James Parton, The life of Horace Greeley

The business of ‘Greeley and Co.’ went on prospering through the year; but increase of means made not the slightest difference in our hero's habits or appearance. His indifference to dress was Chronic complaint, and the ladies of his partner's family tried in vain to coax and laugh him into a conformity with the usages of society. They hardly succeeded in inducing him to keep his shirt buttoned over his white bosom. ‘He was always a clean man, you know,’ says one of them. There was not even the show or pretence of discipline in the office. One of the journeymen made an outrageous caricature of his employer, and showed it to him one day as he came from dinner. ‘Who's that?’ asked the man. ‘That's me,’ said the master, with a smile, and passed in to his work. The men made a point of appearing to differ in opinion from him on every subject, because they liked to hear him talk; and, one day, after a long debate, he exclaimed, ‘Why, men, if I were to say that that black man there was black, you'd all swear he was white.’ He worked with all his former intensity and absorption. Often, such conversations as these took place in the office about the middle of the day:

(H. G., looking up from his work)—Jonas, have I been to dinner?

（Mr. Winchester）—You ought to know best. I don't knowZZZ

(H. G.)—John, have I been to dinner?

（John）—I believe not. Has he, Tom?

To which Tom would reply “no,” or yes, according to his own recollection or John's wink; and if the office generally concurred in Tom's decision, Horace would either go to dinner or resume his work, in unsuspecting accordance therewith.

It was about this time that he embraced the first of his two ‘isms’ (he has never had but two). Graham arose and lectured, and mode a noise in the world, and obtained followers. The substance of his message was that We, the people of the United States, are in the habit of taking our food in too concentrated a form. Bulk is necessary as well as nutriment; brown bread is better than white; and meat should be eaten only once a day, or never, said the Rev. Dr. Graham. Stimulants, he added, were pernicious, and their apparent necessity arises solely from too concentrated, and