BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF JOHN ADAM RYDER. 675 



like a native) to this early impression. A little book entitled "Biblische 

 Naturgeschichte fur Kinder" bears his name on the cover with the 

 date of 1860. 



Ryder spent the life usual to a country boy. He possessed great 

 energy of body and was fond of walking, rarely, if ever, using a horse 

 to ride, although the stable was at his command. He attended the 

 country school from the age of G or 7 until his fifteenth year, when he 

 ran away. Soon afterwards he was sent to the academy and then to the 

 normal school at Millersville, from which he also ran away, and did not 

 return home, but lived the life of a tramp for some days before he was 

 detected. He was severely punished for both these escapades. It 

 appears that Ryder was always very sensitive and never associated 

 with boys of his age in the sports customary to youth, but wandered 

 about alone through the woods and meadows, collecting insects and 

 plants. He sooned earned the nickname of " Crazy John." In the end 

 his father prudently interviewed the principal of the academy and 

 made special arrangements which enabled Ryder to live on more agree- 

 able terms. But he was unhappy under restraint. Class work was 

 distasteful to him and discipline of any kind resented. In order to 

 secure his obedience it was sometimes necessary to give him directions 

 adverse to those which it was intended for him to obey. Preferring to 

 study in his own way, he spent the greater portion of his time in the 

 library of one of the local literary societies. He read every book it 

 contained. He was greatly influenced by Horace Mann's " Thoughts 

 for a Young Man," 1 a copy of which he procured. In 1875, in writing 

 to his brother, he said : "Be careful of this book; five dollars would not 

 buy it if I were unable to get another." In 18G8, when in his sixteenth 

 year, he wrote home asking for a microscope, books on natural history, 

 chemical apparatus, etc. His restless spirit caused him to drop out of 

 the school for good after a few months. 



He taught school in the neighborhood of Loudon and afterward in 

 the high school of the county for three years. He was quite successful 

 and was much esteemed by all who were brought in contact with him. 



We now find Ryder in his twenty-second year with the best equip- 

 ment it was possible to secure for him in a rural district. His tastes 

 were defined, and he at once made up his mind to devote himself to the 

 study of science. This decision was quickened by the failure of his 

 father in business, so that Ryder was thrown entirely upon his own 

 resources. Of a proud disposition, he refused all assistance from his 

 relatives, and learning that the Jessup Fund of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia afforded assistance to young men who were 

 desirous of devoting themselves to the study of natural history, he 

 came to Philadelphia in the spring of 1874, and appealed to Mr. Thomas 



l A few Thoughts for a Young Man: a Lecture delivered before the Boston Mer- 

 cantile Library Association on its 29th Anniversary. By Horace Mann. Boston: 

 Ticknor, Reed and Fields^ 1850. 



