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THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[July, 



In these days the labors of few men meet with 

 so much public recognition, as the labors of the 

 man of science, and it would be scarcely doing 

 justice to human nature if it were not admitted 

 that in most cases the good word from his fellows 

 is a great encouragement to him to persevere in 

 his labors. 



But there are men like Burk and Parker in 

 Philadelphia, Strecker in Eeading, Davenport in 

 Boston, and numerous others in the United 

 States, who, without any early advantages, with- 

 out any thought of ever being famous, giving their 

 first duty to their families fully in daily toil, yet em- 

 ploying their leisure in so improving themselves, 

 and devoting their improvement to the study of 

 nature, keep on throughout their lives in their 

 humble, quiet way, amassing facts, and finally 

 becoming so useful that even the march of high 

 science has to stop a few moments to pay them 

 respect. Sometimes this recognition comes 

 before they die ; but generally the world does 

 not know how much it has lost till the good 

 man is gone away. Of this last is Charles C. 

 Frost, who died at Brattleboro, on the 16th of 

 March, in his 75th year, having all his life 

 remained in the town wherein he was born. He 

 was apprenticed to a shoemaker in his early 

 teens, and continued on with that business till 

 his death, as his father had done before him. 

 The story of how he became a botanist is a very 

 interesting one. When he was fifteen years of 

 age, his father became possessor of " Hutton's 

 Mathematics," which he had taken for debt from 

 some West Point student. Young Frost looked 

 at it with evident delight, and his father told him 

 that it should be his property if he could read it 

 at twenty-one. At nineteen he had mastered 

 the whole course. He went into astronomical 

 mathematics, took up chemistry, learned very 

 much of natural sciences in every department, 

 and all the while attended to his business as a 

 shoemaker. From some neglect of his physical 

 habits, he superinduced mucous dyspepsia. No 

 medical skill in his neighborhood seemed able to 

 relieve him. He went to New York to consult 

 Dr. Willard Parker. While waiting in the ante- 

 room, he admired intently a very handsome 

 bouquet of flowers on the mantel, and was 

 examining them when the doctor called him in. 

 Dr. Parker candidly told him he could do noth- 

 ing for him : " But," said the skillful and honest 

 physician, •' you can do very much for yourself 

 Are you fond of flowers? "Very much so, 

 indeed," said Mr. Frost. " Then make it a point 



to walk one hour in the morning, and one in the 

 evening, looking for flowers." 



Anxious once to know more about some ferns 

 than he thought he could find in American 

 works, he sent $12 to London for a work by the 

 celebrated Fries, and was somewhat put out 

 when it came and he found it was in Latin. 

 But he at once procured a Latin grammar and 

 dictionary, and before the year was over he 

 knew all that Fries could tell. Finding by this 

 experiment in languages that fortune favors the 

 brave, he took up at once French and German, 

 and soon learned to read and write them cor- 

 rectly. A botanist who went to see him once 

 found him in his little shoe-shop; but no matter 

 how interesting the botanical conversation, he 

 would break off" instantly, and without the 

 slightest " excuse me," to attend to his custo- 

 mers. That was his business, and he owed his 

 first duty to that without the sham formality of 

 apologizing for doing his duty. As he returned 

 once after taking out some pegs from the shoe of 

 a factory girl, the visitor asked him how he 

 could be content to spend his days in that little 

 shoe-shop, with these capabilities and acquire- 

 ments? "Why," said he, " it is the business of 

 my life. Whatever I have acquired of science 

 came in the search of health and mental enter- 

 tainment. Science is not my profession — shoe- 

 making is." 



In this mental entertainment he had accumu- 

 lated about one thousand volumes, and yet at no 

 more cost in' his life than other people spent in 

 cigars. As in his business so in whatever he 

 thought to be his duty, he would not let his 

 scientific entertainments run away with him. 

 He had been for many years a member of the 

 Centre Congregational church, and up to the 

 time of the beginning of his final illness, three 

 weeks ago, had not failed of an attendance at 

 church on Sunday for thirty-five years. His lead- 

 ing scientific specialty was as a botanist, and no 

 man in the country was a better authority on the 

 ferns, lichens and mosses of this region. In ento- 

 mology he was an authority, and both as a 

 botanist and entomologist he was quoted by the 

 scientists both of this country and Europe. 



As a general rule a prophet is not honored in 

 his own country, especial'y a prophet who makes 

 no special effort to make his voice heard ; but it 

 is a pleasure to note in this case that while the 

 honor due to a prophet canje in the shape of 

 close correspondence with many of the great 

 men of the old world, he was not wholly 



