The San Francisco call., 1896-03-01

! of his years for the benefit of young men
who are now struggling in their metaphor
ical Poverty Hollow. His letter, addressed
to an old friend in this City. is as follows
| suppose you have seen published in
one OF the San Francisco papers lately q
haven't it before me here) an article or
letter signed by a Mr.. Nunan which pur-
ports to be an authentic account of my
early life. 1t amused me a good deal. be-
cause good deal of it was true, but some
of it was not and that part don't like to
see published. To be sure no part OF it
charges me with any dishonest acts;
but some poor boy whose career is yet be-
fore him and who has got to fight his way
upward might think on reading this article
that there is something dishonorable and
undignified in honest labor.
| have always believed, as boy and
as man, that any honest work was honor
able, and when I was boy I always took
the work that lay nearest to me and did it
with all my might and took pride in doing
it so we'll and SO much quicker and better
than anybody else could do it that it
would be noticed and thus be the best DOS
sible argument that my next job should
be a higher one. / have always found
this policy the best in life and may say
that | have been reasonably successful in
what have done during the last sixty
years of my business life. l have taken
no step backward and no honest man has
ever said of me that l gave less than full
weight and measure or that my word was
not as good as any mans bond.
| do want to put Mr.. Nunan right in
fyy-n OF 0F 1,;e
Where. for instance, he remarks that one
of the boys at school threw me in wrest-
ling. That's mistake, for no one in the
"Hollow" ever threw me or ever could,
and in a rough -and-tumble scrimmage I
could "wipe up the foor' with half the
boys in the school taken together. The
writer of the article also says, on the au-
thority of some one in the poorhouse who
says he was scboolmate of mine, that I
was not a good boy in school. think I
was pretty good boy, although 1 did
have tussle couple of times with the
teachers, and [ laugh over it to this day
when | think of it. believe the writer's
poornouse friend is right in saying that
this teachers name was Peck. The pen
atty in our school for bad spelling, as fixed
by Peck, was one blow of heavy ferule
on the palm of the hand for every word
misspelled. l was never in those days,
and I am not to-day, much of speller,
although l believe worked harder in that
direction than those who were fortunate
enough to find it an easy task; but
objected to the punishment, for it
did not seem to me a fair
thing to do, so one day L agreed
with four other boys that when the spell
ing lesson came up.we would all miss
every time. We did so, and as the good
spoilers "went up"-as it was called-the
bad spoilers. of course, '.went down" TO the
foot of the class. We five boys had ar
ranged between us that the first boy called
out for punishment should refuse to put
out his hand and open the fight right
there. 1t happened that the first boy
called in this connection was not the right
boy for the business; but the next was,
and that was myself. / commenced busi-
ness without any delay, and only one of
the four came in to help me; but we two
went for that teacher ard we whipped
him.
There was another teacher whose name,
if recolIect right, was Ely--if ever meet
the poorhouse friend of the writer (who,
by the way, sec says he would vote
against the funding bill if he could), Twill
ask him so as to be sure-but we will call
him Ely. The first day this teacher came
to school he brought with him bundle Of
whips. which he stood up behind his desk.
When he returned from dinner--we had
dinner at noon in those days, the uncanny