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THE LIFE OF HENRY aEORGE
•'.... the Lord called Samuel : and he answered, Here am I.
And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I ; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not, lie down again. And he went and lay down.
And the Lord called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said. Here am I ; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son ; lie down again.
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him.
And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said. Here am I ; for thou didst call me. And EU perceived that the Lord had called the child.
Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down : and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord ; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak ; for thy servant heareth.
And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle."
First Book of Samuel.
BY HIS SON HENRY GEORGE, JR.
THE LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE
FIRST AND SECOND PERIODS
NEW YORK: DOUBLEDAY PAGE & COMPANY ^ 1904
Copyright, 1900, by Henry Geoegb, Jk.
MB
1-7 I
TO ALL WHO STEIVE FOR THE REIGN OF JUSTICE
For it is not for knowledge to enlighten a soul that is dark of itself ; nor to make a blind man to see. Her business is not to find a man eyes, but to guide, govern and direct his steps, provided he have sound feet, and straight legs to go upon. Knowledge is an excellent drug, but no drug has virtue enough to preserve itself from corruption and decay, if the vessel be tainted and impure wherein it is put to keep.
Montaigne.
First Peeiod.
- FORMATION OF THE CHARACTER.
Second Period.
FORMULATION OF THE PHILOSOPHY.
Third Period.
PROPAGATION OF THE PHILOSOPHY.
His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones, Would make them capable. — Hamlet.
CONTENTS.
FIRST PERIOD.
CHAPTEE I. BiETH AND Early Training (1839-1855) 1
CHAPTER II. Before the Mast (1855-1856) 19
CHAPTER III. Learns to Set Type (1856-1857) 40
CHAPTER IV. Works His Passage to California (1858) 53
CHAPTER V. At the Frazer River Gold Fields (1858) 69
CHAPTER VI. Tossed About by Fortune (1858-1859) 83
CONTENTS
CHAPTER VII. Six Printers and a Newspaper (1860-1861) 99
CHAPTER VIII. Courtship and Runaway Marriage (1861) 121
CHAPTER IX. Suffers Extreme Privation (1861-1865) 135
CHAPTER X. Begins Writing and Talking (1865-1866) 154
CHAPTER XI. Managing Editor and Correspondent (1866-1869) 173
SECOND PERIOD.
CHAPTER I. Commences the Great Inquiry (1869) 191
CHAPTER II. Strife and the Natural Order (1869-1871) 204
CHAPTER III. Answers the Riddle of the Sphinx (1871) 219
CONTENTS
CHAPTEE IV. The "San Francisco Evening Post" (1871-1875) . 236
CHAPTEE V. Domestic Life (1873-1876) 250
CHAPTEE VI. First Set Political Speech (1876-1877) 262
CHAPTEE VII.
Lecture at the University of California (1877) 274
CHAPTEE VIIL A Fourth op July Oration (1877) 282
CHAPTEE IX. "Progress and Poverty" Begun (1877-1878) 289
CHAPTEE X. "Progress and Poverty" Finished (1878-1879) . . . 301
¥
THIRD PERIOD.
CHAPTEE L "Progress and Poverty" Published (1879-1880) . 315
CONTENTS
CHAPTER II. Commencing the New York Cabeee (1880-1881). 335
CHAPTER III. The Ieish Land League Movement (1881-1882) . . 358
CHAPTER IV. Starting the Revolution in Great Britain (1882) 378
CHAPTER V. Kindling the Fire at Home (1882-1883) 400
CHAPTER VI. British Lecture Ca^ipaign (1884) 419
CHAPTER VII. "Protection or Free Trade?" (1884-1886) 442
CHAPTER VIII. Candidate for Mayor of New York (1886) 459
CHAPTER IX.
"The Standard" and the Anti-Poverty Society (1886-1887) 482
CHAPTER X. Progress Through Dissensions (1887-1889) 504
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XI. Australia and Around the World (1890) 522
CHAPTEE XII. Personal and Domestic Matters (1891-1897) 543
CHAPTER XIII. The Last Books (1891-1896) 563
CHAPTER XIV. The Last Campaign (1897) 584
Index 613
Now I saw in my dream that they went on, and Greatheart before them.
Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress."
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
House where Heney George was born, east side OF Tenth Street, south of Pine, Philadelphia 2
Henry George at about five. From daguerreo- type TAKEN IN Philadelphia 6
From daguerreotype taken about the time that Henry George, less than fourteen, left school and went to work 12
From daguerreotype taken March 31, 1855, just before going to sea 24
Henry George's mother and sister Jennie. From daguerreotype taken about 1850 36
Henry George when learning to set type in Philadelphia. From daguerreotype, 1857 42
Henry George's father^ Eichard Samuel Henry George. From daguerreotype taken in the middle fifties 62
Annie C. Fox (Mrs. George) at seventeen. From daguerreotype taken in San Francisco, 1860. . 106
From daguerreotype taken in 1865, showing Mr. George at 26, just after job printing office experience 150
From photograph taken in 1871, showing Mr. George at 32, when he wrote "Our land and Land Policy." 220
LIST OF ILIiUSTEATIONS
FACING PAGE
From photograph taken in San Francisco
SHORTLY AFTER WRITING "PROGRESS AND PoVERTY" 302
From London photograph taken during lecture TOUR OF 1883-84 424
Mrs. George. From photograph taken in 1898. . 514
Work-room in the old house at Fort Hamilton where much of "The Science of Political Economy" was written 558
Exterior of old mansion at Fort Hamilton,
WHICH WAS THE FIRST GeORGE RESIDENCE THERE, BEFORE THE ShORE EoAD IMPROVEMENTS 588
Last photograph taken, October, 1897 602
FIRST PEEIOD FOEMATION OF THE CHARACTER
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Reduced facsimile of page of original manuscript of " Progress and Poverty," Book II, Chap. III.
CHAPTEE I.
BIETH AND EAELY TEAINIFG.
1839-1855. To the 16th Yeab.
HENEY GEOEGE was born on September 2, 1839,* in a little two story and attic brick house, yet stand- ing in a good state of preservation, in Philadelphia, Pa,, on Tenth Street, south of Pine, not half a mile from the old State House where the Declaration of Independence was signed.
His father's blood was English, with a tradition of Welsh; his mother's blood English and Scottish. In the main he came of middle-class stock. The only persons among his ancestors who achieved any distinction were his grandfathers; on his mother's side, John Vallance, a na- tive of Glasgow, Scotland, who became an engraver of repute in this country in the early days of the republic and whose name may be seen on some of the commissions signed by President Washington; and on his father's side, Eichard George, born in Yorkshire, England, who was one of the well-known shipmasters of Philadelphia when that city was the commercial metropolis of the new world.
Captain George married Mary Eeid, of Philadelphia, and to them were born three children, the youngest of
1 John Stuart Mill was then in his thirty-fourth year and . Adam Smith had been forty-nine years dead.
2 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1839-1855
whom, Richard Samuel Henry, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1798. This Richard Samuel Henry George became the father of Henry George, the subject of the present volume. In 1873, on the day preceding his sev- enty-fifth natal anniversary, he wrote his son Henry a letter of reminiscences, of which the following serves to show the man and the early conditions in Philadelphia :
"I have seen all the Presidents, from Washington down to the present. Grant — that is, I cannot say I saw Wash- ington, who died in December, 1799, but I think, al- though an infant, that I saw his sham funeral. . . .
"I go back to 1810, during Jefferson's long embargo. Then Front Street, Philadelphia, was what Chestnut Street is now — the fashionable thoroughfare of the city. All the principal merchants lived on Front Street and on Water Street above South. Below South lived mostly sea captains, all handy to business.
"Your grandfather had two ships, the Medora and Burdo Packet, and during the embargo and the war with England they were housed in; and from the navy yard down to the Point House, now called Greenwich, all the principal ships in port were housed in and hauled up on the mud, with noses touching the bank.
"Although times were hard, I did not feel them. I had a pleasant, happy home, let me tell you. The first thing to be done was to provide for winter. Wood was burned for cooking and heating. Your grandfather would purchase a sloop-load of wood, so that I had a good time helping to throw it down cellar. We would have enough to last all winter and late into the spring. Then there was a supply of beef to corn and two or three hogs to cut up. That was a grand time ! We had a smokehouse at one corner of the yard, and when father had cut up the hogs we would have a number of hams to smoke and cure. I do not taste such now, nor ever will again. At hog time mother made all sorts of good things — scrapel, sausage and all that hog could do for man. And didn't I go in for it all with the rest of the boys.
House where Henry George was bom, east side of Tenth Street, south of Pine, Philadelphia.
To 16th year] HENRY GEORGE'S FATHER 3
for father had four 'prenticed boys and two girls in the kitchen, all in good tune and happy. We had all sorts of songs and wonderful stories, both of the sea and of the land.
"It was at this time (I am sorry I have no dates) that my father arrived at Almond Street wharf from France, to which he had gone with a flag of truce, carrying out a lot of passengers and bringing back a lot. Well, it was Sunday morning, about light, when I was waked up by mother. I asked what was the matter. She said that pop had arrived and that he had on board of the ship General Moreau and family from France;^ and she wanted to get some fresh provisions for their breakfast. So I took on board lots of things — nice fresh milk and cream, butter, nice bread, chickens, etc. — for the general and his family. I tell you it was hard work getting on board, the crowd was so dense. On Almond Street from Second clear down to the wharf was a line of private car- riages with invitations of hospitality. The boys crowded me hard, and one or two fellows I had to fight before I could pass.
**'Going so often to the ship, I found I was as much noticed as the general himself. It gave me a big lift among the downtown-gang. I was made captain of a company and had to fight the Mead Alley and Catherine Street boys every Saturday afternoon. Many bricks I got on the head while leading my men (or boys) into battle. ...
"One fight I had built me right up, and afterwards I was A No. 1 among the boys, and cock of the walk. I went on the principle of do nothing that you are ashamed of and let no living man impose on you.
"In my youth I could swim like a duck and skate well. And I was considered a good sailor. I could handle a boat equal to anybody. I got a good amount of praise, both on the Delaware and the Mississippi, for my sea-
1 Jean Victor Moreau, the Republican French general, made famous by the extraordinary retreat through the Black Forest and the brilliant Battle of Hohenlinden, and afterwards exiled by Napoleon's jealousy.
4 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1839-1855
manship. I could go aloft as quick and as handy as any seaman. Going to New Orleans, I often lent a hand on topsails, and could do as well as most of them,"
E. S. H. George made this trip to New Orleans when a young man, and there engaged in the dry goods business. Keturning to Philadelphia, he settled down and married Miss Louisa Lewis, by whom he had two children, one of whom died while an infant, and the other, Eichard, while at boarding school in his twelfth year.^ Within four or five years after marriage this wife died, and several years later E. S. H. George married another Philadelphia lady, Catherine Pratt Vallanee. As has been said, her father was John Vallanee, the engraver, born in Glasgow, Scot- land. Her mother was Margaret Pratt, born in Philadel- phia, but of English extraction. John Vallanee died in 1823 leaving his widow, seven daughters and one son in modest means, which Henry Pratt, a wealthy merchant of Philadelphia and first cousin of the widow's father, im- proved by giving to each of the seven girls a small brick house. These girls received a good boarding school edu- cation, and Catherine and Mary were conducting a small private school when Catherine was married to E. S. H. George, who then had a book publishing business.
Mr. George had for several years occupied a good cler- ical position in the Philadelphia Custom House, and left it in 1831 to enter a book publishing partnership with Thomas Latimer, who had married Eebecca, the eldest of the Vallanee girls. The business was confined to the pub- lication and sale of Protestant Episcopal Church and Sun- day School books, and for a time became the depository of the General Episcopal Sunday School Union, the Bible
* tliere was also an adopted child, Harriet, who, growing up, married J. H. Evans.
To 16th year] CHURCH BOOK PUBLISHER 5
and Prayer Book Society and the Tract Society. After two and a half years Thomas Latimer withdrew and others were associated successively in the business, which for sev- enteen years Eichard George carried on, the store for a time being at the north-west corner of Chestnut and Fifth Streets, A contemporary in the business was George S. Appleton, who afterwards went to IS'ew York and merged with his brother in a general book publishing and book selling business, under the firm name of D. Appleton & Co. — the same D. Appleton & Co. who, several decades later, were to be the first publishers of "Progress and Poverty."^ By 1848 the business of the general book houses had encroached so much on denominational business that the latter became unprofitable, and Mr. George with- drew and went back to the Custom House, obtaining the position of Ascertaining Clerk, which he thereafter held for nearly fourteen years.
To the union of R. S. H. George and Catharine Pratt Vallance ten children were born, six girls — Caroline, Jane, Catharine, Chloe, Mary and Eebeeca, the last two of whom died early — and four boys — Henry, Thomas, John and Morris — the second child and oldest boy being the subject of this work. Like the son by the former marriage, this boy was named after his father; but as the former bore the name of Richard, the first of the father's three Chris- tian names — Richard Samuel Henry — the last of the names was selected for this son; and as the father desired a short name, complaining of the annoyance to himself of a long one, the simple one of Henry George was chosen.
Henry George's father was a strict churchman. He was a vestryman at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, when
' This circumstance had nothing to do with their decision to publish the book, as its author was unknown to them.
6 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1839-1855
that church, under the earnest preaching of Dr. Eichard Newton, was at the height of its prosperity. The con- gregation was of the extreme "Low Church" division and regarded "High Church" tendencies with the utmost ab- horrence. Sunday was a day for austere devotions — church services morning and afternoon, and frequently in the evening. On other days there were morning and even- ing family prayers. Et. Eev. Ignatius F. Horstmann, Catholic Bishop of Cleveland, 0., who was a boy in the neighbourhood at the time, has said :^ "I can recall Henry George going to church every Sunday, walking between his two elder sisters, followed by his father and mother — all of them so neat, trim and reserved."
But that there were occasional breaks in the austerity may be certain. Eev. George A. Latimer, Henry George's cousin, has said:
"Henry George was in my Sunday school class. It was the custom of Dr. Newton to have the children of the church in the main lecture room once a month in the afternoon for catechising. One Sunday the subject was that part of the catechism that declares our duty towards our neighbour, and the special topic, 'to keep my hands from picking and stealing.' Our class was on the front row. The Doctor asked the question: *Boys, why do the grocerymen have that wire netting over the dried peaches in the barrel at the store door?' Henry George at once answered with a loud voice: 'To keep the flies out.' The Doctor's face turned as red as blood, while at the same time he said: 'Yes, to keep the hands from picking and stealing.' "
Eev. William Wilberforce Newton, son of the rector, who was in this school with Henry George, said in an
iLetter to "National Single Taxer," Aug. 31, 1898.
Henry George at about five. From daguerreotype taken in Philadelphia.
To 16th year] SUNDAY SCHOOL BOY 7
address after the latter's death that "that school turned out some remarkable men," naming Bishop Charles E. Hall of Illinois, Bishop Wm. H. Odenheimer of New Jersey, Eev, Wm. W. Farr, Henry S. Getz, Rev. Richard N. Thomas, editor of the "American Church Sunday School Magazine," George C. Thomas, of Drexel & Co. bankers, and Treasurer of the Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and Rev. R. Heber New- ton, William Wilberforce Newton's brother. Mr. Newton told this anecdote;
"Our class was located in that part of the church known as the basement, and as we looked out at the window, our view was obstructed by innumerable grave- stones.
"My people were extremely hospitable to missionaries. One time Missionary Bishop Payne of Africa came with his wife to our house and staid six weeks. They brought with them a lot of monkeys and other beasts of the tropical clime. We used to have great times among ourselves — the boys of the neighbourhood and the monkeys and the dumb animals — splaying 'firemen.' One day we were having a parade. There was no flag. So I went into the house and got a Sunday school ban- ner with an illustration of Paul preaching at Ephesus. It was not exactly appropriate, but it answered the pur- pose. Henry George insisted upon carrying the ban- ner which all the boys thought a good deal of.
"As our firemen's parade was turning the corner of the house that day, Henry George heard my father say to the missionary that if he saw anything about the house that he thought would be of service to him in Africa he was welcome to it, and the missionary replied that he thought the tool chest would come in handy. George passed the word along the line and very soon our parade was broken up and we became an army of warriors for the protection of that tool chest. But it went to Africa iust the same,"
8 LIFE OF HENKY GEORGE [1839-1856
At the time of his son Henry's birth, the book busi- ness enabled Mr. George to keep his family in comfort. Giving care to his children's education, he sent them as they grew old enough to Mrs. Graham's private school, on Catharine Street near Third, the family having moved from Tenth Street to the west side of Third Street, three doors north of Queen, where they remained for nearly twenty-five years. After three years at Mrs. Graham's, and when he was in his ninth year, the eldest son, Henry, was sent to a public school. Mount Vernon Grammar, where Ignatius Horstmann attended in a class above him. A year later, in 1849, he was sent to the Episcopal Academy.
This institution, flourishing to-day, was founded in revolutionary times, but seemed to decline until Bishop Alonzo Potter raised it at ihe end of the forties to first rank as a place of instruction in the city and State. Rev. Dr. Hare was then principal, and the institution was fre- quently spoken of as Hare's Academy. The Bishop's two sons, Henry C. and E. N. Potter were at the Academy then, and in the years to come were to achieve distinction, the former as the Episcopal Bishop of New York City and the other as president of two colleges successively. E. Heber Newton and William Wilberforce Newton were also fellow students. Dr. Heber Newton remembers the school as being in a most prosperous condition, "the large chapel being quite filled with boys, and the class rooms seemingly well filled, and attendance upon it was esteemed an ad- vantage and a privilege."
But though it was a good school, young George did not stay there long. His father had now ceased to be publisher of Church books, yet he obtained for his son the reduced rate of tuition granted to clergj^men's sons. This concession was regarded by the boy as something to
•Cto 16th year] GOES TO THE HIGH SCHOOL 9
which he was not entitled and he believed that every boy in the school knew of it; and perhaps it was for this reason that from the start he did not get along well there. At any rate, his father, yielding to his entreaties, took him away and put him in the hands of Henry Y. Lau- derbach to be prepared for High school. This short pe- riod, Henry George always recognised as the most profit- able portion of his little schooling. Mr. Lauderbach had a way of his own, drawing out and stimulating the indi- viduality of his pupils. Thirty years afterwards he clearly remembered Henry George as a student remark- able among boys for quickness of thought, originality and general information. The special training under Lauder- bach enabled the youth at little more than thirteen to enter a class in the High school that was to produce some notable men in Pennsylvania — Theodore Cramp, ship builder; Charles W. Alexander, Journalist; James Mor- gan Hart, professor and author ; Samuel L. Gracey, Meth- odist Episcopal clergyman; David H. Lane, a Kecorder of Philadelphia; and William Jenks Fell, Commissioner of Deeds. This school, like the Episcopal Academy, was an excellent one, but later in life Henry George said that while there he was "for the most part idle and wasted time." Perhaps it was that he had his mind's eye set on the world outside of school ! Perhaps it was that con- scious that the growing family was putting a strain on his father, Whose sole income was the $800 salary of a Custom House clerk, he felt that he should be supporting himself. It was probably his Uncle Thomas Latimer who at this time gave him advice of which he spoke in a speech about thirty years later: "I remember when a boy, I wanted to go to sea. I talked with a gentleman, who wanted me to go into business as a boy in a store. I had nothing, no particular facility, yet I remember his saying
10 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1839-1855
to me: *If you are honest, if you are steady, if you are industrious, you can certainly look forward to being able to retire at forty with comfort for the rest of your days.' "^ These words may have had a strong influence on the boy's mind. At any rate, after less than five months in the High School, he induced his father to take him away, to stop his schooling altogether, and put him to work; and he never went to school afterwards. He was then less than fourteen years old.^ He first obtained employment in the china and glass importing house of Samuel Asbury & Co., at 85 South Front Street, at $2 a week. His duties were to copy, to tie up bundles and to run errands. Af- terwards he went into the office of a marine adjuster and did clerical work.
But though he had left school for good, his real edu- cation suffered no interruption. In school or out of it, he had acquired a fondness for reading. Or perhaps it was that at his birth, while the Fairies of Gain, Fashion and Pleasure passed him by, one came and sat beside his cradle and softly sang
"Mine is the world of thought, the world of dream ; Mine all the past, and all the future mine."
First he had a grounding in the Bible; and the Puri- tanical familiarity with book, chapter and verse, which in the elders moulded speech, established habit, and guided the steps of life, filled the young mind with a myriad of living pictures. Then, though his father while a pub-
1 Speech, " Crime of Poverty," 1885. After uttering the foregoing pas- sage, Mr. George asked: "Who would dare in New York or in any of our great cities, to say that to a young clerk now ? "
2 At fourteen Adam Smith was attending the University of Glasgow ; while John Stuart Mill was learning Greek at three, Latin at eight, logic at twelve and political economy at thirteen,
To 16th year] EARLY LOVE OF READING 11
lisher handled only religious books, and those confined to the Episcopal Church, there were the strange tales of mis- sionaries in foreign lands to feed the imagination. After- wards when the father left the book business there was still an atmosphere of reading about the home, and other books came in the boy's way. He delighted in history, travels and adventure, fiction and poetry. While in his strong democratic principles and practical side, the boy followed his father, it was in a love of poetry that he re- sembled his mother, who as an elderly woman could quote verse after verse and poem after poem learned in her girl- hood. She manifested at all times an intense fondness for Scott, and had a taste for Shakespeare, though owing to her austere principles, she never in her life attended a Shakesperian play.^ This religious ban extended in the boy's reading to much in the realm of romance and adventure, such works as the "Scottish Chiefs," for in- stance, having to be read in the seclusion of his attic bed- chamber. But in the open or in the smuggled way books were obtained, and the old Quaker Apprentice's Library and the Franklin Institute Library furnished inexhaust- ible mines of reading matter. Book after book was de- voured with a delight that showed that now certainly the youthful mind was not "idle" nor his "time wasted." He
1 In a speech in Liverpool many years later (Nov. 30, 1888) Henry George said : " I was educated in a very strict faith. My people and the people whom I knew in my childhood, the people who went to our church and other churches of the same kind, had a notion that the theatre was a very bad place, and they would not go to one on any account. There was a celebrated fellow-citizen of mine of the name of Barnum. Barnum went to Philadelphia, and he recognised that prejudice, and he saw that, although there were a number of theatres running for the ungodly, a theatre he could get the godly to go to would pay extremely well. But he did not start a theatre. Oh, no ! He started a lecture room, and we had in that lecture room theatrical representations, and it was crowded every night in the week and there were two n^atinees. "
12 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE
[1839-1855
absorbed information as the parched earth a summer shower, and what he thus took in he retained. To this fondness for reading he always ascribed the beginning of his real education and the commencement of his career.
And what came like enchantment to his mind and sup- plemented his reading were popular scientific lectures at the Franklin Institute. This institution, named after the famous townsman, Benjamin Franklin, and incor- porated in 1834 for "the promotion and encouragement of manufactures and the mechanic and useful arts," in the forties and fifties took first rank in scientific learning in the city, which at the same time was without peer in this country for its public libraries, museums and pri- vate cabinets. Of the Institute, Henry George's uncle, Thomas Latimer, was a member. To him the boy was indebted for access to the lectures — ^lectures that revealed the wonders of the physical sciences in simple language and magic lantern pictures. Like a torch they lit up the young understanding and made a fitting attendant to that university of reading to which he was of his own volition applying himself.
This reading fed a desire that his father's stories and the tales and traditions about his grandfather had kindled in him for the sea. "One of our chief play grounds," Rev. W. W. Newton has said, "was about the wharves of the city. He had a friend who was a sea captain and I a cousin, and both of us had our minds set on a sea voy- age." Mr. George encouraged in his son an active life, going to see him skate and swim. One day he saved him from drowning by putting down his cane when the boy had dived under a float. Though a strict churchman, the father could not forget his own early warlike days and was not averse to having his boy fight in just quar- rels. But it was the shipping that chiefly interested fa-
From daguerreotype taken about the time that
Henry George, less than fourteen, left
school and went to work.
To 16th year] YEARNING FOR THE SEA 13
ther and son, and as they strolled along the river-piers together, the father talked about hull and rig, wind and weather, and the wonders of sea and foreign lands, so that the wharves had a fascination for the boy, and it was around them that with Willie Newton or Bill Horner, Col and Charley Walton and Will Jones he spent much of his play time, climbing about vessels, going swinmiing or sailing toy boats. And this was not all idle play, but served its purposes in later life, for the boy's powers of observation and reasoning were in constant exercise.^
After a while, when the boy left the crockery house and went into the marine adjuster's office, the desire for the sea increased so much that he went to his cousin, George Latimer, who was ten years older than himself, and asked him to speak in his behalf to an acquaintance of the fam-
1 '• When I was a boy I went down to the wharf with another boy to see the first iron steamship which had ever crossed the ocean to our port. Now, hearing of an iron steamship seemed to us then a good deal like hearing of a leaden kite or a wooden cooking stove. But, we had not been long aboard of her, before my companion said in a tone of contemp- tuous disgust : ' Pooh ! I see how it is. She's all lined with wood ; that's the reason she floats.' I could not controvert him for the mo- ment, but I was not satisfied, and sitting down on the wharf when he left me, I set to work trying mental experiments. If it was the wood in- side of her that made her float, then the more wood the higher she would float ; and mentally I loaded her up with wood. But, as I was familiar with the process of making boats out of blocks of wood, I at once saw that, instead of floating higher, she would sink deeper. Then I men- tally took all the wood out of her, as we dug out our wooden boats, and saw that thus lightened she would float higher still. Then, in imagina- tion, I jammed a hole in her, and saw that the water would run in and she would sink, as did our wooded boats when ballasted with leaden keels. And thus I saw, as clearly as though I could have actually made these experiments with the steamer, that it was not the wooden lining that made her float, but her hollowness, or as I would now phrase it, her displacement of water." — Lecture on " The Study of Political Economy'' at University of California, March 9, 1877.
14 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1839-1855
ily, a young man named Samuel Miller who was mate and whose father was captain of the ship Hindoo. No better insight into the habits of the boy and of his con- stant thought of the sea can be obtained than from ex- tracts from a short journal that he kept at the beginning of 1855, probably at the suggestion of his uncle, Thomas Latimer. Though then scarcely more than fifteen, and although he had spent all his life in a town of brick houses and perhaps had never more than seen the ocean, he noted wind and weather with the care of a veteran sea captain. Incidentally the journal shows the important part the lectures at the Franklin Institute were playing:
"Jan. 7, Mon. Kose at 6. Went to store. Evening went to lecture.
"Jan. 8, Tues. to Fri. Eainy, warm and muddy.
"Jan. 13, Sat. Went to store. Coming home stopped in at library. Saw in 'ISTew York Herald': 'Arrived, Ship Hindoo, Miller; Canton, July 22; Angier, Sept.
28; Cape Good Hope, Nov. 6; St. Helena, . Was
68 to Angier. In month of August only made 200 miles against S.W. monsoon and strong northerly currents.' I have been expecting her for some time. Stopped at Latimer's. Got Tom [his brother] and came home. Little Augustine, the Chilian boy from the ship Bow- ditch, came. He found his way alone. Only been here once before, on Tuesday night. Went up to Mrs. Mc- Donald's and got my pants. Went with Augustine to buy a collar.
"Jan. 14, Sun. Clear and cold, wind N.W. Went to Sunday school with Charley Walton. Mr. Newton preached good sermon. Was coming home, corner of Third and Catharine met Augustine. After dinner took him up to Uncle Joe's. In evening he came again. Took him to Trinity Church.
"Jan. 15, Mon. Wind S., moderating. Went to store. Evening went to lecture. George Latimer said they had received a letter from Sam Miller saying that he would be home in a few days.
To 16th year] THE FIRST DIARY 16
"Jan. 16, Tues. Wind N.E., clear and warm. George told me he had written to Sam Miller and told him about me.
"Jan. 17, Wed. Cloudy. Wind went around to N.W. and blew up clear. Went to lecture, last on electricity. Augustine at home.
"Jan. 18, Tues. Wind N.W., clear and cold. In evening Augustine and Charley Walton came. Went around to library and up to McDonald's for Cad [Caro- line, his sister].
"Jan. 19, Fri. Told Sam that I was going to leave. He gave me $12. ... In morning met Augustine, who said he had got place on steam tug America — $2 a week. Evening went to lecture.
"Jan. 20, Sat. Wind N.E. Last day at store. They expect Sam Miller home to-night.
"Jan. 21, Sun. Wind S., warm, cloudy. Sam Mil- ler did not come home last night. They expect him home next Saturday. Went to Sunday school and Church. Augustine sat in our pew. Took him in after- noon to Sunday school. ... It blew in the even- ing very strong and about one o'clock increased to per- fect hurricane, blowing as I never had heard it before from the South.
"Jan. 22, Mon. Took up a basket to the store for crockery Mr. Young said he would give me. . . . In afternoon went down to Navy Yard with Bill Hor- ner. Evening went to lecture. Brought home a lot of crockery.
"Jan. 23, Tues. Wind N.W., clear and cool. Even- ing went to Thomas's book sale. Bought a lot of six books for seven cents.
"Jan. 24, Wed. Went to lecture in evening, first on climatology. Liked it very much,
"Jan. 25, Thurs. Went to store in morning. . . .
"Jan. 26, Fri. Snowed all the morning. Aunt Ee- becca [Latimer] says that Sam Miller did not get George Latimer's letter. George wrote to him again yesterday. He will be here next Wednesday. . . . Cleared off with N.W. wind. In afternoon snow-balled. Went to lecture in evening, first on organic chemistry. Liked it very much.
16 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [183»-1855
"Jan. 27, Sat. Went skating morning and afternoon.
"Jan. 38, Sun. Augustine came in the afternoon. He is going to Cuba in Brig Aucturus of Union Island.
"Jan. 29, Mon. Went to navy yard and brig [Amc- turus^ in morning. Lecture in evening.
"Jan. 31, Wed. Skating in afternoon. Sam Miller did not come home. Will be home on Saturday morn- ing.
"Feb. 1, Thurs. Skating in afternoon.
"Feb. 2, Fri. Evening went to see the panorama of Europe.
"Feb. 3, Sat. Sam Miller came home yesterday after- noon. Went to George Latimer's office to see him. He says if he goes as captain he will take me. The owners of the Hindoo have bought the clipper Whirlwind. Both will sail for Melbourne about the middle of March and from there to Calcutta and home. Hindoo prob- ably make it in 11 months. Hindoo is 25 years old, 586 tons register, 1,200 burden; carries 14 able sea- men, cook, steward, two mates and captain — in all 19 men. Sam Miller intends going back to New York on Wednesday. Went skating in afternoon.
"Feb. 5, Mon. Afternoon went to Uncle Dunkin George's office. His boy is sick. Evening Pop met Sam Miller and George Latimer in Chestnut street. . . . Pop asked Sam Miller to tea on Saturday. Very cold.
"Feb. 6, Tues. Very cold; thermometer at Zero.
"Feb. 7, Wed. Eiver blocked up. Commenced snow- ing. Wind N.E. till night.
"Feb. 8, Thurs. Snowed again all day. In after- noon went sleighing with Uncle Joe Van Dusen.
"Feb. 9, Fri. Clear. Delaware pretty nearly closed. Skated a little on the ice in the afternoon. Saw Augus- tine on the first ice he had ever been on. Went to Aunt Eebecca Latimer's to tea.
"Feb. 10, Sat. Sam Miller and George and Kate Latimer came about five o'clock and staid to sup- per. . . . Sam said he had received a letter from his father saying he need not come on to New York until he sent for him.
"Feb. 11, Sun. Clear and cold. Up at Uncle Dun- kin's office all the w^«k.
To 16th year] PREPARES TO LEAVE HOME 17
"Feb. 19, Mon. Came home at night along the wharf. Saw Augustine on the Brig Globe of Bangor, about to sail for Cuba. Stopped at Aunt Rebecca's. Sam Mil- ler had heard nothing from his father.
"Feb. 20, Tues. Auntie Ann came to our house to dinner. Said Sam Miller had heard from his fa- ther to go on immediately. He went on at two o'clock. . . .
"March 26, Mon. Uncle Dunkin's in the morning. Saw in New York papers at Exchange the Hindoo ad- vertised to sail on the 5th of April — a week from next Thursday.
"March 27, Tues. Office in morning. Staid home in afternoon working on my brig [toy boat]. , . . Before supper went to Aunt Eebecca's. George re- ceived a letter from Captain Miller [Sam Miller, just made captain]. Said he would sail about Thursday, April 5, and that he would come on to Philadelphia on Saturday and stay till Monday and take me with him. It surprised them all.
"March 28, Wed. Went to Uncle Dunkin's in the morning. Told him I should not come up any more, as I had so little time.
"March 31, Sat. Stayed at home in the morning fin- ishing my brig. Painted her. After dinner, my last dinner at home, went with father and mother to get our daguerreotypes taken. Came home and went to Aunt Rebecca's to supper in company with Cad and Jennie. Went home at eight p.m."
Young Samuel W. Miller, then about twenty-five, had obtained command of the ship Hindoo, an old East India- man, on which he had formerly sailed as mate under his father, who was now transferred to a new ship. At the suggestion of George Latimer, and after talking with Henry George's father, he had formally invited young Henry to sail with him. For Richard George was a clear- headed, common-sensed man. Much as he disliked to have the boy go to sea, he knew that his son inherited the longing. Moreover, knowing the strong, wilful nature of
18 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1839-1855
his son, he feared that if objection was raised the boy might run away, as he had done once before while yet going to school. The lad had made an impertinent reply to his mother, and his father, overhearing it, reproved him with words and a blow. To be struck by his father was so unusual that he was humiliated. He stole away, got his school books and a little cold lunch — all that he could get to eat — and left the house with the resolve never to return again. He remained out until half past nine o'clock that night, when he returned with a tamer spirit and was forgiven. The father had not forgotten this incident, and he was determined that if the boy must go to sea he should go with his parents' consent. So he talked to Captain Miller and suggested to him not to make the boy's berth too comfortable, but to let him see and feel the rigours of a sailor's life, so that by a single voyage the desire for roving should be destroyed. Henry George was then accepted as foremast boy on the Hindoo^ bound for Melbourne, Australia, and Calcutta, India.
CHAPTER 11.
BEFOEE THE MAST.
1855-1856. Age, 16-17.
AUSTRALIA and India swam in the boy's fancy as in a Jl\. shining sea of gold. Australia, the island continent nearly as large as the United States, giving promise of a great rival, English-speaking republic in the southern hemisphere, had riveted attention by its gold discoveries in the early fifties and by the enormous treasure since taken out — equal almost to that of wonderful California. It was the new land of wealth, where poor, obscure men in a day rose to riches. India lay like a counterpoise in the mind's picture. With her Jungles and monkeys, tigers and elephants; her painted idols, fantastical philosophies and poppy smokers — this land of mysteries, old when the pyramids of Egypt and Syria were young, shone through partings in her gorgeous tropical foliage with the gleam of gold and precious stones, despite the pillage of the ages. Whatever the boy had read, from Bible to ** Arabian Nights," in magazine or in newspaper; and all that he had heard, in lecture or sermon, from traveller or sailor, burned in his imagination and made him eager to be gone.
The Hindoo was to sail from New York Harbour early in April. On Sunday, April 1, after Sunday school,
19
20 LIFE OF HENKY GEORGE [1855-1856
Henry George received a Bible and a copy of "James's Anxious Enquirer"; and the next morning, bidding fare- well at the wharf to his father, and uncles Thomas Lati- mer and Joseph Van Dusen, his cousin George Latimer and his friends Col Walton and Joe Roberts, he and Cap- tain Miller went aboard the steamboat, crossed the Dela- ware, took train, and four hours afterwards were in New York. Two letters from him, written from the ship be- fore she got away, have been preserved. They are in large, clear, firm hand, with some shading, some flour- ishes and a number of misspelled words. In the first, under date of April 6, he says :
"I signed the shipping articles at $6 a month and two months' advance, which I got in the morning.
"While we were down town we stopped at the Cus- tom House, and Jim [an ordinary seaman] and I got a protection, for which we paid $1 each to a broker.
"The New York Custom House looks like a cooped up affair along side of the Philadelphia one — there are so many people and so much business and bustle.
"The upper part of New York is a beautiful place — the streets wide, clear and regular; the houses all a brown stone and standing ten or twenty feet from the pavement, with gardens in front."
To the foregoing letter was added this :
April 7, 1855.
"I was stopped [writing] suddenly last night by the entrance of the men to haul her [the vessel] to the end of the wharf and was prevented from going on by their laughing and talking. At about twelve o'clock we com- menced and by some pretty hard heaving we got her to the end of the wharf. It was then about two o'clock. So we turned in and slept until about half past five. We got our breakfast, and being taken in tow by a steamboat about 7.30 a.m., proceeded down the stream
Age, 16-17] SCENES IN NEW YORK 21
till off the Battery, where we dropped anchor and now lie.
"The view from this spot is beautiful — ^the North Eiver and New York Bay covered with sailing ves- sels and steamers of every class and size, while back, the hills, gently sloping, are covered with country seats. . . .
"I ate my first meals sailor style to-day and did not dislike it at all. Working around in the open air gives one such an appetite that he can eat almost anything. We shall go to sea Monday morning early. I should love to see you all again before I go, but that is impos- sible. I shall write again to-morrow, and if possible get the pilot to take a letter when he leaves, though it is doubtful that I shall be able to write one."
It was in these days preparatory to starting, when there were a lot of odd things to do, that the boatswain, busy with some splicing, sent the boy for some tar; and when the boy stopped to look around for a stick, the sailor in surprise and disgust cried to him to bring the tar in his hand ! Another incident of a similar kind appears in his second letter, which is dated April 9 and is addressed to his Aunt Mary, one of his mother's sisters, a most unselfish and lovable maiden lady who helped raise the large brood of George children, and who, until her death in 1875, had never been separated from her sister, Mrs. George. She was loved as a second mother by the chil- dren.
"We are not at sea, as we expected to be by this time, but still lying off the Battery. The ship could not sail this morning for want of seamen. They are very scarce in Kew York now and all sorts of men are ship- ping as sailors. Two Dutch boys shipped as able sea- men and came on board yesterday afternoon. The smallest one had been to sea before, but the largest d'd not know the difference between a yard and a block.
23 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1855-18»
The second mate told them to go aloft and slush down the masts. This morning the smallest went up, but the other could not go up at all. So I had to go aloft and do it. The work was a good deal easier than I expected. I don't mind handling grease at all now."*
Then the letter proceeds:
"Captain Miller has been ashore all day trying to get men. There is to be one sent on board in place of the largest Dutchman. I pity the poor fellow, though to be sure he had no business to ship as seaman. He says he has four trades — baker, shoemaker, etc. An- other man came aboard this morning as able seaman who could not get into the foretop. They sent him ashore. The captain shipped to-day as ordinary sea- men two lads, one a Spaniard and the other English, I believe. They are fine sailor looking fellows. The cook, steward and two of the men are from the West Indies. All sailed in whalers. There are no cleaner looking men in Parkinson's.
"We have better living than I expected — fresh and salt beef, potatoes and rice — and all cooked in the finest style; but I cannot like the coffee as yet.
"They have just brought two men aboard and taken the Dutchmen off. This is the last letter that I shall have a chance to send till we get to Melbourne, where I hope there will be letters awaiting me."
April 10. "We have just been heaving the cable short and shall be ready as soon as the tow boat comes. I hope that by this time Morrie [his baby brother] is well. I could
1 When a boy, his mother would frequently buy a piece of sweet suet and melting it down, would mix with its oil or fat a little bergamot, there- by making a pomade for the hair. Henry George never during his life liked fats witli his meat at the table, and at times would say in the fam- ily that it was because when a boy he had to put it on his head. Not- withstanding the use of the hair preparation, he and all his brothera followed their father and grew bald early.
Age, 16-17] SHIP PUTS TO SEA 23
spin ont four or five pages, but I have not time. I would have written a great many more letters, but could not. When you read this letter you must remember where it was written — on the top of my chest in the after house (where I sleep, along with Jim, the carpen- ter and the cook). I have to dip my pen into the bottle at almost every word. Good-bye father and mother, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, cousins and friends. God bless you all and may we all meet again.
"P. S. I have received letters from Martha Curry ■and Greorge Latimer and shall reply the first chance."
9.30 A. M. ''We are now going down the bay in tow of a steam- boat and shall soon be at sea. I shall get the captain to send this ashore by the pilot. God bless you all. It is cloudy and drizzling — blows a stiff breeze from the south.
"Good-bye,
"Henry George."
So it was that the Hindoo, a full-rigged ship of 586 tons register — a very large ship at that time^ — with 500,000 feet of lumber aboard and a crew of twenty men, all told, started on her long voyage; and as she glided down the bay and through the "Narrows" on her way to the ocean, on the left bank, eighty feet above the water, stood an old white house that forty years later, when his fame had spread through the world, was to become Henry George's home and witness the end of his career. But the boy, all unconscious of this, had been set to work, as he says in his sea journal, "in company with the other boys to
^ "In the last generation a full-rigged Indiaman would be considered a Tery large vessel if she registered 500 tons. Now we are building coast- ing schooners of 1000 tons" — "Social Problems," Chap. V. (Memorial edition, p. 46.)
24 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1855-1856
picking oakum for the carpenter, who was busy fastening and calking the hatches."
This journal or log, covers most of the voyage, and with the few letters that still exist, and an account of the passage written by Captain Miller for his friend, George Latimer, furnishes pretty full and clear informa- tion as to this important formative period. The journal consists of an original in two parts and three incomplete fair copies. The original parts are quite rough and show marks of wear and stains of water. One is of white, the other of blue, unruled, large sized letter paper, folded so as to make neat pages of four by six inches, and stitched together with heavy linen thread, such as might have been used in sewing sails. The entries are mostly in pencil, the spelling not of the best, and the writing not uniform — in some places quite faint — ^but generally small, con- densed, round and clear. The fair copies are in a fine state of preservation. They are written in large, bold hand in commercial blank books and the spelling is cor- rect. Two of them may have been copied while at sea, but the fullest and best looking one was doubtless writ- ten in Philadelphia after the voyage.^
From Captain Miller's account it appears that when the Hindoo cast off the tug that was taking her to sea, the wind was from the south-east and right ahead, and the pilot advised him to anchor at Sandy Hook; 'T^ut," says the Captain, "we could not wait. We set all sail and stood E.N.E. until we saw the rocks of Long Island. We then tacked to the south'd and stood down until we were abreast the Capes of Delaware. Then a gale of wind
^ In the back pages of this little journal are some historical, scientific and other notes probably made while reading. These bear date as late as ApriL 1359, at which time its owner was in California.
From daguerreotype taken March 31, 1855, just before going to sea.
Age. 16-17] THE SEA JOURNAL 25
from the north-west commenced, lasting four days; dur- ing which time we made good progress off the coast." The boy's log for these four days runs as follows :
"Tues. 10. . . . About 12 a.m. we passed Sandy Hook, and a slight breeze springing up, set all fore and aft sail. About 3 p.m. discharged the tow boat and pilot. Soon after I began to feel sea-sick, and the breeze dying away, the tossing of the vessel very much increased it. . . . After supper all hands were called aft and the watches chosen. I was taken by the mate for the larboard. ... It being the larboard watch's first watch below, I turned in at 8 p.m.
"Wed. 11. I was roused out of a sound sleep at 12 o'clock to come on deck and keep my watch. On turning out I found a great change in the weather. The wind had shifted to N.W. and came out cold and fierce. The ship was running dead before it in a S.E. direction, making about 8 or 9 knots an hour. After keeping a cold and dreary watch until 4 a.m. we were relieved and I was enabled to turn in again. All this day sea-sick by spells. ... It will be a long time before we are in this part of the world again, home- ward bound. Twelve months seem as if they would never pass. In the afternoon all hands were engaged in getting the anchors on the forecastle and securing them for a long passage. The colour of the sea is green on sounding, the shade varying according to the depth of water, and a beautiful blue outside, and so very clear that objects can be seen at a great depth.
"Thurs. 12. A brisk breeze all day from N.W. with frequent showers of rain. Numbers of Stormy Petrels or Mother Carey's Chickens hovering about the quar- ter. Weather rather cool.
"Fri. 13. A fine bright day; wind still the same. Hoisting the lower stun'sail in the forenoon, the hal- yards parted, and the sail was with difficulty secured. The sea-sickness has now entirely left me."
26 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1855-1856
The old ship after twenty-five years of hard service was pretty nearly worn out, and the log reveals a series of breakages, and some consequent accidents.
"Sat. 14. Commenced with fine clear weather and brisk breeze from N.W. About 5.30 a.m., the larboard watch being on deck, the tiDer of the rudder suddenly broke in half. All hands were immediately called and everything let go and clewed up. Tackles were got on the rudder and the ship steered by them, while the car- penter immediately set to work on a new one. While furling the main top-gallant sail a man belonging to the larboard watch, John Prentz by name, fell from the yard to the deck. Luckily the main topsail, which was clewed up, broke his fall, or he would certainly have been killed. On taking him forward, his arm was found to have been broken in three places, but otherwise he had sustained no serious injury. His arm was set and bandaged by the mate. The carpenter finished the til- ler about 4 P.M., when, everything being replaced, sail was again made on the ship and she continued on her course with a fair, though light wind. The old tiller which had suddenly broken, and which outwardly ap- peared so firm and sound, was in the centre completely rotted away. . . . The account which the man who fell from aloft gave of his mishap when he had recov- ered his senses was that he was pulling on the gasket with both hands when it suddenly parted and he was precipitated backwards. He knew no more until he found himself in the forecastle with his arm ban- daged up."
The fifteenth of April is noted in the log as the "first Sunday at sea," and that instead of being seated in St. Paul's Church, they were "ploughing the ocean a thousand miles away." Soon the entries take more of the formal aspect of a ship's log and less of a personal journal, though once in a while they relax into general observation
Age, 16-17] HARD TACK AND SEA PIE 27
and fancy. On May 3, for instance, the ship, lying in a dead calm, was surrounded by a large school of dol- phins, which presented "a most beautiful appearance in the water, changing to brilliant colours as they swam from place to place." On May 24 calms and light airs, with this entry:
"At 8.30 A.M. the mate succeeded in striking one of the porpoises which were playing under the bows. The fish was immediately run up to the bowsprit end by all hands, when a running bowline was put around his tail and he was hauled inboard, where he was soon de- spatched and dissected. We had a sort of hash of his flesh for supper, which was very palatable, and the rest was hung up to the topsail sheets, where it spoiled in the moonlight." ^
Thoughts kept reverting to home, and there is more than one entry like: "Would have given anything to have been back to breakfast." Then came the Fourth of July :
l"In later years I have sometimes 'supped with LucuUus,' without recalling what he gave me to eat, whereas I remember to this day ham and eggs of my first breakfast on a canal-packet drawn by horses that actually trotted; how sweet hard-tack, munched in the middle watch while the sails slept in the trade- wind, has tasted; what a dish for a prince was sea-pie on the rare occasions when a pig had been killed or a porpoise harpooned; and how good was the plum-duff that came to the fore- castle only on Sundays and great holidays. I remember as though it were an hour ago, that, talking to myself rather than to him, I said to a York- shire sailor on my first voyage: 'I wish I were home, to get a piece of pie.* I recall his expression and tone, for they shamed me, as he quietly said: 'Are you sure you would find a piece of pie there?' Thoughtless as the French princess who asked why the people who were crying for bread did not try cake, ' Home ' was associated in my mind with pie of some sort — apple or peach or sweet-potato or cranberry or mince— to be had for the taking, and I did not for the moment realise that in many homes pie was as rare a luxury as plums in our sea-duff." — "The Science of Political Economy," p. 352.
28 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1855-1866
"Wed. July 4. Commenced with a fresh breeze from N. At 5 A.M. wind died away ; at 8 a.m. came out from S. At 12 M. double reefed topsails and single reefed mainsail. During the rest of the day showery. Lat. 33 S., Ion. 6 W. At 12 o'clock last night the day was ushered in by three discharges from a small swivel, which made a great deal of noise, rousing up all who were asleep. As soon as the smoke cleared away and the dead and wounded were mustered, it was found that it had not been without execution, all the glass on one side of the house being shattered (a loss not easily re- paired) a port blown out; and the waddings (made of rope yarn, and very hard) had passed, one through the head of the new water cask, and another through the new foretopsail, which had not been bent a week. The wind, which had been strong from aft the day before, during the middle watch died away and was succeeded by a calm until 8 a.m., when a stiff breeze from the South sprang up, accompanied by showers of rain. At 12 M. all hands were called to reef. While reefing the foretopsail the parrel of the yard gave way, causing a great deal of trouble and keeping all hands from din- ner. It was 2.30 P.M. before our watch got below td their plum-duff, which had been allowed in honour of the day. The rest of the day was rainy, with wind constantly varying, keeping us hauling on the braces. Thus closed the most miserable 4th of July that I have ever yet spent."
On the ninety-seventh day out the Hindoo passed the Cape of Good Hope, though far to the south of it, and entered the Indian Ocean. Thence to Port Philip (Mel- bourne) came a succession of gales from the westward, with heavy squalls of hail and rain, but the ship driving before them made good progress.
"Sun. Aug. 12. Commenced with cloudy weather and stiff breeze. At 6 a.m. shook a reef out of topsails and set topgallant sails, but at 12 m., wind increasing
Age, 10-17] FIEST AUSTRALIAN LAND 29
and barometer falling, (altliougli the sun shone brightly and gave promise of a fine afternoon) furled topgallant- sails and close-reefed topsails. At 4 p.m., blowing a heavy gale from W. by N., furled mizzen topsails and reefed foresail. At 8 p.m., wind increasing, furled fore topsail. During the night tremendous squalls of wind and hail. Ship constantly heaving water on deck, one sea which she took in at the waist running completely aft and filling the cabin with water.
"Mon. Aug. 13. Strong gales from W. with heavy squalls of hail and rain. Weather very cold, the hail sometimes covering the deck. Looked more like win- ter than any weather we have yet experienced. It is impossible to describe the wildly grand appearance of the sea and sky."
At last, on the one hundred and thirty-seventh day out from New York, the first land of Australia was sighted, and with that flamed up the desire of the crew to get ashore and strike out straight for the gold districts, where men with little more equipment than pick and pan were, so far as the sailors' knowledge went, still washing for- tunes out of the soil.
*'Fri. Aug. 34. Commenced with strong wind from N. Furled jib. At 4 a.m. wind hauled to N.W. Course N.E. At 4.30 A.M. hove the lead, without soundings at 60 fathoms. When daylight came at last the anxiously looked for land was nowhere to be seen. Squally and showery, with very hazy weather. At 6 a.m. shook a reef out of main topsail. Two coasting schooners in sight steering about E.N.E. At 10.30 a.m. I had just turned in, having given up all hope of seeing land to- day, when all hands were called to close reef main top- sail and furl mainsail. While reefing the main topsail we were agreeably surprised by thb joyful sound of 'Land ho !' from the second mate, who was at the weather • earing, ^here away?' shouted the captain. 'Right ahead,' was the reply; and sure enough there lay the
30 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [185&-1856
long looked for land directly before us, looming above the horizon like a dark blue cloud, the first solid ground we had looked upon for 137 days. By the time we [the larboard watch] turned out, 12 noon, we were about 2 miles distant, running along the land. Our captain had hit the exact spot. Cape Otway, the light house on which was now plainly to be seen. After dinner all hands turned to get the anchors over the bows. It was a beautiful afternoon. The clouds, which in the morning had obscured the sun, had now vanished. The ship was sailing smoothly along before the wind at the rate of 4 or 5 knots. Numerous birds, a species of Al- batross, were flying around us, now and then darting down after a fish. The land was high and apparently thickly wooded, and although winter in this part of the world, presented a beautiful, green appearance. It was looked upon by most of the crew as the Land of Prom- ise, where gold was to be had by all; and most of the men were engaged in laying out what they would do, and where they would go, and how they would spend their money when they got it. While getting the an- chors over, one of the small coasters which we had seen in the morning passed our bows under a press of sail, and stood in closer to the land. At 6 p.m. we furled the mizzen topsail, and at 8 p.m. backed the main top- sail and laid to all night."
Next day they took a pilot and at 3 p. M. cast anchor in Hobson's Bay, opposite the Light house. Several American ships, some that had sailed before and some after the Hindoo, were also at anchor there.* Times were
"1 "Thirty years ago ship-building had reached such a pitch of excellence in this country that we built not only for ourselves, but for other nations. American ships were the fastest sailers, the largest carriers and everywhere got the quickest dispatch and the highest freights. The registered ton- nage of the United States almost equalled that of Great Britain, and a few years promised to give us the unquestionable supremacy of the ocean. "' — "Protection or Free Trade," chap. XVIII. (Memorial Edition, p. 186). Captain Marryat, a by no means flattering critic of Americans,
Age.l«»-171 LAND OF PROMISE 31
reported to be "very hard ashore, thousands with nothing to do and nothing to eat." Notwithstanding this, the crew wished at once to get away.
"As the captain was getting into a boat to go ashore, the men came aft in a body and requested their dis- charge, which being refused, they declared their inten- tion of doing no more work. After supper the mate came forward and ordered the men to pick anchor watches, which they agreed to do after some parley. The mate told Jim and me to keep watch in the cabin until 12 and then call him. This I did until 10, when, after having a feast of butter, sugar and bread in the pantry, I turned in, leaving Jim to call the mate."
For several days the men refused to work, demanding to see the American Consul, and on Wednesday, four days after casting anchor, the captain got the Consul aboard. The Consul "took his seat on the booby hatch with the shipping articles before him," and called up the crew one by one. He finally "told the men that, as the passage would not be up until the cargo was discharged, he could do nothing until that time; but that Dutch John (the man who in the early part of the passage fell from the main topgallant yard) was entitled to his discharge if he wished it." The captain then promised that if they would "remain by the ship until she was discharged, he would pay them their wages and let them go in peace." They demanded this in writing, saying that he might change his mind, *T)ut the captain refused to give them any fur- in his "Diary in America" (First Series), Philadelphia, 1839, says, p. 186: "It appears, then, that from various causes, our merchant vessels have lost their sailing properties, whilst the Americans have the fastest sailers in the world; and it is for that reason, and no other, that, although sail- ing at a much greater expense, the Americans can afiford to outbid us, and take all our best seamen."
32 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [185&-1856
ther guarantee than his word." As they still desisted from work on the Hindoo, they were taken off in a police boat, and sentenced to one month's hard labour in the prison ship, at the end of which time, still refusing to work, they would perhaps have been sentenced to fur- ther imprisonment if the captain had not reached court too late to appear against them. Before he sailed, the captain had to ship a new crew.
There is nothing in the journal to indicate that the boy thought Captain Miller unjust, but the incident made an indelible impression, revealing the tremendous powers for tyranny the navigation laws put into the hands of a captain, and this was to inspire a remarkable fight for sailor's rights in years to come.^
The ship lay in Hobson's Bay twenty-nine days dis- charging chargo and taking in ballast. Captain Miller in his account says: "Harry went up to Melbourne once, but did not see much to admire." Perhaps the boy saw more than the captain realised, for thirty-five years later, in a speech in Melbourne, he said, that he had a vivid recol- lection of it — "its busy streets, its seemingly continuous auctions, its crowds of men with flannel shirts and long high hoots, its bay crowded with ships." No letters writ- ten from there now exist, but it is clear that the Australia of his dreams did not appear to be such a wonderful place after all; that there was not much gold in sight and that in this respect the "Land of Promise" was something of a disappointment. Land monopolisation and speculation had set in and cut off the poor man's access to nature's storehouse.
Other dreams were to be dissipated on reaching India. The best description of the passage and arrival there is
1 Sunrise Case in San Francisco.
Age, 16-17] PUTS TO SEA AGAIN 33
found in a letter to his father and mother, dated Cal- cutta, December 12, 1855.
"We hove up anchor in Hobson's Bay about 11 o'clock on the 24th of September, made sail, proceeded down the bay under charge of a pilot, and at about 5 p.m. passed the heads and discharged the pilot. After leav- ing Port Philip and until we had rounded Cape Lewin we had strong winds, mostly head, and cool weather. . . . Then the weather gradually became milder as we got to the northward, with fair, though not very strong winds. Near the line we had light airs, not even sufficient to fill the sails, but under the pressure of which the ship would go two or three miles per hour. We crossed the line November 5, when 42 days out. . . . From this place until we arrived at about 10° north we had the same fair airs as on the other side of the line, with every prospect of a short passage. Then the wind became stronger and more variable, but dead ahead. It would seldom blow from one point of the compass for more than an hour. Indeed, it seemed as if a second Jonah was aboard, for tack as often as we would, the wind was sure to head us off. . . . Progress under the circumstances was impossible. For over a week we did not gain a single inch to the north- ward. What she would make one hour she would lose the next. During this time the weather was delight- ful, warm without being uncomfortably so, and so pleas- ant that sleeping on deck could be practised with im- punity.
"At length on the morning of the 29th of November the colour of the water suddenly changed to green, and by noon we were abreast of the lightship, which marks the outer pilot station. The tide was running 80 strongly that with the light air we could hardly hold our own against it. About 3 p.m., in obedience to a signal from the pilot brig, we cast anchor with 30 fath- oms of chain, furled all sail, and cleared up decks for the night. At 8 p.m. set anchor-watch and turned in for all night. . . ,"
34 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1855-1856
Then came the first impressions of the country — im- pressions that always afterward remained vivid and helped before long to direct thought to social questions; that changed the fancied India — the place of dreamy luxury, of soft and sensuous life — into the real India, with its extremes of light and shadow, of poverty and riches, of degradation and splendour; where the few have so much, the many so little; where jewels blaze in the trappings of elephants, but where, as he has since said in talking with his son Richard, "the very carrion birds are more sacred than human life !" These impressions are preserved in a description of the trip to Calcutta up the Hooghly branch of the Ganges River scribbled in pencil on the back pages of one of the journal records.
Abbival at Garden Reach and Fiest Impressions of the Town.
"Mon. Dec. 3. We turned out about 3 a.m. and after some heavy heaving got up anchor. About 5 a.m. we were taken in tow by the steamer and proceeded up the river. The night air was misty and chilly and a mon- key jacket proved very comfortable. The day soon be- gan to break, revealing a beautiful scene. The river, at times very broad and again contracting its stream into a channel hardly large enough for a ship of aver- age size to turn in, was bordered by small native vil- lages, surrounded by large fruit trees, through which the little bamboo huts peeped. As we advanced, the mists which had hitherto hung over the river cleared away, affording a more extensive prospect. The water was covered with boats of all sizes, very queer looking to the eye of an American. They were most of them bound to Calcutta with the produce and rude manu- factures of the country — bricks, tiles, earths, pots, etc. They had low bows and very high sterns. They were pulled by from four to ten men, and steered by an old
Age, 16-17] DEAD BODIES FLOATING 35
fellow wrapped up in a sort of cloth, seated on a high platform at the stern. Some had sails to help them along, in which there were more holes than threads. On the banks the natives began to go to their daily toil, some driving cattle along, others loading boats with grain, while the women seemed busy with their domes- tic affairs. As we approached the city, the banks on both sides were lined with handsome country residences of the wealthy English. About 10 a.m. we came to Garden Eeach, where, as there was no Harbour Master's Assistant ready to take us up, we were obliged to drop both anchors. After getting fairl}'^ moored we had a little time to look around us. The river which here takes a sudden bend, was crowded with ships of all nations, and above nothing could be seen but a forest of masts. On the right hand or Calcutta side, are the East India Company's works, for repairing their steam- ers, numbers of which, principally iron, were under- going repairs. On the other side was an immense pal- ace-like structure (the residence, I believe, of some wealthy Englishman) surrounded by beautiful lawns and groves. The river was covered with boats and pre- sented a bustling scene. One feature which is peculiar to Calcutta was the number of dead bodies floating down in all stages of decomposition, covered by crows who were actively engaged in picking them to pieces. The first one I saw filled me with horror and disgust, but like the natives, you soon cease to pay any attention to them.
"Tues. Dec. 4. About 4.30 a.m. the Harbour Master came along side and we were roused up to get up an- chors. ... It astonished me to see with what ease the pilot took the vessel up . . . steering her amidst the maze of vessels as easily as if she was at sea. The port seemed crowded with vessels, a large proportion of them American, some of which I recog- nised as having seen at Philadelphia. At length about 10 A.M. we cast anchor off our intended moorings. About 2 P.M. we hauled in and made fast along side of an English clipper, the British Lion. After getting all fast we had dinner and cleared up decks and squared the yards."
36 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1855-1856
While the ship lay at her moorings, visits were made to Barrapore, eighteen miles away, and other places of interest in the vicinity, and the boy saw those things that are observed generally by travellers. But the event of perhaps most interest to him was the receipt on December 10 of letters from home — the first since he had left. His father sent family news and said: "Your little brig is safely moored on the mantelpiece. First thing when we wake, our eyes rest upon her, and she reminds us of our dear sailor boy."
The mother's letter also touched on family matters, but gave chief place to other things engaging her devout mind.
"And now for the news. The best news just now is the religious news — a great work going on in New York and Philadelphia and all the principal cities of the Union; prayer-meetings all over the land; all denomi- nations uniting together in solemn, earnest prayer; Jayne's Hall (you know its size) is crowded to excess, even those large galleries literally packed with men of the highest respectability — merchants, bankers, brokers, all classes. Those who have never entered a church and have hitherto scoffed at religion meet at this prayer- meeting every day to hear the word of God read and solemn prayer offered for their conversion. ... I might fill many pages to show you that this is truly the work of God — the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit. . . . That same Holy Influence will be given to all that ask for it in simple faith: *Lord, teach me to pray.' "
The event to the lad next in interest to the receipt of home letters was the acquisition of a pet monkey, of which he wrote in later years :^
i"The Science of Political Economy," p. 30.
Henry George's mother and sister Jennie. From daguerreotype taken about 1850.
Age, 15-17] A PET MONKEY 37
"I bought in Calcutta, when a boy, a monkey, which all the long way home would pillow her little head on mine as I slept, and keep off my face the cockroaches that infested the old Indiaman by catching them with her hands and cramming them into her maw. When I got her home, sh^ was so jealous of a little brother that I had to part with her to a lady who had no chil- dren."
In his account of the voyage. Captain Miller says that the ship left Calcutta with quite a menagerie of monkeys and birds aboard, but that before long "Harry's was the only survivor." The others died or got away, two of the sailors without intentional cruelty throwing theirs over- board to see "which would swim ashore first," but the animals quickly drowned. The boy cherished his little creature most fondly; though for that matter he always showed a warm love for animals, and this was but one of a great number that he had about him during his life.
On the 15th of January, 1856, the Hindoo having com- pleted her loading, consisting of nearly twelve hundred tons of rice, seeds, etc., took a new crew aboard and started down the river, homeward bound. Henry George at the time estimated that he would have when he reached New York and settled his accounts "about fifty dollars to take clear of everything — not much for thirteen or fourteen months." The distance down the Hooghly from Calcutta to the sea is eighty miles, but what with head winds, the scarcity of tow boats and a broken windlass, the vessel was twenty days making the passage, during which time the hot weather played havoc with the fresh provisions, so that the crew was the sooner reduced to "salt horse and biscuit." Light winds blew down the bay of Bengal and the ship crossed the equator on the 23rd of February. On the 27th the cook, Stephen Anderson, fell sick and young
38 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1855-1856
George went into the galley temporarily. The journal Bays:
"Wed. Feb. 27. Cook laid up. Went into the galley.
"(Not having written down the events of the inter- vening space, I do not remember them fully, being obliged to work pretty hard.)
"Sun. Mar. 2. Fine clear day. Breeze from S.W., course, S.S.E. For several days there have been thou- sands of fish playing around, but, although the men tried hard to catch them, they were unsuccessful until this morning, when an albicore was captured. The mate made sea-pie for all hands for supper. 8 p.m. sail in sight.
"Mon. Mar. 3. Calm all day. The cook so weak that he cannot raise a spoon to his mouth. I think it a chance whether he lives.
"Tues. Mar. 4. Calm, fine day. Cook seems a little stronger, but can scarcely speak.
"Wed. Mar. 5. Commenced with breeze from W.N.W. ; course S.S.W, Four sail in sight. Last evening the cook appeared a great deal stronger, getting up and moving about, turning in and out ; but still could scarce- ly speak. About 7 a.m. he was taken with a fit, when he was brought on deck and laid by the capstan. About 11.30 A.M. he died. He was sewed up and buried at
5 P.M."
The cook having gone, the boy, to his great satisfac- tion, for he had an extreme distaste for the task, was superseded in the galley by one of the crew, who remained there for the rest of the voyage. The ship passed the Cape of Good Hope on April 13 and within sight of St. Helena on the 27th. On May 12 she crossed the equator for the fourth time during the voyage. Long before that date the journal entries had become short, and after May 6 stopped altogether, possibly because there was a great deal of work to do in handling, cleaning,
Age, 16-17] HOME AGAIN 30
repairing and painting the ship. April opened with this entry :
"April 1, 1856. Lat., 31, S. ; long., 40, E. One year has passed since the Sunday when I took farewell of my friends — to me an eventful year; one that will have a great influence in determining my position in life ; perhaps more so than I can at present see. 0 that I had it to go over again! Homeward boimd! In a few months I hope to be in Philadelphia once more."
And it was not long before he was home, for on June 14, after an absence of one year and sixty-five days, and from Calcutta one hundred and fifty days, the Hindoo completed her long journey and dropped anchor in New York Bay.
CHAPTEK III. LEAENS TO SET TYPE.
1856-1857. Age, 17-18.
ON getting back, home seemed very sweet to the boy on account of the loved ones and comforts, and the asso- ciation of his boy friends. A year and a half afterwards, when he had gone to California, Jo Jeffreys, at that time the closest of his friends, wrote:
"Don't you recollect our Byronic quotations? Amus- ing weren't they? And yet I dare say we had more pleasure in those long moonlight nights spent in conver- sation— in counsel and reflection — than we had in a like number of hours at any other time. I remember well, too, how night after night we sat together and alone in your little room, smoking slowly and looking — sometimes at the little bed which was to contain us both and which rested in a corner near the door, at the little case of books on the bureau, at the dim gas- light which could so seldom be induced to bum brightly and which shed its dim light upon all around — and then turning from this picture, so familiar to me now (though I have never been in that room since, though often in the rooms beneath it), and gazing upon each other, would talk of the present and the future."
In this little back-attic bed room all the boys at times gathered and talked about books or public affairs or boy-
40
Age, 17-18] RESTEAINTS OF HOME LIFE 4l
ish amusements, and it was Henry George's habit, while engaging in conversation, to throw himself down on his bed, and frequently while the discourse was raging he would sink into placid slumbers. It was common enough for the family to see the boys come down stairs alone and hear the explanation: "Oh, Hen's asleep and we think it is time to go."
Thus the home life had much attractiveness for young George, yet he found it full of restrictions, for with all the heavy toil and hard discipline of sea life, there was during the preceding year and a quarter complete free- dom of thought, and of actions, too, in the hours off duty. And now to come back to conditions where the most in- nocent of card-playing was regarded as an evil and riding in a public conveyance on Sunday as a desecration of the Lord's Day, made the energetic, masterful boy, or rather youth, for he was now in his eighteenth year, see new charms in the sea life; and for a time, all efforts failing in the search for employment ashore, his thoughts reverted to the water. Learning of this inclination. Captain Mil- ler, before sailing on a new voyage in the Hindoo, wrote to him:
"I hope you will find some agreeable and profitable employment before long. Take my advice and never go to sea. You know of the troubles of a sailor's life before the mast. It never gets any better. A second mate leads proverbially a dog's life. The mate's and captain's are very little better."^
1 This was probably the last letter he received from Captain Miller, and before the Hindoo had returned from her voyage and the captain had run on to Philadelphia, Henry George had sailed for California, so that they never again met The captain died in Brooklyn, in May, 1877, in his forty-eighth year, and his friend, Rev. George A. Latimer, Henry George's cousin, officiating, was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, where Henry George himself, twenty years later, was to rest.
42 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [I86ft-1857
The boy's parents were most anxious not to have him again go to sea, and at last in the fall the father through his former book publishing connections obtained a situ- ation for his son with the printing firm of King & Baird, at that time one of the important printing houses in Philadelphia. The father's idea in putting his son there was threefold : to keep the boy at home, to give him a trade and to teach him to spell. This latter short-coming in the boy was very conspicuous, requiring a second draft or fair copy of letters to insure the correct spelling of many even common words, as drafts of such letters that have survived show.
Learning to set type effected a marked improvement, and the printer's experience later in California perfected it. In after years his letter-writing at times revealed lapses in spelling, but these, as was manifest on the surface, arose from habits of abstraction.
This learning to set type marked another distinct step in the education of Henry George for his life work. Not that it lay so much in type-setting itself, or in correcting his spelling; but rather in bringing him into familiar contact with another field of human activity — among type- setters, who, as a class of men, if they belong to a trade, possess, as a rule, much correct general information and are given to habits of intelligent thought. Edmund Wallazz, who was a type-setter at King and Baird's in 1856, said in after years: "Henry George was a remark- ably bright boy, always in discussion with the other boys in the office. He got in the habit of appealing to me (I am seven or eight years older) for support as to his dates and facts, historical and political." Thus through the channel of polemics he was acquiring knowledge of vari- ous kinds, and was also learning to observe and to present his thoughts. He had a habit of stowing away things in his memory that would have passed another — things that
Henry Geoige when learning to set type in Philadelphia. From daguerreotype, 1857.
Age, 17-18] TALKING AGAINST SLAVERY 43
in his matured years often found expression in his writ- ings. To this period he assigned the first puzzling ques- tion in political economy. An old printer observed to him one day that while in old countries wages are low, in new countries they are always high. The boy compared the United States with Europe, and then California and Australia with Pennsylvania and New York, and the old printer's words seemed true enough, though neither the printer nor he could explain why. The thing stuck in his mind and kept rising for answer.
This propensity for investigating and arguing showed itself wherever he happened to be, when with old or with young, abroad or at home. As his Uncle Joseph Van Dusen said: "Henry is not tongue-tied."
For years stories of slave auctions in the South, fric- tion over the return of runaway slaves in the North, the hot agitation of Garrison and Phillips in the East, and conflicts in "Bleeding Kansas" and through the West kept public thought seething. In 1850 appeared Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and later arose the Eepublican party with its anti-slavery proclivities and that in 1856 forced the issue and ran John C. Fremont for President. Though James Buchanan, the Democratic pro-slavery can- didate, was elected, the new party had waged a fierce fight, and four years later was to elect Abraham Lincoln.
Young George soon after returning from sea showed a lively interest in the slavery question, and, although his father was a Democrat and inclined to support Buchanan, the boy independently took the anti-slavery side, which he discussed with his mother. In the interest of peace and of "property rights,"^ and doubtless supported in
1 " I was born in a Nortliem State, I have never lived in the South, I am not yet gray ; but I well remember, as every American of middle age must remember, how over and over again I have heard all questionings of slav- ery silenced by the declaration that the negroes were the property of their
44 LIFE OP HENRY GEOEGE [1856-1857
mind by what she regarded as the sanction of the Scrip- tures, she upheld slavery, not perhaps as a good thing in itself, but because of the great cost of disestablishment. The mother in repeating this conversation in after years to her son's wife said that in arguing she held that the hardships of slavery "were exaggerated," for, "while some of the slave owners might be brutal, the majority were not likely to be so," most of them doubtless being the same kind of "humanely-disposed people" as she herself. The boy stoutly held to his position and answered that her argument rested "on policy, not principle" ; that she spoke of what slave owners "seemed likely to do," he of what they "could do"; "for if slaves were property, their mas- ters, having the right to do what they pleased with their own property, could ill-treat and even kill them if so dis- posed."
The argument seemed sound enough to the parents, but the boy was still a boy to them. One night soon after returning from sea he came home late and his father re- proved him. The boy hotly said that he was a child no longer and then went off to bed. Reflection cooled the father's anger. He realized that his son was, in mind at least, maturing to manhood, and that the reproof was not quite just or wise. He concluded that in the morning he would talk to his son about it. But when morning came the son was first to speak, saying that he had thought upon what had happened, and that while he regarded his conduct in remaining out as in itself innocent enough, he now recognised what he had not before observed — his father's right to object — and that being conscious of hav- ing been impudent, he asked his father's pardon. The
masters, and that to take away a man's slave without payment was as much a crime as to take away his horse without payment." — "The Land Question," Chap. VII. (Memorial Edition, p. 49).
Age, 17-18] LEAENS TO SET TYPE 45
father strained his son to his bosom and thereafter gave him more domestic freedom.
High strung and impetuous, Henry George was at this period prone to sudden resolves. From September, 1856, to June, 1857, he worked steadily at type-setting at King & Baird's, when one afternoon, having a quarrel with Mr. Scott, foreman of the job-room, he left the house's em- ploy. When he told of what had happened, his father found for him an opening with Stavely & McCalla, print- ers, who offered $2.25 a week for the first year, and after- wards as much as he could earn, providing he remained until twenty-one. The pay was so small that he hesi- tated. Just then a boy friend, John Hasson, sent word of a strike in the "Argus" newspaper office. George ap- plied for and obtained employment. To Emma Curry, a girl friend, he wrote (June 29, 1857) explaining some of these matters:
"I left King and Baird's about two weeks and a half ago. I was learning nothing and making little ($2 a week) when I left. The immediate cause of my leav- ing was that I would not quietly submit to the imposi- tions and domineering insolence of the foreman of the room in which I then worked. Week before last I worked on the 'Daily Evening Argus.' The foreman of that paper and the members of the Printers' Union (who have full control of the various newspaper offices) quarrelled, and they refused to work unless the foreman was discharged. This the proprietor, Mr. Severns, re- fused to do, and the consequence was that the Union would not allow any of its members to work on the paper. The foreman had, therefore, to get printers who did not belong to the Union. I applied for a situation as a journeyman compositor and got it; but unluckily for me, at the end of the week the Union had a meet- ing and wisely supported the foreman by a large ma- jority. This compelled the proprietor to discharge us
46 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1856-1857
who were working there at the time and take on the Union men, who, having control of the other offices, could have put him to great inconvenience had he re- fused to do so.
"During the six days I worked there I made $9.50, the largest sum of money I have ever made in the same time. I had also the satisfaction of seeing that I was but very little inferior to any of the journeymen, my bill for the week being as large as any of theirs, with the exception of a couple who had worked in the even- ings also. I believe that I can set on an average of 6,000 ems of solid matter a day, including distributing and correcting, which according to the prices you tell me the printers get in Oregon, would be worth near- ly $4."
Emma Curry, her sisters, Martha and Florence, and their widowed mother, Eebecca D. Curry, had been neigh- bours of the George family. They had early in the year gone to Oregon Territory to join the widow's nephew, George Curry, who had been appointed Governor. Mrs. Currj^ was a bright, discerning woman. Her brother, Wil- liam D. Kelley, from 1846 to 1856 was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia and afterwards repre- sented one of the Philadelphia districts in Congress for almost thirty years and was commonly known as "Pig Iron" Kelley. Henry George had had many a long, earnest talk with Mrs. Curry, who took a deep interest in him. In a letter to her (April 3, 1857) he said:
"I am still at printing and am getting along very well, considering the time I have been at it. I should be able to make at least $5 a week were I getting jour- neyman's prices, but that is impossible here. If you can find out and will be kind enough to write me the rates at which printers are paid in Oregon, I shall be able to tell exactly how much I could make there.
Age. 17-18] TALKING OF OREGON 47
"I commenced last evening to take lessons in pen- manship, and if all the old fellow (I mean teacher) says is true, by the time 1 write my next letter to you my chirography will be so much improved that you will hardly recognise the hand. I have taken your advice and am trying to improve myself all I can. I shall shortly commence to study book-keeping. After I get through that I shall be Jack of three different trades, and, I am afraid, master of none.
"I am still of the same determination in regard to going West. ... I only wait for your promised account of Oregon, and advice, to determine where and when I shall go."
Before receipt of his letter, Mrs. Curry had already written (April 19) :
"We talk and think of you a great deal and I have talked with Mr. Curry [the Governor] about you. He says, *Do not go to sea, but come here.' He will see what you can make at your business at Salem. He thinks you may do well. He will inquire as soon as possible, and I shall write you. Everything pays well here. He is giving a boy $20 a month for hoeing, chop- ping wood, washing a little and bringing up the cattle. A man was paid by him in my presence $35 for plough- ing from Tuesday noon till Friday noon. Give all at- tention to your business and you will, I trust, be suc- cessful. It is best to have that at your command."
Emma Curry wrote in a similar strain, and to her the boy replied (June 29) :
"Give my thanks to the Governor for the trouble he has taken in my behalf and for the information which he has communicated to me through you. Your state- ment of the prospects that I may anticipate in Oregon has decided me. I will go out as soon as possible
48 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1856-1857
and in the best manner possible, even if I am obliged to work my way around the Horn — unless by a lucky windfall I shall get into some business."
But the 'lucky windfall" in Philadelphia showed no signs of coming. The boy vainly looked for permanent employment. He obtained a position on a weekly paper called "The Merchant," but this proved only temporary, and he became restless and thought the more earnestly of Oregon, and also of California, where he had a cousin, son of his Uncle Dunkin George. But these places seem- ing remote, again he thought of the sea, if only as a means of livelihood for the time being. He probably was the more restless because of the reaction from the old home rigorous beliefs and restraints. A blank book with some diary entries covering a few days during this period con- tains this:
"Tues. July 3. Saw Jo Jeffreys in afternoon. In evening Bill Jones and I took Sallie Young and Amelia Reinhart to the Academy of Music. But Sallie Young deserted me there and went with Bill Jones. Curst these girls; they won't fool me so confoundedly again. After taking them home we adjourned to Stead's [cigar store], where Bill Horner was awaiting us. As we came down we stopped at Cook's and Bergner's [taverns]. Coming up again, we serenaded Charlie Walton with the national anthem, after which Bill left us. Horner and I again repaired to Stead's, where after a little while we were joined by Jo and a friend of his, John Owen, by name. They, together with Ebenezer Harrison [a young Sunday School teacher] , had been enjoying them- selves in Owen's room, drinking punches and making speeches. At the corner of Sixth and Walnut Jo and 1 commenced to box, when Jo fell down and cut his head awfully. We raised him up, took him to Owen's, washed his wound and then set off to find a doctor. We dragged
Age, 17-18] A LITERARY SOCIETY 49
him around for about two hours before finding any per- son who could dress the wound. At length we took him to a German physician, who dressed the cut and charged a V for his trouble. We left him at Owen's and returned home about daybreak."
It was at this time that the boys — Jeffreys, Jones, Horner, Walton, Harrison, George and the others — formed "The Lawrence Literary Society" and met in a small build- ing which once had been a church. Two original essays by "Hen" George are still preserved, one on "The Poetry of Life" and the other on "Mormonism," a very hostile view. There also exists a contribution from the pen of Charley Walton treating of the wide-spread industrial de- pression then prevailing and ascribing its rise to "extrava- gance and speculation which have since the revolution characterised the American people."^ But starting with this self-improving literary idea, the "Lawrence" came in the course of things to have other characteristics which Walton later described in a letter to "Hen" (July 29, 1863) :
"I have often thought of the time gone by when the TJawrence' in Jerusalem Church was in its palmy days. . . . Can you or I forget the gay, refreshing and kindred spirits that formed that association and gave it a character so unenviable and noticeable as eventu- ally to cause it to be ordered out peremptorily ; its sym- pathy with ghost stories, boxing gloves, fencing foils and deviltry; its exercises tending to promote muscu- lar rather than literary abilities; and its test of merit and standard of membership — to drink Bed Eye, sing good songs and smoke lots of cigars?"
1 This essay covers four pages of paper, the first page evidently written with great care, and the last with great carelessness, the whole terminat- ing with the ejaculation, "Thank God, I'm done I "
60 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1856-1857
But however innocent all this may have been, the fact of knowing anything whatever about liquor or of card playing was significant of the break-down of the old home influences ; and it partly explains, with the loss of employ- ment and the ambition to be independent, the return of a desire for the sea. At any rate, Henry George embarked on a topsail schooner laden with coal and bound from Philadelphia for Boston. Often afterwards, even towards the end of his life, he spoke with pride of the compli- ments he received on that voyage. For when he applied as ordinary seaman, the captain measured him with some- thing like contempt and asked what he could do.
"I can handle, reef and steer," was the answer.
"You can't steer this schooner," returned its comman- der, "but nevertheless I'll try you."
Notwithstanding George's short stature and light weight, the captain found him so useful that at the end of the voyage he paid him off at the full rate of an able seaman, saying that he had been of as much use as any man aboard.
The outlook ashore seemed even worse when he got back from this short schooner trip, as may be seen from a let- ter to one of his young friends (B. F. Ely, September 30) :
"The times here are very hard and are getting worse and worse every day, factory after factory suspending and discharging its hands. There are thousands of hard-working mechanics now out of employment in this city ; and it is to the fact that among them is your hum- ble servant, that you owe this letter. If you will send on without delay the V. you owe me you will be doing the State a service by lessening the pressure of the hard times upon one of the hard fisted mechanics who form her bone and muscle, and will at the same time be easing your conscience of a burden, which I have little doubt bears heavily upon it.
Age, 17-18] INDUSTRIAL DEPRESSION 51
"... I am pretty hard up at present and haven't as much money as you could shake a stick at. Indeed, I would not have any hesitation in taking a situation on board a good canal boat for a short time, provided. that it would pay.
"I have been trying for some time to secure a berth on board the United States Light-house Steamer Shu- brich, now fitting out at the Navy Yard for California; but she will not sail for two weeks at least, and even then it is very doubtful whether I can succeed and go out in her.
"There is a ship loading here for San Francisco on board of which I have been promised a berth, but in the present stagnation of business it is doubtful whether she will get off before a month or two at least. So that you see I am in a pretty bad fix, having at least two weeks of loafing to look forward to."
Subsequently (October 5) he wrote a letter to Con- gressman Thomas B. Florence of his district asking his support.
"I have long wished to go to Oregon, where, if I may believe the many assurances I have received, prospects of fortune are open to me which it would be vain to hope for here. But as it is impossible for me to raise means sufficient to defray the expenses of a pas- sage, I must strive to adopt the only plan practicable, and work my way out.
"The Light-House Steamer Shuhrick will sail in a couple of weeks for California, where she is to be em- ployed. I have been waiting for her for some time, hoping to get a chance to go in her; but I now learn from good authority that in all probability only a few able seamen will be shipped for her, in which case I would be unable to do so, unless I can obtain permission to ship from the Light-House Bureau.
"I have been to sea before, and am competent to ship as ordinary seaman or first class boy.
"If you would be kind enough to write to the proper
62 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1856-1857]
authorities at Washington in support of my applica- tion, it would be of great assistance to me in obtaining their permission.''
Much to his delight, he not only was accepted for the Shubrick, but received the appointment of ship's steward, or storekeeper, at forty dollars a month ; though like every one else on board, he was compelled to sign the ship's articles for one year's service, and not for the voyage to California alone, which was all that he wished to do. On December 22, 1857, he said farewell to his loved ones, and the little vessel under Commander John DeCamp of the U. S. Navy steamed down the Delaware River and started on her long journey around the southern extremity of South America.
CHAPTEE IV.
WOEKS HIS PASSAGE TO CALIFOENIA.
1858. Age, 19.
A ND now the boy having left home to face the world and -ljL seek his fortune in the new country, it may be in- structive to get some more definite knowledge of his char- acter. A key to it, or at any rate to his own estimate at that time of it, exists in a phrenological sketch that he wrote of himself while still in Philadelphia. It is in his clear hand-writing and covers two half-sheets of blue, un- ruled, legal-cap paper, pn the back of one of which are the words, "Phrenological examination of head by self." The examination is as f oUows :
"Circumference [of head], 21%; ear to ear, IS^^.
1. Amativeness Large.
2. Philoprogenitiveness Moderate.
3. Adhesiveness Large.
4. Inhabitativeness Large.
5. Concentrativeness Small.
6. Combativeness Large.
7. Destructiveness Large.
8. Alimentiveness Full.
9. Acquisitiveness Small.
10. Secretiveness Large.
11. Caution Large.
12. Approbativeness
13. Self-esteem Large.
63
64 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1858
14. Firmness Large.
15. Conscientiousness Large.
16. Hope Large.
17. Marvellousness
18. Veneration
19. Benevolence
20. Constructiveness
21. Ideality
22. Imitation
23. Mirthfulness Small.
24. Individuality Large.
25. Form
26. Size Large.
27. Weight
28. Colour
29. Order
30. Calculation Small.
31. Locality Large.
32. Eventuality Full.
33. Time Large.
34. Tune
35. Language Moderate.
36. Causality , Large.
37. Comparison Large.
"An ardent, devoted, fervent and constant lover; will defend the object of his love with boldness, protect his or her rights with spirit. Will feel much stronger attachment than he will express.
"Is not very fond of children. May love them as friends, rather than as children.
"Is strong in his attachments; readily takes the part of friends, resents and retaliates their injuries; yet may occasionally fall out with them.
"Chooses as his friends the talented, intellectual and literary, and avoids the ignorant.
"Is extremely fond of travelling. Has an insatiable desire to roam about and see the world and afterwards to settle down.
"Is patriotic and ready to sacrifice all in defence of liis country.
Age, 19]^ PHRENOLOGICAL CHART 55
"May get angry quickly, but, unless the injury is deep or intended, cannot retain his anger.
"Will be more likely to make a general than a critical scholar. May have bold and original ideas upon a va- riety of subjects, yet will not without efEort or excite- ment have a train of connected thoughts upon any.
"Is qualified to meet difficulties, overcome obstacles, endure hardships, contend for privileges, maintain opin- ions, resent insults and defend his rights to the last; generally takes sides on every contested question; natu- rally hasty in temper.
"Desires money more as a means than as an end, more for its uses than to lay up ; and pays too little attention to small sums.
"Generally keeps his thoughts, feelings, plans, etc., to himself. Will effect his purposes indirectly and with- out detection. May sometimes communicate his feel- ings to his nearest friends, yet will seldom do this, and will exercise more attachment than he expresses. May restrain for a long time the anger which is burning in his bosom; yet when he does give vent to it, it will blaze forth in good earnest. Is slow in commencing, yet when once interested in any project pushes it with great spirit. May be timid and fearful until his courage is once excited, but will then be bold and fearless. In cases of danger, will be perfectly self-possessed; and yet will have fore-thought enough to do just what the occa- sion demands. Cannot soon be worked up to the stick- ing point ; but is determined, if not desperate, when once kindled.
"Is inclined to enter largely into business and to push his projects with so much energy and zeal as to appear rash and nearly destitute of caution; yet will come out about right in the end and will seldom fail entirely in his projects, though he may be obliged to retrace his steps."
This "phrenological examination," tested by what others can remember of him at that period and by the traits shown later in life, must be regarded, so far as it goes, as a fairly accurate presentation of the boy's chief charac-
50 LIFE OF HENEY GEORGE [18G8
teristics. But this should not be set down to phrenology, for there is nothing to show that he placed particular con- fidence, or even had more than passing interest, in that teaching.^ Nor is it to be set down as a lucky kind of guess about himself. It is in truth, more than anything else, the fruit of a habit of introspection which had begun about the time of the return from the first sea voyage and which was afterwards to be shown more and more strongly. Meanwhile the little ShubricJc was boldly pushing her way down the coast. This was her first trip in commis- sion, Henry George having seen her building in the Phila- delphia Navy Yard that very year. She was named after Eear Admiral William B. Shubrick, of the U. S. Navy, who had been Chairman of the Light-House Board since 1852. She was to become the first vessel on light-house duty on the Pacific coast, to which service she was now proceeding; and the first tender under steam in the light- house department of the United States. She was of 372 tons burden, 140 feet in length, 22 feet in beam and 19 feet in depth of hold; with black hull, red side-wheels, black funnel and two masts, the foremast square rigged. She looked as sharp and trim as a yacht, but, as in addi- tion to her regular duties of supplying light-houses and maintaining the buoyage along the west coast, she was intended to give protection to government property along
1 Thirty years later, when his son, Richard, manifested interest in phre- nology, Henry George discouraged him, saying that though indirectly or collaterally there probably was truth in it, the subject was one that, in his opinion. Nature did not intend to have man know much about, since the discovery of constitutional characteristics would with most men seem to indicate foreordination, and checking free and independent action, would tend to produce fatalism. Moreover, he said, phrenology was not needed for man's progress, for that did not depend upon a knowledge of the relative development of the faculties, but rather upon the tcse of the faculties, whatever they might be.
Age, 19] A WHITE SQUALL 67
the sea shore of Oregon and Washington from the depre- dations of Indian tribes, she was armed with six brass guns and a novel contrivance for squirting scalding water on the redskins when at close quarters.
On Christmas day, while the Shuhrick was steaming along over a sun-kissed sea some distance off the Hatteras coast, the wind, which had been fair, subsided, and then without warning rose into a white squall, blowing from the north-east. The boat's head was swung around and she was brought to under low-steam. At night the wind blew a hurricane, the sea breaking over her fore and aft with great violence. The after part of the wheelhouse, engineer's storeroom and starboard bulwarks were stove in, and everything movable on deck washed overboard, including port shutters, harness-casks, deck engine, and spare spars and lumber. At ten that night, deeming that she was in danger of foundering, thirty tons of sacked coal and some other things were thrown overboard.^ Many times during his life Henry George spoke of the terrors of this storm, on one occasion^ saying:
"A negro deckhand and I worked together throwing over bags of coal to lighten her. The sailing master hung on the bridge shouting to us through the speak- ing trumpet and barely able to make himself heard, as he told us the work we were doing was for life or death."
This relieved the vessel and at day-light she was en- abled to proceed on her course, nine days after leaving
1 Notes from record of Shuhrick, by courtesy of the U. S. Light- House Board at Washington, D. C, and of Captain Geo. W. Ck>ffin, U. S. N., Inspector 12th Light-House District, San Francisco, CaL
2 From shorthand notes by Ralph Meeker of a conversation, New York, October, 1897.
68 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1858
Philadelphia putting into St. Thomas, West Indies, to renew her coal supply and make necessary repairs.
To Jo Jeffreys, his young friend in Philadelphia, Henry George sent from St. Thomas a clear account of the passage and of the danger the ship had been in; but to his parents, under same date (January 6, 1858), he wrote in quite different style to save them from anxiety, omitting all mention of danger. The letter to his parents read:
"Here I am this winter's afternoon (while you are gathering around the parlour stove, perhaps thinking and talking of me) sitting in the open air in my white sleeves almost roasted by the heat. I wish you could view the scene which surrounds me. The noble moun- tains rising from the water, covered with perpetual vege- tation of the tropics and varied in colour by the shad- ows of the clouds which seem to climb their sides; the little town with its square red-roofed, Dutch houses and white forts, surrounded by the palm and cocoanut trees which line the head of the bay; the ships and steamers which deck the harbour; and the boundless sea stretching away to the edge of the horizon, glitter- ing in the sunlight — form a picture which I know you would enjoy.
"Now that I have tried to give you a faint idea of the scenery that surrounds me, I shall try and give you an account of our passage.
"We had head winds and a rough sea most of the time ; and as the steamer was very slow, the spray which in- cessantly flew over her made the deck very wet and, con- sequently, unpleasant. However, we made the run in nine days from the time we left the breakwater and arrived here early on Saturday morning.
"I went ashore last Sunday and attended church, and then together with Jim Stanley (the young fellow who I told you was going out as Engineer's Store Keeper) climbed the mountain to the ruins of the castle of Blackbeard, a notorious pirate chieftain, who for a
Age. 19] A CALL OP DUTY 69
long time made this island his home and stronghold. After coming down, we wandered all over the town and saw all that was to be seen, which I suppose is the same as in the generality of West Indian islands — plenty of darkies- — men, women and children — bamboo shanties, soldiers and cocoanut trees. . . .
"I expect our next passage to be much more pleasant than the last, as we shall not be heavily burdened by coal, and important additions have been made in the shape of booby-hatches, etc. . . .
"I know, my dear parents, that you felt deeply the parting with me — far more so than I did. But let the fact that I am satisfied and that my chances are more than fair comfort you. As for me, I, for the first time in my life, left home with scarcely a regret and with- out a tear. I believed that it was my duty both to myself and to you to go, and this belief assuaged the pain of parting.
"I am now setting out for myself in the world, and though young in years, I have every confidence in my ability to go through whatever may be before me. But of that I shall say nothing. Let the future alone prove."
In reply to the letter he received from St. Thomas, Jo Jeffreys wrote (February 1) :
"While such fools and intolerable dolts as James Mc- Mullen^ live, it is almost impossible to expect your fam- ily to be kept ignorant of your great danger. I will elucidate the matter. Some few days since a telegraphic despatch (from Boston, I think) appeared in the Tub-
1 "Jim" McMuUen, as he was commonly called, was regarded by his boy friends as slow of comprehension. One day wishing to go swimming without McMuUen, they tried the expedient of telling him one after another that his head was swollen and that he must be sick. This suc- ceeded so well that the boy went home and to bed in a fever of excite, ment, and they had great difficulty in convincing him that they had been deluding him. The experience so frightened Henry George that he never again indulged in that kind of a practical joke.
t6 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1858
lie Ledger' setting forth that the TJ. S. S. SJiubrick had put into St. Thomas in great distress, want of coal, etc., etc. This I presumed somewhat alarmed your mother; but she received your letter about the same time, and you saying nothing of any storm, but merely mentioning rough weather encountered in the Gulf, she thought no more of it. But here McMullen steps in on last Satur- day night (he called once before since your departure) and after propounding several knotty interrogatories to your father, very kindly informed your mother that he had seen an extract from a private letter written by one of the Shubrick's engineers to a friend in this city in the 'Evening Journal' (or as Collis says, the 'Even- ing Disturber') the purport of which was that the Shuhrick had encountered a terrific storm, that they almost went down, etc., etc.
"I happened to call in a few minutes after and was subjected to a series of questions which made me wince. I had received a letter from you? Yes. Well, what did you say? You said you were well and in good spirits. Was that all? Yes, about all. I was sorry to say I had left the letter at the office. (It was in the breast-pocket of my coat.) Did you say anything about a storm? (This question was propounded by your mother, who looked me straight in the eye, while Cad, Janie and Kate followed her example, and your father, who was reclining on the sofa, turned round to hear the answer, which, vsdth this awful battery of unflinch- ing eyes in front, and the consciousness that your father might have some information upon the subject which he designed to level at me in the rear, I was endeavour- ing to manufacture into as ingenious a shape as pos- sible. They looked at me ; I returned the gaze as stead- ily as an honest fellow who knew he was going to dissimulate for the sake of an absent friend — ^but an aw- ful bad fellow — could do. At last I broke silence.) No. You had said, however, that you had encountered rough weather and had got out of coal. (My hair almost stood on end, and the perspiration rolled in mad tor- rents down the exterior covering of my seething brain.)
Age, 19] LETTEES FROM HOME 61
To this succeeded a number of questions that tortured me almost to martyrdom, for, as you know, my very bowels yearned to tell the truth. I, however, satisfied your mother that the 'Evening Disturber' had made false representations, and so ends that difficulty.
"... You are right. Hen. 'There never was any affectation of sentiment in speech between us when face to face,' and none shall exist now. How do you know that we shall never meet again? I should be obliged to you if you would not send such letters to me in the middle of business — letters which are calculated to distract my mind and render me as weak as a child. Your ideas absolutely make me gloomy, truth though they be. You know I love you. Hen, as much as any- one in this wide world. . . .
"I have conynenced to reform, and Bill Jones and myself have for some time been studying geometry to- gether. I spend but little, 37 cents a week on cigars, and loaf only occasionally. I go to the office some- times in the evening and study law. Bill and I are to take up natural philosophy and grammar in a few days."
The father's letter soon after the departure of the Shu- brick shows the man's robust nature.
"My dear boy, we have missed you. I have hardly become reconciled to your absence. It seems that I cannot lock the front door without the thought of your coming in; and when the boys visit us — Jeffreys, Jones and the others — it seems as if it leaves a blank when we find you absent. Don't think I regret the step you have taken. On the contrary, the more I think of it, the more I see the hand of Providence in it. . . .
"Nothing has transpired since you left worthy of note. Things are much as you left them. The times are rather on the mend [industrially]. In political matters things look gloomy. The nigger question, Mor-
63 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1858
monism and General Walker/ etc., will, I think, give us trouble ; but notwithstanding all this and as much more, the Union is and will be safe as long as there is bunt- ing to make stars and stripes. They may bluster North, East, South and West as much as they please. Our nation is in the hands and under the guidance of a higher Power, who created this republic for a higher and holier destiny, which is not revealed, and will not be until I am long gathered to my fathers."
From St, Thomas to Barbadoes and thence to Pernam- buco and Eio Janeiro the little Shubrich proceeded, hav- ing fair weather and making fair time. A letter written at Monte Video to one of the young friends in Philadel- phia (Charley Walton, February 18) gives some charac- teristic notes:
'*We arrived here yesterday morning after a passage of five days from Kio. We lay five days in the latter port and had very fine weather and a pleasant time generally, marred only by one or two little accidents. . . . The first night we stayed there all hands went ashore, wandered over the island, and as a matter of course, got drunk. A couple of the men in trying to come aboard fell over a precipice about forty feet in height. One escaped uninjured, but the other was nearly killed. He is now recovering fast, but it will be some time before his arm, which was broken, will be entirely healed.
"I enjoyed myself very well while we were coaling, wandering along the rocks, catching crabs and toad-
1 Probably a reference to William Walker of Tennessee, who led a fili- bustering expedition into Lower California and was driven out. Then he ■went to Nicaragua, C. A., assumed the title of President of that State, and re-established chattel slavery, which had been abolislied. He was driven from power in May, 1857, but escaped to New Orleans. In 1860 he led a filibustering expedition against Honduras, but within four months was captured and shot at Tnixillo.
Henry George's father, Richard Samuel Henry George. From daguerreotype taken in the middle jif ties.
Age, 19] "DUST TO DUST" 63
fish and paddling from one island to another in a canoe, the exact model of the famous one constructed by Cru- soe, and like his, made of a single piece.
"I was ashore in Eio but once — on Sunday after- noon— and saw but little of the town, as it was too in- fernally hot to walk the narrow streets."
The chief incident of the voyage — an event of singular nature — occurred at the port of Monte Video. Two let- ters containing a brief mention of it have been preserved, but a full and graphic account appeared under the title of "Dust to Dust" in a sketch written by Henry George eight years subsequently and when he was less than twen- ty-seven, at the request of his friend Edmund Wallazz, for publication in the "Philadelphia Saturday Night,"^ a prosperous weekly paper, of which Wallazz was then fore- man and part owner.
The story in substance is this. An hour after leaving Eio, yellow fever had broken out on the Shuhrich and sev- eral were taken down. All recovered except the Second Assistant Engineer, S. W. Martin, a popular young man on board.
"The crisis seemed past, and if his strength would only last until he neared the Cape, all would be well. . . . Only one port remained to be passed before we should hail the rain and fog, and strength-giving winds — Monte Video. But when we entered that great stream, more sea than river, the mighty La Plata, on which the city is situated, young Martin was dying. . . .
"For some time in intervals of consciousness, Martin had been aware of his approaching end, and the only thing that seemed to trouble him was the idea of dying so far from those he loved, and of being buried where
1 This sketch on the following month, July 14, 1866, was republished in the San Francisco "Californian," conducted by some printer friends of Henry George.
64 LIFE OP HENEY GEORGE [1858
affection might never mark his resting place. It was his last and earnest request that his grave might be made on shore, where his body could be recognised by his friends, and not committed to the waves ; and though it was very doubtful if the privilege could be granted, yet the captain resolved to take the corpse into the har- bour, and try to obtain permission to bury it ashore.
"And when night came, sadly we talked in little groups upon the deck, while the sound of hammer and plane from the gangw^ay, told that the 'last house' of one of us was being built. Though no star shed its light, still it was not all blackness. The 'river of sil- ver' beamed with a lustre of its own. N'ot alone the furrows our prow threw aside, or the broad wake we left behind, but the whole surface of the water glowed with phosphorescent brightness, and we seemed to force our way through a sheet of molten silver.
"All night long we steamed up the river, and when the sun again arose — it showed us the harbour of Monte Video. Out beyond all the other shipping lay a stately frigate, the Stars and Stripes of the great republic streaming from her peak in the morning breeze — ^the old St. Lawrence, flagship of the squadron. . . . We were bringing them news and letters from home, and every port of the great ship thronged with faces eager to see the comer from the land they loved. Running up under her quarter, we were hailed and answered, and after the usual inquiries, our captain mentioned the death of young Martin, and his wish to have him buried on shore; but was told that it was impossible, that we would infringe the quarantine rules by even entering the port with the corpse; and was directed to steam back some miles and commit the body to the waves, be- fore entering the harbour.
"The shrill whistle of the boatswain sounded; a boat dropped from the frigate's davits, reached our side, took letters and papers, and our little steamer turned slowly round to retrace her path. We had felt sad while coming up, but a darker gloom hung over all while going down the river. It seemed so hard that the last and only request of the poor boy could not be complied with.
Agfi, 19] THE BODY TO THE DEEP 65
*^Tit swiftly down the current in the bright, fresh morning dashed our little boat, and when the lofty frigate was hull-down behind us, we turned and stopped for the last sad rites.
*'Upon the quarter-deck, in reverential silence, all hands were gathered. The large box-like coffin, in which we had hoped to commit our dead to mother earth, bored full of holes and filled up with heavy mate- rials, was placed by the side, covered with the flag. The beautiful burial service was commenced, its solemn sentences sounding doubly solemn under such mourn- ful circumstances — ^there was a pause — then came the words, 'We, therefore, commit his body to the deep!' and with a surge the waves closed above the dead.
"Hardly a word was spoken as the wheels again took up their task, and we began to ascend the river, but every eye was fixed on the spot we were leaving, and at the same instant an exclamation sprang from every lip as the coffin was seen to rise! The engine was quickly stopped, a boat lowered, and taking a small anchor and some heavy chain, they tried to secure and sink the box. But it was no easy task in the fresh breeze and short, chopping sea, and the coffin seemed almost instinct with life and striving to elude their efforts. Again and again they were foiled in their at- tempt to fasten the weights, but were at last successful, and once more the water closed above the corpse.
"After waiting some time, to make sure that it could not float again, we started once more up the river, and this time awe was mingled with our grief. Most men who follow the sea have a touch of superstition. There is something in the vastness with which Nature pre- sents herself upon the great waters which influences in this direction even minds otherwise sceptical. And as we steamed up the river, it was more than hinted among many of us that the strong desire of the dying man had something to do with the difficulty of sinking his body.
"This time we passed the frigate, saluting, but not stopping, and entered the port. It was war time; on the Pampas some phase of the interminable quarrels of this Southern federation was being fought out, and the
66 LIFE OF HENEY GEORGE £1858
harbour was crowded with men-of-war. Jf early all the Brazilian navy was there, watching the progress of events; and besides these, and the numerous merchant- men, the ensign of almost every nation was displayed above some armed vessel. By direction of the officer who boarded us, we proceeded past them all, to the farther side of the harbour, where we were ordered to lie in quarantine seven days before being allowed to coal.
"The new scene, the various objects of interest around and the duties of clearing up, conspired to make us forget the events of the morning, but the sun was yet some distance above the western horizon when a startling circumstance occurred to recall them to our minds.
''Nearly all hands were busily engaged below, only two or three loitering around the deck, when the quar- termaster, sweeping the harbour with his glass, noticed Bomething floating in, which riveted his attention. Again and again he looked at it; then, with surprise and dismay in his face, called the officer of the deck. The whisper spread through the ship, and in a few minutes all were watching in silence the object that seemed drifting towards us. Onward it came, through all the vessels that lay beyond us — now lost to our view, now coming in sight again — turning and tacking as though piloted by life, and steadily holding its course for our steamer. It passed the last ship, and came straight for us. It came closer, and every doubt was dispelled — it was, indeed, the coffin! A thrill of awe passed through every heart as the fact became assured.
"Eight under our bows came the box; it touched our side; halted a moment, as if claiming recognition, and then drifted slowly past us towards the shore.
"There was an excited murmur forward, a whispered consultation in the knot of officers aft; then one ad- vanced— 'Man the quarter boat, boys; take pick and Bpades; tow the coffin ashore, and bury the body!'
"It was the work of a moment — the boat shot like an arrow from our side, the ashen oars bending with the energy of the stroke. Reverently and gently they se- cured the box, and with slow, solemn strokes, towed it to the foot of the desolate looking hill that skirts the
Age, 19] THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN 67
bay. There, breaking it open, they bore the corpse, covered with the flag, a little distance up the hillside, and making in the twilight a grave among the chaparral, laid it to rest, marking the spot with a rude cross, which, concealed from observation by the bushes, would yet serve as a mark of recognition, and secure the grave, should it be noticed, from the intrusion of vandal hands. "And so, spite of all, that dying wish was gratified, and the body which the waters refused to receive was laid to rest in its mother earth."^
From Monte Video the Shubrick proceeded to the Strait of Magellan, arriving at Cape Virgin on March 6; for instead of taking the long route followed by sailing ves- sels around Cape Horn, she was to steam by the short route through the strait. The heavy westerly winds and strong currents peculiar to that region made such bois- terous weather that progress was greatly retarded and nearly all the coal consumed, so that the crew had to go ashore and cut fire-wood with which to make the next port.^ To his family Henry George has described the scen- ery in the western part of the strait as perhaps the most magnificent and impressive he ever beheld.
"The water was clear and green with depth even up to the banks, which in places were sheer walls of rock running up perhaps three thousand feet and mantled at their summits with dazzling snow. In the valleys be- tween these and the mountains beyond were glacial for- mations, white and green and iridescent; and at the bases where the land flattened out, were heavy growths of evergreens.
1 If Mr. George had any superstitious feeling at the time regarding the matter — and there is nothing to indicate that he had — he certainly did not continue to entertain it in after years, but believed the movements of the coffin due to the accidental loosening of weights, peculiarities of cur- rents and other natural causes.
2 'Shubrick's log.
68 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1858
"Being short of fuel, we brought the little steamer against a bank, and tieing her there, went ashore and cut wood. This consumed a number of days. "We ran into a little harbour in the strait and came upon a schooner which belonged to English missionaries with whom we exchanged letters. The missionaries were praying and working with the native Terra del Fuegians. We saw a number of these natives, and they were not at all attractive. I heard afterwards that the Pata- gonians killed and ate these missionaries."
On the passage up the Pacific coast the Sliubrich touched at Valdivia, Valparaiso, Panama, and San Diego, and on the 27th of May, 1858, after a voyage of one hundred and fifty-five days from Philadelphia, arrived at San Fran- cisco.
CHAPTER V.
AT THE FRAZER RIVER GOLD FIELDS.
1858. Age, 19
"IXTHEN the Shuhrick glided through the Golden Gate ▼ ? and cast anchor, it was with mixed emotions that Henry George gazed about him. California, bursting on the world ten years before with her astonishing gold discov- eries, had now begun to reveal to the prospectors who found that the mineral regions had meanwhile been occu- pied, a new wealth of soil in her amazing agricultural fecundity. She had now been for eight years a State in the Union, and had a population of about three hundred and fifty thousand, of which her chief city, San Francisco, claimed some fifty thousand.
Like a new Eternal City, San Francisco nestled upon a cluster of hills. These hills rose on a narrow spur or peninsula, washed on the west by the ocean and on the east by the bay; and on the north formed one portal of the Golden Gate. The bell in the little pioneer adobe church of the missionary Franciscan monks still tinkled at the "Mission Dolores," and though many substantial buildings had arisen since the entrance on Statehood, the city for the most part still consisted of "cloth and paper shanties." The whole world was sending the flower of youth and energy into the new city; and to the young
70 LIFE OF HENRY GEOBGE [1858
and bold and adventurous of spirit, San Francisco, for all her newness and roughness, wore a charm, and even fascin- ation, that only they could understand. Should Oregon fail, this, to Henry George, seemed the place to seek his fortune.
He had expected on reaching San Francisco to find a letter from Mrs. Curry telling him of the Oregon pros- pects, and perhaps inviting him to come up. When a let- ter came to hand, several days after his arrival, it con- tained no information on this subject and gave no counsel, and to it he replied (May 29,. 1858) :
"About an hour after we dropped anchor my cousin, Jim George, came on board. I went ashore with him and spent the day. He has his family here and is doing well. Although we have been here but a short time, yet I have already seen a good deal of the city and agree with Emma that *it is a dashing place,' rather faster than Philadelphia.
"My mind is not fully made up as to what I shall do. I should feel grateful for your advice. Please write to me as soon as possible. If you still think I can do well in Oregon I will go up as soon as I can procure my discharge from the ship, which I hope to do in two or three weeks. I do not think I shall remain where I am at present, as I wish to settle down as soon as possible; and the old Oregon fever has not entirely died, as you may judge from the fact that I write from San Francisco. I have worked hard and long to get here and have at last succeeded, and I feel convinced that the same spirit will carry me through."
The "Cousin Jim George" referred to was son of Henry's Uncle Dunkin, his father's only brother. James George was book-keeper for the retail clothing firm of J. M. Strowbridge & Co., doing business at Commercial and Sansome streets, and composed of Jerome and W. C.
A«e,l»] LEAVES THE "SHUBRICK" ' 71
Strowbridge and E. F. Childs, Childs had a young broth- er-in-law there named George B. Wilbur, a Ilhode Island Yankee, who had gone to California with the hope shared by almost everyone going there — of finding a fortune. Wilbur and Henry George became acquainted, and Wil- bur showed the newcomer around town ; thereby beginning a friendship that was to be of mutual use in the near years, and though their aptitude and careers became dis- tinct, was to last to the end of life.
And now since the prizes ashore seemed large and many for him who was free and could move quickly, young George had resolved not only not to remain at sea, but not even to embrace the prospect of a place in the Navy Yard at the head of the bay, which Commander DeCamp, who expected to be stationed there, had talked of helping him to get. Though he had no fixed plans, yet it was the boy's wish to be free, and free at once. The obstacle was the ShuhricVs shipping articles, which he, like every- one else on board, had been compelled to sign at Philadel- phia for one year's service, and which would hold him until November 11, 1858. He talked the thing over with Ellen George, James George's wife, a warm-hearted, sym- pathetic woman, who showed a lively interest in the youth's affairs. It was agreed that he should go into retirement for awhile, seeking the seclusion of a bed at her house, while she should confer with Commander De Camp, which she did. The Commander, as a consequence, failed to notice the absence of the boy, who, after a short season of this retirement, regarded himself as free of the ShuhricJc^ and at liberty to go where he would. But as yet
1 Though tlie Shubrick's record shows that later on there were a number of desertions among the officers and crew of the vessel, there is no indication whatever as to when Henry George left, or that he did not remain until the expiration of his term of service — Nov. 11, 1858.
72 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1858
no word of encouragement came from Oregon; nor in San Francisco, though he looked about him, did any invit- ing opening appear, so that he was left in idleness, consum- ing his little store of money consisting of wages earned on the Shuhrick. All the while letters were coming from home which yet had a strong influence over him. From his mother (April 3, 1858) :
"There is nothing stirring or startling in this great city. Eeligion seems to be the all-engrossing subject. Christians are looking for great results from this out- pouring of the Spirit. Look to Jesus, my dear child.''
From his mother (May 3) :
"0 my dear boy : how much you occupy my thoughts. Sleeping and waking your whereabouts, your doings, your comfort, your conduct, your prospects and a thou- sand other things fill my mind. Away from all you love and those who love you and would counsel you, 0 seek, my child, that wisdom that cometh from above. Then you will need no other counsellor."
From his father (May 18) :
"We have accounts to-day that Brigham Young, the Mormon scamp, has submitted to the United States authority and that forces are entering Salt Lake City. I hope it may be true. I should like to see him pun- ished for his rebellion."
From his Sister Jennie (June 3) :
"I dreamed of you, Henry, not long ago for three nights in succession, and I thought each night that you had returned home. I thought I came home from school and saw you sitting in the rocking chair in the
Age. 19] EARLY TIES OP AFFECTION 78
front parlour. I ran to you and just as you kissed me I woke up. I was glad that I was in time for the kiss anyhow."
The same intense affection that Henry George kindled in the friends of his manhood was shown for him by the friends of his youth. The evidence of this on the part of Jeffreys we have already seen.^ A letter from Jennie George (July 2) tells about Charlie Walton:
"Charlie Walton came around the other evening. . . . He said that you had written four or five let- ters to Jo Jeffreys and but one to him. I never saw him in such a rage. He really almost cried. I pacified him as much as I could and he went away a little cooler than he came. I really believe he thinks more of you than any of the other boys."
This from Edmund Wallazz who had been a printer in King and Baird's and who was now a man of about twenty- seven (July 15) :
"Your letters dated the 15 and 19 ult., received this morning. . . .
"To understand my feeling of a peculiar relation ex- isting between us I will mention the feelings which I experienced when we first heard of the yellow fever on board the ShubricJc. Jeffreys told me of the report and of your father's fears near midnight of a day, I think, in the latter part of February or the early part of March. I was at first stunned ; a cold, chilly sensa- tion overpowered me for a few minutes; but after awhile I said, with an earnestness which made Jeffreys look surprised: *Harry is not dead. If he were I should know it.' He asked if I believed in ghosts. Of course not, in the vulgar idea of ghosts. And yet I felt certain
1 Page 61.
74 LIFE OF HENEY GEORGE [18M
that if you were dead I should be informed of it. Nay, more. So strong was this feeling that for several days I sat alone in the dark at midnight waiting for you. And in those hours of terrible suspense how often did I think of your probable death, and picture your poor body tossed about by the billows of the Southern At- lantic, far, far from all who loved you ! Firmly, I be- lieve, if you had been dead, and if you had come to me, I would not have been frightened at all, only awe-struck, and it may be heart-wrung, by the thought that my ad- vice had much to do with your going. But let this rest forever now. You cannot doubt my love; I cannot doubt yours."
But now Henry George was ready to act. For in June had come the thrilling news of large gold discoveries just over the American line, in the British possessions, on the Frazer Eiver, not far from its mouth. There was much excitement in San Francisco, especially among that multitude of prospectors and adventurers, who, finding all the then known placer lands in California worked out or appropriated, and not willing to turn to the slow pur- suits of agriculture, had gathered in the city with nothing to do. A mad scramble for the new fields ensued, and so great was the rush from this and other parts that fifty thousand persons are said to have poured into the Frazer Eiver region within the space of a few weeks. Indeed, all who did not have profitable or promising employment tried to get away, and the ShubricTc's log shows that most of her officers and crew deserted for the gold fields.^
1 "There is no mystery as to the cause which so suddenly and so largely raised wages in California in 1849, and in Australia in 1852. It was the discovery of placer mines in unappropriated land to which labour was free that raised the wages of cooks in San Francisco restaurants to $500 a month, and left ships to rot in the harbour mthout oflBcers or crew until their owners would consent to pay rates that in any other part of the
Age, 19] NEWS OP GOLD DISCOVERIES 75
James George was doing well with the San Francisco clothing house, but caught in the gold excitement, he thought he saw a chance for a fortune in the sale of min- er's supplies; and he formed a co-partnership with 0. P. Giffin, of San Francisco, a dealer in nuts, dried fruits, etc., doing business on Front Street, between Sacramento and Clay. The agreement was that James was to go to Victoria, on Vancouver's Island, just off the mouth of the Frazer, and open a miner's supply store.
This project of James George's had much attractive- ness for Henry George, but he resolved to be cautious and not venture on reports that might prove to be false. To Martha Curry, who now had become Mrs. Malthrop, he wrote (June 29) :
"I have left the steamer I came out in and am now staying at the same house as my cousin. In all proba- bility I will be able to get employment of some kind in a few days. I think I shall stay here until next spring, and then, if the diggings on Frazer Eiver turn out to be as good as reported, I shall go up there. . . .
"Messrs. Byron and Pipe are both well, though rather the worse for their long journey and long handling."
A few days following this came a letter from Mrs. Curry (July 9) that ended all present thought of Oregon and increased that of the Frazer Eiver. "As for this place," wrote she, "business is dull. The mines seem to be the all-absorbing theme." So with hope of Oregon closed and with no chance of work offering in San Francisco, the
globe seemed fabulous. Had these mines been on appropriated land, or had they been immediately monopolised so that rent could have arisen, it would have been land values that would have leaped upward, not wages." — "Progress and Poverty," Book V. chap, ii (Memorial Edition, p. 290).
76 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1858
young man found himself urged along the line of his inclinations — toward the Frazer; and with the promise from his cousin James of employment as clerk in the store, should he fail at the diggings, Henry George's hopes burned high and he wrote home of golden expectations. But the news of his starting for Victoria carried some- thing like dismay to the quiet home in Philadelphia. His mother wrote (August 15) :
"I think this money-getting is attended with too many sacrifices. I wished it all in the bottom of the sea when I heard of your going to Victoria, but since it has been explained to me I feel better. ... I shall never feel comfortable until you are settled down quietly at some permanent business. This making haste to grow rich is attended with snares and temptations and a great weariness of the flesh. It is not the whole of life, this getting of gold. When you write explain about the place and how you are situated. Then we will look on the bright side."
A month later (September 18) she wrote:
"We all feel happy and thankful that you have ar- rived safely at Victoria and that your prospects appear bright. Don't be too anxious or too sanguine. This making haste to be rich I am afraid of. Eemember you are but young. We do not expect great things as yet. You have just passed your nineteenth birthday. Did you think of it, or were you too busy ? If you had been home we would have had a jollification. What a kissing time there would have been, playing Copenhagen and so forth. Hen, kissing is quite out of the fashion since you left; no kissing parties at all, I believe."
His father in the same letter wrote:
"Your letter from Victoria came safe to hand and you may be sure we were glad to receive it. I had be-
Age, 19] WORKS HIS WAY AS SEAMAN 77
come quite anxious about you, inasmuch that your last letter gave us the information that you were off on a trading expedition. I did not know how you would be situated, but now I feel more reconciled and think that your chances are fair. But I hope you will not build your castle in the air. Fortunes are not to be made in a hurry; it takes time and application. However, I say again, your prospects are fair. Nurse your means and use all the economy you can and I think in the end a fortune will be sure. Still, my dear son, consider; contentment is better than both hands full with labour and travel."
Henry George, working his way as seaman on a top- sail schooner, reached Victoria when the excitement was at the flood. That place, established in 1843 as a trad- ing-fort of the Hudson Bay Company — ^those pioneers of commerce through the north-western part of the conti- nent— and beautifully situated on Vancouver's Island in the majestic Puget Sound, had, with the gold discoveries, suddenly swelled in population, until it was estimated that at times ten thousand miners, in sheds and tents, gath- ered about the more substantial structures.
Henry George arrived at Victoria when the river, still at the season that rains and melting snows on its great mountain water-sheds swelled high its volume, came tear- ing down its long, twisting course and rushed through its rocky gorges like a roaring flood of destruction, earn- ing the name sometimes given it — "The Terrible Frazer." The gold had been found at Yale and Fort Hope, a hun- dred miles up stream, in the exposed bars and the bed of the river when the water was low, so that with the water in flood, all gold-seeking operations had to come to a stand- still and there was nothing to do but to wait until the water had subsided. The young fortune hnnter, there- fore, went into James George's store.
78 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [185*
The store was in a rough wooden structure of one story and an attic, or rather loft. It stood on Wharf Street, beside the Victoria hotel, facing the harbour. Henry George worked very hard there. Part of the time he slept in the loft, reaching it by a ladder. He fastened a note outside the street door inviting customers who came out of the regular hours to "Please give this door a kick." In a letter to his Sister Jennie subsequently from San Fraiv- cisco (December 6, 1858) he said:
"You innocently ask whether I made my own bed at Victoria. Why, bless you, my dear little sister! I had none to make. Part of the time I slept rolled up in my blanket on the counter, or on a pile of flour, and afterwards I had a straw mattress on some boards. The only difference between my sleeping and waking cos- tumes was that during the day I wore both boots and cap, and at night dispensed with them."
But the full picture of his condition was not at once revealed to the folks at home. He had on starting for Victoria written of such large expectations that pride now prevented him from saying more than he could help about the poor results. Jo Jeffreys wrote (October 3) :
"There is one remarkable thing in your letters, or rather not in your letters, which is this, that you fail to say whether you are prospering at all in your present business, or even if it supports you, and which I cer- tainly should be glad to hear."
From his Sister Carrie (October 4) :
"How I should like to see you in your new situation. Your account of your cooking is quite laughable. I should just like to look in upon you while you were thus engaged and see what kind of a cook you make."
Age, 19] JOHN SHAEP'S ADVICE 79
His father wrote him a letter containing worldly wisdom (October 4) :
"We have all sorts of things going on here in Phila- delphia. On the first of September we had the grand Ocean Telegraph celebration, though the cable has never spoken since, and I have great doubts that it ever will. Yet a great thing has been accomplished; or at any rate, if the practicability of a lightning rod through the ocean be not accomplished in my day, it will be in yours.
"Uncle Joseph Van Dusen took dinner with us yester- day. He seems much pleased with your present pros- pects and bade me when I wrote to say that if this thing should be successful their house would be glad to send you a load of goods direct which would cost much less than at San Francisco. About that I do not know — I mean as regards cheapness. You know Uncle Joseph and his partners. Show them where they can invest safely and profitably and they have the means and the nerve. This information may in the future, if this thing succeeds, be of great advantage to James and yourself. Eecollect old John Sharp's advice: *When thee makes a friend use him and keep him.'
"We are all well. Tom [one of Henry's brothers] is just promoted in school and is making very good prog- ress. He is sharp, and will, if spared, make a smart and active man. I don't think I told you of his Fourth of July speech at dinner. When we were about half through Tom rose and said: ^Ladies and Gentlemen: This is the first time in my life that I have sat down to a Fourth of July dinner without ice-cream. I will, therefore, put the question. All who are in favour of ice-cream will please say, aye.' Of course it was unani- mously carried, to the joy of all present. After he found it so, he very gracefully turned to me, saying: *It is carried unanimously, Mr. Chairman. Will you please advance the money?' I could not get out of this, and put up fifty cents, which proved to be satis- factory."
80 LIFE OF HENRY GEORaE [1858
Ferdinand Formhals, now a well-known citizen of San Francisco, who had charge of a stove and tinware store beside James George's store on Wharf Street, Victoria, says that he knew Henry George there, and that "George had nothing to say about the single tax or political economy then." Yet that the youth's mind was even then quietly at work is proved by a speech he made in San Francisco thirty-two years later :^
"Let me, since I am in San Francisco, speak of the genesis of my own thought. I came out here at an early age, and knew nothing whatever of political econ- omy. I had never intently thought upon any social problem. One of the first times I recollect talking on such a subject was one day, when I was about eighteen, after I had come to this country, while sitting on the deck of a topsail schooner with a lot of miners on the way to the Frazer Eiver. We got talking about the Chi- nese, and I ventured to ask what harm they were doing here, if, as these miners said, they were only working the cheap diggings ? 'No harm now,' said an old miner, 'but wages will not always be as high as they are to- day in California. As the country grows, as people come in, wages will go down, and some day or other white men will be glad to get those diggings that the Chinamen are now working.' And I well remember how it impressed me, the idea that as the country grew in all that we are hoping that it might grow, the con- dition of those who had to work for their living must become, not better, but worse."
But now something caused a falling out between the cousins. What the trouble was does not appear, though in after years Henry George said that he had "behaved badly towards Jim George." The offence could not have been grave, as they were on the old friendly terms soon again in San Francisco. But however this may be, Henry
1 Metropolitan Hall, Feb. 4, 1890.
Age, 19] GENESIS OP HIS THOUGHT 81
left James' employ and went to live in a tent with George Wilbur, who had come up from San Francisco to dig gold. Wilbur had since his arrival made an unsuccessful trip up the river, but was determined to try again. Mean- while he was driving a water cart for a living, Henry George proposed to go up the river with Wilbur, but be- fore they could set off they were daunted by the stories of failure that returning miners were bringing down. While in this wavering state of mind, Ferdinand Formhals gave Henry George information that caused him to aban- don the project. Formhals was something of a chemist and had from curiosity been analysing some of the sam- ples of "pure gold from the river" that were being handed about, and found them to be a mixture of tin, lead and other metals. He believed that there was some gold at the diggings, but only a little — not enough to be worth searching for. Time has confirmed Formhals' judgment, comparatively little gold having at any time been taken out of this part of the Frazer Kiver, the really rich de- posits being found in the Cariboo region, several hundred miles farther up; but these places were not discovered for a number of years afterwards.
Hope of finding a fortune at the diggings thus closing before him, and having no other employment, and for that matter without prospect of any at Victoria, Henry George decided to return at once to San Francisco, and when there, should no opening offer, to take again to the sea, and keep to it as a calling. With this determination, he borrowed enough money from George Wilbur and others to buy steerage passage down to San Francisco. George Wilbur says of the setting off:
"He had no coat; so I gave him mine. An old fel- low named Wolff peddled pies among the tents, and
82 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1858
thinking that Harry would enjoy these more than the food he would get aboard the ship, we bought six of them, and as he had no trunk, we put them in his bunk, and drew the blanket over them so that nobody would see them and steal them. He wrote me from San Fran- cisco when he got down that the first night out he was so tired that he threw himself down on his bunk with- out undressing, and that he did not think of the pies until the morning, when he found that he had been lying on top of them all night."
CHAPTEE VI.
TOSSED ABOUT BY FORTUNE.
1858-1859. Age, 19-20.
TOWARDS the end of November, 1858, Henry George arrived at San Francisco from Victoria "dead broke." And now commenced a stretch of years notable for a rest- less pitching about, with shifting scenes of prosperity and adversity — ^years, though, that showed progress, if irregu- lar and jolting.
This period opened with soft sunshine, for as the im- pecunious youth walked the streets, meeting only strange faces and getting only rebuffs when he applied for work, and when his mind had again turned to the sea as a means of livelihood, he came face to face with David Bond, a compositor whom he had known at King & Baird's print- ing house in Philadelphia. Learning of his plight. Bond took him to Frank Eastman's printing office and got him employment to set t3rpe. The next letter home breathed of prosperity. To his Sister Jennie (December 6) he said :
"I am at present working in a printing office and am, therefore, busy all day, and the evenings I spend in reading, unless (as is often the case) I go to see EUie George.
"After being deprived of reading for such a time,
83
84 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1858-185»
it is quite delightful to be able to read as much as I wish. In the house in which I am stopping there is a good library, which to me is one of its prominent at- tractions.
"I am glad that you are so nearly through school. How would you like to come out here and teach ? Teach- ers here get very good pay, the lowest — the A, B, C, teachers — getting $50 per month; the principals, $200. Ellie George gets $100 a month. Lady's board costs from $25 to $30 per month.
"Women are sadly wanted here. In Victoria there are hardly any, and you can plainly see the effects of the absence of women on society at large.
"I have few acquaintances either here or in Victoria — I mean boys or men. Don't on any consideration think I have thought of girls, for I haven't seen one to speak to, save those I told you about, since I left Phila- delphia. But I suppose in some respects it is much bet- ter, as I spend less money.
"I am boarding now, and have been for these past two weeks in the 'What Cheer House,' the largest, if not the finest, hotel in the place. I pay $9 per week and have a beautiful little room and first rate living.
"I get $16 per week the way I am working now, but will soon strike into something that will pay me bet- ter. . . .
"I suppose you have all grown somewhat since I left. I have not changed much, except that I am even uglier and rougher looking. You thought I looked hard when I came home from Calcutta, but you should have seen me in Victoria!
"How I should like to be home to-night, if only for an hour or two.
"Give my love and respects to all. I would write to them if I wasn't so lazy. (You see I call things by their right names once in a while.)
"So good-bye my dear sister. I will write you a longer letter when I feel more like it.
**Your affectionate brother,
"H. Geobgb."
Age, 19-20] GRANT AT THE SAME HOUSE 85
"P. S. Wouldn't that signature look nice at the bot- tom of a check for $1,000 — ^that is, if I had the money in the bank."
Four years before young George wrote this letter a young man of thirty-two named Ulysses S. Grant had for a short time slept in an attic room in this same hotel, the *^hat Cheer House." He had come down from Ft. Van- couver, Columbia Eiver, where, utterly disgusted with him- self and the life he was leading, he had resigned from a captaincy in the United States Army, and was, when in San Francisco, trying to make his way eastward with a view to going into business or farming. Fame was to claim him in the rapidly approaching events.
The "What Cheer House" still stands and is doing busi- ness, though in a humble way. In the fifties it was the best house of its kind in the city. A temperance hotel, and a model of propriety and cleanliness, it was for the accommodation of men entirely. No women were ever received and not one was engaged on the premises. It was established by K. B. Woodward, a New Englander, who from its proceeds founded Woodward's Gardens, fa- mous all over the Pacific Coast for more than two decades as a beautiful pleasure resort, containing a menagerie, a museum, a theatre, an art gallery, an aquarium and a variety of other attractions. One of the distinguishing features of this house was a little library, numbering sev- eral hundred volumes, well selected, and among them some economic works. Hon. James V. Coffey, who twelve or fourteen years later became an intimate friend of Henry George's, questioning him as to where he had during his busy life found time and books to read, was told that his solid reading was begun in this little library, while stay- ing at the "What Cheer House" and at intervals following :
86 LIFE OP HENEY GEORGE [1858-1850
"Mr. George told me that he spent much of his time when out of work in that little room and that he had read most of the books. That, he said, was the first place he saw Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations,' though I cannot remember that he said he read it then. In- deed, in his last writings, he has said that he did not read a line of Adam Smith until long after this period."
This new state of things gave Richard George, the father, undisguised satisfaction. He wrote (January 19, 1859) :
"I rejoice to find that you are doing so well. You now see the propriety of a young man just starting in life having some trade to fall back on in time of need, and you will say. Top was right, not only in this, but in many other things in which I dissented.'
"However, so far God has ordered all things well, and my earnest and sincere prayer is that he may still watch over you until he brings all at last to his eternal King- dom. . . .
"My dear boy, let me say again to you: Be careful and nurse your means; lay up all you can and owe no mun anything and you will be safe. Do not let others entice you. Act on your own judgment, and I hope and trust before I am called hence, to see you return prosperous and happy, which may God grant."
His mother took up another matter (February 2) :
"I am very glad you have left Victoria and have some of the comforts of life, and sorry to hear that Ellen is going there. I should not think that Jim would want her until he could make things more com- fortable, and the people were more civilised — better so- ciety, a few of her own sex, at least. But this, you say, is what they want — women. Ellen will be a star of the first magnitude. Then I hope she will persuade others to go with her — some that have husbands there. Then
Age. 19-20] NEED OP WOMEN'S SOCIETY 87
there will soon be a better state of things. A writer of great celebrity has said: 'AH men that avoid female society have dull perceptions and are stupid, or have gross tastes and revolt against what is pure.' One of the great benefits a man may derive from women's so- ciety is that he is hound to be respectful to them. The habit is of great good to your moral man. There is somebody to whom he is bound to be constantly atten- tive and respectful. Moreover, this elevates and refines him.
"What will you do without Ellen and the children? . . . Have you made no other acquaintances? Is there no other place you visit?"
Jo Jeffreys had a word of advice (February 3) :
"After having talked with Ned Wallazz and Billy Jones for some three hours, I turn with great pleasure to the consideration of you, my very respectable and respected friend.
"It was not my purpose to induce you to follow the legal profession, though I think you in every way capa- ble to discharge its responsibilities with honour. I meant by what I said in a former letter to induce you to adopt some one particular employment to the exclu- sion of every other. If you mine, do so until you have succeeded in your object. If you enter a house as clerk, stay at it in God's name. If you should unfortunately resolve to follow printing, follow it with all your abili- ties and energy until there shall no longer be any neces- sity for it. You will allow me to say that your great fault (and I think it is your worst one) is that of half- doing things, in this sense, that you vacillate about the execution of that which alone secures permanent suc- cess and lasting fame. Few men are competent in one lifetime to win honour by more than one employment, and these few you would perhaps find were — unlike you — favoured by circumstances.
"Now you are competent for any labour to which your inclinations may direct you. You are not compe-
88 LIFE OP HENEY aEORGE [185»-1859
tent to succeed at a dozen employments, nor can you hope to amass a fortune by labouring at them alter- nately. If you live on as you are doing now, why, you will live on; you will earn sufficient to maintain you in comfort, hut that is all. You can hardly hope by min- ing one month, by printing the next, and by serving in a clerkship a third, ever to arrive at a competence.
"Why you do this is evident. You are dissatisfied, either because you are not advancing or for trivial rea- sons, and then you undertake something different. Now you cannot expect to avoid unpleasant things, and you cannot expect to jump on a fortune, like a waif thrown away by a thief in his flight. Success is the reward of long exertion, not the triumph of a momentary en- ergy. It is the crown for which, like Cromwell, you must struggle long and well. It is like happiness here- after, only to be obtained by patient and continued ser- vitude. . . .
"I wish I could make you feel as I do. You wouldn't then complain in after life (as you will do without you adopt my opinions) of the caprice and the wanton vacil- lation of Fortune's Goddess. . . .
"I recognise the difficulties of your position and how you are situated, and am aware that you are not at liberty to strike out into anything, as you were here. But do the best you can. Take my advice wherever it's possible to do it; I mean that which respects your employment and notwithstanding other embarrassing difficulties."
But notwithstanding Jo Jeffreys' counsel, a change quickly came, for business becoming slack at Eastman's and the other printing houses, George was unable to fol- low his trade. But refusing to remain idle, he obtained a position of weigher in the rice mill of Waite & Battles, on Fremont Street, near Mission. He wrote home (Feb- ruary 16, 1859) :
"I am still in the rice mill and like it very well. I
Age, 1&-20] WEiaHER IN A RICE MILL 89
shall stay, of course, until I am sure I can make a change for the better. I have to get up pretty early though, and consequently retire early. Indeed, you would be pleased to see what regular hours I keep. For months past 10 o'clock has invariably seen me in bed, for I have no friends here, and neither the disposition nor the money to go to the theatre or other places of amusement.
"Everything is still very dull, but the late rains, by increasing the gold yield, will tend to make times better."
Soon after this George Wilbur came down from Vic- toria and Henry George and he went to room together. First they lived in Natoma Street, then one of the quiet residence portions of the city. Afterwards they roomed on Pine Street, Henry George taking his meals at the "What Cheer House." Mr. Wilbur says of his companion at this period :
**Very soon after our acquaintance I discovered that he was studious and eager to acquire knowledge, and when we came to room together I frequently woke up at night to find him reading or writing. If I said: *Good heavens, Harry, what's the matter? Are you sick?' he'd tell me to go to sleep or invite me to get dressed and go out for a walk with him. A spin around for a few blocks would do and then we'd get to bed again. I never saw such a restless human being."
That Henry George was in other ways restless was clear enough. His active, energetic nature would doubtless have made him restless anywhere, but in California the conditions were peculiarly conducive to it, for it was a country where thousands of active, independent young men like himself were opening up the richest mineral region in the world ; a country which, within twenty years
00 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1858-1858
from the first gold discovery in 1848, was to yield $800,- 000,000 of the precious metal.^ "California," he wrote to his Sister Caroline in January, "is sadly in want of missionaries and I think it would be a good notion for the Sunday school to send a few out, provided they be gold-fever proof." As shown by his Frazer Eiver adventure, Henry George himself was not "gold-fever proof"; and now he kept thinking of the stories of fortune that were coming in from the California mines, and he talked with a young Philadelphian, Freeman A, Camp, who came to see him at the "What Cheer House," as to the chances they would have there. His mother, doubtless perceiving what was floating through his mind, wrote (March 3) :
"Are you getting lazy? You do not write as long letters as you used to, nor tell us much when you do write. You change your business so often I should think you would have a great deal to tell. Remember, everything that concerns you will interest us. . . . I suppose the old proverb does not apply in California: *A rolling stone,' etc. Be that as it may, we will re- joice when you are settled."
Two weeks later (March 17) his mother again wrote:
"I am sorry Ellie has left you, though it is all right ; she certainly should be with her husband. I hope you have found some acquaintances among her friends, where you can go and spend a social evening. I don't believe in living without society, and least of all female society. And here I know you will have to be careful, for if the women are not of the right stamp, instead of elevating and refining you, they ma}'^ prove your ruin. I like your early hours, but not your lonely ones. You should have a few good friends. Here, as in all other anxieties concerning you, I can only breathe the prayer : *My Father, be thou the guide of his youth.' "
iHittell's " History of Califoruia," Vol. HI. p. 160.
A«e,18-20J OFF FOR THE MINES 01
But even if her son had the disposition to keep steadily at work, the rice mill gave indications of temporarily clos- ing down. In April he wrote to his Sister Caroline:
"We have not been very busy at the mill lately, ex- cept for a day or two at a time; but this does not make much difference to me, as I have to stay there whether busy or not. I generally get up about 6 a.m., go to the hotel and take breakfast, and from there to the mill. I come up again at about half past six in the evening, eat supper, go into the library and read until about 9 P.M., when I come up to the room and write or think for an hour or two and then turn in. A pretty quiet way of living; but there is no telling what will turn up next."
And what did "turn up next" was anything but quiet, for the rice mill closing down, he was thrown out of work, and he started off into the interior of the State for the mines.
The day had passed when more than the occasional man could find some overlooked and unappropriated spot on river bed or bar, where, with no more equipment than shovel, pick and pan, he could draw forth any consider- able amount of the precious metal. Though the gold- bearing region of California, including the northern mines and the southern mines, extended from Mt. Shasta to Mt. Whitney and embraced an area approximately as great as England's territory, every river bank, bar or bed giving the slightest indication of gold had been worked over and over. The nature of mining then became different. From "wet diggings" in the river channels, operations had turned to "dry diggings" in arid ravines, hill slopes and elevated flats; which led to "coyote-hole" mining (bur- rowing into the side of hills or boring wells) ; to "hydrau- lic mining" (the concentration of a powerful column of
92 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1868-1869
water against a hill or mountain side so as to wash the gravel or "pay dirt" down through the sluice box or strainer) ; and lastly to "quartz mining," with its shafts and tunnels, stamp mills and heavy machinery. Gold min- ing, therefore, had changed its aspect, so that the average, common man could no longer expect to find, except occa- sionally, places unappropriated, where, with no special knowledge, or special appliances or other capital, he could find any considerable amount of the precious metal or where ]ie could "dig" and "wash out" even ordinary "wages."
What drew most gold seekers, and what drew Henry George, into the mining regions was not so much the hope of mining in itself as of "prospecting" or "locating a claim" — finding on the unworked and unappropriated lands places that would yield to the newer processes the precious metal in quantities sufficient to pay for the work- ing. Such a claim might be sold to or worked on shares by others who had the skill and capital, so that as soon as the rumour of a rich discovery had spread, multi- tudes of "prospectors" came rushing to the locality, eager to "stake off claims." The prospector was, therefore, essentially one who roamed from place to place at the beck of the Golden Goddess; and since she was whimsical and beckoned hither and thither, the prospector was al- ways on the move.
There are no clear evidences as to what locality Henry George had set his hopes on, though the probabilities are that hearing in San Francisco confusing reports from a hundred different points, he concluded to strike off for some nearer and more advantageous centre, there to deter- mine to which particular mining spot to go; and it seems likely that his first objective point was Placerville, for- merly known as "Hangtown," and before that as "Dry
Age, 19-20] FAEM HAND AND TRAMP 93
Diggings." For Placerville had not only developed rich finds in its immediate vicinity, but in some instances large treasure was found by digging into the very ground on which its cabins and houses stood. Moreover, it was on the old emigrant route from the East and the road from the Carson Kiver to the Sacramento valley; and with its stores, hotels and saloons, was a place of recreation and supply for all that region of the Sierras.
. To purpose to go to the mines was one thing; to get there was another, but young George was determined. "Having no other way of reaching them," he said subse- quently,^ "I started out to walk. I was, in fact, what would now be called a tramp, I had a little money, but I slept in barns to save it and had a rough time gener- ally." But soon he had to spend his money, and then though slight in build and never what would be called muscular, he was forced to do farm work and other manual labour to keep himself alive. He had got some distance towards the mines, but for sheer want of living neces- saries, could go no farther; and with great toil, and some real suffering, he worked his way back to San Francisco. This covered a period of nearly two months — for physi- cal labour the hardest two months in all his life — during which time he seems not to have written a single letter home. While he was in the mountains, the Currys had written of an opportunity to set type on the "Statesman," in Portland, with pay according to competency; but when he had got back to San Francisco the time to accept had passed. Then it was that he learned of the death at Vic- .toria of his sincere friend, Ellen George, and this news, taken with the experience just closed and a poor out-look for work in San Francisco, depressed his spirits, though
1 Meeker notes, October, 1897.
94 LIFE OP HENRY OEOBGE [1858-1858
he tried to write cheerfully home to his Aunt Mary (June 17):
"Jim George has gone up to Victoria again, but will be down as soon as he can settle up his business, which will probably be in two or three weeks. The children are here going to school; they are in the best health and spirits.
"We are enjoying splendid weather, just warm enough, though for the last few days it has been quite hot, re- minding one of the summers at home. For some time past we have had plenty of green peas, strawberries and all the early summer vegetables and fruits. In ten or fifteen years this will be one of the greatest fruit countries in the world, for fruit trees are yearly being set out by the thousand and grape vines by the million.
"I am doing nothing just now, but expect to go to work next week. I have given up all idea of going to the mines.
"Frazer River seems to have given out at last, and every steamer that comes down is filled with miners. The rich deposits of a month or two ago appear to have been without foundation.
"I must bring my letter to a sudden close, for the clock has struck eleven, and I will just have time to get down to the post office to mail this. I intended to write a longer letter, but coming up here I stopped to look at the operation of moving a house, which must have consumed more time than I was aware of. The way they raise, lower, and pull big houses around the city here is astonishing."
He had, indeed, given up all hope of going to the mines and also pretty much all hope of remaining ashore, where there seemed to be no work for him and no future. Thoughts of the sea came back in a flood tide. They ranged along the line of ocean heroes, and he asked him- self why he should not follow that calling and rise to
Age, 19-20] PARTING OP THE WATS 96
fame? He was thinking earnestly of this, and stood af the parting of the ways, when his career was decided as if by accident. For the second time David Bond, through a chance meeting, offered a kindly service and obtained for his young friend a position as compositor — this time on the weekly "Home Journal" owned by Joseph C. Dun- can. Thought of a career at sea never returned.
Printer's wages in California were at that time still high, the union rate for piece work being seventy-five cents a thousand ems and for time work to the average man, thirty dollars a week. But as George was still a minor, he got only a boy's pay for work in the regular hours — twelve dollars a week. He resolved now to keep, if he possibly could, to type-setting until he should come of age and be qualified as a journeyman. When somewhat set- tled he wrote to his Sister Jennie (August 2) :
'*You ask me about my studies. I am afraid I do not study much. I have not time and opportunity (or nearer the truth, perhaps, will enough) to push through a regular course. But I try to pick up everything I can, both by reading and observation, and flatter myself that I learn at least something every day. My prin- cipal object now is to learn my trade well, and I am pitching in with all my strength. So anxious am I now to get ahead and make up for lost time that I never feel happier than when at work, and that, so far from being irksome, is a pleasure. My heart just now is really in my work. In another year I'll be twenty-one and I must be up and doing. I have a pretty good prospect ahead and think that before many months I shall get into something better where I can make good wages. . . .
"My time is now pretty well taken up. As soon as I rise in the morning I go to breakfast and then imme- diately to work, which I seldom leave until nearly seven o'clock and once in a while not until one or two in the
96 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1858-1859
morning. There are only three others in the office — nice social fellows — which makes it pleasant for me. I do not make much, but I am learning a good deal and think I have a pretty good prospect, so that I am quite satisfied."
This contentment of mind was broken by news of the death of the dearest friend of his boyhood, Jo Jeffreys. Mrs. George revealed her sympathetic heart (August 18) :
"I feel as though I must say something to you, but my heart is full of the one theme, poor Jeffreys, poor Jo. 0 I cannot tell you of the anguish I feel when I think of him, and I can think of nothing else. . . . The agonising thought with me is the uncertainty of his state. 0 had he time to call upon his Saviour; to say: *God, be merciful to me, a sinner.' . . .
"0 his youth, his bright mind, his sensitiveness, his love for you made me feel an interest in him of no com- mon kind. I do mourn for him sincerely. I know your heart too well to doubt your grief.
"Pop thought you would like to have a lock of his hair."
By the same mail Will Jones wrote:
"Poor Jeffreys has paid the debt of nature, unan- ticipated and mourned by all. Brilliant in life, flash- ing upon our vision as a meteor, and as a meteor so soon to be lost in the impenetrable gloom of night. . . .
"We buried him at the Odd Fellows' Cemetery, in our lot there, the last tribute of regard I could offer. None of his family was there save his two brothers, who came on from New York to the funeral."
Jo Jeffreys' death was a bitter and heavy loss. It snapped the tie of boyhood. Henry George's life from that time forward was the life of the man. In November (20) he wrote to bis mother:
Age, 19-20] HARPERS' FERRY REBELLION 97
"For the past week we have had beautiful weather, and I have employed every possible opportunity to sun myself. The shortness of the days makes this almost impracticable, except on Sundays, when I generally take a long walk outside of the city.
"There is nothing of any interest going on here now. Even the news of the 'bloody Harper's Ferry rebellion,' couldn't get up the smallest kind of an excitement, ex- cept among the political papers. General Scott has returned from San Juan, and therefore, all danger from that quarter has ceased for the present. Even the in- terior towns have for the time stopped burning down; so that, excepting the non-arrival of the mail steamer, we are left without even a decent topic of conversation.
"Letters from the Currys are getting more and more like angel's visits.
"I am still pursuing the even tenor of my way — ^work- ing, walking, reading and sleeping.
"Thursday is Thanksgiving day for us Californians, as I suppose it is with you at home. I shall try and observe the day with the usual ceremonies, and will think of home even more than usual. I hope you will have a pleasant time, and oh ! how I wish I could share it with you."
He wrote in this slighting manner of public matters in California doubtless to calm his mother's mind should she hear rumours from the West; for as a matter of fact most sensational events growing out of the slavery struggle there were crowding into this period. Only the year be- fore the Supreme Court of the State had delivered a deci- sion in the case of a negro named Archy which was de- scribed as "giving the law to the North and the nigger to the South." And now, on the just past 7th of September (1859), after the most bitter and tumultuous political campaign ever held in California, the Lecompton, or pro- slavery, party swept the State. Bad blood raised during the canvass left many scores to be settled after election,
98 LIFE OF HENEY GEORGE [185*-18»
the most conspicuous resulting in a duel between David S. Terry, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, a pronounced pro-slavery supporter, and U. S. Senator David C. Broderick, the foremost anti-slavery man west of the Kocky mountains. Eighty persons were present to witness Broderick get a death-wound and Terry go un- scathed. Broderick was carried to San Francisco and half-hourly bulletins were posted before a surging and excited multitude. He was accorded a public funeral and his name became a rally-word in the anti-slavery cause on the Pacific Coast.^
Henry George was not unconscious of such events; on the contrary he took a burning and apprehensive interest in them. His father's mind, also, was filled with appre- hension arising from similar events in the East, for he wrote (December 3) :
'^e have had a high old time with the Harper Ferry 'rebellion,' (as it is called) and John Brown. The abo- litionists are making all the capital they can out of this poor fanatic. He is magnified and glorified beyond anything human, and dies a martyr, according to their belief. It is having a great effect upon business, and has thrown trade into something of a panic. Our iron men suffer, I am told, on account of the Southern mer- chants everywhere refusing to have anything to do with Northern men. What the result will be none can tell. I have always been of the opinion that this Union could never be dissolved, but if the present feeling is kept up and we do not get another Andrew Jackson for our next President, I fear I shall be mistaken in my opinion.
"Brown was hanged yesterday at 15 minutes past 11 without any disturbance. But the end is not yet."
1 "Broderick and Gwin," by James O'Meara, pp. 225-254. Terry was ■hot and killed by a Deputy U. S. Marshal in 1889, when committing an assault upon U. S. Supreme Court Justice Field, growing out of a case in which Terry had been committed to jail by Judge Field for con- tempt of court.
CHAPTEE VII. SIX PEINTEES AND A NEWSPAPER.
1860-61. Age, 21-22.
THE year 1860 opened auspiciously for the young printer. He was earning steady if small wages at his trade, and purposed not to be diverted, but to keep at it until he came of age in the following September, when he would qualify as a journeyman, and could then demand a man's full pay. To his father he wrote (January 4) :
^'Christmas and New Year's days were passed by me as pleasantly as could have been expected. The weather, however, on both days was bad, although fine both before and after. On New Year's day I took supper with two of the Shubrick's boys, and a friend of mine who like- wise hails from Philadelphia. We had a very social, pleasant time, talking over our old adventures; and in the evening we went to the theatre to see Eichard III. I have been to a play but three or four times since I have been in the country. I haven't much taste that way, and unless the performance is very good, I would rather be reading or talking. . . .
"I intend to stay where I am until my next birthday — if the paper lasts that long — when I will be admitted to the Union, and to all the rights and privileges of a Journeyman printer ; and then to work as hard and save as much money as I can, and in a year or two to come
90
100 LIFE OF HENEY GEORGE (I86O-I86I
home, for a visit, at any rate. A couple of hundred (at the present rates of fare) would enable me to come home, stay a little while, and then come back, if it were best ; and it does not take long to raise that if a person can get work."
It may have been to this performance of Richard III. that Henry George referred more than thirty years later in life (February 4, 1890) in a speech in San Francisco, when, tracing the genesis of his thought on social ques- tions, he said:
"I remember, after coming down from the Frazer River country, sitting one New Year's night in the gal- lery of the old American theatre — among the gods — when a new drop curtain fell, and we all sprang to our feet, for on that curtain was painted what was then a dream of the far future — the overland train coming into San Francisco ; and after we had shouted ourselves hoarse, I began to think what good is it going to be to men like me — to those who have nothing but their labour? I saw that thought grow and grow. We were all — all of us, rich and poor — hoping for the develop- ment of California, proud of her future greatness, look- ing forward to the time when San Francisco would be one of the great capitals of the world; looking forward to the time when this great empire of the west would count her population by millions. And underneath it all came to me what that miner on the topsail schooner going up to Frazer River had said: 'As the country grows, as people come in, wages will go down.' "
Many times such thought was to recur and, as he said, "to grow and grow" ; but just now a matter of very differ- ent nature was to attract his attention. In a letter to his Sister Jennie (February 4) he referred to the newly discovered gold and silver mines in the "Washoe moun- tains in Nevada Territory, just over the California line,
Age, 21-22] A NEW THEATRE CURTAIN 101
perhaps a hundred miles beyond Placerville and not far from Carson, The stories coming in seemed incredible, yet this region was in the next ten years to yield $80,000,- 000 worth of bullion, mostly silver; to make celebrated the "Comstock Lode"; and to raise to world renown the names of the "Bonanza Kings," Mackay, Flood, O'Brien and Pair. The letter ran:
"Our library is closed for the present, as they are removing to a new building, put up expressly for the purpose, where there will be ample room. However, I have out a bulky folio — 'Constitutional History of the United States' — so that I am well supplied with reading matter. Do you read much? What books do you read, tell me ? How I would like to read with you. We can hardly enjoy alone, and my list of acquaint- ances contains hardly one who reads more than the newspapers, . . ,
"We have reports of several rich discoveries of the precious metals, but I hardly think much faith can be placed in them. From present indications there will be a great rush to Washoe in the spring. There is sil- ver there in plenty — of that there can be little doubt — but still there will be many disappointments. One thing is certain — you don't catch me running off anywhere until pretty certain that there is something to be made. I have given up the notion of mining — at least for the present."
Other letters to and from home throw light upon events. From his mother (February 3) :
"I really think you are not doing anything more there than you would do at home, at least it amounts to the same thing after expenses are deducted, I hope when you are of age you will see it so, and conclude that for- tunes can be made at home as well as abroad. We all say, as with one voice, when we get you home we will keep you. No more roving."
102 LIFE OF HENEY GEOEGE [1860-1861
From his father (April 16) :
"Mr. Brown has a letter of introduction to you. He spent last evening with us. I found him to be a great egotist, but he is an Englishman, and that accounts for it. Treat him politely."
From Henry George to his Sister Jennie (April 18) :
"Washoe is walled up by snow at present, preventing both shipping of the ore and prospecting. In another month when it begins to thaw up in the moimtains we will have some definite news from that locality. . . .
"I am still on the 'Home Journal.' On the 2d of September next I will be twenty-one years old, and then, if nothing happens, 1 will have a pretty good thing (comparatively) and be able to make better pay. It is only four months off, and they will fly pretty quickly. . . . I don't expect to work at printing very long after I am of age. I will then have a chance to look around and get into something that will pay better. If Washoe only equals the expectations entertained of it by sober, sensible men, times will be brisk here this sum- mer, and everyone will have a chance for 'a gold ring or a broken leg.'
"I3uncan the proprietor of the 'Home Journal,' bought an interest in a silver lead a short time since for a paltry sum which he could sell to-day for $15,000, and which, if it holds out as rich as the assay shows, will be an independent fortune.
"I don't read much now except the newspapers and you are getting far ahead of me in that line. It takes pretty much all my spare time to keep posted on the current topics of the day. What a time we live in, when great events follow one another so quickly that we have not space for wonder. We are driving at a killing pace somewhere — Emerson says to heaven, and Carlyle says to the other place; but however much they differ, go we Burely do.
Age, 21-22] JOINS A METHODIST CHUECH 103
"I am invited out to-morrow evening to join a read- ing circle, and if it don't rain will make my debut in polite society on the Coast. Would you like to see me make my bow, or hear me break down when I come to some hard word? But I will do no such thing. I am not as bashful as I used to be. . . .
"You *do' some pretty heavy reading for a young girl. I wouldn't be so afraid of novels. A good one is al- ways instructive, and your taste is sufficiently culti- vated to allow you to like no other. I never read them, but then it is solely because I have not time and am obliged to take my mental food in as condensed a form as possible.
"I have changed my quarters again, and am now rooming in the northern part of the town. I have a long walk to breakfast, but it gives me a good appetite.
"I am sorry anything was wrong about X 's mar- riage. However, the more I see of men and things, and the more I examine the workings of my own heart, the less inclined am I to judge anybody else."
It was at this period, that, urged on by his mother's strong counsel, Henry George pushed out to make social acquaintances. He won the friendship of two young men named Coddington and Hoppel, and through them became acquainted with some young ladies. Both of these young men were ardent Methodists — Hoppel an enthusiast, al- most a fanatic, and he urged George to attend his church. The young printer had for several years inwardly shrunk from a literal acceptance of the scriptures, such as he had been taught at old St. Paul's and in the family circle. Roving had bred, or at any rate quickened a revolt, so that, though he said little to hurt the feelings of others, and especially of the dear ones at home, he had come to reject almost completely the forms of religion, and with the forms had cast out belief in a life hereafter. He in- clined towards materialism. But the burning enthusi-
104 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [I86O-I86I
asm of Hoppel, even if it expressed in the main only personal magnetism, was contagious to a sensitive, sympa- thetic nature; and George began to have new thoughts about religion. Drawn by this, and the desire to make acquaintances, he accepted Hoppel's oifer, and went with him to the Methodist place of worship, where an upright, earnest, broad-minded man, Eev. S. D. Simonds, preached. Then the young printer wrote home that he had joined a church. Understanding this to mean more than he in- tended to convey, the quiet circle at Philadelphia received the news with a delight that was only little lessened when they afterwards learned that it was the Methodist and not the Episcopal Church to which he had attached him- self. His mother wrote to him (July 2) :
''With what thrilling joy did we read your last letter. Good news! Good news! Indeed, so unexpected, so intensely joyful that copious tears streamed from my eyes; but they were tears of joy and gratitude.
"Oh, how much better the Lord has been to us than we have deserved. How weak our faith, that God's rich blessings and overflowing goodness and sure promise should take us by surprise. I now desire to say, 'Bless the Lord, 0 my soul and all that is within me, bless His holy name. For Thou hast delivered the soul of my child from death, and his feet from falling. I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the name of the Lord.'
"Your father will tell you, too, the heartfelt joy with which he received the news. Not all the wealth of Cali- fornia would have caused a tithe of it. We feel now that our boy is safe; his feet are upon the rock. Let the waters lash and surge, the trials and troubles of life come, he is safe as long as he clings to the Cross of Christ in humble, trusting faith. You know our beautiful hymn, 'Eock of Ages.' Turn to it if you have forgotten it. How soothing and comforting its lan- guage! With God for your guide, my dear child, you will be safe and happy everywhere.
Age, 21-22] COMES OP AGE 105
" *He that dwelleth in the secret places of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, He is my refuge, and my fortress ; my God, in Him will I trust/ "
On September 2, 1860, Henry George came of age. He immediately joined the Eureka Typographical Union, and leaving his old boy's position, obtained work as substitute type-setter on the daily papers at journeyman's wages. This irregular work lasted but a short time. He soon returned to the "Home Journal" as foreman at thirty dollars a week, and allowed the use of his name as pub- lisher. But shortly afterwards he wrote home that, the paper being weak, he did not know how long the posi- tion might last.
Up to this time frequent reference was made to a desire to visit home, but on the 12th of October, while he was yet foreman on the "Home Journal," Henry George for the first time met, through the offices of his friend, George Wilbur, a girl who was to affect the whole course of his career — Miss Annie Corsina Fox — the occasion being the quiet celebration of her seventeenth birthday.
Miss Fox was an orphan who had just returned from a convent school at Los Angeles, California, which was then a pretty Spanish town. She was of Catholic faith, and of mingled English and Irish blood. Her father, John Fox, an officer in the British army, was of English parentage and Protestant faith. He was thirty-six years old when he married, in Australia, Elizabeth A. McCloskey, a strict Catholic and scarcely out of her sixteenth year. Miss McCloskey was one of the four children, two sons and two daughters, of Henry McCloskey, who was born in Lim- erick, Ireland. His wife, Mary Ann Wall, born in Emiis, County Clare, came of an educated family, having three brothers graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, two of whom had become clergymen in the English Established
106 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [I88O-I86I
Church. She herself was a woman of refined and intel- lectual mind, and strong, commanding nature. Henry MeCloskey inherited an established business and was him- self a successful man. He had the roving spirit and took his family to Australia and thence to California, stopping for a period in the Hawaiian, or as they were then more commonly called. Sandwich Islands. In Syd- ney and in Honolulu the family lived in ample means, Henry MeCloskey carrying on an important iron-monger- ing business, and deriving large profits from government contracts which were invested in real estate. He settled his family in California in 1851, and two years later re- turned to build a railroad in South Australia, where he contracted a fever and died. He was then fifty-four years old and on his way to a big fortune.
But before the family left Australia Major Fox had come to a disagreement with his wife's mother. She had urged the marriage, and when asked subsequently how it was that though staunch Catholic and intense Irish pa- triot, she had consented to her daughter's marrying a man who was a Protestant and wore a red coat, the reply was that she had been "a mother first and a Catholic afterwards," and had given her sweet, gentle daughter to a soldier and gentleman who could protect her in the new, rough country that Australia then was. Discord between the gentleman and his wife's mother at length ran so high that he requested his wife to choose