Connecticut western news., 1882-06-07
SOME "REMINISCENCES OF THURLOW
 WEED.

The following extract from commu- nication from the pen of the venerable Thurlow Weed will we'll repay perusal Our schools, open to all, offer great ad- vantages, but are defective in one essen- tial particular. Mechanical education is wholly neglected, and when both par ents and teachers fail to do their duty in this respect, the industries by which men thrive remain in the hands of for eigners, while Americans, after leaving their homes, their schools, their col leges, unftted for the pursuits by means of which their fathers and fore fathers became at first disappearing and iu time prosperous and useful, are found either seeking office or resorting to less creditable methods of dragging out miserable existence. The first and great duty of philanthropists and reformers, therefore, is to teach, induce, and constrain rising generations to re- alize the great truth taught by divine laws that our bread is to be earned by the sweat of our brow. Let every boy be taught at his mothers knee, by his father, in his school, in his academy, in his college, that he must work for living that to become useful and hon. ored he must exert either his mental fac- ulties or his physical forces diligently. Perhaps my own experience may not be deemed obtrusive or unproGtable. My parents belonged to the laboring class. When eight years old felt that ought not to be burden to them, as they had other and younger children to support. My first employment was in black smith shop to "blow and strike" When navigation opened went as cabin boy on board the sloop Ranger, Captain Gager, from Catskill to New York. l earned shilling on my first trip in 1906 by carrying the hair trunk of passen- ger from Coenties slip to hotel on Broad street, on the site now occupied by the magnificent Brokers Exchange Building. It was an old Dutch built house with the gable end to the street and a stoop in front, on which two per sons sat smoking pipes which reached to their knees. When navigation closed obtained a situation as a boy of all work at a tavern in the village of Jeffer- son. In the spring I went again as cabin boy on board the sloop Jefferson, Captain Bogardus.
 In the autumn of the year 1907 I enjoyed the privilege of walking bare- footed out of Catskill to the village of Madison to attend a ''general training, " where 700 or 800 militiamen were re- viewed by Governor Morgan Lewis.
 On these occasions barefooted boys earned sixpences by holding the horses of dismounted officers. Major Jacob Haight, whose horse I held, gave me a shilling. Nearly forty years afterward Major Haight was nominated for State Treasurer and elected. Learning that he was indebted to me for his nomina- tion, the Treasurer, on his arrival at Albany, availed himself of the earliest opportunity to express his acknowledg- ments, when, with equal surprise and qualification, he was informed that his nomination was in grateful remem- brance of his kindness to poor boy. In the winter my parents removed to Cincinnatus, Cortland County, where I worked @ year on 8 farm. We then moved to Onondaga, where l worked alternately in furnace and on farm until obtained situation with MT. Jasper Hopper. Working in his garden, took care of his stables and made my self generally useful in return for which received my board and four months schooling. After this, through Mir. Hopper's influence (who ever re- mained my warm friend) tue ambition of my life and the pride of my heart were gratified by becoming apprenticed in the "Lynx" printing office, then being established by Thomas Chitten. den Fay, in Onondaga Hollow.
 Are there not, in the history of oul country, thousands of poor boys who by industry, honesty, and ambition have not only acquired wealth, but be come useful and honored citizens?
 If the present and rising generationl could be taught this lesson, the number of office-seekers that beleaguer Wash ington, throng the corridors of our Gus tom House and Postoffice, and infest thu City Hall, would be greatly diminished