The record-union., 1896-03-03
COLLIS P. HUNTINGTON.
He Writes Interestingly About His School
Days.
Advice to Boys as to How to Become
Successful in Life and Ac-
quire Fortunes.


Huntington has written the following
letter to a friend in San Francisco, and
it was published in the Cali on Sun
day:
| 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
purports to be an authentic account of
my early life 1t amused me a good
deal, because good deal of it was true,
but some of it was not, and that part I
don't like to see published. To be sure
no part of it charges me with any dis
honest acts; but some poor boy whose
career is yet before him, and who has
got to fight his way upward might
think on reading this article that there
is something dishonora BILE and undig-
nified in honest labor.
l have always believed, as boy and as
man, that any honest work was honor
able, and when 1 was a 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 well and so much
quicker and better than anybody else
could do it that it would be noticed and
thus be the best possible argument that
my next job should be higher one. /
have always found this policy the best
in life, and may say that I have been
reasonably successful in what l have
done during the last sixty years of my
business life. / 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
one or two statements of his narrative.
Where, for INSTANCE. he remarks that
cne of the boys at scnool threw me in
wrestling. That's a 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 floor
with half the boys in the school taken
together. The writer of the article also
says, on the authority of someone in the
poorhouse who says he was a school
mate of mine, that was not a good boy
in school. / think / was a pretty good
boy, although I did have a tussle a
couple of times with the teachers. and I
laugh over it to this day when think of
II. believe the writer's poorhouse
friend is right in saying that this teach
er's name was Peck. The penalty 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 mis-
spelled. l was never in those days. and
am not to-day, much of a speller, al
though | believe 1 worked harder in
that direction than those who were
fortunate enough to find it an easy task;
III Oh 10 I,a ni,1,.
did not seem to me u fair thing to do, so
one day / agreed with four other boys
that when the spelling 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 arranged be-
tween US that the first boy called out
for punishment should refuse to put out
his hand and open the fight right there
II 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. I commenced busi-
ness without any delay and only one of
the four came in to helI' me; but we two
went for that teacher and we whipped
him.
There was another teacher whose
name, if l recollect right, was Ely-if
ever meet the poorhouse friend of the
writer (who, by the way, / see says he
would vote against the funding bill if
he could, will 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 a bundle of whips,
which he stood up behind his desk
When he returned from dinner-we had
dinner at noon in those days-the un-
canny looking things were not there,
or rather, I should say, they were cut
up into small pieces. He asked one and
another of the boys who had done it,.
and they all answered that they did not
know; although, of course, they knew
very well.
When he asked me if I knew 1 said
yes, but when he asked me who it was
put me out of schoo1if did not tell; but
/ didn't and we sailed in, and there was
fun for the boys for a few minutes, but
/ was able to gather him up and take
him out without harming him much
Now, there may have been something
wrong about these two schoolboy
member them as being so, and few rec
objections of my life have given me SO
much innocent satisfaction, or so often
caused smile, as the remembrance of
my tussle with Mr.. Ely.
Now, few serious words to the boys
with stout hearts and strong arms,
and nothing in their pockets who have
got the sober work of making living
1~@ 41xof hi y,
is nearest to you until you can do bet
ter and work with will, doing it as
well as you possibly can, and so stead
lily that one might almost think the
Fates were doing it, yet turning your
thought away from your mere manual
labor to watch out for something higher
and better Do this and you will surely
succeed. Be always true to yourself;
work with an honesty of purpose, and
spend no money for the things you do
not need / never in my life used to-
bacco, and until I was nearly so years
of age 1 did not know the taste of wine
or distilled liquors-notwithstan
what was told to Mr.. Nunan by his
poorhouse friend. 1t is interesting and
instructive to figure out how much
money a boy commencing at ID years
of age could have by the time he is
three-score and ten years. if he should
save % cents a day, and compound it
semi at per cent. interest.
Too many young men who go out to
work watch the clock to be sure they
don't reach their work one minute be.
fore the appointed time, or leave it one
minute after the regulation hour for
closing has struck. Il is a great mis-
take, for the hard times are sure to
come when those who employ labor