The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1914-11-20
VARIED CAREER
OF JOHN A. HILL
Live American Who, Through
Many vicissitudes, Won
Great Success.
HE GIVES TEACHER CREDIT
Barefoot Shepherd Lad, Printer, Ma
ohlnIst, Miner, RalIroader, Editor
and Now Owner of a Big
Publishing Concern.
By RICHARD sPILLANE.

BY RICHARD sPILLANE.
Copyright. Mcclure Newspaper syndicate)
II Is one of the vanities of a fair
number of successful men to rather
emphasize the fact that they had
little schooling in their youth. Maybe
they picked up more in the days of the
stone bruise and the blue-back speller
than they realized. Maybe they are of
the class who learn in flight and to
whom the schoolroom drill means lit
tie.
Because John A. Is so much like
Johnny, John A. Hill always has been
Johnny Hill. He was born near the
top Of the Green mountains in Yer
mont on Washington's birthday, in
1858. His father was wheelwright.
They make pretty good wagons in
that part of America and the average
wheelwright Is likely to be a pretty
good mechanic. In 1863 the Hills
went out to Wisconsin and year later
the family moved to Iowa.
When John A. Hill was eight years
old he went to work. AS a barefoot
boy with only shirt and a pair Of
trousers he shepherded a flock of 800
sheep. There is city now on the land
those sheep browsed over. 1t is not
very big, but everybody in Floyd coun-
'ty and various other counties of Iowa
knows 1t. 1t is called Charles City.
The lad got no schooling then. There
were no schools near by. 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 eight
years old and late In 1866 his father
took him back to Wisconsin. There
he got little schooling. He worked
In the summer and in the winter for
five terms he trudged through the
snow and the sleet and the cold to a
country schoolhouse and, to the
despair of his teachers, showed little
or no interest in his studies. 1t was
not that his mind was not bright. He
had picked up reading, writing and
arithmetic in rush. But he could not
tolerate the monotony of the school
room. He was eager to read and was
most inattentive on that account The
stuff he read was not what a school
teacher would approve. The dime
novel was the most absorbing Of liter
ature 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.
One Teacher Understood Him.
or the various teachers he had,
only one. a Mrs. Mann, sympathized
with him or understood the lad. She
caught him one day reading a dime
novel. He was eleven years old at the
time. He had been ordered not to
read such trash, but had wilfully dis
obeyed the injunction. Mrs. Mann
looked at the lurid bit of literature,
then she looked at the boy.
Finish it," she said. "and when
school is dismissed at four o'clock, you
are to stay in"
1t was the rule then to neither spare
the rod nor spare the boy, and Johnny
Hill and all the other pupils expected
Johnny Hill was going to get rousing
good licking. Instead of whipping that
child, Mrs. Mann sat down alongside
Of him and told him she wanted him
to tell her the story that was in that
novel. He blundered through the first
chapters of the tale as best he could In
his agitation. The story was about In
dams. She stopped him there and
wanted to know what tribe of Indians.
He didn't know. She made him look
1t up and then she told him lot about
the tribe. There was a marvellous es-
cape of white man from the Indians
because the white man had rubbed his
horse with phosphorus and the In
dams thought It was something super
natural The school teacher explained
what phosphorus was and then made
Johnny Hill proceed.
Taught Him How to Read.
The boy, treasured, went along with
his tale with little more spirit When
he finished the woman told him that
he had done pretty well. There were
a lot of things in the book that he did
not understand, however, and which
he was skimming over. She advised
him never to read in that way, but al
ways to ascertain what the meaning
of thing was. Therein lay the profit
in reading. Then she told him that he
was strange boy, one not to be
judged as other boys were judged and
that If ever he got an education 1t
would come through his inordinate
desire for reading.
Reading is good for you, my boy"
she said. you've finished one novel.
I'm going to bring another one to you
tomorrow"
There was no novel reading at home
for Johnny Hill. His father did not
permit It. But the boy somehow man.
aged to put In hours day with
book. without his knowledge the
school teacher weaned him away from
dime novels. She brought one thrilling
story to him. II was tale Of the sea.
After he read Il she made him sit