his
urgent recommendation that the foreman of the printing-office gave him a
chance. The foreman did not in the least believe that the green-looking
young fellow before him could set in type one page of the polyglot
Testament for which help was needed.

"Fix up a case for him," said he, "and we'll see if he _can_ do
anything."

Horace worked all day with silent intensity, and when he showed to the
foreman at night a printer's proof of his day's work, it was found to be
the best day's work that had yet been done on that most difficult job.
It was greater in quantity and much more correct. The battle was won. He
worked on the Testament for several months, making long hours and
earning only moderate wages, saving all his surplus money, and sending
the greater part of it to his father, who was still in debt for his farm
and not sure of being able to keep it.

Ten years passed. Horace Greeley from journeyman printer made his way
slowly to partnership in a small printing-office. He founded the "New
Yorker," a weekly paper, the best periodical of its class in the United
States. It brought him great credit and no profit.

In 1840, when General Harrison was nominated for the presidency against
Martin Van Buren, his feelings as a politician were deeply stirred, and
he started a little campaign paper called "The Log-Cabin," which was
incomparably the most spirited thing of the kind ever published in the
United States. It had a circulation of unprecedented extent, beginning
with forty-eight thousand, and rising week after week until it reached
ninety thousand. The price, however, was so low that its great sale
proved rather an embarrassment than a benefit to the proprietors, and
when the campaign ended, the firm of Horace Greeley & Co. was rather
more in debt than it was when the first number of "The Log-Cabin" was
published.

The little paper had given the editor two things which go far towards
making a success in business,--great reputation and some confidence in
himself. The first penny paper had been started. The New York "Herald"
was making a great stir. The "Sun" was already a profitable sheet. And
now the idea occurred to Horace Greeley to start a daily paper which
should have the merits of cheapness and abundant news, without some of
the qualities possessed by the others. He wished to found a cheap daily
paper that should be good and salutary, as well as interesting. The last
number of "The Log-Cabin" announced the fo