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HASZARD’S GAZETTE. JUNE 16.

ms APPIINTICBHIP or Home; _ oaaanar. The following chapter in the life of this

. distinguished editor, is from “ The Life of

once Grbele . By James which is shortly to be Brothers, New York. It was a fine spring morni g in the year

Pastor," published by Mason

. 18%, about ten o'clock, wh ii Mr. Amos

Bliss, the manager and one of the proprie- tors ofthe Northern spectator, ‘might have been_seen’ in the garden behind his house planting potatoes. He heard the gate open behind him, and, without turning around, became diuily conscious of the pre- sence of a boy. But the boys of country Villages go into whosesoever garden their wandering fancy iinpels them, and suppos- ing this boy to be one of his own neigh-

urs, Mr. Bliss continued his work and quickly forgot that he was not alone. In a few minutes, he heard a voice close behind him, a strange voice, high pitched and whining.

It said “Are you t on the printing office?’

Mr. Bliss then turned, and resting upon his hoe, surveyed the person who had thus addressed him. He saw standing before him a boy apparently about 15 years of age, of a light, tall, and slender form, dres- sed in the plain farmer's cloth of the time, his garments out with an utter disregard of elegance and fit. His trowsers were ex- ceedingly short and voluminous; he were no stockings; his shoes were of the kind denominated high-lows and much worn down; his hat was of felt, one of the old stamp with so small a brim, that it looked more like a two-quart measure inverted than any thing else; and it was worn far back on his head; his hair was white, with atinge of orange at its extremities, and it lay thinly upon a broad forehead and over a head, rocking on shoulders which seemed‘ ,too slender to support the weight of a mem- her so disproportional to the general out- line. The general effect of the figure and its costume was so outre, they presented such a combination of the rustic and ludi- crous, and the apparition had come upon him so suddenly, that the amiable gardner could scarcely keep from laughing.

He restrained hiiiiself, however, and re- plied “Yes, I’m the man. ”

Whereupon the stranger asked, “ Don’t you want a boy to learn the trade? ”

“ Well,” said Mr. Bliss, “ we have been thinking of it. Do you want to learn to

rint?”

“ I've had some notion of it,” said the boy in true Yankee fashion, as though he had not been dreaming about it and long- ingufor it for years.

r. Bliss was both astonished and puz- zled—astonished that such a fellow as the boy looked to he, should have ever thought of learning to print and puzzled how to convey to him an idea of the absurdity of the notion. So with an expression in his countenance, such as that a tender-hearted dry-goods merchant might be supposed to assume, if n hod carrier should apply for a place in the lace de artment, he said ‘Well, my boy—but, you now it takes considera- ble learning to be a printer; have you been to school much P”

“ No,” said the boy, “ I haven't had much chance at school. I’ve read some.”

he man that carries

hat have you read ?” asked Mr. Bliss.

“ Well, ‘vs read some history, and some travels, an a little of ‘most everything.”

“ Where do you live?”

“ At Westhaven."

“ How did you come over?”

“ I came on foot.”

" What is youraame ?”

“ Horace Greeley ”’

Now it happened that Mr. Amos Bliss had been for the last three years an Inspec- tor of Common Schools, and in fulfilling the duties of his ofice—examining and li- censing teachers—he had acquired an un- common facility in asking questions, and a fondness for that exercise which men gen- erally entertain for any employment in which they suppose themselves to excel.- The youth before him was in the language of medical students—a ‘fresh subject’ and the Inspector proceeded to try all his skill upon him, advancing from easy questions to hard ones, up to those knotty problems with

which he had been wont ‘to stump’ candi-

dates for the ofiice of tough", The boy was 8.. match for him. He gnawercd every question promptly, clearly and modestly.

school studies, and of the books he had read he could give a correct and complete analysis. In Mr. Bliss’s own account of the interview, he says, “ On entering into conversation, and a partial examination of the qualifications of my new applicant, it required but little time to discover, that he possessed a mind of no common order, and an acquired intelligence far beyond his years. He had had but little opportunity at the common school, but ‘ he said he had read some,’ and what he had read he well understood and remembered. In addition to the ripe intelligence manilested in one so young and whose instruction had been so limited, there was a single-mindedness, a truthfulness and common sense in what he said, that at once commanded my regard.”

After half an hour's conversation with the boy, Mr. Bliss intimated that he thought he would do, and told him to go into the printing office and talk to the foreman. Horace went to the printing-oflice, and there his appearance produced an effect on the tender minds of the three apprentices who were at work therein, which can be much better imagined than described, and which is most vividly remembered by the two who survive. To the foreman Horace addressed himself, regardless certainly, oblivious probably, of the stare and the remarks of the boys. The foreman, at first, was inclined to wonder that Mr. Bliss should, for one moment, think it possible that a boy got up in that style could perform the most ordinary duties of a. printer's ap- prentice. Ten minutes’ talk with him however, effected a artial revolution in his mind in the boy's liivor, and as he was in want of another apprentice, he was not inclined to be over particular. He tore off a slip of proof-paper, wrote a few words upon it hastily with a pencil, and told the boy to take it to Mr. Bliss. That piece ofpa- per was his fate. The words were:—Guess we'd better try him.’ Away went Horace to the garden, and presented his paper. Mr. Bliss, whose curiosity had been excited

' to a high pitch by the extraordinary con-

trast between the appearance of the boy

and the real quality, now entered into a long conversation with him, respecting his history, his past employments, his parents, their circumstances, his own intentions and wishes; and the longer he talked, the more his admiration grew. The result was, that he agreed to accept Horace as an appren- tice, provided his father would agree to the usual terms; and then, with eager steps, anda light heart, the boy took the dusty road that led to his home in \r'Vesthavcn.

“ You are not going to hire that tow- head, Mr. Bliss, are you?” asked one of the apprentices at the close ol the day. “ I am,” was the reply, “and ifyou boys are expecting to get any fun out of him, you’d better get it quick, or you’ll be too

late.—'l‘here’s something in that tow-head, as you’ll find out, before you are a week older.” -

A day or two after Horace packed up his wardrobe in a small cotton handker- chief. Small as it was, it would have held more; for its proprietor never had more than two shirts, and one change of outer clothing, at the same time, till he was of age. Father and son walked side by side, to Poltney, the bo carrying his possession upon a stick over is shoulder.

At Poltney, an unexpected difficulty arose. which for a time made Horace trem- ble in his high-low shoes. The terms pro- posed by Mr. Bliss, were that the boy should be bound for five years, and receive his board and twenty dollars a year. Now, Mr. Greeley had ideas of his oivn on the

He could not be ‘ stumped’ in the ordinary‘-

l

usual period; the compensation offered was, the regular thing; the binding was a point ‘essential to the employer's interest. And at every pause in the conversation, the ap- pealing voice of Horace was heard: “ Fath- er, I guess you'd better make a bargain with Mr. Bliss;” or, “Father, I guess it won’t make uiuch difi'erence;” or, “Don’t you think you’d better do it, Father?" At one moment, the boy was reduced to de- spair. Mr. Bliss had given it as his ultima- timi that the proposed binding was absolute- ly indispensable, he “ could do business in no other way.” " Well, then, Horace," said the father, “ let us go home.” The father turned to go; but Horace lingered; he could not give it up; and so the father turned again; the negotiation was re-open ed, and after a prolonged discussion, a compromise was effected. What the terms were that were finally agreed to, I cannot positively state, for the three memoirs which I have consulted upon the subject give three different replies. Probably, however, they were—no binding and no money for six months; then the boy could, if he chose, bind himselffor the remainder of the five years, at forty dollars a year, the appren- tice to be boarded from the beginning. And so the father went home, and the son went straight to the printing-ofiice and took his first lesson in the art of setting type.

A few months after, it may be as well to mention here, Mr. Greely removed to Eric county, Pennsylvania, and bought some wild land there, from which he gradually created a farm, leaving Horace alone in Vermont. Grass now grows where the little house stood in Westhaven, in which the family lived longest, and the barn in which they stored their hay and kept their cattle, leans forward like a kneeling ele- phant, and lets in the daylight through ten thousand apertures. But the neighbours point out the tree that stood before their front door, and the tree that shaded the kitchen window, and the tree that stood be- hind the house, and the tree whose apples Horace liked, and the bed of mint with which he regaled his nose.—And both the people of Westhaven and those of Amherst assert. that whenever the Editor of the Tri- bune revisits the scenes of his early life, at the season when apples are ripe, one ofthe things Riat he is sure to do, is to visit the apple trees that produce the fruit which he

subject of apprenticeship, and he objected to this proposal, and to every particular of . it. In the first place, he had determined that no child of his should ever be bound at all. In the second place, he thought five years an unreasonable time; thirdly, he considered that twenty dollars a year, and board was a compensation ridiculously‘ disproportionate to the services which Horace would be required to render; and finally, on each and all the points, he clung to his 0 inion with the tenacity ofa Gree-~' ley. r. Bliss appealed to the established

custom of the country; five years was the‘

liked best when he was a boy, and which he still prefers before all the apples of the world.

The new apprentice took his place at the font_ and received from the foreman his “ copy,” composing stick, and a few words ofinstruction, and then he addressed him- selfto his task; he needed no further assist- ance. The mysteries of the craft he seein- ed to comprehend intuitively. He had thought of his chosen vocation for many years; he had formed a notion, how the

race neither spoke nor moved. He went on with his work as though nothing had happened, and soon after went to the tavern where he boarded, and spent an hour in purifying his dishonored locks.—And that was all the “fun” the boys “got out of their new companion on that occasion. They were conquered. In a few days the victor and the vanquished were excellent friends.

This Puzzi.r.n Pio.—The Knickerbocker, a New York magazine, has the following piece of drollory .-—‘ One of our western farmers, being very much annoyed last summer by his best sow breaking into the cornfield, search was instituted in vain for a hole in the railfence. Failing to find any, an attempt was next made to drive out the animal by the way of her en- trance; but of course, without success. The owner then resolved to watch her proceedings; and posting himself at night in a fence-corner, he saw her enter at one end ofa hollow log, outside the field, and emerge at the other end within the enclo- snrc. “ Eureka!” cried he, " I have you now, old lady.” Accordingly, he proceed- ed, after turning her out once more, to so arrange the log (it being very crooked) that both ends opened on the outside of the field. The next day, the animal was ob- served to enter at her accustomed place, and shortly emerge again. “ Her aston- ishment,” says our informant, “ at finding herself in the same field whence she had started, is too ludicrous to be described. She looked this way, and then that; grunt- ed her dissatisfaction; and, finally returned to the original starting-place, and alter a deliberate survey of matters, to satisfy her- self that it was all right, she again entered the log. On emerging yet once more on the wrong side, she .evinced even more surprise than before, and turning about, retraced the log in an opposite direction. Findingthis effort likewise in vain, alter looking long and attentively at the position of things, with a short, angry grant of disappointment, and perhaps fear, she she turned short round, and started off on a. brisk run; nor could etiher coaxing or driving over after induce her to visit that part ot'the field. She seemed to have a superstition concerning the spot."

Anscnora or Dr. Quincv.—An Ameri- can in England, describing a visit to De Quincy, gives a glimpse ofthe heart of one of the greatest living writers: “There wasa moment’s pause in the ‘table-talk,’ when one of the daughters asked our opinion of Scotland and the Scots. De Quincy had been in a kind of reverie, from which the question aroused hitn. Turning to us, he said, in a kindly, half- parental manner, ‘ The servant that waits at my table is aScotch girl. It may be that you have something severe to say about Scotland. I know that Ilike the

types must be arranged in order to produce the desired impression, and therefore, all_ he had to acquire was manual dexterity.’ In perfect silence, without looking to the right hand or to the lell, lieedlcss of thci sayings and doings of the other apprentices, I though they were bent on mischief, an ' tried to attract and distract his attention. Horace worked an, hour alter hour, all day: and when he lell the ollice at night, could set type bettesuand faster than many an apprentice who had had a month’s prac- tice. The next day he worked with the same silence and intensity. The boys were puzzled. They thought it absolutely in- cumbent on them to perform an initiatory rite of some kind, but the new boy gave them no handle, no excuse, no opening.- He committed nogreenness, he spoke to no one. seemed utterly oblivious of everything save only his own copy and his type.- They threw type at him, but he never look- ed around. They talked saucily at him, but he throw back no retort. This would never do. Towards the close ofthe third day, the oldest apprentice took out of the large black balls with which the printers used to dub the ink upon the type, and re- marking that in his opinion, Horace's hair was often light a hue for so black an art as that which he had undertaken to learn, applied the ball well inked to Horace's head, making four distinct dabs.

The boys, the journeymen, the pressman and the editor, all paused in their work to observe the result of this experiinent.—Ho-

English church, and dislike many things about the Puritanical Scotch ; but I never utter anything that might wound my ser- vant. lleaven knows the lot of a poor servant-girl is hard enough, and ifthere is any person in the world, of whose feelings I am especially tender, it is of those of a fe- male compelled to do for us our drudgery. —Speak as freely as you choose, but please reserve your censure, ifyou have any, for the moments when she is absent from the room.”

A BROKEN Hna1'.—-The late Robert C. Sands sued for damages in a case of breach of promise of marria e. e was ollered two hundred pounds to heal his broken heart. “ Two hundred!” h'e exclaimed; “two hundred for ruined hopes, a blasted

life! Two hundred for all this? No- never! \Make it three hundred and it's a bargain.

A Coiirainasr ro ru Lsniss.—Walter Savage Landor, now raiding at Bath, England, in his filst year. becsinv acquainted with Lady Blesaington, in Florence in I895. In Madden I Life and Correspondence of that lady. just pub- lished, we find several letters ol Landor's. W0 IIIIIKO the following extract from one of them. He writes to Lady B. " Cannot you teach those about you to write somewhat more purely? I am very llslldlmil. Three days ago,l was obliged to correct a friend of mine, a man of fashion, who so far forgot the graces, as to say of a lady, “ I have not often been in her company.” _" 3|! presence” we are in the company of men, in IE0 presence of angels and of women.