Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1876 — An Enterprising Boy. [ARTICLE]

An Enterprising Boy.

A writer in the Philadelphia Press says; While I was standing in one of the smaller buildings in the Centennial grounds the other day there sauntered into the room a little hoy, poorly but neatly dressed, whose bright face particularly attracted me. I began a conversation with him which I think will interest your readers. “Do you know,” said I, “what picture that is?” “That’s the old liberty bell.” “And that?” pointing to another. “That’s old Independence Hall.” I got him to write his name in the visitors’ book, when he wrote in a neat, childish hand—“ Willie Ferguson, Memphis, Tenn.” As I watched the pen going slowly over the lines, I exclaimed: “What! are you all the way from Tennessee ? How did you come on?” “A man brought me on, but when we got to Pittsbargh he left me, and I came over by myself.” - ’ “Did your papa and mamma come too?” “Sadly he said, “I have no father and mother.” “Had you any money?” “No; I told the conductors I wanted to see the Centennial, and they brought me on.” “Well, what are you doing now and where do you live?” “I live in a big boarding-house on Belmont avenue, over there, and I wash dishes, scour knives and do chores, etc.” “How did you get into the Centennial ?” said I. “Why, I paid my fifty cents like anybody else.” “How are you going to get home ?” “Why, just the way I came on,” with a bright twinkle in his clear blue eye. “And pray how old may you be ?” “Twelve years old, and I came to see the Centennial.” And all this time he stood with one little brown hand on the back of the chair, the other in his pocket, with an immensely broad-brimmed liat stuck right on the back of his curly head. He would have made a picture for an artist. With a few more questions on my part, to which he answered that he liked Machinery Hall best, and hoped to he a watchmaker when he grew to be a man, he bade us good-by ana started off again for his dear Machine * ery Hall.