Biography of Elisha Kent Kane

Front matter

DR. KANE'S GREAT WOR

ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS,

Is now being read by more than five hundred thousand persons, old and

Contents

CHAPTEK I.

PAGE

Genealogy — The Maternal Line through a Century — Birth — Baptism — Childhood — Hardihood — Pugilism and Polar Practice — School-Cramps — Juvenile Polytechnics — Drift of Nature under Direction of Providence , 13

Chapter II

The Boy's Battle with the Books — His Studies at Play — Reconciliation on his own Terms, and at "Work with a Will — His Collegiate Course — Civil Engineering — System Suiting the Subject — Dangerous Illness — Self- Culture, its Limits and its Authorities — Life in a New Light — The Study of Medicine — A Student at Blockley— Character at Twenty-One — Celibacy, and a Reason for it , 29

CHAPTER III. Senior Physician at Blockley — Duties and Studies — Inaugural Thesis

Verdict of the Profession — Physiological Exploration, Methodology,

Apparatus, Certitude — Unrest, Cause and Cure — Assistant Surgeon

United States Navy — Better Health — China Mission — First Voyage —

"As it is written" — Studies Aboard — Around Bombay — Ceylon —

Tropic Life 44

CONTENTS.

Chapter IV. Page

The Forethought of Travel — Luzon — The Negritos — A Grand Ramble — A Vagrant Souvenir — Volcano of Tael, Description and History — Descent of the Crater — An IndigDant Idol — Skirmish with the Pygmies — The " Treaty Fortnight" — Ki-ying and Cushing — Antipodal Gentlemen — A Dinner — Celestial Health-Drinking — Attaches — Diplomatic Dance — Disappointment 57

Chapter V

Testimony of the Secretary and Chaplain of the Mission — Professional Practice in China — Bice-Fever Attack — Homeward — Borneo — Singapore — Sumatra — Interior India — 'Persia and Syria — The Nile, from the Sea to Sennaar — Professor Lepsius — Life at Thebes — Egyptology — Nilotic Diluvium — Boat- Wreck — Skirmish with Bedouins — Attack of the Plague 74

Chapter VI

Statue of Memnon — The Ascension, Risk, Escape — Greece traversed afoot — Germany — Switzerland — Paris — Surgical Practice in the East — A Letter — Italy — England — All the World over — A Winter at Home — Repugnance to the "Service" — Waiting Orders — Mis-sent — Coast of Guinea — Dahomey — Pattern of a King — Birthday Ode — Prerogative Royal — Magnificence — The Slave-Trade — Human Sacrifice — The Coast-Fever — Sent Horn e — The Fleet-Surgeon's Report 90

Chapter VII

A Summer of Suffering — Opportunity lost — The Last Chance seized — Despatched to Mexico — Shipwreck in the Gulf — The Spy-Company — Affair at Nopaluca — Rescue of his Prisoners — Hard Fighting and Rough Surgery — Wounded — Typhus Fever — Newspaper History — Surfeit of Patriotism — Irksomcnoss of the Livery — Charges against Domingues — The Horse-Claim — How it was proved, and what it proved — Gratitude of his Prisoners 108

CONTENTS.

Chapter VIII. Page

Colonel Child's Letter — Compliment to General Gaona — His Reply — " The Flag of Freedom" — Complimentary Sword — Dr. Kane's Acceptance — Colonel Gaona's Wound — Dr. Kane's Prisoners — Palasios shot — Domingues missed — Hand-to-hand Conflict — Loss and Gain upon "Relic" — To Head-Quarters — Invalided — Homeward — Despondency — Bureau- Favor refracted — Tread-Mill Regime — To the Mediterranean — Lock-jaw — Dying Experience — Recuperation — Coast-Survey — An Interlude — Lady Franklin's Appeal — American Response — Dr. Kane volunteers — Ambition's Last Gasp — Amusement and other Refreshments — Off to the Arctic 127

Chapter IX

Franklin's Voyages — Search-Expeditions — United States Grinnell Expedition. — Lieutenant De Haven — Arctic Rose-Plucking — The Captain's Doubts — The Doctor's Decision — The Personal Narrative — Horrors of Authorship — Dietetics and Drugs — Public Lecturing — Expeditions of 1852 — Estimate of Buttons — Second Voyage postponed — Little Willie — In Memoriam — Grinnell Land — Arrowsmith and the Admiralty — Adjourned Justice — Dr. Kane and Colonel Force — Comity and Equity. 14G

Chapter X

Mr. Kennedy's Alacrity — Sympathy of the Savans — Confidence strengthened — Exciting the Officials — Hopes on a See- saw — Drudgery of Boring — Kennedy Channel — Cash Contributions — Lecturing-Business — Mr. Peabody — Deficiencies of Outfit — Laborious Preparations — Patriotic Enthusiasm — The Honors in Danger — Race against Time — Admiralty Chart — A Time to be Sick — Daily Prayers — Christian Heroism — Special Providence — Worship among the Hummocks — Vindication of Faith —"How readest thou ?"— Saving Faith 166

Chapter XI

Motives and Objects — Declaration in extremis — Working up the Coast of Greenland — Good-bye — A Father's Testimony — Franklin's Chances —

PAGE

Refuge with the Natives — Supporting Authorities — Sir R. Murchison — The Brave trust the Brave — Contributions to Science — Inedited Manuscripts — The Open Sea — Logical Demonstration — The Discovery — The Last Throw — William Morton — Facts and Theories — Lieutenant Maury — Kane's Official Report — British Achievements — Results of Exploration — Washington Land — Within the Polar Ice-Ring , 187

Chapter XII

The Natural Sciences — Glaciology — Relief-Expedition — Captain Hartstene — Dr. John K. Kane — The Knight and his Squire — The Three Captains — Authorship again — Pains and Penalties — Author and Publishers — The Unwritten Book — Engravings — Mr. Hamilton — Dr. Kane's Drawings — Artistic Skill — Facility and Fidelity — Congressional Subscription — Popular and Public Patronage — The Author's Involvement — The Secretary's Commendation — Testimonials and Medals 209

Chapter XIII

Kane's Sea — The Chart — Summary of Operations — Last Will — Voyage to England — Hoping against Hope — Reception in London — Last Letter — Disease of the Heart — Voyage to St. Thomas — On his Way to Cuba — Attack of Paralysis — At Havana — Longing for Home — Last Scene of all — He sleepeth — Interpretation — Church Relations — Free-Masonry — The Obsequies — Legislative Resolutions — Learned Societies — English Testimonial 229

Chapter XIV

Personal Description — Social Bearing — Spirit-Power — Portraits — Hypertrophy — Kindness for Animals — Gun-Murder — Dog-People — Man and Beast — Godfrey — North British Review — Withdrawing Party — Manners and Customs — Toodla-mik — Tastes and Antipathies— Novels and Plays — Prose-Poetry — Mental Method — Medical Skepticism — Benefits of the Study — Governing-Power — The Outside Passage — Routine and Organization — Esquimaux Allies — Fondness for Children — Justice to Subordinates— All else submitted— The End 249

LETTER FROM DR. HAYES.

PAGE

Dr. Kane's Plan of Search — Adventures of the Depot-Party — Return of Part of them — Starting of the Relief-Party — Inadequate Appliances — Special Providence — Their Return — Death of Baker and Schubert — Dr. Kane's Sickness — "Want of Dogs — Appearance of Esquimaux — An Exchange effected — Breaking down 269

LETTER FROM AMOS BONSALL.

Early Acquaintance with Dr. Kane — Volunteering for the Expedition — Character of the Sailors — Dr. Kane's alleged Cruelty to his Men — His Leniency — His Self-Denial and Kindness to the Sick — Death of Jefferson T. Baker and Pierre Schubert — Character of Baker 273

LETTER FROM HENRY GOODFELLOW.

Dr. Kane's Sea-Sickness — His Habits on Board — Failing Health — The Rescue-Party — A Bad Restorative — Government of the Crew — Allowance of Food — Dr. Kane's Abhorrence of Corporal Punishment — His Attention to the Sick — His Spirit of Scientific Inquiry — His Social Demeanor and Conversation — Exercise — Dietetics 276

REPORT OF OBSEQUIES.

Introductory Remarks 287

Proceedings of City Councils of Philadelphia 288

Mr. Cuyler's Remarks and Resolutions 288

Message of Mayor Vaux 289

Remarks of Mr. Perkins 290

Resolutions offered by Messrs. Holman and Henry 290

Meeting of Citizens 291

Mayor Vaux's Remarks 291

PAGE

Remarks of Hon. William B. Heed 292

Major Biddle's Speech 294

Professor Frazer's Address 296

Mr. Chandler's Speech 297

Remarks of Rev. Dr. Boardman 298

Corn Exchange 299

Committee's Resolutions 300

Remarks of Mr. Busby * 300

Proceedings at Havana 302

Communication from the Captain-General 302

Resolutions adopted at the Meeting of American Citizens 303

Remarks of Don Jos6 J. de Echavarria 304

Response of Consul Blythe 305

Ceremonies at New Orleans 306

Ceremonies at Louisville, Ky 307

Programme for Reception of Remains 308

Ceremonies at Cincinnati 310

Programme 310

Relatives of the Deceased : Colonel T. L. Kane, Robert P. Kane,

John K. Kane; William Morton 313

Reception of Remains by the Cincinnati Committee 315

Remarks of Mr. Monroe, on behalf of the Louisville and New Albany Committees 315

Remarks of Mr. Anderson in reply 317

The Coffin 319

The Procession 320

Ceremonies at Columbus 320

Remarks of Mr. Anderson, on behalf of the Cincinnati Committee. 322

Religious Exercisesat the Capitol 327

Prayer by Rev. J. M. Steele 327

Substance of a Discourse by Rev. James Hoge, D.D 329

Concluding Prayers and Benediction 336

Order of Procession to Railroad-Station 338

Oeremoniea at Baltimore 339

Grossing the Ohio 339

Disappointment at Wheeling 341

Crossing the Mountains 341

PAGE

Reception of the Remains by the Baltimore Committee 341

Arrival at Baltimore 342

The Procession 343

Appearance of the City while the Remains were passing through it 345

Meeting of the Maryland Institute 346

Remarks of Mayor Swann 346

Resolutions 348

Remarks of William H. Young 349

Remarks of Hon. John P. Kennedy 350

Proceedings of the Companions of Dr. Kane at Philadelphia 358

Deputations from New York and other Cities 360

Arrival of the Remains at Philadelphia 361

Programme of Procession to Independence Hall 362

Remarks of Messrs. Dukehart, Chandler, and Parry 363

The Funeral Procession , 365

Exercises in the Church 368

Invocation, by Rev. Charles Wadsworth, D.D 368

Funeral Discourse, by Rev. Charles W. Shields 370

Prayer, by Rev. Dr. Boardman 380

Conclusion of Exercises 381

Remarks and Acknowledgments of Committee 382

Proposed Erection of a Monument to Dr. Kane 386

MASONIC OBSEQUIES.

Resolutions of Arcana Lodge, of New York 391

Meeting of Lodge of Sorrow 392

Ode by Brother Herring 393

Address by Grand Master JohnL. Lewis, Jr 393

Letters to the Masonic Grand Lodge of New York 395

Commodore Stewart, U.S.N 395

Commodore Perry, U.S.N 395

Commodore Read, U.S.N , 395

Lieutenant Maury, U.S.N 397

Major-GeneralJohn E. Wool, U.S.A 397

PAGE

Honorable Judge Kane 397

Honorable Edward Everett 308

C. Edwards Lester, Esq 398

"Washington Irving, Esq 398

Fitz-Greene Halleck, Esq 399

J. D. Evans, P.G. M. of Grand Lodge of New York 399

R. L. Schoonmaker, Grand Chaplain of Grand Lodge of New

Hymn, by Brother George P. Morris 403

Eulogy, by Grand Master Honorable E. W. Andrews 404

ELISHA KENT KANE.

Chapter I

GENEALOGY — THE MATERNAL LINE THROUGH A CENTURY — BIRTH — BAPTISM — CHILDHOOD — HARDIHOOD — PUGILISM AND POLAR PRAC- TICE — SCHOOL-CRAMPS — JUVENILE POLYTECHNICS — DRIFT OP NA- TURE UNDER DIRECTION OP PROVIDENCE.

Elisha Kent Kane derived his blood from the common source, immediately through the Kanes and Van Rensselaers of New York, and the Grays and Leipers of Pennsylvania.

His family, in all branches, dates American for more than a century. The Kane blood is Irish, the Yan Rensselaer Low Dutch, the Gray English, and the Leiper Scotch. A hundred years ago his male ancestors of these names were respectively Episcopalians, Dutch Reformed, Quakers, and Presbyterians.

His great-grandfather, John Kane, who came from Ireland about the year 1756, married Miss Kent, a daughter of the Reverend Elisha Kent, by unbroken descent and dissent a Puritan from the earliest settlement of Massachusetts. His other great-grandmother,

Gray, varied the faith of the family with all that was practically best and most beneficent in the religion of the Moravians. This lady, born Martha Ibbetson, was in London in 1749, under the tuition of an apothecary-surgeon. After acquiring so much of his art as qualified her for the Lady-Bountiful life to which she had devoted herself, she emigrated to America. A year after her arrival in Philadelphia, she married George Gray, of Gray's Ferry, a man of great wealth, a liberal gentleman, and a zealous Whig. He was born a member of the Society of Friends, but at the earliest period of the Revolution he was a member of the Council of Safety, and a representative of the resistance party in the Assembly of the Province. On the 4th of July, 1776, he appears, as a delegate from the county of Philadelphia, at " a meeting consisting of the officers and privates of the fiftythree battalions of the Associators of the Colony of Pennsylvania, held at Lancaster, to choose two brigadiergenerals to command the battalions and forces of the Province." He was, of course, among the proscribed by the British authorities.

Mrs. Gray was as decided a patriot as her husband, and as actively devoted to the service.

During the occupation of Philadelphia by the British forces, the sick and wounded American prisoners, amounting at one time to nine hundred men, were confined in the old Walnut Street prison. They were not treated ;is prisoners of war, but as rebels under arrest. Hunger, thirst, cold, and every species of personal abuse and

HIS ANCESTOES. 15 indignity which the malignity and neglect of a brutal subordinate could inflict upon them, made their condition intolerable. Mrs. Gray constantly ministered to their wants, — enduring the insolence and overcoming the resistance of their keeper, as only a woman of high character and determined zeal could meet and manage such difficulties. Food and medicines were supplied at her own expense; and the indispensable services of the surgeon and nurse, for which she was so well qualified, were rendered by her own hands. Her courage and constancy overcame all resistance that could be offered to her as a benefactress. The baffled officer of the prison charged her with being a spy, and she was ordered to leave the city. She appealed to Lord Howe : he withdrew the order, and she held her ground till the British evacuated the city. The American officers who had witnessed and experienced her generous services to the prisoners acknowledged them in the strongest terms of gratitude and admiration.* Afterward, when the tide of affairs turned, and British prisoners needed her aid, it was given as freely and effectually as she had before ministered to the sufferings of her own party. Through all these labors and

* "We, the subscribers, officers in the American army, now prisoners in Philadelphia, think it our duty in this manner to testify the obligations we are under, and the respect we entertain for Mrs. Martha Gray, wife of George Gray, Esq., for her unwearied attention to the distresses of the numerous sick and wounded soldiers in confinement, supplying them, at a great expense, with food and raiment, constantly visiting and alleviating, by her attention, their wretched condition, and in every cirtrials of heroic benevolence, her daughter Elizabeth, afterward Mrs. Thomas Leiper, was her chief assistant.

Of Thomas Leiper, it is recorded, in the chronicles of the times, that he was 1st Sergeant of the 1st City Troop of Cavalry raised for the Continental service; that, as treasurer and quartermaster, he carried the first money from Congress to General Washington, then on the Heights of Boston; that he was at the side of the Commander-in-chief at the battles of Trenton, Monmouth, Princeton, New Brunswick, and Brandywine, and in the field generally, from the beginning to the end of the War of Independence.

Warmly attached to Robert Morris, and ardent in the support of his financial policy, he was one of those patriots who, each lending one-third of his personal estate to the old Bank of North America, enabled him to make provision for the march of the army to Yorktown.

cumstance interesting herself in their behalf. As we have been eyewitnesses to the above, we have hereunto set our hands.

Philadelphia, January 29^/i, 1778.

John Hannum,

Chester Co. Militia.

Pers'n Frazer,

Luke Marbury,

Col. 4th Bat. Maryland Militia

W. Taliaferro,

Lieut. Col. 4th Virginia Battal.

0. Towles,

Major 6th Virginia Battal.' 1

HIS ANCESTORS. 17

When the two great parties of 1799 were forming, he became the partisan, as he had long been the personal friend, of Mr. Jefferson. In Mr. Jefferson's letters to Mr. Leiper there is a remarkably free communication of opinion and feeling upon all the political questions, foreign and domestic, of the time. Their correspondence was constant and frequent until the death of Leiper, which occurred in 1822. He was long President of the Common Council of Philadelphia, invariably the head of the Democratic electoral ticket for Pennsylvania, and, by prerogative of his party position, the chairman of all the large Democratic meetings and conventions of the city and State. But he never held any office of emolument, — always refusing such appointments for himself and his family. At the end of the Kevolutionary War he and his troop accepted, for all their services in the field, a letter of thanks from General Washington. Their money pay they transferred to the Pennsylvania Hospital, to found a lying-in department, and, by this noble donation of their toil-and-danger-earned funds, that charity was established.

John K. Kane, son of John Kane and Miss Van Eensselaer of New York, was a member of the Philadelphia bar when he married Jane Leiper, and has been judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania since 1845.

Mrs. Kane's blood descends from Martha Ibbetson and George Gray, through Thomas Leiper and their daughter, and Elisha was, emphatically, her son.

He was born on the 3d of February, 1820, in Walnut Street, between Seventh and Eighth, Philadelphia.

He was the eldest of seven children. Three brothers and a sister, his father and mother, survive him.

He was baptized in his infancy, in the Presbyterian church, of which his parents are members, Elisha Kent, after the old Puritan clergyman of Massachusetts.

He went through the diseases and the training of infancy vigorously, having the clear advantage of that energy of nerve and that sort of twill in the muscular texture which give tight little fellows more size than they measure, and more weight than they weigh.

His frame was admirably fitted for all manner of athletic exercises, and his impulses kept it well up to the limits of its capabilities, daring and doing every thing within the liberties of boy-life with an intent seriousness of desperation which kept domestic rule upon the stretch, and threatened, as certainly as usual with boys whose only badness is their boldness, to bring down everybody's gray hairs in sorrow, &c. It was not the monkey mirthfulness nor the unprincipled recklessness of childhood that he was chargeable with, but something more of purpose and tenacity in exacting deference and enforcing equity than is usually allowed to boyhood. To arbitrary authority he was a regular little rebel. There was nothing of passive submission in his temper, and he did not' overlay it with the little hypocrisies of good-boy policy. He was absolutely fearless, and, withal, given to indignation quite up to his own measurement of wrongs and insults,

PUGILISTIC FEATS. 19 and lie had a pair of little fists that worked with the steam-power of passion in the administration of distributive justice, which he charged himself with executing at all hazards. In right of primogeniture, he was protector to his younger brothers, and was not yet nine years old when he assumed the office with all its duties and dangers.

At school, about this time, with a brother two years younger under his care, the master ordered his protege up for punishment. Elisha sprang from his seat, and interposed with a manner which had rather more of demand than petition in it, "Don't whip him, he's such a little fellow — whip me." The master, understanding this to be mutiny, which really was intended for a fair compromise, answered, "I'll whip you too, sir." Strung for endurance, the sense of injustice changed his mood to defiance, and such fight as he was able to make quickly converted the discipline into a fracas, and Elisha left the school with marks that required explanation.

When he was ten years old, four or five neighbour boys, all bigger than himself, who had climbed upon the roof of a back building in his father's yard, were amusing themselves by shooting putty-wads from blow-guns at the girls below. Elisha, attracted to the spot by the outcry of the injured party, promptly undertook the defence, and in the firm tone of a young gentleman offended, required them to desist and leave the premises ; but he of course, was instantly answered by a broadside levelled at himself. Fired at the outrage, he clutched the rainspout, and climbed like a young tiger to the roof, and was among them before they could realize the practicability of the feat; and then he had them, on terms even enough for a handsome settlement of the case. The roof was steep and dangerous to his cowed antagonists, but safe to his better balance and higher courage, and they were at his mercy ; for no one could help another, and he was more than a match for the best of them, in a position where peril of a terrible tumble was among the risks of resistance. Forthwith he went at them seriatim, till, severally and singly, he had cuffed them to the full measure of their respective deservings. But not satisfied with inflicting punishment, he exacted jDenitence also, and he proceeded to drag each of them in turn to the edge of the roof, and, holding him there, demanded an explicit apology. Before he had finished putting the whole party through this last form of purgation, little Tom, who had witnessed the performance from the pavement below, greatly terrified by the imminent risk of a fall, which would have broken a neck or two mayhap, called out, "Come down, Elisha! oh, 'Lisha, come down!" Elisha answered the appeal in the spirit of the engagement, " No, Tom, they an't done apologizing yet."

He took no " sauce" from anybody. He couldn't understand why he should, and it was hard and risky to make liiin know that he must; for he was equally fertile in expedients and bold in execution. On the wharf, one day, when he was not yet twelve years old, an insolent ruffian, big enough and wicked enough to break every

EARLY CHARACTERISTICS. 21 bone in the lad's body, aroused his wrath by an intolerable piece of rudeness. Kesistance and redress seemed impossible, but submission was completely so. He saw his opportunity, — a rope fixed to the end of a crane hung within his reach, and the ruffian stood fairly in the track of its swing. He seized it, and running backward till it was tightly stretched, he made a bound which gave him the momentum of a sling, and planted his knees like a shot in the fellow's face, levelling him handsomely, and with a spring he put himself under the protection of the bystanders, who had witnessed and admired the performance.

So Elisha earned the character of a bad boy, while he was, in fact, exercising and cultivating the spirit of a brave one. Goody-good people, very naturally, did not understand him then, — they do now. Elisha never reformed : he just persisted until he performed what was in him to do. The rills, so tortuous and turbulent near the springs, rolled themselves into a river in time, and regulated their rush without losing it.

It is said that " education forms the common mind :" it is more certain that "as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." This boy, at least, was the father of the man, It was utterly impossible to fashion his young life by veneering it with the proprieties which are supposed to shape it into goodness. He may not have known what he should be in the future, but he knew what he must be in the present, and he, happily, did not limber himself by forced compliances. Difficult, daring, and desperate enierprises, not only useless, but recklessly wild, under the common standard of judgment, worked in him like one possessed. At ten years of age he studied the weather, watched the moon, and carefully scanned the opportunities afforded by the nights for scaling fences, clambering over out-houses, and getting into the tree-tops, all round the square that was overlooked by his dormitory. Wherever a cat could go, he would ; and escapes from the sky-light, by way of the kitchen-roof and through the trap-door to i.he yard, and thence abroad to enjoy an unwatched and unmolested rambling, clambering and tumbling, afforded him a seriously high-toned delight. He took nobody into his confidence except his bed-fellow; but this was voluntary and generous, for he was bent upon training him for similar achievements. One instance will illustrate : —

The back-building was two stories high, the front three, and the houses which flanked the kitchen were, also, three stories. To relieve the draft of the kitchen chimney from the eddy of the buildings which embayed it, it was carried up like a shaft sixteen feet above the roof. There it stood at the gable, in provokingly tempting altitude, and the point that concerned our little hero was, how to get to the top of it?

" How should he get to the top ! Bless me," exclaims < >ine considerate personage of correct habits and cautious judgments, "why should he?" Elisha would have answered him, "I must, and I wonder why I should not?" Very certainly there would have been two opinions on

POLAR PRACTICE. 23 the matter, if any wise body had been consulted. But the little desperado needed no advice. The thing was to be done, and it was done. It required some engineering, but — it was all the better for that. It is not mere muscle and hardihood that will carry a man to the North Pole. He must have some science and some tackling along with him; and the boy that is practising upon a chimney-top for arctic service, must put his wits to work, quite as much as his muscles and his courage. He made his observations and his calculations, — his determination was long made. The preparations were perfected, and his younger brother taken into the enterprise.

When all in the house were asleep, and the stars gave just light enough to guide, and none to expose the performance, with prevention and punishment among the chances, the two little fellows left their bed, and descended the roof of the front building till they dropped themselves upon that of the kitchen. Here the clothes-line, providently stowed away during the day for the purpose, was lying ready in coil, with a stone securely tied at one end.

" What is the stone for, Elisha V

"Why, you see, Tom, the stone is a dipsey. I call it a dipsey, (a young science of exploration, and a nomenclature to match, already,) because I'm going to throw it into the flue, so that it will run down into the old furnace, carrying the line down with it, and then I can slip down and fasten it there. Now for a heave. The chimney-top is almost too high for me. It is pretty near twenty feet, I should think ; but I'll do it."

Failures to reach the height, then failures to direct the dip of the falling stone, followed in long succession; but this gave practice, and practice makes perfect. At last one throw more lucky than the rest, and the rumble in the chimney and the run of the line announced success. Down through the trap-door went Elisha, and, after securing the end at the furnace, he ascended to the roof again, and was ready. But stop a little, — the chimney is a very narrow stack; it stands outside of the gable, and there is a chance that the climber may swing out and get forty or fifty feet of clear air between him and the pavement below. This must be cared for; and little Tom is duly instructed and planted firmly, with the slack of the rope in hand, to keep Elisha on the right side of the chimney, so that if the bricks on the edge give way and a tumble betide, he may come down all safe and nice upon the roof. All these arrangements made, and the contingencies so well provided for, the rope is seized, the feet planted against the chimney, and, hand over hand, up goes the aspirant, till the top is within reach; but the perch is not so easily attained, even when the full height of the stack is mastered. One hand on a top brick to draw himself up by it, and it yields in its loosened bed! That won't do. "With a hard strain he gets his elbow over the edge, and so much of the doubled arm within for a good broad hold, and then daintily and carefully wriggling up the little body, and he's up, seated on the top !

" Oh, Tom, what a nice place this is ! I'll get down

POLAR PRACTICE. 25 into the flue to my waist, and pull you up, too. Just make a loop in the rope, and I'll haul you in. Don't be afraid, — it is so grand up here."

But the strength was not quite equal to the will ; and Tom's chance had to be surrendered.

The descent was about as dangerous, though not quite as difficult, as the ascent. And then all that remained was to hide the tracks, which required another descent to the basement, a thorough washing of the rope to remove the soot of the chimney; and then, as the business of the night was done, to bed via the roof and sky-light again ; and a bright, happy consciousness on awaking in the morning that he had done it.