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Show A Boy With " No Chance." , I Little Piatt R. Spencer seemed born possessed with a desire to wrlto. Living lu tho woods of tho Cats!'. lis vlth very littlo. oneonragement for learning, from, his earliest years hfj great wish seoraod to bo to make letters. Up to his eighth yoar, ho had nover ownod a sheet of paper, trat H had marked on nny smooth surface- H ho hnd found. At this tlmo 'he got H hold of a big coppor cent, almost th H first money ho hnd seen. Tho desire H of his heart could now bo fulftllod. H Ho entrusted his coin to a lumberman, H nnd asked him to buy n shcot of paper H nt Catsklll, tho lumber camp, twenty J mtlos away. Lnto that night tho mos- H sengcr returned. Tho boy, wearied 1 with wnitlng, had gono to bed. At tho sound of tho arrival, ho awoke, b'.s first thought bolng ot tho promised papor. Ho aroso, and with foverlsh jJ eagerness tried to mako character nn tho smooth, whlto surface, "alt hand was too untrained, and the rude characters llttlo resembled lettora. H Disappointed, ho returned to bed only to tako up tho strugglo on tho follow- Ing days, and conquer tho difficulties. fl Paper ho could not nfTord every day, especially as ho soon moved with his father to tho frontier, In Ohio. Thero, birch bark, sand banks, snow drifts rnd Ice woro bis most frequent wrt- jH ting surfaces. Ills schooling was Tory meager a fow months when ho was lal twolvo years old so he had to dig ftl out his own lenrnltg by flickering H candlelight. Books wcro scarce, and IH worth any hardship to procure. To contlnuo tho study of arithmetic, h jH had to havo a book, and heard he H could get ono twenty miles away. It H was winter nnd ho had no shoes, but jH ho walked barefoot on tho frozen H ground and secured his treasure.' jH Darkness camo on and found him IH miles from homo. Ills only food had IH been frozen turnips, found In a field, H At length ho found a settler's cabln, jH where he was sheltered for tho night' bLLI Under such conditions, ho acquired a lel fair education nnd developed a ays- tH tern of penmanship that for years IH wns almost universal In American IH schools. Spcnccrlnn business colleges iH were established tn forty cities. Tha IH boy who learned writing with so much H difficulty made tho task easier for jH thousands of boys and girls, and lived H a beautiful and useful life on the H shores of Lake- Erlo, whero ho lies jH burled, at Geneva, Ohio. "Succoas." jH |
