole of my apprenticeship my master
never but once gave me penny. On
that occasion he allowed me a holiday
with the permission to attend muster
seven miles from home, and gave me
three cents to spend. I walked to and
from the muster, ard of course spent c
more than that sum.
"On the day was twentJ one years
old remember it very well, one Sat
urday, the sixteenth of February-ir
the afternoon, my master gave me {
, yoke of oxen and six sheep. The latter
1 sold the same afternoon for nine dol
lars, but, not being able to dispose O.
the oxen that day, I requested my mas
ter to keep them for me until Monday
morning, which he did, but charged MI
: fifty cents for it, I paid him this ant
took the oxen away. I sold them to {
man for seventy-f dollars, and tool
his note for the amount. So when
became of age I had for eleven years
work I was sent to school only fou
weeks each Year, eighty-four dollars.
had saved fifty-seven cents, which l haC
in some way obtained, but I had pail
! fifty of this to my master for keeping
my oxen two nights.
81 then hired myself to farmer
agreeing to work for six dollars mont
o and board. I used to get up long befor
+ daylight, feed the stock, get my break
s fast, and, just as the east was bcginnin
It to be streaked with red, start off for til
e woods with my team. l used to plac
Q my dinner pail on the sunny side of
tree, and continue drawing sawlogs t
q the mill until after dark at night. The
l. I went home, fed the stock, ate my SUI
d per, and went to bed. My father tende
v the sawmill most of the time for man
years for fifty cents day. In the sprin
If in the same year, I took my pack upo
If my back and started for the town whel
S, I now live, Natick, Mass, one hundre
ID miles away, and that journey cost n
r Just $1.25. worked there at shoemal
e ing, averaging fifteen hours a day, al
* the last weeks work [ did at the benz
r. was for five dollars week. Out of til
h I paid fifty cents for pegs and two dc
as lars for board, SO that 1 had left ju
De $3.50. I have bottomed fifty-four pal
e. of mems shoes without sleeping, al
* that for little more than fifty cent
it But even at this rate got some mon
is ahead andmade up my mind to work n
y, way through college.
ut client my money to man in Be
ton, and went to the academy at Go
cord, N. H. I had been there only 6
(three y months when the man to who
he I had intrusted my fortune failed, and
he lost it all. I was so reduced that,
n though owed for two or three weel
H. board, was absolutely unable to p
ar it, or even to take letter from the po
on Office without borrowing money to p
of the postage. But friend invited I
~ to remain and board with him, and p
IN him when 1 was able. So I stay
lie. through the term, and in the wint
ala earned money enough to pay him
w. teaching school. Now the men who 9
Ike working at shoemaking ten hours dc
,er and earning from SO to IS a day, co
ID, plain"
u Hanny Answer