Author: Mary Agnes Fitzgibbon

Publisher: Theclassics.Us

Published: 2013-09

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13: 9781230455198

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ... CIVIL APPOINTMENTS. 139 CHAPTER VIII. lEFORE the disbanding of the Glengarry Fencibles, then stationed at York, in 1816, the Adjutant-General of Militia in Upper Canada offered FitzGibbon a position in his office at 125 per annum. Although the salary was small, FitzGibbon gladly accepted it. Having no private means to draw upon when extra expenditure was required, the purchase of his uniform and horse, when first appointed to the adjutancy of the 49th, formed the nucleus of debt from which he was not entirely free until within a few years of his death. Generous, impulsive, and sanguine to a fault, FitzGibbon could take no thought for the needs of the morrow when those possible contingencies were likely to fall upon himself. He could close neither his door, his purse, nor his kindly helpful sympathy to anyone; he would give away his last penny, share his last crust, rather than turn a deaf ear to one in need of either. He used his influence to further the interests of others, without considering for a moment that he was thereby jeopardizing his own. His sanguine temperament always brightened the distant horizon, although the clouds overhead might be black and lowering. Simple in his living, of great physical strength and sound health, his creed was comprised in the brief maxim, "Trust in God and do good to your neighbor." Full of gratitude himself, he had faith in the gratitude of others. Knowing that the country owed him much, he never doubted that sooner or later the debt would be paid. How this confidence was misplaced and the reward of his work denied him, is the saddest part of his biography. Disappointment embittered for a time his warm-hearted, enthusiastic nature. The gradually increasing requirements of a growing family, ...