agricultural villages to which his ministry called him. Accordingly, although young Cleveland lived a rural life as a boy, it was a life pulsating with the commercial energy which was then active from the Hudson all along the Mohawk and the Genesee as far as the shores of the Lakes.

As the household grew in numbers, it became necessary to find employment for the elder boys. The young Grover returned when 14 years of age from Clinton to Fayetteville to make his first experience of practical work, being appointed a clerk or salesman in the village store at a salary of 50 dollars the first year, and 100 dollars the second. This start in the business of life is not suggestive of adventure, as were the earlier years of Jackson or Lincoln. The career of Mr. Cleveland brings us to a widely different period of American history,-much more diverse than the dates alone would lead us to expect.

Such a beginning of the struggle for subsistence has not the romantic simplicity which one associates with the youth of Webster, passed amidst the remains of Indian encampments, or of Garfield, a boat driver on a canal in Ohio. Both these celebrated men experienced in different localities what Mr. Phelps calls "the poverty of the frontier,” and acquired that aptness of resource and freedom from routine which flourish in new settlements. Cleveland's experience was of a different kind, more suited, perhaps, to lay the foundations of useful work at a period when the growth of population and the pressure of industrial rivalry present an entirely new series of problems. From the village school he passed to the village shop; not an inappropriate training for

the statesman whose work was to be done in the era of peace and commercial progress that followed on the Civil War. This first practical business, concerned with small retail transactions in the general store of a rural district, was the preparation for those studies which have made. Mr. Cleveland the arbitrator between the various tariff and currency parties, between the capitalists and manufacturers of the Eastern States and the small farmer and store-keeper of the agricultural States in the wide West.

Before he had completed two years in this humble situation, his father called him home in the hope of carrying out arrangements to secure him a University education; but he had made little progress with his new course of studies when death cut off Richard Fally Cleveland, and further educational schemes had to be postponed in order to enable the elder children to aid in the support of the widow and the younger members of the family.

His elder brother, William, was already engaged as a teacher in the Institution for the Blind in New York, and here he was able to find a place for Grover as a clerk and book-keeper at a considerable advance on the salary he had been receiving in the country store. An anecdote is related of him which shows, at this early age, the sturdy character lying beneath his patient exterior and unobtrusive manner. Stricken with sorrow, a stranger in a great city, the rustic lad attracted the sympathy of a pupil teacher in the Institution older than himself. She shared his taste for poetry, and he read her passages from Moore and Byron when opportunity allowed. On one occasion she asked him to copy out one of these poems; the manager of the Institution coming into his office found him engaged

in copying under Miss Crosby's direction, and at once said to her, "When you want Mr. Cleveland to copy a piece for you I will thank you to come and ask me." As soon as the superintendent left, young Cleveland pointed out to his friend that she ought not to submit passively to be lectured in that way, and arranged with her to make him a similar request the following day, when she would be prepared to reprove her critic. The meddlesome official was again on the alert, but rebuked for his interference; he never returned to the subject.*

After a year's stay in New York, Cleveland made up his mind to follow the movement which was then in full vigour, and join the stream of settlers who were migrating from the East into the Western States. The rising city of Cleveland, in Ohio, was his goal, and, accompanied by a friend also bent on making his way in the newer States, he left New York in 1855. After a visit to his mother at Holland Patent he pushed on to Buffalo, then the most progressive of the cities in this flourishing region of the great Lakes. This community numbered some 4000 at the beginning of the century, and now claims a population of 255,000.

Here dwelt an uncle of Cleveland's, named Allen; and the young men called to see him on their journey west. Apparently, there was no thought at first of finding any occupation for the lad of seventeen in this bustling locality. Mr. Allen owned a large farm on an island in the Niagara River, and was celebrated as a breeder of short-horns. He was at this time preparing, in connection with his business, a descriptive catalogue called the American Life of Grover Cleveland, by G. F. PARKER, p. 18.

*

Short-horn Herd Book. Struck with the intelligence of his nephew, he proposed that Cleveland should suspend his scheme of seeking employment among strangers, and devote some time to helping him with this book.

After some months' labour bestowed on the Herd Book, an opportunity arose for getting young Cleveland into a lawyer's office, and this was readily embraced, for the legal profession had been the boy's ambition.

In his new position he succeeded so well that by the end of the year he was permanently engaged by the firm of Messrs. Brown and Rogers.

It was at work in their chambers that he laid the foundation of those great legal acquirements which placed him at the head of his profession before his election to high position in the Government. In 1857 he was called to the bar, and, following the American custom, entered into partnership with other members of the profession.

To his first arrival in Buffalo he referred, in subsequent years, when a candidate for the Governorship of New York State.

"I can but remember to-night the time when I came among you friendless, unknown, and poor; I can but remember how step by step, by the encouragement of my good fellow citizens, I have gone on to receive more of their appreciation than is my due, until I have been honoured with more distinction than I deserve."

He was appointed in 1863 assistant District Attorney for the county of Erie, the county in which Buffalo is situated, and at the expiration of his period of employment he entered into partnership with a law firm under the style of Laning, Cleveland, and Folsom. In 1870 his friends persuaded him to stand for the office of Sheriff, a request

which he hesitated to accept, as his practice had become very remunerative; but three years' tenure of this office gave him a useful knowledge of general affairs, and on his return to private professional practice his income became larger than ever. He was the head of the firm of Cleveland, Bissell, and Sicard, when he was elected Governor of New York in 1882.

His success at the bar was due to his grasp of facts and lucidity of statement, not to any display of rhetoric. From the first, his reputation was that of a man of great vigour and industry, whose knowledge and uprightness won the respect of the judges and of his own profession. He was too well employed to take an active part in politics; and, indeed, it is not the custom in the Union for the industrious or orderly to join in the turmoil of public meetings. These are left to the professional politicians and their satellites. But Mr. Cleveland, we learn, was always ready to do such share of public work as the habits of his country, and his professional occupation, made possible. On election days he regularly assisted in distributing the ballot papers. He paid his subscription to the party funds, and took his place in the customary demonstrations. Twice he had received local nominations, standing as District Attorney for Erie County in 1865, when he was unsuccessful, and being elected Sheriff in 1870. But these appointments, although they were made by a popular vote, were to posts connected with his professional work; and it was only when he was elected, ten years afterwards, Mayor of Buffalo, that he can be said to have really applied himself to public matters. Up to that time he was an active member of the community, gaining