The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-25

,Copyright, 1918. by the Mcclure News
paper Syndicate.)
TT is one of the vanities of fair mum
Der of successful men TO rather EN-
phasize the fact that they had little
schooling in their youth. Maybe they
ricked up more in the days of the stone
bfuise and the blue-bacl speller than
they realized. Maybe they are of the
class who learn in flight and to whom
The schoolroom drill means little.
Because John A. is so much like John
nv. John A. Hill always has been Johnny
Hill. He was born near the top of the
Green mountains in Vermont on Wash
inetons birthday in 1858. His lathei
was a wheelwright. They make pretty
good wagons in that part of America
and the average wheelwright is lihely
to be a pretty good mechanic. In 1868
the Hills went out to Wisconsin end q
year later the family moved to Iowa.
When John A. Hill was years old he
went to work. AS a barefoot boy with
only shirt and a pair of trousers ne
shepherded d flock of 800 sheep. There
Is city now on the land those sheep
browsed over. It is not very big but
everybody in Floyd county and various
other counties OF Iowa know it. 1t is
called Charles City.
The lad got no schooling then. There
were no schools nearby. The nearest
neighbor was three miles away. In all
Iowa there were not as many people as
there are now in one county. The boys
mother died before he was s years old
and late in 1865 his father took him back
to Wisconsin. Therel he got a little
schooling He worked in the summer
and in the winter for five terms he
trudeed through the snow and the sleet
and the cold 10 a country schoolhouse
and, to the despair of his teachers
showed little or no interest in his stud
les 1t was not that his mind was not
bright. He had picked up reading, writ
ing and arithmetic in a rush. But ne
could not tolerate the monotony of the
schoolroom. He was eager to read and
was most inattentive on that account.
The stuff he read was not what school
teacher would approve The dime novel
was the most absorbing Of literature to
this boy. When he did not have one of
those things to read he tried to follow
the teachers directions. but his mind
strayed to other subjects. OF the vari-
Gus teachers he had, only one, Mrs.
Mann, who sympathized with him or un-
derstood the lad. She caught him one
da- reading a dime novel. He was II
years old at the time. He had been or
dered not to read such trash, but had
wilfullv disobeyed the injunction. Mrs
Mann looked at the lurid bit OF litera-
tl1re then she looked at the boy.
"Finish it." she said. land when school
is dismissed at o'clock you are to stay
In"
''Yes'm." said the boy.
If was the rule then to neither spare
the rod nor spare the boy and Johnny
Hill and all the other pupils eXpectef
Johnny Hill was going to get a rousina
GOOD licking Instead of whipping thai
child. Mrs Mann sat down alongside o
him and told him that she wanted hin
To tell her the story that was In tha
novel. He blundered through the frs
chapters of the tale as best he could II
his agitation. The story was about In
diaps She stopped him there anC
wanted to know what tribe OF 1nlians
He didn't know. She made him look i
M and then she told him lot about thi
tribe There was a marvellous escap'
Of a white man from the Indians be
cause the white man had rubbed hi
horse with PHOSPHORUS and the Indian
thought It was something supernatural
The schoolteacher explained what phos
phorous was and then made Johnny Hill
proceed.
The boy. reassured. went along VIII
his tale with a little more spirit Whel
he finished the woman told him that ~
had done pretty well. There were
lot of things In the book that he di.
not understand, however. and which h
was skimming over. She advised hin
never to read in that way, but alwaY
to ascertain what the meaning of
thing was. Therein lay the profit 4
reading Then she told him that he wa
strange boy. one not to be Judge
as other boys were Judged and that |