Youthful Energy And Perseverance

A correspondent of the Providence Journal wriies fl-om Mississippi as follows. Read it. To the interrogatory, " who is Pat Tonipkins V' the subject of the query oftcn replies, himsélf, on the stump, by telling his ai'ditors that he was born in a log cnbin, 16 by 18 feet in" size', which at 'lie tinte oí his birflij alreav contained ten or twelve brothers and sisters, and wasshuated somewhere up in the woods nëar the lino belween Tennessee and Kentucky ; that in his infnncy he was fed on hog nnd hominy, bear meat, and tiie flesh of such '■ wijd varmint" as were caug'at in t!iè woods. At Uvelve years of age he wa3 'put out to work with a neighbor as a farm boy, and drove oxen, hoed corn, aised tobáceo in summer, Cured it and prized it in winter, till he was severiteen years old, wlien he took to" making bliek ; - then rose to thetrade of a bricklayer ; and by these successive Meps in mechanical arts, he becarr.e ab!è, by his own unsaíiated skill, to rear a house from the claypit, or from the stump, and complete it in all its parts, and to do it, too, in a marmer that none of his competitors could pass. His panriel doors are 10 this day the vronder and admiratio'nofthe country in which they continue o swing on their hinges. Hé néversaw théinsidé of a school-house tiH after he was 18 years öld. By the nssistnncfl ofari old man in the neighborhood, hs leirned during the winter evenings, to react and wrlte when a farm boy. Having achieved ti ese valuable acquisitions by the aicl of anot.her, all his other educaliuD has been thé fruits of his ovn appücatiori and perseveránce. At the agc of 22 he conceived the idea of fitting himself for the practice of hff. - He first procured an old copy of tilacfcttone, and having the close of his daily Inbors, by nightly stidies over a pitch knot firè in liis log cabin, inastered the cmterits of iha'. comp'endiurri of commonlaw, he pursued liis reseafch'es inta other elementary works. Ánd Living thusby great diligence, acquired the rudimènts of his profes;i)n, he met with an old lawyër vvho had quit practice, or whoss prrtctise had quit him', with wl-.om he made a bargiin fur liïs scanty Iibrary, for which he was" to' páy S150 ín carpentei'swork; and thechief part of the job to be done in payment of these old musty books, Wís dressing and lá'yíng down an oak ñoor, or fleors, for tkree dollars per square of ten feet. The libr.iry paid for, Pat Tomkins dropped the adze, plane and trowel forever. He is now one of the most prominent memb'ers of the Mississippi bar, anc' is not yet more than 40 years old. Of .his abllities as a state min and an orator, you will before many year3 have evidencè in the halls of Congress. I heard him one day make tvvo speeches in succession, of three hours in lenglh, each to the Mme audience, and not a movement testified any wearinesson the part of a single aud tor, and during their deIivery the assembly seemed swayed by the orator as reeds by the wind.