CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 23 



"Two anecdotes of my father's childhood in connec- 

 tion with his own father, he used to relate. On one occa- 

 sion, as a punishment for some juvenile misdeed, he was 

 locked up in the third-story front room of the house. 

 After a while a terrified neighbor rushed in and asked if 

 they knew that Spencer was hanging out of the window. 

 An investigation proved that he had amused himself by 

 letting himself hang on the outside of the house, simply 

 holding on by his fingers to the window sill. His father 

 came quietly into the room, making as little noise as 

 possible, so as not to frighten him, and the first news of 

 his discovery received by the juvenile acrobat was his 

 being seized by a strong parental arm, and lifted into the 

 room, where the usual corrective of those just and inex- 

 orable days was administered. On another occasion, 

 perhaps a few years later (my father was only ten years 

 old when his father died) the small urchin found a half- 

 smoked stump of a cigar somewhere. He thought it a 

 good time to experiment in smoking. How much of the 

 cigar he smoked, I do not know, but quite enough to 

 make him very sick. His tender hearted mother put him 

 to bed and watched over him most assiduously. When 

 his father came in, however, he inquired into the origin 

 of the matter; and, on learning it, announced that there 

 was to be no further petting in that illness. The youngster 

 was hauled out of bed, and, after a good sound thrashing, 

 which his father gave him, was told that he need not go 

 to bed again, but might go off by himself and recover 

 his health as best he could. My father used to say that 

 his early associations with smoking were so painful that 

 he never cared to try it again. 



"In spite of the rigor of my grandfather's discipline, 

 he was a very tenderly affectionate father, and those of 



