. Wit bought, or, A New York boy's adventures when the empire state was young . HEN I was fifteen years of age I hadmade little progress in education. I couldindeed read and write, and I knew some-thing of arithmetic, but my advance beyondthis was inconsiderable. I will tell you thereason of this. In the first place, my uncle had no veryhigh estimation of what he called larnin; hewas himself a man of action, and believedthat books render people dull and stupid,rather than efficient in the business of life. He kept the village inn, which in thosedays of rum and punch was an institutionof great
. Wit bought, or, A New York boy's adventures when the empire state was young . HEN I was fifteen years of age I hadmade little progress in education. I couldindeed read and write, and I knew some-thing of arithmetic, but my advance beyondthis was inconsiderable. I will tell you thereason of this. In the first place, my uncle had no veryhigh estimation of what he called larnin; hewas himself a man of action, and believedthat books render people dull and stupid,rather than efficient in the business of life. He kept the village inn, which in thosedays of rum and punch was an institutionof great power and authority. It was com-mon, at the period of which I speak, for theChurch and inn to stand side by side in thetowns; and if one day in the week sobriety andtemperance were preached in the former, hard THE INNKEEPER. 33 drinking and licentiousness were deeplypractised in the latter during the other tavern, therefore, not only counteractedthe good effect of the preacher, but it wentfarther, and in many cases corrupted thewhole mass of the society of the In such a state of society as this, the inn-keeper was usually the most influential manin the village. Now to do my uncle justice,he was a generous, honest, and frank-heartedman. His full, ruddy countenance bespokeall this. The inn was freely and generouslykept: it was supplied with every luxury andcomfort common in those days. The proprietor of such an establishment 34 WIT BOUGHT. was necessarily at that time a man of in-fluence; and the free manners and habitsof my uncle tended to increase the powerthat his position gave him. He drank li-berally himself, and vindicated his practiceby saying that good liquor was one of thegifts of Providence,, and it was no sin—in-deed it was rather a duty—to indulge freelyin the gifts of Providence. As I have said, my uncle was opposed toeducation, and as he grew older and drankmore deeply, his prejudice against it seemedto increase. He was equally opposed to reli-gi
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