with him that they discovered his worth and intelligence. He
had been an ardent reader from his childhood up, and had taken of late
years the most intense interest in politics and held very positive
opinions, which he defended in conversation with great earnestness and
ability.

A second application at Erie procured him employment for a few months in
the office of the Erie "Gazette," and he won his way, not only to the
respect, but to the affection, of his companions and his employer. That
employer was Judge J. M. Sterrett, and from him I heard many curious
particulars of Horace Greeley's residence in Erie. As he was only
working in the office as a substitute, the return of the absentee
deprived him of his place, and he was obliged to seek work elsewhere.
His employer said to him one day:--

"Now, Horace, you have a good deal of money coming to you; don't go
about the town any longer in that outlandish rig. Let me give you an
order on the store. Dress up a little, Horace."

The young man looked down at his clothes as though he had never seen
them before, and then said, by way of apology:--

"You see, Mr. Sterrett, my father is on a new place, and I want to help
him all I can."

In fact, upon the settlement of his account at the end of his seven
months' labor, he had drawn for his personal expenses six dollars only.
Of the rest of his wages he retained fifteen dollars for himself, and
gave all the rest, amounting to about a hundred and twenty dollars, to
his father, who, I am afraid, did not make the very best use of all of
it.

With the great sum of fifteen dollars in his pocket, Horace now resolved
upon a bold movement. After spending a few days at home, he tied up his
spare clothes in a bundle, not very large, and took the shortest road
through the woods that led to the Erie Canal. He was going to New York,
and he was going cheap!

A walk of sixty miles or so, much of it through the primeval forest,
brought him to Buffalo, where he took passage on the Erie Canal, and
after various detentions, he reached Albany on a Thursday morning just
in time to see the regular steamboat of the day move out into the
stream. At ten o'clock on the same morning he embarked on board of a
tow-boat, which required nearly twenty-four hours to descend the river,
and thus afforded him ample time to enjoy the beauty of its shores.

On the 18th of August, 1831, about sunrise, he set foot in the city of
New York, then containing abou