Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1901-09-08

One would never have suspected
Jerry Carleton Of being a philosopher,
II one lad CHANGED to meet him at
work on his stony farm among the
New Hampshire hills. His wide
brimmed straw hat hid bis domelike
head from view. and, To a casual OBJ
server, his working clothes and I'M
kept beard would have bespoken the
yeoman of the globe.
And yet Uncle Jerry was a man
born out of time and out of place.
Fate had given him the qualities which
make a scholar. but had limited his OPP
p~ortunities TO the lonely farm where
for forty years be had lived with Han
nah Perkins, his ehildless wife. at the
time wnen the present chapter OF his
history begins.
Uncle Jerry's only opportunity
for book larnin' had been the dis
triet school. Educators are aceus-
toned 10 say, in these days of liberal
culture, that no boy or girl who truly
desires n university training will be
denied it. This may be true, but Il
was certainly not the case when Jerry
Carleton was a boy. 1t was hard to
wrest a living for a family Of eleven
children from a rocky hillside farm in
New England. Uncle Jerry num-
bered n in such a family. When he
was born the world spelled the word
toll to him in large letters,-and it
never spelled any other. Uncle Jerry's
hard hands and grizzled face showed
that he had mastered its lesson.
Yet from his earliest days he strug-
gled with the problem of existence
not the mere existence of bread and
butter, but the knotty equation which
God seems to have set before mankind.
and which centuries of thought have
brought nc nearer a solution With
IL this New England peasant grappled
hard. He was kindly, and his re-
searches mellowed him from year to
year,-as all genuine research in phil
osophy Golds the mind into beautiful
perfection of character. There were
always plenty to eat and plenty to
wear in his home, but all the rest
went into books. Uncle Jerry knew
Plato and Socrates. He thoroughly
understood the Stoics and the Peripa-
tetics. He was versed in Huxley.
Spencer and Darwin and he had
plumbed the deep bottom o. the Ger
man school. For when the haryests
were over and the winter blowing had
Deen done, he did not spend his time
in the village store. AS a bear hiber-
mates On his nest of leaves, in the
depths of his cave, Uncle Jerry for two
decades had passed the winter buried
in an atmosphere of lofty thought.
When he was old, and his mind was
past its prime. he was ready for more
fanciful thinking. and hen his mis-
fortunes began. The majority of peo-
pie are wont to look with eommisera-
ton on those who become enmeshed
in the csoteric philosophy of the The
osophists. Carleton came to this
from Swedenborg, which had already
worn several pounds OF flesh from the
bones of his poor wife, Hannah. But
When the teachings of Madame Bla-
vatsky and Mrs. besanL came into
that lonely New England household,
Hannah Cartoons cup filled and ran
over. Now Uncle Jerry-like all PHI
osophers-was pleased to discuss his
theories vocally. and for many win
tiers he had rehearsed his ideas TO
Hannah as she sat silently. in the in
gle nook, with her knitting. She had
stood it well. She herself never had
any opinions, and consequently she
never said a word. But when the
shadow of the Theosophic specter
crossed her threshold she began to
quake.
yer sec, Hannah" her husband be-
gan one evening, the hull idee rests
on the proposition tibet God in Their
beginnin' created a certain number o.
souls; an in course O time, eff they
behave themselves, they'll all be pro-
NOTED to the highest estate. But eff