The Gentleman from Everywhere

The Gentleman from
Everywhere

Project Gutenberg's The Gentleman from Everywhere, by James Henry
Foss This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Gentleman from Everywhere
Author: James Henry Foss
Release Date: April 29, 2004 [EBook #12193]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
GENTLEMAN FROM EVERYWHERE ***

Produced by Ted Garvin, Josephine Paolucci and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team.

THE GENTLEMAN FROM EVERYWHERE
BY
JAMES HENRY FOSS
ILLUSTRATED
1903
TO
MY BELOVED, ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN,
THIS BOOK IS

MOST AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
IN THE EARNEST HOPE THAT
BY ITS PERUSAL
Many sailing o'er life's solemn main, Forlorn and shipwrecked brothers,
may take heart again.

Contents

CHAPTER
I. Launching of My Life Boat II. My First Voyage III. Near to Nature's
Heart IV. Joys and Sorrows of School-Days V. Career of a
Dominie-Pedagogue VI. Dreams of My Youth VII. A Disenchanted
Collegian-Preacher VIII. In Shadow Land IX. Sunlight and Darkness in
Palace and Cottage XI. Adventures in Mosquito Land XI. In Arcadie
XII. From Philistine to Benedict and a Honeymoon XIII. The Angels of
Life and Death XIV. Tribulations of a Widower XV. Faith Sees a Star
XVI. On the Political Stump XVII. That Eddyfying Christian Science
XVIII. In the Land of Flowers XIX. Sunbeam, The Seminole XX. A
Founder of Towns and Clubs XXI. A Million Dollar Business with a
One Dollar Capital XXII. Pendulum 'twixt Smiles and Tears XXIII.
Monarch of all He Surveyed: Then Deposed, XXIV. Foregleams of
Immortality XXV. A Practical Socialist and Colonizer XXVI. Hand in
Hand with Angels XXVII. Among the Law-Sharks XXVIII.
Campaigning in Wonderland XXIX. Among the Clouds XXX.
Disenchanted: Home Again XXXI. The Florida Crackers XXXII.
Looking Forward
[Illustration: [cursive] Your friend, the Author James H. Foss]

CHAPTER I.
LAUNCHING OF MY LIFE-BOAT.
Wild was the night, yet a wilder night Hung around o'er the mother's

pillow; In her bosom there waged a fiercer fight Than the fight on the
wrathful billow.
Already there were more children than potatoes in her hut of logs, and
yet, another unwelcome guest was coming, to whom fate had ordained
that it would have been money in his pocket had he never been born.
A sympathizing neighbor held over the suffering woman an umbrella to
shield her from the rain which poured through the dilapidated roof, and
when the dreary light of that Sunday morning dawned, my frail bark
was launched on the stormy, sullen sea of life.
My father, a good man, but a ne'er-do-well financially, had loaned his
best clothes, watch and pocketbook to a friend to enable him to call on
his best girl in captivating style, and said friend expressed his gratitude
by eloping with the girl and all the borrowed finery.
That same night the boom broke, and allowed all the savings of our
family invested in logs, cut by my father and his lumbermen, to float
down the river and be lost in the sea.
Thus storm, flood, calamity and sorrow, far in advance heralded the
future of myself, the fourth son of a fourth son who, on that Sunday, in
the dog-days of 1841, reluctantly came into this world.
The howling of the wolves in the surrounding wild-woods, the
screaming of the catamounts in the near-by tree-tops, the sterile
dog-star drying up the crops, the marching of my father to fight in the
threatened Aroostook war, all conspired for months before this fateful
night to awaken a restlessness, discontent, and gloomy forebodings in
the lonely mother's heart which prenatal influences impressed upon the
mind of the baby yet unborn.
All through that wretched summer, scorching drought alternating with
cloud-bursts vied with each other in blasting the hopes of the farmers,
and premature frost destroyed the few remaining stalks of corn, so that
when the winter snows came, gaunt famine stared our family fiercely in
the face.

My father and three brothers faced the withering storms bravely,
unpacking their internal stores of sunshine, as the camel in the desert
draws refreshment from his inner tank when outward water fails.
We were isolated from human companionship, except when
occasionally the doctor came on the tops of the fences and branches of
the pine-trees to soothe the pains of my sickly mother. At this time the
snow was so deep that a tunnel was cut to the neighboring hovel where
shivered our ancient horse and cow.
My father and brothers tramped with snare and gun on snow-shoes
through the woods, securing occasionally a partridge or squirrel, and
semi-occasionally a deer, or pickerel from