d his emotions on catching his first view of the city. The
paragraph is not one which we should expect from the editor of the
"Herald," but I have no doubt it expressed his real feelings in 1819.

"I was alone, young, enthusiastic, uninitiated. In my more youthful days
I had devoured the enchanting life of Benjamin Franklin written by
himself, and Boston appeared to me as the residence of a friend, an
associate, an acquaintance. I had also drunk in the history of the holy
struggle for independence, first made on Bunker Hill. Dorchester Heights
were to my youthful imagination almost as holy ground as Arthur's Seat
or Salisbury Craigs. Beyond was Boston, her glittering spires rising
into the blue vault of heaven like beacons to light a world to liberty."

In the glow of his first enthusiasm, and having nothing else to do, he
spent several days in visiting the scenes of historic events with which
his reading had made him familiar. But his slender purse grew daily more
attenuated, and he soon found himself in a truly desperate situation, a
friendless, unprepossessing young man, knowing no trade or profession,
and without an acquaintance in the city. His last penny was spent. A
whole day passed without his tasting food. A second day went by, and
still he fasted. He could find no employment, and was too proud to beg.
In this terrible strait he was walking upon Boston Common, wondering how
it could be that he, so willing to work, and with such a capacity for
work, should be obliged to pace the streets of a wealthy city, idle and
starving!

"How shall I get something to eat?" he said to himself.

At that moment he saw something glittering upon the ground before him,
which proved to be a silver coin of the value of twelve and a half
cents. Cheered by this strange coincidence, and refreshed by food, he
went with renewed spirit in search of work. He found it almost
immediately. A countryman of his own, of the firm of Wells & Lilly,
publishers and booksellers, gave him a situation as clerk and
proof-reader, and thus put him upon the track which led him to his
future success.

This firm lasted only long enough to give him the means of getting to
New York, where he arrived in 1822, almost as poor as when he left
Scotland. He tried many occupations,--a school, lectures upon political
economy, instruction in the Spanish language; but drifted at length into
the daily press as drudge-of-all-work, at wages varying from five to
eight