The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1888-08-03
BILL Y IN BOSTON
An Account ola Visit to His Birthplace IN The
state of Maine,

state OF Maine.
Last week visited my birthplace n
the state of Maine. / waiaal thirty
years for the public to visit it. and a.
there didn't seem to be much az 3
rush this spring, 1 thought | would
90 and visit it myself. I was telling
a friend the other day that the public
did not to manifest the interest,"
IN my birthplace that / thought i
ought to, and he said / ought not 10
mind that. "Just watt said he. .,till
the people of the Urited States have
an opportunity TO visit your tomb. and
YOU viii be surprised to see how thew
will run excursion trains up there To
MOOsehead lake, or wherever Won
plant yourself. 1t will be a perfect
picnic. Your hold on the American
people, William, is wonderful. but
your death would seem to assure it,
and kind of crystahze the affection
now existing, but still in a nebulous
and gummy state.
A man ought not to eritlcise his
birthplace, l presume, and vet. If /
were to do it all over again, lido not
know whether / would select that par
ticular spot or not: Sometimes / think
l would not. And yet, what memories
cluster about that old house! There
was the place where / first met nv
parents. 1t was at that time that an
acquaintance sprang up which has
rIpened in late years into mutual re-
spect and esteem. 1t was there that
what might be termed d casual meet
ing took place that has, under the al
chemy of resistless years, turned to
golden links, forming a pleasant but
powerful bond of union between nv
parents and myself. For that reason I
hope that / may be spared to my
parents for many years to come.
Many old memories now cluster
about that old home, as | have said.
There is, also, other old brio a. brac
which has accumulated since / was
Oorn there. | took a small stone from
the front yard as a kind of .'memento''
of the occasion and the place. | do
not think it has been detected vet.
There was another stone in the yard,
so it may be weeks before anyone finds
out that took one of them.
How humble the home, and vet
what a lesson it should teach the boys
of Americal Here, amid the barren
and the inhospitabie waste of rocks
and cold, the last place in the world
that a man would naturally select to
be born in, began the life Of one who,
by his own unaided effort, in after
years rose to the proud helghS e.
postmaster at Laramie City, Wyom-
ing, and, with an estimate of the flu
ture that was almost prophetic, re-
signed before he could be character
lied as an offensive partisan.
Here on the banks of the raging
Piscataquis, where winter fingers in
the lap of spring till it occasions a
good deal of talk, there began a ca
reer which has been the wonder and
admiration of every vigilance com
mittee west of the turbulent Missouri.
There on that spot, with no inherit
ance but a predisposition to prema-
ture badness and a bitter hatred Of
rum, with no personal property but a
misft suspender and q stone bruise,
began a life history which has never
ceased to be a warning to people who
sell groceries on credit.
1t should teach the youth of this
young land what glorious possibilities
may lie concealed in the rough and
tough bosom of the reluctant present.
1t shows how steady perseverance and
a good appetite VIII always win in the
end. 1t teaches MS that wealth is not
indispensable, ara that if we live as
we should, drayt out Of politics at the
proper time, anGt die a few days be-
fore the public absolutely demand it,
the matter of our birthplace will not
be considered.
Still, my birthplace is all right as a
birthplace. 1t was a good, quiet place
in which to be born. Ali the old
neighbors said that Shirley was a very
quiet place up to the time / was born
there, and when | took my parents by
the hands and gently led them away
in the spring Of '43, saying: Parents,
this is no place for us it became
quiet.
II is the only birthplace lhave, how
ever, and / hope that all the readers
of The Globe viii feel perfectly free to
90 there any time and visit it, and
carry their dinner, as did. Extrava-
giant .cordialitY and overlooking hos
pitality have always kept my birth
place back.-BoStoR Sunday Globe.