Latest / Stories of Grit / A Shoemaker's Apprentice who Became a Great Scholar

Transcript

A Shoemaker's Apprentice who Became a Great Scholar · Stories of Grit

• 0:00
  Chapter seven of Stories of Grit. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 0:06
  recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 0:11
  visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Penny coffein Stories of Grit by Archer Wallace,
• 0:18
  Chapter seven, A shoemaker's apprentice who became a great scholar. On the
• 0:24
  last day of November eighteen fifty two, a lad was born near the village
• 0:29
  of Pangrenous in Denbighshire, Wales. The proud father, who was the village
• 0:34
  shoemaker, took the baby to church that same day, and there he was
• 0:38
  baptized Henry Jones. Young Henry's parents were poor, and his grandparents were,
• 0:45
  if anything poorer. His grandfather worked on the estate of the local squire,
• 0:50
  and as he grew older, his wages were repeatedly reduced until he was receiving
• 0:55
  only four shillings a week. But even this was not the worst, for
• 1:00
  he was offered two shillings and sixpence a week. That seemed too much for
• 1:04
  the old man, and very soon after he died. The house in which
• 1:10
  young Henry was born was very small. It consisted of one small room downstairs
• 1:15
  about ten feet square, and another room the same size upstairs. This tiny
• 1:21
  downstairs room was almost always terribly overcrowded. It had to serve as kitchen,
• 1:26
  dining room, and living room all in one. Seven persons had their meals
• 1:32
  each day in that small room. How to find a seat for every one
• 1:36
  was a problem, but a way out of the difficulty was found by having
• 1:40
  the children take their meals and relays. Young Henry, being in a great
• 1:44
  hurry to get out to play, often took his meals standing or sitting on
• 1:48
  the doorstep. When Henry's little baby sister was born, they all wondered how
• 1:53
  room could be found for the cradle in that already overcrowded room. But there
• 1:57
  was a way out. The cradle was put upstairs and a string let down
• 2:02
  from it through a hole in the ceiling. Whenever the baby cried, the
• 2:07
  mother bade one of the children pull the string, which rocked the cradle.
• 2:10
  Many a time, Henry's play was interrupted so that he might spend a time
• 2:15
  pulling that old string. There was a constant struggle against poverty in that home.
• 2:21
  For Elias Jones, Henry's father, never earned more than twenty shillings a
• 2:25
  week, and generally quite a bit less. The food was plain but wholesome,
• 2:30
  consisting for the most part of bread and milk and shot, that is,
• 2:36
  ground oat cake and milk. There were no dull moments in that home.
• 2:40
  It was crowded and restless all day long. Either the mother was cooking,
• 2:46
  or the father was heating his irons in the fire, or some of
• 2:49
  the children were clamoring for bread and butter, or perhaps a neighbor had dropped
• 2:53
  in to see if his shoes were ready and then lingered for a chat.
• 2:58
  In spite of poverty, which sometimes was severe, it was a happy home,
• 3:02
  for each one sought to help the others. Henry did not enjoy attending
• 3:07
  the village school. In fact, none of the children in that village did.
• 3:13
  The schoolmaster was very cruel and ignorant. The caine was very seldom out
• 3:19
  of his hands. Any fault or error was punished very severely. If a
• 3:23
  child whispered and the master was not sure which one it was, he thrashed
• 3:28
  the entire school. In fact, there was wailing and lamentation in that school
• 3:34
  the whole day long, and small wonder that when four o'clock came each day,
• 3:38
  the scholars breathed more freely. When the school holidays came around Each year
• 3:44
  in June, the boys were sent out in gangs to thin the turnips for
• 3:47
  the neighboring farmers. The whole of the five weeks of summer holidays were spent
• 3:53
  at this work. The boys were paid from eightpence to one shilling a day,
• 3:58
  fourpence being deducted if the farmer provided meals. Young Henry Jones went with
• 4:02
  his brothers to do this hard work when he was only five and a half
• 4:06
  years old. When evening came, he was often too exhausted to walk and
• 4:12
  had to be carried home by the bigger boys. From that time until he
• 4:15
  was taken to work as a shoemaker, Henry helped to thin turnips each year.
• 4:21
  While still a very young boy, Henry began to help his father make
• 4:26
  and repair shoes. It was the greatest ambition of his life to become a
• 4:30
  good shoemaker. One day, an incident happened which made him very proud.
• 4:35
  Toe caps for boots were just coming into fashion and they had to be carefully
• 4:41
  stitched. When it came to putting on the caps, Elias Jones was not
• 4:45
  sure of himself, so he went over to the school and asked permission for
• 4:48
  Henry to return home and do the sewing. When twelve years of age,
• 4:54
  Henry left school to become a shoemaker's apprentice with his father. It was a
• 4:59
  happy moment his life when he put on the leather apron. His mother wanted
• 5:03
  him to be a blacksmith, or a gardener like his brother's, or a
• 5:06
  grocer, anything in fact other than a shoemaker, but Henry stubbornly refused to
• 5:12
  listen. His mind was made up. He wanted to be a shoemaker like
• 5:16
  his father. The little workshop in which Henry and his father worked was a
• 5:20
  little lean to at the gable end of the cottage. Out of the window,
• 5:26
  Henry could see a barn at an old thatched cottage. The room was
• 5:30
  so small that those working had to get into opposite corners so as not to
• 5:33
  interfere with each other's movements. Sometimes there was a third workman, and even
• 5:40
  a fourth place was often made for the local postman, who worked at making
• 5:44
  and repairing ladies boots. Between his arrival with the letters and his departure,
• 5:48
  Henry used to think that there was so little room for privacy that it was
• 5:53
  impossible to keep even one's thoughts to one's self. Henry soon became a good
• 5:58
  shoemaker. The work was hard and the hours very long, but he liked
• 6:02
  it, and there was not a lazy bone in his body. Just at
• 6:06
  this time something happened which had a great influence over Henry's life. A lad
• 6:13
  named Tom Redfern, about his own age, came to Tangrenoud to take charge
• 6:17
  of the school. A friendship sprung up between the two, and soon Tom
• 6:24
  Redfern told Henry of his ambition to attend the university. Soon that same ambition
• 6:30
  came to Henry, although it seemed madness for him to even think about such
• 6:33
  a thing, as his parents were so poor and his own education had been
• 6:38
  sadly neglected for some time. Henry was most unhappy. It seemed to him
• 6:44
  as if there were no way whereby his ambition could be realized. But his
• 6:47
  purpose became more resolute, and he made up his mind that if at all
• 6:51
  possible, he would reach his goal. At last, arrangements were made enabling
• 6:57
  Henry to attend a school at a place called Pandy, some distance away,
• 7:01
  three days each week. Henry got out his old school books and began to
• 7:05
  attend Pandy School every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The remaining three days he
• 7:12
  worked away at his trade harder than ever. There was an examination known as
• 7:16
  the Queen's Scholarship held each year, and successful students earned the right to attend
• 7:21
  Banker Training College for teachers. Henry determined to try for this, although it
• 7:28
  did seem an almost impossible task. He retired to rest about eight o'clock each
• 7:32
  evening, and at one o'clock in the morning the village policeman tapped at his
• 7:36
  window. Then he got up and dressed and worked away at his books until
• 7:42
  morning came. There was so much to be learned that at times he almost
• 7:46
  despaired, but he never gave up. At last, the time came for
• 7:51
  him to try the examination. He went to Bangor in fear and trembling.
• 7:57
  One of his brothers had loaned him a suit of clothes, and another brother
• 8:01
  loaned him a watch. He stayed at the college during the days of the
• 8:05
  examination. There were quite a number of competitors, and only a few could
• 8:09
  succeed. Henry was appalled by the look of cleverness and by the smart appearance
• 8:15
  of most of the students. He felt he had made a horrible mistake and
• 8:18
  even giving in his name. When he was alone, he wept like a
• 8:22
  child and felt he had no chance whatever. Although he was terribly nervous and
• 8:28
  covered with confusion, he did his best and when the examination results were published
• 8:35
  a few weeks later, his name appeared among those who had passed in the
• 8:39
  first class. He entered the training college at Bangor and studied hard for two
• 8:45
  years. He had to be extremely careful as he had very little money.
• 8:50
  Throughout those two years he maintained his place at the head of the college list,
• 8:54
  and then in eighteen seventy three, when he was just nineteen, he
• 9:00
  was put in charge of a school at Brunemann, a mining village in Wales.
• 9:05
  He remained there for two years, greatly beloved by the pupils in the
• 9:09
  school and by the people of the village. Then in eighteen seventy five he
• 9:13
  passed the examinations for entrance into Glasgow University. The years Henry Jones spent at
• 9:20
  Glasgow University were packed full of interest for him. There was much hard work
• 9:26
  for him and there was a constant struggle with poverty. His parents were not
• 9:31
  in a position to help him, and sometimes it almost seemed as though he
• 9:35
  must give up, but somehow a way always opened and he was able to
• 9:41
  continue his studies. At the close of his term, he sat for an
• 9:45
  examination known as the Clark Fellowship. This was the blue ribbon of the university,
• 9:52
  and of course was the most coveted honor among the students. He had
• 9:56
  no intention of trying for it, but one of the professors who was interested
• 10:01
  in him persuaded him to sit for the examination. He did, and to
• 10:05
  his amazement, he was awarded the prize, although all the cleverest students of
• 10:11
  the university who were eligible had also tried. In addition to the great distinction,
• 10:16
  the fellowship carried with it a grant of two hundred twenty five pounds about
• 10:22
  one thousand, one hundred dollars a year for four years. And then,
• 10:26
  for the first time in his life, Henry Jones knew what it was to
• 10:31
  have money to pay his way and a little left over. A great day
• 10:35
  came for him when in eighteen eighty four he was elected to a professorship in
• 10:41
  Bangor College, Wales. He remained there for several years and then was made
• 10:46
  a professor in the University of Saint Andrew's in Scotland. After three years there
• 10:52
  years of hard work, but of great power and wide influence, he was
• 10:56
  elected to a very important position, that of Professor of Moral Philosophy in Glasgow
• 11:01
  University. This was one of the great positions in the universities of Great Britain.
• 11:07
  It was one which only a great scholar could fill, and Henry Jones
• 11:11
  did fill it with credit to himself and with very great profit to the students.
• 11:16
  For a period of twenty eight years. From being a shoemaker's apprentice,
• 11:22
  Henry Jones rose to a position of great power and influence. It was not,
• 11:26
  by any means an easy road. There was a terrific struggle with his
• 11:31
  poverty, and at times it seemed as though it would be too much for
• 11:35
  him. But his tremendous perseverance and grit carried him along and he succeeded to
• 11:41
  an extent that he had never dared even to dream of. During the Great
• 11:46
  War he delivered scores of lectures throughout Great Britain and in the United States.
• 11:50
  His three sons were on the firing line, and the youngest of them was
• 11:56
  killed in France. Henry Jones died in nineteen twenty, and left behind him
• 12:01
  the memory of a brave and noble life. End of Chapter seven,