Litchfield enquirer., 1877-03-29
From slIarperss Nasazine.l SHoE-MAKER AWU NATURAL

| SH0E.MAMER AND NATURALIST. | James Lambert lived poor and un- known in Glasgow till Charles Reade wrote his story, and shamed his fellow citizens into better treatment of the ''hero and martyr." And now Samuel Smiles writes the story of another humble Scotch man, whose poverty and obscurity are a shame to his fellow countrymen, and to | the men of scieuce who have known his worth, profited by his discoveries in nat
 ural history, and yet have let him suffer ali his life from the want of money, of books, and of the recognition his great services should have had from his more | fortunate brethren The naturalist of Bauff is an extraordinary man. With half the advantages enjoyed by college-bred 1 men, he would have wen renown. But his life has been one long struggle with pow erty; and now, in old age and infrmity, after doing more for science than two- thirds of the men who tack whole alpha I bet of society initials to their names, he still works at his shoe-maker;s bench, cheerful, stout hearted, and uncomplain- Ing. Let us hope that MT. Smiles inter- esting book will do for him what his own services have not done--raise his name from obscurity, and insure him against want in his declining years ...-.
 Thomas Edward, shoemaker and natu- ralist, was born of Scotch parents at Cos port, Portsmouth, on Christmas-day, 1914. His father, John Edward, was a private in the Fifeshire militia. Toward the close of the great Continental war, when England had sent most of her regular troops to fight Napoleon in the Peninsula and the Low Countries, the militia regi- l ,4nz~ >16l ol~H coast. or stationed in garrisons to guard the French prisoners confined therein. Hence the presence of the Fifeshire mi- litia at Gosport, where the hero of this story was hprnr After the wmiiitia were disbanded, John Edward resumed his trade of 8 hand. weaver at Kettle, his native place, but soon removed to Aberdeen, where he was more likely to find work and wages to support his in- creasing family. While living at Kettle, Thomas began to show his love of ani- mals. From his birth he was hard to manage. His mother said he was the worst child she ever nursed. His feet and legs seem to be set on springs. He began to walk when he was scarce ten months old. As soon as he could toddle out of doors, he tried to make friends with the hens, chickens, and ducks that had the freedom of the village. There Was another creature whose acquaintance he sought to make, SOW named Bet, with litter of pigs. Maternal instinct made Bet ferocions. and Toms mother was afraid to let him go near her pen. But her warnings were disregarded. When she asked, ''Where's Tam ?'' the answer always was, "Oh, he's ava vii the pigs.
 One day, toward night-fall. the boy dis appeared. Every hen-house, every stable. every.pig-sty, and every likely corner of the village was searched, but in vain. | Tom was lost He was then little over a year old. He could not have gone very far. Somebody raised the cry that he had been stolen by a band of gypsies who had been selling brooms and pans in I in the village that afternoon. Their camp was three miles of, and early next morn | ing Toms uncle and three other men went there in search of the missing boy. The gYpsies let the men pry. into every I corner of the camp, protesting meanwhile that they had not stolen the child; and when the search was over, the women set upon them, tooth and claw. and drove them out in 8 damaged condition. They reach ed Kettle scratched and bleeding; but while telling their story, they heard a scream outside. All eyes were turned toward the door, when in rnshed the ''pig wife, " and threw the child into his moth CTS lap. There, woman, there's your bairn. But.for Gods sake, keep him ava ! frae yon place, or be may fare waur next Far wad he but below Bet and her pigs the a'nicht P As the boy could not have climbed over the palings, somebody must have lifted him over. There was in Kettle discarded sweetheart of John Ed ward, and it was believed that, to punish her old lover, she had put his child into. the sty. But the crime was never proved against her, and the story may have been nothing more than village gos, | sip.
 When the family removed to Aberdeen, Tom was in his glory. Living near the outside of the town, he could roam at will into the fields and down to the neighbor- ing "1nches, or islet, which were then covered with waving alg@. There, too, grew the scuryy grass and the beautiful sea. daisy. Between the Inches were chan nels through which the tide flowed, with numerous pots or hollows. These were the places for handles, cells, crabs and worms. Above the Inches, the towns ma- nure was laid down The heaps were re. markedly prolific in beetles, rats, spar rows. and numerous kinds, of flies. Then the Denburn, at the foot of the Green, yielded no end of horse -leeches, powets (tadpoles), frogs, and other creatures that abound in fresh or muddy water. The boy used daily to play at these places, and brought home with him his ''veno- nous beasts, as the neighbors called them. At first they consisted for the most part. of tadpoles, beetles, snails, sticklebacks, and small green crabs (the young of the Carci,aus ngnds), but as he grew older, he brought home horse leeches. asks lnewts), young rats-a nest of young rats was 8 glorious prlze-feld mice. and house-mice, hedgehogs, moles, birds, and birds nests of varlous kinds.
 The neighbors found Tom 8 very troublesome boy with hls strange pets. The fishes and birds were easily kept; I but as the re was no secure place for the paddocks, horse-leeches, rats, and such like, they usually made their es cape into the adjoining houses, where they were by no means welcome guests. The neighbofs complained of the venomous creatures which the young naturalist was continu, ally bringing. home. The horse. leeches crawled up their legs and stuck to them, fetching blood; the pnddocks and asks roamed about the floors; and the beetles, molvs, and rats sought for holes wherever they could find them.
 Toms mother scolded and begged in vain. She threw away his pets, and he was forbidden to bring such things into the house. But the next time he went out to play, he brought home as many of his beasts as before. He was then threat ened with whipping. That very night he brought home nest of young rats, and took his fogging like a little man. Words and blows failing to change his habits. his mother tried" keeping him indoors; but he frequently managed to elude the maternal vigilance and escape tothe Inch es. If sent of an errand, he always stray ed of to his favorite hannts, and some times would eat the breakfast or dinner he should have carried to his father As he could not be kept at home, and was always running after his ''beasts" his father at last determined to take away his