The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-07-02
THE NEWSBOY'S GIFT.

THE NEWSBOY'S GIFT.
A Crippled Cincinnati Newsboy Presents
tho City with q Library--Story OF His
Life. .. .
The Cincinnati Commercial says:
Down in the old museum building,
at the corner of Third and Sycamore
streets, in narrow back room with
single window, lives John King, the
veteran newsboy. For ten years that
cramped and comfortless room has been
his solitary home. He has all this time
done his own cooking and washing and
mendirg, and, through industry and
economy, has at last placed himself in
position to become public benefactor.
The history of the man, borne down as
he has been by frequent and severe
calamities, and of his noble benefaction
that of $500 select volumes to the
public library-are worth here recount
The history of the collection and of its
recent owner is full of interest. John
King, though still newsboy, and the
efficient secretary of the Union, is now
thirty-nine years old. His pleasant
countenance is familiar on Fourth street,
where he stands, papers in hand, and
supported by q crutch. from five o'clock
until eight clock in the morning, and
from four until six in. the afternoon.
He was farmer boy by birth, and had
fate been kinder. he would. no doubt.
have still been tiller Of the soil in Cass
county, Michigan, where his fathers
family still reside. But at the age OF
seventeen kick on the left thigh crippled
him for life. For three years he hobbled
around on crutches, when he was at
tackled by rheumatism. and his limbs so
drawn up that he could get around only
by crawling on his hands and knees.
One day, while crawling about the
room, he struck his knee against sharp
object, which, with the help of
laundering surgical operation, stifcned
the limb for life. Both legs we've now
useless, and for five years the poor boy
was bed-ridden. It was during this
time that the passion for reading was
begotten.- There were but few books in
the neighborhood.
= " lat there were he greedily devoured,
and mentally resolved that should it
ever be in his power he would have q
big library of choice books which should
be all his own.
At the age of twenty-five he got off his
bed and for three years hobbled about
the house. but could do no work. Then
lie went to Detroit, and in the summer
of 1863 came to Cincinnati, a total
stranger and cripple for life in both
legs. A situation was obtained at
Spence Brothers tobacco factory, but
hardly fortnight had elapsed before he
was taken down with the smallpox,
which kept him in the pesthouse for six
months. He states that during this
period his courage dropped, and he cared
very little, if life was to be- so hard. to
longer live: ...'
After leaving the pesthouse he went
back to Spence Brothers factory to
work, and began living in the little,
roughly furnished room in the building
at the corner of Third and Sycamore
streets, which is still his home. The
work he had in the tobacco factory was
such rs is commonly done by children,
and three dollars a week was all that he
could make by the greatest industry. 1T
was with difficulty that life could be
sustained in that time of high prices on
so small a sum, and Kings necessities
soon drove him to look orOther work,
when he became a newsboy.
In the new vocation life became easier.
The work was lighter and the rewards
more generous, and he conceived the
idea of laying up money enough to buy
him home and library. To that end
for ten years every energy was bent.
| Whenever ne saw book that he thought
valuable and that could be bought cheap.
he bought it. Some of them he read in
his leisure hours, and others he laid
away for that far-off time when, IN his
own little home and with enoug h to live
on. he could sit down for "big read"
The ten years we have referred to
saw but one interruption to his work as
neWsboy, and that came in the shape
of another misfortune. A blind man,
who was broom maker. prevailed up
on him to 60 to Sabina, Clinton county,
this State, and with his savings, which
then amounted to $50, buy a broom ma
chine, which he claimed they could
operate together with a handsome
profit to both. This was done. but in y
short time the firm failed. $3.50 in debt:
King then came back to Cincinnati, and
in time sent back to Sabina the full
amount of the claims there existing
against himself and the blind man. His
earnings were about 81 day, and up to
the time of the Adae failure things went
along quite smoothly. BY that failure,
however, 5000 was lost, over and above
what he is likely to get back.
This sum was half the savings of ten
years which had been so religiously set
APART for little home and ':big read "
in his old age. The loss of so much
money, while it did not discourage him.
made the realization of his hopes much
more uncertain, and Mt the very best
placed them many years further. IN the
future. The building in which he lives
is an old rookery in which there are
fifty families. The thought occurred to
King after his loss by the Adae failure
that the building might burn down some
night and his books with it. He had
always intended to don ate his books to
the public libraryat his death, and now
that death was likely to come before he
could read them at his leisure, rs he had
desired, lie concluded to make the dona-
tion to the library safe by giving them to
| it now. /
Mr.. King is of cheerful and hopeful
disposition, and rs would be expected
from what has prect ded is well read.
Since the organization of the Newsboys'
Union he has been its secretary, and he
has found much satisfaction in helping
to lift the boys up. He states that the
newsboys of Cincinnati are, an entirely
different class from what they were six
or seven years ago. The boys Of that
time have disappeared, and those who
have taken their places have been much
better cared for and instructed, and
show it daily in their conduct.
A Man.Eating Horse.
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