A. THE GOSPEL OF WORK AND THE AMERICAN CHARACTER

Labor and the Promised Land

Augustine J. H. Duganne,

The Gospel of Labor (Boston, 1849), pp. 9-10.

Augustine J. H. Duganne (1823-1884), writer and poet in Boston, Philadelphia, and later New York, produced a quantity of adventure novels for Erastus Beadle and other publishers. Success of the Know Nothing party in 1855 carried him into the New York Assembly.

Labor and Liberty are forever one: ---

 In man's true life their work is jointly done!

                Behold! they have descended

            Through ages and through centuries,

          Since Moses first through parted seas,

            Led forth the ransomed Israelites

   And taught the tribes in one great nation blended,

  The Decalogue of Human Rights!

  Through the long pilgrimage of forty years –

  The cloud by day – the Pillar of Fire by

         night –

        Leading their trustful sight: –

        On to the goal of all their hopes and

               fears –

         On to their Paradise bright,

           The Promised Land!

          Wandered that chosen band!

Tocqueville on the differences between North and South, 1832

Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1,394-395.1 [1a]

The American of the North sees no slaves around him in his childhood; he is even unattended by free servants, for he is usually obliged to provide for his own wants. As soon as he enters the world, the idea of necessity assails him on every side; he soon learns to know exactly the natural limits of his power; he never expects to subdue by force those who withstand him; and he knows that the surest means of obtaining the support of his fellow creatures is to win their favour. He therefore becomes patient, reflecting, tolerant, slow to act, and persevering in his designs.

In the southern states the more pressing wants of life are always supplied; the inhabitants, therefore, are not occupied with the material cares of life, from which they are always provided for by others; and their imagination is diverted to more captivating and less definite objects. The American of the south is fond of grandeur, luxury, and renown, of gayety, of pleasure, and above all of idleness; nothing obliges him to exert himself in order to subsist; and as he has no necessary occupations, he gives way to indolence and does not even attempt what would be useful.

But the equality of fortunes, and the absence of slavery in the north, plunge the inhabitants in those same cares of daily life which are disdained by the white population of the south. They are taught from infancy to combat want; and to place comfort above all the pleasures of the intellect or the heart. The imagination is extinguished by the trivial details of life; and the ideas become less numerous and less general, but far more practical and more precise. As prosperity is the sole aim of exertion, it is excellently well attained; nature and men are turned to the best pecuniary advantage; and society is dexterously made to contribute to the welfare of each of its members, while individual egotism is the source of general happiness.

The American of the North has not only experience but knowledge; yet he values science not as an enjoyment, but as a means of obtaining a certain end, and he is only anxious to seize its useful applications. The citizen of the south is more given to act upon impulse; he is more clever, more frank, more generous, more intellectual, and more brilliant.

1a. The British traveler Harriet Martineau visited the South in 1835 and observed, "Wherever there is a servile class, work is considered a disgrace, unless it bears some other name, and is of an exclusive character. In the free States, labor is more really and heartily honored than, perhaps, in any other part of the civilised world." See Martineau, Society in America, II (1837), 99.

"Let not one of your children . . . be from school, or without a regular employment"

Joseph Tuckerman, "A Word to Fathers and Mothers," Reports, etc. of the Minister to the Poor (Boston, 1832), pp. 3-4.

Joseph Tuckerman (1778-1840), Unitarian clergyman and early advocate of scientific philanthropy, began his ministry-at large in Boston in 1819 in service of the poor who were not affiliated with any churches. He continued this service until 1833. From visiting the poor in their homes, he became interested in their living and working conditions and #9; was an early critic of child labor.

    Thirdly. Have you a child between the ages of 14 and 21, who is without a regular employment? Look at that child, and say, what is his condition? With his present dispositions, and the habits which he is every day and hour forming and confirming, what may be your hopes concerning him? Let me ask you, affectionately, but plainly, is he not in the way to destruction? Have you not every thing to fear concerning him? And why is he not in some regular employment? Why is he not an apprentice, or upon a farm, or in some course of useful labor? Is not your soul chargeable with the misery of his present condition; with the fruit of his present conduct; with the sins and miseries to which idleness, intemperance, and dishonesty, if not immediately corrected, will bring him? Give not sleep to your eyes, till you have begun the work of his salvation. Allow not rest to your soul, till you have done all that you can do, to place him in a condition, and to fix him in employment, which promises at least, with God's blessing, that he may be useful, virtuous and happy.

Parents, a most momentous responsibility rests upon us. God intrusts our children to us, that they may be reared, and instructed, by our care, and our exertions for them. Let us not attempt to throw off our responsibility for them, for God will require it of us. In our free government, the children of the poorest may rise to the highest stations of wealth, honor, trust and usefulness. Let not one of your children, then, between the ages of 4 and 21, be from school, or without a regular employment. Make any sacrifice, but of virtue, and encounter any sufferings, rather than be the instruments of their ignorance, their vice, and their ruin. There are many who will help you, if you need, and seek, their help; and God will help those, who are faithful to themselves, and to his will. But if you permit your child, or your children, with the opportunities which you have in this city, to grow up untaught, and ignorant, and vicious, you will be partakers of their guilt, and sharers of their awful condemnation.

                                                                                                                                                                                        A PARENT.

Horace Greeley on the accumulators, 1850 Horace Greeley, "Emancipation of Labor."

Hints Toward Reforms (New York, 1850), pp. 15-16.

The story of Greeley's own youth exemplifies the Gospel of Work. [1b]

The man of respectability and property, whose blocks of houses adorn the busiest streets of our towns, and whose note goes unquestioned in bank, can you think him distinguished by no substantial qualities from those who were his playmates and schoolmates, and who are now his tenants and hirelings? O rely on it, there is no such instance of results without a cause in Nature! The man may be no better, I readily grant you, than those around him perhaps in the truest sense no wiser - but very different he must be, and for that one purpose of accumulating property, a vastly superior being.

Nay, I go farther, and insist that a keen eye would have readily picked him out from among his schoolmates, and said, "Here is the lad who will die a Bank President, owning factories and blocks of stores!". . . Trace his history closely, and you will find that in his boyhood he was provident and frugal – that he shunned expense and dissipation – that he feasted and quaffed seldom, unless at others' cost - that he was rarely seen at balls or frolics – that he was diligent in study and in business – that he did not hesitate to do an uncomfortable job, if it bade fair to be profitable - that he husbanded his hours and made each count one, either in earning or in preparing to work efficiently. He rarely or never stood idle because the business offered him was esteemed ungenteel or disagreeable – he laid up a few dollars during his minority, which proved a sensible help to him on going into business for himself he married seasonably, prudently, respectably – he lived frugally and delved steadily until it clearly became him to live better, and until he could employ his time to better advantage than at the plow or over the bench. Thus his first thousand dollars came slowly but surely; the next more easily and readily by the help of the former; the next, of course, more easily still; until now he adds thousands to his hoard with little apparent effort or care. But the germ of all this spreading oak was in the tough acorn whence it sprang. Given the original qualities of the lad, all beyond was plainly deducible therefrom, unless prevented by death or some extreme calamity.

1b. See James Parton, The Life of Horace Greeley (Boston, 1872), pp. 48-71.

In praise of mechanics

1. The dignity of the mechanic

Mechanics' Free Press (Philadelphia), Sept. 13, 1828.

The earliest American labor paper published for any considerable period, the Mechanics' Free Press first appeared in Philadelphia in 1828. As the official organ of the Mechanics' Union of Trade Associations, it championed the formation of a working men's party. In the 1831 city elections, labor men polled only 400 votes, and with that defeat the party died. The Mechanics' Free Press then merged with two other journals, the Philadelphia Times and the Working Man's Register. The combined publication lasted until 1835.

If the dignity of things may be measured by their importance to mankind, there is nothing, perhaps, which can rank above the mechanic arts. In fact they may be called the lever, and the power which moves the world. . . .

What gives to civil nations their superiority over the savage? It is chiefly mechanic arts. By them the beautiful and convenient mansion is substituted for the rude and uncomfortable hut; and "scarlet and fine twined linen" supply the wardrobe, in place of the skins of wild animals. They are the foundation of nearly all the improvements and comforts of life, and further, we may say, of the glory and grandeur of the world. By them the farmer ploughs the land, and by them the mariner ploughs the ocean; by them the monarch is adorned with his crown, and by them the peasant is clad in comfortable garments; by them the triumphal arch is raised to the hero, and by them the temple ascends to the Deity; by them the wealthy roll in chariots and loll on couches; by them the table is spread, the bed is decked, and the parlour is furnished. To them the poet owes the perpetuation of his fame. . .

And much of this is owing to two single arts, that of printing, and the manufacture of paper. By the former learning has been rescued from the gloom of the dark ages; but without the latter, the benefit of the printing would be circumscribed to very narrow bounds. It is by means of the press, chiefly, that so much of christendom owes its escape from the thraldom of superstition.

But in speaking of the dignity of the mechanic arts, we could not confine them to the mere hand that executes, without thinking of the head that plans; for without the latter, but little more credit would be due to the person who exercises these arts than to the automaton Turk, who mechanically astonishes the world at the game of chess. To produce the great effects, we have mentioned above, to do so much to enlighten, to beautify and improve the world, to labour for the glory and happiness of others, and yet be ignorant of the springs by which the important movements are carried on, would ill comport with the dignity of the mechanic. He would be ("if we may compare small things with great") warmth, and comfort to mankind, without itself being conscious thereof.

There is a philanthropy in the mechanic arts . . . The mechanic who perfectly understands his trade, as well as in the principles as the practice of it, gets himself a degree of no inconsiderable rank and honour, and that without the intervention of a college, or the formal vote of a learned corporation. To become an ingenious and enlightened mechanic, it is necessary that the youth who is destined for a trade, should bring to his employment a mind inquisitive, studious, busy, and inclined to mechanic pursuits. Such a mind, with ordinary attention to its cultivation, can scarcely fail of becoming in a very considerable degree enlightened. But to the common sources of information, a good many mechanics add a very laudible attention to books, to the periodical publications of the day, and to the associations for mutual improvement. Mechanics' and apprentices' libraries are established, and mechanics' societies are formed, which, by inducing studious habits, interchange of ideas, and collision of sentiments, must tend to improve the minds of the members in a high degree. There is, in fact, at the present time, a very large share of information and solid practical knowledge among the mechanics of this country.

The life of the mechanic, it is true, is a life of labour; and while he wipes the sweat from his brow, he may perhaps murmur at his fate, and envy what he considers the easy lot of other professions. But where is the business which exempts a man from a life of labour? The life of a judge, and of the first officer under government is a life of labour. But can these "honourable men" build a ship, or raise a spire to heaven, or exercise all or any of the arts which add so much to the comfort and grandeur of the world? These the mechanic can do; and if he duly reflect on the importance of his labours, he can scarcely repine at his lot.

2. Encouragement of choice of mechanical occupations

Mechanics' Magazine, XXVI (December 1836), 287-288.

    If we should desire to counteract the pernicious influence of Trades Unions and radicals from abroad, we must teach our sons the Mechanic Arts and bind more of them as apprentices to substantial and profitable employments than we are now in the habit of doing. We are all wrong in underrating the value of mechanical occupations – we are all wrong in making all our sons Doctors, Lawyers, Divines and Merchants. Some branches of the family should be mechanics, and if when they are out of their time, we can give them some money to commence business, with which we at once set them on the road to independence – to solid independence, weight and influence. Employment, labor, healthy, refreshing, constant labor, is the grand secret to keep boys correct and moral, to keep them out of vice in every shape, to make good sons and good citizens of them. There are many poor widows with boys from ten to thirteen years of age, who are not probably aware that if they are good and industrious can earn from one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars per annum, and have steady employment. This is much more profitable in every respect, than running about the streets after soldiers or fire engines.

We have often wondered that so few sons of gentlemen of fortune, offer as apprentices to some mechanical pursuit to the Printing business – a business which is light and agreeable, and combines so many advantages. It may be asked what are the benefits of this branch of the Mechanical Arts.

The Printing business includes a knowledge of proof reading, some acquaintance with the art of paper making – and in newspaper office where a boy is intelligent, quick, ambitious to excell, he becomes familiar with editorial pursuits - and when out of his time, becomes proprietor, or part proprietor of a city or country paper, and if prudent, temperate and industrious, may become a conspicuous politician, and fill any of the high offices of the country, as we see at present in beholding Printers, Senators in Congress and members of the House of Representatives. So much for our profession, but there are many noble mechanical pursuits which should be cultivated by young men of good family and education.

The Builder, which includes the beautiful science of architecture, the ship builder; a first rate and respectable calling. Workers in gold, silver, copper and other metals. Cabinet Making. In short, we could name fifty occupations – more valuable – more enduring – more healthy; more positively independent, than the range of professional callings, and the sickly, poverty stricken labor of the midnight lamp.

By this course we shall bring into the line of mechanics an intelligent, well educated, highly respectable class of American citizens, free from radicalism, combinations, unjust extortions or disreputable associations.

1. The independence of the little man, 1832

Frances Trollope, Domestic Manners of the Americans (London and New York, 1832),pp. 109-111.

    There was one house in the village which was remarkable from its wretchedness. It had an air of indecent poverty about it, which long prevented my attempting an entrance; but at length, upon being told that I could get chicken and eggs there whenever I wanted them, I determined upon venturing. The door being opened to my knock, I very nearly abandoned my almost blunted purpose; I never beheld such a den of filth and misery: a woman, the very image of dirt and disease, held a squalid imp of a baby on her hip bone while she kneaded her dough with her right fist only. A great lanky girl, of twelve years old, was sitting on a barrel, gnawing a com cob; when I made known my business, the woman answered, "No, not I; I got no chickens to sell, nor eggs neither; but my son will, plenty I expect. Here, Nick" (bawling at the bottom of a ladder), "here's an old woman what wants chickens." Half a moment brought Nick to the bottom of the ladder, and I found my merchant was one of a ragged crew, whom I had been used to observe in my daily walk, playing marbles in the dust, and swearing lustily; he looked about ten years old.

"Have you chicken to sell, my boy?"

"Yes, and eggs too, more nor what you'll buy."

'Having enquired price, condition, and so on, I recollected that I had been used to give the same price at market, the feathers plucked, and the chicken prepared for the table, and I told him that he ought not to charge the same.

"Oh for that, I expect I can fix 'em as well as ever them was, what you got in market."

"You fix them?"

"Yes to be sure, why not?"

"I thought you were too fond of marbles."

He gave me a keen glance, and said, "You don't know I. – When will you be wanting the chickens?"

He brought them at the time directed, extremely well "fixed," and I often dealt with him afterwards. When I paid him, he always thrust his hand into his breeches pocket, which I presume, as being the keep, was fortified more strongly than the dilapidated outworks, and drew from thence rather more dollars, half dollars, levies, and fips, than his dirty little hand could well hold. My curiosity was excited, and though I felt an involuntary disgust towards the young Jew, I repeatedly conversed with him.

"You are very rich, Nick," I said to him one day, on his making an ostentatious display of change as he called it; he sneered with a most unchildish expression of countenance, and replied, "I guess 'twould be a bad job for I, if that was all I'd got to shew."

I asked him how he managed his business. He told me that he bought eggs by the hundred, and lean chicken by the score, from the waggons that passed their door on the way to market; that he fatted the latter in coops he had made himself, and could easily double their price, and that his eggs answered well too, when he sold them out by the dozen.

"And do you give the money to your mother?"

"I expect not," was the answer, with another sharp glance of his ugly blue eyes.

"What do you do with it, Nick?"

His look said plainly, what is that to you? but he only answered, quaintly enough, "I takes care of it."

How Nick got his first dollar is very doubtful; I was told that when he entered the village store, the person serving always called in another pair of eyes; but having obtained it, the spirit, activity, and industry, with which he caused it to increase and multiply, would have been delightful in one of Miss Edgeworth's dear little clean bright-looking boys, who could have carried all he got to his mother; but in Nick it was detestable. No human feeling seemed to warm his young heart, not even the love of self-indulgence, for he was not only ragged and dirty, but looked considerably more than half starved, and I doubt not his dinners and suppers half fed his fat chickens.

I by no means give this history of Nick, the chicken merchant, as an anecdote characteristic in all respects of America; the only part of the story which is so, is the independence of the little man, and is one instance out of a thousand, of the hard, dry, calculating character that is the result of it. Probably Nick will be very rich; perhaps he will be President. I once got so heartily scolded for saying, that I did not think all American citizens were equally eligible to that office, that I shall never again venture to doubt it.

2. Honor to the self-reliant, honest newsboy

Elizabeth Oakes Smith, The Newsboy (New York, 1870), pp. 33,68-71.

Elizabeth Oakes Smith's series of vignettes of the newsboy is symptomatic of the sentimental newsboy literature of the period. It romanticizes him as a heroic and self-reliant young entrepreneur.

As you look at the Newsboys, one thing will strike your attention. There is no appearance of vice amongst them. Nothing skulking, nothing mean, nothing vicious lurks in the aspect of the true Newsboy. No redness of the eyes, no bloated face, no pallid debauchery. His eyes are open and candid, and his air as free from the braggart as the coward. Honor to the self-reliant, self-maintained, honest Newsboy.

He [Jack] had a keen observation, and many a time the police had got a clue to some outrage they were trying to trace home to its source, by some old memory suddenly revived in the mind of Flashy Jack. He knew all the women who kept apple stands at the corners of the streets, and there wasn't one of them that wouldn't toss him an apple or a cake in return for his good-natured impudence, and all the soda women in Fulton street refused his coppers when he took a glass at their tables. Many's the time Jack had cried "hot corn" for the little girls at night, and sent them home with empty pails. He'd turn match vender any time, if the child looked weary or disheartened – he was ready for a fight, always in aid of the weak party. In truth, the generous instincts of Flashy Jack were better than other people's virtues.

Of a rainy day he would help the little girls who swept the crossings -laugh at their dirty faces, till they learned to "spruce up," because of "that little devil, Flashy Jack." He knew them all, and tossed them coppers, "just by way of model to them poor sneaks what go up and down Broadway, shined up to kill, and all too deuced mean to give a penny to a slip of a gal, that hadn't a second rag to her back." Flashy Jack said this, and things of the like, in a manner as if it hurt him to not be allowed "to pitch at once into such folks."

Cold winter mornings Flashy Jack "turned to" and helped the miserable, shivering women and children who searched over the coal ash heaps in vacant lots, and in barrels and tin kettles left for the dustman to take away, that they might get something to supply a little heat. Oh! Jack had funny things to say, and kind things to say, and ten to one they found pennies in the coal, and then there was a time indeed, and nobody looked more strange about it than Jack did; and when the women and children went away to cook their scanty breakfast, they carried home something like a smile, and the cold morning wasn't half so cold as they had thought it, and the old hood was warmer than it had ever been before, and the old brown shawl, crossed over the breast and tied in a knot behind, had grown wondrously in comfort. Oh! they all knew Flashy Jack, "the darling rascal that he was."

Jack knew all the "sporting men about town." In his ignorance more than one was quite a hero in his eyes. Jack, open hearted and generous himself, saw something handsome, and strong, and brave in this rude aspect of life; and to be generous, kind, and courageous, was the sum of Flashy Jack's moral creed. My readers must decide whether it was a broad or a narrow creed.

Then there were various games in which Jack excelled. He was fond of a boat, and fond of a dog, not as a companion merely, but as gratifying this proclivity of his to the sporting line. "I ought to be happy," he would say, "for I have the smartest and smallest black and tan terrier in the city." This animal's ears were cut to the very acme of terrier point, making her look as keen as a needle, and pert as a fox; and Jack said, "as to her narrative, it is bit off till it isn't a circumstance of a narrative." This dog, named Vic, was the pride and glory of Flashy Jack's life. He would pinch and pull her, and make her fly at him and bark a perfect fury, he all the time laughing like mad; and when he was tired of the sport, he would open his bosom and the little creature would crawl in, and lie buttoned up close to Jack's heart for hours. He made heavy bets upon Vic, sure to win, for "she was death on rats," as he said; his triumph always being wound up with, "Oh! she's game I tell ye, she'll fight like blazes – come here Vie," and he stowed her away in his bosom, bloody as she was from her encounter with the rats.

3. From rags to respectability

Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick, ed.

Richard Fink (New York: Collier Books 1962), pp. 42-45,62, 75,108,109,110,130, 138,167,215; first published serially in Student and Schoolmate in 1867 and in book form in 1868.

Alger (1832-1899) was graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1860. In 1866 he resigned from the ministry in order to devote full time to writing. Ragged Dick was the first of his books to be published.

Our ragged hero wasn't a model boy in all respects. I am afraid he swore sometimes, and now and then he played tricks upon unsophisticated boys from the country or gave a wrong direction to honest old gentlemen unused to the city.

Then I am sorry to add that Dick had formed the habit of smoking.

There was another way in which Dick sometimes lost money. There was a noted gambling house on Baxter Street, which in the evening was sometimes crowded with these juvenile gamesters, who staked their hard earnings, generally losing of course, and refreshing themselves from time to time with a vile mixture of liquor at two cents a glass. Sometimes Dick strayed in here, and played with the rest.

I have mentioned Dick's faults and defects, because I want it understood, to begin with, that I don't consider him a model boy. But there were some good points about him nevertheless. He was above doing anything mean or dishonorable. He would not steal, or cheat, or impose upon younger boys, but was frank and straight-forward, manly and self-reliant. His nature was a noble one, and had saved him from all mean faults. I hope my young readers will like him as I do, without being blind to his faults. Perhaps, although he was only a bootblack, they may find something in him to imitate.

"That's where the mayor's office is," said Dick. "Him and me are very good friends. I once blacked his boots by particular appointment. That's the way I pay my city taxes."

"That's a pretty good story," said Dick, "but I don't believe all the cats in New York will ever make me mayor."

"No, probably not, but you may rise in some other way. A good many distinguished men have once been poor boys. There's hope for you, Dick, if you'll try."

"Nobody ever talked to me so before," said Dick. "They just called me Ragged Dick, and told me I'd grow up to be a vagabond (boys who are better educated need not be surprised at Dick's blunders) and come to the gallows."

"Telling you so won't make it turn out so, Dick. If you'll try to be somebody, and grow up into a respectable member of society, you will. You may not become rich, – it isn't everybody that becomes rich, you know, – but you can obtain a good position, and be respected."

"I'll try," said Dick, earnestly, "I needn't have been Ragged Dick so long if I hadn't spent my money in goin' to the theatre, and treatin' boys to oyster-stews, and bettin' money on cards and such like."

"I believe he js a good boy," said Mr. Whitney. "I hope, my lad, you will prosper and rise in the world. You know in this free country poverty in early life is no bar to a man's advancement. I haven't risen very high myself," he added, with a smile, "but have met with moderate success in me; yet there was a time when I was as poor as you."

"Were you sir?" asked Dick, eagerly.

"Yes, my boy, I have known the time when I have been obliged to go without my dinner because I didn't have enough money to pay for it."

"How did you get up in the world?" asked Dick, anxiously.

"I entered a printing-office as an apprentice, and worked for some years. Then my eyes gave out and I was obliged to give that up. Not knowing what else to do, I went into the country, and worked on a farm. After a while I was lucky enough to invent a machine, which has brought me in a great deal of money. But there was one thing I got while I was in the printing-office which I value more than money."

"What was that, sir?"

"A taste for reading and study

"Good-by, my lad," said Mr. Whitney. "I hope to hear good accounts of you sometime. Don't forget what I have told you. Remember that your future position depends mainly upon yourself, and that it will be high or low as you choose to make it."

Our hero took his bank-book, and gazed on the entry "Five Dollars" with a new sense of importance. He had been accustomed to joke about Erie shares; but now, for the first time, he felt himself a capitalist; on a small scale, to be sure, but still it was no small thing for Dick to have five dollars which he could call his own. He firmly determined that he would lay by every cent he could spare from his earnings towards the fund he hoped to accumulate.

But Dick was too sensible not to know that there was something more than money needed to win a respectable position in the world. He felt that he was very ignorant. Of reading and writing he only knew the rudiments, and that, with a slight acquaintance with arithmetic, was all he did know of books. Dick knew he must study hard, and he dreaded it. He looked upon learning as attended with greater difficulties than it really possesses. But Dick had good pluck. He meant to learn, nevertheless, and resolved to buy a book with his first spare earnings.

When Dick went home at night he locked up his bankbook in one of the drawers of the bureau. It was wonderful how much more independent he felt whenever he reflected upon the contents of that drawer, and with what an important air of joint ownership he regarded the bank building in which his small savings were deposited.

"You didn't learn to read in that time, of course?"

"No," said Dick; "but I was a newsboy a little while; so I learned a little, just so's to find out what the news was. Sometimes I didn't read straight, and called the wrong news. One morning I asked another boy what the paper said, and he told me the King of Africa was dead. I thought it was all right till folks began to laugh."

"Well, Dick, if you'll only study well, you won't be liable to make such mistakes."

"I hope so," said Dick. "My friend Horace Greeley told me the other day that he'd get me to take his place now and then when he was off makin' speeches if my edication hadn't been neglected."

But then the reader must not forget that Dick was naturally a smart boy. His street education had sharpened his faculties, and taught him to rely upon himself. He knew that it would take him a long time to reach the goal which he had set before him, and he had patience to keep on trying. He knew that he had only himself to depend upon, and he determined to make the most of himself, - a resolution which is the secret of success in nine cases out of ten.

"Dick," said Fosdick, one evening, after they had completed their studies, "I think you'll have to get another teacher soon."

Dick left the counting-room, hardly knowing whether he stood on his head or his heels, so overjoyed was he at the sudden change in his fortunes. Ten dollars a week was to him a fortune, and three times as much as he had expected to obtain at first. Indeed he would have been glad, only the day before, to get a place at three dollars a week. He reflected that with the stock of clothes which he had now on hand, he could save up at least half of it, and even then live better than he had been accustomed to do; so that his little fund in the savings bank, instead of being diminished, would be steadily increasing. Then he was to be advanced if he deserved it. It was indeed a bright prospect for a boy, who, only a year before, could neither read nor write, and depended for a night's lodging upon the chance hospitality of an alleyway or old wagon. Dick's great ambition to "grow up 'spectable" seemed likely to be accomplished after all.

"By gracious!" he exclaimed; "somebody's stole my Washington coat and Napolean pants. Maybe it's an agent of Barnum's, who expects to make a fortun' by exhibitin' the valooable wardrobe of a gentleman of fashion."

Dick did not shed many tears over his loss, as, in his present circumstances, he never expected to have any further use for the well-worn garments. It may be stated that he afterwards saw them adorning the figure of Micky Maguire; but whether that estimable young man stole them himself, he never ascertained. As to the loss, Dick was rather pleased that it had occurred. . . it seemed to cut him off from the old vagabond life which he hoped never to resume. Henceforward he meant to press onward, and rise as high as possible.

4. Climbing the ladder of wealth and respectability

A. Forbes and J. W. Greene, The Rich Men of Massachusetts (Boston, 1851), pp. 10,16,17,18,35,43,56-57,85,91, 93, 133, 159, 167.

The professed aim of The Rich Men of Massachusetts was "to furnish encouragement to the young, from the contemplation of success resulting from a suitable combination of those sterling qualities, Perserverance, Energy, Carefulness, Economy, Integrity."

Adams, Seth                                             [$] 150,000

    Came from Rochester, N.H., a poor boy. Machinist in South Boston. At ten years of age he was fatherless, and went into a factory to earn a little something to help his mother support the family. The next three years he and his elder brother worked the farm; then the elder brother left home, leaving Seth to manage alone. He assisted in supporting the family the best way he could. Went into the wood, cut timber, sawed shingles, and put a new face on the old roof. Occasionally went out shoemaking among the neighbors. Had but little time to attend the district school. At seventeen went to learn the cabinet-maker's trade. At the age of twenty-one came to Boston, and worked at his trade six months. The next year worked at pattern-making. Next commenced machine business on his own hook. This is a man of some trades and no mistake. In addition to those already named, he worked at sign-painting, chair-making, blacksmithing, and carpentering. At anyone of these trades he can "earn his living." Was once a member of the City Council. He is one of the old Adams stock; his great- grandfather was the Rev. Joseph Adams, of Newington, N.H., who was uncle to old John Adams, the elder President of the United States. This industrious scion of a Presidential stock is now about starting a sugar refinery in Gauch Street. He is, beyond all question, a stirring, go-ahead Yankee; and another thing, he is a man of much benevolence.

Bowker, Albert                                          [$] 100,000

While a mere youth he was appointed an usher in one of the Boston schools, and subsequently promoted to a mastership. He is one of the very few who have ever voluntarily resigned that office. He married the only child of Benjamin Lampson, and the presumptive heiress of a large fortune.

Brewster, Osmyn                                        [$] 100,000

Of the firm of Crocker & Brewster. A printer; learned his trade in the place where he now keeps, and where, men and boys, he and his partner have been for more than forty years. At first they were apprentices to, then partners with, and subsequently successors of Samuel T. Armstrong. In this establishment fortunes have been made in the sale of religious books, it being the only place in Boston, for many years, denominated a "religious book store." Mr. Brewster has ever been a close applicant to business, and has earned the respect of his fellow-citizens, who have often honored him with their confidence.

Brigham, Peter B.                                         [$] 200,000

The guardian genius of that shrine of Epicurus and temple of Bacchus, Concert Hall . . . He is a native of Vermont; came to the city when young; worked in a grocery store at eight dollars per month; was faithful and diligent in the service of his employer; gained his confidence, had his wages raised; laid up money enough to open an oyster-shop in the basement of the building where he now keeps. In those days, no one ever prepared a better clam-chowder, or was more attentive to those who gave him a call. In due time, however, he was enabled to get above that humble situation, and he took possession of the whole of that princely establishment he now occupies.

Humphrey, Benjamin                                       [$] 750,000

Began poor. Formerly merchant. Born in Weymouth; an only son. At the age of fourteen came to Boston, and obtained a situation with Abraham Wild, a merchant engaged in extensive business. At twenty, with the consent of his master, he commenced business in Fore, now Ann Street, and by close attention and strict integrity, laid the foundation of his present prosperity.

Merriam, Charles                                             [$] 250,000

Of the firm of Sayles, Merriam & Brewer. He served an apprenticeship with Col. Lampson, of Weston, in a country store, where he early gave promise to all who came in contact with him in trade, that he would be a rich man if he lived. Often, when a hard customer came into the store, would his master find it convenient to be absent, and leave the difficult case with Charles, who seldom failed successfully to meet the exigency. Col. Lampson died, and Mr. Merriam, though a mere youth, succeeded him, and soon made money enough to engage in a more extensive business in the city.

Sears, Joshua                                                 [$] 1 ,500,000

Came to Boston from Cape Cod a poor boy, with a notion in his head to this purport: "I will make ten thousand dollars, then go home satisfied, to provide for father and mother," &c. A very few years sufficed to turn up the wished-for sum. "Now," said he to his partner, "I must go back to Cape Cod; I have made money enough, all I came here to make." "Nonsense, Mr. Sears! How can I spare you now? My health is so poor, you must not think of leaving me yet." Well, he stayed; went on from year to year, till his partner was obliged to give up business, – and still he went on, alone, because there was no stopping-place.

Rich men of other cities in Massachusetts

Salem

Pingree, David                                                 [$] 2,000,000

Unlike most of the wealthy men of Salem, his early education and experience were not upon the great deep, but among the cabbages and potatoes of a country farm. He, however, in early life became engaged in commercial, pursuits, in which he was moderately successful. He inherited from his uncle, Thomas Perkins, Esq., one of the merchant-princes of Salem, about $400,000, and from that time his success in life was put beyond a doubt.

Brighton

Coffin, Jared                                                     [$] 300,000

Began his career as a cooper on board a Nantucket Whaler; finally became master and owner of a ship, and acquired large wealth by his enterprise and fact for saving. He is a rough sort of a stick, as might be expected, and things none the less of his dignity because it is backed by a fat purse.

Cambridge

Douglass, Robert                                             [$] 100,000

Began poor. Confectioner. At the age of sixteen he was left fatherless, with eight brothers and sisters and a mother. He supported them all; brought up all the children and provided for them, and still provides for his mother. The ordinary terms expressive of efficiency, and benevolence, are altogether too tame to be applied to Robert Douglass. The world has few instances of such "great men."

Lancaster

Henshaw, David                                                 [$] 200,000

Born, 1791, in Leicester. Brought up on a farm, and became as expert as any other boys at making the hay fly, the corn-stalks rattle, and the potatoes tumble. His father was a man much respected in his day, and was for a great number of years a magistrate of the county. At the age of sixteen, having received a common education, David was sent to Boston, an apprentice to the druggist's business, with Dix & Brimley. Prosecuted this business so successfully as to have made a fortune in 1829, when he retired from it.

Pittsfield

Allen, Phineas                                                        [$] 60,000

Began poor. Entered as an apprentice at the printer's trade in Southampton, but ran away before his time was up. Came to Pittsfield, and started a Democratic paper (the "Pittsfield Sun") by which he made his money. A man of extremely regular business habits. Always about his business; a correct, go-ahead man, but no speculator. Has been a member of both branches of the Legislature.

Dorchester

Gleason, Roswell                                                   [$] 100,000

Came to Dorchester from the country a poor boy. Commenced business without any other capital than a determination to do something and be somebody. Went to work; and all the noise he made was in his tinshop, where there was an incessant din, from day-light in the morning to a late hour of the night. He succeeded. Such a man must succeed; and it was but a short time before there might daily be seen an army of honest tin-peddlers departing from his factory to furnish the "real tin," and to bring back in return "rags" and the "pewter." He gives employment to a large number of laborers, and gives support to many poor persons; is a bank director, enjoys the confidence of the community, and is highly respected as a citizen.