New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-07-02
A NOBLE MAN
A Charming Biography from the
Pen of Pride and Love.

SUNNY LIFE The BIOGRAPHY OF
Samuel June Barrows BY Isabel 9.
Barrows. Illustrated. limo. PIP. Xi, SZ5.
Boston: Little. Brown & Co.
Seldom, If ever. has a widow laid
upon the altar Of her husbands mem
DRY a wreath as sweet and pure and
beautiful as this fine and noble little
book. 1t is drenched with pride and
love. And II is both a skilful piece OF
biography and a fragrant, charming
tract.
This tender account Of life is
gentle pean Of frugality. unselfsh and
unceasing labor and struggle and
sunny Christian living. 1t is a work In
philosophy A sunny life is a simple.
clean and upright life. Of indefatigable
industry and devotion TO study and 10
mankind. 1t is the way Of the trans
gressor that is hard. 1t is the idle that
are weary. and the selfish and ignoble
are full Of complaining. Samuel June
Barrows was an American more typi-
cal Of the day when this Republic was
shaped by giants in the land than OF
our own day, this day of luxury, ruth
less conflict and the blowing Of horns.
Born in poverty. Of good old-fash-
toned mother, on New York's old East
Side, he became Of necessity a bread
winner at nine, at a weekly wage Of 81.
He began then his lifelong connection
with the press, as an errand boy in the
establishment Of Colonel Hoe. his
famous cousin. This inimitabe bog
raphy abounds in love names" for its
hero. He is first little Sammy" this
dear boy" then this bright lad" and
at length the beloved man" Appeal
ing. indeed. are the pictures OF little
Sammy's early home and quaint Sun
day school life, OF the child barrel
preacher" distributing tracts on the
docks to rough seamen and calling
them to conversion. and of the boy
teaching himself shorthand after hours
on the piers by the East River. The
New-York Tribune was early and long
associated with the destinies Of this
boy and man. While carrying a bundle
done up in copy of The Tribune he
saw in 1t an advertisement for a
stenographer, which led to his employ
ment by Fowler & Wells, the phrenol-
ogists, at a salary of Sc a week. 1t was
while acting as private amanuensis to
DR.. James c. Jackson at his water cure
sanatorium that this thoughtful boy"
met the studious and devout lady who
became his inestimable wife.
The account OF THE Conservatory"
a room on Waverly Place, and the
first married home Of the then young
church reporter for The Tribune, is as
pretty as anything we recall In story.
The story OF the economies, the studies
and struggles of the young couple is
told with sunny pen.
In Samuel Barrows's childish desires
two positive peaks Of ambition had
doomed up; one was an ambition TO be
a stage driver, the other the ambition
10 be a minister. In his life he was
many things: one journeying on re-
ligious pilgrimage, private secretary TO
William II. Seward during his service
as Secretary Of State in the troublous
days OF the early Reconstruction pc
Rod correspondent of The Tribune on
the plains Of the Far West during the
7Os, divinity student at Harvard in a
period of stirring theological contro-
versy; pastor OF the historic old First
Church at Dorchester. and for sixteen
years editor Of the official weekly OF
the Unitarian denomination; Congress
man at the time of the Spanish War.
secretary Of the New York Prison AS
ISOLATION during the last ten years OF
his life, and at his death president Of
the international Prison Congress, a
patient worker for prison reform. inter-
national peace and religious and social
liberty. Samuel June Barrows went