"My country, 'tis of thee!" or, The United States of America; past, present and future. A philosophic view of American history and of our present status, to be seen in the Columbian exhibition

Front matter

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Chapter I

Classic legends of Atlantis — Chinese and Japanese accounts of early voyages to America — Prince Madoc and the Welsh legends — The royages of the Vikings — Eric and Leif and their adventures — Columbus and his schemes — The most memorable voyage in history — Post-Columbian voyagers and explorers — Many men from many lands flocking to the newly-discovered continent — A new world opened to the civilization and to the greed of Europe 17

CHAPTER n.

" IN THE GOOD OLD COLONY TIMES."

Parcelling out the country — Foundation of the earliest colonies — Jamestown and its settlers — Strange improvidence of the colonists — Troubles with the Indians — ^John Smith and Pocahontas — The Pilgrims and Puritans — Substantial growth of the New England Colonies — New York — Troubles with the Mother Country — Growth of the spirit of independence — The War of the Revolution and its results 60

Chapter III. The Story Of The Nation

Establishing a constitutional goverimient — Disputes with other powers — A second war with England — Territorial acquisitions — Settlement and admission of new States — The slavery question — War with Mexico — The rush for gola in California — The Kansas troubles — How the great war was precipitated — The campaigns from Bull Run to Appomattox — Political results of the war — Rapid growth of the country since — The present state of the nation 105

CONTENTS. 7

Chapter IV

world's fairs.

The oiigiri wiitJ iAjject of universal exhibitions — New York's Crystal Palace — Spin! and hopes of its projectors — Its display of the nation's greatness — The Centennial Exposition of 1S76 — Magnitude of the enterprise — Description of its hundred buildings — Calendar of events — An impressive exposition of national development . . 146

Chapter V. The Columbian Exposition

PreparatioLS for a ceJebration of the quartercentenary of Columbus — Chrcago chosen as the site — Marvelous history of the Western Metropolis — How the Columbian Exhibition was organized — Sketches of its promoters — The principal buildings and grounds — Financial arrangements — An exhibition surj^assing all its predecessors and fittingly commemorating the birth of a new world 204

Chapter VI

society's foundation-stone.

Marriage Customs in the United States — Shiploads of women disposed of as wives to the earlier Virginia Planters — The Marriage Relation should be closely guarded — Divorced people, have they moral right to remarry ? — A rich man and a stupid wife — Drifting apart — Duty of the Church — Views of a happy wife — Novels, love and marriage — " Beauty and the Beast " — An insulting imputation — Is it the " best match? " — Marriage blunders . . 247

CHAPTER Vn.

THE DEMON OF DIVORCE.

Marriage not a failure — Rev. David Swing's caustic comment — Views of Rabbi Silverman — Ileartlessness of Divorce Court proceedings -Divorced persons debarred by the Queen of England — Sufferings of the children — " Vice is a monster of such hideous mien" — Shall we have a Constitutional Amendment restricting divorce ? — Views of Bishop Foss and Bishop Whittaker — Position of the Catholic Churcii and of the Hebrews — " Church union cannot be combated"— "Burn the bridges" .,-... 260

8 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VIII. THE farmer's troubles

Encumbered with mortgage^ — Energy of the farmer — Lack of capital — Labor — The farmer's children and city life — " The borrower is servant to the lender" — The census valuation of farm lands — Hiram Sibley, the millionaire farmer — Twelve Vermont farms — The Western farmer and the railroads — Co-operative stores — "Land-poor" — Government aid for the farmers .... 272

Chapter IX

the rum power.

Harm done by the liquor traffic — Views of Bishop Warren, of the Methodist Church — Miss Frances Willard's views — " Petroleum" Nasby — Rum in politics — Channing's aphorism — Rev. Theodore Cuyler's summary of statistics — Causes of drunkenness — Ways to reclaim the unfortunates — Control the demon by law — Public opinion — Bishop Foss' reply — Restrictive measures . . . 2S8

CHAPTER X, NATIONAL defence

Our harbors useless — Caught napping by England — Troops and the Indians — General Sheridan's last report — General Sherman's protests — Congressional inactivity — Admiral Porter hammerirg af Congress — A blast from the late Samuel J. Tilden — Desertions from the army — Statistics from General Schofield's report — Frontier life for the soldier — Major Sumner's plan .... 303

Chapter XI. Labor

Laboring men — Their mistakes and their grievances — Labor sure to be imposed upon — Driving a sharp bargain — Low wages resulting from competition — A laborer in chains recently brought for sale into the market-place of a New England town — But the people rise in their wrath — Does practical slavery exist in the United States ? — Coal miners and factory hands compared with the consistados of South America — Th^ store system of credits — Resulting evils to the laborers . . . , . . . . .3^^

Chapter XII. Self-help For Labor

The importanca of being a "full-handed workman "—5w^f«^/

CONTENTS. 9

TmeclirYiiics know more than one branch of business — This quality developed in new countries — Votes of laborers controlled by corporations — A curious experience in the West .... 336

Chapter XIII. Immigration

America is a home — Not an asylum — Liberty is not license — No paupers need apply — Nor any contract laborers — Skilled labor welcome, if it comes to stay — Immigrant farmers will do us good — Too much huriy in granting citizenship — Foreign faction fights must not be kept up here — Transplanted stock improves rapidly . 351

Chapter XIV. Annexation

We don't want the earth — We need more neighbors — Not more children — Non-assimilative races would weaken us — The Old World's experience at land-grabbing — Let Canada alone till she wants us — Likewise Mexico — We have enough discordant interests now — We don't want to pay other nations' debts ..... 368

Chapter XV. The Indian

He has stopped fighting — Let us stop robbing him — The Indian will work — He has plenty of brains — Capacity for education abundantly proved — Records of the experiment at Hnmpton — He knows a good thing when he sees it — The beneficent effects of the Dawes bill — Even the Apaches have worked as good as white

men 3S5

Chapter XVI. The Press

The editor is the nation's schoolmaster — Also the most trusty advocate of the people's rights — He brings the people together in spirit and purpose — Always ahead of Congress and the government — Rapid improvement of the newspaper — Independence in journalism — Trial by newspaper 399

Chapter XVII. The School-room

Boys and girls who are to be men and women — The schools are behind the times — Too much fuss and too little gain — Discipline which costs too much — Heads stuffed, but hands and hearts neglected — Faults of teaching — About faculties benumbed by rouiO CONTENTS.

tine work — What has been done can be done —The country boy ahead ...

Chapter XVIII. Railroads

Rights and wrongs of the great transportation corporations — What they liave done for the country and what the country has done for them — Era of construction closed and an era of restriction and regulation begun — Why railroad officials become millionaires — Watering stock — A curious question which will be raised one of these days 431

Chapter XIX. Banks And Banking

New York no longer the sole dictator in the money market — Why Western business men are now independent of metropolitan money-lenders — The increase of "reserve cities"- — Banking methods to dodge the laws — How unscrupulous bank directors get rich — Why so many cashiers go to Canada and how to stop them — Noted living bankers 455

Chapter XX. Our Cities

Cities are necessary evils — But greatly to be avoided — City life is dangerous to most persons — Unnatural influences are inevitable — Hard on the purse and hard on the heart — Poverty's last refuge — The home of the thief — The touch of nature lost — Temptations innumerable — Restraints few — No place for country boys and girls — City forms of government must change — The Darker Side — The sorrows of the city poor — Friendless and alone — Miserable homes — Health and morals menaced — All depends on one life — Chances and misfortunes — Sickness and death — The story of the Ganges paralleled — The majority are industrious — An army of heroes — Religion and rum their only comforts — Child work and child ruin — Benevolence wearied and despairing .... 4S1

. CHAPTER XXI.

RELIGION.

Religion is in no danger — The letter suffers but the spirit grows — Essentials were never more prominent — The tree is judged by its fruit — Proselyting has gone out of date — Denominations have ceased to fight — A life as well as a faith 5^9

CONTENTS. 11

Chapter XXII. Woman And Her Work

One " woman's right " secured— She has a chance almost everywhere —The liberation of man— Woman's wits sharpen quickly— Advantages over male workers— Woman need not marry for a home— The tables turned— Some effects upon society— Never enslaved unless stupid-The " Song of the Shirt "—The coming generation 517

Chapter XXIII. Our Literature

A nation of readers — Books to be found everywhere — The Sunday- School library — Chautauqua's great work — The American author

is a busy man — Good books make their way, sooner or later

Abler men should go into authorship— Our literature making its way abroad — American writers' characteristics— Our literature is clean, earnest and hopeful c,j

Chapter XXIV. American Humor

The salt that will save us — A nation of jokers— Our Puritan and cavalier ancestors were fond of fun— President Lincoln's jokes- Humor in the pulpit— Fun in the newspapers — Prentice — Mark Twain — Nasby — Nye and Riley— Miles O'Reilley — "Uncle Remus"— John Hay— "Bob" Burdetle— All healthy fun— No malignity in our jokes — The best-natured people alive . . . 547

Chapter XXV. The Higher Education

A land full of colleges — How these institutions began to exist- , Tributes to American regard for intelligence and education — Something better needed — No lack of money — Views of Presidents Dwight of Yale, Eliot of Harvard, McCosh of Princeton, White of Cornell, Bartlett of Dartmouth, and Oilman of Johns Hopkins- Bishop Potter on the place of the scholar in America . . . c66

CHAPTER XXVT.

OUR GREAT CONCERN.

Our country first and foremost — No sectional differences — No foreign interests or entanglements — The people first, the party afterward — Loyalty to parly means disloyalty to the republic — Meddlers must be suppressed — All in the family — One for all and all for one — E Pluriliis Unum 597

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FACING PAGE

Bird's-eye View of Grounds and Buildings, Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1892-93, . . Frontispiece

Christopher Columbus, ^7

Landing of Columbus, 32

Washington, 49

Residence of the President of the United States,

1798, ^4

Abraham Lincoln, 81

World's Fair, New York, 1853, 96

Main Building, International Centennial Exhibition,

1876, "3

Libby Prison, 128

Independence Hall, Philadelphia, I45

Chicago in 1856, 160

Chicago Street Life— Washington Street and Wabash

Avenue, I77

U. S. Grant, 192

The Capitol, 209

Bear Pit (Lincoln Park) 224

The Auditorium Hotel, 241

Bird's-eye View of the Proposed Buildings of the

University of Chicago 256

14 UST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FACING PAGE

Tacoma Building, 273

Residence of Hon. Potter Palmer, 288

Mines Building, 305

U. S. Man-of-War, 320

Agricultural Building, 337

Perspective View Looking South, Showing Knd of

World's Columbian Exposition, 352

Administration Building, 369

Electrical Building, 384

Gallery of Fine Arts, 401

Transportation Building, 416

Horticultural Hall, 433

Fisheries and Agricultural, 448

Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, ' 465

Machinery Hall, .• 480

Woman's Building, 497

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

"MY COUNTRY, 'TIS OF THEE."

B

Chapter I. The Age Of Discovery

EGINNING with the year 1492, the date of the first voyage of Columbus, necessarily leaves a great part of American history untold. Every nation's story begins in the middle ; back of Leonidas are the Homeric heroes ; Romulus and Remus antedate the Tarquins. So, centuries before the clear glory of Columbus, we have tradition of various shadowy explorers whose strange barques visited our shores. Unless we grant the earliest inhabitants of America an autochthonic origin, it seems most reasonable to suppose that they came from Asia. Such authorities as Humboldt, Bancroft, and Prescott declare it their opinion that the monuments, the systems of cosmogony, the methods of computing time, etc., all point to an ancient communication with eastern Asia. It is certain that from time immemorial constant intercourse has been kept up between the natives of either side of Bering's Strait, and it is very probable that the original immigrants came that way. There are other possible routes — the Aleutian Islands and 2 17

Polynesia are the two next favored by the authorities.

There is a distinct trace of Japanese blood in many of the native tribes of the northwest coast, and we have too many modern instances of Japanese junks drifting upon the American coast, after floating for months at the mercy of the Pacific currents, to doubt the possibility of prehistoric visits of these people. What is known as the " black stream," or Japan current, runs northward past the eastern coast of the Japanese Islands, then curves to the east and south, passing the west coast of America and moving toward the Sandwich Islands. This current, it is said, would carry a drifting vessel toward the American coast at the rate of ten miles a day.

The theory which supposes the people, or at least the civilization, of America to be of Eg3^ptian origin is based upon analogies existing between the architecture, hieroglyphics, and various customs of the two countries. But even where these analogies bear the test of close examination, they can scarcely be said to prove anything. In western Asia the Phoenicians — those bold voyagers — and their children, the Carthagenians, are given the honor of settling America. The records of their travels show that they knew of a country lying far to the west. In the writings of Diodorus Siculus is an elaborate account of a wonderful island in the Atlantic Ocean, far bethe: agr of discovery. 19

yond the Pillars of Hercules, and mauy days' journey from tlie coast of Africa. This happy land, fertile of soil, beautiful of scenery, and perfect of climate, was accidentally discovered by Phoenician sailors, whose barque was driven thither by contrary winds. On their return they gave such glowing accounts of the new country that large colonies of Tyrians left their native land to settle there. This may have been America, but is more likely to have been the Canary Islands.

Volumes have been written to prove that America was settled by the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

In old Welsh annals there is an account of a colony established in the tw^elfth century by Madoc, one of the sons of Owen Gwynedd, prince of North Wales. After the death of this monarch, his sons waged w-ar. against each other for the sovereignty. Madoc became disgusted with contention, and determined to leave his native country and establish a kingdom of his own, as far away as possible from the quarreling of his brothers. He set sail, with what followers he could muster, and for many months bore westward. At length they came to a large and favorable country, and, having sailed for some distance along the coast, they found a landing-place to their liking and disembarked. Some years later, Madoc returned to Wales and persuaded a large

20 " MY COUNTRY, 'TTS OF THEE."

number of liis countrymen to join the colon3^ Ten ships were fitted out with all manner of supplies, and many families set sail for the new land. Of their further adventures the records are silent.

An Irish discovery of America is also claimed. St. Patrick is said to have sent missionaries thither. There is every reason to believe that Irish sailors could have reached, by accident or otherwise, the shores of our continent, but there is no reason at all to believe that they did.

But these are all speculations, fairy stories, myths. Coming down to sober facts, there are but two historical documents of real value bearing upon the discovery of America before Columbus. One of these documents is Chinese, the other Scandinavian,

The Chinese document is an extract from the of&cial records, and sets forth the adventures of a Buddhist priest named Hwui Shin, the same being related by him after his return from a country lying very far to the eastward. This country is claimed by some to have been Japan, but others claim that it was America. The weight of evidence certainly inclines toward the latter theory. The historian begins his account with the statement that, in order to reach the new continent, it is necessar}^ to set out from the coast of the province Leao-tong, to the north of Peking, reaching Japan after a journey of twelve

THK AGE OF DISCOVERY. 21

thousand // — that is, about four thousand miles. Sailing northward seven thousand //, one reaches the kingdom of Wen-shin. Five thousand // eastward is the country of Ta-han. Twenty thousand li beyond is the new world — which the record names as the country of Fu-sang.

Perhaps we cannot do better than to present the original record, as translated by Professor S. Wells Williams :

" In the first year of the reign, Yung-yuen, of the Bmperor Tung Hwa.n-han, of the Tsi dynasty (A. D. 499), a Shaman priest named Hwui Shin arrived at King-chau from the kingdom of Fu-sang. He related as follows :

'' ' Fu-saiig lies east of the kingdom of Ta-han more than twenty thousand li ; it is also east of the Middle Kingdom (China). It produces many fii-saiig trees, from which it derives its name. The leaves of i)i& fu-sang resemble those of the iung tree. It sprouts forth like the bamboo, and the people eat the shoots. Its fruits resemble the pear, but it is red ; the bark is spun into cloth for dresses and woven into brocade. The houses are made of planks. There are no walled cities with gates. The (people) use characters and writing, making paper from the bark oiih^fu-saitg. There are no mailed soldiers, for they do not carry on war. The law of the land prescribes a southern and a northern prison. Criminals convicted of light crimes are put into the former, and those guilty of grievous offenses into the hitter. Criminals, when pardoned, are let out of the southern prison, but those in the northern prison are not pardoned. Prisoners in the latter marry. Their boys become bondmen when they are eight years old and the girls bondwomen when nine years old. Convicted prisoners are not allowed to leave their prison while alive. When a nobleman (or an ofScial) has been convicted of crime, the great assembly of the nation meets and places the criminal in a hollow (or pit) ; they set a feast, with wine, before him, and then take leave of him. If the sentence is a capital one, at the time they separate they surround (the body) with ashes. For crimes of the first grade the sentence involves only the person of the culprit ; for the second it reaches the children and grandchildren ; while the third extends to the seventh generation.

" ' The king of this country is \.^r\n^^ yueh-ki ; the highest rank of nobles is called tiii-li ; the next, little tui-Ii ; and the lowest, 7io-clia-sha. When the king goes abroad, he is preceded and followed by drummers and trumpeters. The color of his robes varies with the years in the cycle containing the ten stems. It is azure in the first two years ; in the second two years it is red ; it is yellow in the third, white in the fourth, and black in the last two years. There are oxen with long horns, so long that they will hold

THE AGE- OF DISCOVP^RY. 23

things — the biggest as much as five pecks. Vehicles are drawn by oxen, horses, and deer, for the people of that land rear deer just as the Chinese rear cattle, and make cream of their milk. They have red pears, which will keep a year without spoiling ; water-rushes and peaches are common. Iron is not found in the ground, though copper is ; they do not prize gold or silver, and trade is conducted without rent, duty, or fixed prices.

" ' In matters of marriage, it is the law that the (intending) son-in-law must erect a hut before the door of the girl's house, and must sprinkle and sweep the place morning and evening for a whole year. If she then does not like him, she bids him depart ; but if she is pleased with him they are married. The bridal ceremonies are, for the most part, like those of China. A fast of seven days is observed for parents at their death, five for grandparents, and three days for brothers, sisters, uncles, or aunts. Images to represent their spirits are set up, before which they worship and pour out libations morning and evening ; but they wear no mourning or fillets. The successor of the king does not attend personally to government afiairs for the first three 3^ears. In olden times they knew nothing of the Buddhist religion, but during the reign Ta-ming of the Emperor Hiao Wu-ti, of the Lung dynasty (A. D. 458), from Ki-pin five beggar priests went there. They traveled over the kingdom, everywhere making known the laws, canons, and images of that faith. Priests of regular ordination were set apart among the natives, and the customs of the country became reformed.' "

There are several other narratives which relate to Fu-sang, or to countries near it in situation. This, of them all, seems to describe most truthfully a real country. Fu-sang may have been Japan, or it may have been Mexico. Hwui Shin's account differs very widely in some of its details, from our knowledge of either.

All the literature of the subject of Chinese discoveries of America has been examined and reviewed in Mr. B. P. Vining's excellent book^ An Inglorious Columbus. Mr. Vining believes Fu-sang to be Mexico, and t\\Q. fu-sang tree, in his view, is the maguey.

When we come to the Scandinavian records, we find much that is not only plausible but indisputable evidence of the validity of their claims. We know that the Scandinavian vikings, splendid old rascals, in their many-oared galleys, often sailed far out into the waters of the Atlantic. In the year 860, one of these glorious cut-throats, Naddoddr (pronounce it if you can !), was blown upon the coast of Iceland. In 876 a similar experience befell another viking, and he reported having seen in the distance the coast of an unknown shore.

In the year 981, Brie the Red, an outlaw of

Iceland, sailed in searcli of this coast, and, finding it, set a bad example to future real estate dealers by naming its bleak length Greenland.

Subsequent to this discovery, according to the sagas of Iceland, frequent visits to the south were made, and one Bjarni, distancing all previous explorers, found a fertile country to which he gave the name of Vinland. This was in the 3^ear 985, and, although the stories of these exploits are vague and untrustworthy enough in detail, there seems little doubt that Bjarni really visited the eastern coast of America at that date.

No attempt was made at colonization ; indeed, it is not recorded that the galleys of Bjarni stopped at the new land at all. The wind which had carried them thither changed suddenly, and they were borne back to Iceland, where it is safe to presume that they all got uproariously drunk, and did a great deal of bragging on the strength of their adventure.

The second voyage to the new country was made by Leif, son of Eric the Red, about the year 1000. He touched first a barren land covered with icy mountains which he named Helluland. Spreading sail again he turned the prow of his vessel southward until he reached a level country with trees and grassy slopes. This he called Markland. Two days sailing brought the vessel to an island at which the sailors disembarked, for the weather was warm and the sigHt of land alluring. They stayed here for a few hours and then steered for the mainland. A river flowed out from a lake, and in this lake they anchored, carried the luggage from the ship, and built themselves houses. It was the most beautiful, the most fertile land they had ever seen, and they resolved to spend the winter there. One of the boldest of them left his companions to the enjoyment of the salmon fishing in the river and lake, and devoted himself to exploring the surrounding country. He found quantities of wine-berries (probably grapes), and with these berries and with some wood they loaded their ship and set sail for Greenland.

Seven years later another expedition was fitted out with three ships, and under command of this same Leif. They sailed far to the southward and finally came to a promontory, to the right of which lay a long, sandy beach. On this beach, or rather on a tongue of land that ran out from it, they found the keel of a ship. They called this point, Kjlarnes (Keel Cape), and the beach, Furdustrandir (Long Strand).

When the expedition set out. King Olaf Tryggvason gave Lief two famous runners, a Scotch man and woman, named Haki and Hekja. These people were set on shore shortly after they had passed Furdustrandir, and ordered to run to the south, explore the country and return iu tliree days. At tlie end of the designated period they returned, the man bringing a bunch of wine-berries and the woman an ear of wheat. This was promising, and the expedition voted to continue the southward course.

Coming to a bay in which was an island around which flowed rapid currents, they gave it the name of Straumey (Stream Island). The island was so covered with the nests of eider ducks that it was difficult to step without treading on the eggs. Here they resolved to tarry, and, unloading the vessels, built habitations. Whether they stayed a long or a short time, and what adventures befell them, of good or evil, we know not.

A fuller record is that of Karlsefne, who with another hero, Snorro, and our old friend Bjarni, sailed southward a long time until they came to the river which ran out through the lake into the sea. The river was too shallow to allow the ships to enter without high water. Karlsefne sailed with his men into its mouth, and named the place Hop. Here were found fields of wild wheat, and on the high ground wine-berries grew abundantly. The woods were full of game and the men found plenty of amusement for a fortnight. The only remarkable thing they saw was a number of skin boats filled with swart, ugly people who rowed near the shore and gazed in astonishment at the Northmen. They liad coarse hair, large, wild eyes and broad faces. They remained gazing at Karlsefne's men for a little and then rowed away to the southward.

With these people the explorers soon established communication, trading red cloth, which the natives seemed to prefer to anything else, for skins and furs. They wished to purchase swords and spears, but these the Northmen refused to part with. As long as the red cloth held out their relations with the Skraelings, as they had named the natives, continued friendly. But one day, as the saga has it, while they were trafficking, a bull which Karlsefne had with him ran out of the wood and bellowed so fiercely that the Skraelings were frightened out of their wits, and fled in their skin boats, back to the southland.

Three weeks later great numbers of them returned, and, with loud cries, sprang on shore, prepared to do battle. Their weapons were slings, and very uncomfortable weapons they proved to be, but the Northmen stood their ground valiantly, until all of a sudden they saw the Skraelings raise on a pole something that looked like an air-filled bag of a blue color. They threw this at the enemy, and when it struck the ground it exploded violently. At this Karlsefne and his men retreated, never stopping until they gained a rocky stronghold, where they made

THK AGK OI^ DISCOVERY. 29

another stand, and at length succeeded in vanquishing the Skraelings.

Shortly afterward the expedition returned to Greenland, Man}^ other Northmen visited Vinland, according to the sagas, but no effort was made at colonization. It is a matter of conjecture as to the exact location of the country explored by them. Some writers believe it to have been Labrador, and others place it as far south as Rhode Island. The Skraelings, as they are described in the sagas, certainly resemble Esquimaux more nearly than Indians. But then we have no positive proof that the Northmen ever actually visited America at all. The presumption is that they did, but all matters of detail must necessaril}^ remain doubtful, even if we accept their narratives in the main as true.

But whatever credit is to be given to the Asiatic, Norse, or other early discoverers of America, or whatever knowledge of this hemisphere may have been possessed by Europeans in classic times, to Christopher Columbus must be ascribed the honor of opening the Western World to actual settlement by civilized man. This illustrious man was born in 1436, in all but the lowest rank -of life. His father was a woolcomber of Genoa. But the education of the lad was made as complete as the scant}^ means of his parents and the limited knowledge of that da}'- would permit. At an early age he learned to read and write.