The Erie Train Boy

243 Pages·2004·10.97 MB·English

by  Horatio Alger Jr

This electronic material is under
copyright protection and is
provided to a single recipient
for review purposes only.
The Erie Train Boy
by Horatio Alger, Jr.
From the publication of Ragged Dick in 1867 through to the 1930s,
Horatio Alger's tales of young boys overcoming adversity were part
of the mainstream of American culture. The phrase "a Horatio
Alger story" remains synonymous with the American ideal of strug-
gling against adversity and finally achieving success, financial and
otherwise—but especially financial.
As Michael Moore says in Dude, Where's My Country?, "Alger
was one of the most popular American writers of the late 1800s ...
Alger's stories featured characters from impoverished backgrounds
who, through pluck and determination and hard work, were able
to make huge successes of themselves in this land of boundless op-
portunity. The message was that 'anyone can make it in America,
and make it big.'" Ironically, however, it is typically chance and
good luck that is most instrumental in bringing success to the typi-
cal Horatio Alger hero, hardworking and deserving thought he may
be. And often the ideal of egalitarianism features just as promi-
nently as that of rugged individualism.
In all these respects, The Erie Train 5oy (1890) is typical of the
genre. For a number of reasons, however, it is among the most in-
teresting of Alger's many novels. Fred Fenton is the Erie train boy,
a young lad selling sundries on the trains traveling north from New
York and through this work supporting his mother and siblings as
the family struggles to survive in a New York tenement house. The
story eventually unfolds in a more or less mechanical fashion, but
along the way we are shown a world of confidence men and pick-
pockets, of cheap boarding houses and railway hotels, and of a good
deal of the grit of life in late nineteenth-century America. We are
given sensation—from Fenton rescuing a young woman whose dress
has caught fire from the footlights in the midst of a performance,
to a saga of stolen bonds secreted near a Quebec village, to an epi-
sode of thievery at Niagara Falls, and finally to a scheming uncle and
a parcel of land in Colorado. We are given as well a great deal of de-
tail about the social and economic life of the times; Alger pays at-
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tention to wages and prices perhaps more than any other writer of
the period. All in all, The Erie Train Boy is among the most far-
reaching and most interesting of Horatio Alger novels.
The different editions of Alger's novels reflected as much as
they shaped American culture in the late nineteenth and early twen-
tieth centuries. Later editions of the novels were often shortened.
This made them more of a "quick read," but in many cases the
material selected for excision was ideologically charged; descrip-
tions explicitly or implicitly critical of the privileged classes were
disproportionately likely to be cut. In this respect, too, The Erie
Train Boy is an interesting example of the genre; later editions cut
a considerable amount of material from the original.
In addition to providing the text itself, this Broadview reissue
endeavors to make something of its cultural history available for
readers. The copy text is that of the early edition published by M.A.
Donahue & Company, collated against the A.L Burt Company edi-
tion from the 1890s; both of these include the complete Alger text.
The text has also been collated, however, against the edition pub-
lished by the Whitman Publishing Co. circa 1920—an edition that
was considerably abridged, though no acknowledgment of this was
made in the volume itself—and an appendix provides full informa-
tion on the changes made for this later edition. Readers will thus
be able to trace the ways in which the text was altered through
abridgement. Also included as an appendix to the volume are cover
illustrations and advertisements from all three editions.
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The Erie
Train Boy
HORATIO ALGER, JR.
broadview reprint edition
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Horatio Alger's The Erie Train Boy is in the public domain. All introductory and other similar
text in this volume is copyright © Broadview Press 2004.
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a
retrieval system, without prior written consent of the publisher—or in the case of photocopying,
a licence from Access Copyright (Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency), One Yonge Street, Suite
1900, Toronto, ON M5E lE5-is an infringement of the copyright law.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Alger, Horatio, 1832-1899
The Erie train boy/ Horatio Alger, Jr. — Broadview reprint, ed.
Reprint. Originally published: Chicago: M.A. Donahue & Co., 1890.
ISBN 1-55111-654-5
I. Title.
PS1029.A3E752004 813'.4 C2004-904231-9
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Contents
I On The Erie Road 7
II A Fair Exchange 12
III Fred's Rich Relation 16
IV Zebulon Mack 21
V An Adventure On The Train 25
VI Mr. Bascom's Peril 31
VII Ferdinand Morris 36
VIII Mr. Bascom's Sad Plight 41
IX A Long Trip 46
X What Took Place In No. 21 51
XI Fred Falls Under A Terrible Suspicion 56
XII Fred As A Prisoner 61
XIII The Hotel Clerk's Mistake 66
XIV The Missing Valise 71
XV Mr. Palmer Walks Into A Trap 76
XVI Palmer's Malice 81
XVII Two Young Lady Passengers At Odds 86
XVIII Unsatisfactory Relations 92
XIX Ruth Patton Calls On Mr. Ferguson 96
XX A Friend In Need 101
XXI Luella's Painful Discovery 105
XXII Miss Ferguson Writes A Note 110
XXIII Another Railroad Adventure 116
XXIV Fred's Good Luck 121
XXV Rose Wainwright's Party 126
XXVI Fred Becomes A Newspaper Hero 131
XXVII A Confidential Mission 136
XXVIII St. Victor 141
XXTX Fred Takes The First Step 149
XXX A Hunting Excursion 152
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XXXI Fred Has An Understanding With Sinclair 157
XXXII Finding A Clew 162
XXXIII Success! 167
XXXIV Bowman's Panic 172
XXXV Fred's Reward 177
XXXVI A Letter From Tom Sloan 182
XXXVII Cousin Ferguson 185
XXXVIII Conclusion 189
The Erie Train Boy: A Comparison
of Editions 195
The Erie Train Boy: Illustrations and
Advertisements in Various Editions 199
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CHAPTER I
On The Erie Road
44 T^APERS, MAGAZINES, all the popular novels! Can't I sell you
i something this morning?"
Joshua Bascom turned as the train boy addressed him, and
revealed an honest, sunburned face, lighted up with pleasurable
excitement, for he was a farmer's son and was making his first
visit to the city of New York.
"I ain't much on story reading" he said. "I tried to read a
story book once, but I couldn't seem to get interested in it."
"What was the name of it?" asked Fred, the train boy, smil-
ing.
"It was the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' or some such name. It had
pictures into it. Aunt Nancy give it to dad for a birthday present
once."
"I have heard of it."
"It was a mighty queer book. I couldn't make head nor tail
on't."
"All books are not like that."
"I don't feel like readin'. It's a miff sight more interestin'
lookin' out of the winder at the sights. I'm going to York to spend
a week," added Joshua, with an air of importance.
"That's where I live," said the train boy.
"Do you? Then you might tell me where to put up. I've got
ten dollars. I reckon that ought to keep me a week."
Fred smiled.
"That is more then enough to keep me," he said, "but it
costs a stranger considerable to go around. But I shall have to
go my rounds."
It was a train on the Erie road, and the car had just passed
ON THE ERIE ROAD 7
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Middletown. Joshua was sitting by the window, and the seat be-
side him was vacant. The train boy had scarcely left the car
when a stylishly dressed young man who had been sitting behind,
came forward and accosted Joshua.
"Is this seat engaged?" he asked.
"Not as I know of," answered the young farmer.
"Then with your permission I will take it," said the stranger.
"Why of course; I hain't no objection." 'He's dreadful po-
lite!' thought Joshua.
"You are from the country, I presume?" said the newcomer
as he sank into the seat.
"Yes, I be. I live up Elmira way—town of Barton. Was you ever
in Barton?"
"I have passed through it. I suppose you are engaged in ag-
ricultural pursuits?"
"Hey?"
"You are a farmer, I take it."
"Yes; I work on dad's farm. He owns a hundred and seventy-
five acres, and me and a hired man help him to carry it on. I
tell you we have to work."
"Just so! And now you are taking a vacation?"
"Yes. I've come to see the sights of York."
"I think you will enjoy your visit. Ahem! The mayor of New
York is my uncle."
"You don't say?" ejaculated Joshua, awestruck.
"Yes! My name is Ferdinand Morris."
"Glad to knowyou, Mr. Morris. My name is Joshua Bascom."
"Indeed! An aunt of mine married a Bascom. Perhaps we
are related."
Joshua was quite elated at the thought that he might in
some way be related to the mayor of New York without knowing
it, and he resolved to expatiate on that subject when he went
back to Barton. He decided that his new acquaintance must be
rich, for he was dressed in showy style and had a violet in his
buttonhole.
"Be you in business, Mr. Morris?" he asked.
8 THE ERIE TRAIN BOY
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"Well, ahem! I am afraid that I am rather an idler. My fa-
ther left me a quarter of a million, and so I don't feel the need
of working."
"Quarter of a million!" ejaculated Joshua. "Why, that's two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars."
"Just so," said Morris, smiling.
"That's an awful pile of money! Why, dad's been workin' all
his life, and he isn't worth more'n three thousand dollars at the
outside."
"I am afraid three thousand dollars wouldn't last me a very
long time," said Morris, with an amused smile.
"Gosh! Where can anybody get such a pile of money? That's
what beats me!"
"Business, my young friend, business! Why I've made that
amount of money in one day."
"You don't say!"
"Yes, by speculating in Wall Street."
"You must be smart!"
"My teachers didn't seem to think so. But life in the city is
very different from life in the country."
"I wish I could make some money."
"A man must have money to make money. If now you had a
little money—"
"I've got ten dollars to pay my expenses."
"Is that all?"
"No; I've got fifteen dollars to buy a shawl and dress for
marm, and some shirts for dad. He thought he'd like some
boughten shirts. The last marm made for him didn't fit very well."
"You must take good care of your money, Mr. Bascom. I re-
gret to say that we have a great many pickpockets in New York."
"So I've heard. That's what Jim Duffy told me. He went to
New York last spring. But I guess Jim was keerless or he wouldn't
have been robbed. It would take a smart pickpocket to rob me."
"Then you keep your money in a safe place?"
"Yes, I keep my wallet in my breeches pocket," and Joshua
slapped the right leg of his trousers in a well satisfied way.
ON THE ERIE ROAD 9