Horace Greeley had always wanted to be a printer. He liked books and
papers. He thought it would be a fine thing to learn to make them.
One day he heard that the news-paper at East Poult-ney wanted a boy to
learn the printer’s trade. He walked many long miles to see about it.
He went to see Mr. Bliss. Mr. Bliss was one of the owners of the paper.
Horace found him working in his garden. Mr. Bliss looked up. He saw a
big boy coming toward him. The boy had on a white felt hat with a
narrow brim. It looked like a half-peck measure. His hair was white.
His trousers were too short for him. All his clothes were coarse and
poor. He was such a strange-looking boy, that Mr. Bliss wanted to
laugh.
“I heard that you wanted a boy,” Horace said.
“Do you want to learn to print?” Mr. Bliss said.
“Yes,” said Horace.
“But a printer ought to know a good many things,” said Mr. Bliss. “Have
you been to school much?”
“No,” said Horace. “I have not had much chance at school. But I have
read some.”
“What have you read?” asked Mr. Bliss.
“Well, I have read some his-to-ry, and some travels, and a little of
everything.”
Mr. Bliss had ex-am-ined a great many schoolteachers. He liked to
puzzle teachers with hard questions. He thought he would try Horace
with these. But the gawky boy answered them all. This tow-headed boy
seemed to know everything.
Mr. Bliss took a piece of paper from his pocket. He wrote on it, “Guess
we’d better try him.”
He gave this paper to Horace, and told him to take it to the printing
office. Horace, with his little white hat and strange ways, went into
the printing office. The boys in the office laughed at him. But the
foreman said he would try him.
That night the boys in the office said to Mr. Bliss, “You are not going
to take that tow head, are you?”
Mr. Bliss said, “There is something in that tow-head. You boys will
find it out soon.”
[Illustration: Greeley setting Type]
A few days after this, Horace came to East Poult-ney to begin his work.
He carried a little bundle of clothes tied up in a hand-ker-chief.
The fore-man showed him how to begin. From that time he did not once
look around. All day he worked at his type. He learned more in a day
than some boys do in a month.
Day after day he worked, and said nothing. The other boys joked him.
But he did not seem to hear them. He only kept on at his work. They
threw type at him. But he did not look up.
The largest boy in the office thought he could find a way to tease him.
One day he said that Horace’s hair was too white. He went and got the
ink ball. He stained Horace’s hair black in four places. This ink stain
would not wash out. But Horace did not once look up.
After that, the boys did not try to tease him any more. They all liked
the good-hearted Horace. And everybody in the town wondered that the
boy knew so much.
Horace’s father had moved away to Penn-syl-va-ni-a. Horace sent him all
the money he could spare. He soon became a good printer. He started a
paper of his own. He became a famous news-paper man.