The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-06-26


with hopeful smile, of time to be
When all that is bitter will he forgot,
And the daises will nod over you and me?
A REMARKABLE NARRATIVE.
Incidents I'm the Life OF a Former Mayor
OF Rochester. ". Y.-The Turning Point
I'm an Eventful Career.
A most eventful and instructive per-
soual history has come to our knowl-
edge, mainly through the statements of
q lady, now far advanced in years, and
still living in this state. who was fer
merly q resident of Lockport, and the
wife of a practicing physician of that
place. She is personally known to the
editor, and reliance may be placed in
all her statements. The occurrences
referred TO began about 1923 or 1924,
when the great excavation for the Erie
canal through the solid rock for miles
at Lockport was in progress, under the
supervision of David Thomas as chief
engineer, and of which Darius Com
stock, Q widely known citizen, was one
OF the largest contractors.
The physician to whom we have re-
ferred returned one day from his visit
ing rounds under q good deal of excite
Il
have visited to-day, In poor Irishman's
hut, the most beautiful woman I ever
saw In my life. She is very sick-her
case must be an extraordinary one-and
you must go and see what you can do
for her." The wife consented to 20,
and on entering one of the most poverty
stricken novels she had ever seen-the
floor of bare earth, the door cut partly
down through the log sides, so that on
entering it was necessary to step over
the legs that were left-she found the
sick woman lying on a bed of straw,
supported on rough poles, which con-
stituted the bedstead. She was young
m years, and trouble had not obliterated
the SURPRISING beauty nor the refined
expression of her countenance. The
language she used indicated high and
excellent education, and she had evil
IDENTIFY been brought up in Renteel eoci-
ETY., notwithstanding the utter destitu-
ton OF her present surroundings. Her
husband, young man recently from
Ireland, was a day laborer, employed
by Darius Comstock and Otis Hathaway,
his assists Mt, in excavating the bed of
the canal. The sick woman was, of
course, adverse to giving any account of
their history to a stranger, but after
several visirs the physicians wife Sc.
cured her confidence, and she related
their remarkable history in substance as
follows
She was the daughter of a gentleman
IN Ireland, In rank but little below the
nobility. Her father employed as clerk
and steward young man named John
OF rare attainmsnts and ability.
The gentleman's daughter and the
young steward formed mutual attach
ment but as he was below her In rink,
Notwithstanding his high character, the
fafher would not listen o moment TO
any thing of the kind, and seeing what
was going on, dismissed him from his
service. But the attachment was too
aerong to be quenched by q mandate,
When the young lady and her lover
found there was no other resource.
they concluded to get married and
run away" With his scanty means
and what little property of her own she
could secure, they sailed for Quebec in
Canada. The ship was wrecked in the
81 Lawrence, and they barely escaped
with thier lives. ALI their effects and
money went to the bottom of the wide
river. Their condition was desolate
enough without means, without ex-
per1ence, unaccustomed to hardship.
and IN an unknown country among
gkAngers. He was compelled to labor
By the day to keep them from starving.
He became utterly discouraged, and
eheough the enticements of bad COM
mons he resorted to drinking. In
ms state they found their way to
1ockport-a place where many laborers
vere wanted at that time, for excavat-
NJ the canal and where he could OBJ
I'm employment. It was here that his
young wife, unaccustomed to such &C
simulated hardship and privations was
Frustrated on q sick bed, and in this
condition was found by the physician
and his wife, as already related.
1t was about the same time, or before,
That Comstock & Hathaway, the con-
tractors who employed him, observed
that the young man had not been &C.
customed to the severe labor which he
had undertaken, and that in handling
the heavy crovbar, and in wheeling the
loaded barrow, the blood oozed from
bus fingers. A few days afterward, when
pay day arrived, he signed the receipt
for his wages by the usual "cross, or
ms mark, used by the Irish laborers
generally. In the course of few weeks
ms employers (who were members of
the Society OF Friends,) observing that
ne Possessed superior intelligence, said
20 HIM In the peculiar language in COM
mon used by the d" Friends in That dav
" John, this is not tby RIGHT nIace
man like thee ought to know how 10
write, and know better than to make
John was stnpr by this
reproof, his latent ambition was aroused.
and stepping forward, he took the pen
and signed his name in rapid, practiced
and elegant hand. His employers were
astonished, and said to him, "John.
this is no place for thee-stop drinking.
and We will take thee into our employ as
clerk, and at once double thy wages"
These were tie first kind and helping
words which ne had heard in America
their life-giving energy went through
him like electricity, and from that mo-
ment ne never drank drop. He proved
fully worthy of their confidence,
and became distinguished for his eff
cheney. The morning of prosperity be-
gan to dawn upon him, His wife re-
covered her health. His progress to-
ward great success began. He subse-
quently went into the forwarding bust
ness on the canal as partner to a promi-
nent citizen of western New York, who
was also a leading member of congress.
The writer of this narrative well remem-
bers in years before railroads were
generally in use, and travelling on the
canal was the common mode of passen-
ger transit, that he could not pass day
anywhere between Schenectady and
Buffalo, without meeting one or more
neatly built and well loaded boats, with
The golden letters on the side, "John
Clinton Line" In short, the
young Irish clerk and sfeward-the
canal day laborer-the husband of the
beautiful and accomplished young lady
Frustrated by sickness in the log hut
had become the owner of q successful
ieet OF canal boats. Before twenty
gears had elapsed he was mayor of one
IL the larnosf oifiaa Of uaatorn Nam