twelve years of age, but already showed that serious disposition and earnest application to work for which he was afterward noted.  At school be was a diligent student, and attained to some proficiency in the study of Greek and Latin.
   He was so anxious to see the effect of his first plate, a head of Paul Jones, that he constructed a rude roller-press in the garret of his fatber's house, and secured an impression in red oil paint.
What a trying moment it must have been for the young enthusiast!  With trembling hand he carefully fills the lines of the plate with oil paint (the only material he can obtain); then lays the paper, slightly dampened, upon it, and, last of all, applies the cumbrous roller.  Will the experiment succeed? It must succeed, for be feels that his whole future depends upon it.  He removes the roller, raises the paper, and sees with rapture his first print.
He afterward hired a blacksmith to make him better tools, and with these cut a number of small pictures of houses and ships on type-metal, which he disposed of in the newspaper offices.  The pay was small, but as only one other person was engaged in the same work in New York, he began to feel "of some consequence."

 
 

CHAPTER II

EARLY MEDICAL STUDIES

   His fatber, having observed that he took great pleasure in studying and copying hte illustrations of some medical works, determined to educate him for the pprofession of medicine, as he had no confidence in the success of his artistic aspirations.  Alexander left his workshop under the eaves soon aftei- his fourteenth birthday, and entered as a student the office of Dr.  Joseph Young, who had been a surgeon in the Continental army and was a brother-in-law of General Schuyler.
   The young engraver had taken this step with
great reluctance at his father's command; but he
found Dr. Young so uniformly kind and pleasant that he soon ceased to repine at the change, and applied himself diligently to his work.  For the next five years both mind and body were busily employed.  At that period medical men combined the duties of their profession with the occupations of the apothecary, and the young student was frequently called upon to add the labors of a porter to