Slinging his bundle of clothes on a stick over his shoulder, he walked sixty miles through the woods to Buffalo, rode on a canal boat to Albany, descended the Hudson in a barge, and reached New York, just as the sun was rising, August 18, 1831.
He found board over a saloon at two dollars and a half a week.

His journey of six hundred miles had cost him but five dollars.

For days Horace wandered up and down the streets, going into scores of buildings and asking if they wanted "a hand"; but "no" was the invariable reply.
His quaint appearance led many to think he was an escaped apprentice.
One Sunday at his boarding-place he heard that printers were wanted at "West's Printing-office." He was at the door at five o'clock Monday morning, and asked the foreman for a job at seven.

The latter had no idea that a country greenhorn could set type for the Polyglot Testament on which help was needed, but said: "Fix up a case for him and we'll see if he _can_ do anything." When the proprietor came in, he objected to the new-comer and told the foreman to let him go when his first day's work was done.

That night Horace showed a proof of the largest and most correct day's work that had then been done.
In ten years he was a partner in a small printing-office.