In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

86 12 The Bookstore Speaking of corporal punishment, I had an earlier experience than that under Mr. Caruth. I think it was at the beginning of my ninth year that my grandfather showed his good will to the common school system by starting me in the District School at our end of Homer instead of at the Academy. It may be that a change would be for my good and I never thought of rebelling, although I went sorely against my will. The presiding genius at the time was a stalwart young woman by the name of Hathaway, of a family whose house was half way up the hill on the road to our pasture. The school was pretty well crowded with all sorts and sizes and the whip was there as one of the educational instrumentalities, according to the received ideas of the time. All went well enough for a few weeks, more or less, but one morning I was bending over my book at my desk when down over my shoulders came several sharp cuts of a heavy switch. What it was for was not at once told me but I afterwards learned that another boy, name undiscovered, had been throwing “paper-balls,” and it was necessary that somebody should suffer for it. That is the idea which lies at the bottom of most of the national declarations of war and the people who suffer are rarely the ones who were to blame. I never whimpered, but I quietly gathered up my books and went home. Nothing in the world could have made me go into that schoolroom again, but I forgave Miss Hathaway and afterwards went to a maple-sugar pull at her house in the most friendly manner. I was fond of peace and maple sugar and I went back to my old place at the Academy. During the years following our removal to Syracuse, I made several visits to Homer, generally in the company of my mother, but do not remember 87 the bookstore any occurrence worthy of especial record. There had also been a quiet process of political education going on. It was of several kinds. First, my family were all Whigs and were opposed to the annexation of Texas and to the war with Mexico.1 So was I, but when the war did come there was one Syracuse schoolboy who read all the newspaper reports and participated in all the battles. I was familiar with the names and achievements of all the heroes. Of our own family connection, I remember but one actual representative in the invading army. It was my cousin, Erastus W. Smith, a captain of Regulars, who served through the war with credit but died at New Orleans on his way home. The second line of instruction related to the tariff and its effects upon the prices of all sorts of things. Over and above all these, however, was the growing slavery question, and I had a number of acquaintances among the colored people and the more prominent abolitionists. It was my custom to attend the political conventions when they were held in Syracuse, as they generally were, on account of its central position. It was called Central City and Conventionville. Many a big speech had I already heard and such colored orators as Fred[erick] Douglass,2 an escaped slave from Maryland, were my especial favorites. I also had a strong personal liking for Rev. Samuel J. May,3 who was a leading abolitionist. There were to be consequences of that early training. Counting in the Express jog at the end, when it became so, the store was said to be a hundred feet deep and the cellar under it had no jog. It was therefore a pretty large cellar. The stock in trade upstairs consisted of all manner of books and stationery and the business was large, for it was a wholesale as well as retail affair and we supplied a number of small dealers in the towns around, away from the railroads, even as far as Oswego and Cazenovia. There was publishing business enough to put us in connection with a prosperous bookbindery and among my first acquisitions was a knowledge of the way in which books are put together. I did not rest until I had actually bound a book. Of course, there were gilt edges to be put on and I saw how that mysterious thing was done. In another direction was the engraving...

Share