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Eliza Lee Follen >> The Pedler of Dust Sticks
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THE PEDLER OF DUST STICKS
BY MRS. FOLLEN
With illustrations by Billings
THE PEDLER OF DUST STICKS.
One day I went to visit a friend, a lady, who came from Hamburg, in
Germany. I was much pleased with a portrait which was hanging up in
her room, and I was particularly struck by the ornamental drawings
with which the picture was surrounded. They consisted of whip
handles, canes, piano keys, mouth-pieces for wind instruments, all
sorts of umbrellas, and many more things, of every sort, made of
cane and whalebone. The arrangement was so ingenious, the designs so
fanciful, and the execution so good, that nothing could be prettier.
But what of course was of the most importance, was the face and head
that they were meant to ornament. "What a benevolent, what a
beautiful face!" I said. "Who is it?"
"My father," the lady replied; "and he is more beautiful than the
picture, and he is still more kind than he looks there."
"What is the meaning of all these bits of bamboo and these little
canes, so fancifully arranged around the picture?" I asked.
"These little sticks," she replied, "tell the story of my father's
success, and of the beginning of his greatness. He began his noble
and honorable life as a little Pedler of Dust Sticks."
"Pedler of Dust Sticks?"
"Yes," she said; "if you would like to hear his history, I will
relate it."
I replied that nothing could please me better; that I considered the
life of a good, great man the most beautiful of all stories.
"I will tell it to you just as it was; and you may, if you please,
repeat it for the benefit of any one."
When I had returned home I wrote the story down, just as I
remembered it, as she had given me leave to do.
The Christian name of our hero was Henry, and so we will call him.
His parents lived in Hamburg, in Germany. They were very poor. His
father was a cabinet maker, with a very small business. Henry was
the second of eight children. As soon as he was eight years old, his
father, in order to raise a few more shillings to support his
family, sent him into the streets to sell little pieces of ratan,
which the people there use to beat the dust out of their clothes.
Henry got about a cent and a half apiece for the sticks. If he sold
a great number of these little sticks, he was allowed, as a reward,
to go to an evening school, where he could learn to read. This was a
great pleasure to him; but he wanted also to learn to write. For
this, however, something extra was to be paid, and Henry was very
anxious to earn more, that he might have this advantage.
There is a fine public walk in Hamburg, where the fashionable people
go, in good weather, to see and be seen; and where the young men go
to wait upon and see the ladies. These gentlemen were fond of having
little canes in their hands, to play with, to switch their boots
with, and to show the young ladies how gracefully they could move
their arms; and sometimes to write names in the sand. So little
Henry thought of making some very pretty canes, and selling them to
these young beaux.
He soaked his canes for a long time in warm water, and bent the tops
round for a handle, and then ornamented them with his penknife, and
made them really very pretty. Then he went to the public walk, and
when he saw a young man walking alone, he went up to him, and with a
sweet and pleasant voice, he would say, "Will you buy a pretty cane,
sir? Six cents apiece."
Almost every gentleman took one of the canes.
With the money he got for his canes he was able to pay for lessons
in writing. This made him very happy, for it was the reward of his
own industry and ingenuity.
As soon as Henry was old enough, his father employed him to carry
home the work to customers. The boy had such a beautiful
countenance, was so intelligent, and had such a pleasant manner,
that many of the customers wanted to have him come and live with
them, and promised to take good care of him; but Henry always said,
"No, I prefer staying with my father, and helping him."
Every day the little fellow would take his bundle of dust sticks and
little canes in a box he had for the purpose, and walk up and down
the streets, offering them to every one who he thought would buy
them. And happy enough was he when he sold them all and brought home
the money to his poor father, who found it so hard to support a
large family.
All the evenings when Henry was not so happy as to go to school, he
worked as long as he could keep his eyes open.
He was very skilful, and made his canes so pretty, and he was such a
good boy, that he made many friends, and almost always found a good
market for his sticks.
The poor fellow was very anxious to get money. Often his father's
customers gave him a few pence. Once he came near risking his life
to obtain a small sum. He was very strong and active, and excelled
in all the common exercises of boys; such as running, jumping, &c.
One day he got up on the top of a very high baggage wagon, and
called to the boys below, and asked them how many pence they would
give him if he would jump off of it to the ground. Some one offered
two.
"Two are too few to risk my life for," he replied.
They then promised to double the number; and he was upon the point
of jumping, when he felt a smart slap on his back.
"That's what you shall have for risking your life for a few pence,"
said his father, who, unobserved by Henry, had heard what had
passed, and climbed up the wagon just in time to save Henry from
perhaps breaking his neck, or at least some of his limbs.
Henry was very fond of skating, but he had no skates. One day, when
the weather and ice were fine, he went to see the skaters. He had
only a few pence in his pocket, and he offered them for the use of a
pair of skates for a little while; but the person who had skates to
let could get more for them, and so he refused poor Henry. There was
near by, at the time, a man whose profession was gambling; and he
said to Henry, "I will show you a way by which you can double and
triple your money, if you will come with me."
Henry followed him to a little booth, in which was a table and some
chairs; and there the man taught him a gambling game, by which, in a
few minutes, he won a dollar.
Henry was going away with his money, thinking with delight of the
pleasure he should have in skating, and also of the money that would
be left to carry home to his poor father, when the gambler said to
him, "You foolish boy, why won't you play longer, and double your
dollar? You may as well have two or three dollars as one."
Henry played again, and lost not only what he had won, but the few
pence he had when he came upon the ice.
Henry was fortunate enough that day, after this occurrence, to sell
a few pretty canes, and so had some money to carry to his father;
but still he went home with a heavy heart, for he knew that he had
done a very foolish thing.
He had learned, by this most fortunate ill luck, what gambling was;
and he made a resolution then, which he faithfully kept through his
whole after life, never to allow any poverty, any temptation
whatever, to induce him to gamble.
Henry continually improved in his manufacture of canes, and he often
succeeded in getting money enough to pay for his writing lessons.
There were Jews in the city, who sold canes as he did, and he would
often make an exchange with them; even if they insisted upon having
two or three of his for one of theirs; he would consent to the
bargain, when he could get from them a pretty cane; and then he
would carry it home, and imitate it, so that his canes were much
admired; and the little fellow gained customers and friends too
every day.
The bad boys in the city he would have nothing to do with; he
treated them civilly, but he did not play with them, nor have them
for his friends. He could not take pleasure in their society.
Henry was a great lover of nature. He spent much of his life out in
the open air, under the blue skies; and he did not fail to notice
what a grand and beautiful roof there was over his head. The clouds
by day, the stars by night, were a continued delight to him. The
warm sunshine in winter, and the cool shade of the trees in summer,
he enjoyed more than many a rich boy does the splendid furniture and
pictures in his father's house.
One beautiful summer afternoon he was going, with his canes on his
shoulder, through the public promenade on the banks of the little
bay around which was the public walk. The waves looked so blue, and
the air was so delicious, that he was resolved he would treat
himself to a row upon the sparkling waters; so he hired a little
boat, and then got some long branches from the trees on the shore,
and stuck them all around the edges of his boat, and tied them
together by their tops, so as to make an arbor in the boat, and got
in and rowed himself about, whistling all the tunes he knew for his
music, to his heart's content. He went alone, for he had no
companion that he liked; and he would have none other.
At last what should he see but his father, walking on the bank.
Henry knew that his father would be very angry with him, for he was
a severe man; but he determined to bear his punishment, let it be
what it would, patiently; for he knew, when he went, that his father
would not like it; and yet he said, in telling this story to a
friend, "I was so happy, and this pleasure was so innocent, that I
could not feel as sorry as I ought to feel."
Henry bore his punishment like a brave boy.
It was too bad for the poor fellow to have no pleasures; nothing but
work all the time. This was especially hard for him, for no one
loved amusement better than he.
He relished a piece of fun exceedingly. In the city of Hamburg there
was a place where young girls were always to be seen with flowers in
their hands to sell. He had observed that the Jews, of whom he
bought the pretty canes, were often rude to them, and he determined
to punish some of them. There was one who wore a wig, with a long
queue to it. The girls had their long hair braided and left hanging
down behind.
One day this man was sitting in this flower market, with his back to
one of these girls, and Henry took the opportunity, and before
either knew what he did, he tied the two queues together; the young
girl happened not to like her seat very well, and got up rather
suddenly to change it, and off she went with the Jew's wig dangling
behind her, much to the amusement of the spectators, and especially
of Henry, who saw and enjoyed it all highly, though pretending to be
very busy selling a cane to a gentleman, who joined in the general
laugh.
Lucky it was for Henry that the Jew did not discover who it was that
had played this roguish trick.
Henry saw how difficult it was for his father to support the family,
and was very earnest to get money in any honest way. One day the
managers of a theatre hired him to take part in a play, where they
wanted to make a crowd. He was pleased at the thought of making some
money to carry home; but when he went behind the scenes, and saw all
that the actors did, he ran away and left them, caring not for the
money, so he could but get away from such disgusting things.
Thus did Henry live, working from early morning till night, going to
school with a little of the money he had earned, when his father
would allow him to take it; keeping himself unstained by the
wickedness that he often saw and heard in his walks through the
city; observing every thing worth noticing, and making friends every
where by his honesty, purity, and kind-heartedness.
At this time the French were in Hamburg, provisions were dearer than
ever, and Henry's father, with all the help he received from his
son, could not support his family in the city.
One day he called Henry, and said, "Do you think you could support
your mother and younger sister and brother in some other place?"
Henry replied directly, "Yes, dear father, I can; at least, I will
try." So his father sent him with this part of his family to a
cheaper place, about fifty miles inland. He gave him five dollars
and his blessing, as they parted.
Here was our friend Henry in a strange town, a small place, with no
friends there, but just fifteen years old, and with his mother, and
brother, and sister depending upon him for their daily bread.
Henry was a brave boy; so he did not allow himself to fear. With his
five dollars he secured small, cheap rooms for a week, bought some
bread and milk for the family, and after a good night's sleep set
out, the next morning, to obtain work. He went into the street, and
after a while read upon a sign, "Furniture varnished." He went into
the shop and asked for work. The man asked him if he could varnish
well. Henry replied, "Yes, I can." He was very skilful, and he had
varnished his canes sometimes, and he felt sure he could.
"You came from Hamburg?"
"Yes, sir."
"Perhaps you know some new and better way than we have of
varnishing?"
"What method do you take?" asked Henry.
The man told him.
Here Henry's habit of observing was the means of his getting bread
for himself and family. He had noticed a new and better way that
varnishers employed in Hamburg, and though he had not tried it with
his own hands, he was sure he could imitate what he had seen. He
said that he knew a better way. The man engaged him for a week, and
was much pleased with his work; he did not want him long, but gave
him a recommendation when he parted with him.
After this Henry went to the baker of whom he had bought bread for
the family, and asked him for employment. The baker told him he
wanted his house painted, and asked him if he could do it.
"Yes," said Henry, "I can do it well, I know."
The baker liked him very much, and gave him the job without any
hesitation.
The baker's apprentices had noticed what a good fellow Henry was,
and would often give him, in addition to the loaf for the family,
some nice cakes to carry home. So he was, as you see, now working
among friends.
Henry had never painted before; but he had observed painters at
their work, and he did it well. He soon became known to all the
people of the town, and made many friends. He was never idle. He
made canes when he had no other work. He varnished, or painted, or
did anything that he could get to do, and supported the whole family
comfortably for two years.
At the end of this time, his father sent to him to bring the family
home to Hamburg. Henry left without a single debt, and in the place
of the five dollars carried home ten to his father.
I must tell you of a piece of Henry's economy and self-denial. He
grew very fast, and his boots became too small for him. While he was
getting every thing comfortable for others, he denied himself a pair
of new boots, and used to oil the old ones every time he put them
on, so as to be able to get his feet into them, and never complained
of the pain.
Our hero--for I am sure he was a true hero--was now seventeen. The
French had left Hamburg when he returned, but it was still necessary
to have a body of soldiers to protect it, and he joined a corps of
young men. They made him distributer of provisions. His office was
one given only to those known to be honest and worthy of confidence.
The citizens began even then to show their respect for the little
pedler of dust sticks and canes. We shall see what he was yet to be.
Henry returned to cane-making, to which he and his father soon added
work in whalebone. They were pretty successful, but, as they had
very little money to purchase stock and tools, could not make a
great business.
It was about this time that Henry became acquainted with one who was
to form the greatest happiness of his life. There was a poor girl in
Hamburg who was a seamstress, and who not only supported herself but
her mother by her needle. Her name was Agatha. She had a lovely face
and very engaging manners; her character was still more lovely than
her face; and she had only these to recommend her, for she was very
poor. Henry became strongly attached to her, and she soon returned
his love.
Henry's father and mother did not approve of this connection because
the girl was very poor; and as their son was so handsome and
agreeable, had now many friends, and was very capable, they thought
that he might marry the daughter of some rich man perhaps, and so
get some money. But, although Henry was ready to jump from a wagon
twenty feet high for a few pence, and would walk the streets of the
city twelve hours a day for money, he would not so disgrace himself
as to give that most precious of all things, his heart, for gold,
and so he told his parents.
"I shall," said he, "marry my dear Agatha, or I shall never marry
any one. She is good, and gentle, and beautiful; and if I live, she
shall have money enough too, for I can and will earn it for her. I
shall work harder and better now than I ever did before, because I
shall be working for one whom I love so dearly."
Henry's parents saw that it was in vain to oppose him, that it would
only drive him out of the house, and that they should thus lose him
and his work too; so they gave the matter up.
From this time Henry worked more industriously, if possible, than
ever. He did the same for his father as before; but he contrived
also to find some hours in which he might work for himself
exclusively. All that he earned at these times he devoted to his new
and dearest friend. He would purchase with the money he earned some
pretty or comfortable thing to wear that she wished and had denied
herself; or sometimes he would get some nice thing for her to eat;
for she had delicate health, and but little appetite.
After work was done in the shop, and the family had gone to bed,
Henry used to hasten to his dear Agatha, and pass two or three happy
hours with her. They both had fine voices, and many an hour they
would sing together, till they would forget the weariness of the
day, and the fact that they had nothing but their love for each
other to bless themselves with in this world. They worked harder,
they denied themselves more than ever, they were more careful to be
wise and good for the sake of each other; and so their love made
them better as well as happier.
At last, when Henry was nineteen, his parents consented to his
marrying and bringing his wife home to their house. As there was no
money to spare, they could only have a very quiet wedding. They were
married with-out any parade or expense, and never were two
excellent beings happier than they.
The young wife made herself very useful in her husband's family. She
worked very hard,--her husband thought harder than she ought to
work,--and he was anxious to be independent, and have a house of his
own, where he could take more care of her, and prevent her injuring
herself by labor.
There was some money due his father in Bremen; and, after living at
home a year or so, Henry took his wife with him, and went there to
collect the money.
There they lived two years, and there they suffered severely. They
were very poor, and they met with misfortunes. At last Henry's wife
and their two children took the small-pox; but they all lived and
got well, and their love for each other was only made more perfect
by suffering; for they learned patience and fortitude, and were
confirmed in what they both before believed, that they could bear
any trouble if they could share it together.
At the end of the two years, they returned to Hamburg. During their
absence, Henry's mother had died, and his father had married a woman
who had a little property.
Henry now felt no longer anxious about his family, and set up for
himself in the cane and whalebone business. He took a small house,
just big enough for his family, and they invited his wife's sister
to live with them and assist in the work.
Henry was very desirous of setting up a cane and whalebone factory,
and doing business upon a larger scale, but had not the means to
obtain suitable machinery. He wanted a large boiler, but it was too
expensive, and he knew not what to do. Here his excellent character
was the cause of his success. A gentleman who had known him from the
time when he used to carry about dust sticks to sell came forward
and offered him a large boiler, and told him that he might pay for
it whenever he could conveniently. Henry accepted the kind offer,
and commenced business directly.
His old customers all came to him, and in a short time he was able
to hire a man to help him. It was not long before he wanted another,
and then another man. Every thing prospered with him. He made money
fast. His business grew larger constantly. He did all sorts of work
in whalebone and cane; now he added ivory, umbrella sticks, keys for
pianos, canes, and whip handles, and made all sorts of things in
which these materials are used.
Henry was so well acquainted with his business, so industrious and
faithful, was known to be so honest and just in his dealings, and
was so kind in his treatment of his workmen, that all who wanted
what he could supply went to him, and his success was very great. He
grew rich. It was not a great while before he was able to build a
large factory in the neighborhood of the city.
The little pedler of dust sticks was now one of the richest men in
Hamburg. He had four hundred men in his employ, had a large house in
town, and another in the country. He was thus able to indulge his
love for nature. After a hard day's work, he could come home and
enjoy the beautiful sunset, and look at the moon and stars in the
evening, and hear the nightingale sing, and join with his Agatha in
the song of praise to the Giver of all good things.
Henry did not, because he was rich, lead a lazy and selfish life. He
still worked with his own hands, and thus taught his workmen
himself, and made their work more easy and agreeable by his presence
as well as by his instructions. He was continually making
improvements in his business, inventing new things, and so keeping
up his reputation. He exported large quantities of the articles made
in his factory. Every year his business grew larger, and he gained
still higher reputation.
Henry's fellow-citizens offered him some of the highest offices of
honor and profit which the city had to bestow; but he refused them.
The only ones he accepted were those that gave no pay. He was one of
the overseers of the poor, and was always one of the first to aid,
in any way he could, plans for the benefit of his suffering fellow-
beings. He gave money himself generously, but was very anxious not
to have his charities made public.
He was one of the directors of the first railroad from Hamburg.
He engaged all his workmen with reference to their character as well
as their capacity, and no one of them ever left him. He was their
best benefactor and friend.
So lived this excellent man, as happy as he was good and useful, for
sixteen years with his dear wife; they had seven living children;
but, as I before told you, she had very delicate health, and it was
the will of God that these two loving hearts should be separated in
this world, as we hope, to meet in heaven to part no more. After
sixteen years of perfect love and joy, he parted with his dear
Agatha.
Henry bore his sorrow meekly and patiently. He did not speak, he
could not weep; but life was never again the same thing to him; he
never parted for a moment with the memory of his loving and dearly-
beloved wife. He was then only thirty-five years old, but he never
married again; and when urged to take another wife, he always
replied, "I cannot marry again." He felt that he was married forever
to his dear Agatha.
I must relate to you some of the beautiful things Henry's daughter
told me about her mother. Agatha had such a refined and beautiful
taste and manner that though, from her parents' poverty, she had not
had the benefit of an education, yet it was a common saying of the
many who knew her, that she would have graced a court. She never
said or did any thing that was not delicate and beautiful. Her
dress, even when they were very poor, had never a hole nor a spot.
She never allowed any rude or vulgar thing to be said in her
presence without expressing her displeasure. She was one of nature's
nobility. She lived and moved in beauty as well as in goodness.
When she found she was dying, she asked her husband to leave the
room, and then asked a friend who was with her to pray silently, for
she would not distress her husband; and so she passed away without a
groan, calmly and sweetly, before he returned. An immense procession
of the people followed her to the grave, to express their admiration
of her character and their sorrow for her early death. There were in
Hamburg, at that time, two large churches, afterwards burned down at
the great fire, which had chimes of bells in their towers. These
bells played their solemn tones only when some person lamented by
the whole city died. These bells were rung at the funeral of Agatha.