Page:Robert Carter- his life and work. 1807-1889 (IA robertcarterhis00coch).pdf/194

178 would give him twenty dollars if he would give it up till he came of age. He thought, if the habit was not formed before that age, there was little danger of its being formed afterwards. One day he met a young lad smoking, and said to him, “John, if you will stop smoking till you are twenty-one I'll give you twenty dollars.” The boy threw away his cigar, saying, “I'll never smoke again,” and he never did. When he came of age, and he had received his twenty dollars, a member of his family said to him, “ Are you not going to smoke again now?” “No indeed, I would not show such disrespect to Mr. Carter.”

It has been said that he was a peace lover. It was impossible to quarrel with him, because he positively would not quarrel. People tried it sometimes, and perhaps would go off in a huff because all their sharp speeches were good-naturedly answered, and then, when they got over their pet and came back, they found him just as he always had been, kind and friendly, with never an allusion to their former outbreak. He had the best of all dispositions, naturally a quick temper, under perfect control, He had his own strong convictions on important subjects, and was not afraid to express them when necessary, but he had large charity for other people’s convictions; and the petty affairs which many people quarrel over were to him trifles, unworthy of a thought. “Why do ye not rather suffer wrong?” was a text often on his lips.

At the close of the war, a good many of his Southern correspondents, of whom he had not heard for months or years, came North, and found him ready to give a kindly reception. A clergyman whom he had known well, a fine scholarly man, but a strong Secessionist, came into his store in the spring of 1865. Mr. Carter