Norwich bulletin., 1916-07-19
UNCLE HORACE TELLS
 HIS LIFE'S STORY. Started His Career as General Urn- ity Boy in a Hartford Drygoods Store.

An interesting interview with For i ace Johnson of Middle Taddam. bet l ter known hereabouts simply as i Uncle Horace. was published Sunday in a. New York paper. follows:
 MT, JOhnsOn's home is in Middle Haddam. Conn.,. facing a park which he is pulling as a gift to the staue, and which is well worth a t~f9 hv automobile or trolley from any of the nearby towns. Middle ITaddam should not he confused with Haddam proper. as f lies On the east side of the Con l necticut river, while Haddam proper | is on the west side
 When asked one day recently on what he had based his prediction that this sumner would be cold and wet. i and if the hTeasJbOre of a goose en- | tered into his calculations he smiled "NO' he replied "A great many, have asked me that question. and If I examine the huslzs of the corn the foliage on the trees. or the feathers on chickens. Each questiOuer seems 10 have pet theory about weather pTognostication and how conclusions l should he reached, but my prophecies are the result of years of scientific research, and are founded on close study of astrOnOmic and atmospheric conditions.
 This summer is going to be so cool thDt our vegetable crops will be ConSiderab bly, smaller than usual We have already had a greater rainfall
 than is expected at this season of the
 TeaT-s1nd that was fOratOId by atr7cs-
 pheric pressure early in the spring There is an ebb and flood in the af- mOsphere just as there is in the ocaan n. There are furries and rtDDIes also which may be detected by one who reads fi% sings It is a wonderful study, and to recognize the meaning l of various manifestations involves much more dili"ent investigation than the lay mind ina zines. l have ap- piled myself to the subject practically all my life and now at % yea-s of age ] feel that I have only skinned the OutermOst edges of this ocean of depths 10 be pIumbed that will some day yield secrets of iucaIcuabIe value to mankind.
 But you didn't start out to be a 1 scientist. did you 2' ALr Johnson was asked. He admitted that he did not. No said he. T began life as general utility boy in a drvgoodq store in Hartford. My wages for car ing for II oil lamps, sweeping. dust 1 ing, tending fires and waiting on GUS toners was cents a. day, and ! slept under the counter at night. say 1 ing night watChman's pay Out of my cents I saved S1.T5 and asked permission to lay in a supply of sew ing needles. as I had noticed that the ] women, after they bought materials to sew on often Inquired for needles to work with. But needles were Q difficult stock to handle; they were easily lost and broken. so my employer didn't carry them However. lie al- lowed me to invest to the extent of my S1.75. even though he didn't care to risk anything on the venture. All my needles were sold in no time 10 his customers, and from that small start I accumulated enough money to invest in a little real estate
 'I leased a church. fitted it up as a business house and sub-leC it, then contracted to build r dwellings and stores, and in due time became full fiedged real estate dealer. From that I turned to railroads and steamboat But before this came about l had a
 taste for mathmetiCs, astronomy, geology. and meteOrOIOgy, but was too
 poor to buy books. So I began to
 lCRk around for ways and means of
 getting information free and To-
 cated a friend in Hartford who gave
 me a ticket entitling me to draw books
 from the institute After the problem
 of lights to study by was q VeTed one,
 for coal oil was expensive and cleo
 triCity was unknown. But even tualIy
 found q prosperous kindly candle
 maker who agreed to sell me two candles for three cents instead of
 charging me the regular price which
 was two cents each, and burned those candles every night for many
 months. Tn a few years this man was
 elected councilman and I was elected
 the same year. He seemed surprised
 to see me and asked: ''Why, how did
 you come here?'' ! replied, T came
 here on your three-cen candles
 Among the many interesting eXperi-
 ences of his busy fife he recalls the
 ride he took with carful of soldiers
 from Acquia Creek to Falmouth. This
 was immediately after the battle of C Charlottesville and he and President Iincoln were the only civilians in the ear.
 Owns Land at Block Island.
 Mir Johnson had amassed fortune and was ready to retire from active business, and devote his entire time
 to his studies, when at the close of
 the war he lost $I00000 by investing
 in railroads and iron foundries and
 by, fire. He started over again, deal
 ing in reaI% estate and now owns a IainSe sltoe~of Block Island< acres in