The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1885-10-01
A Bcminiscence Of Gen. E. D.
Baker.


From Youths Companion.
The value of the United States to q
poor boy is that it permits him to rise
just as fast as he can climb No pub
lie opinion, class jealousy, nor heredi-
tary aristocracy interposes the slight
est obstacle to his ascent. He may
reach the top, if he can, no matter
how low down he starts. Sixty years
ago a poor man, third-rate school,
master, came from England to St.
Louis. He had a large family, and one
of his boys, thirteen years old, was
made bread-winner. One day. as
the boy was driving a dirt-cart, which,
with the old horse that hauled it, his
father had managed to buy, he passed
Baptist church, where the circuit
court was holding it's sessions. The
boy, hearing a voice, as of some one
speaking, stopped his horse by the
sidewalk, and entered.
The young cartman had never be-
fore been in court, and it happened
that Edward Bates, the orator of the
st. Louis bar, was addressing the Jury.
The boy listened with all his ears, and
was so fascinated by the advocates
eloquence, that he stood there, until
the speech was ended. Then he went
out. changed boy. Driving home, he
took the horse out of the cart, put
him into the stable, and sought all
interview with his father.
Gather" said the excited boy, up
on whom the vision of anotherllfe had
dawned, II don't intend to drive a
cart any more"
"What are you going to do?" asked
the father, in a tone which showed his
irritation at the boys self-assertion.
"Im going to be lawyer"
"Iawyer!" exclaimed the old gentle
man, as much astOnished as if his son
had announced his determination to
become President of the Republic.
eyes! I'm going to be a lawyer" re-
peated the boy.
In few months, the boy was over
in Illinois, teaching in log school
house. But ''keeping-scho in those
days, though little more profitable
than driving a dirt-cart, was not a
paying business. In two or three
years, the youth stepped out of the
school-house into an office. whose let
tered "shingle' announced that ed
ward D. Baker, Thomsonian Doctor"
was expectantly waiting inside for
calls from patients.
When he had earned little money,
he left off prescribing herbs, and began
preparing himself for administering the
law. Entering u lawyers Office, he
studied hard, and was admitted at
length to the bar of Illinois.
The people OF Illinois sent him to
congress, and the Mexican war put
him into the field, where he distin-
gulslled himself as the colonel of a reg
iment. Subsequently he removed to
Oregon, and in 1861 returned to
Washington as United States Senator.
When the war broke out, he raised a
regiment OF volunteers, and leaving
the senate chamber, where he had
shown himself the equal OF the elo-
quent Benjamin, led them to Balls
Bluff.
''I1ie down, boys! Lie down. he
shouted to his men, on seeing their
ranks decimated by the enemey's bull
lets.
They obeyed, but he stood erect, a
target for the sharp-shooters.
"Why don't you lie down yourself,
colonel" shouted a PROSTATE soldier.
"My boy!"' he replied, "a senator OF
the United States can't afford to- lie
down before the enemy
In a few minutes, he fell to the
ground. dead, with a bullet through
his brain. The cart-driver had be-
come a hero.
The strength of his purpose had be-