Some one having told Friend Hopper of an apprentice who was cruelly
treated, he caused investigation to be made, and took the lad under his
own protection. As he was much bent upon going to sea, he was placed in
a respectable boarding-house for sailors, till a fitting opportunity
could be found to gratify his inclination. One day, a man in the employ
of this boarding-house brought a bill to be paid for the lad. He was
very ragged, but his manners were those of a gentleman, and his
conversation showed that he had been well educated. His appearance
excited interest in Friend Hopper's mind, and he inquired into his
history. He said his name was Levi Butler; that he was of German
extraction, and had been a wealthy merchant in Baltimore, of the firm of
Butler and Magruder. He married a widow, who had considerable property,
and several children. After her death, he failed in business, and gave
up all his own property, but took the precaution to secure all her
property to her children. His creditors were angry, and tried various
ways to compel him to pay them with his wife's money. He was imprisoned
a long time. He petitioned the Legislature for release, and the
committee before whom the case was brought made a report in his favor,
highly applauding his integrity in not involving his own affairs with
the property belonging to his wife's children, who had been intrusted to
his care. Poverty and persecution had broken down his spirits, and when
he was discharged from prison he left Baltimore and tried to obtain a
situation as clerk in Philadelphia. He did not succeed in procuring
employment. His clothes became thread-bare, and he had no money to
purchase a new suit. In this situation, some people to whom he applied
for employment treated him as if he were an impostor. In a state of
despair he went one day to drown himself. But when he had put some heavy
stones in his pocket to make him sink rapidly, he seemed to hear a voice
calling to him to forbear; and looking up, he saw a man watching him. He
hurried away to avoid questions, and passing by a sailor's
boarding-house, he went in and offered to wait upon the boarders for his
food. They took him upon those terms; and the gentleman who had been
accustomed to ride in his own carriage, and be waited upon by servants,
now roasted oysters and went of errands for common seamen. He was in
this forlorn situation, when accident introduced him to Friend Hopper's
notice. He immediately furnished him with a suit of warm clothes; for
the weather was cold, and his garments thin. He employed him to post up
his account-books, and finding that he did it in a very perfect manner,
he induced several of his friends to employ him in a similar way.
A brighter day was dawning for the unfortunate man, and perhaps he might
have attained to comfortable independence, if his health had not failed.
But he had taken severe colds by thin clothing and exposure to inclement
weather. A rapid consumption came on, and he was soon entirely unable to
work. Under these circumstances, the best Friend Hopper could do for him
was to secure peculiar privileges at the alms-house, and surround him
with, all the little comforts that help to alleviate illness. He visited
him very often, until the day of his death, and his sympathy and kind
attentions were always received with heartfelt gratitude.