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Show BOYHOOD OF A CONGRESSMAN. One of the strange events of the last Congressional election in Brooklyn, N. Y., was the defeat of S. B. Chittenden, the merchant prince, by the Rev. J. Hyatt Smith, a Baptist minister. A writer in the Advance tells the story of Mr. Smith's boyhood as follows:<br><br> In Detroit, which forty-six years ago had but a fragment of its present population of 116,312 souls, he found employment as an errand boy, and afterward as a clerk.<br><br> He became well known by reason of his prominence in a debating society of the town, two other members of which, Anson Burlingame and Major Daniel Wilcox, made themselves famous.<br><br> With Burlingame he formed an intimacy which lasted until the death of that statesman, and which probably had more influence on his character than any other friendship of his life.<br><br> Together the two friends made frequent visits to the woods in the neighborhood of Detroit, where they took turns at being orator and audience, the duties of the audience including that of unsparing critic.<br><br> The habit of ready speech developed by this practice of extemporaneous speaking proved invaluable in after years to both, when addressing vast assemblages.<br><br> It was during one of these visits to the forest that the two laid their hands upon a Bible and vowed to go to Congress.<br><br> In the winter of 1839-40? the late Senator Zach Chandler was an active member of the Detroit Presbyterian Church, of which Dr. Duffield, Sr., was pastor.<br><br> When young Smith was converted and became a member of that church. Mr. Chandler, who had already laid the foundation of his great fortune as a dry-goods merchant, generously offered to bear the expense of his education for the ministry.<br><br> It was in consequence of this offer that young Smith returned to Albany, where he was soon astonished and bitterly disappointed to receive from his former pastor intelligence that Mr. Chandler was less enthusiastic in Christian work, and would probably not furnish the funds for his education.<br><br> Thereupon he obtained, through the influence of his friend, Dr. Cogswell, a position in the Commercial Bank of Albany.<br><br> About the same time, he wrote a fanciful sketch or ghost story. The sketch was so much liked that he was advised to publish it. He sent it to the American Whig Review, which promptly rejected it.<br><br> Without the slightest expectation of hearing from it he dropped it into the post office addressed to the Knickerbocker, the leading periodical of the day, and to which Washington Irving was a regular contributor.<br><br> Great was his satisfaction to find his article in the next number, and the lengthy editorial attention it received in the New York Tribune and other important journal indicated his power with the pen.<br><br> The same sketch brought him a surprising offer. A young man who was then and has ever since been a warm friend of Mr. Smith, was the proprietor of an Albany news stand, and during a visit to New York he was asked by Mr. Greeley if he knew of a suitable person to send abroad as correspondent of the Tribune. <br><br> He at once suggested the name of J. Hyatt Smith and cited his sketch as proof of his skill as a writer. The position was offered to Mr. Smith but he declined it.<br><br> The newsdealer who suggested his name to Mr. Greeley was Mr. George Jones, the present proprietor of the New York Times, and the young man who accepted the offer he rejected soon earned a world-wide reputation, for it was Bayard Taylor. |