come."

An incident of this same period exhibits the liberality of my parents
in another matter. As a messenger boy I had no holidays, with the
exception of two weeks given me in the summer-time, which I spent
boating on the river with cousins at my uncle's at East Liverpool,
Ohio. I was very fond of skating, and in the winter about which I am
speaking, the slack water of the river opposite our house was
beautifully frozen over. The ice was in splendid condition, and
reaching home late Saturday night the question arose whether I might
be permitted to rise early in the morning and go skating before church
hours. No question of a more serious character could have been
submitted to ordinary Scottish parents. My mother was clear on the
subject, that in the circumstances I should be allowed to skate as
long as I liked. My father said he believed it was right I should go
down and skate, but he hoped I would be back in time to go with him to
church.

I suppose this decision would be arrived at to-day by nine hundred and
ninety-nine out of every thousand homes in America, and probably also
in the majority of homes in England, though not in Scotland. But those
who hold to-day that the Sabbath in its fullest sense was made for
man, and who would open picture galleries and museums to the public,
and make the day somewhat of a day of enjoyment for the masses instead
of pressing upon them the duty of mourning over sins largely
imaginary, are not more advanced than were my parents forty years ago.
They were beyond the orthodox of the period when it was scarcely
permissible, at least among the Scotch, to take a walk for pleasure or
read any but religious books on the Sabbath.

CHAPTER V

THE TELEGRAPH OFFICE

I had served as messenger about a year, when Colonel John P. Glass,
the manager of the downstairs office, who came in contact with the
public, began selecting me occasionally to watch the office for a few
minutes during his absence. As Mr. Glass was a highly popular man, and
had political aspirations, these periods of absence became longer and
more frequent, so that I soon became an adept in his branch of the
work. I received messages from the public and saw that those that came
from the operating-room were properly assigned to the boys for prompt
delivery.

This was a trying position for a boy to fill, and at that time I was
not popular with the other boys, who resented my exemption from part
of my legitimate w