The Young Miner, or, Tom Nelson in California

by Horatio Alger Jr.

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296 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1879

About the author

Horatio Alger, Jr. (January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899) was a prolific 19th-century American author, most famous for his novels following the adventures of bootblacks, newsboys, peddlers, buskers, and other impoverished children in their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of respectable middle-class security and comfort. His novels about boys who succeed under the tutelage of older mentors were hugely popular in their day.

Born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, the son of a Unitarian minister, Alger entered Harvard University at the age of sixteen. Following graduation, he briefly worked in education before touring Europe for almost a year. He then entered the Harvard Divinity School, and, in 1864, took a position at a Unitarian church in Brewster, Massachusetts. Two years later, he resigned following allegations he had sexual relations with two teenage boys.[1] He retired from the ministry and moved to New York City where he formed an association with the Newsboys Lodging House and other agencies offering aid to impoverished children. His sympathy for the working boys of the city, coupled with the moral values learned at home, were the basis of his many juvenile rags to riches novels illustrating how down-and-out boys might be able to achieve the American Dream of wealth and success through hard work, courage, determination, and concern for others. This widely held view involves Alger's characters achieving extreme wealth and the subsequent remediation of their "old ghosts." Alger is noted as a significant figure in the history of American cultural and social ideals. He died in 1899.

The first full-length Alger biography was commissioned in 1927 and published in 1928, and along with many others that borrowed from it later proved to be heavily fictionalized parodies perpetuating hoaxes and made up anecdotes that "would resemble the tell-all scandal biographies of the time."[2] Other biographies followed, sometimes citing the 1928 hoax as fact. In the last decades of the twentieth century a few more reliable biographies were published that attempt to correct the errors and fictionalizations of the past.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 3 out of 5]

Horatio Alger was famous for his books featuring teenage boys who worked their way out of poverty with the help of honesty, the sweat of their brows, and quite often a bit of luck. This book was written in 1879 and was the second about our hero Tom Nelson. Alger was popular back then, and this story was fun to read, but I do not plan to seek out any others unless I should need something from his era for another challenge. 'Fun to read' does not always translate to 'I want to read more'.

For one thing, as often happens with these older books, there are terrible attitudes towards women, effeminate men, and Chinese people. These episodes are over quickly, but they are still there and were annoying to say the least.

Our young man Tom is in California to hopefully strike it rich in the gold fields. The story shows how he worked hard but also had plenty of help to get closer to his goal. I suppose the boys lapped up this sort of thing like cream back then, but there are more factors to success than just hard work. Tom was lucky with the people he met on his adventure, and the ending of the book would have been quite different and perhaps much more realistic if he had fallen in with different characters.

I entertained myself even more while reading by searching out the Lesson in each chapter. They were not always spelled out and were never preachy, but they were there. Here is my list. Actually, quite a few of them would still be good advice today:

Chapter 1: work hard and be reasonable with your expectations
Chapter 2 : don't drink and don't gamble
Chapter 3 : take care of your parents; and smoking is a bad habit
Chapter 4 : don't rely on 'luck' to create your future
Chapter 5 : don't hang out with the bad guys
Chapter 6 : don't sleep too soundly
Chapter 7 : don't assume you are smarter than everyone else
Chapter 8 : you will get what you deserve eventually in some form, whether good or bad
Chapter 9 : you should be man enough to stare misfortune in the face when it is in
front of you: don't run from it or think it is worse than it is
Chapter 10 : be careful when answering the personal questions of a woman with a gun
Chapter 11 : be careful what you wish for
Chapter 12 : accept the responsibility for things that go wrong when under your care
Chapter 13: accept the need to work
Chapter 14 : when discussing mountains or trees or anything else, size is not everything
Chapter 15 : if you meet a bear in the woods, don't turn and run away
Chapter 16 : when you don't have everything you wish for, make do with what you have
Chapter 17 : remember to do your duty when you need to, don't just stand around with your mouth hanging open
Chapter 18 : use your common sense
Chapter 19 : a bargain is a bargain
Chapter 20 : sell when the price is right
Chapter 21 : buy when the deal is good
Chapter 22 : once again, don't gamble!
Chapter 23 : don't think too much of the past, just vow not to repeat any foolish actions and then keep going forward
Chapter 24 : do your best at all times
Chapter 25 : never think of stealing
Chapter 26 : pay your debts before buying things you don't need
Chapter 27 : a dead river is the best place to find gold
Chapter 28 : gold is only valuable for what it will bring
Chapter 29 : appearances are deceiving
Chapter 30 : a business man should not be completely hard-hearted
Chapter 31 : be bold when bidding but don't bid if you don't have the money to pay
Chapter 32 : do not misuse the advantages you are given in life