passport of self-respect with the Anglo-Saxon race ever since
Hengist and Horsa landed on the shores of England. His adventure on the
canal--an alternative between that and the deck of a Lake Erie
schooner--was a farmer boy's device for earning money, just as the New
England lad begins a possibly great career by sailing before the mast on
a coasting vessel, or on a merchantman bound to the farther India or to
the China seas.

"No manly man feels anything of shame in looking back to early struggles
with adverse circumstances, and no man feels a worthier pride than when
he has conquered the obstacles to his progress. But no one of noble
mould desires to be looked upon as having occupied a menial position, as
having been repressed by a feeling of inferiority, or as having suffered
the evils of poverty until relief was found at the hand of charity.
General Garfield's youth presented no hardships which family love and
family energy did not overcome, subjected him to no privations which he
did not cheerfully accept, and left no memories save those which were
recalled with delight, and transmitted with profit and with pride.

"Garfield's early opportunities for securing an education were extremely
limited, and yet were sufficient to develop in him an intense desire to
learn. He could read at three years of age, and each winter he had the
advantage of the district school. He read all the books to be found
within the circle of his acquaintance; some of them he got by heart.
While yet in childhood he was a constant student of the Bible, and
became familiar with its literature. The dignity and earnestness of his
speech in his maturer life gave evidence of this early training. At
eighteen years of age he was able to teach school, and thenceforward his
ambition was to obtain a college education. To this end he bent all
efforts, working in the harvest field, at the carpenter's bench, and in
the winter season, teaching the common schools of the neighborhood.
While thus laboriously occupied he found time to prosecute his studies,
and was so successful that at twenty-two years of age he was able to
enter the junior class at Williams College, then under the presidency of
the venerable and honored Mark Hopkins, who, in the fullness of his
powers, survives the eminent pupil to whom he was of inestimable
service.

"The history of Garfield's life to this period presents no novel
features. He had undoubtedly shown perseverance, self-relian