l relate a few incidents of his every day life. I have already said
he was kind to the poor. He was systematic in his contribution for the
benefit of this large class in every city; but that did not deprive him
of the pleasure of throwing a few dimes into the hands of every
applicant, although he often felt that they might be used for a bad
purpose and do more harm than good to the recipient. On one occasion
as I entered the dining room, just before breakfast, he was having a
kind and merry chat at the window, with a shabby looking son of Erin,
in the yard below, who declared to his "honor" that he "hadn't tasted
a drop!" (upon which fact the matter of giving, or not giving, seemed
to turn). He threw him a piece of money, saying, as he did so, "look
out, my friend, or that quarter will get you into the calaboose." Next
morning it so happened that your grandfather was called to that useful,
but uninteresting place, to bail out a colored servant, who was prone,
occasionally, to get into scrapes, which subjected him to temporary
imprisonment, when, whom should he find there, safely ensconced in one
of the cells, but the Irishman, his "old customer," as he called him,
in relating the anecdote, which he did with considerable point and
humor, making all around the breakfast table laugh heartily. At
another time, when we were spending the summer at our country place,
near the city, another citizen of the "auld country" presented himself
and asked for work. "What kind of work can you do?" inquired your
grandfather. "Work, sir! I am not over particular at all, at all."
"Can you dig potatoes?" "Praities! Your honor, jist thry me." "Well,
I will hire you by the day." "By the day, and sure I've no place to
put my head at night." "Well then, my man, I can't hire you, for I
have no place for you to sleep." "Sleep, is it? I'd never want a
better place than with the horses--the stable, to be sure, on a bit of
straw--there's no better place to my mind, sir." The poor fellow's
destitution, his worn and tattered clothes, his tangled hair, with a
face young and simple, but not vicious looking, touched my husband's
heart. Poor Tommy did know how to dig potatoes, if he knew nothing
else, and his new master set him to work at his small patch, with the
understanding that when he got through with that, he had nothing more
for him to do. But Tommy took good care not to get through with that
potatoe patch, yet he was always as busy