er.
He had had little schooling, and before he began his apprenticeship he had
begun to educate himself.

While he was an apprentice he taught himself French, and laid the
foundation of a good reading knowledge of German. He also began public
speaking at out-of-door meetings, and it was at these meetings, with their
constantly shifting crowds, with innumerable interruptions, and almost
continual opposition, that he developed readiness in debate and coolness
while under a hot fire of questions.

At nineteen his apprenticeship was finished and he went to South Africa as
foreman-engineer on some work being done at the delta of the Niger. Burns,
alone of all the white men there, passed through the year the work lasted
without a day of serious sickness.

"That's because I don't smoke and don't drink," he said. "I found I
couldn't do such things and continue work."

It was while employed in South Africa that Burns unearthed a copy of Adam
Smith's "Wealth of Nations," from beneath a pile of sand and rubbish
where it had been thrown by some predecessor on the work. This was the
only book he had for several weeks of his stay, and he read it and studied
it until he practically committed it to memory.

Noted for Physical Courage.

The battered old copy of "The Wealth of Nations" found there in South
Africa forms one of the treasures of Burns's library, and there are in
England few private libraries that can equal his in the department of
economics and sociology.

The courage Burns subsequently displayed in political fights was shown in
a physical way during his South African period. On one occasion a sick man
fell into a river swarming with water-snakes and crocodiles. Burns,
without an instant's hesitation, jumped in and rescued him.

On another occasion the propeller blades of the steam-launch which the men
were using worked loose and sunk to the muddy bottom of the river. The
water was thick and filthy with rank, decaying vegetable matter, and there
was an added source of danger in the venomous creatures that might be
lurking there.

The skipper of the launch was preparing to dive for the blades when Burns
stopped him:

"Don't try it," he said. "You're married and I'm not, so there won't be so
much at stake if I do it."

He dived in the reeking water for an hour and in the end fished up the
blades.

Becomes Labor Leader.

He returned to Europe with a few pounds, and he used all of this in taking
a six mont