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 
