The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1902-07-02

"a change soon came, for u kin
old Scotchman, who knew some of OF
relatives, made bobbins aud took m
in his factory before L was thirteer
But here for time it was even wors
than in the factory, because was Sc
TO fire a boiler in the cellar, and actua
ly to run the small steam engine whic
drove the machinery. The firing of tn
boiler was all right, for fortunately w
did not use coal, but the refuse woode
chips, and 1 always liked to work i
wood. But the responsibility of keep
ing the water right and of running tn
engine, and the danger of my maxim
a mistake and blowing the whole fac
tory to pieces, caused too great strain
and often awOke and found mysel
sitting up in bed through the nigh
trying the steam gauges. But neve
told them at home that 1 was having
hard tussle.' Mol no everythin,
must be bright to them.
"This was point of honor, fo
every member of the family was work
ing hard except, of course, my littl,
brother, who was then q child, and w,
were telling each other only all tn.
bright things Besides this, no mar
would whine and give up-he would
die first.
lily, and several dollars per week were
earned by 'the mother by binding
shoes after her daily work was done
Father was also hard at work in the
factory. And could complain
My kind employer, John Hay
peace to his ashes soon relieved me OF
the undue strain, for he needed some
one to make out bills and keep his &C.
counts, and finding that 1 could write
a plain school boy hand, ID could
8 cipher L became his only clerk. But
still had to work hard upstairs in the
factory, for the clerking took but little
time.
You know how people moan about
poverty as being great evil, and it
seems to be accepted that if people had
only plenty of money and were rich
they would he happy and more useful,
and get more out of life.
"As rule, there is more genuine
satisfaction, truer life, and more OBJ
tanned from life in the humble cottages
of the poor than in the palaces of the
rich. always pity the sons anil daugh-
ters of rich men who nre attended by
servants, and have governesses at a
later age, but am glad to remember
that they do not know what they have
missed.
They have kind fathers and moth
ers, too, and think that they enjoy the
sweetness of these blessings to the
fullest, but this they cannot do for
the poor boy who has in father con-
slant companion, tutor and model, and
in his mother--hOly name-his nurse, +,
teacher, guardian angel, saint all in
one, has richer, more precious for
tune in life than any rich mans son
who is not SO favored can possibly
know, and compared with which all
other fortunes count for little.
6 1t is because know how swe ct
and happy and pure the home of hon
est poverty is, how free from perplex.
ing care, from social envies and emu
latiOns, how loving and how united it's
members may be in the common inter-
est of supporting the family, that L
sympathize with the rich mans boy
and congratulate the poor mans boy;
and it is for these reasons that from
the ranks of the poor 30 many strong,
eminent, self-reliant men have always
sprung and always must spring.
{" If you will read the list of the
Immortals who were not born TO die, >
will find that most of them have been
born to the precious heritage of pow
erty.
{" 1t seems, nowadays, matter of
universal desire that poverty should
be abolished. We should be quite
willing to abolish luxury, but to nbol-
ish honest, industrious, celf-denylng
poverty would be to destroy the soil
upon which mankind produces the vir-
tues which enable our race to reach a
still higher civilization than it now
possesses"