Edward Livingston Youmans 75 



stuff that acquiesces in defeat. He rose superior 

 to calamity ; he won the means of livelihood, and 

 in darkness entered upon the path to an enviable 

 fame. At first he had to resign himself to spend- 

 ing weary weeks over tasks that with sound eye- 

 sight could have been dispatched in as many days. 

 He invented some kind of writing machine, which 

 held his paper firmly, and enabled his pen to fol- 

 low straight lines at proper distances apart. Long 

 practice of this sort gave his handwriting a pe- 

 culiar character which it retained in later years. 

 When I first saw it in 1863 it seemed almost un- 

 decipherable ; but that was far from being the 

 case, and after I had grown used to it I found it 

 but little less legible than the most beautiful chiro- 

 graphy. The strokes, gnarled and jagged as they 

 were, had a method in their madness, and every 

 pithy sentence went straight as an arrow to its 

 mark. 



While conquering these physical obstacles Mr. 

 Youmans began writing for the press, and grad- 

 ually entered into relations with leading news- 

 papers which became more and more important 

 and useful as years went on. He became ac- 

 quainted with Horace Greeley, William Henry 

 Channing, and other gentlemen who were inter- 

 ested in social reforms. His sympathies were 



