A FUGITIVE-SLAVE CHASE.

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They consisted of condensations of news paragraphs and of other articles, for the whole of which there was not room in the paper. An ardent politician and zealous supporter of the Adams party, we may be sure he also contributed political paragraphs and "squibs" to the paper, which was emphatically of his way of thinking. His "dissertations," read before the Lyceum, were his first formal compositions. They were characterized by being upon practical topics, which were treated in a straight-forward, strong manner, rather than in the ornamental style so prevalent in debating societies and, indeed, with young writers generally. He never blossommed into the flowery style in essays which were to be read.

He relates that among the incidents of his sojourn in Poultney that made most impression on his mind was "a fugitive slave-chase." A young negro, held as a slave in a neigbouring town of New York, had transported himself to Poultney, and was there minding his business and doing labour, when his "owner," with due official following, came along to arrest and return him. "I never saw," says Mr. Greeley, "so large a muster of men and boys so suddenly on our village-green as his advent incited; and the result was a speedy disappearance of the chattel, and the return of his master, disconsolate and niggerless, to the place whence he came. Everything on our side was impromptu and instinctive; and nobody suggested that envy or hate of the South,' or of New York, or of the master, had impelled the rescue. Our people hated injustice and oppression, and acted as if they could n't help it."

Another incident of which he had a fresh recollection after more than forty years was the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of American Independence. Many veterans of the Revolution were present, in whose eyes, as he thought, the recurrence of the nation's anniversary seemed to rekindle "the light of other days." "I doubt," he remarks, "that Poultney has since been so thrilled with patriotic emotion as on that 4th of July, 1826; and when we learned a few days later, that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the author and the great champion, respectively, of the Declaration, had both died on that day, and that the messengers bearing South

and North, respectively, the tidings of their decease had met in Philadelphia under the shadow of that Hall in which our Independence was declared, it seemed that a Divine attestation had solemnly hallowed and sanctified the great anniversary by the impressive ministration of Death."

And so, upon the whole, the years of Horace Greeley's apprenticeship went happily by. He had become an excellent printer, though not an uncommonly swift compositor; he had grown in stature and in mind; had all the while been an earnest advocate of Temperance and a practical tee-totaler; and had acquired no unfortunate habits and no vices. With the world now all before him where to choose, having acquired a trade by means of which he could reasonably expect to earn an independent livelihood, he could look back over the years spent in the office of The Northern Spectator with pardonable satisfaction and gratification; with that peculiar happiness which comes of duty conscientiously and well done. "They say," he said, not long before the close of his eventful and influential life," that apprenticeship is distasteful to, and out of fashion with, the boys of our day: if so, I regret it for their sakes. To the youth who asks, 'How shall I obtain an education?' I would answer, 'Learn a trade of a good master.' I hold firmly that most boys may thus better acquire the knowledge they need than by spending four years in college."

CHAPTER III.

A JOURNEYMAN PRINTER.

Departure from Poultney-Visits his Father-Works as a Journeyman at Jamestown and Lodi, New York-Chopping Wood Again - Employed on the Erie (Pennsylvania) Gazette — Offered a Partnership; Declines Returns To His Father's-In Vain Tries to Procure Work in the West Resolves to Go to New-York-Divides his Earnings with his Father - The Journey to New-York-Arrival There with a Cash Capital of Ten Dollars-Diligent Search for Work-Sets up a "Lean" New Testament -- Chicken-pox Proof-Varied Experience as a Journeyman in the Great City - Steady Progress - Visits New England-Business on his own Account.

By the terms of his contract of apprenticeship, Horace Greeley was to remain in the office of the Northern Spectator until he should become twenty years of age. But in June, 1830, some ten months before the expiration of his apprenticeship, that journal discontinued publication, and the contract by that fact was terminated. He had gone to Poultney an uncouth, unknown youth. Now that he was about to depart, he found that he had many admiring friends, who bade him good-by with unaffected sorrow to part with him, and sincerest good wishes for his future. Nearly thirty years afterwards he said to more than a hundred thousand readers, when speaking of Poultney: "I have never since known a community so generally moral, intelligent, industrious, and friendly,never one where so much good was known, and so little evil said, of neighbour by neighbour." He shook many a friend by the hand, and stepping into a wagon, proceeded, in company with a friend of like years, to Comstock's Landing, some twelve miles distant, on the Champlain Canal, where they waited, through a dreary day of pelting rain, for a line-boat to take them to Troy, New York, whence they purposed travelling westward to Buffalo, by similar conveyance.1

'Mr. Parton makes a most graphic, touching scene of young Greeley's departure from Poultney. He tells how the landlord gave him an overcoat,

The friends travelled together to a place not far westward of Rochester, whence young Greeley proceeded to Buffalo, by the line-boat, thence by steamboat to Dunkirk. From Dunkirk, the journey was made on foot. It was on this journey that he made his best day's walk, froin Fredonia to his father's farm, a distance of forty-five miles over a bad road, equal to fifty of good. He was ever a firm believer in solitary pedestrianism as most favorable to patient meditation and self-improvement. IIe made a visit of some wecks at home, and then sought work at his trade in various directions, but with indifferent success. IIe had a situation for a short time at Jamestown, New York, and afterwards, some time, however, intervening, at Lodi (now Gowanda), where he worked at the case for $11 per month, board included. Here he remained about six weeks, earning in that period about half what a good, steady compositor will now carn in a single week, working on the paper which he established. IIe accomplished something for the craft. His employer at Lodi could afford to hire a journeyman no longer, and he made a pedestrian journey home, about January 1, 1831.

Here he went to work again, chopping, with his father and brother, but, as he says, not very efficiently nor satisfactorily. IIe became fully convinced that the life of a pioneer was one to which he was poorly adapted. Wherefore, after a month— one of bitter cold weather-of hard labour in the forest

1

accompanied by a brief speech, worthy of any post-prandial occasion; how the landlady gave him a Bible; how Horace rosc, put his stick through his little bundle, took the overcoat (imaginary) over his other arm, said "good-by," and set off; how his friends followed him with their eyes, until a turn in the road hid the bent and shambling figure from their sight; how it was a fine, cool, breezy morning in the month of June, 1830; how nature had assumed those robes of brilliant green which she wears only in June, and welcomed the wanderer forth with that heavenly smile which plays upon her changeful countenance only when she is attired in her best; how, light of heart and step, the traveller walked on, etc., etc. It is a pity to spoil all this beautiful writing; but it has to be done. In fact, Mr. Greeley did it when he said (Recollections of a Busy Life, p. 75) that he left Poultney in a wagon, precisely as described in the text above. And the day a day of pelting rain too! Not one of "the ravishing beauties of June."

AT ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA.

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primeval, he again sought employment in his chosen profession. Accordingly, he visited Eric, Pennsylvania, where he found work on The Gazette of that city at $15 per month, and board. "This was the first newspaper," says Mr. Greeley in his autobiography, "whereon I was employed that made any money for its owner, and thus had a pecuniary value. It had been started twenty years or so before, when borough and county were both thinly peopled, almost wholly by poor young men, and it had grown with the vicinage until it had a substantial, profitable patronage. Its proprietor, Mr. Joseph M. Sterrett, now in the prime of life, had begun on The Gazette as a boy, and grown up with it into general consideration and esteem; his journeymen and apprentices boarded at his house, as was fit; and I spent here five months industriuosly and agreeably. Though still a raw youth of twenty years, and knowing no one in the borough when I thus entered it, I made acquaintances there who are still valued friends; and before I left, I was offered a partnership in the concern; which, though I had reasons for declining, was none the less flattering as a mark of appreciation and confidence."

At length work failed in the Gazette office. He tried to obtain a situation elsewhere, but, as he says, "the West seemed to be labouring under a surfeit of printers." One was advertised for to take charge of a journal at Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, and he applied for the place, but without success. "I would gladly have given," he remarks in his Recollections of this period, "faithful labour at case and press through some years yet for $15 a month and board, or even less; but it was not to be had. So, upon full consideration, I decided to turn my steps toward the Commercial Emporium, while still considerably younger than I would have preferred to be on making such a venture."

Accordingly he paid a parting visit to his father's, and prepared for what was reasonbly supposed would be a long absence. Nor were any great preparations necessary. They consisted of his dividing the money he had earned at Erie with his father, remaining a few days at home, and bidding the family good-by. These things done, he started on his journey to New-York,