Lives of Poor Boys Who Became Famous

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Sarah K. Bolton. Lives of Poor Boys Who Became Famous

PREFACE

GEORGE PEABODY

BAYARD TAYLOR

CAPTAIN JAMES B. EADS

JAMES WATT

SIR JOSIAH MASON

BERNARD PALISSY

BERTEL THORWALDSEN

MOZART

DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON

OLIVER GOLDSMITH

MICHAEL FARADAY

SIR HENRY BESSEMER

SIR TITUS SALT

JOSEPH MARIE JACQUARD

HORACE GREELEY

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON

GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

JEAN PAUL RICHTER

LEON GAMBETTA

DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT

EZRA CORNELL

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SHERIDAN

THOMAS COLE

OLE BULL

MEISSONIER

GEORGE W. CHILDS

DWIGHT L. MOODY

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

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If America had been asked who were to be her most munificent givers in the nineteenth century, she would scarcely have pointed to two grocer's boys, one in a little country store at Danvers, Mass., the other in Baltimore; both poor, both uneducated; the one leaving seven millions to Johns Hopkins University and Hospital, the other nearly nine millions to elevate humanity. George Peabody was born in Danvers, Feb. 18, 1795. His parents were respectable, hard-working people, whose scanty income afforded little education for their children. George grew up an obedient, faithful son, called a "mother-boy" by his companions, from his devotion to her, – a title of which any boy may well be proud.

At eleven years of age he must go out into the world to earn his living. Doubtless his mother wished to keep her child in school; but there was no money. A place was found with a Mr. Proctor in a grocery-store, and here, for four years, he worked day by day, giving his earnings to his mother, and winning esteem for his promptness and honesty. But the boy at fifteen began to grow ambitious. He longed for a larger store and a broader field. Going with his maternal grandfather to Thetford, Vt., he remained a year, when he came back to work for his brother in a dry-goods store in Newburyport. Perhaps now in this larger town his ambition would be satisfied, when, lo! the store burned, and George was thrown out of employment.

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But the merchant-prince had not finished his giving. He saw the poor of the great city of London, living in wretched, desolate homes. Vice and poverty were joining hands. He, too, had been poor. He could sympathize with those who knew not how to make ends meet. What would so stimulate these people to good citizenship as comfortable and cheerful abiding-places? March 12, 1862, he called together a few of his trusted friends in London, and placed in their hands, for the erection of neat, tasteful dwellings for the poor, the sum of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Ah, what a friend the poor had found! not the gift of a few dollars, which would soon be absorbed in rent, but homes which for a small amount might be enjoyed as long as they lived.

At once some of the worst portions of London were purchased; tumble-down structures were removed; and plain, high brick blocks erected, around open squares, where the children could find a playground. Gas and water were supplied, bathing and laundry rooms furnished. Then the poor came eagerly, with their scanty furniture, and hired one or two rooms for twenty-five or fifty cents a week, – cab-men, shoemakers, tailors, and needle-women. Tenants were required to be temperate and of good moral character. Soon tiny pots of flowers were seen in the windows, and a happier look stole into the faces of hard-working fathers and mothers.

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