I must not, however, forget that a very good foundation was laid for my love of sweet sounds in the unsurpassed minstrelsy of my native land as sung by my father.  There was scarcely an old Scottish song with which I was not made familiar, both words and tune.  Folk-songs are the best possible foundation for sure progress to the heights of Beethoven and Wagner.  My father being one of the sweetest and most pathetic singers I ever heard, I probably inherited his love of music and of song, though not given his voice.  Confucius’ exclamation often sounds in my ears:  “Music, sacred tongue of God!  I hear thee calling and I come.”

An incident of this same period exhibits the liberality of my parents in another matter.  As a messenger boy I had no holidays, with the exception of two weeks given me in the summer-time, which I spent boating on the river with cousins at my uncle’s at East Liverpool, Ohio.  I was very fond of skating, and in the winter about which I am speaking, the slack water of the river opposite our house was beautifully frozen over.  The ice was in splendid condition, and reaching home late Saturday night the question arose whether I might be permitted to rise early in the morning and go skating before church hours.  No question of a more serious character could have been submitted to ordinary Scottish parents.  My mother was clear on the subject, that in the circumstances I should be allowed to skate as long as I liked.  My father said he believed it was right I should go down and skate, but he hoped I would be back in time to go with him to church.

I suppose this decision would be arrived at to-day by nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand homes in America, and probably also in the majority of homes in England, though not in Scotland.  But those who hold to-day that the Sabbath in its fullest sense was made for man, and who would open picture galleries and museums to the public, and make the day somewhat of a day of enjoyment for the masses instead of pressing upon them the duty of mourning over sins largely imaginary, are not more advanced than were my parents forty years ago.  They were beyond the orthodox of the period when it was scarcely permissible, at least among the Scotch, to take a walk for pleasure or read any but religious books on the Sabbath.

CHAPTER V

THE TELEGRAPH OFFICE

I had served as messenger about a year, when Colonel John P. Glass, the manager of the downstairs office, who came in contact with the public, began selecting me occasionally to watch the office for a few minutes during his absence.  As Mr. Glass was a highly popular man, and had political aspirations, these periods of absence became longer and more frequent, so that I soon became an adept in his branch of the work.  I received messages from the public and saw that those that came from the operating-room were properly assigned to the boys for prompt delivery.