Through the school: The experiences of a mill boy in securing an education
John Stuart Mill · en
In this second caboose I resolved not to irritate the crew, and to this
end I made myself comfortable in my allotted place, took off my boots,
put on a pair of tennis shoes, and read a book I had in my suit-case.
When the train finally entered the Buffalo freight yards I was hurried
out, as the conductor wanted to lock the caboose without the loss of a
minute. When I got to the ground, in my hurry, and after the conductor
had locked the door and left me standing dazed, I found that I had left
my shoes in the caboose. But no amount of search for the conductor
succeeded, and finally one of the railroad men told me that I might as
well give up the search, especially as the caboose had been whirled
out of sight by a switching engine. So I went into the city with my
suit-case and my lean purse, determined to visit the sales stables and
stock-yards, until I should find a chance to ride on to New York City.
I realized that if I should ever arrive in New York I should not have
enough money to carry me home, but I followed a blind instinct which
seemed to tell me that, New York attained, “something would turn up.”
In one of the back streets of Buffalo I found a Temperance Hotel, where
beds and rooms were fifteen cents a day. The hotel had in its frowsy
lobby a group of unkempt men who seemed to be temperate in one thing
more strikingly than another,--work, for during any part of the day I
found them there tipped back in the chairs holding their conferences on
momentous matters. I left my umbrella with the clerk for collateral,
and told him that further security for my board would be my suit-case
which was certainly worth thirty-five cents. I had a good thirty-cent
dinner in the dining-room, and then went out to visit the stock-yards
of the city.
When I saw the multitude of cattle pens, near the railroad, and saw
them filled with sheep and cattle, I estimated that in them alone were
two hundred and fifty possible trips to the end of the world; but
when I entered the lobby of the Stockman’s Hotel and tried to get the
influence of the cattle-buyers towards a pass, they would have nothing
to do with me. Thus rebuffed, I went the rounds of the sales stables,
of which there were many facing the stock pens. In these I was told
there were no sales on just then, but that if anything turned up they
would see what they could do. That gave me hope, so I said that I would
call on them during the next day.