A REMARKABLE CHARACTER.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3354, 22 September 1879, Page 2

A REMARKABLE CHARACTER.

An aged man hat just died in America whose name was a household word among his countrymen, bat who (writei the Argus) was bora in poverty, never received a year's schooling in his life and commenced his honorable aad success- 7 ful career of labour as^a canal boatman.. Asa Packer, who in May last went to nit at the ripe age of 74, was one of the oom* miusioners of the Centennial Exhibition, president of two railroad companies, a judge of the county court, the owner of extensive coal mines, twice elected to Congress, and once to the "State . Legislature of Pennsylvania, and one of the richest men in America. Denied in early life the advantages of that" cultare " of which we hear so much and see to little among the superfine critics of our own self-made men, the late Assa Packer was determined that the younger mea'of a later generation, and of many generations yet to come, should not be debarred from' receiving the benefits of the best instruction that money could procure. Ha. therefore built, at his own cost, the Lehigh University, upon the construction of which he expended a million dollars, and ho provided it with a liberal endow- . ment, so that the education received in it should be perfectly free. It comprises two departments, in one of which purely scientific instruction is communicated, while in the other the student is. well grounded in general literature. ,To the Episcopal Protestant Church, of which he was a member, he was also a munificent donor, as well as to every philanthropic institution or movement which his cagacioue judgment told him was wortby of support. Such men belong to the true ariatoi of a democratic community, and it is fortunate for the United States that the tone of public opinion is sufficiently healthy and genial to enable men of this stamp to be worthily honored and appreciated. The New York Tribune mentions that when the deceased millionaire celebrated his golden wedding two years ago/visitors saw "among the splendid evidenoes of his recent fortunes, two or thrca brightly scoured copper pots and pans hung on the wall; they were those, with which the newly-married couple had cooked their humble meals when they set up house-keeping in the cabin of the canal-boat; and were preserved in no Bounderby spirit of boastfnlness, but simply as mementoes of pleasfcf^ years when they had wandered up a^dowa with youth, hope, and little money." Very little envy attends in any community wealth thus acquired and employed.