Mr. Becker was born in Fitchburg, Mass., in 1858, commenced his life-work in Chas. B. Dennis's Insurance Office at nine years of age; at twelve he wrote a good business hand; at fourteen wrote all the policies and daily reports for that firm--at sixteen his writing showed up to Mr. Dennis so well, that he sent him to Boston to attend Kendall's Normal Writing Institution where he took a three months' course. CHAPTER XVIII. COLORED LAWYERS. In this chapter, I do not attempt to call attention to anything like all of the successful colored lawyers. I simply select from the hundreds of prominent men practising law in courts throughout the United States, two: D. Augustus Straker and T. McCants Stewart. D. AUGUSTUS STRAKER. D. Augustus Straker was born in Bridgetown, in the Island of Barbadoes, one of the West Indies, on July 11, in the year 1842. His early education was fostered by his mother, a pious and industrious woman, who took great pride in her only child, and strove by the labor of her hands to give him a liberal education, his father having died when he was eleven months old. He received a good English education at the Central High or Preparatory School of the island, under Robert Pierre Elliott, of Battersea, England, and afterwards received supplementary training in philosophy from lectures given by R. R. Rawle, Principal of Codrington College, as well as private instructions in Latin, Greek and French, from Rev. Joseph N. Durant, D. D., of said island. At the early age of seventeen years he became school-master of one of the principal schools of the island. [Illustration: HON. D. AUGUSTUS STRAKER.] In 1867, he was induced, with two others, by the invitation of Rt. Rev. B. B. Smith, of the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky, U. S. A., on hearing preached a sermon on the cruelties of slavery and the deplorable ignorance of his race in the United States, upon their emancipation from bondage, to come to the United States and engage in the uplifting of his race, by teaching in the schools of Kentucky, under the auspices of the Avery P. E. Institute and the Freedmen's Bureau, under the superintendence of the Christian soldier, statesman and humanitarian, General O. O. Howard. Before leaving his native land he had commenced the study of law, preparatory to entering the Middle Temple, England. While teaching school in Kentucky he was persuaded to prepare for the ministry in the P. E. Church, but did not enter upon such duties, owing to the prejudice against color and his race, even in said church, an inconsistency which he could not reconcile with Christian practices.