The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-07-11
ONE MANS CAREER.
A Poor Boy, Multi Millionaire, and
 Now a Peddlar.

at least eight million dollars, Charles Ii
 North is to-day referred to as the vege
 table peddlar, who never wears hat.
 From the upper windows of the fami
 ly mansion on Prospect Hill, in tha
 city, where he now occupies two rooms
 can be seen large pork packing estab
 lishment in the valley, with his name 1T
 great letters, that everybody can read
 This white-haired man, now in his six
 ty-eighth year, is no longer connected
 with the business.
 In striking contrast his name appears
 ill small letters on the side of his ped
 dler's cart, and after them the word
 Agent" He still hopes to regain his
 lost fortune, and, although cut off from
 family and friends, is remarkably cheer
 ful and energetic, showing the same en-
 ergy which characterized him when, as
 a young man, he came from Vermont to
 Boston and laid the foundation of the
 fortune which has been swept away
 He was born in Vermont of poor pa
 rents, who, while he was quite young,
 moved to Georgia, and later to Coving-
 ton, Ky. His father was killed in the
 battle of Shiloh.
 When eighteen years of age he struck
 out for himself, earning enough in a
 Waltham bagery to enable him to spend a year in French's academy.
 It was with John P. Squire that he | learned the pork packing business. and ] inside of year he was able to open a i stall of his own in Quincy market in this city.
 | He was successful from the start, and, opening a store in the market dis | trict, rapidly gained prominence. | In 1867 he opened the porkpacking es- | tablishment in Somerville. Familiar with every detail of the business, he gave it his personal attention, and gradually added to his plant and ex- tended the business, until the name of Charles H. North became known all over the country. He had associated with him J. M. Merriam, s. H. Skilton | and Newman Conant. As the years went by the business continued to in- crease, and in 1890 there were thirteen hundred hands employed.
 All this time Mr North was active in the affairs of Somerville. When church. es were to be, built he was always count ed upon as one of the largest contribu- tors The North homestead on the top of Prospect Hill was then one of the show places of Somervile. It was pointed out as the home of the richest man in the place. and the furnishings of the big, square house were most elabo- rate. It was here that his family were born and grew to be men and women. one daughter married a professor of the University of Vermont; another married a Chicago man. six sons are living in and around Boston, and one of them is employed in the office of the pork packing company establishment and once owned by his father.
 Mrs North Is now living with her sons, but the head of the family prefers to go it alone, living in the big house on the hill and spending his days on the peddlers cart and his nights in the big room, once his back parlor but now filled with huge account books and oth- CT relics of his former greatness.
 The change In his condition came when the Charles H. North Packing & Provision company was formed and the Swifts became interested in the busi- ness. Then followed scheme schemes in which money went rapidly, such as gold mines in Nova Scotia and the purchase of pork packing plant in Omaha. MT. North still maintains that these were not losing ventures, but that he found his money tied up and others reaped the reward of his labors
 However that may be, the fact re- mains that Charles H. North is now earning his living as peddler of previ- sions. Every morning he is up with the sun, caring for his horse and great dog. In overalls and jumper and wear ing about the yard long white duster, and never a hat on his brown head and white hair, he is a picturesque charac- ter. A small and talkative boy is his companion, and hey are apparently happy with their work.
 Starting out early in the morning, MT. North buys his stock and then goes from, street to street and from door to door Everybody in Somerville knows him. and now in the days of his adver- sity they are familiar.
 They call him Charley"
 It is usually dark when he returns home, lights the lantern in the barn, puts up the horse for the night, talks to the dog, and then with the boy and the | lantern climbs the narrow back stairs to his room, where the huge roll top | desk, filtered with papers, opposite a mammoth safe, are conspicuous objects in the Undiscovered parlor, now half off, flee, half junkshop.
 His sleeping room is up stairs, and these two are all of the eighteen he oc- cupies Sixteen rooms are let to Mrs. Kimball. who keeps lodgers. and the still show evidence of the style in which the North family once lived. The owner of the house eats his meals with the other lodgers, and sits long into the night pouring over the papers and documents that formerly meant a great deal to him.
 Then, before retiring, the aged man takes cold plunge, and he tells how, during the winter he would have to take the chunks of ice out of the bath tub before entering it.
 Physically he is remarkable man to-day, and pair of Indian clubs be- side his desk has something to do with 1t. Even now at siXty-eight years of age he boasts that he is good for i've mile swim.
 And yet the ability to make money seems to have left Charles H. North.- Boston Herald.
 THE ELEVATOR STARTER. His Skilful Knowledge of the Names of