Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1879 — Elihu Burritt. [ARTICLE]

Elihu Burritt.

Elihu Burritt, whose death is announced thia in our dispatches, had an almost world-wide reputation as “The Learned Blacksmith.’’ He was born in New Britain, Conn., on the Bth of December, 1810. His ancestors were Scotch, and both his father and grandfather served in the American army during the Revolution. His father was a shoemaker in bumble circumstances, and having a family of ten children could not afford to give them very liberal advantages. When seventeen years old Elihu was apprenticed to a blacksmith, and it was during his labors at the anvil that a great deal of •his study was accomplished. He was a natural mathematician, but had also a great taste for the languages, and with little assistance he mastered French, Latin and Greek, and later he acquired a knowledge of other tongues. It is related that when twenty-two years old, being ashamed to ask for aid, he resolved on working his own way in his studies; so he sat down to Homer’s “Iliad" without note or comment, and with only a lexicon with Latin definitions. He had never read a line in the book, but determined that if he could read two lines by hard study during the whole day he would never ask help of any .one in mastering the Greek language. He won a complete victory, and by the middle of the afternoon had read and committed fifteen lines to memory. - He went to Worcester, Mass., in order to use the library of the Antiquarian Society there, and there he made his first attempt at journalism, editing the Christian Citizen, a journal devoted to the peaceable settlement of international troubles. He became a lecturer of note, speaking on the subjects of temperance, slavery and cheap ocean postage. In 1846 he went to England and formed “The League of Universal Brotherhood,” which announced its aim to be the abolition of war. He took a deep interest in. the slavery question, advocating compensated emancipation, and he assumed charge of a Philadelphia journal, the Citizen of the World, in 1852, in order to advance this scheme. In his devotion to the subject it is said that he sometimes restricted his personal expenses to sixteen cents a day. In 1865 Mr. Burritt was made United States Consul at Birmingham, Eng , but was removed from office when President Grant was inaugurated. He returned to this country in 1870, and has given his attention since to quiet literary work, writing to the newspapers on many subjects. Among his books are “Sparks from the Anvil," “Miscellaneous Writings,’’ “Olive Leaves,” ' V Thoughts ani Things at Home and Abroad,” “A Walk from John o’Groat’s to Land's End,” “Lectures and Speeches” and “Ten-Minute Talks on all Sorts of Topics.” Mr. Burritt was a man of the most honest and earnest purpose, often radical in some of his plans,'but always certain to have a good end in view. He aimed in his literary work to instruct and to benefit his readers rather than to produce elegant literature. His health had been poor for a long time, and attacks of hemorrhage of the lungs had more than once given warning that his days were numbered. — N. Y. Evening Post.