o what was, to them,
a city of untold lawlessness and full of pitfalls, where an
unsophisticated country youth like myself would be beset with many
temptations on every hand, and be led away from the straight and narrow
path of his upbringing by his godly parents. And truly the change would
be great from the quiet home at Windsor in the beautiful valley of the
Connecticut to the stir and bustle and crowds of a great city. So far as
success in any business I might undertake or material gains were
concerned, my parents were quite sure that the possibilities for
advancement were hardly commensurate with the danger of discouragement
and complete failure.

However, I had not spoken without careful thought, and when they saw how
strongly I felt, and that I could not be content to live out my days on
the farm, they consented to my going, though rather reluctantly; but it
was what I wanted, and I did not feel that I was erecting a wall of
separation which would shut me out of the home of my childhood; though I
little thought how hard it would be to leave it when the time for my
departure really came. My mother, following the custom of most New
England matrons of those days--I wonder sometimes whether they are as
careful now to do the same--placed in my satchel a Bible; and with that
and her blessing, on the fourth of August, 1851, I started out to make
my way in the world, arriving in New York, a lonely country boy, with no
introductions and no one to hold out a helping hand.

Business opportunities were not so varied in character then as they are
now, and mercantile pursuits seemed to loom up above every other;
American ships were winning fame and fortune for merchants and seemed to
me to offer the greatest prizes. For a few days I wandered about the
city, going from office to office seeking employment, and before a week
had passed I had secured it; going from New York over to Brooklyn and
there continuing my quest, I secured a position as clerk in a business
house on Atlantic Street.

For a time all went well; the hurry and bustle of the city, all so
strange and fascinating to me; the new occupation, calling into play an
entirely different line of thought; the new surroundings, all combined
to ward off any feeling of loneliness or homesickness. A few weeks of
this, however, sufficed to wear away the novelty, and a full sense of my
solitary condition rushed over me; I had made few acquaintances and had
practically no societ