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TO
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Many sailing o'er life's solemn main, Forlorn and shipwrecked brothers, may take heart again. Contents I. Launching of My Life Boat II. My First Voyage III. Near to Nature's Heart IV. Joys and Sorrows of School-Days V. Career of a Dominie-Pedagogue VI. Dreams of My Youth VII. A Disenchanted Collegian-Preacher VIII. In Shadow Land IX. Sunlight and Darkness in Palace and Cottage XI. Adventures in Mosquito Land XI. In Arcadie XII. From Philistine to Benedict and a Honeymoon XIII. The Angels of
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
Wild was the night, yet a wilder night Hung around o'er the mother's pillow; In her bosom there waged a fiercer fight Than the fight on the wrathful billow. Already there were more children than potatoes in her hut of logs, and yet, another unwelcome guest was coming, to whom fate had ordained that it would have been money in his pocket had he never been born. A sympathizing neighbor held over the suffering woman an umbrella to shield her from the rain which poured through the dilapi
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
My father and brothers constructed a "prairie schooner" from our scanty belongings, and one forlorn morning in early autumn, with the skeleton horse and cow harnessed tandem for motive power, we all set sail for far-off Massachusetts. We slept beneath our canopy of canvas and blankets; those of our number able to do so worked occasionally for any who would hire, but employers were few, as this was one of the crazy seasons in the history of our Republic when the people voted for semi-free trade,
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
It seems but yesterday, although more than a half century ago, that I, a puny boy, stood on the hilltop and looked for the first time upon this, the earliest home of which I have any vivid recollection. It was a fair scene of rustic tranquillity, where a contented mind might delight to spend a lifetime mid hum of bees and low of kine. Along the eastern horizon's rim loomed the blue sea beyond the sandy dunes of old Plum Island; the lazy river born in babbling brooks and bubbling springs flowing
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
It was the custom in R——, and is now to quite an extent elsewhere, to elect as school committee those especially noted for their ignorance and unfitness for the duties, perhaps to keep them out of the almshouse, or to educate them by the absorption process while hearing pupils recite. These men were paid two dollars for each call they made at schools, consequently they "called" early and often, especially when the school ma'ams were young and pretty. Here, as elsewhere, there was always a great
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
Dear old fathers and mothers! Of all the people in this world, they look through the rubbish of our imperfections, and see in us the divine ideal of our natures, love in us not perhaps the men we are, but the angels we may be in the evolution of the "sweet by and by," like the mother of St. Augustine, who, even while he was wild and reckless, beheld him standing clothed in white a ministering priest at the right hand of God. They see through us as Michel Angelo saw through the block of marble, d
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
In the early spring came the close of school term, and teacher, pupils and parents parted with mutual regrets. My pecuniary reward was small; but I shall always remember with pleasure the kind assurances received that I left the intellectual status of that town much higher than I found it. I have visited the place only once since, but my old friends had all passed on to the higher life, and my young ones were scattered to the four winds of heaven in search of that happiness and wealth which is s
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
Previous to my arrival at this ancient seat of learning, founded and endowed for the perpetuation and propagation of the doctrines of our denomination, I had never entertained the faintest shadow of doubt as to the infallibility of our creed; but now all faith in it vanished like the baseless fabric of a dream. Here at the fountain head of wisdom, from which streams were supposed to flow for the healing of the nations, my faith in the beliefs of my ancestors fled, nevermore to return; here, wher
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CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
I had cherished the delusive hope that my university diploma would be the open sesame to any exalted position to which I might aspire; but I found there was a multitude of competitors for every professional emolument, and that a "pull" with the powers that be was essential to secure any prize. My change in religious sentiments debarred me from the pulpit, and I had no friends influential enough to give me a profitable position as a teacher in New England. After making many applications, and endu
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CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
My pupils at the reform school were from the dens and hovels of the Bowery, while those at S—— were from the palaces of Fifth Avenue; but to my utter astonishment, the children of the slums were morally and perhaps intellectually superior to those of the plutocrats. I was occasionally the guest of both the poverty-stricken and the millionaire parents of my scholars, and I verily believe that I saw as much depravity and misery in the abodes of the rich as in those of the poor. On my arrival in Be
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CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
At the close of the school in July, 1870, a friend of mine, Doctor B——, of Boston, and I, attracted by the alluring prospectus of a new town near Plymouth, North Carolina, visited that place via the Merchant's and Miner's steamship line. I wrote an account of this pleasure excursion, which was widely copied by northern newspapers in which I figured as the professor and he as the doctor, while both of us combined were called the "Shoo-Fly Club." I quote some extracts from the description of this
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CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
I gladly returned, like a tired child, to the kindly faces and hearty greetings of my loving and much loved father, mother, brothers, green fields, and all the beautiful children of summer. "Born where the night owl hooted to the stars, Cradled where sunshine crept through leafy bars; Reared where wild roses bloomed most fair, And songs of meadow larks made glad the summer air, "Each dainty zephyr whispers follow me, Ten thousand leaflets beckon from each tree; All say, '
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CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
The fates, who lead the willing-and drive the unwilling, guided me to the old time firm of B. & T. publishers. They were overwhelmed with applications from the great army of the impecunious, and did not wish to pay any more salaries; but "mercy tempers the blast to the shorn lamb," and they persuaded me, by a tender of large profits on their Worcester's Dictionaries, to strike out on my own hook and endeavor to induce a reluctant public to buy these instead of the popular dictionaries wr
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CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
By and by unwonted silence and anxiety reigned in our house. The family doctor remained all night, then a faint cry was heard, and little baby May came into this world of ours, "The gates of heaven were left ajar; With clasping hands and dreamy eyes, Wandering out of paradise, She saw this planet, like a star; We felt we had a link between This real world and that unseen." These beautiful lines of one of the sweetest of earth's singers, came to us like a new revelation at the
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CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
But we must descend from the sublime to the stern realities of this workaday world. Of all the people on this earth, a lone, lorn widower with three babies on his hands, is the most forlorn and miserable. Take care of them himself he cannot, and if he hires the ordinary woman to do so, she immediately sets her cap for him, and leaves no stone unturned to secure him for a husband, especially if he is possessed of some of this world's goods which she covets with all her mind and soul. Words are in
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CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
One day I was introduced by a friend to a very attractive lady school-teacher, who combined with superior domestic training, elocutionary and musical accomplishments. She was so sincere and sympathetic that I found myself almost unconsciously expressing the same sentiments that I had spoken to another long ago in the city by the sea. The love which I supposed had passed on forever to the other world, seemed to be sent back to me through the opening clouds of evening by my self-sacrificing spirit
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CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVI.
I had always been somewhat prominent in politics, being President of the Republican Club in our town, and that autumn I was hired by Dr. George B. Loring to conduct his campaign for the position of Representative in Congress; this I accomplished so successfully that Judge Thayer, the chairman of the State Committee, hired me to stump the Commonwealth against General Butler and in favor of the Hon. George D. Robinson as candidate for Governor. This campaign will long be remembered as being the mo
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CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVII.
This season there broke out in our community, as elsewhere, what has always appeared to me, to be a distemper, misnamed by its crafty creator, "Christian Science." Unchristian scienceless would be a more appropriate name, as the so-called divine revelation was made to its Eddyfying high priestess about 1800 years after the sublime career of Christ was ended, and its preposterous claims antagonize every principle of modern science. This craze seized certain discontented young women who studied "S
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CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
After these scientific investigations, my wife and I left New England covered with snow and swept by fierce, freezing winds to find this far-famed peninsular basking in delicious sunshine, the air full of the exquisite perfume of orange blossoms and the songs of rejoicing birds. It was an enchanted land, the balsamic odors from the beautiful evergreen pine forests starred by the fragrant magnolia blossoms of spotless white, exorcised the ulceratic demons from throat and lungs. We feasted upon th
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CHAPTER XIX.
CHAPTER XIX.
When I had concluded the recitation of the poem which closes the preceding chapter, a fine-looking gentleman sitting near us arose, and lifting his hat very gracefully, said: "Pardon me. As a native Floridian, I have much enjoyed hearing you repeat that poem relating to my State." This led to a pleasant conversation, during which he introduced us to his wife as being one of the aborigines. We expressed much interest in this statement, and finally persuaded him to give us an account of his courts
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CHAPTER XX.
CHAPTER XX.
My ship of life was laden to the water's edge with labors of varying utility. We founded the Apollo Club, a musical and literary organization including in its membership the most prominent men and women of the city; we gave entertainments with our orchestra, singing society, and costumed dramatic stars, which gave us ample funds to pay for numerous delightful steamboat excursions, sleigh-rides and picnics, while developing our latent talents, and greatly enhancing the social life of our communit
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CHAPTER XXI.
CHAPTER XXI.
Soon after my encounter at S—— with the unspeakable W——, I met Major St. A——, who gave a cordial invitation to myself and family to become his guests in his new town of T——, with a view to securing our cooperation in the development of his multitudinous schemes. This invitation we accepted, and very early one beautiful morning in March, my wife, four children and myself, with driver and guide, embarked on a "prairie schooner," drawn by three horses, for the promised land. It was an ideal drive t
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CHAPTER XXII.
CHAPTER XXII.
In many particulars this year of our Lord, 1883, was a sad one for us all. The pecuniary loss, resultant upon the town-building disaster, was severe; but the revelation which came to me of the innate meanness of human nature in matters of money, was the more depressing by far. It was amazing to hear wealthy people, who had bought of me a few hundred dollars' worth of stock, and who really felt the loss of it much less than they would suffer from a fly bite, whine as if this had reduced them to t
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CHAPTER XXIII.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Here on elevated lands around a pretty clearwater lake, directly on the Florida Central and Peninsula Railroad, and near a famous grotto extending deep into the earth, at the bottom of which, like a well, was an abundance of water containing peculiar fish, near the noted Eichelburger cave, and vast forests of gigantic trees with sloping hills around, we founded the town of B——. I was elected general manager, and went north to sell the $100,000 of capital stock, convertible at the option of the h
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CHAPTER XXIV.
CHAPTER XXIV.
This year of our Lord, 1886, brought an infinitely greater sorrow than the mere financial losses which pressed so hardly upon us in connection with our Florida endeavors. On Christmas morning, while alone in my room, I distinctly heard my father's voice whisper: "James, James, good-bye," and an hour later the telegraph flashed the news that he passed away at the exact time when I heard him bidding me farewell. My father was an honest man, the noblest work of God; he had gained none of what the w
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CHAPTER XXV.
CHAPTER XXV.
We found in this town of W——, a moribund Unitarian Church, with scarcely a handful of attendants, listening once a week to a lifeless minister and an asthmatic harmonium accompanied by a few feeble, inharmonious voices. Our sympathies were aroused for this expiring infant, and we resolved to rescue it if possible from its open grave. My wife and I, accompanied by the "Triplets," on the front seat of our carriage as drivers, canvassed the entire town, asking all we met to lay up treasures in heav
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CHAPTER XXVI.
CHAPTER XXVI.
In our Boston home, there came to us one of the most wonderful and inspiring experiences ever vouchsafed to mortals beneath the stars; an experience which solved forever for us the problem of immortality, which all the religious teachings of all the ages had been powerless to accomplish. It confirmed beyond a shadow of doubt, our knowledge of the future life obtained previously at Onset Bay, as the following named events transpired in our own house in the presence of witnesses under test circums
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CHAPTER XXVII.
CHAPTER XXVII.
It seems to be an unwritten law of human life that every great joy shall be quickly followed by a great sorrow. The materialized forms of our spirit loved-ones had scarcely vanished from sight, when the trouble of which my brother had forewarned us fell like a thunderbolt from a cloudless sky. We had, without a thought of deception, and at prices which then prevailed, sold to many persons, lands in Florida, some for settlement, some as investments. Phosphate had been discovered in the immediate
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
This delightful journey was a wonderful revelation of the greatness, power, and grandeur of this glorious republic in which we live. I gazed with amazement for many hours as we flew over the marvelously fertile and beautiful prairies of Kansas; here miles upon miles of wheat, corn, and alfalfa waving like vast seas, irrigated by means of numberless windmills; there, herds of cattle, numerous as the leaves of autumn; here, long lines of steam plows breaking thousands of acres of virgin soil; ther
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CHAPTER XXIX.
CHAPTER XXIX.
In the following May, 1896, I took a sky-scraping journey to the great states of Washington and Oregon. The climbing of Mt. Shasta and the Siskyo range by train presented sublime views that no language can even feebly describe. At the summits we were at least two miles in the air higher than the dome of the Massachusetts State House. As we climbed, I could see from the window of the palace car, the two engines of our train puffing for all they were worth around the curves, far ahead. We looked d
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CHAPTER XXX.
CHAPTER XXX.
I had secured the adoption of our dictionaries in every county visited by me, and now the publishers desired me to remain on the Pacific coast permanently, without salary, relying on commissions on sales of their books made by me and my sub-agents by canvassing, from house to house. This financial proposition was far from being alluring, for the laws enacted by a national democratic rule of four years had ruined many of the principal industries of this section, and the larger cities required a l
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AFTERMATH CHAPTER XXXI.
AFTERMATH CHAPTER XXXI.
When the previous thirty chapters were in press, the conviction was forced upon me that any book which touched upon Florida without a description of its poor whites called "Crackers," would be like the play of "Hamlet" with the Prince of Denmark left out, and I gladly pay this tribute of grateful remembrance to the most unique, and the only truly contented people that I have ever met on earth. So far forth as history enlightens us, the ancestors of these peculiar specimens of the human race were
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CHAPTER XXXII.
CHAPTER XXXII.
When I was writing the last words of the preceding chapter of this book, and was about to "Heed my tired pen's entreaty, And say, oh, friends, valete ," I seemed to be trying to awake from a trance in which I had been the unwilling instrument, compelled by an intelligence extraneous to myself to expose to an incredulous public the most sacred scenes and thoughts of a lifetime. I had decided to relieve the patience of my readers with the thirty-first chapter; but when the retrospective kaleid
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