St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-01


had encouraged hiGis Y Bait after all. hr
was merely the disagreeable agent oil
destiny, tor, amid the hardships and
disappointmelts of the struggle in the
East. young Shields was to listen and
give heed to the alluring promise of life
in the West.
. Ii was some time before he took his
way with the Star of Empire, which is
forever confidently claimed 10 be West
ward. and, when he appears 10 US again,
he is teaching school in kaskaSkit,
Illinois. That school Certainly had,
,unawareS. a most remarkable master iii
Knowledge that was almost wholly
unavailable to his scholars. or course
he was entirely competent to give all
the documentary INSTRUCTION required IN
that early pioneer day, but his exten-
sivei reading and his Latin studies hc
! Kept up2fer himself. ~
Although ne was little reluctant to
admit that he ever was a school teacher
with the queer variety, perhaps, of
tacit intimatiun that, like Minerva, he
sprang into the world armed cap-a pie,
born SOldier-yet no one i'll the world
had more genuine vocation to teach
than lie. His first impulse was to help
and instruct the Studionsly inclined
sought to make them read the master
pieces of literature, anu encouraged a
critical discussion on their merits,
Books were his inseparable eompan-
ions through life Walking or sitting,
| in town or country, out of doors or i'll.
he had something to read in his pocket,
and one seldom saw him without his
book in hand He read, wrote and
spoke French with admirable readiness.
Spanish was an enthusiasm with him,
and he came to use it as familiarly as
English, ., - =
Having in his very youth the studious
habit fixed upon him by inclination. it
was as as necessary 70 his mind as food
to his body. Reading was his resource
against most of the veXations of exist,
eEce. II put egOtisticai boreS to fig hit
because he would talk of his book ..wit
the most polite Difference to his visitor.
as II presume you have read this book.
so you can tell me how it impressed
you," etc. -' >
Or, ''not read it? There is SO MITCH in
it you will enjoy" Let me tell Nnsl
the theme, the argument, the inoyel
handling that pleaseS, me,"-unuI the
bore feeling himself to be humiliatingly
unread-and-not sufficiently qualified in
intelligence and patience to stand the
proposed enlightenment. would shorten
| his stay '.'tfaA s93iihi1 s1.s.s y
| By this treatment he never lost s,mucl,
| time from his favorite pursuit.. for,
much as he was willing to give away =
with his time he was decidedly S.ingy
1t follows that his memory was SUR
| prisingly retentive. When DIR, Charles
| Mackay lectured III this country on
poets, poetry-and chiefly Burns many
| years ago. he declared that he never
met, or heard of any man who knew
Burns, through and through, like Gen.
| Shields. So ardent was his admiration
| that he gave him Burns manuscript,
which he said was so precious that he
never supposed he could part with it,
but the general, of all men. was entitled
| to it.
He could repeat every one of Burns
| poems in the raciest Scotch,
1t is said that if paradise Lost" were
destroyed In Macaulay's time. that he
could reproduce il from memory. Gen.
| Shields could certainly do the same in a
disaster to Burns.
| End of second paper.