The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1875-12-09

mere are thousands OF boys IN this
country who never earn dollar from
one weeks end to another over and
above what they spend for beer and to-
bacco, and many of them find their way
to the Penitentiary before they die. We
hope many may profit by the accounts
now being published about that great
and good man, Vice-President Wilson.
His struggles against poverty were hero
ic, and crowned with abundant success
Here is short account of the Vice Presi.
dents poverty in his boyhood:
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 thirty years ago, Mr.
Wilson gave me a brief sketch of his boy
hood and early manhood, and although
the leading facts which he recited have
before been published, the narrative as
he related it will be none the less inter-
esting and / transcribe it from notes
which / made at the time:
81 was born" he said, ''in 1872, and at
the age of ten years was put out as an
apprentice to q farmer. From the day
of my birth to the day / was twenty-on
years OlQ, never DaQ 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 holiday, with permits
sion to attend muster seven miles from
home, and gave me three cents to spend.
| walked to and from the muster, and of
course spent no more than that sum-
ION the day was 81 years old re-
member it very well, one Saturday, the
10th of February-in the afternoon, my
master gave me yoke of oxen and six
sheep. The latter l sold the same after
noon for 80, but not being able to dispose
of the oxen that day, requested my
master to keep them for me until Mon
day morning, which he did, but charged
me so cents for it. l paid him this and
took the oxen away. l sold them to q
man for $75, and took his note for the
amount. So when became of age / hae
for eleven years work (I was sent tC
school only four weeks each year, $94.
had saved 81 cents which had in some
way obtained, but had paid so of thi:
to my master for keeping my oxen TIVE
nights l then hired myself to farmer
agreeing to work for Sc a month anC
board | used to get up long before day
light, feed the stock, get my breakfast
and just as the east was beginning to b.
with my team. l used to place my din
ner-pail on the sunny side of tree, ant
continue drawing saw-logs to the mil
until after dark at night. Then | wen
home fed the stock, ate my supper, ant
went to bed. My father tended the saw
mill most of the time for many years, fo
fifty cents day.
"In the spring of the same year, tool
my pack upon my back and started afoo
for the town where I now live, Natick
Mass, 100 miles away, and that Journe
cost me just 81 25. | worked there a
shoemaking, averaging Is hours day
and the last weeks work L did at th
bench was at bottoming shoes for 50
week Out of this l paid so cents fo
pegs and 81 for board, SO that had lef
Just 81 so. ! have bottomed 81 pairs O
mems shoes without sleeping, and tha
for little more than so cents Blu
even at this rate l got some none.
ahead, and made up my mind to worl
my way through college.
II lent my money to a man IN Boston
and went to the Academy, at Concord
NH. l had been there only six (three?
months, when the man to whom | hat
intrusted my fortune failed, and lost II
all. was SO reduced that, although owee
two or three weeks board l was abso
lutely unable to pay it. or even to take
letter from the postoffce, without Dor
rowing the money to pay for the postage
But a friend invited me to remain, ano
board with him, and pay him when
was able. So stayed through the term
and in the winter, earned money enough
to pay him by teaching school Now
the men who are working at shoemakinG
ten hours day, and earning from % tc
$5a day, complain.
Mr.. Wilson in his speeches sometimes
referred to the events of his early me
and on one memorable occasion he dlo
SO most eloquently. In 1858, in reply to
the famous amudsilPs speech of GOV
Hammond, of South Carolina, he SAID:
"Sir am the son of hireling manual
laborer, who, with the frosts of seventy
winters on his brow, lives by daily labor.
i, too, have been 'hireling manual la
borer.' Poverty cast its dark and chill
ing shadow over the home of my child
hood, and want was sometimes there
an unbidden guest. At the age of ten
years-to aid him who gave me being in
keeping the gaunt spectre from the
hearth of the mother who bore me-
left the home of my boyhood, and went
forth to earn my bread by daily labor.
He is a traitor to humanity and heaven
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