SKETCH OF WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER. 261 



of their life on the sea-coast and rivers. The Indian, too, likes to 

 associate with the white man, from whom, it must be confessed, 

 he learns many of the vices, and but few of the virtues, of civili- 

 zation. It is not probable that Chinook will fall into disuse for 

 many years to come. Though it is difficult to determine whether 

 or not the native population of this part of our country is ma- 

 terially decreasing at present, the race will, no doubt, in time 

 become reduced to small proportions, and the raison d'etre of 

 Chinook will gradually cease. 



SKETCH OF WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER. 



WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER was born at Paterson, N. J., 

 October 30, 1840. He is the 'son of Thomas Sumner, who 

 came to this country from England in 1836, and married here 

 Sarah Graham, also of English birth. Thomas Sumner was a 

 machinist, who worked at his trade until he was sixty years old, 

 and never had any capital but what he saved out of a mechanic's 

 wages. He was an entirely self-educated man, but always pro- 

 fessed great obligations to mechanics' institutes and other associa- 

 tions of the kind of whose opportunities he had made eager use in 

 England. He was a man of the strictest integrity, a total ab- 

 stainer, of domestic habits, and indefatigable industry. He be- 

 came enthusiastically interested in total abstinence when a young 

 man in England, the method being that of persuasion and mis- 

 sionary effort. He used to describe his only attempt to make a 

 speech in public, which was on this subject, when he completely 

 failed. He had a great thirst for knowledge, and was thoroughly 

 informed on modern English and American history and on the 

 constitutional law of both countries. He made the education of 

 his children his chief thought, and the only form of public affairs 

 in which he took an active interest was that of schools. His con- 

 tempt for demagogical arguments and for all the notions of the 

 labor agitators, as well as for the entire gospel of gush, was that 

 of a simple man with sturdy common sense, who had never been 

 trained to entertain any kind of philosophical abstractions. His 

 plan was, if things did not go to suit him, to examine the situa- 

 tion, see what could be done, take a new start, and try again. For 

 instance, inasmuch as the custom in New Jersey was store pay. 

 and he did not like store pay, he moved to New England, where 

 he found that he could get cash. He had decisive influence on the 

 convictions and tastes of the subject of this sketch. 



Prof. Sumner grew up at Hartford, Conn., and was educated in 

 the public schools of that city. The High School was then under 



