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CHAPTER I |
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A BOY VISITS CINCINNATI
"And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."—Longfellow
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N a late May day in 1833 a small boy —he was to be seven years old on the Fourth of July—held fast^ to his mother's hand as she and his older sister and he followed the porter who carried their bags from the Pittsburgh landing to the steamboat Napoleon, westward bound on the Ohio River. How this boy looked and how he was dressed we know from a daguerreotype, "Stephen C. Foster as a Lad" in the Foster Hall Collection,* revealing his direct, dark eyes and sensitive mouth and also the adornments of which he was doubtless very proud—seven shiny buttons on his j acket.
Mrs. William Barclay Foster, wife of the collector of tolls at Pittsburgh and former member of the Pennsylvania State Legislature, was taking a vacation journey with her children, Henrietta, aged fourteen, and "Little Stephy," as the family called him. Their first
* The notable collection of material relating to Stephen Foster, assembled by Josiah K. Lilly of Indianapolis at Foster Hall, is to be housed in the Stephen C. Foster Memorial Building at the University of Pittsburgh. Mr. Lilly has given his collection to the University; the beautiful memorial building has been erected by public-spirited citizens of Pittsburgh, the composer's native city. |
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