The Daily Dispatch: November 22, 1860., [Electronic resource]

A live Yankee.

‘"The first time I saw this strange fellow I comprehended America. John was born at Vandalia, Illinois. He inhaled at his birth that air of the New World so vivacious, so sparkling, and so brisk, that it goes to the head like champagne wine, and one gets intoxicated in breathing it. I know not whether the Harris family are rich or poor; whether they sent their son to college, or left him to get his own education,--It is certain that at twenty-seven years he depends only on himself, is astonished at nothing, thinks nothing impossible, never flinches, believes all things, hopes all things, tries all things, triumphs in all things, and rises up again if he falls, never stops, never loses courage, and goes right ahead whistling his tune. He has been a farmer, a schoolmaster, a lawyer, a journalist, a gold hunter, a manufacturer, a merchant; he has read everything, seen everything, practiced everything, and traveled over more than half the globe.--When I made his acquaintance he was commanding a steam-yacht in the PierŒrus, with sixty men and four; he was discussing the Oriental question in the North American Review; he was doing business with an indigo house in Calcutta, and he found leisure to come two or three times a week to dine with me."’