Omaha daily bee., 1899-12-31

ing to- make 1t all myself and ] don't see
why / can't help myself to material wherever
] can find it,
Now, as you and ! know. this was very
wrong. but ! am not telling you what ought
to have happened, but what did happen to
q little New Jersey boy who didn't know any
better.
First he selected a plot Of ground on
which to build the library. This was next
door to the summer residence of a man who
had gone to New York for the winter and
it WIS part Of his land. When the people
saw AminSdab digging for the foundations
they did not stop him. for 1t was none of
their business. and, BESIDES, for all they
Hamerton, the owner. As l neglected to
say, Aminadab was an orphan and not an
swcrable to any one.
Of course, to such a strong and handy boy
the work Of digging a cellar thirty by fifty
feet was not a thing to keep him busy long
and by nightfall of the day he had started
it, it was all ready for the mason work.
1t would not he very interesting to tell
you how he mixed his mortar and did all
the other prosy things that go to the making
of a house. The remarkable thing is that
he got every stone that went into the build
ing Of that library from the stone walls OF
the adjacent country. "a stone here and
a stone there will never be missed" said
he, and he was right, but although they
weren't missed it was wrong in him to take
them without asking. I'm not standing up
for Dabby by any means.
There was a very thick evergreen hedge
running along the front of the Hamerton
place, and no one noticed what was going
on behind it. so Dabby was able to give his
whole strength to his task without Interrupt
ton. And it took a great deal of strength,
and the boy ate his meals with a work
mans appetite. 1t is no slight task to
carry off two or three tifty-pound stones for
a mile or two, and then set them up in place,
but he was a cheerful worker and he knew
that he was building a memorial to himself
and that made the task an easy one.
Ar armful of planks at a planning mill
here and there, taken at the noon hour when
the men were off eating their luncheon and
a few kegs of nails which he shouldered, two
at n time, and some quick, def work and
the floors were laid. And he had only been
at work two or three days. think he
must have had a strong natural taste in
architecture, for when the building was COM
| pleted, several New York architects said
! that it was worthy of Richardson at his
best. You ought to know, if you don't, that
Richardson was one of the greatest OF Amerl-
can architects, and it is a pity that he i,
not living today.
The panes of glass were harder tn get
and l think that the way in which Amina-
dab got them was thoroughly reprehensible,
for instead Of buying them or even taking
them without leave from a glazier, he stole
a GLACIERS diamond and cut the panes out
OF various houses in town, thus letting in
the cold air and putting people to a lot of
trouble. You may say that in the end it
I gave the glazier plenty Of work that he
would not otherwise have had, but l tell you
that a right that comes from a wrong is not
the right kind OF right.
At noon of the fourth day the boy had
finished everything but the front doors, and
he was puzzled where to get them. He
wanted something handsome, but he didn't
think that he was able to make doors with
the few tools at his command, and he knew
of no ready-made doors that would Do. So
he took a day off and went to Philadelphia,
and there on Market street, or Chestnut, or
Arch-I can't be more exact, because those
] are the only Philadelphia streets l know