The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-07-11
PEPYS THE SECOND.
Daniel Milford's Quaint journal
to Be Given to the
Public.
From the Newark Sunday call.)


or another. 1t is fascinating, when the
opportunity is found, to trace the various
and devious steps by which the man or
woman ascends from one plane to an
other. particularly if the man or woman
has had experiences in any way similar
to ones own. A well kept journal af-
fords such opportunities to one who
comes after, and it is the Calls priyi-
lege to begin to-day the description of
the journal of a Jerseyman who was
born over a century ago, and who. all
though cut off in the flower of his life
by consumption, had passed through
many vicissitudes ere disease closed his
eyes. To turn the pages of this jour-
nal, faded and time-stained as it is to-
day, is like listening to the sound of
"a voice that is STILL" It's like the .ttouch
of a vanished hand As the reader pro-
ceeds it matters less and less to him that
the keeper of the journal lived, loved
louged and died half a century and over
before he himself saw the light, until
at last one feels as If he had known this
mar and he had been his friend, that
he had walked and talked with him some
time in the long ago. for so closely does
a journal bring you to the personality
of the man who penned it. A well-kept
journal is the truest and best story of a
human life that car be written. 1t deals
largely in commonplace else one can not
know him. Their the comonplaces
cease to be such. for being part of their
friend they take to themselves a new
and peculiar interest.
DAILY HAPPENINGS.
The journal alluded to is that of Dan
iel milford, who was born and lived for
the greater part of his life under the
ancestral r%ooftree which was reared
before the Revolution about four miles
out of Summit on the main road to
Bernardsville. Young milford wrote
much of his journal stretched before the
open fire at night, and he tells in a sim
Pile, unaffected fashion of the happenings
of each day. He had sheets of long
paper corresponding to our foolscap,
unruled The sheets were folded so as
TO make two pages. and when he wrote
on the inside he wrote across the two
pages. Along the leftlhandl edge he
made the initial letters for each day of
the week with the date beside it, and
against each came the doing of the day.
siderable neatness. and it is easy to see
thai the writer was deeply interested in
his occupation.
No good effort is utterly lost in this
world. Young milford wrote his jour-
nal for his own satisfaction and enter
tainment. AS he lay before the fire in
that old house on the Bernardsville road
with the shrill winds wfistling about it's
gables. he did not dream thu a gen
Grafton yet unknown would look upon it's
pages, and that a descendant was to pore
over it and receive from it the 3nsptra-
ton OF a newer, higher and better life.
Mh ando DIS N Journal gu r mas came mn, into his
and could do little more thar read and
write. It awoke in him a longing for
an education, and in short stirred him un-
til he bent his energies to secure that
education. He is now a prosperous bus
mess man in this community, and feels
he owes a vast deal to the journal of
soldier, and that bugle cali is ringing
SENSIBLE TOAST,
The present owner of the journal is
Mr.. Stephen S. Day, now connected with
the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance
has had the venerable document bound
and. naturally enough, preserves it with
Daniel milford was born in 1880 and
his father was a soldier in the Revolu-
ton n evidently bequeathed to his son
the true spirit of patriotism, for on the
"A 'Toast-Dhe Constitution of Great
Britain, may it ever remain in good
ST. STANDING. but d-the ~Goyernment!,,
April, 1901, at a time when milford was
a shoemaker. making his shoes and
selling them, and at the same time en-
could. In the beginning the young man
keeps his money accounts, as accom-
pts" on the same pages with his diary
and one comes upon such items as these:
..fO,3- for a gun; f0.2., for ferriage; 1904.
for beer; 0.10., for sling at the new
tavern. Daniel was not one of your
lived Ewes of frigid and monotonous
piety. He believed in a good time of
the innocent but merry sort. He went
good people of Summit and Chatham
constantly. One of the first entries in
the book is this: At night went to Mr..
f%rolic." On April 20; he was very indus
shoes and scaled Isaac Thomas's boots"
Late in April his mother died, and for
some time afterward he was busy ar
ranging for an auction sale of the house
hold effects, for which sale he himself
towns. On May IA he settled with the
people who were to lease the farm, and
thus his ~childhood's home was broken
on May Is, after having accumulated a
little money, ne started to go to school
at Morristown and two lays later began
the study of geography.
TENDER ENTRIES.
He was then 81 years of age, and he
subsequently became a student in Yale
still to accomplish in the way of pre-
paratory work may be gained. All this
time he is paying divers and sundry visits
to the young ladies of the surrounding
towns. but whenever there are tender
| words or particularly pleasant meetings,
the young man notes the fact in some
sort of caba1istic writing understood,
| possibly, by no one out himself. AT the
same time he worked with great ndus-
try. In early July he had mastered the
| square and cube root and was head
"a, the Journal shows this item:
went to school: played all forenoon;
! Nonsense with B. M. Meeker the even
ing before The writing here is
in a different hand. but just below
ore to the bottom of the page
where one comes upon this: Note
| The line preceding the star was written
by Betsey M. Meeker during my absence,
| which was simply an act of friendship
in her, seeing that I had forgot to record
SO pleasant, extraordinary and important
a matter" Fort Nonsense was an old
Revolutionary relic in Morristown.
1t is small wonder that the young
student tired a little of his books under
| the warm July sun, and one loves him
all the, better for the fact that he had
gumption enough to steal away from
his tasks on a moonlight evening, as 1t
Meeker was pretty, and her clever little
item in young Daniels journal shows
she was bright and merry, while Daniels
| note gives ample evidence that he took
the joke in good part.
The above article has been written as
| q. sort of introduction to what is to fol-
low, as it is quite necessary that the
reader, If he cares TO understand Daniel
Milford and the events with which he
| had to deal. should attain some idea