Sword and Pen: Ventures and Adventures of Willard GlazierOwens, John Algernon
History
Sword and Pen: Ventures and Adventures of Willard Glazier
Owens, John Algernon
Glazier, Willard W., 1841-1905; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
The next step was to find lodgings at a weekly or monthly price more
suited to his means than those which he had temporarily taken at the
Adams House on his arrival there the previous evening. Always frugal in
regard to his personal expenditures, he knew that, in order to eke out
the full term with his scanty resources, he must carry his habitual
thrift to its fullest extent. He therefore scoured the town for
apartments, aided by references from Professor Cochran, principal of the
Normal, and finally obtained a room on Lydius street, almost within
shadow of the Cathedral, and at the certainly reasonable rate of "six
shillings per week." This room he shared with Alexander S. Hunter, from
Schoharie County, and a member of the sub-Senior Class. For several
weeks the young students boarded at this place, buying what food they
required, which the landlady cooked for them free of charge.
Seventy-five cents a week paid for their cooking and rent!
But even this small outlay soon exhausted the meagre resources of young
Glazier and, at the end of the time mentioned, he went over into
Rensselaer County, to look up a school, in order to replenish his
well-nigh empty purse, and to enable him to continue in his efforts to
acquire an education. It was a bright clear morning in November when he
left his boarding-place on Lydius street in quest of his self-appointed
work, and, crossing the Hudson on a ferry-boat, walked all the way to
Nassau by the Bloomingdale Road--a distance of sixteen miles. His object
was to find Allen Barringer, School Commissioner for Rensselaer County,
who, as he had been told, lived somewhere near Nassau. On the way to
that village he passed two or three schools, concerning which he made
inquiries, with a view to engaging some one of them on his return to
Albany should he be so successful as to obtain a certificate from Mr.
Barringer. At about two o'clock in the afternoon of this, to him,
eventful day, young Glazier had arrived at the residence of Harmon
Payne, near East Schodack, or "Scott's Corners," as it was sometimes
called. He had been referred to this gentleman as one likely to assist
him in his endeavors to obtain a school. He had eaten nothing since
morning, and, having walked a distance of nearly sixteen miles, as may
be imagined, was somewhat faint and hungry. But the good wife of Mr.
Payne showed herself not lacking in the kindly courtesy belonging to a
gentlewoman, and, with true hospitality, placed before the young Normal
student a delicious repast of bread and honey.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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