Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1901 — A REMARKABLE LAD. [ARTICLE]

A REMARKABLE LAD.

A •*<• Story of Thomas Chatterton, the Famous Boy Foot. Here is the sad story of a remarkable boy who was a famous poet at the time he was 16 years old, and who died of disappointment when he was 18. He was Thomas Chatterton, born at Bristol, England, in 1752. Few now probably know much about him, but 130 years ago nearly all England was talking about him, and even to this day those #ho study hie work agree that he was a most wonderful youth. But for all that, the boy was buried in a pauper’s grave chiefly because he was

•o you* that even hl* friend* Memat to think there was something Mtmajiny about him. Perhaps it wu because Thomas Chatterton never played quits fair with those who read hl* work that they refused to give him his due. Chatterton was born in poverty and spent his short life in poverty, but amid it all his genius could not be smothered. When 8 years old he was placed in a charity school. When 11 he was a contributor to the papers and began to deceive the public with his productions. Learned men were amazed to read poems written in unmistakable antique style, alleged to have been discovered among old records and manuscripts at Bristol. No one doubted that these were work* of 200 years before, and they were treasured as such. Later when It was discovered that a boy of 16 had written them, there was general amazement. When he was 18 Chatterton went to London, and aside from many avowed writings, he wrote numerous poems in the fifteenth century style that deceived all who read them. Many papers accepted these, but refused to pay the young poet more than a few cents for them. Thomas Chatterton was in the lowest depths of poverty. He refused to ask for aid, and in 1770, three months after he had gone to London, he locked himself in his attic room, drank poison and died. He was buried as a pauper, and now the encyclopaedias devote many columns to this boy, who is recognized a* one of the most remarkable poets England has ever had. —Chicago Record.