Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-10-27
MIR, HEWITT'S LIFE.
An Incentive TO American youths
and a Credit to Manhood.


and a Credit to Manhood.
The speech OF the Hon. A. s. Hewitt,
the Democratic candidate for Mayor OF
New York, at the County Democracy rati-
fication meeting in Cooper Institute, was
worthy Of the distinguished candidate
and of the great audience he addressed.
In answer to the charge of Mr.. Henry
George, the labor candidate, that Mr..
Hewitt owed his riches to series OF
"happy accidents be said:
IL have never paraded my personal his
tory before the people Of this city, and ]
hesitate to say a word about it now, but
under all the circumstances l have con-
cluded that some good may be done 10
some struggling young man if some Of
these happy accidents should be re-
counted. The first of these happy acct
dents, and it was one l think you
will agree with me | could not
help, was my birth. l know that
if Henry George had discovered
his safe cure for all the evils Of society
that accident could not nave happened.
But be was not on hand at that time. and
so was born of mother who was
farmers daughter and Of a father who
was mechanic. They were good. honest
stock. / was not brought up on a bottle.
You see | show some signs Of my nurture
even now at 81 years of age, when l am
told tnat my birth was an accident.
''Ihe next happy accident was that
they were not rich, but poor and honest
people. who earned their daily bread and
brought their children ub to reverence
God and to give an equivalent TO society
for every hour Of their lives. Nv educa-
ton, the next happy accident, was in the
public schools OF the city or New York.
| Then | learned to meet my equals and to
measure my capacities, such as they were,
with those wEo began life WITH equal
| chances with myself, which were an
honest mind in an honest body. The
next accident was that Column bia Col
| lege, that time-honored institution Of
! yours, gave two scnOlarshics free for
| competition among the boys of the public
schools, and twenty thousand or us went
up for those, and one OF them was given
to me. | was admitted to college, and
| honestly supported myself from the time
l entered till | was graduated in four
years by teaching those whom | could
find to instruct.
Not one dollar of burden was imposed
upon my parents, who under other cir
cumstances would have been glad to have
met the necessary charges. 1t happened
By another lucky accident, perhaps, that
| passed through cOllege-and | say it in
no vain spirit of gloriication--at the head
of my class, and by another happy acct
| dent became nearly blind, and was com
| PEELED to pass a year in Europe, for
| which ! paid out of the earnings which
| had laid up from the lessons | had
/ given. On my way home another acct
| dent Occurred-the ship on which | was
went to the bottom, and [ was saved by
another accident in one of the boats OF
| that snip in company with man who has
| been Mayor OF this city, who was and ia
my friend and brother and will be TO the
end of my life. Handed In midwinter in
a borrowed suit of sailors clothes-not a
thing OF my Own-and ! bad three silver
| dollars in my pocket, which constituted
my entire worldly wealth. L was
| - years OF age, and that accident was the
| turning point in my life. II taught me
much, and first OF all that could stand
| in the presence of death without fear and
| without fiinching. 1t taug me another
| thing: that my life, which had been mi
raculously rescued, belonged not to me al
all, and that hour L gave il TO the work
which | have since followed TO do the best
| | could to promote the welfare of my fell
lOw-citizens. For thirty years l have
never turned aside from that task.
tine task which | set to myself was TO
contribute as far as | could to the en-
ployment of men. so that they could help
| bISuStifSos anu iOJ W uc uldue gu UJtCJs
of public charity. Applause. Sefhelp
is the remedy for all the evils of which
men complain. ] nave lad to help my
self from the earliest year can remem-
Der, and every struggling young man
| who chooses to follow the same rule will
help himself, and not become dependent
upon pubic or private charity. and can
achieve IA measure of success that GU 5ht
TO satisfy every Independent citizen"
Almost every sentence uttered by Mr.
Hewitt was voclferously appIauded by
the audience, aud great shout of ap-
| prevail swept over the immense hall " hen
he exclaimed, in dramatic manner
"Who should rule this country? Men
who labor for their daily bread, who fulfill
! their obligations, or those who, coming
| here from other lands-lands OF oppres
sion and tyrapny-would undertake to
subvert our government by the methods
Of anarchy, socialism and communism
am astOnished that all New ork Demo
cratic and Republican, has never risen u
it's feet and said TO them: 'BegOne-back
to the damned, to the he'll from which you
emergep"