Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-02-16

own One-haIt OF the Ledger property. In
future the Ledger will be managed by A. ].
Drexel's youngest son, George W. Childs
Drexel.
Sketch of His Life.
George William Childs was born in Balti-
more, Md, on May ~, 1929. His parents
were poor, so poor that when a tiny lad he
was forced to shift for himself. Before he
was fourteen he served a year in humble
I capacity in the United States Navy,
and then went to Philadelphia. lie
was nearly panniless, and knew but one fam
| lily In that city. Within few days after his
arrival this family removed, and thus he was
| left entirely alone and friendless. He OBJ
tanned employment at once, however, as
errand boy in a book store at weekly
| salary of SO. 1t was not long before
he was clerk and right hand man at.
| tending the evening auctions and rapidly
becoming familiar with books and their
| value. Nevertheless his salary remained very
| small. At the end of three years service it
| only amounted to about 81 a week. From
| this small sum, however, eked out with for
tunate ventures in book buying On his own
account, the lad managed to save money and
adopted as his early motto, Industry, tenn
perance and frugality."
| At eighteen he had saved up sufficient
! capital to enter into business on his own ac-
| count, and set up modest book store in the
Ledger Building, then at the corner of Third
d
very uncertain one, for his capital was very
small. Nevertheless, he began to make
| money almost from the start.
| In 1849 he entered the publishing firm OF
R. E. Peterson & Co., the firm being shortly
afterward changed to Chids & Peterson
Robert Evans Peterson, who later bS
came Mr.. Childss father-in-law. va,
like Mr.. Childs, a bookseller. In 1860
Mr.. Peterson retired from the firm, and Mr..
Childs entered into partnership with J. P.
Tippincott Il Co., a business connection which
continued about year. Mr.. Childs then
commenced business for himself. In 1863 he
purchased the Publishers Circular, an adj
vertsing sheet then published in New York.
He remOdeled and edited this paper, and
issued the first number under the title of the
American Publishers Circular and Library
Gazette on May 1, 1868. The Circular was
great success from the start and continued
under the charge of Mr.. Childs until 1863
when the increasing cares ofthe publication
ofthe Public Ledger forced him to part with it.
Mr.. Childs had now become man of note
His name afterward became almost as we'll
known in England as in this country. He
had taken place in this country as a public
benefactor because of his large liberality in
gifts to worthy institutions and persons
and every year gave away much of the
large income derived from his news
paper. In England his liberality took
the form of doing honor to the poets George
Herbert and William Cowper by a memorial
window in Westminster Abbey; of paying
homage to Milton by one in st. Margarets,
Westminster. and by erecting fountain to
Shakespeare in Stratford-on-Avon. He also
contributed to a monument to Leigh Hunt in
Kensal Green Cemetery, and a memorial win
dow to Moore in the church at Browham. In
this country he built monument to Edgar
Allan Poe and had given orders TO provide
one for Richard A. Proctor, the astronomer.
Among the latest of his pnblic gifts was the
erection Of the Prayer Book Cross" near
San Francisco, to mark the spot where Sir
Francis Drake landed and where the re
IigiOus services in the English language were
nrst held on the western shores of America.
But his liberality in this country took
chiefly the form of benevoance, not merely
IL the shape of charity. He paid his printers
more than union rates, and his employees
generally shared in a sense in the profits of
his paper, which was estimated at $3.50 600 to
$500, 900 a year. All who worked for him re-
ceived liberal salaries he paid the doctors
bills of the sick, pensioned the superanuated,
and often buried the dead
In 1868, Mr.. Childs and Mr.. A. J. Drexel
Jointly gave SIC, 000tothe International Typo
graphical Union, which was the nucleus ofthe
fund out OF which the home for aged and in
valid printers at Colorado Springs was finally
erected in 1892. To increase the fund printers
east of the Mississippi each set a thousand
ems for its benefit on Mr.. ChiIds's following
birthdays, and those west Of the great river
did the same thing on Mr.. Drexel's Septem-
ber -. The list of Mr.. Childs's benevolent
deeds is a long one and the amount of his
benefact1ons was immense. In addition to
giving to public and private charities in
Philadelphia and elsewhere, he educated at
least 500 young women. No deserving
stranger ever appealed to him i'll vain for
aid.
Mr.. Childs was known the world CTer us a
host, and distinguished people from every
country were entertained by him at his home
IN Philadelphia, his country house at Wooten
and his seaside cottage at Elberon. He
correspondent with Washington Irving,
Prescott, Hawthorne, Bryant, Greeley, Will
lam 81. Seward, G. P r. James, Edward
Everett, and many other well-known men.
Mr.. Childs was Industrious collector of
literary curios. He owned. among other
things, the original manuscript of Dickens's
"Our Mutual Friend" an autograph sermon
by Cotton Mather, the original manuscript OF
part of drama by Schiller, and autograph
letters OF Samuel Pepys. DR.. Johnson,
Hume, Burke, Coleridge, Wordsworth Lord
Byron, Thackeray, Sir Walter Scott, Charles
Lamb, and many others. He had also col.
lection Of clocks which was perhaps unri.
vailed. In spite of his not being classically
educated, Princeton College conferred upon
him the degree of Master of Arts. In 1885
he printed ''Some Recoilections of General
Grant, and in 1890 his own "Recollectiens."
After establishing the Ledger a firm
basis, Mr.. Childs took in 1868 the first and al
most the only rest of his busy life. He trav
eled in England and on the Continent for
several months. In England he was the
guest of Charles Dickens, Mr.. Walter, of the
London Times, and of the Duke of Bucking.
ham.
Mr.. Childs was very intimate with General
Grant, but his chief friend was the late A. J.
DreXel. For quarter of a century they
lunched with each other at noon
Philadelphia itself naturally shared Mr..
Childs's liberality. H was foremost in Sc
curing Paramount Park for her. and was ono
of the largest contributors to the Zoolog ical
Garden, the Pennsylvania Museum, and the
School of Industrial Arts. His was one of the
first subscriptions of $40, 900 toward the Cen
tennial Exposition.
The only public Office Mr.. Childs ever
could be induced to hold was the honorary
one of President of the Board of Visitors to
the Military Academy of West Point, to
which he was appointed by President Cleve-
land.
Mr.. Childs leaves a widow, but no chill
dren. His fortune has been estimated at S5,-
900, 900. He disposed of one-half of the
Public Ledger to Mr.. Drexel several years
ago, and it is expected that that newspaper
will now pass to his namesake, George Will
lam Childs Drexel.
The WmmeraI.
The funeral OF George W. Childs, which
was held In Philadelphia, was attended by
thousands Of persons. representing all classes
and conditions of life. Previous to the ser
vices in st. James's Protestant Episcopal
Church. which began at l O'Clock, Bishop
Henry c. Potter, OF New York. and the Rev
Dr.. joseph II. Blanchard. ractor Of ST,