tiding over the early years of one's life Breaks Away from Tutorship. He stayed there two years, and it has been found possible to discover the same indelible record of hard work, faithfully performed and well remembered by those who were cognizant of it, and who are still alive. From tending country store to teaching the blind is a long way on the road of self-discipline. But to teach he did not believe was his mission, and consequently at the expiration of two years he abandoned it and literally started out to seek his fortune in the Far West-only reversing the usual order, and instead of coming to the great city, he left it. His first idea was to go to Cleveland. On his way, he stopped at Buffalo, N. Y., where young Cleveland paid his respects to his uncle Lewis F Allen, a noted stockbreeder, who was favorably impressed with the young man, whom he saw for the first time, and he asked him for his advice and guidance. As he has since said, the name seemed a good omen. Wants to be a Lawyer. The uncle did not speak enthusiastically. "What is it you want to do my boy?" he asked, Well sir, I want to study law." "Good gracious," remarked the old gentleman. "Do you indeed? What ever put that in your head? How much money have you got?” To tell the truth he hadn't got any. “See here,” said the uncle, after a long consultation. "I want somebody to get up my herd-book this year. You come and stay with me and help me and I'll give you $50 for the year's work and you can look around." The offer was a tempting one, for employment was what he was in search of, but he replied:-" I have agreed to go to Cleveland with my companion and I cannot desert him now in the midst of the journey "' It was finally agreed that Grover should interview his friend upon this subject, and if possible gain his consent. Mr. Cleveland, much to his gratification, found that his comrade was willing to release him from his agreement to go to Ohio, and Grover Cleveland became a resident of Buffalo. A Mixed Calling. Here it is that we find the American boy now annotating short horns out at Black Rock, quite two miles from Buffalo. But he kept his eye out for a chance to enter a law office while he was editing the stock book, and one day he walked boldly into the room of Messrs, Rogers, Bowen & Rogers, and told them what he wanted. There were a number of young men in the place already. But young Cleveland's persistency won, and he was finally permitted to come as an office boy and have the use of the law library For this he received the nominal sum of $3 or $4 a week, out of which he had to pay his board and washing. The walk to and from his uncle's was a long and at that time a rugged one. The first winter was a memorably severe one, and his shoes were broken, and he had no overcoat. But he never intermitted a day. It began to be noticed that he was the most punctual and regular of the lads in the office. Often at 'You just go right over there to the tailor's and get the stoutest overcoat he's got. D'ye hear." Very likely Grover had begun to night he was compelled to stand by the| In those days boys had to demonstrate warm chimney in the loft where he slept what was in them before they received and dry his feet after tramping the two many favors. miles through the snow. His senior employer had taken a copy of Blackstone on the first day of the boy's office experience and, planting it before him with a bang that made the dust fly, said: "That's demonstrate what was in him, but whether where they all begin." There was a titter ran round the little circle of clerks, for it was a foreboding thing to begin with to the average lad. It appears, however, that he stuck to the Blackstone so well that he mastered it and so absorbed was he in it one night that they locked him in and all went off. He spent that night with the book and never forgot it. His political preference at this time led him to join the Democratic party, to which he has ever since persistently adhered. The Discipline of Hardship. This uneventful period of Grover Cleveland's life, so devoid of adventure and barren of romance, was the period at which all the forces of his later life were gestating. The privations and miseries of a penniless novitiate gave way slowly before his determined assiduity and pluck. He tells in his own way with a beaming, reminiscent humor of the first honor that came to him when his uncle, in getting out the second volume of his "Breed Book, announced to him that he intended to ac knowledge in it his valuable assistance. But these privations and miseries, it may readily be seen by the temperament of the man, were only so many stimuli. His was not the hypersensitive nature that winced and wore under physical discomforts. to the mind of the uncle it was a capacity for compiling herd books or the capacity to contain Blackstone cannot now be learned. His Old Uncle. The old uncle, L. F Allen, who gave him good advice, but very little else, when he reached here some thirty years ago on his way to Cleveland, Ohio, still lives there and is now past four-score years. He persuaded his nephew to stop at this point and helped him to get a chance to study law by working mighty hard for it. He is an eccentric man, of strict business habits, and doesn't seem to take much interest in politics. He really knows less of the life of his relative than almost any man of repute you meet. A Financial Move. It must have been about this time, or just as he was to set out from home on his journey West, that he borrowed from the Hon. Ingham Townsend, of Floyd,Oneida County, a certain sum of money, to which the following letter, written many years afterward, (it was on Jan. 21, 1867,) refers: I am now in condition to pay my note which you hold, given for money borrowed some years ago. I suppose I might have paid it long before, but I have never thought you were in need of it, and I had other purposes for my money I have forgotten the date of the note. If you will send me it I will mail you the principal and interest, The loan you made me was my start in life, and I shall always preserve the note as an interesting reminder of your "Oh," says the young man, "I'm going to buy one when I earn the money "Why, look at your feet, they must be kindness. sopping, eh !" "Oh, that's nothing. I'm getting some copying to do now and I'll have a pair of boots by and by " Let me hear from you soon. With many kind wishes to Mrs. Townsend and your family, I am yours, very respectfully. GROVER Cleveland. His Banker. Mr. Townsend died in the town of Floyd in March, 1883, so that he had lived long enough to see the recipient of his bounty elected Governor of the State of New York. His age was then eightyone, and he had in his time assisted many young men with money to make their first start in the world. When he gave the money to young Cleveland he told him he need never return it, but that, should he ever meet a young man in need as he himself has been, he might turn the money over to him should he have it to spare. Grover Cleveland had not been long in this law office at Buffalo when the firm engaged him at a fixed, liberal salary and found that he was entirely capable of earning it. It was about the year 1858 that the young student secured admission to the Bar. He had been four years with the Rogers firm, and after his admission he remained with them four years longer, thus securing a thorough training and equipment for his profession. What they say at Syracuse. was full of fun, and, I tell you, we had lots of fun together " Captain H. S. Pratt, another old resident was found in bed, but said, Grove was one of the finest boys I ever knew. Everybody respected him, even the old folks' and you never heard of a practical joke on him, he was chuck full of fun and I recollect he had a weakness for ringing the school bell when he got a chance. He and his brother Will' used to have a long rope attached to the hammer of the bell and the way they used to make that bell ring after dark was a caution." There is a warm feeling towards the Cleveland family on the part of all who remember them. As a Lawyer. Four years in the office of Rogers, Bowen & Rogers as a student equipped him with sufficient elementary knowledge and experience to become managing clerk at the end of that time. And so four years more pass. It is interesting to know exactly what kind of character he had now made for himself and how he was re This quiet little village of twelve hun-garded by his associates. It is not difficult dred inhabitants was once the home of to ascertain this with reasonable accuracy, Grover Cleveland, the nominee of the seeing that most of those associates are Democratic party for the I'residency. Dr alive and accessible and speak with D. P Hutchins, an old resident, who had noticeable candor and unanimity an office in Deacon McViccar's store when Grover was a clerk there, when asked for some reminiscences of the Governor's boyhood, said that " Grove," as they used to call him, was always considered a good boy, courteous and dignified in his manners and was exceedingly popular. He held his position in the store about one He made an efficient clerk and was highly recommended by Mr McViccar when he left the latter's employ year. H. Howard Edwards, also a long resident, and a playmate of the Governor's, when questioned concerning his recollections of Cleveland's boyhood, said there was nothing during the time he lived here to indicate his future distinction. Why," said Mr Edwards, we used to be together constantly, go a-fishing together, sleep together, and I cannot recall anything that impressed me with his future greatness. He was very slim when he was a boy, short and had small features. He Said one of them to the writer: "Grover won our admiration by his three traits of indomitable industry, unpretentious courage and unswerving honesty. I never saw a more thorough man at anything he undertook. Whatever the subject was, he wa; reticent until he had mastered all its bearings and made up his own mindand then nothing could swerve him from his conviction. It was this quality of intellectual integrity more than anything else perhaps that made him afterwards listened to and respected when more brilliant men who were opposed to him were applauded and forgotten. Admission to the Bar. In 1859, when he was in his twentysecond year, he had completed his legal studies, passed the necessary examination, and was admitted to the bar After being admitted to the bar he engaged in practice, and despite the many It was obstacles that confront a young lawyer, | his shoulders, and then it was that his and the almost certain vexatious delay in enormous vital strength and tireless inwaiting for clients, he soon obtained con-dustry made themselves felt. One may siderable practice. He had no influential say now that it is well perhaps that the family name to entice clients to the office, District-Attorney himself was rather disno powerful relatives to give him substan-posed to let youth and vigor shoulder the tial support, and every lawyer who reads great part of the responsibility this will appreciate the position of the just the training that young Cleveland young man of humble name, without needed, and he went into it with all the means, and unknown to the general pub- zeal of youthful aspirations. lic, first entering upon his professional career. Old and established names and firms, whose reputations are well known to the public, are generally sought by those desiring legal advice and assistance to the exclusion of those just entering the profession. And so Grover Cleveland found it, as day after day he tendered his services to a people almost without recognition. But he did not become discouraged, and succumb to what some would con sider adverse fate, but stuck persistently to his calling, serving the few who came with devotion and ability until his reputation as a lawyer widened, bringing with it an increase of patronage. Fortunately for him he was entrusted with some important cases, which he conducted so successfully that his fellow members of the bar recognized him as one destined to rise in the legal profession. At the end of three years he had acquired a fair practice and a good standing at the bar and he was looked upon with marked favor by his fellow citizens. The First Step into Public Life. Cleveland Drafted. It was during the performance of the duties of this office, and at a time when a large number of important cases with which he alone was thoroughly familiar were demanding his attention, that he was drafted. There was no question at all of what his duty was. He promptly supplied a substitute. So well and faithfully had he conducted the affairs of the county that at the end of three years he was nomi nated by the Democrats for the DistrictAttorneyship. Here, again, it is an undisputable fact that he did not solicit the nomination, hesitated to accept it, and did not turn his hand over to secure his election. It is said in Buffalo that on the day of election he was trying a case in court, while his friends were electioneering for him on the street, and the Judge on the Bench, who was presumably an admirer of his, peremptorily adjourned the case and told Cleveland to go and attend to his interests. Defeated. In the canvass that followed he was beaten by the Republican candidate, Lyman K. Bass, one of his very near personal friends with whom he afterwards. formed a law partnership. This was in 1865. In 1866, the year following his defeat, Mr Cleveland formed a partnership in the law with the late Mayor I. K. Vanderpoel, which lasted till 1869, but on the election of Mr Vanderpocl as Police Justice soon afterward he became a member of the firm of Laning, Cleveland & Folsom, of which the head was the late Senator A. P Laning. In 1853 the question of who should be appointed Assistant District-Attorney for the county of Erie was warinly discussed by the young lawyers in Messrs. Rogers & Bowen's office. There were several that were both eligible and anxious, but it does not appear that young Cleveland advanced his own claims. Indeed, it is a fact that after the matter had been pretty well canvassed, they all agreed that he was the person who ought to have it, and they urged him to accept it. This simple incident speaks volumes for the already developed character of the young man. He was appointed, and from that moment his public record began. During the three years that he was in the District-Attorney's office, the great bulk of its duties fell upon County The latter association, however, ended at the expiration of two years, owing to Mr. Cleveland having been nominated and elected in 1869 to be Sheriff of Erie As Sheriff. The friends of Governor Cleveland brought out his name in connection with the office of Sheriff of Erie county, and without any effort on his part he was nominated by the Democratic Convention, and elected for three years. In that important position he fully sustained his character for integrity and ability, and whilst performing the duties of the office, he earned an additional meed of public respect for his courageous disregard of partisan interests and his conscientious regard for the public welfare. A correspondent of the New York World gives the following interesting items relating to his official actions as Sheriff: Two Executions. a breezy column of his paper were costing He did not try to do it all at once, but by a skilful working of his points he became acquainted with him as the young man who attended the spiritual adviser. By degrees he became aware that the grim sentinel had a weakness for beer. It was casy work after that, for he contrived to meet him every night after he was relieved and together the two talked over It was as Sheriff of Erie county that the the events of the day in the jail over their Governor became known in a political or beverage. The German was full of inforofficial way and many interesting anec-mation in just the proportion that he was dotes are told by those who remember full of beer, and the facts that filled many those days. During his term of office as Sheriff, the Governor swung two men into eternity The first one was the notorious Jack Gaffney a reckless young Irishman, who kept a saloon at the corner of Was' ington and Carroll streets, almost opposite the Courier office. Gaffney was seated in a low dive on Canal street—" Ted" Sweeney s-playing cards with a kindred spirit named Patrick Fahey The two quarrelled over the stakes, and Gaffney shot and killed Fahey in cool blood. He was sentenced by the General Term in December to hang February 7 following. During these two months there was the greatest effort made on the part of the reporters to find out how the condemned man spent his time, but the Sheriff turned a deaf ear to them, and not a few times gave them to understand that they wanted to know too much. He kept them out of the jail entirely after a while, and they were in sore straits. The interest in the case was intensified at the last from the fact that Governor Hoffman respited the condemned man for a week, and that the most strenuous efforts were made to get a commutation of sentence for the doomed man. Meanwhile the vigilant Sheriff was more rigid in his discipline than ever, and he even went so far as to station an The Second Execution. The second execution performed by the Governor while Sheriff was five months later. The murderer was one of the most despicable wretches that ever deserved a shameful death-Patrick Morrissey. He lived with his poor old mother in the vicinity of the old "Packet" dock, in the rear of what was known as the Alhambra Theatre. He was a thoroughly heartless man and was given to frequent and continued debauches, during which he submitted his dependent mother to the most shameful cruelty While on one of these sprees he sought out his mother's hovel and demanded froin her the few pence she |