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diff --git a/4597.txt b/4597.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c1a01b --- /dev/null +++ b/4597.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5820 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Eclectic School Readings: Stories from Life, by +Orison Swett Marden + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Eclectic School Readings: Stories from Life + +Author: Orison Swett Marden + +Posting Date: August 8, 2009 [EBook #4597] +Release Date: October, 2003 +First Posted: February 13, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES FROM LIFE *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +ECLECTIC SCHOOL READINGS: STORIES FROM LIFE + +A BOOK FOR YOUNG PEOPLE + + + +BY + +ORISON SWETT MARDEN + + + +AUTHOR OF "ARCHITECTS OF FATE," "RUSHING TO THE FRONT," "WINNING OUT," +ETC, AND EDITOR OF "SUCCESS" + + + + + +PREFACE + + +To make a life, as well as to make a living, is one of the supreme +objects for which we must all struggle. The sooner we realize what this +means, the greater and more worthy will be the life which we shall make. + +In putting together the brief life stories and incidents from great +lives which make up the pages of this little volume, the writer's +object has been to show young people that, no matter how humble their +birth or circumstances, they may make lives that will be held up as +examples to future generations, even as these stories show how boys, +handicapped by poverty and the most discouraging surroundings, yet +succeeded so that they are held up as models to the boys of to-day. + +No boy or girl can learn too early in life the value of time and the +opportunities within reach of the humblest children of the twentieth +century to enable them to make of themselves noble men and women. + +The stories here presented do not claim to be more than mere outlines +of the subjects chosen, enough to show what brave souls in the past, +souls animated by loyalty to God and to their best selves, were able to +accomplish in spite of obstacles of which the more fortunately born +youths of to-day can have no conception. + +It should never be forgotten, however, in the strivings of ambition, +that, while every one should endeavor to raise himself to his highest +power and to attain to as exalted and honorable a position as his +abilities entitle him to, his first object should be to make a noble +life. + +The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Miss Margaret +Connolly in the preparation of this volume. + +O.S.M. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + + TO-DAY + "THE MILL BOY OF THE SLASHES" + THE GREEK SLAVE WHO WON THE OLIVE CROWN + TURNING POINTS IN THE LIFE OF A HERO: + I. THE FIRST TURNING POINT + II. A BORN LEADER + III. "FARRAGUT IS THE MAN" + HE AIMED HIGH AND HIT THE MARK + THE EVOLUTION OF A VIOLINIST + THE LESSON OF THE TEAKETTLE + HOW THE ART OF PRINTING WAS DISCOVERED + SEA FEVER AND WHAT IT LED TO + GLADSTONE FOUND TIME TO BE KIND + A TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE + THE MIGHT OF PATIENCE + THE INSPIRATION OF GAMBETTA + ANDREW JACKSON: THE BOY WHO "NEVER WOULD GIVE UP" + SIR HUMPHRY DAVY'S GREATEST DISCOVERY, MICHAEL FARADAY + THE TRIUMPH OF CANOVA + FRANKLIN'S LESSON ON TIME VALUE + FROM STORE BOY TO MILLIONAIRE + "I WILL PAINT OR DIE!" + THE CALL THAT SPEAKS IN THE BLOOD + WASHINGTON'S YOUTHFUL HEROISM + A COW HIS CAPITAL + THE BOY WHO SAID "I MUST" + THE HIDDEN TREASURE + LOVE TAMED THE LION + "THERE IS ROOM ENOUGH AT THE TOP" + THE UPLIFT OF A SLAVE BOY'S IDEAL + "TO THE FIRST ROBIN" + THE "WIZARD" AS AN EDITOR + HOW GOOD FORTUNE CAME TO PIERRE + "IF I REST, I RUST" + A BOY WHO KNEW NOT FEAR + HOW STANLEY FOUND LIVINGSTONE + THE NESTOR OF AMERICAN JOURNALISTS + THE MAN WITH AN IDEA + "BERNARD OF THE TUILERIES" + HOW THE "LEARNED BLACKSMITH" FOUND TIME + THE LEGEND OF WILLIAM TELL + "WESTWARD HO!" + THREE GREAT AMERICAN SONGS AND THEIR AUTHORS + I. THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER + II. AMERICA + III. THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC + TRAINING FOR GREATNESS + THE MARBLE WAITETH + + + + + +STORIES FROM LIFE + + + + +TO-DAY + + For the structure that we raise, + Time is with materials filled; + Our to-days and yesterdays + Are the blocks with which we build. + + Longfellow. + + +To-day! To-day! It is ours, with all its magic possibilities of being +and doing. Yesterday, with its mistakes, misdeeds, lost opportunities, +and failures, is gone forever. With the morrow we are not immediately +concerned. It is but a promise yet to be fulfilled. Hidden behind the +veil of the future, it may dimly beckon us, but it is yet a shadowy, +unsubstantial vision, one that we, perhaps, never may realize. But +to-day, the Here, the Now, that dawned upon us with the first hour of +the morn, is a reality, a precious possession upon the right use of +which may depend all our future of happiness and success, or of misery +and failure; for + +"This day we fashion Destiny, our web of Fate we spin." + +Lest he should forget that Time's wings are swift and noiseless, and so +rapidly bear our to-days to the Land of Yesterday, John Ruskin, +philosopher, philanthropist, and tireless worker though he was, kept +constantly before his eyes on his study table a large, handsome block +of chalcedony, on which was graven the single word "To-day." Every +moment of this noble life was enriched by the right use of each passing +moment. + +A successful merchant, whose name is well-known throughout our country, +very tersely sums up the means by which true success may be attained. +"It is just this," he says: "Do your best every day, whatever you have +in hand." + +This simple rule, if followed in sunshine and in storm, in days of +sadness as well as days of gladness, will rear for the builder a Palace +Beautiful more precious than pearls of great price, more enduring than +time. + + + + +"THE MILL BOY OF THE SLASHES" + + +A picturesque, as well as pathetic figure, was Henry Clay, the little +"Mill Boy of the Slashes," as he rode along on the old family horse to +Mrs. Darricott's mill. Blue-eyed, rosy-cheeked, and bare-footed, +clothed in coarse shirt and trousers, and a time-worn straw hat, he sat +erect on the bare back of the horse, holding, with firm hand, the rope +which did duty as a bridle. In front of him lay the precious sack, +containing the grist which was to be ground into meal or flour, to feed +the hungry mouths of the seven little boys and girls who, with the +widowed mother, made up the Clay family. + +It required a good deal of grist to feed so large a family, especially +when hoecake was the staple food, and it was because of his frequent +trips to the mill, across the swampy region called the "Slashes," that +Henry was dubbed by the neighbors "The Mill Boy of the Slashes." + +The lad was ambitious, however, and, very early in life, made up his +mind that he would win for himself a more imposing title. He never +dreamed of winning world-wide renown as an orator, or of exchanging his +boyish sobriquet for "The Orator of Ashland." But he who forms high +ideals in youth usually far outstrips his first ambition, and Henry had +"hitched his wagon to a star." + +This awkward country boy, who was so bashful, and so lacking in +self-confidence that he hardly dared recite before his class in the log +schoolhouse, DETERMINED TO BECOME AN ORATOR. + +Henry Clay, the brilliant lawyer and statesman, the American +Demosthenes who could sway multitudes by his matchless oratory, once +said, "In order to succeed a man must have a purpose fixed, then let +his motto be VICTORY OR DEATH." When Henry Clay, the poor country boy, +son of an unknown Baptist minister, made up his mind to become an +orator, he acted on this principle. No discouragement or obstacle was +allowed to swerve him from his purpose. Since the death of his father, +when the boy was but five years old, he had carried grist to the mill, +chopped wood, followed the plow barefooted, clerked in a country +store,--did everything that a loving son and brother could do to help +win a subsistence for the family. + +In the midst of poverty, hard work, and the most pitilessly unfavorable +conditions, the youth clung to his resolve. He learned what he could at +the country schoolhouse, during the time the duties of the farm +permitted him to attend school. He committed speeches to memory, and +recited them aloud, sometimes in the forest, sometimes while working in +the cornfield, and frequently in a barn with a horse and an ox for his +audience. + +In his fifteenth year he left the grocery store where he had been +clerking to take a position in the office of the clerk of the High +Court of Chancery. There he became interested in law, and by reading +and study began at once to supplement the scanty education of his +childhood. To such good purpose did he use his opportunities that in +1797, when only twenty years old, he was licensed by the judges of the +court of appeals to practice law. + +When he moved from Richmond to Lexington, Kentucky, the same year to +begin practice for himself, he had no influential friends, no patrons, +and not even the means to pay his board. Referring to this time years +afterward, he said, "I remember how comfortable I thought I should be +if I could make one hundred pounds Virginia money (less than five +hundred dollars) per year; and with what delight I received the first +fifteen-shilling fee." + +Contrary to his expectations, the young lawyer had "immediately rushed +into a lucrative practice." At the age of twenty-seven he was elected +to the Kentucky legislature. Two years later he was sent to the United +States Senate to fill out the remainder of the term of a senator who +had withdrawn. In 1811 he was elected to Congress, and made Speaker of +the national House of Representatives. He was afterward elected to the +United States Senate in the regular way. + +Both in Congress and in the Senate Clay always worked for what he +believed to be the best interests of his country. Ambition, which so +often causes men to turn aside from the paths of truth and honor, had +no power to tempt him to do wrong. He was ambitious to be president, +but would not sacrifice any of his convictions for the sake of being +elected. Although he was nominated by his party three times, he never +became president. It was when warned by a friend that if he persisted +in a certain course of political conduct he would injure his prospects +of being elected, that he made his famous statement, "I would rather be +right than be president." + +Clay has been described by one of his biographers as "a brilliant +orator, an honest man, a charming gentleman, an ardent patriot, and a +leader whose popularity was equaled only by that of Andrew Jackson." + +Although born in a state in which wealth and ancient ancestry were +highly rated, he was never ashamed of his birth or poverty. Once when +taunted by the aristocratic John Randolph with his lowly origin, he +proudly exclaimed, "I was born to no proud paternal estate. I inherited +only infancy, ignorance, and indigence." + +He was born in Hanover County, Virginia, on April 12, 1777, and died in +Washington, June 29, 1852. With only the humble inheritance which he +claimed--"infancy, ignorance, and indigence"--Henry Clay made himself a +name that wealth and a long line of ancestry could never bestow. + + + + +THE GREEK SLAVE WHO WON THE OLIVE CROWN + + +The teeming life of the streets has vanished; the voices of the +children have died away into silence; the artisan has dropped his +tools, the artist has laid aside his brush, the sculptor his chisel. +Night has spread her wings over the scene. The queen city of Greece is +wrapped in slumber. + +But, in the midst of that hushed life, there is one who sleeps not, a +worshiper at the shrine of art, who feels neither fatigue nor hardship, +and fears not death itself in the pursuit of his object. With the fire +of genius burning in his dark eyes, a youth works with feverish haste +on a group of wondrous beauty. + +But why is this master artist at work, in secret, in a cellar where the +sun never shone, the daylight never entered? I will tell you. Creon, +the inspired worker, the son of genius, is a slave, and the penalty of +pursuing his art is death. + +When the Athenian law debarring all but freemen from the exercise of +art was enacted, Creon was at work trying to realize in marble the +vision his soul had created. The beautiful group was growing into life +under his magic touch when the cruel edict struck the chisel from his +fingers. + +"O ye gods!" groans the stricken youth, "why have ye deserted me, now, +when my task is almost completed? I have thrown my soul, my very life, +into this block of marble, and now--" + +Cleone, the beautiful dark-haired sister of the sculptor, felt the blow +as keenly as her brother, to whom she was utterly devoted. "O immortal +Athene! my goddess, my patron, at whose shrine I have daily laid my +offerings, be now my friend, the friend of my brother!" she prayed. + +Then, with the light of a new-born resolve shining in her eyes, she +turned to her brother, saying:-- + +"The thought of your brain shall live. Let us go to the cellar beneath +our house. It is dark, but I will bring you light and food, and no one +will discover our secret. You can there continue your work; the gods +will be our allies." + +It is the golden age of Pericles, the most brilliant epoch of Grecian +art and dramatic literature. + +The scene is one of the most memorable that has ever been enacted +within the proud city of Athens. + +In the Agora, the public assembly or market place, are gathered +together the wisdom and wit, the genius and beauty, the glory and +power, of all Greece. + +Enthroned in regal state sits Pericles, president of the assembly, +soldier, statesman, orator, ruler, and "sole master of Athens." By his +side sits his beautiful partner, the learned and queenly Aspasia. +Phidias, one of the greatest sculptors, if not the greatest the world +has known, who "formed a new style characterized by sublimity and ideal +beauty," is there. Near him is Sophocles, the greatest of the tragic +poets. Yonder we catch a glimpse of a face and form that offers the +most striking contrast to the manly beauty of the poet, but whose +wisdom and virtue have brought Athens to his feet. It is the "father of +philosophy," Socrates. With his arm linked in that of the philosopher, +we see--but why prolong the list? All Greece has been bidden to Athens +to view the works of art. + +The works of the great masters are there. On every side paintings and +statues, marvelous in detail, exquisite in finish, challenge the +admiration of the crowd and the criticism of the rival artists and +connoisseurs who throng the place. But even in the midst of +masterpieces, one group of statuary so far surpasses all the others +that it rivets the attention of the vast assembly. + +"Who is the sculptor of this group?" demands Pericles. Envious artists +look from one to the other with questioning eyes, but the question +remains unanswered. No triumphant sculptor comes forward to claim the +wondrous creation as the work of his brain and hand. Heralds, in +thunder tones, repeat, "Who is the sculptor of this group?" No one can +tell. It is a mystery. Is it the work of the gods? or--and, with bated +breath, the question passes from lip to lip, "Can it have been +fashioned by the hand of a slave?" + +Suddenly a disturbance arises at the edge of the crowd. Loud voices are +heard, and anon the trembling tones of a woman. Pushing their way +through the concourse, two officers drag a shrinking girl, with dark, +frightened eyes, to the feet of Pericles. "This woman," they cry, +"knows the sculptor; we are sure of this; but she will not tell his +name." + +Neither threats nor pleading can unlock the lips of the brave girl. Not +even when informed that the penalty of her conduct was death would she +divulge her secret. "The law," says Pericles, "is imperative. Take the +maid to the dungeon." + +Creon, who, with his sister, had been among the first to find his way +to the Agora that morning, rushed forward, and, flinging himself at the +ruler's feet, cried "O Pericles! forgive and save the maid. She is my +sister. I am the culprit. The group is the work of my hands, the hands +of a slave." + +An intense silence fell upon the multitude, and then went up a mighty +shout,--"To the dungeon, to the dungeon with the slave." + +"As I live, no!" said Pericles, rising. "Not to the dungeon, but to my +side bring the youth. The highest purpose of the law should be the +development of the beautiful. The gods decide by that group that there +is something higher in Greece than an unjust law. To the sculptor who +fashioned it give the victor's crown." + +And then, amid the applause of all the people, Aspasia placed the crown +of olives on the youth's brow, and tenderly kissed the devoted sister +who had been the right hand of genius. + + + + +TURNING POINTS IN THE LIFE OF A HERO + +I. THE FIRST TURNING POINT + + +David Farragut was acting as cabin boy to his father, who was on his +way to New Orleans with the infant navy of the United States. The boy +thought he had the qualities that make a man. "I could swear like an +old salt," he says, "could drink as stiff a glass of grog as if I had +doubled Cape Horn, and could smoke like a locomotive. I was great at +cards, and was fond of gambling in every shape. At the close of dinner +one day," he continues, "my father turned everybody out of the cabin, +locked the door, and said to me, 'David, what do you mean to be?' + +"'I mean to follow the sea,' I said. + +"'Follow the sea!' exclaimed father, 'yes, be a poor, miserable, +drunken sailor before the mast, kicked and cuffed about the world, and +die in some fever hospital in a foreign clime!' + +"'No, father,' I replied, 'I will tread the quarterdeck, and command as +you do.' + +"'No, David; no boy ever trod the quarterdeck with such principles as +you have and such habits as you exhibit. You will have to change your +whole course of life if you ever become a man.' + +"My father left me and went on deck. I was stunned by the rebuke, and +overwhelmed with mortification. 'A poor, miserable, drunken sailor +before the mast, kicked and cuffed about the world, and die in some +fever hospital!' 'That's my fate, is it? I'll change my life, and _I_ +WILL CHANGE IT AT ONCE. I will never utter another oath, never drink +another drop of intoxicating liquor, never gamble,' and, as God is my +witness," said the admiral, solemnly, "I have kept these three vows to +this hour." + + + + +II. A BORN LEADER + + +The event which proved David Glasgow Farragut's qualities as a leader +happened before he was thirteen. + +He was with his adopted father, Captain Porter, on board the Essex, +when war was declared with England in 1812. A number of prizes were +captured by the Essex, and David was ordered by Captain Porter to take +one of the captured vessels, with her commander as navigator, to +Valparaiso. Although inwardly quailing before the violent-tempered old +captain of the prize ship, of whom, as he afterward confessed, he was +really "a little afraid," the boy assumed the command with a fearless +air. + +On giving his first order, that the "main topsail be filled away," the +trouble began. The old captain, furious at hearing a command given +aboard his vessel by a boy not yet in his teens, replied to the order, +with an oath, that he would shoot any one who dared touch a rope +without his orders. Having delivered this mandate, he rushed below for +his pistols. + +The situation was critical. If the young commander hesitated for a +moment, or showed the least sign of submitting to be bullied, his +authority would instantly have fallen from him. Boy as he was, David +realized this, and, calling one of the crew to him, explained what had +taken place, and repeated his order. With a hearty "Aye, aye, sir!" the +sailor flew to the ropes, while the plucky midshipman called down to +the captain that "if he came on deck with his pistols, he would be +thrown overboard." + +David's victory was complete. During the remainder of the voyage none +dared dispute his authority. Indeed his coolness and promptitude had +won for him the lasting admiration of the crew. + + + + +III. "FARRAGUT IS THE MAN" + + +The great turning point which placed Farragut at the head of the +American navy was reached in 1861, when Virginia seceded from the +Union, and he had to choose between the cause of the North and that of +the South. He dearly loved his native South, and said, "God forbid that +I should have to raise my hand against her," but he determined, come +what would, to "stick to the flag." + +So it came about that when, in order to secure the control of the +Mississippi, the national government resolved upon the capture of New +Orleans, Farragut was chosen to lead the undertaking. Several officers, +noted for their loyalty, good judgment, and daring, were suggested, but +the Secretary of the Navy said, "Farragut is the man." + +The opportunity for which all his previous noble life and brilliant +services had been a preparation came to him when he was sixty-one years +old. The command laid upon him was "the certain capture of the city of +New Orleans." "The department and the country," so ran his +instructions, "require of you success. ... If successful, you open the +way to the sea for the great West, never again to be closed. The +rebellion will be riven in the center, and the flag, to which you have +been so faithful, will recover its supremacy in every state." + +On January 9, 1862, Farragut was appointed to the command of the +western gulf blockading squadron. "On February 2," says the National +Cyclopedia of American Biograph, "he sailed on the steam sloop Hartford +from Hampton Roads, arriving at the appointed rendezvous, Ship Island, +in sixteen days. His fleet, consisting of six war steamers, sixteen +gunboats, twenty-one mortar vessels, under the command of Commodore +David D. Porter, and five supply ships, was the largest that had ever +sailed under the American flag. Yet the task assigned him, the passing +of the forts below New Orleans, the capture of the city, and the +opening of the Mississippi River through its entire length was one of +difficulty unprecedented in the history of naval warfare." + +Danger or death had no terror for the brave sailor. Before setting out +on his hazardous enterprise, he said: "If I die in the attempt, it will +only be what every officer has to expect. He who dies in doing his duty +to his country, and at peace with his God, has played the drama of life +to the best advantage." + +The hero did not die. He fought and won the great battle, and thus +executed the command laid upon him,--"the certain capture of the city +of New Orleans." The victory was accomplished with the loss of but one +ship, and 184 men killed and wounded,--"a feat in naval warfare," says +his son and biographer, "which has no precedent, and which is still +without a parallel, except the one furnished by Farragut himself, two +years later, at Mobile." + + + + +HE AIMED HIGH AND HIT THE MARK + +"Without vision the people perish" + + +Without a high ideal an individual never climbs. Keep your eyes on the +mountain top, and, though you may stumble and fall many times in the +ascent, though great bowlders, dense forests, and roaring torrents may +often bar the way, look right on, never losing sight of the light which +shines away up in the clear atmosphere of the mountain peak, and you +will ultimately reach your goal. + +When the late Horace Maynard, LL.D., entered Amherst College, he +exposed himself to the ridicule and jibing questions of his +fellow-students by placing over the door of his room a large square of +white cardboard on which was inscribed in bold outlines the single +letter "V." Disregarding comment and question, the young man applied +himself to his work, ever keeping in mind the height to which he wished +to climb, the first step toward which was signified by the mysterious +"V." + +Four years later, after receiving the compliments of professors and +students on the way he had acquitted himself as valedictorian of his +class, young Maynard called the attention of his fellow-graduates to +the letter over his door. Then a light broke in upon them, and they +cried out, "Is it possible that you had the valedictory in mind when +you put that 'V' over your door?" + +"Assuredly I had," was the emphatic reply. + +On he climbed, from height to height, becoming successively professor +of mathematics in the University of Tennessee, lawyer, member of +Congress, attorney-general of Tennessee, United States minister to +Constantinople, and, finally, postmaster-general. + +Honorable ambition is the leaven that raises the whole mass of mankind. +Ideals, visions, are the stepping-stones by which we rise to higher +things. + + "Still, through our paltry stir and strife, + Glows down the wished ideal, + And longing molds in clay what life + Carves in the marble real; + + "To let the new life in, we know, + Desire must ope the portal,-- + Perhaps the longing to be so + Helps make the soul immortal." + + + + +THE EVOLUTION OF A VIOLINIST + + +He was a famous artist whom kings and queens and emperors delighted to +honor. The emperor of all the Russias had sent him an affectionate +letter, written by his own hand; the empress, a magnificent emerald +ring set with diamonds; the king of his own beloved Norway, who had +listened reverently, standing with uncovered head, while he, the king +of violinists, played before him, had bestowed upon him the Order of +Vasa; the king of Copenhagen presented him with a gold snuffbox, +encrusted with diamonds; while, at a public dinner given him by the +students of Christiana, he was crowned with a laurel wreath. Not all +the thousands who thronged to hear him in London could gain entrance to +the concert hall, and in Liverpool he received four thousand dollars +for one evening's performance. + +Yet the homage of the great ones of the earth, the princely gifts +bestowed upon him, the admiration of the thousands who hung entranced +on every note breathed by his magic violin, gave less delight than the +boy of fourteen experienced when he received from an old man, whose +heart his playing had gladdened, the present of four pairs of doves, +with a card suspended by a blue ribbon round the neck of one, bearing +his own name, "Ole Bull." + +The soul of little Ole Bull had always been attuned to melody, from the +time when, a toddling boy of four, he had kissed with passionate +delight the little yellow violin given him by his uncle. How happy he +was, as he wandered alone through the meadows, listening with the inner +ear of heaven-born genius to the great song of nature. The bluebells, +the buttercups, and the blades of grass sang to him in low, sweet +tones, unheard by duller ears. How he thrilled with delight when he +touched the strings of the little red violin, purchased for him when he +was eight years old. His father destined him for the church, and, +feeling that music should form part of the education of a clergyman, he +consented to the mother's proposition that the boy should take lessons +on the violin. + +Ole could not sleep for joy, that first night of ownership; and, when +the house was wrapped in slumber, he got up and stole on tiptoe to the +room where his treasure lay. The bow seemed to beckon to him, the +pretty pearl screws to smile at him out of their red setting. "I +pinched the strings just a little," he said. "It smiled at me ever more +and more. I took up the bow and looked at it. It said to me it would be +pleasant to try it across the strings. So I did try it just a very, +very little, and it did sing to me so sweetly. At first I did play very +soft. But presently I did begin a capriccio, which I like very much, +and it did go ever louder and louder; and I forgot that it was midnight +and that everybody was asleep. Presently I hear something crack; and +the next minute I feel my father's whip across my shoulders. My little +red violin dropped on the floor, and was broken. I weep much for it, +but it did no good. They did have a doctor to it next day, but it never +recovered its health." + +He was given another violin, however, and, when only ten, he would +wander into the fields and woods, and spend hours playing his own +improvisations, echoing the song of the birds, the murmur of the brook, +the thunder of the waterfall, the soughing of the wind among the trees, +the roar of the storm. + +But childhood's days are short. The years fly by. The little Ole is +eighteen, a student in the University of Christiana, preparing for the +ministry. His brother students beg him to play for a charitable +association. He remembers his father's request that he yield not to his +passion for music, but being urged for "sweet charity's sake," he +consents. + +The youth's struggle between the soul's imperative demand and the +equally imperative parental dictate was pathetic. Meanwhile the +position of musical director of the Philharmonic and Dramatic Societies +becoming vacant, Ole was appointed to the office; and, seeing that it +was useless to contend longer against the genius of his son, the +disappointed father allowed him to accept the directorship. + +When fairly launched on a musical career, his trials and +disappointments began. Wishing to assure himself whether he had genius +or not, he traveled five hundred miles to see and hear the celebrated +Louis Spohr, who received the tremulous youth coldly, and gave him no +encouragement. No matter, he would go to the city of art. In Paris he +heard Berlioz and other great musicians. Entranced he listened, in his +high seat at the top of the house, to the exquisite notes of Malibran. + +His soul feasted on music, but his money was fast dwindling away, and +the body could not be sustained by sweet sounds. But the poor unknown +violinist, who was only another atom in the surging life of the great +city, could earn nothing. He was on the verge of starvation, but he +would not go back to Christiana. He must still struggle and study. He +became ill of brain fever, and was tenderly nursed back to life by the +granddaughter of his kind landlady, pretty little Felicie Villeminot, +who afterward became his wife. He had drained the cup of poverty and +disappointment to the dregs, but the tide was about to turn. + +He was invited to play at a concert presided over by the Duke of +Montebello, and this led to other profitable engagements. But the great +opportunity of his life came to him in Bologna. The people had thronged +to the opera house to hear Malibran. She had disappointed them, and +they were in no mood to be lenient to the unknown violinist who had the +temerity to try to fill her place. + +He came on the stage. He bowed. He grew pale under the cold gaze of the +thousands of unsympathetic eyes turned upon him. But the touch of his +beloved violin gave him confidence. Lovingly, tenderly, he drew the bow +across the strings. The coldly critical eyes no longer gazed at him. +The unsympathetic audience melted away. He and his violin were one and +alone. In the hands of the great magician the instrument was more than +human. It talked; it laughed; it wept; it controlled the moods of men +as the wind controls the sea. + +The audience scarcely breathed. Criticism was disarmed. Malibran was +forgotten. The people were under the spell of the enchanter. Orpheus +had come again. But suddenly the music ceased. The spell was broken. +With a shock the audience returned to earth, and Ole Bull, restored to +consciousness of his whereabouts by the storm of applause which shook +the house, found himself famous forever. + +His triumph was complete, but his work was not over, for the price of +fame is ceaseless endeavor. But the turning point had been passed. He +had seized the great opportunity for which his life had been a +preparation, and it had placed him on the roll of the immortals. + + + + +THE LESSON OF THE TEAKETTLE + + +The teakettle was singing merrily over the fire; the good aunt was +bustling round, on housewifely cares intent, and her little nephew sat +dreamily gazing into the glowing blaze on the kitchen hearth. + +Presently the teakettle ceased singing, and a column of steam came +rushing from its pipe. The boy started to his feet, raised the lid from +the kettle, and peered in at the bubbling, boiling water, with a look +of intense interest. Then he rushed off for a teacup, and, holding it +over the steam, eagerly watched the latter as it condensed and formed +into tiny drops of water on the inside of the cup. + +Returning from an upper room, whither her duties had called her, the +thrifty aunt was shocked to find her nephew engaged in so profitless an +occupation, and soundly scolded him for what she called his trifling. +The good lady little dreamed that James Watt was even then +unconsciously studying the germ of the science by which he "transformed +the steam engine from a mere toy into the most wonderful instrument +which human industry has ever had at its command." + +This studious little Scottish lad, who, because too frail to go to +school, had been taught at home, was very different from other boys. +When only six or seven years old, he would lie for hours on the hearth, +in the little cottage at Greenock, near Glasgow, where he was born in +1736, drawing geometrical figures with pieces of colored chalk. He +loved, too, to gaze at the stars, and longed to solve their mysteries. +But his favorite pastime was to burrow among the ropes and sails and +tackles in his father's store, trying to find out how they were made +and what purposes they served. + +In spite of his limited advantages and frail health, at fifteen he was +the wonder of the public school, which he had attended for two years. +His favorite studies were mathematics and natural philosophy. He had +also made good progress in chemistry, physiology, mineralogy, and +botany, and, at the same time, had learned carpentry and acquired some +skill as a worker in metals. + +So studious and ambitious a youth scarcely needed the spur of poverty +to induce him to make the most of his talents. The spur was there, +however, and, at the age of eighteen, though delicate in health, he was +obliged to go out and battle with the world. + +Having first spent some time in Glasgow, learning how to make +mathematical instruments, he determined to go to London, there to +perfect himself in his trade. + +Working early and late, and suffering frequently from cold and hunger, +he broke down under the unequal strain, and was obliged to return to +his parents for a time until health was regained. + +Always struggling against great odds, he returned to Glasgow when his +trade was mastered, and began to make mathematical instruments, for +which, however, he found little sale. Then, to help eke out a living, +he began to make and mend other instruments,--fiddles, guitars, and +flutes,--and finally built an organ,--a very superior one, too,--with +several additions of his own invention. + +A commonplace incident enough it seemed, in the routine of his daily +occupation, when, one morning, a model of Newcomen's engine was brought +to him for repair, yet it marked the turning point in his career, which +ultimately led from poverty and struggle to fame and affluence. + +Watt's practiced eye at once perceived the defects in the Newcomen +engine, which, although the best then in existence could not do much +better or quicker work than horses. Filled with enthusiasm over the +plans which he had conceived for the construction of a really powerful +engine, he immediately set to work, and spent two months in an old +cellar, working on a model. "My whole thoughts are bent on this +machine," he wrote to a friend. "I can think of nothing else." + +So absorbed had he become in his new work that the old business of +making and mending instruments had declined. This was all the more +unfortunate as he was no longer struggling for himself alone. He had +fallen in love with, and married, his cousin, Margaret Miller, who +brought him the greatest happiness of his life. The neglect of the only +practical means of support he had reduced Watt and his family to the +direst poverty. More than once his health failed, and often the brave +spirit was almost broken, as when he exclaimed in heaviness of heart, +"Of all the things in the world, there is nothing so foolish as +inventing." + +Five years had passed since the model of the Newcomen engine had been +sent to him for repair before he succeeded in securing a patent on his +own invention. Yet five more long years of bitter drudgery, clutched in +the grip of poverty, debt, and sickness, did the brave inventor, +sustained by the love and help of his noble wife, toil through. On his +thirty-fifth birthday he said, "To-day I enter the thirty-fifth year of +my life, and I think I have hardly yet done thirty-five pence worth of +good in the world; but I cannot help it." + +Poor Watt! He had traveled with bleeding feet along the same thorny +path trod by the great inventors and benefactors of all ages. But, in +spite of all obstacles, he persevered; and, after ten years of +inconceivable labor and hardship, during which his beautiful wife died, +he had a glorious triumph. His perfected steam engine was the wonder of +the age. Sir James Mackintosh placed him "at the head of all inventors +in all ages and nations." "I look upon him," said the poet Wordsworth, +"considering both the magnitude and the universality of his genius, as, +perhaps, the most extraordinary man that this country ever produced." + +Wealthy beyond his desires,--for he cared not for wealth,--crowned with +the laurel wreath of fame, honored by the civilized world as one of its +greatest benefactors, the struggle over, the triumph achieved, on +August 19, 1819, he lay down to rest. + + + + +HOW THE ART OF PRINTING WAS DISCOVERED + + +"Look, Grandfather; see what the letters have done!" exclaimed a +delighted boy, as he picked up the piece of parchment in which +Grandfather Coster had carried the bark letters cut from the trees in +the grove, for the instruction and amusement of his little grandsons. + +"See what the letters have done!" echoed the old man. "Bless me, what +does the child mean?" and his eyes twinkled with pleasure, as he noted +the astonishment and pleasure visible on the little face. "Let me see +what it is that pleases thee so, Laurence," and he eagerly took the +parchment from the boy's hand. + +"Bless my soul!" cried the old man, after gazing spellbound upon it for +some seconds. The track of the mysterious footprint in the sand excited +no more surprise in the mind of Robinson Crusoe than Grandfather Coster +felt at the sight which met his eyes. There, distinctly impressed upon +the parchment, was a clear imprint of the bark letters; though, of +course, they were reversed or turned about. + +But you twentieth-century young folks who have your fill of story +books, picture books, and reading matter of all kinds, are wondering, +perhaps, what all this talk about bark letters and parchment and +imprint of letters means. + +To understand it, you must carry your imagination away back more than +five centuries--quite a long journey of the mind, even for +"grown-ups"--to a time when there were no printed books, and when very, +very few of the rich and noble, and scarcely any of the so-called +common people, could read. In those far-off days there were no public +libraries, and no books except rare and expensive volumes, written by +hand, mainly by monks in their quiet monasteries, on parchment or +vellum. + +In the quaint, drowsy, picturesque town of Haarlem, in Holland, with +its narrow, irregular, grass-grown streets and many-gabled houses, the +projecting upper stories of which almost meet, one particular house, +which seems even older than any of the others, is pointed out to +visitors as one of the most interesting sights of the ancient place. It +was in this house that Laurence Coster, the father of the art of +printing, the man--at least so runs the legend--who made it possible +for the poorest and humblest to enjoy the inestimable luxury of books +and reading, lived and loved and dreamed more than five hundred years +ago. + +Coster was warden of the little church which stood near his home, and +his days flowed peacefully on, in a quiet, uneventful way, occupied +with the duties of his office, and reading and study, for he was one of +those who had mastered the art of reading. A diligent student, he had +conned over and over, until he knew them by heart, the few manuscript +volumes owned by the little church of which he was warden. + +A lover of solitude, as well as student and dreamer, the church +warden's favorite resort, when his duties left him at leisure, was a +dense grove not far from the town. Thither he went when he wished to be +free from all distraction, to think and dream over many things which +would appear nonsensical to his sober, practical-minded neighbors. +There he indulged in day dreams and poetic fancies; and once, when in a +sentimental mood, he carved the initials of the lady of his love on one +of the trees. + +In time a fair young wife and children came, bringing new brightness +and joy to the serious-minded warden. With ever increasing interests, +he passed on from youth to middle life, and from middle life to old +age. Then his son married, and again the patter of little feet filled +the old home and made music in the ears of Grandfather Coster, whom the +baby grandchildren almost worshiped. + +To amuse the children, and to impart to them whatever knowledge he +himself possessed, became the delight of his old age. Then the habit +acquired in youth of carving letters in the bark of the trees served a +very useful purpose in furthering his object. He still loved to take +solitary walks, and many a quiet summer afternoon the familiar figure +of the venerable churchwarden, in his seedy black cloak and sugar-loaf +hat, might be seen wending its way along the banks of the River Spaaren +to his favorite resort in the grove. + +One day, while reclining on a mossy couch beneath a spreading beech +tree, amusing himself by tearing strips of bark from the tree that +shaded him, and carving letters with his knife, a happy thought entered +his mind. "Why can I not," he mused within himself, "cut those letters +out, carry them home, and, while using them as playthings, teach the +little ones how to read?" + +The plan worked admirably. Long practice had made the old man quite +expert in fashioning the letters, and many hours of quiet happiness +were spent in the grove in this pleasing occupation. One afternoon he +succeeded in cutting some unusually fine specimens, and, chuckling to +himself over the delight they would give the children, he wrapped them +carefully, placing them side by side in an old piece of parchment which +he happened to have in his pocket. The bark from which they had been +cut being fresh and full of sap, and the letters being firmly pressed +upon the parchment, the result was the series of "pictures" which +delighted the child and gave to the world the first suggestion of a +printing press. + +And then a mighty thought flashed across the brain of the poor, humble, +unknown churchwarden, a thought the realization of which was destined +not only to make him famous for all time, but to revolutionize the +whole world. The first dim suggestion came to him in this form, "By +having a series of letters and impressing them over and over again on +parchment, cannot books be printed instead of written, and so +multiplied and cheapened as to be brought within the reach of all?" + +The remainder of his life was given up to developing this great idea. +He cut more letters from bark, and, covering the smooth surface with +ink, pressed them upon parchment, thus getting a better impression, +though still blurred and imperfect. He then cut letters from wood +instead of bark, and managed to invent himself a better and thicker +ink, which did not blur the page. Next, he cut letters from lead, and +then from pewter. Every hour was absorbed in the work of making +possible the art of printing. His simple-minded neighbors thought he +had lost his mind, and some of the more superstitious spread the report +that he was a sorcerer. But, like all other great discoverers, he +heeded not annoyances or discouragements. Shutting himself away from +the prying curiosity of the ignorant and superstitious, he plodded on, +making steady, if slow, advance toward the realization of his dream. + +"One day, while old Coster was thus busily at work," says George +Makepeace Towle, "a sturdy German youth, with a knapsack slung across +his back, trudged into Haarlem. By some chance this youth happened to +hear how the churchwarden was at work upon a wild scheme to print books +instead of writing them. With beating heart, the young man repaired to +Coster's house and made all haste to knock at the churchwarden's humble +door." + +The "sturdy German youth" who knocked at Laurence Coster's door was +Johann Gutenberg, the inventor of modern printing. Coster invited him +to enter. Gutenberg accepted the invitation, and then stated the object +of his visit. He desired to learn more about the work on which Coster +was engaged. Delighted to have a visitor who was honestly interested in +his work, the old man eagerly explained its details to the youth, and +showed him some examples of his printing. + +Gutenberg was much impressed by what he saw, but still more by the +possibilities which he dimly foresaw in Coster's discovery. "But we can +do much better than this," he said with the enthusiasm of youth. "Your +printing is even slower than the writing of the monks. From this day +forth I will work upon this problem, and not rest till I have solved +it." + +Johann Gutenberg kept his word. He never rested until he had given the +art of printing to the world. But to Laurence Coster, in the first +place, if legend speaks truth, we owe one of the greatest inventions +that has ever blessed mankind. + + + + +SEA FEVER AND WHAT IT LED TO + + +"Jim, you've too good a head on you to be a wood chopper or a canal +driver," said the captain of the canal boat for whom young Garfield had +engaged to drive horses along the towpath. + +"Jim" had always loved books from the time when, seated on his father's +knee, he had with his baby lips pronounced after him the name +"Plutarch." Mr. Garfield had been reading "Plutarch's Lives," and was +much astonished when, without hesitation or stammering, his little son +distinctly pronounced the name of the Greek biographer. Turning to his +wife, with a glow of love and pride, the fond father said, "Eliza, this +boy will be a scholar some day." + +Perhaps the near approach of death had clarified the father's vision, +but when, soon after, the sorrowing wife was left a widow, with an +indebted farm and four little children to care for, she saw little +chance for the fulfillment of the prophecy. + +Even in his babyhood the boy whose future greatness the father dimly +felt had learned the lesson of self-reliance. The familiar words which +so often fell from his lips--"I can do that"--enabled him to conquer +difficulties before which stouter hearts than that of a little child +might well have quailed. + +The teaching of his good mother, that "God will bless all our efforts +to do the best we can," became a part of the fiber of his being. "What +will He do," asked the boy one day, "when we don't do the best we can?" +"He will withhold His blessing; and that is the greatest calamity that +could possibly happen to us," was the reply, which made a deep +impression on the mind of the questioner. + +In spite of almost constant toil, and very meager schooling,--only a +few weeks each year,--James Garfield excelled all his companions in the +log schoolhouse. Besides solving at home in the long winter evenings, +by the light of the pine fire, all the knotty problems in Adams' +Arithmetic--the terror of many a schoolboy--he found time to revel in +the pages of "Robinson Crusoe" and "Josephus." The latter was his +special favorite. + +Before he was fifteen, Garfield had successfully followed the +occupations of farmer, wood chopper, and carpenter. No matter what his +occupation was he always managed to find some time for reading. + +He had recently read some of Marryat's novels, "Sindbad the Sailor," +"The Pirate's Own Book," and others of a similar nature, which had +smitten him with a virulent attack of sea fever. This is a mental +disease which many robust, adventurous boys are apt to contract in +their teens. Garfield felt that he must "sail the ocean blue." The +glamour of the sea was upon him. Everything must give way before it. +His mother, however, could not be induced to assent to his plans, and, +after long pleading, would only compromise by agreeing that he might, +if he could, secure a berth on one of the vessels navigating Lake Erie. + +He was rudely repulsed by the owner of the first vessel to whom he +applied, a brutal, drunken creature, who answered his request for +employment with an oath and a rough "Get off this schooner in double +quick, or I'll throw you into the dock." Garfield turned away in +disgust, his ardor for the sea somewhat dampened by the man's +appearance and behavior. In this mood he met his cousin, formerly a +schoolmaster, then captain of a canal boat, with whom he at once +engaged to drive his horses. + +After a few months on the towpath, young Garfield contracted another +kind of fever quite unlike that from which he had been suffering +previously, and went home to be nursed out of it by his ever faithful +mother. + +During his convalescence he thought a great deal over his cousin's +words,--"Jim, you've got too good a head on you to be a wood chopper or +a canal driver." "He who wills to do anything will do it," he had +learned from his mother's lips when a mere baby, and then and there he +said in his heart, "I will be a scholar; I will go to college." And so, +out of his sea fever and towpath experience was born the resolution +that made the turning point in his career. + +Action followed hot upon resolve. He lost no time in applying himself +to the work of securing an education. Alternately chopping wood and +carpentering, farming and teaching school, ringing bells and sweeping +floors, he worked his way through seminary and college. His strong will +and resolute purpose to make the most of himself not only enabled him +to obtain an education, but raised him from the towpath to the +presidential chair. + + + + +GLADSTONE FOUND TIME TO BE KIND + + A kindly act is a kernel sown, + That will grow to a goodly tree, + Shedding its fruit when time has flown + Down the gulf of Eternity. + JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY. + + +In the restless desire for acquisition,--acquisition of money, of +power, or of fame,--there is danger of selfishness, self-absorption, +closing the doors of our hearts against the demands of brotherly love, +courtesy, and kindness. + +"I cannot afford to help," say the poor in pocket; "all I have is too +little for my own needs." "I should like to help others," says the +ambitious student, whose every spare moment is crowded with some extra +task, "but I have no money, and cannot afford to take the time from my +studies to give sympathy or kind words to the suffering and the poor." +Says the busy man of affairs: "I am willing to give money, but my time +is too valuable to be spent in talking to sick people or shiftless, +lazy ones. That sort of work is not in my line. I leave it to women and +the charitable organizations." + +The business man forgets, as do many of us, the truth expressed by +Ruskin, that "a little thought and a little kindness are often worth +more than a great deal of money." A few kind words, a little sympathy +and encouragement have often brought sunshine and hope into the lives +of men and women who were on the verge of despair. + +The great demand is on people's hearts rather than on their purses. In +the matter of kindness we can all afford to be generous whether we have +money or not. The schoolboy may give it as freely as the millionaire. +No one is so driven by work that he has not time, now and then, to say +a kind word or do a kind deed that will help to brighten life for +another. If the prime minister of England, William E. Gladstone, could +find time to carry a bunch of flowers to a little sick +crossing-sweeper, shall we not be ashamed to make for ourselves the +excuse, "I haven't time to be kind"? + + + + +A TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE + + +Clad in a homespun tow shirt, shrunken, butternut-colored, +linsey-woolsey pantaloons, battered straw hat, and much-mended jacket +and shoes, with ten dollars in his pocket, and all his other worldly +goods packed in the bundle he carried on his back, Horace Greeley, the +future founder of the New York Tribune, started to seek his fortune in +New York. + +A newspaper had always been an object of interest and delight to the +little delicate, tow-haired boy, and at the mature age of six he had +made up his mind to be a printer. His love of reading was unusual in +one so young. Before he was six he had read the Bible and "Pilgrim's +Progress" through. + +Like the children of all poor farmers, Horace was put to work as soon +as he was able to do anything. But he made the most of the +opportunities given him to attend school, and his love of reading; +stimulated him to unusual efforts to procure books. By selling nuts and +bundles of kindling wood at the village store, before he was ten he had +earned enough money to buy a copy of Shakespeare and of Mrs. Hemans's +poems. He borrowed every book that could be found within a radius of +seven miles of his home, and by many readings he had made himself +familiar with the score of old volumes in his log-cabin home. + +Mrs. Sarah K. Bolton draws a pleasing picture of the farmer boy reading +at night after the day's work on the farm was done. "He gathered a +stock of pine knots," she says, "and, lighting one each night, lay down +by the hearth and read, oblivious to all around him. The neighbors came +and made their friendly visits, and ate apples and drank cider, as was +the fashion, but the lad never noticed their coming or their going. +When really forced to leave his precious books for bed, he would repeat +the information he had learned, or the lessons for the next day to his +brother, who usually, most ungraciously, fell asleep before the +conversation was half completed." + +"Ah!" said Zaccheus Greeley, Horace's father, when the boy one day, in +a fit of abstraction, tried to yoke the "off" ox on the "near" side: +"Ah! that boy will never know enough to get on in the world. He'll +never know more than enough to come in when it rains!" + +Yet this boy knew so much that when at fourteen he secured a place as +printer in a newspaper office at East Poultney, Vermont, he was looked +up to by his fellow-printers as equal in learning to the editor himself. + +At first they tried to make merry at his expense, poking fun at his +odd-looking garments, his uncouth appearance, and his pale, delicate +face and almost white hair, which subsequently won for him the nickname +of "Ghost." But when they saw that Horace was too good humored and too +much in earnest with his work to be disturbed by their teasing, they +gave it up. In a short time he became a general favorite, not only in +the office, but in the town of Poultney, whose debating and literary +societies soon recognized him as leader. Even the minister, the lawyer, +and the school-teachers looked up to the poor, retiring young printer, +who was a veritable encyclopedia of knowledge, ready at all times to +speak or to write an essay on any subject. + +But the Poultney newspaper was obliged to suspend soon after Horace had +learned his trade, and, penniless,--for every cent of his earnings +beyond what furnished the bare necessaries of life had been sent home +to his parents in the wilderness,--he faced the world once more. + +After working in different small towns wherever he could get a "job," +reading, studying, enlarging his knowledge all the time when not in the +office, he made up his mind to go to New York, "to be somebody," as he +put it. + +When he stepped off the towboat at Whitehall, near the Battery, that +sunny morning in August, 1831, with only the experience of a score of +years in life, a stout heart, quick brain, nimble fingers, and an +abiding faith in God as his capital, his prospects certainly were not +very alluring. + +"An overgrown, awkward, white-headed, forlorn-looking boy; a pack +suspended on a staff over his right shoulder; his dress unrivaled in +sylvan simplicity since the primitive fig leaves of Eden; the +expression of his face presenting a strange union of wonder and apathy: +his whole appearance gave you the impression of a runaway apprentice in +desperate search of employment. Ignorant alike of the world and its +ways, he seemed to the denizens of the city almost like a wanderer from +another planet." + +Such was the impression Horace Greeley made on a New Yorker on his +first arrival in that city which was to be the scene of his future work +and triumphs. + +He tramped the streets all that day, Friday, and the next, looking for +work, everywhere getting the same discouraging reply, "No, we don't +want any one." + +At last, when weary and disheartened, his ten dollars almost gone, he +had decided to shake the dust of New York from his feet, the foreman of +a printing office engaged him to do some work that most of the men in +the office had refused to touch. The setting up of a Polyglot +Testament, with involved marginal references, was something new for the +supposed "green" hand from the country. But when the day was done, the +young printer was no longer looked upon as "green" by his +fellow-workers, for he had done more and better work than the oldest +and most experienced hands who had tried the Testament. + +But, oh, what hard work it was, beginning at six o'clock in the +morning, and working long after the going down of the sun, by the light +of a candle stuck in a bottle, to earn six dollars a week, most of +which was sent to his dear ones at home. + +After nearly ten years more of struggle and privation, Greeley entered +upon the great work of his life--the founding and editing of the New +York Tribune. He had very little money to start with, and even that +little was borrowed. But he had courage, truth, honesty, a noble +purpose, and rare ability and industry to supplement his small +financial capital. He needed them all in the work he had undertaken, +for he was handicapped not only by lack of means, but also by the +opposition of some of the New York papers. + +In spite of the adverse conditions he succeeded in establishing one of +the greatest and most popular newspapers in the country. The Tribune +became the champion of the oppressed, the guardian of justice, the +defender of truth, a power for good in the land. Through his paper +Greeley became a tribune of the people. No thought of making money +hampered him in his work. Unselfishly he wrought as editor, writer, and +lecturer for the good of his country and the uplifting of mankind. "He +who by voice or pen," he said, "strikes his best blow at the impostures +or vices whereby our race is debased and paralyzed, may close his eyes +in death, consoled and cheered by the reflection that he has done what +he could for the emancipation and elevation of his kind." + +Well, then, might he rejoice in his life work, for his voice and pen +had to the last been active in thus serving the race. + +He died on November 29, 1872, at the age of sixty-one. So great a man +had Horace Greeley, the poor New Hampshire farmer boy, become that the +whole nation mourned for his death. The people felt that in him they +had lost one of their best friends. A workman who attended his funeral +expressed the feeling of his fellow-workmen all over the land when he +said, "It is little enough to lose a day for Horace Greeley who spent +many a day working for us." "I've come a hundred miles to be at the +funeral of Horace Greeley," said a farmer. + +The great tribune had deserved well of the people and of his country. + + + + +THE MIGHT OF PATIENCE + + +Perhaps some would feel inclined to ridicule rather than applaud the +patience of a poor Chinese woman who tried to make a needle from a rod +of iron by rubbing it against a stone. + +It is doubtful whether she succeeded or not, but, so the story runs, +the sight of the worker plying her seemingly hopeless task, put new +courage and determination into the heart of a young Chinese student, +who, in deep despondency, stood watching her. + +Because of repeated failures in his studies, ambition and hope had left +him. Bitterly disappointed with himself, and despairing of ever +accomplishing anything, the young man had thrown his books aside in +disgust. Put to shame, however, by the lesson taught by the old woman, +he gathered his scattered forces together, went to work with renewed +ardor, and, wedding Patience and Energy, became, in time, one of the +greatest scholars in China. + +When you know you are on the right track, do not let any failures dim +your vision or discourage you, for you cannot tell how close you may be +to victory. Have patience and stick, stick, stick. It is eternally true +that he + + "Who steers right on + Will gain, at length, however far, the port." + + + + +THE INSPIRATION OF GAMBETTA + + +"Try to come home a somebody!" Long after Leon Gambetta had left the +old French town of Cahors, where he was born October 30, 1838, long +after the gay and brilliant streets of Paris had become familiar to +him, did the parting words of his idolized mother ring in his ears, +"Try to come home a somebody!" Pinched for food and clothes, as he +often was, while he studied early and late in his bare garret near the +Sorbonne, the memory of that dear mother cheered and strengthened him. + +He could still feel her tears and kisses on his cheek, and the tender +clasp of her hand as she pressed into his the slender purse of money +which she had saved to release him from the drudgery of an occupation +he loathed, and to enable him to become a great lawyer in Paris. How +well he remembered her delight in listening to him declaim the speeches +of Thiers and Guizot from the pages of the National, which she had +taught him to read when but a mere baby, and from which he imbibed his +first lessons in republicanism,--lessons that he never afterward forgot. + +Such deep root had they taken that he could not be induced to change +his views by the fathers of the preparatory school at Monfaucon, +whither he had been sent to be trained for the priesthood. Finally +despairing of bringing the young radical to their way of thinking, the +Monfaucon fathers sent him home to his parents. "You will never make a +priest of him," they wrote; "he has a character that cannot be +disciplined." + +His father, an honest but narrow-minded Italian, whose ideas did not +soar beyond his little bazaar and grocery store, was displeased with +the boy, who was then only ten years old. He could not understand how +one so young dared to think his own thoughts and hold his own opinions. +The neighbors held up their hands in dismay, and prophesied, "He will +end his days in the Bastile." His mother wept and blamed herself and +the National as the cause of all the trouble. + +How little the fond mother, the disappointed father, or the gloomily +foreboding neighbors dreamt to what heights those early lessons they +now so bitterly deplored were to lead! + +When at sixteen Leon Gambetta returned from the Lyceum to which he had +been sent on his return from the Monfaucon seminary, his wide reading +and deep study had but intensified and broadened the radicalism of his +childhood. He longed to go to Paris to study law, but his father +insisted that he must now confine his thoughts to selling groceries and +yards of ribbon and lace, as he expected his son to succeed him in the +business. + +Poor, foolish Joseph Gambetta! he would confine the young eagle in a +barnyard. But the eagle pined and drooped in his cage, and then the +loving mother--ah, those loving mothers, will their boys ever realize +how much they owe them!--threw open the doors and gave him freedom, an +opportunity to win fame and fortune in the great city of Paris. + +And now what mattered it that his clothes were poor, that his food was +scant, and that it was often bitterly cold in his little garret. If not +for his own sake, he MUST for hers "come home a somebody." + +The doors which led to a wider future were already opening. The +professors at the Sorbonne appreciated his great intellect and +originality. "You have a true vocation," said one. "Follow it. But go +to the bar, where your voice, which is one in a thousand, will carry +you on, study and intelligence aiding. The lecture room is a narrow +theater. If you like, I will write to your father to tell him what my +opinion of you is." And he wrote, "The best investment you ever made +would be to spend what money you can divert from your business in +helping your son to become an advocate." + +To such good purpose did the young student use his time that within two +years he won his diploma. Still too young to be admitted to the bar, he +spent a year studying life in Paris, listening to the debates in the +Corps Legislatif, reading and debating in the radical club which he had +organized, making himself ready at every point for the great +opportunity which gained him a national reputation and made him the +idol of the masses. + +In 1868 his masterly defense of Delescluze, the radical editor, against +the prosecution of the Imperial government, brought the brilliant but +hitherto unknown young lawyer prominently before the public. He lost +his case, but won fame. Gambetta had waited eighteen months for his +first brief, and five times eighteen months for his first great case. +This case proved to be the initial step that led him from victory to +victory, until, after the fall of Napoleon at Sedan, he became +practically Dictator of France. He was, more than any one man, the +maker of the French Republic, whose rights and liberties he ever +defended, even at the risk of his life. He died December 31, 1882. + +Well had he fulfilled the hopes and ambitions of his loving mother, +well had he answered the pathetic appeal, "Try to come home a somebody." + + + + +ANDREW JACKSON THE BOY WHO "NEVER WOULD GIVE UP" + + +"Sir, I am a prisoner of war, and demand to be treated as such," was +the spirited reply of Andrew Jackson to a British officer who had +commanded him to clean his boots. + +This was characteristic of the future hero of New Orleans, and +president of the United States, whose independent spirit rebelled at +the insolent command of his captor. + +The officer drew his sword to enforce obedience, but, nothing daunted, +the youth, although then only fourteen, persisted in his refusal. He +tried to parry the sword thrusts aimed at him, but did not escape +without wounds on head and arm, the marks of which he carried to his +grave. + +Stubborn, self-willed, and always dominated by the desire to be a +leader, Andrew Jackson was by no means a model boy. But his honesty, +love of truth, indomitable will and courage, in spite of his many +faults, led him to greatness. + +He was born with fighting blood in his veins, and, like other eminent +men who have risen to the White House, poor. His father, an Irish +immigrant, died before his youngest son was born,--in 1767,--and life +held for the boy more hard knocks than soft places. His mother, who was +ambitious to make him a clergyman, tried to secure him some early +advantages of schooling. Andrew, however, was not of a studious +disposition, nor at all inclined to the ministry, and made little +effort to profit by even the limited opportunities he had. + +But despite all the disadvantages of environment and mental traits by +which he was handicapped, he was bound by the force of certain other +traits to be a winner in the battle of life. The quality to which his +success is chiefly owing is revealed by the words of a school-fellow, +who, in spite of Jackson's slender physique and lack of physical +strength at that time, felt the force of his iron will. Speaking of +their wrestling matches at school, this boy said, "I could throw him +[Jackson] three times out of four, but he never would stay throwed. He +was dead game and never would give up." + +A boy who "never would stay throwed," and "never would give up" would +succeed though the whole world tried to bar his progress. + +When, at the age of fifteen, he found himself alone in the world, +homeless and penniless, he adapted himself to anything he could find to +do. + +Worker in a saddler's shop, school-teacher, lawyer, merchant, judge of +the Supreme Court, United States senator, soldier, leader, step by step +the son of the poor Irish immigrant rose to the highest office to which +his countrymen could elect him--the presidency of the United States. + +Rash, headstrong, and narrow-minded, Andrew Jackson fell into many +errors during his life, but, notwithstanding his shortcomings, he +persistently tried to live up to his boyhood's motto, "Ask nothing but +what is right--submit to nothing wrong." + + + + +SIR HUMPHRY DAVY'S GREATEST DISCOVERY, MICHAEL FARADAY + + +He was only a little, barefooted errand boy, the son of a poor +blacksmith. His school life ended in his thirteenth year. The extent of +his education then was limited to a knowledge of the three "R's." As he +trudged on his daily rounds, through the busy streets of London, +delivering newspapers and books to the customers of his employer, there +was little difference, outwardly, between him and scores of other boys +who jostled one another in the narrow, crowded thoroughfares. But under +the shabby jacket of Michael Faraday beat a heart braver and tenderer +than the average; and, under the well-worn cap, a brain was throbbing +that was destined to illuminate the world of science with a light that +would never grow dim. + +Less than any one else, perhaps, did the boy dream of future greatness. +For a year he served his employer faithfully in his capacity of errand +boy, and, in 1805, at the age of fourteen, was apprenticed to a +bookseller for seven years, as was the custom in England, to learn the +combined trades of bookbinding and book-selling. + +The young journeyman had to exercise all his self-control to confine +his attention to the outside of the books which passed through his +hands. In his spare moments, however, he made himself familiar with the +inside of many of them, eagerly devouring such works on science, +electricity, chemistry, and natural philosophy, as came within his +reach. He was especially delighted with an article on electricity, +which he found in a volume of the "Encyclopedia Britannica," which had +been given him to bind. He immediately began work on an electrical +machine, from the very crudest materials, and, much to his delight, +succeeded. It was a red-letter day in his young life when a +kind-hearted customer, who had noticed his interest in scientific +works, offered to take him to the Royal Institution, to attend a course +of lectures to be given by the great Sir Humphry Davy. From this time +on, his thoughts were constantly turned toward science. "Oh, if I could +only help in some scientific work, no matter how humble!" was the daily +cry of his soul. But not yet was his prayer to be granted. His mettle +must be tried in the school of patience and drudgery. He must fulfill +his contract with his master. For seven years he was faithful to his +work, while his heart was elsewhere. And all that time, in the +eagerness of his thirst for knowledge, he was imbibing facts which +helped him to plan electrical achievements, the possibilities of which +have not, to this day, been exhausted,--or even half realized. Like +Franklin, he seemed to forecast the scientific future for ages. + +At length he was free to follow his bent, and his mind turned at once +to Sir Humphry Davy. With a beating heart, divided between hope and +fear, he wrote to the great man, telling what he wished, and asking his +aid. The scientist, remembering his own day of small things, wrote the +youth, politely, that he was going out of town, but would see if he +could, sometime, aid him. He also said that "science is a harsh +mistress, and, in a pecuniary point of view, but poorly rewards those +who devote themselves exclusively to her service." + +This was not very encouraging, but the young votary of science was +nothing daunted, and toiled at his uncongenial trade, with the added +discomfort of an ill-tempered employer, giving all his evenings and odd +moments to study and experiments. + +Then came another red-letter day. He was growing depressed, and feared +that Sir Humphry had forgotten his quasi-promise, when one evening a +carriage stopped at the door, and out stepped an important-looking +footman in livery, with a note from the famous scientist, requesting +the young bookbinder to call on him on the following morning. At last +had come the answer to the prayer of little Michael Faraday, as will +come the answer to all who back their prayers with patient, persistent +hard work, in spite of discouragement, disappointment, and failure. And +when, on that never-to-be-forgotten morning, he was engaged by the +great scientist at a salary of six dollars a week, with two rooms at +the top of the house, to wash bottles, clean the instruments, move them +to and from the lecture rooms, and make himself generally useful in the +laboratory and out of it, no happier youth could be found in all London. + +The door was open; not, indeed, wide, but sufficiently to allow this +ardent disciple to work his way into the innermost shrine of the temple +of science. Though it took years and years of plodding, incessant work +and study, and a devotion to purpose with which nothing was allowed to +interfere, it made Faraday, by virtue of his marvelous discoveries in +electricity, electro-magnetism, and chemistry, a world benefactor, +honored not only by his own country and sovereign, but by other rulers +and leading nations of the earth, as one of the greatest chemists and +natural philosophers of his time. + +So great has been his value to the scientific world, that his theories +are still a constant source of inspiration to the workers in those +great professions allied to electricity and chemistry. No library is +complete without his published works. What wonder that Davy called +Faraday his greatest discovery! + + + + +THE TRIUMPH OF CANOVA + + +The Villa d'Asola, the country residence of the Signor Falieri, was in +a state of unusual excitement. Some of the most distinguished +patricians of Venice had been bidden to a great banquet, which was to +surpass in magnificence any entertainment ever before given, even by +the wealthy and hospitable Signer Falieri. + +The feast was ready, the guests were assembled, when word came from the +confectioner, who had been charged to prepare the center ornament for +the table, that he had spoiled the piece. Consternation reigned in the +servants' hall. What was to be done? The steward, or head servant, was +in despair. He was responsible for the table decorations, and the +absence of the centerpiece would seriously mar the arrangements. He +wrung his hands and gesticulated wildly. What should he do! + +"If you will let me try, I think I can make something that will do." +The speaker was a delicate, pale-faced boy, about twelve years old, who +had been engaged to help in some of the minor details of preparation +for the great event. "You!" exclaimed the steward, gazing in amazement +at the modest, yet apparently audacious lad before him. "And who are +you?" "I am Antonio Canova, the grandson of Pisano, the stonecutter." +Desperately grasping at even the most forlorn hope, the perplexed +servant gave the boy permission to try his hand at making a centerpiece. + +Calling for some butter, with nimble fingers and the skill of a +practiced sculptor, in a short time the little scullion molded the +figure of a crouching lion. So perfect in proportion, so spirited and +full of life in every detail, was this marvelous butter lion that it +elicited a chorus of admiration from the delighted guests, who were +eager to know who the great sculptor was who had deigned to expend his +genius on such perishable material. Signor Falieri, unable to gratify +their curiosity, sent for his head servant, who gave them the history +of the centerpiece. Antonio was immediately summoned to the banquet +hall, where he blushingly received the praises and congratulations of +all present, and the promise of Signer Falieri to become his patron, +and thus enable him to achieve fame as a sculptor. + +Such, according to some biographers, was the turning point in the +career of Antonio Canova, who, from a peasant lad, born in the little +Venetian village of Possagno, rose to be the most illustrious sculptor +of his age. + +Whether or not the story be true, it is certain that when the boy was +in his thirteenth year, Signer Falieri placed him in the studio of +Toretto, a Venetian sculptor, then living near Asola. But it is equally +certain that the fame which crowned Canova's manhood, the title of +Marquis of Ischia, the decorations and honors so liberally bestowed +upon him by the ruler of the Vatican, kings, princes, and emperors, +were all the fruits of his ceaseless industry, high ideals, and +unfailing enthusiasm. + +The little Antonio began to draw almost as soon as he could hold a +pencil, and the gown of the dear old grandmother who so tenderly loved +him, and was so tenderly loved in return, often bore the marks of baby +fingers fresh from modeling in clay. + +Antonio's father having died when the child was but three years old, +his grandfather, Pisano, hoped that he would succeed him as village +stonecutter and sculptor. Delicate though the little fellow had been +from birth, at nine years of age he was laboring, as far as his +strength would permit, in Pisano's workshop. But in the evening, after +the work of the day was done, with pencil or clay he tried to give +expression to the poetic fancies he had imbibed from the ballads and +legends of his native hills, crooned to him in infancy by his +grandmother. + +Under Toretto his genius developed so rapidly that the sculptor spoke +of one of his creations as "a truly marvelous production." He was then +only thirteen. Later we find him in Venice, studying and working with +ever increasing zeal. Though Signor Falieri would have been only too +glad to supply the youth's needs, he was too proud to be dependent on +others. Speaking of this time, he says: "I labored for a mere pittance, +but it was sufficient. It was the fruit of my own resolution, and, as I +then flattered myself, the foretaste of more honorable rewards, for I +never thought of wealth." + +Too poor to hire a workshop or studio, through the kindness of the +monks of St. Stefano, he was given a cell in a vacant monastery, and +here, at the age of sixteen, he started business as a sculptor on his +own account. + +Before he was twenty, the youth had become a master of anatomy, which +he declared was "the secret of the art," was thoroughly versed in +literature, languages, history, poetry, mythology,--everything that +could help to make him the greatest sculptor of his age,--and had, even +then, produced works of surpassing merit. + +Effort to do better was the motto of his life, and he never permitted a +day to pass without making some advance in his profession. Though often +too poor to buy the marble in which to embody his conceptions, he for +many years lived up to a resolution made about this time, never to +close his eyes at night without having produced some design. + +What wonder that at twenty-five this noble youth, whose incessant toil +had perfected genius, was the marvel of his age! What wonder that his +famous group, Theseus vanquishing the Minotaur, elicited the +enthusiastic admiration of the most noted art critics of Rome! What +wonder that the little peasant boy, who had first opened his eyes, in +1757, in a mud cabin, closed them at last, in 1822, in a marble palace, +crowned with all of fame and honor and wealth the world could give! But +better still, he was loved and enshrined in the hearts of the people, +as a friend of the poor, a patron of struggling merit, a man in whom +nobility of character overtopped even the genius of the artist. + + + + +FRANKLIN'S LESSON ON TIME VALUE + + Dost thou love life? Then, do not squander time, for + that is the stuff life is made of!--FRANKLIN. + + +Franklin not only understood the value of time, but he put a price upon +it that made others appreciate its worth. + +A customer who came one day to his little bookstore in Philadelphia, +not being satisfied with the price demanded by the clerk for the book +he wished to purchase, asked for the proprietor. "Mr. Franklin is very +busy just now in the press room," replied the clerk. The man, however, +who had already spent an hour aimlessly turning over books, insisted on +seeing him. In answer to the clerk's summons, Mr. Franklin hurried out +from the newspaper establishment at the back of the store. + +"What is the lowest price you can take for this book, sir?" asked the +leisurely customer, holding up the volume. "One dollar and a quarter," +was the prompt reply. "A dollar and a quarter! Why, your clerk asked me +only a dollar just now." "True," said Franklin, "and I could have +better afforded to take a dollar than to leave my work." + +The man, who seemed to be in doubt as to whether Mr. Franklin was in +earnest, said jokingly, "Well, come now, tell me your lowest price for +this book." "One dollar and a half," was the grave reply. "A dollar and +a half! Why, you just offered it for a dollar and a quarter." "Yes, and +I could have better taken that price then than a dollar and a half now." + +Without another word, the crestfallen purchaser laid the money on the +counter and left the store. He had learned not only that he who +squanders his own time is foolish, but that he who wastes the time of +others is a thief. + + + + +FROM STORE BOY TO MILLIONAIRE + + +"But I am only nineteen years old, Mr. Riggs," and the speaker looked +questioningly into the eyes of his companion, as if he doubted his +seriousness in asking him to become a partner in his business. + +Mr. Riggs was not joking, however, and he met George Peabody's +perplexed gaze smilingly, as he replied: "That is no objection. If you +are willing to go in with me and put your labor against my capital, I +shall be well satisfied." + +This was the turning point in a life which was to leave its impress on +two of the world's greatest nations. And what were the experiences that +led to it? They were utterly commonplace, and in some respects such as +fall to the lot of many country boys to-day. + +At eleven the lad was obliged to earn his own living. At that time +(1806), his native town, Danvers, Massachusetts, presented few +opportunities to the ambitious. He took the best that offered--a +position as store boy in the village grocer's. + +Four years of faithful work and constant effort at self-culture +followed. He was now fifteen. His ambition was growing. He must seek a +wider field. Another year passed, and then came the longed-for opening. +Joyfully the youth set out for his brother's store, in Newburyport, +Massachusetts. Here he felt he would have a better chance. But +disappointment and disaster were lurking round the corner. Soon after +he had taken up his new duties, the store was burned to the ground. + +In the meantime, his father had died, and his mother, whom he idolized, +needed his help more than ever. Penniless and out of work, but not +disheartened, he immediately looked about for another position. Gladly +he accepted an offer to work in his uncle's dry goods store in +Georgetown, D.C., and here we find him, two years later, at the time +when Mr. Riggs made his flattering proposition. + +Did influence, a "pull," or financial considerations have anything to +do with the merchant's choice of a partner? Nothing whatever. The young +man had no money and no "pull," save what his character had made for +him. His agreeable personality had won him many friends and his uncle +much additional trade. His business qualities had gained him an +enviable reputation. "His tact," says Sarah K. Bolton, "was unusual. He +never wounded the feelings of a buyer of goods, never tried him with +unnecessary talk, never seemed impatient, and was punctual to the +minute." + +That Mr. Riggs had made no mistake in choosing his partner, the rapid +growth of his business conclusively proved. About a year after the +partnership had been formed, the firm moved to Baltimore. So well did +the business flourish in Baltimore that within seven years the partners +had established branch houses in New York and Philadelphia. Finally Mr. +Riggs decided to retire, and Peabody, who was then but thirty-five, +found himself at the head of the business. + +London, which he had visited several times, now attracted him. It +offered great possibilities for banking. He went there, studied +finance, established a banking business, and thenceforth made London +his headquarters. + +Wealth began to pour in upon him in a golden stream. But, although he +had worked steadily for this, it was not for personal ends. He never +married, and, to the end, lived simply and unostentatiously. Through +the long years of patient work a great purpose had been shaping his +life. Daily he had prayed that God might give him means wherewith to +help his fellow-men. His prayer was being answered in overflowing +measure. + +Business interests constrained him to spend the latter half of his life +in London; but absence only deepened his love for his own country. All +that great wealth could do to advance the welfare and prestige of the +United States was done by the millionaire philanthropist. But above all +else, he tried to bring within the reach of poor children that which +was denied himself,--a school education. + +The Peabody Institute in his native town, with its free library and +free course of lectures; the Institute, Academy of Music, and Art +Gallery of Baltimore; the Museum of Natural History at Yale University; +the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University; the +Peabody Academy of Science at Salem, Massachusetts, besides large +contributions every year to libraries and other educational and +philanthropic institutions all over the country, bear witness to his +love for humanity. + +Surpassing all this, however, was his establishment of the Peabody fund +of three million dollars for the education of the freed slaves of the +South, and for the equally needy poor of the white race. + +An equal amount had been previously devoted to the better housing of +the London poor. A dream almost too good to come true it seemed to the +toilers in the great city's slums, when they found their filthy, +unhealthy tenements replaced by clean, wholesome dwellings, well +supplied with air and sunlight and all modern conveniences and +comforts. London presented its generous benefactor with the freedom of +the city; a bronze statue was erected in his honor, and Queen Victoria, +who would fain have loaded him with titles and honors,--all of which he +respectfully declined,--declared his act to be "wholly without +parallel." A beautiful miniature portrait of her Majesty, which she +caused to be specially made for him, and a letter written by her own +hand, were the only gifts he would accept. + +Gloriously had his great purpose been fulfilled. He who began life as a +poor boy had given to the furtherance of education and for the benefit +of the poor in various ways the sum of nine million dollars. The +remaining four million dollars of his fortune was divided among his +relatives. + +England loved and honored him even as his own country did; and when he +died in London, November 4, 1869, she offered him a resting place among +her immortals in Westminster Abbey. His last wish, however, was +fulfilled, and he was laid beside his mother in his native land. + +His legacies to humanity are doing their splendid work to-day as they +have done in the past, and as they will continue to do in the future, +enabling multitudes of aspiring souls to reach heights which but for +him they never could have attained. These words of his, too, spoken on +the occasion of the dedication of his gift to Danvers,--its free +Institute,--will serve for ages as a bugle call to all youths who are +anxious to make the most of themselves, and, like him, to give of their +best to the world:-- + +"Though Providence has granted me an unvaried and unusual success in +the pursuit of fortune in other lands," he said, "I am still in heart +the humble boy who left yonder unpretending dwelling many, very many +years ago. ... There is not a youth within the sound of my voice whose +early opportunities and advantages are not very much greater than were +my own; and I have since achieved nothing that is impossible to the +most humble boy among you. Bear in mind, that, to be truly great, it is +not necessary that you should gain wealth and importance. Steadfast and +undeviating truth, fearless and straightforward integrity, and an honor +ever unsullied by an unworthy word or action, make their possessor +greater than worldly success or prosperity. These qualities constitute +greatness." + + + + +"I WILL PAINT OR DIE!" + +HOW A POOR, UNTAUGHT FARMER'S BOY BECAME AN ARTIST + + +"I will paint or die!" So stoutly resolved a poor, friendless boy, on a +far-away Ohio farm, amid surroundings calculated to quench rather than +to foster ambition. He knew not how his object was to be accomplished, +for genius is never fettered by details. He only knew that he would be +an artist. That settled it. He had never seen a work of art, or read or +heard anything on the subject. It was his soul's voice alone that +spoke, and "the soul's emphasis is always right." + +Left an orphan at the age of eleven, the boy agreed to work on his +uncle's farm for a term of five years for the munificent sum of ten +dollars per annum, the total amount of which he was to receive at the +end of the five years. The little fellow struggled bravely along with +the laborious farm work, never for a moment losing sight of his ideal, +and profiting as he could by the few months' schooling snatched from +the duties of the farm during the winter. + +Toward the close of his five years' service a great event happened. +There came to the neighborhood an artist from Washington,--Mr. Uhl, +whom he overheard by chance speaking on the subject of art. His words +transformed the dream in the youth's soul to a living purpose, and it +was then he resolved that he would "paint or die," and that he would go +to Washington and study under Mr. Uhl. + +On his release from the farm he started for Washington, with a coarse +outfit packed away in a shabby little trunk, and a few dollars in his +pocket. With the trustfulness of extreme youth, and in ignorance of a +great world, he expected to get work that would enable him to live, +and, at the same time, find leisure for the pursuit of his real life +work. He immediately sought Mr. Uhl, who, with great generosity, +offered to teach him without charge. + +Then began the weary search for work in a large city already +overcrowded with applicants. In his earnestness and eagerness the youth +went from house to house asking for any kind of work "that would enable +him to study art." But it was all in vain, and to save himself from +starvation he was at length forced to accept the position of a day +laborer, crushing stones for street paving. Yet he hoped to study +painting when his day's work was done! + +Mr. Uhl was at this time engaged in painting the portraits of Mrs. +Frances Hodgson Burnett's sons. In the course of conversation with Mrs. +Burnett, he spoke of the heroic struggle the youth was making. The +author's heart was touched by the pathetic story. She at once wrote a +check for one hundred dollars, and handed it to Mr. Uhl, for his +protege. With that rare delicacy of feeling which marks all beautiful +souls, Mrs. Burnett did not wish to embarrass the struggler by the +necessity of thanking her. "Do not let him even write to me," she said +to Mr. Uhl. "Simply say to him that I shall sail for Europe in a few +days, and this is to give him a chance to work at the thing he cares +for so much. It will at least give him a start." + +In the throbbing life of the crowded city one heart beat high with hope +and happiness that night. A youth lay awake until morning, too +bewildered with gratitude and amazement to comprehend the meaning of +the good fortune which had come to him. Who could his benefactor be? + +Three years later, at the annual exhibition of Washington artists, Mrs. +Burnett stood before a remarkably vivid portrait. Addressing the artist +in charge of the exhibition, she said: "That seems to me very strong. +It looks as if it must be a realistic likeness. Who did it?" + +"I am so glad you like it. It was painted by your protege, Mrs. +Burnett." + +"My protege! My protege! Whom do you mean?" + +"Why, the young man you saved from despair three years ago. Don't you +remember young W----?" + +"W----?" queried Mrs. Burnett. + +"The young man whose story Mr. Uhl told you." + +Mrs. Burnett then inquired if the portrait was for sale. When informed +that the picture was an order and not for sale, she asked if there was +anything else of Mr. W----'s on exhibition. She was conducted to a +striking picture of a turbaned head, which was pointed out as another +of Mr. W----'s works. + +"How much does he ask for it?" + +"A hundred and fifty dollars." + +"Put 'sold' upon it, and when Mr. W---- comes, tell him his friend has +bought his picture," said Mrs. Burnett. + +On her return home Mrs. Burnett made out a check, which she inclosed in +a letter to the young painter. It was mailed simultaneously with a +letter from her protege, who had but just heard of her return from +Europe, in which he begged her to accept, as a slight expression of his +gratitude, the picture she had just purchased. The turbaned head now +adorns the hall of Mrs. Burnett's house in Washington. + +"I do not understand it even to-day," declares Mr. W----. "I knew +nothing of Mrs. Burnett, nor she of me. Why did she do it? I only know +that that hundred dollars was worth more to me then than fifty thousand +in gold would be now. I lived upon it a whole year, and it put me on my +feet." + +Mr. W---- is a successful artist, now favorably known in his own +country and in England for the strength and promise of his work. + + + + +THE CALL THAT SPEAKS IN THE BLOOD + + +Nature took the measure of little Tommy Edwards for a round hole, but +his parents, teachers, and all with whom his childhood was cast, got it +into their heads that Tommy was certainly intended for a square hole. +So, with the best intentions in the world,--but oh, such woeful +ignorance!--they tortured the poor little fellow and crippled him for +life by trying to fit him to their pattern instead of that designed for +him by the all-wise Mother. + +Mother Nature called to Tommy to go into the woods and fields, to wade +through the brooks, and make friends with all the living things she had +placed there,--tadpoles, beetles, frogs, crabs, mice, rats, spiders, +bugs,--everything that had life. Willingly, lovingly did the little lad +obey, but only to be whipped and scolded by good Mother Edwards when he +let loose in her kitchen the precious treasures which he had collected +in his rambles. + +It was provoking to have rats, mice, toads, bugs, and all sorts of +creepy things sent sprawling over one's clean kitchen floor. But the +pity of it was that Mrs. Edwards did not understand her boy, and +thought the only cure for what she deemed his mischievous propensity as +whipping. So Tommy was whipped and scolded, and scolded and whipped, +which, however, did not in the least abate his love for Nature. + +Driven to desperation, his mother bethought her of a plan. She would +make the boy prisoner and see if this would tame him. With a stout rope +she tied him by the leg to a table, and shut him in a room alone. But +no sooner was the door closed than he dragged himself and the table to +the fireplace, and, at the risk of setting himself and the house on +fire, burned the rope which bound him, and made his escape into the +woods to collect new specimens. + +And yet his parents did not understand. It was time, however, to send +him to school. They would see what the schoolmaster would do for him. +But the schoolmaster was as blind as the parents, and Tommy's doom was +sealed, when one morning, while the school was at prayers, a jackdaw +poked its head out of his pocket and began to caw. + +His next teacher misunderstood, whipped, and bore with him until one +day nearly every boy in the school found a horse-leech wriggling up his +leg, trying to suck his blood. This ended his second school experience. + +He was given a third trial, but with no better results than before. +Things went on in the usual way until a centipede was discovered in +another boy's desk. Although in this case Tommy was innocent of any +knowledge of the intruder, he was found guilty, whipped, and sent home +with the message, "Go and tell your father to get you on board a +man-of-war, as that is the best school for irreclaimables such as you." + +His school life thus ended, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, and +thenceforth made his living at the bench. But every spare moment was +given to the work which was meat and drink, life itself, to him. + +In his manhood, to enable him to classify the minute and copious +knowledge of birds, beasts, and insects which he had been gathering +since childhood, with great labor and patience he learned how to read +and write. Later, realizing how his lack of education hampered him, he +endeavored to secure the means to enable him to study to better +advantage, and sold for twenty pounds sterling a very large number of +valuable specimens. He tried to get employment as a naturalist, and, +but for his poor reading and writing, would have succeeded. + +Poor little Scotch laddie! Had his parents or teachers understood him, +he might have been as great a naturalist as Agassiz, and his life +instead of being dwarfed and crippled, would have been a joy to himself +and an incalculable benefit to the world. + + + + +WASHINGTON'S YOUTHFUL HEROISM + + "No great deed is done + By falterers who ask for certainty." + + +"God will give you a reward," solemnly spoke the grateful mother, as +she received from the arms of the brave youth the child he had risked +his life to save. As if her lips were touched with the spirit of +prophecy, she continued, "He will do great things for you in return for +this day's work, and the blessings of thousands besides mine will +attend you." + +The ear of George Washington was ever open to the cry of distress; his +sympathy and aid were ever at the service of those who needed them. One +calm, sunny day, in the spring of 1750, he was dining with other +surveyors in a forest in Virginia. Suddenly the stillness of the forest +was startled by the piercing shriek of a woman. Washington instantly +sprang to his feet and hurried to the woman's assistance. + +"My boy, my boy,--oh, my poor boy is drowning, and they will not let me +go," screamed the frantic mother, as she tried to escape from the +detaining hands which withheld her from jumping into the rapids. "Oh, +sir!" she implored, as she caught sight of the manly youth of eighteen, +whose presence even then inspired confidence; "Oh, sir, you will surely +do something for me!" + +For an instant Washington measured the rocks and the whirling currents +with a comprehensive look, and then, throwing off his coat, plunged +into the roaring rapids where he had caught a glimpse of the drowning +boy. With stout heart and steady hand he struggled against the seething +mass of waters which threatened every moment to engulf or dash him to +pieces against the sharp-pointed rocks which lay concealed beneath. + +Three times he had almost succeeded in grasping the child's dress, when +the force of the current drove him back. Then he gathered himself +together for one last effort. Just as the child was about to escape him +forever and be shot over the falls into the whirlpool below, he +clutched him. The spectators on the bank cried out in horror. They gave +both up for lost. But Washington seemed to lead a charmed life, and the +cry of horror was changed to one of joy when, still holding the child, +he emerged lower down from the vortex of waters. + +Striking out for a low place in the bank, within a few minutes he +reached the shore with his burden. Then amid the acclamations of those +who had witnessed his heroism, and the blessings of the overjoyed +mother, Washington placed the unconscious, but still living, child in +her arms. + + + + +A COW HIS CAPITAL + + +A cow! Now, of all things in the world; of what use was a cow to an +ambitious boy who wanted to go to college? Yet a cow, and nothing more, +was the capital, the entire stock in trade, of an aspiring farmer boy +who felt within him a call to another kind of life than that his father +led. + +This youth, who was yet in his teens, next to his father and mother, +loved a book better than anything else in the world, and his great +ambition was to go to college, to become a "scholar." Whether he +followed the plow, or tossed hay under a burning July sun, or chopped +wood, while his blood tingled from the combined effects of exercise and +the keen December wind, his thoughts were ever fixed on the problem, +"How can I go to college?" + +His parents were poor, and, while they could give him a comfortable +support as long as he worked on the farm with them, they could not +afford to send him to college. But if they could not give him any +material aid, they gave him all their sympathy, which kept the fire of +his resolution burning at white heat. + +There is some subtle communication between the mind and the spiritual +forces of achievement which renders it impossible for one to think for +any great length of time on a tangled problem, without a method for its +untanglement being suggested. So, one evening, while driving the cows +home to be milked, the thought flashed across the brain of the would-be +student: "If I can't have anything else for capital, why can't I have a +cow? I could do something with it, I am sure, and to college I MUST go, +come what will." Courage is more than half the battle. Decision and +Energy are its captains, and, when these three are united, victory is +sure. The problem of going to college was already more than half solved. + +Our youthful farmer did not let his thought grow cold. Hurrying at once +to his father, he said, "If you will give me a cow, I shall feel free, +with your permission, to go forth and see what I can do for myself in +the world." The father, agreeing to the proposition, which seemed to +him a practical one, replied heartily, "My son, you shall have the best +milch cow I own." + +Followed by the prayers and blessings of his parents, the youth started +from home, driving his cow before him, his destination being a certain +academy between seventy-five and one hundred miles distant. + +Very soon he experienced the truth of the old adage that "Heaven helps +those who help themselves." At the end of his first day's journey, when +he sought a night's lodging for himself and accommodation for his cow +in return for her milk, he met with unexpected kindness. The good +people to whom he applied not only refused to take anything from him, +but gave him bread to eat with his milk, and his cow a comfortable barn +to lie in, with all the hay she could eat. + +During the entire length of his journey, he met with equal kindness and +consideration at the hands of all those with whom he came in contact; +and, when he reached the academy, the principal and his wife were so +pleased with his frank, modest, yet self-confident bearing, that they +at once adopted himself and his cow into the family. He worked for his +board, and the cow ungrudgingly gave her milk for the general good. + +In due time the youth was graduated with honors from the academy. He +was then ready to enter college, but had no money. The kind-hearted +principal of the academy and his wife again came to his aid and helped +him out of the difficulty by purchasing his cow. The money thus +obtained enabled him to take the next step forward. He bade his good +friends farewell, and the same year entered college. For four years he +worked steadily with hand and brain. In spite of the hard work they +were happy years, and at their close the persevering student had won, +in addition to his classical degree, many new friends and well-wishers. +His next step was to take a theological course in another institution. +When he had finished the course, he was called to be principal of the +academy to which honest ambition first led him with his cow. + +Years afterward a learned professor of Hebrew, and the author of a +scholarly "Commentary," cheered and encouraged many a struggling youth +by relating the story of his own experiences from the time when he, a +simple rustic, had started for college with naught but a cow as capital. + +This story was first related to the writer by the late Frances E. +Willard, who vouched for its truth. + + + + +THE BOY WHO SAID "I MUST" + + +Farther back than the memory of the grandfathers and grandmothers of +some of my young readers can go, there lived in a historic town in +Massachusetts a brave little lad who loved books and study more than +toys or games, or play of any kind. The dearest wish of his heart was +to be able to go to school every day, like more fortunate boys and +girls, so that, when he should grow up to be a man, he might be well +educated and fitted to do some grand work in the world. But his help +was needed at home, and, young as he was, he began then to learn the +lessons of unselfishness and duty. It was hard, wasn't it, for a little +fellow only eight years old to have to leave off going to school and +settle down to work on a farm? Many young folks at his age think they +are very badly treated if they are not permitted to have some toy or +story book, or other thing on which they have set their hearts; and +older boys and girls, too, are apt to pout and frown if their whims are +not gratified. But Theodore's parents were very poor, and could not +even indulge his longing to go to school. + +Did he give up his dreams of being a great man? Not a bit of it. He did +not even cry or utter a complaint, but manfully resolved that he would +do everything he could "to help father," and then, "when winter comes," +he thought, "I shall be able to go to school again." Bravely the little +fellow toiled through the beautiful springtide, though his wistful +glances were often turned in the direction of the schoolhouse. But he +resolutely bent to his work and renewed his resolve that he would be +educated. As spring deepened into summer, the work on the farm grew +harder and harder, but Theodore rejoiced that the flight of each season +brought winter nearer. + +At length autumn had vanished; the fruits of the spring and summer's +toil had been gathered; the boy was free to go to his beloved studies +again. And oh, how he reveled in the few books at his command in the +village school! How eagerly he trudged across the fields, morning after +morning, to the schoolhouse, where he always held first place in his +class! Blustering winds and fierce snowstorms had no terrors for the +ardent student. His only sorrow was that winter was all too short, and +the days freighted with the happiness of regular study slipped all too +quickly by. But the kind-hearted schoolmaster lent him books, so that, +when spring came round again, and the boy had to go back to work, he +could pore over them in his odd moments of relaxation. As he patiently +plodded along, guiding the plow over the rough earth, he recited the +lessons he had learned during the brief winter season, and after +dinner, while the others rested awhile from their labors, Theodore +eagerly turned the pages of one of his borrowed books, from which he +drank in deep draughts of delight and knowledge. Early in the summer +mornings, before the regular work began, and late in the evening, when +the day's tasks had all been done, he read and re-read his treasured +volumes until he knew them from cover to cover. + +Then he was confronted with a difficulty. He had begun to study Latin, +but found it impossible to get along without a dictionary. "What shall +I do?" he thought; "there is no one from whom I can borrow a Latin +dictionary, and I cannot ask father to buy me one, because he cannot +afford it. But I MUST have it." That "must" settled the question. Three +quarters of a century ago, book stores were few and books very costly. +Boys and girls who have free access to libraries and reading rooms, and +can buy the best works of great authors, sometimes for a few cents, can +hardly imagine the difficulties which beset the little farmer boy in +trying to get the book he wanted. + +Did he get the dictionary? Oh, yes. You remember he had said, "I must." +After thinking and thinking how he could get the money to buy it, a +bright idea flashed across his mind. The bushes in the fields about the +farm seemed waiting for some one to pick the ripe whortle-berries. +"Why," thought he, "can't I gather and sell enough to buy my +dictionary?" The next morning, before any one else in the farmhouse was +astir, Theodore was moving rapidly through the bushes, picking, +picking, picking, with unwearied fingers, the shining berries, every +one of which was of greater value in his eyes than a penny would be to +some of you. + +At last, after picking and selling several bushels of ripe berries, he +had enough money to buy the coveted dictionary. Oh, what a joy it was +to possess a book that had been purchased with his own money! How it +thrilled the boy and quickened his ambition to renewed efforts! "Well +done, my boy! But, Theodore, I cannot afford to keep you there." + +"Well, father," replied the youth, "but I am not going to study there; +I shall study at home at odd times, and thus prepare myself for a final +examination, which will give me a diploma." + +Theodore had just returned from Boston, and was telling his delighted +father how he had spent the holiday which he had asked for in the +morning. Starting out early from the farm, so as to reach Boston before +the intense heat of the August day had set in, he cheerfully tramped +the ten miles that lay between his home in Lexington and Harvard +College, where he presented himself as a candidate for admission; and +when the examinations were over, Theodore had the joy of hearing his +name announced in the list of successful students. The youth had +reached the goal which the boy of eight had dimly seen. And now, if you +would learn how he worked and taught in a country school in order to +earn the money to spend two years in college, and how the young man +became one of the most eminent preachers in America, you must read a +complete biography of Theodore Parker, the hero of this little story. + + + + +THE HIDDEN TREASURE + + +Long, long ago, in the shadowy past, Ali Hafed dwelt on the shores of +the River Indus, in the ancient land of the Hindus. His beautiful +cottage, set in the midst of fruit and flower gardens, looked from the +mountain side on which it stood over the broad expanse of the noble +river. Rich meadows, waving fields of grain, and the herds and flocks +contentedly grazing on the pasture lands, testified to the thrift and +prosperity of Ali Hafed. The love of a beautiful wife and a large +family of light-hearted boys and girls made his home an earthly +paradise. Healthy, wealthy, contented, rich in love and friendship, his +cup of happiness seemed full to overflowing. + +Happy and contented, as we have seen, was the good Ali Hafed, when one +evening a learned priest of Buddha, journeying along the banks of the +Indus, stopped for rest and refreshment at his home, where all +wayfarers were hospitably welcomed and treated as honored guests. + +After the evening meal, the farmer and his family, with the priest in +their midst, gathered around the fireside, the chilly mountain air of +the late autumn making a fire desirable. The disciple of Buddha +entertained his kind hosts with various legends and myths, and last of +all with the story of the creation. + +He told his wondering listeners how in the beginning the solid earth on +which they lived was not solid at all, but a mere bank of fog. "The +Great Spirit," said he, "thrust his finger into the bank of fog and +began slowly describing a circle in its midst, increasing the speed +gradually until the fog went whirling round his finger so rapidly that +it was transformed into a glowing ball of fire. Then the Creative +Spirit hurled the fiery ball from his hand, and it shot through the +universe, burning its way through other banks of fog and condensing +them into rain, which fell in great floods, cooling the surface of the +immense ball. Flames then bursting from the interior through the cooled +outer crust, threw up the hills and mountain ranges, and made the +beautiful fertile valleys. In the flood of rain that followed this +fiery upheaval, the substance that cooled very quickly formed granite, +that which cooled less rapidly became copper, the next in degree cooled +down into silver, and the last became gold. But the most beautiful +substance of all, the diamond, was formed by the first beams of +sunlight condensed on the earth's surface. + +"A drop of sunlight the size of my thumb," said the priest, holding up +his hand, "is worth more than mines of gold. With one such drop," he +continued, turning to Ali Hafed, "you could buy many farms like yours; +with a handful you could buy a province, and with a mine of diamonds +you could purchase a whole kingdom." + +The company parted for the night, and Ali Hafed went to bed, but not to +sleep. All night long he tossed restlessly from side to side, thinking, +planning, scheming how he could secure some diamonds. The demon of +discontent had entered his soul, and the blessings and advantages which +he possessed in such abundance seemed as by some malicious magic to +have utterly vanished. Although his wife and children loved him as +before; although his farm, his orchards, his flocks, and herds were as +real and prosperous as they had ever been, yet the last words of the +priest, which kept ringing in his ears, turned his content into vague +longings and blinded him to all that had hitherto made him happy. + +Before dawn next morning the farmer, full of his purpose, was astir. +Rousing the priest, he eagerly inquired if he could direct him to a +mine of diamonds. + +"A mine of diamonds!" echoed the astonished priest. "What do you, who +already have so much to be grateful for, want with diamonds?" + +"I wish to be rich and place my children on thrones." + +"All you have to do, then," said the Buddhist, "is to go and search +until you find them." + +"But where shall I go?" questioned the infatuated man. + +"Go anywhere," was the vague reply; "north, south, east, or +west,--anywhere." + +"But how shall I know the place?" asked the farmer. + +"When you find a river running over white sands between high mountain +ranges, in these white sands you will find diamonds. There are many +such rivers and many mines of diamonds waiting to be discovered. All +you have to do is to start out and go somewhere--" and he waved his +hand--"away, away!" + +Ali Hafed's mind was full made up. "I will no longer," he thought, +"remain on a wretched farm, toiling day in and day out for a mere +subsistence, when acres of diamonds--untold wealth--may be had by him +who is bold enough to seek them." + +He sold his farm for less than half its value. Then, after putting his +young family under the care of a neighbor, he set out on his quest. + +With high hopes and the coveted diamond mines beckoning in the far +distance, Ali Hafed began his wanderings. During the first few weeks +his spirits did not flag, nor did his feet grow weary. On, and on, he +tramped until he came to the Mountains of the Moon, beyond the bounds +of Arabia. Weeks stretched into months, and the wanderer often looked +regretfully in the direction of his once happy home. Still no gleam of +waters glinting over white sands greeted his eyes. But on he went, into +Egypt, through Palestine, and other eastern lands, always looking for +the treasure he still hoped to find. At last, after years of fruitless +search, during which he had wandered north and south, east and west, +hope left him. All his money was spent. He was starving and almost +naked, and the diamonds--which had lured him away from all that made +life dear--where were they? Poor Ali Hafed never knew. He died by the +wayside, never dreaming that the wealth for which he had sacrificed +happiness and life might have been his had he remained at home. + +"Here is a diamond! here is a diamond! Has Ali Hafed returned?" shouted +an excited voice. + +The speaker, no other than our old acquaintance, the Buddhist priest, +was standing in the same room where years before he had told poor Ali +Hafed how the world was made, and where diamonds were to be found. + +"No, Ali Hafed has not returned," quietly answered his successor. +"Neither is that which you hold in your hand a diamond; it is but a +pretty black pebble I picked up in my garden." + +"I tell you," said the priest, excitedly, "this is a genuine diamond. I +know one when I see it. Tell me how and where you found it?" + +"One day," replied the farmer, slowly, "having led my camel into the +garden to drink, I noticed, as he put his nose into the water, a +sparkle of light coming from the white sand at the bottom of the clear +stream. Stooping down, I picked up the black pebble you now hold, +guided to it by that crystal eye in the center from which the light +flashes so brilliantly." + +"Why, thou simple one," cried the priest, "this is no common stone, but +a gem of the purest water. Come, show me where thou didst find it." + +Together they flew to the spot where the farmer had found the "pebble," +and, turning over the white sands with eager fingers, they found, to +their great delight, other stones even more valuable and beautiful than +the first. Then they extended their search, and, so the Oriental story +goes, "every shovelful of the old farm, as acre after acre was sifted +over, revealed gems with which to decorate the crowns of emperors and +moguls." + + + + +LOVE TAMED THE LION + + I would not enter on my list of friends, + (Though graced with polished manners and fine sense, + Yet wanting sensibility), the man + Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. + COWPER. + + +"Nero!" Crushed, baffled, blinded, and, like Samson, shorn of his +strength, prostrate in his cage lay the great tawny monarch of the +forest. Heedless of the curious crowds passing to and fro, he seemed +deaf as well as blind to everything going on around him. Perhaps he was +dreaming of the jungle. Perhaps he was longing to roam the wilds once +more in his native strength. Perhaps memories of a happy past even in +captivity stirred him. Perhaps--But what is this? What change has come +o'er the spirit of his dreams? No one has touched him. Apparently, +nothing has happened to arouse him. Only a woman's voice, soft, +caressing, full of love, has uttered the name, "Nero." But there was +magic in the sound. In an instant the huge animal was on his feet. +Quivering with emotion, he rushed to the side of the cage from whence +the voice proceeded, and threw himself against the bars with such +violence that he fell back half stunned. As he fell he uttered the +peculiar note of welcome with which, in happier days, he was wont to +greet his loved and long-lost mistress. + +Touched with the devotion of her dumb friend, Rosa Bonheur--for it was +she who had spoken--released from bondage the faithful animal whom, +years before, she had bought from a keeper who declared him untamable. + +"In order to secure the affections of wild animals," said the +great-hearted painter, "you must love them," and by love she had +subdued the ferocious beast whom even the lion-tamers had given up as +hopeless. + +When about to travel for two years, it being impossible to take her pet +with her, Mademoiselle Bonheur sold him to the Jardin des Plantes in +Paris, where she found him on her return, totally blind, owing, it is +said, to the ill treatment of the attendant. + +Grieved beyond measure at the condition of poor Nero, she had him +removed to her chateau, where everything was done for his comfort that +love could suggest. Often in her leisure moments, when she had laid +aside her painting garb, the artist would have him taken to her studio, +where she would play with and fondle the enormous creature as if he +were a kitten. And there, at last, he died happily, his great paws +clinging fondly to the mistress who loved him so well, his sightless +eyes turned upon her to the end, as if beseeching that she would not +again leave him. + + + + +"THERE IS ROOM ENOUGH AT THE TOP" + + +These words ere uttered many years ago by a youth who had no other +means by which to reach the top than work and will. They have since +become the watchword of every poor boy whose ambition is backed by +energy and a determination to make the most possible of himself. + +The occasion on which Daniel Webster first said "There is room enough +at the top," marked the turning point in his life. Had he not been +animated at that time by an ambition to make the most of his talents, +he might have remained forever in obscurity. + +His father and other friends had secured for him the position of Clerk +of the Court of Common Pleas, of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire. +Daniel was studying law in the office of Mr. Christopher Gore, a +distinguished Boston lawyer, and was about ready for his admission to +the bar. The position offered him was worth fifteen hundred dollars a +year. This seemed a fortune to the struggling student. He lay awake the +whole night following the day on which he had heard the good news, +planning what he would do for his father and mother, his brother +Ezekiel, and his sisters. Next morning he hurried to the office to tell +Mr. Gore of his good fortune. + +"Well, my young friend," said the lawyer, when Daniel had told his +story, "the gentlemen have been very kind to you; I am glad of it. You +must thank them for it. You will write immediately, of course." + +Webster explained that, since he must go to New Hampshire immediately, +it would hardly be worth while to write. He could thank his good +friends in person. + +"Why," said Mr. Gore in great astonishment, "you don't mean to accept +it, surely!" + +The youth's high spirits were damped at once by his senior's manner. +"The bare idea of not accepting it," he says, "so astounded me that I +should have been glad to have found any hole to have hid myself in." + +"Well," said Mr. Gore, seeing the disappointment his words had caused, +"you must decide for yourself; but come, sit down and let us talk it +over. The office is worth fifteen hundred a year, you say. Well, it +never will be any more. Ten to one, if they find out it is so much, the +fees will be reduced. You are appointed now by friends; others may fill +their places who are of different opinions, and who have friends of +their own to provide for. You will lose your place; or, supposing you +to retain it, what are you but a clerk for life? And your prospects as +a lawyer are good enough to encourage you to go on. Go on, and finish +your studies; you are poor enough, but there are greater evils than +poverty; live on no man's favor; what bread you do eat, let it be the +bread of independence; pursue your profession, make yourself useful to +your friends and a little formidable to your enemies, and you have +nothing to fear." + +How fortunate Webster as to have at this point in his career so wise +and far-seeing a friend! His father, who had made many sacrifices to +educate his boys, saw in the proffered clerkship a great opening for +his favorite, Daniel. He never dreamed of the future that was to make +him one of America's greatest orators and statesmen. At first he could +not believe that the position which he had worked so hard to obtain was +to be rejected. + +"Daniel, Daniel," he said sorrowfully, "don't you mean to take that +office?" + +"No, indeed, father," was the reply, "I hope I can do much better than +that. I mean to use my tongue in the courts, not my pen; to be an +actor, not a register of other men's acts. I hope yet, sir, to astonish +your honor in your own court by my professional attainments." + +Judge Webster made no attempt to conceal his disappointment. He even +tried to discourage his son by reminding him that there were already +more lawyers than the country needed. + +It was in answer to this objection that Daniel used the famous and +oft-quoted words,--"There is room enough at the top." + +"Well, my son," said the fond but doubting father, "your mother has +always said you would come to something or nothing. She was not sure +which; I think you are now about settling that doubt for her." + +It was very painful to Daniel to disappoint his father, but his purpose +was fixed, and nothing now could change it. He knew he had turned his +face in the right direction, and though when he commenced to practice +law he earned only about five or six hundred dollars a year, he never +regretted the decision he had made. He aimed high, and he had his +reward. + +It is true now and forever, as Lowell says, that-- + + "Not failure, but low aim, is crime." + + + + +THE UPLIFT OF A SLAVE BOY'S IDEAL + +Invincible determination, and a right nature, are the levers that move +the world.--PORTER. + + +Born a slave, with the feelings and possibilities of a man, but with no +rights above the beast of the field, Fred Douglass gave the world one +of the most notable examples of man's power over circumstances. + +He had no knowledge of his father, whom he had never seen. He had only +a dim recollection of his mother, from whom he had been separated at +birth. The poor slave mother used to walk twelve miles when her day's +work was done, in order to get an occasional glimpse of her child. Then +she had to walk back to the plantation on which she labored, so as to +be in time to begin to work at dawn next morning. + +Under the brutal discipline of the "Aunt Katy" who had charge of the +slaves who were still too young to labor in the fields, he early began +to realize the hardships of his lot, and to rebel against the state of +bondage into which he had been born. + +Often hungry, and clothed in hottest summer and coldest winter alike, +in a coarse tow linen shirt, scarcely reaching to the knees, without a +bed to lie on or a blanket to cover him, his only protection, no matter +how cold the night, was an old corn bag, into which he thrust himself, +leaving his feet exposed at one end, and his head at the other. + +When about seven years old, he was transferred to new owners in +Baltimore, where his kind-hearted mistress, who did not know that in +doing so she was breaking the law, taught him the alphabet. He thus got +possession of the key which was to unlock his bonds, and, young as he +was, he knew it. It did not matter that his master, when he learned +what had been done, forbade his wife to give the boy further +instructions. He had already tasted of the fruit of the tree of +knowledge. The prohibition was useless. Neither threats nor stripes nor +chains could hold the awakened soul in bondage. + +With infinite pains and patience, and by stealth, he enlarged upon his +knowledge of the alphabet. An old copy of "Webster's Spelling Book," +cast aside by his young master, as his greatest treasure. With the aid +of a few good-natured white boys, who sometimes played with him in the +streets, he quickly mastered its contents. Then he cast about for +further means to satisfy his mental craving. How difficult it was for +the poor, despised slave to do this, we learn from his own pathetic +words. "I have gathered," he says, "scattered pages of the Bible from +the filthy street gutters, and washed and dried them, that, in moments +of leisure, I might get a word or two of wisdom from them." + +Think of that, boys and girls of the twentieth century, with your day +schools and evening schools, libraries, colleges, and +universities,--picking reading material from the gutter and mastering +it by stealth! Yet this boy grew up to be the friend and co-worker of +Garrison and Phillips, the eloquent spokesman of his race, the honored +guest of distinguished peers and commoners of England, one of the +noblest examples of a self-made man that the world has ever seen. + +Under equal hardships he learned to write. The boy's wits, sharpened +instead of blunted by repression, saw opportunities where more favored +children could see none. He gave himself his first writing lesson in +his master's shipyard, by copying from the various pieces of timber the +letters with which they had been marked by the carpenters, to show the +different parts of the ship for which they were intended. He copied +from posters on fences, from old copy books, from anything and +everything he could get hold of. He practiced his new art on pavements +and rails, and entered into contests in letter making with white boys, +in order to add to his knowledge. "With playmates for my teachers," he +says, "fences and pavements for my copy books, and chalk for my pen and +ink, I learned to write." + +While being "broken in" to field labor under the lash of the overseer, +chained and imprisoned for the crime of attempting to escape from +slavery, the spirit of the youth never quailed. He believed in himself, +in his God-given powers, and he was determined to use them in freeing +himself and his race. + +How well he succeeded in the stupendous task to which he set himself +while yet groping in the black night of bondage, with no human power +outside of his own indomitable will to help him, his life work attests +in language more enduring than "storied urn" or written history. A roll +call of the world's great moral heroes would be incomplete without the +name of the slave-born Douglass, who came on the stage of life to play +the leading role of the Moses of his race in one of the saddest and, at +the same time, most glorious eras of American history. + +He was born in Talbot County, Maryland. The exact date of his birth is +not known; but he himself thought it was in February, 1817. He died in +Washington, D.C., February 20, 1895. + + + + +"TO THE FIRST ROBIN" + + +The air was keen and biting, and traces of snow still lingered on the +ground and sparkled on the tree tops in the morning sun. But the happy, +rosy-cheeked children, lately freed from the restraints of city life, +who played in the old garden in Concord, Massachusetts, that bright +spring morning many years ago, heeded not the biting wind or the +lingering snow. As they raced up and down the paths, in and out among +the trees, their cheeks took on a deeper glow, their eyes a brighter +sparkle, while their shouts of merry laughter made the morning glad. + +But stay, what is this? What has happened to check the laughter on +their lips, and dim their bright eyes with tears? The little group, +headed by Louisa, has suddenly come to a pause under a tree, where a +wee robin, half dead with hunger and cold, has fallen from its perch. + +"Poor, poor birdie!" exclaimed a chorus of pitying voices. "It is dead, +poor little thing," said Anna. "No," said Louisa, the leader of the +children in fun and works of mercy alike; "it is warm, and I can feel +its heart beat." As she spoke, she gathered the tiny bundle of feathers +to her bosom, and, heading the little procession, turned toward the +house. + +A warm nest was made for the foundling, and, with motherly care, the +little Louisa May Alcott, then only eight years old, fed and nursed +back to life the half-famished bird. + +Before the feathered claimant on her mercy flew away to freedom, the +future authoress, the "children's friend," who loved and pitied all +helpless things, wrote her first poem, and called it "To the First +Robin." It contained only these two stanzas:-- + + "Welcome, welcome, little stranger, + Fear no harm, and fear no danger, + We are glad to see you here, + For you sing, 'Sweet spring is near.' + + "Now the white snow melts away, + Now the flowers blossom gay, + Come, dear bird, and build your nest, + For we love our robin best." + + + + +THE "WIZARD" AS AN EDITOR + + +Although he had only a few months' regular schooling, at ten Thomas +Alva Edison had read and thought more than many youths of twenty. +Gibbon's "Rome," Hume's "England," Sears's "History of the World," +besides several books on chemistry,--a subject in which he was even +then deeply interested,--were familiar friends. Yet he was not, by any +means, a serious bookworm. On the contrary, he was as full of fun and +mischief as any healthy boy of his age. + +The little fellow's sunny face and pleasing manners made him a general +favorite, and when circumstances forced him from the parent nest into +the big bustling world at the age of twelve, he became the most popular +train boy on the Grand Trunk Railroad in central Michigan, while his +keen powers of observation and practical turn of mind made him the most +successful. His ambition soared far beyond the selling of papers, song +books, apples, and peanuts, and his business ability was such that he +soon had three or four boys selling his wares on commission. + +His interest in chemistry, however, had not abated, and his busy brain +now urged him to try new fields. He exchanged some of his papers for +retorts and other simple apparatus, bought a copy of Fiesenius's +"Qualitative Analysis," and secured the use of an old baggage car as a +laboratory. Here, surrounded by chemicals and experimenting apparatus, +he spent some of the happiest hours of his life. + +But even this was not a sufficient outlet for the energies of the +budding inventor. Selling papers had naturally aroused his interest in +printing and editing, and with Edison interest always manifested itself +in action. In buying papers, he had, as usual, made use of his eyes, +and, with the little knowledge of printing picked up in this way, he +determined to start a printing press and edit a paper of his own. + +He first purchased a quantity of old type from the Detroit Free Press. +Then he put a printing press in the baggage car, which did duty as +printing and editorial office as well as laboratory, and began his +editorial labors. When the first copy of the Grand Trunk Herald was put +on sale, it would be hard to find a happier boy than its owner was. + +No matter that the youthful editor's "Associated Press" consisted of +baggage men and brakemen, or that the literary matter contributed to +the Grand Trunk Herald was chiefly railway gossip, with some general +information of interest to passengers, the little three-cent sheet +became very popular. Even the great London Times deigned to notice it, +as the only journal in the world printed on a railway train. + +But, successful as he was in his editorial venture, Edison's best love +was given to chemistry and electricity, which latter subject he had +begun to study with his usual ardor. And well it was for the world when +the youth of sixteen gave up train and newspaper work, that no poverty, +no difficulties, no ridicule, no "hard luck," none of the trials and +obstacles he had to encounter in after life, had power to chill or +discourage the genius of the master inventor of the nineteenth century. + + + + +HOW GOOD FORTUNE CAME TO PIERRE + + +Many years ago, in a shabby room in one of the poorest streets of +London, a little golden-haired boy sat singing, in his sweet, childish +voice, by the bedside of his sick mother. Though faint from hunger and +oppressed with loneliness, he manfully forced back the tears that kept +welling up into his blue eyes, and, for his mother's sake, tried to +look bright and cheerful. But it was hard to be brave and strong while +his dear mother was suffering for lack of the delicacies which he +longed to provide for her, but could not. He had not tasted food all +day himself. How he could drive away the gaunt, hungry wolf, Famine, +that had come to take up its abode with them, was the thought that +haunted him as he tried to sing a little song he himself had composed. +He left his place by the invalid, who, lulled by his singing, had +fallen into a light sleep. As he looked listlessly out of the window, +he noticed a man putting up a large poster, which bore, in staring +yellow letters, the announcement that Madame M----, one of the greatest +singers that ever lived, was to sing in public that night. + +"Oh, if I could only go!" thought little Pierre, his love of music for +the moment making him forgetful of aught else. Suddenly his face +brightened, and the light of a great resolve shone in his eyes. "I will +try it," he said to himself; and, running lightly to a little stand +that stood at the opposite end of the room, with trembling hands he +took from a tiny box a roll of paper. With a wistful, loving glance at +the sleeper, he stole from the room and hurried out into the street. + +"Who did you say is waiting for me?" asked Madame M---- of her servant; +"I am already worn out with company." + +"It is only a very pretty little boy with yellow curls, who said that +if he can just see you, he is sure you will not be sorry, and he will +not keep you a moment." + +"Oh, well, let him come," said the great singer, with a kindly smile, +"I can never refuse children." + +Timidly the child entered the luxurious apartment, and, bowing before +the beautiful, stately woman, he began rapidly, lest his courage should +fail him: "I came to see you because my mother is very sick, and we are +too poor to get food and medicine. I thought, perhaps, that if you +would sing my little song at some of your grand concerts, maybe some +publisher would buy it for a small sum, and so I could get food and +medicine for my mother." + +Taking the little roll of paper which the boy held in his hand, the +warm-hearted singer lightly hummed the air. Then, turning toward him, +she asked, in amazement: "Did you compose it? you, a child! And the +words, too?" Without waiting for a reply, she added quickly, "Would you +like to come to my concert this evening?" The boy's face became radiant +with delight at the thought of hearing the famous songstress, but a +vision of his sick mother, lying alone in the poor, cheerless room, +flitted across his mind, and he answered, with a choking in his +throat:-- + +"Oh, yes; I should so love to go, but I couldn't leave my mother." + +"I will send somebody to take care of your mother for the evening, and +here is a crown with which you may go and get food and medicine. Here +is also one of my tickets. Come to-night; that will admit you to a seat +near me." + +Overcome with joy, the child could scarcely express his gratitude to +the gracious being who seemed to him like an angel from heaven. As he +went out again into the crowded street, he seemed to tread on air. He +bought some fruit and other little delicacies to tempt his mother's +appetite, and while spreading out the feast of good things before her +astonished gaze, with tears in his eyes, he told her of the kindness of +the beautiful lady. + +An hour later, tingling with expectation, Pierre set out for the +concert. How like fairyland it all seemed! The color, the dazzling +lights, the flashing gems and glistening silks of the richly dressed +ladies bewildered him. Ah! could it be possible that the great artist +who had been so kind to him would sing his little song before this +brilliant audience? At length she came on the stage, bowing right and +left in answer to the enthusiastic welcome which greeted her appearance. + +A pause of expectancy followed. The boy held his breath and gazed +spellbound at the radiant vision on whom all eyes were riveted. The +orchestra struck the first notes of a plaintive melody, and the +glorious voice of the great singer filled the vast hall, as the words +of the sad little song of the child composer floated on the air. It was +so simple, so touching, so full of exquisite pathos, that many were in +tears before it was finished. + +And little Pierre? There he sat, scarcely daring to move or breathe, +fearing that the flowers, the lights, the music, should vanish, and he +should wake up to find it all a dream. He was aroused from his trance +by the tremendous burst of applause that rang through the house as the +last note trembled away into silence. He started up. It was no dream. +The greatest singer in Europe had sung his little song before a +fashionable London audience. Almost dazed with happiness, he never knew +how he reached his poor home; and when he related the incidents of the +evening, his mother's delight nearly equaled his own. Nor was this the +end. + +Next day they were startled by a visit from Madame M----. After gently +greeting the sick woman, while her hand played with Pierre's golden +curls, she said: "Your little boy, Madame, has brought you a fortune. I +was offered this morning, by the best publisher in London, 300 pounds +for his little song; and after he has realized a certain amount from +the sale, little Pierre here is to share the profits. Madame, thank God +that your son has a gift from heaven." The grateful tears of the +invalid and her visitor mingled, while the child knelt by his mother's +bedside and prayed God to bless the kind lady who, in their time of +sorrow and great need, had been to them as a savior. + +The boy never forgot his noble benefactress, and years afterward, when +the great singer lay dying, the beloved friend who smoothed her pillow +and cheered and brightened her last moments--the rich, popular, and +talented composer--was no other than our little Pierre. + + + + +"IF I REST, I RUST" + + "The heights by great men reached and kept + Were not attained by sudden flight; + But they, while their companions slept, + Were toiling upward in the night." + + +The significant inscription found on an old key,--"If I rest, I +rust,"--would be an excellent motto for those who are afflicted with +the slightest taint of idleness. Even the industrious might adopt it +with advantage to serve as a reminder that, if one allows his faculties +to rest, like the iron in the unused key, they will soon show signs of +rust, and, ultimately, cannot do the work required of them. + +Those who would attain + + "The heights by great men reached and kept" + +must keep their faculties burnished by constant use, so that they will +unlock the doors of knowledge, the gates that guard the entrances to +the professions, to science, art, literature, agriculture,--every +department of human endeavor. + +Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasury of achievement. +If Hugh Miller, after toiling all day in a quarry, had devoted his +evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have become a famous +geologist. The celebrated mathematician, Edmund Stone, would never have +published a mathematical dictionary, never have found the key to the +science of mathematics, if he had given his spare moments, snatched +from the duties of a gardener, to idleness. Had the little Scotch lad, +Ferguson, allowed the busy brain to go to sleep while he tended sheep +on the hillside, instead of calculating the position of the stars by +the help of a string of beads, he would never have become a famous +astronomer. + +"Labor vanquishes all,"--not in constant, spasmodic, or ill-directed +labor, but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed +purpose. Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so +is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success. + + "Seize, then, the minutes as they pass; + The woof of life is thought! + Warm up the colors; let them glow + With fire of fancy fraught." + + + + +A BOY WHO KNEW NOT FEAR + + +Richard Wagner, the great composer, weaves into one of his musical +dramas a beautiful story about a youth named Siegfried, who did not +know what fear was. + +The story is a sort of fairy tale or myth,--something which has a deep +meaning hidden in it, but which is not literally true. + +We smile at the idea of a youth who never knew fear, who even as a +little child had never been frightened by the imaginary terrors of +night, the darkness of the forest, or the cries of the wild animals +which inhabited it. + +Yet it is actually true that there was born at Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, +England, on September 29, 1758, a boy who never knew what fear was. +This boy's name was Horatio Nelson,--a name which his fearlessness, +ambition, and patriotism made immortal. + +Courage even to daring distinguished young Nelson from his boy +companions. Many stories illustrating this quality are told of him. + +On one occasion, when the future hero of England was but a mere child, +while staying at his grandmother's, he wandered away from the house in +search of birds' nests. When dinner time came and went and the boy did +not return, his family became alarmed. They feared that he had been +kidnapped by gypsies, or that some other mishap had befallen him. A +thorough search was made for him in every direction. Just as the +searchers were about to give up their quest, the truant was discovered +sitting quietly by the side of a brook which he was unable to cross. + +"I wonder, child," said his grandmother, "that hunger and fear did not +drive you home." + +"Fear! grand-mamma," exclaimed the boy; "I never saw fear. What is it?" + +Horatio was a born leader, who never even in childhood shrank from a +hazardous undertaking. This story of his school days shows how the +spirit of leadership marked him before he had entered his teens. + +In the garden attached to the boarding school at North Walsham, which +he and his elder brother, William, attended, there grew a remarkably +fine pear tree. The sight of this tree, loaded with fruit was, +naturally, a very tempting one to the boys. The boldest among the older +ones, however, dared not risk the consequences of helping themselves to +the pears, which they knew were highly prized by the master of the +school. + +Horatio, who thought neither of the sin of stealing the schoolmaster's +property, nor of the risk involved in the attempt, volunteered to +secure the coveted pears. + +He was let down in sheets from the bedroom window by his schoolmates, +and, after gathering as much of the fruit as he could carry, returned +with considerable difficulty. He then turned the pears over to the +boys, not keeping one for himself. + +"I only took them," he explained, "because the rest of you were afraid +to venture." + +The sense of honor of the future "Hero of the Nile" and of Trafalgar +was as keen in boyhood as in later life. + +One year, at the close of the Christmas holidays, he and his brother +William set out on horseback to return to school. There had been a +heavy fall of snow which made traveling very disagreeable, and William +persuaded Horatio to go back home with him, saying that it was not safe +to go on. + +"If that be the case," said Rev. Mr. Nelson, the father of the boys, +when the matter was explained to him, "you certainly shall not go; but +make another attempt, and I will leave it to your honor. If the road is +dangerous, you may return; but remember, boys, I leave it to your +honor." + +The snow was really deep enough to be made an excuse for not going on, +and William was for returning home a second time. Horatio, however, +would not be persuaded again. "We must go on," he said; "remember, +brother, it was left to our honor." + +When only twelve years old, young Nelson's ambition urged him to try +his fortune at sea. His uncle, Captain Maurice Suckling, commanded the +Raisonnable, a ship of sixty-four guns, and the boy thought it would be +good fortune, indeed, if he could get an opportunity to serve under +him. "Do, William," he said to his brother, "write to my father, and +tell him that I should like to go to sea with Uncle Maurice." + +On hearing of his son's wishes, Mr. Nelson at once wrote to Captain +Suckling. The latter wrote back without delay: "What has poor Horatio +done, who is so weak, that he, above all the rest, should be sent to +rough it out at sea? But let him come, and the first time we go into +action, a cannon ball may knock off his head and provide for him at +once." + +This was not very encouraging for a delicate boy of twelve. But Horatio +was not daunted. His father took him to London, and there put him into +the stage coach for Chatham, where the Raisonnable was lying at anchor. + +He arrived at Chatham during the temporary absence of his uncle, so +that there was no friendly voice to greet him when he went on board the +big ship. Homesick and heartsick, he passed some of the most miserable +days of his life on the Raisonnable. The officers treated the sailors +with a harshness bordering on cruelty. This treatment, of course, +increased the natural roughness of the sailors; and, altogether, the +conditions were such that Horatio's opinion of the Royal Navy was sadly +altered. + +But in spite of the separation from his brother William, who had been +his schoolmate and constant companion, and all his other loved ones, +the hardships he had to endure as a sailor boy among rough officers and +rougher men, and his physical weakness, his courage did not fail him. +He stuck bravely to his determination to be a sailor. + +Later, the lad went on a voyage to the West Indies, in a merchant ship +commanded by Mr. John Rathbone. During this voyage, his anxiety to rise +in his profession and his keen powers of observation, which were +constantly exercised, combined to make him a practical sailor. + +After his return from the West Indies, his love of adventure was +excited by the news that two ships--the Racehorse and the Carcass--were +being fitted out for a voyage of discovery to the North Pole. Through +the influence of Captain Suckling, he secured an appointment as +coxswain, under Captain Lutwidge, who was second in command of the +expedition. + +All went well with the Racehorse and the Carcass until they neared the +Polar regions. Then they were becalmed, surrounded with ice, and wedged +in so that they could not move. + +Young as Nelson was, he was put in command of one of the boats sent out +to try to find a passage to the open water. While engaged in this work +he was instrumental in saving the crew of another of the boats which +had been attacked by walruses. + +His most notable adventure during this Polar cruise, however, was a +fight with a bear. + +One night he stole away from his ship with a companion in pursuit of a +bear. A fog which had been rising when they left the Carcass soon +enveloped them. Between three and four o'clock in the morning, when the +weather began to clear, they were sighted by Captain Lutwidge and his +officers, at some distance from the ship, in conflict with a huge bear. +The boys, who had been missed soon after they set out on their +adventure, were at once signaled to return. Nelson's companion urged +him to obey the signal, and, though their ammunition had given out, he +longed to continue the fight. + +"Never mind," he cried excitedly; "do but let me get a blow at this +fellow with the butt end of my musket, and we shall have him." + +Captain Lutwidge, seeing the boy's danger,--he being separated from the +bear only by a narrow chasm in the ice,--fired a gun. This frightened +the bear away. Nelson then returned to face the consequences of his +disobedience. + +He was severely reprimanded by his captain for "conduct so unworthy of +the office he filled." When asked what motive he had in hunting a bear, +he replied, still trembling from the excitement of the encounter, "Sir, +I wished to kill the bear that I might carry the skin to my father." + +The expedition finally worked its way out of the ice and sailed for +home. + +Horatio's next voyage was to the East Indies, aboard the Seahorse, one +of the vessels of a squadron under the command of Sir Edward Hughes. +His attention to duty attracted the notice of his senior officer, on +whose recommendation he was rated as a midshipman. + +After eighteen months in the trying climate of India, the youth's +health gave way, and he was sent home in the Dolphin. His physical +weakness affected his spirits. Gloom fastened upon him, and for a time +he was very despondent about his future. + +"I felt impressed," he says, "with an idea that I should never rise in +my profession. My mind was staggered with a view of the difficulties I +had to surmount and the little interest I possessed. I could discover +no means of reaching the object of my ambition. After a long and gloomy +revery in which I almost wished myself overboard, a sudden flow of +patriotism was kindled within me and presented my king and my country +as my patrons. My mind exulted in the idea. 'Well, then,' I exclaimed, +'I will be a hero, and, confiding in Providence, I will brave every +danger!'" + +In that hour Nelson leaped from boyhood to manhood. Thenceforth the +purpose of his life never changed. From that time, as he often said +afterward, "a radiant orb was suspended in his mind's eye, which urged +him onward to renown." + +His health improved very much during the homeward voyage, and he was +soon able to resume duty again. + +At nineteen he was made second lieutenant of the Lowestoffe; and at +twenty he was commander of the Badger. Before he was twenty-one, owing +largely to his courage and presence of mind in face of every danger, +and his enthusiasm in his profession, "he had gained that mark," says +his biographer, Southey, "which brought all the honors of the service +within his reach." + +Pleasing in his address and conversation, always kind and thoughtful in +his treatment of the men and boys under him, Nelson was the best-loved +man in the British navy,--nay, in all England. + +When he was appointed to the command of the Boreas, a ship of +twenty-eight guns, then bound for the Leeward Islands, he had thirty +midshipmen under him. When any of them, at first, showed any timidity +about going up the masts, he would say, by way of encouragement, "I am +going a race to the masthead, and beg that I may meet you there." And +again he would say cheerfully, that "any person was to be pitied who +could fancy there was any danger, or even anything disagreeable, in the +attempt." + +"Your Excellency must excuse me for bringing one of my midshipmen with +me," he said to the governor of Barbados, who had invited him to dine. +"I make it a rule to introduce them to all the good company I can, as +they have few to look up to besides myself during the time they are at +sea." Was it any wonder that his "middies" almost worshiped him? + +This thoughtfulness in small matters is always characteristic of truly +great, large-souled men. Another distinguishing mark of Nelson's +greatness was that he ruled by love rather than fear. + +When, at the age of forty-seven, he fell mortally wounded at the battle +of Trafalgar, all England was plunged into grief. The crowning victory +of his life had been won, but his country was inconsolable for the loss +of the noblest of her naval heroes. + +"The greatest sea victory that the world had ever known was won," says +W. Clark Russell, "but at such a cost, that there was no man throughout +the British fleet--there was no man indeed in all England--but would +have welcomed defeat sooner than have paid the price of this wonderful +conquest." + +The last words of the hero who had won some of the greatest of +England's sea fights were, "Thank God, I have done my duty." + + + + +HOW STANLEY FOUND LIVINGSTONE + + +In the year 1866 David Livingstone, the great African explorer and +missionary, started on his last journey to Africa. Three years passed +away during which no word or sign from him had reached his friends. The +whole civilized world became alarmed for his safety. It was feared that +his interest in the savages in the interior of Africa had cost him his +life. + +Newspapers and clergymen in many lands were clamoring for a relief +expedition to be sent out in search of him. Royal societies, scientific +associations, and the British government were debating what steps +should be taken to find him. But they were very slow in coming to any +conclusion, and while they were weighing questions and discussing +measures, an energetic American settled the matter offhand. + +This was James Gordon Bennett, Jr., manager of the New York Herald and +son of James Gordon Bennett, its editor and proprietor. + +Mr. Bennett was in a position which brought him into contact with some +of the cleverest and most enterprising young men of his day. From all +those he knew he singled out Henry M. Stanley for the difficult and +perilous task of finding Livingstone. + +And who was this young man who was chosen to undertake a work which +required the highest qualities of manhood to carry it to success? + +Henry M. Stanley, whose baptismal name was John Rowlands, was born of +poor parents in Wales, in 1840. Being left an orphan at the age of +three, he was sent to the poorhouse in his native place. There he +remained for ten years, and then shipped as a cabin boy in a vessel +bound for America. Soon after his arrival in this country, he found +employment in New Orleans with a merchant named Stanley. His +intelligence, energy, and ambition won him so much favor with this +gentleman that he adopted him as his son and gave him his name. + +The elder Stanley died while Henry was still a youth. This threw him +again upon his own resources, as he inherited nothing from his adopted +father, who died without making a will. He next went to California to +seek his fortune. He was not successful, however, and at twenty he was +a soldier in the Civil War. When the war was over, he engaged himself +as a correspondent to the New York Herald. + +In this capacity he traveled extensively in the East, doing brilliant +work for his paper. When England went to war with King Theodore of +Abyssinia, he accompanied the English army to Abyssinia, and from +thence wrote vivid descriptive letters to the Herald. The child whose +early advantages were only such as a Welsh poorhouse afforded, was +already, through his own unaided efforts, a leader in his profession. +He was soon to become a leader in a larger sense. + +At the time Mr. Bennett conceived the idea of sending an expedition in +search of Livingstone, Stanley was in Spain. He had been sent there by +the Herald to report the civil war then raging in that country. He thus +describes the receipt of Mr. Bennett's message and the events +immediately following:-- + +"I am in Madrid, fresh from the carnage at Valencia. At 10 A.M. Jacopo, +at No.--Calle de la Cruz, hands me a telegram; on opening it I find it +reads, 'Come to Paris on important business.' The telegram is from +James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the young manager of the New York Herald. + +"Down come my pictures from the walls of my apartments on the second +floor; into my trunks go my books and souvenirs, my clothes are hastily +collected, some half washed, some from the clothesline half dry, and +after a couple of hours of hasty hard work my portmanteaus are strapped +up and labeled for 'Paris.'" + +It was late at night when Stanley arrived in Paris. "I went straight to +the 'Grand Hotel,'" he says, "and knocked at the door of Mr. Bennett's +room. + +"'Come in,' I heard a voice say. Entering I found Mr. Bennett in bed. + +"'Who are you?' he asked. + +"'My name is Stanley,' I answered. + +"'Ah, yes! sit down; I have important business on hand for you. + +"'Where do you think Livingstone is?' + +"'I really do not know, sir.' + +"'Do you think he is alive?' + +"'He may be, and he may not be,' I answered. + +"'Well, I think he is alive, and that he can be found, and I am going +to send you to find him.' + +"'What!' said I, 'do you really think I can find Dr. Livingstone? Do +you mean me to go to Central Africa?' + +"'Yes, I mean that you shall go and find him wherever you may hear that +he is.... Of course you will act according to your own plans and do +what you think best--BUT FIND LIVINGSTONE.'" + +The question of expense coming up, Mr. Bennett said: "Draw a thousand +pounds now; and when you have gone through that, draw another thousand; +and when that is spent, draw another thousand; and when you have +finished that, draw another thousand, and so on; but, FIND LIVINGSTONE." + +Stanley asked no questions, awaited no further instructions. The two +men parted with a hearty hand clasp. "Good night, and God be with you," +said Bennett. + +"Good night, sir," returned Stanley. "What it is in the power of human +nature to do I will do; and on such an errand as I go upon, God will be +with me." + +The young man immediately began the work of preparation for his great +undertaking. This in itself was a task requiring more than ordinary +judgment and foresight, but Stanley was equal to the occasion. + +On January 6, 1871, he reached Zanzibar, an important native seaport on +the east coast of Africa. Here the preparations for the journey were +completed. Soon, with a train composed of one hundred and ninety men, +twenty donkeys, and baggage amounting to about six tons, he started +from this point for the interior of the continent. + +Then began a journey the dangers and tediousness of which can hardly be +described. Stanley and his men were often obliged to wade through +swamps filled with alligators. Crawling on hands and knees, they forced +their way through miles of tangled jungle, breathing in as they went +the sickening odor of decaying vegetables. They were obliged to be +continually on their guard against elephants, lions, hyenas, and other +wild inhabitants of the jungle. Fierce as these were, however, they +were no more to be dreaded than the savage tribes whom they sometimes +encountered. Whenever they stopped to rest, they were tormented by +flies, white ants, and reptiles, which crawled all over them. + +For months they journeyed on under these conditions. The donkeys had +died from drinking impure water, and some of the men had fallen victims +to disease. + +It was no wonder that the survivors of the expedition--all but +Stanley--had grown disheartened. Half starved, wasted by sickness and +hardships of all kinds, with bleeding feet and torn clothes, some of +them became mutinous. Stanley's skill as a leader was taxed to the +utmost. Alternately coaxing the faint-hearted and punishing the +insubordinate, he continued to lead them on almost in spite of +themselves. + +So far they had heard nothing of Livingstone, nor had they any clew as +to the direction in which they should go. There was no ray of light or +hope to cheer them on their way, yet Stanley never for a moment thought +of giving up the search. + +Once, amid the terrors of the jungle, surrounded by savages and wild +animals, with supplies almost exhausted, and the remnant of his +followers in a despairing condition, the young explorer came near being +discouraged. + +But he would not give way to any feeling that might lessen his chances +of success, and it was at this crisis he wrote in his journal:-- + +"No living man shall stop me--only death can prevent me. But death--not +even this; I shall not die--I will not die--I cannot die! Something +tells me I shall find him and--write it larger--FIND HIM, FIND HIM! +Even the words are inspiring." + +Soon after this a caravan passed and gave the expedition news which +renewed hope: A white man, old, white haired, and sick, had just +arrived at Ujiji. + +Stanley and his followers pushed on until they came in sight of Ujiji. +Then the order was given to "unfurl the flags and load the guns." +Immediately the Stars and Stripes and the flag of Zanzibar were thrown +to the breeze, and the report of fifty guns awakened the echoes. The +noise startled the inhabitants of Ujiji. They came running in the +direction of the sounds, and soon the expedition was surrounded by a +crowd of friendly black men, who cried loudly, "YAMBO, YAMBO, BANA!" +which signifies welcome. + +"At this grand moment," says Stanley, "we do not think of the hundreds +of miles we have marched, of the hundreds of hills that we have +ascended and descended, of the many forests we have traversed, of the +jungle and thickets that annoyed us, of the fervid salt plains that +blistered our feet, of the hot suns that scorched us, nor the dangers +and difficulties now happily surmounted. + +"At last the sublime hour has arrived!--our dreams, our hopes and +anticipations are now about to be realized! Our hearts and our feelings +are with our eyes, as we peer into the palms and try to make out in +which hut or house lives the white man with the gray beard we heard +about on the Malagarazi." + +When the uproar had ceased, a voice was heard saluting the leader of +the expedition in English--"Good morning, sir." + +"Startled at hearing this greeting in the midst of such a crowd of +black people," says Stanley, "I turn sharply round in search of the +man, and see him at my side, with the blackest of faces, but animated +and joyous--a man dressed in a long white shirt, with a turban of +American sheeting around his head, and I ask, 'Who the mischief are +you?' + +"'I am Susi, the servant of Dr. Livingstone,' said he, smiling, and +showing a gleaming row of teeth. + +"'What! Is Dr. Livingstone here?' + +"'Yes, sir.' + +"'In this village?' + +"'Yes, sir.' + +"'Are you sure?' + +"'Sure, sure, sir. Why, I leave him just now.' + +"'Susi, run, and tell the Doctor I am coming.'" + +Susi ran like a madman to deliver the message. Stanley and his men +followed more slowly. Soon they were gazing into the eyes of the man +for news of whom the whole civilized world was waiting. + +"My heart beat fast," says Stanley, "but I must not let my face betray +my emotions, lest it shall detract from the dignity of a white man +appearing under such extraordinary circumstances." + +The young explorer longed to leap and shout for joy, but he controlled +himself, and instead of embracing Livingstone as he would have liked to +do, he grasped his hand, exclaiming, "I thank God, Doctor, that I have +been permitted to see you." + +"I feel grateful that I am here to welcome you," was the gentle reply. + +All the dangers through which they had passed, all the privations they +had endured were forgotten in the joy of this meeting. Doctor +Livingstone's years of toil and suspense, during which he had heard +nothing from the outside world; Stanley's awful experiences in the +jungle, the fact that both men had almost exhausted their supplies; the +terrors of open and hidden dangers from men and beasts, sickness, hope +deferred, all were, for the moment, pushed out of mind. Later, each +recounted his story to the other. + +After a period of rest, the two joined forces and together explored and +made plans for the future. Stanley tried to induce Livingstone to +return with him. But in vain; the great missionary explorer would not +lay down his work. He persevered, literally until death. + +At last the hour of parting came. With the greatest reluctance Stanley +gave his men the order, "Right about face." With a silent farewell, a +grasp of the hands, and a look into each other's eyes which said more +than words, the old man and the young man parted forever. + +Livingstone's life work was almost done. Stanley was the man on whose +shoulders his mantle was to fall. The great work he had accomplished in +finding Livingstone was the beginning of his career as an African +explorer. + +After the death of Livingstone, Stanley determined to take up the +explorer's unfinished work. + +In 1874 he left England at the head of an expedition fitted out by the +London Daily Telegraph and the New York Herald, and penetrated into the +very heart of Africa. + +He crossed the continent from shore to shore, overcoming on his march +dangers and difficulties compared with which those encountered on his +first journey sank into insignificance. He afterward gave an account of +this expedition in his book entitled, "Darkest Africa." + +Stanley had successfully accomplished one of the great works of the +world. He had opened the way for commerce and Christianity into the +vast interior of Africa, which, prior to his discoveries, had been +marked on the map by a blank space, signifying that it was an +unexplored and unknown country. + +On his return the successful explorer found himself famous. Princes and +scientific societies vied with one another in honoring him. King Edward +VII of England, who was then Prince of Wales, sent him his personal +congratulations; Humbert, the king of Italy, sent him his portrait; the +khedive of Egypt decorated him with the grand commandership of the +Order of the Medjidie; the Geographical Societies of London, Paris, +Italy, and Marseilles sent him their gold medals; while in Berlin, +Vienna, and many other large European cities, he was elected an +honorary member of their most learned and most distinguished +associations. + +What pleased the explorer most of all, though, was the honor paid him +by America. "The government of the United States," he says, "has +crowned my success with its official approval, and the unanimous vote +of thanks passed in both houses of the legislature has made me proud +for life of the expedition and its achievements." + +Honored to-day as the greatest explorer of his age, and esteemed alike +for his scholarship and the immense services he has rendered mankind, +Sir Henry Morton Stanley, the once friendless orphan lad whose only +home was a Welsh poorhouse, may well be proud of the career he has +carved out for himself. + + + + +THE NESTOR OF AMERICAN JOURNALISTS + + +"I heard that a neighbor three miles off, had borrowed from a still +more distant neighbor, a book of great interest. I started off, +barefoot, in the snow, to obtain the treasure. There were spots of bare +ground, upon which I would stop to warm my feet. And there were also, +along the road, occasional lengths of log fence from which the snow had +melted, and upon which it was a luxury to walk. The book was at home, +and the good people consented, upon my promise that it should be +neither torn nor soiled, to lend it to me. In returning with the prize, +I was too happy to think of the snow on my naked feet." + +This little incident, related by Thurlow Weed himself, is a sample of +the means by which he gained that knowledge and power which made him +not only the "Nestor of American Journalists," but rendered him famous +in national affairs as the "American Warwick" or "The King Maker." + +There were no long happy years of schooling for this child of the +"common people," whose father was a struggling teamster and farmer; no +prelude of careless, laughing childhood before the stern duties of life +began. + +Thurlow Weed was born at Catskill, Greene County, New York, in 1797, a +period in the history of our republic when there were very few +educational opportunities for the children of the poor. "I cannot +ascertain," he says, "how much schooling I got at Catskill, probably +less than a year, certainly not a year and a half, and this was when I +was not more than five or six years old." + +At an early age Thurlow learned to bend circumstances to his will and, +ground by poverty, shut in by limitations as he was, even while +contributing by his earning to the slender resources of the family, he +gathered knowledge and pleasure where many would have found but thorns +and bitterness. + +How simply he tells his story, as though his hardships and struggles +were of no account, and how clearly the narrative mirrors the brave +little fellow of ten! + +"My first employment," he says, "was in sugar making, an occupation to +which I became much attached. I now look with great pleasure upon the +days and nights passed in the sap-bush. The want of shoes (which, as +the snow was deep, was no small privation) was the only drawback upon +my happiness. I used, however, to tie pieces of an old rag carpet +around my feet, and got along pretty well, chopping wood and gathering +up sap." + +During this period he traveled, barefoot, to borrow books, wherever +they could be found among the neighboring farmers. With his body in the +sugar house, and his head thrust out of doors, "where the fat pine was +blazing," the young enthusiast devoured with breathless interest a +"History of the French Revolution," and the few other well-worn volumes +which had been loaned him. + +Later, after he left the farm, we see the future journalist working +successively as cabin boy and deck hand on a Hudson River steamboat, +and cheerfully sending home the few dollars he earned. While employed +in this capacity, he earned his first "quarter" in New York by carrying +a trunk for one of the passengers from the boat to a hotel on Broad +Street. + +But his boyish ambition was to be a journalist, and, after a year of +seafaring life, he found his niche in the office of a small weekly +newspaper, the Lynx, published at Onondaga Hollow, New York. + +So, at fourteen, owing to his indomitable will and perseverance, which +conquered the most formidable obstacles, Thurlow Weed started on the +career in which, despite the rugged road he still had to travel, he +built up a noble character and won international fame. + + + + +THE MAN WITH AN IDEA + + +It is February, 1492. A poor man, with gray hair, disheartened and +dejected, is going out of the gate from the beautiful Alhambra, in +Granada, on a mule. Ever since he was a boy, he has been haunted with +the idea that the earth is round. He has believed that the pieces of +carved wood, picked up four hundred miles at sea, and the bodies of two +men, unlike any other human beings known, found on the shores of +Portugal, have drifted from unknown lands in the west. But his last +hope of obtaining aid for a voyage of discovery has failed. King John +of Portugal, under pretense of helping him, has secretly sent out an +expedition of his own. His friends have abandoned him; he has begged +bread; has drawn maps to keep him from starving, and lost his wife; his +friends have called him crazy, and have forsaken him. The council of +wise men, called by Ferdinand and Isabella, ridicule his theory of +reaching the east by sailing west. "But the sun and moon are round," +replies Columbus, "why not the earth?" "If the earth is a ball, what +holds it up?" the wise men ask. "What holds the sun and moon up?" +Columbus replies. + +A learned doctor asks, "How can men walk with their heads hanging down, +and their feet up, like flies on a ceiling?" "How can trees grow with +their roots in the air?" "The water would run out of the ponds, and we +should fall off," says another. "The doctrine is contrary to the Bible, +which says, 'The heavens are stretched out like a tent.'" "Of course it +is flat; it is rank heresy to say it is round." + +He has waited seven long years. He has had his last interview, hoping +to get assistance from Ferdinand and Isabella after they drive the +Moors out of Spain. Isabella was almost persuaded, but finally refused. +He is now old, his last hope has fled; the ambition of his life has +failed. He hears a voice calling him. He looks back and sees an old +friend pursuing him on a horse, and beckoning him to come back. He saw +Columbus turn away from the Alhambra, disheartened, and he hastens to +the queen and tells her what a great thing it would be, at a trifling +expense, if what the sailor believes should prove true. "It shall be +done," Isabella replies. "I will pledge my jewels to raise the money; +call him back." Columbus turns back, and with him turns the world. + +Three frail vessels, little larger than fishing boats, the Santa Maria, +the Pinta, and the Nina, set sail from Palos, August 3, 1492, for an +unknown land, upon untried seas; the sailors would not volunteer, but +were forced to go by the king. Friends ridiculed them for following a +crazy man to certain destruction, for they believed the sea beyond the +Canaries was boiling hot. "What if the earth is round?" they said, "and +you sail down the other side, how can you get back again? Can ships +sail up hill?" + +Only three days out, the Pinto's signal of distress is flying; she has +broken her rudder. September 8 they discover a broken mast covered with +seaweed floating in the sea. Terror seizes the sailors, but Columbus +calms their fears with pictures of gold and precious stones of India. +September 13, two hundred miles west of the Canaries, Columbus is +horrified to find that the compass, his only guide, is failing him, and +no longer points to the north star. No one had yet dreamed that the +earth turns on its axis. The sailors are ready for mutiny, but Columbus +tells them the north star is not exactly in the north. October 1 they +are two thousand three hundred miles from land, though Columbus tells +the sailors one thousand seven hundred. Columbus discovers a bush in +the sea, with berries on it, and soon they see birds and a piece of +carved wood. At sunset, the crew kneel upon the deck and chant the +vesper hymn. It is sixty-seven days since they left Palos, and they +have sailed nearly three thousand miles, only changing their course +once. At ten o'clock at night they see a light ahead, but it vanishes. +Two o'clock in the morning, October 12, Roderigo de Friana, on watch at +the masthead of the Pinta, shouts, "Land! land! land!" The sailors are +wild with joy, and throw themselves on their knees before Columbus, and +ask forgiveness. They reach the shore, and the hero of the world's +greatest expedition unfolds the flag of Spain and takes possession of +the new world. Perhaps no greater honor was ever paid man than Columbus +received on his return to Ferdinand and Isabella. Yet, after his second +visit to the land he discovered, he was taken back to Spain in chains, +and finally died in poverty and neglect; while a pickle dealer of +Seville, who had never risen above second mate, on a fishing vessel, +Amerigo Vespucci, gave his name to the new world. Amerigo's name was +put on an old chart or sketch to indicate the point of land where he +landed, five years after Columbus discovered the country, and this +crept into print by accident. + + + + +"BERNARD OF THE TUILERIES" + + +Opposite the entrance to the Sevres Museum in the old town of Sevres, +in France, stands a handsome bronze statue of Bernard Palissy, the +potter. Within the museum are some exquisite pieces of pottery known as +"Palissy ware." They are specimens of the art of Palissy, who spent the +best years of his life toiling to discover the mode of making white +enamel. + +The story of his trials and sufferings in seeking to learn the secret, +and of his final triumph over all difficulties, is an inspiring one. + +Born in the south of France, as far back as the year 1509, Bernard +Palissy did not differ much from an intelligent, high-spirited American +boy of the twentieth century. His parents were poor, and he had few of +the advantages within the reach of the humblest child in the United +States to-day. In spite of poverty, he was cheerful, light hearted, and +happy in his great love for nature, which distinguished him all through +life. The forest was his playground, his companions the birds, insects, +and other living things that made their home there. + +From the first, Nature was his chief teacher. It was from her, and her +alone, he learned the lessons that in after years made him famous both +as a potter and a scientist. The habit of observation seemed natural to +him, for without suggestions from books or older heads, his eyes and +ears noticed all that the nature student of our day is drilled into +observing. + +The free, outdoor life of the forest helped to give the boy the +strength of mind and body which afterward enabled him, in spite of the +most discouraging conditions, to pursue his ideal. He was taught how to +read and write, and from his father learned how to paint on glass. From +him he also learned the names and some of the properties of the +minerals employed in painting glass. All the knowledge that in after +years made him an artist, a scientist, and a writer, was the result of +his unaided study of nature. To books he was indebted for only the +smallest part of what he knew. + +Happy and hopeful, sunshiny of face and disposition, Bernard grew from +childhood to youth. Then, when he was about eighteen, there came into +his heart a longing to try his fortune in the great world which lay +beyond his forest home. Like most country-bred boys of his age, he felt +that he had grown too large for the parent nest and must try his wings +elsewhere. In his case there was, indeed, little to induce an ambitious +boy to stay at home. The trade of glass painting, which in previous +years had been a profitable one, had at that time fallen somewhat out +of favor, and there was not enough work to keep father and son busy. + +When he shouldered his scanty wallet and bade farewell to father and +mother, and the few friends and neighbors he knew in the straggling +forest hamlet, Bernard Palissy closed the first chapter of his life. +The second was a long period of travel and self-education. + +He wandered through the forest of Ardennes, making observations and +collecting specimens of minerals, plants, reptiles, and insects. He +spent some years in the upper Pyrenees, at Tarbes. From Antwerp in the +east he bent his steps to Brest, in the most westerly part of Brittany, +and from Montpellier to Nismes he traveled across France. During his +wanderings he supported himself by painting on glass, portrait painting +(which he practiced after a fashion), surveying, and planning sites for +houses and gardens. In copying or inventing patterns for painted +windows, he had acquired a knowledge of geometry and considerable skill +in the use of a rule and compass. His love of knowledge for its own +sake made him follow up the study of geometry, as far as he could +pursue it, and hence his skill as a surveyor. + +At this time young Palissy had no other object in life than to learn. +His eager, inquiring mind was ever on the alert. Wherever his travels +led him, he sought information of men and nature, always finding the +latter his chief instructor. He painted and planned that he might live +to probe her secrets. But the time was fast approaching when a new +interest should come into his life and overshadow all others. + +After ten or twelve years of travel, he married and settled in Saintes +where he pursued, as his services were required, the work of glass +painter and surveyor. Before long he grew dissatisfied with the dull +routine of his daily life. He felt that he ought to do more than make a +living for his wife and children. There were two babies now to be cared +for as well as his wife, and he could not shoulder his wallet, as in +the careless days of his boyhood, and wander away in search of +knowledge or fortune. + +About this time an event happened which changed his whole life. He was +shown a beautiful cup of Italian manufacture. I give in his own words a +description of the cup, and the effect the sight of it had on him. "An +earthen cup," he says, "turned and enameled with so much beauty, that +from that time I entered into controversy with my own thoughts, +recalling to mind several suggestions that some people had made to me +in fun, when I was painting portraits. Then, seeing that these were +falling out of request in the country where I dwelt, and that glass +painting was also little patronized, I began to think that if I should +discover how to make enamels, I could make earthen vessels and other +things very prettily, because God has gifted me with some knowledge of +drawing." + +His ambition was fired at once. A definite purpose formed itself in his +mind. He knew nothing whatever of pottery. No man in France knew the +secret of enameling, which made the Italian cup so beautiful, and +Palissy had not the means to go to Italy, where he probably could have +learned it. He resolved to study the nature and properties of clays, +and not to rest until he had discovered the secret of the white enamel. +Delightful visions filled his imagination. He thought within himself +that he would become the prince of potters, and would provide his wife +and children with all the luxuries that money could buy. "Thereafter," +he wrote, "regardless of the fact that I had no knowledge of clays, I +began to seek for the enamels as a man gropes in the dark." + +Palissy was a young man when he began his search for the enamel; he was +past middle life when his labors were finally rewarded. Groping like a +man in the dark, as he himself said, he experimented for years with +clays and chemicals, but with small success. He built with his own +hands a furnace at the back of his little cottage in which to carry on +his experiments. At first his enthusiasm inspired his wife and +neighbors with the belief that he would succeed in his efforts. But +time went on, and as one experiment after another failed or was only +partially successful, one and all lost faith in him. He had no friend +or helper to buoy him up under his many disappointments. Even his wife +reproached him for neglecting his regular work and reducing herself and +her children to poverty and want, while he wasted his time and strength +in chasing a dream. His neighbors jeered at him as a madman, one who +put his plain duty aside for the gratification of what seemed to their +dull minds merely a whim. His poor wife could hardly be blamed for +reproaching him. She could neither understand nor sympathize with his +hopes and fears, while she knew that if he followed his trade, he could +at least save his family from want. It was a trying time for both of +them. But who ever heard tell of an artist, inventor, discoverer, or +genius of any kind being deterred by poverty, abuse, ridicule, or +obstacles of any kind from the pursuit of an ideal! + +After many painful efforts, the poor glass painter had succeeded in +producing a substance which he believed to be white enamel. He spread +it on a number of earthenware pots which he had made, and placed them +in his furnace. The extremities to which he was reduced to supply heat +to the furnace are set forth in his own words: "Having," he says, +"covered the new pieces with the said enamel, I put them into the +furnace, still keeping the fire at its height; but thereupon occurred +to me a new misfortune which caused great mortification, namely, that +the wood having failed me, I was forced to burn the palings which +maintained the boundaries of my garden; which being burnt also, I was +forced to burn the tables and the flooring of my house, to cause the +melting of the second composition. I suffered an anguish that I cannot +speak, for I was quite exhausted and dried up by the heat of the +furnace. Further, to console me, I was the object of mockery; and even +those from whom solace was due ran crying through the town that I was +burning my floors, and in this way my credit was taken from me, and I +was regarded as a madman. + +"Others said that I was laboring to make false money, which was a +scandal under which I pined away, and slipped with bowed head through +the streets like a man put to shame. No one gave me consolation, but, +on the contrary, men jested at me, saying, 'It was right for him to die +of hunger, seeing that he had left off following his trade!' All these +things assailed my ears when I passed through the street; but for all +that, there still remained some hope which encouraged and sustained me, +inasmuch as the last trials had turned out tolerably well; and +thereafter I thought that I knew enough to get my own living, although +I was far enough from that (as you shall hear afterward)." + +This latest experiment filled him with joy, for he had at last +discovered the secret of the enamel. But there was yet much to be +learned, and several years more of extreme poverty and suffering had to +be endured before his labors were rewarded with complete success. But +it came at last in overflowing measure, as it almost invariably does to +those who are willing to work and suffer privation and persevere to the +end. + +His work as a potter brought Palissy fame and riches. At the invitation +of Catherine de' Medici, wife of King Henry II of France, he removed to +Paris. He established a workshop in the vicinity of the royal Palace of +the Tuileries, and was thereafter known as "Bernard of the Tuileries." +He was employed by the king and queen and some of the greatest nobles +of France to embellish their palaces and gardens with the products of +his beautiful art. + +Notwithstanding his lack of schooling, Bernard Palissy was one of the +most learned men of his day. He founded a Museum of Natural History, +wrote valuable books on natural science, and for several years +delivered lectures on the same subject. His lectures were attended by +the most advanced scholars of Paris, who were astonished at the extent +and accuracy of his knowledge of nature. But he was as modest as he was +wise and good, and when people wondered at his learning, he would reply +with the most unaffected simplicity, "I have had no other book than the +sky and the earth, known to all." + +No more touching story of success, in spite of great difficulties, than +Bernard Palissy's has been written. It is bad to think that after the +terrible trials which he endured for the sake of his art, his last +years also should have been clouded by misfortune. During the civil war +which raged in France between the Huguenots and the Catholics, he was, +on account of his religious views, imprisoned in the Bastile, where he +died in 1589, at the age of eighty. + + + + +HOW THE "LEARNED BLACKSMITH" FOUND TIME + + +"The loss of an hour," says the philosopher, Leibnitz, "is the loss of +a part of life." This is a truth that has been appreciated by most men +who have risen to distinction,--who have been world benefactors. The +lives of those great moral heroes put to shame the laggard youth of +to-day, who so often grumbles: "I have no time. If I didn't have to +work all day, I could accomplish something. I could read and educate +myself. But if a fellow has to grub away ten or twelve hours out of the +twenty-four, what time is left to do anything for one's self?" + +How much spare time had Elihu Burritt, "the youngest of many brethren," +as he himself quaintly puts it, born in a humble home in New Britain, +Connecticut, reared amid toil and poverty? Yet, during his father's +long illness, and after his death, when Elihu was but a lad in his +teens, with the family partially dependent upon the work of his hands, +he found time,--if only a few moments,--at the end of a fourteen-hour +day of labor, for his books. + +While working at his trade as a blacksmith, he solved problems in +arithmetic and algebra while his irons were heating. Over the forge +also appeared a Latin grammar and a Greek lexicon; and, while with +sturdy blows the ambitious youth of sixteen shaped the iron on the +anvil, he fixed in his mind conjugations and declensions. + +How did this man, born nearly a century ago, possessing none of the +advantages within reach of the poorest and humblest boy of to-day, +become one of the brightest ornaments in the world of letters, a leader +in the reform movements of his generation? + +Apparently no more talented than his nine brothers and sisters, by +improving every opportunity he could wring from a youth of unremitting +toil, his love for knowledge grew with what it fed upon, and carried +him to undreamed-of heights. In palaces and council halls, the words of +the "Learned Blacksmith" were listened to with the closest attention +and deference. + +Read the life of Elihu Burritt, and you will be ashamed to grumble that +you have no time--no chance for self-improvement. + + + + +THE LEGEND OF WILLIAM TELL + + +"Ye crags and peaks, I'm with you once again! I hold to you the hands +you first beheld, to show they still are free. Methinks I hear a spirit +in your echoes answer me, and bid your tenant welcome to his home +again! O sacred forms, how proud you look! how high you lift your heads +into the sky! how huge you are, how mighty, and how free! Ye are the +things that tower, that shine; whose smile makes glad--whose frown is +terrible; whose forms, robed or unrobed, do all the impress wear of awe +divine. Ye guards of liberty, I'm with you once again! I call to you +with all my voice! I hold my hands to you to show they still are free. +I rush to you as though I could embrace you!" + +What schoolboy or schoolgirl is not familiar with those stirring lines +from "William Tell's Address to His Native Mountains," by J. M. +Knowles? And the story of William Tell,--is it not dear to every heart +that loves liberty? Though modern history declares it to be purely +mythical, its popularity remains unaffected. It will live forever in +the traditions of Switzerland, dear to the hearts of her people as +their native mountains, and even more full of interest to the stranger +than authentic history. + +"His image [Tell's]," says Lamartine, "with those of his wife and +children, are inseparably connected with the majestic, rural, and +smiling landscapes of Helvetia, the modern Arcadia of Europe. As often +as the traveler visits these peculiar regions; as often as the +unconquered summits of Mont Blanc, St. Gothard, and the Rigi, present +themselves to his eyes in the vast firmament as the ever-enduring +symbols of liberty; whenever the lake of the Four Cantons presents a +vessel wavering on the blue surface of its waters; whenever the cascade +bursts in thunder from the heights of the Splugen, and shivers itself +upon the rocks like tyranny against free hearts; whenever the ruins of +an Austrian fortress darken with the remains of frowning walls the +round eminences of Uri or Claris; and whenever a calm sunbeam gilds on +the declivity of a village the green velvet of the meadows where the +herds are feeding to the tinkling of bells and the echo of the Ranz des +Vaches--so often the imagination traces in all these varied scenes the +hat on the summit of the pole--the archer condemned to aim at the apple +placed on the head of his own child--the mark hurled to the ground, +transfixed by the unerring arrow--the father chained to the bottom of +the boat, subduing night, the storm, and his own indignation, to save +his executioner--and finally, the outraged husband, threatened with the +loss of all he holds most dear, yielding to the impulse of nature, and +in his turn striking the murderer with a deathblow." + +The story which tradition hands down as the origin of the freedom of +Switzerland dates back to the beginning of the fourteenth century. At +that time Switzerland was under the sovereignty of the emperor of +Germany, who ruled over Central Europe. Count Rudolph of Hapsburg, a +Swiss by birth, who had been elected to the imperial throne in 1273, +made some efforts to save his countrymen from the oppression of a +foreign yoke. His son, Albert, Archduke of Austria, who succeeded him +in 1298, inherited none of his sympathies for Switzerland. On his +accession to the throne Albert resolved to curtail the liberties still +enjoyed by the inhabitants of some of the cantons, and to bend the +whole of the Swiss people to his will. + +The mountaineers of the cantons of Schwytz, Uri, and Unterwalden +recognized no authority but that of the emperor; while the peasants of +the neighboring valleys were at the mercy of local tyrants--the great +nobles and their allies. + +In order to carry out his project of subjecting all to the same yoke, +Albert of Austria appointed governors to rule over the semi-free +provinces or cantons. These governors, who bore the official title of +Bailiffs of the Emperor, exercised absolute authority over the people. +Men, women, and children were at their mercy, and were treated as mere +chattels--the property of their rulers. Insult and outrage were heaped +upon them until their lives became almost unendurable. + +An instance of the manner in which these petty tyrants used their +authority is related of the bailiff Landenberg, who ruled over +Unterwalden. + +For some trumped-up offense of which a young peasant, named Arnold of +Melcthal, was accused, his oxen were confiscated by Landenberg. The +deputy sent to seize the animals, which Landenberg really coveted for +his own, said sneeringly to Arnold, "If peasants wish for bread, they +must draw the plow themselves." Roused to fury by this taunt, Arnold +attempted to resist the seizure of his property, and in so doing broke +an arm of one of the deputy's men. He then fled to the mountains; but +he could not hide himself from the vengeance of Landenberg. The +peasant's aged father was arrested by order of the bailiff, and his +eyes put out in punishment for his son's offense. "That puncture," says +an old chronicler, "went so deep into many a heart that numbers +resolved to die rather than leave it unrequited." + +But the crudest and most vindictive of the Austrian or German bailiffs, +as they were interchangeably called, was one Hermann Gessler. He had +built himself a fortress, which he called "Uri's Restraint," and there +he felt secure from all attacks. + +This man was the terror of the whole district. His name was a synonym +for all that was base, brutal, and tyrannical. Neither the property, +the lives, nor the honor of the people were respected by him. His +hatred and contempt for the peasants were so great that the least +semblance of prosperity among them aroused his ire. + +One day while riding with an armed escort through the canton of +Schwytz, he noticed a comfortable-looking dwelling which was being +built by one Werner Stauffacher. Turning to his followers, he cried, +"Is it not shameful that miserable serfs like these should be permitted +to build such houses when huts would be too good for them?" "Let this +be finished," said his chief attendant; "we shall then sculpture over +the gate the arms of the emperor, and a little time will show whether +the builder has the audacity to dispute possession with us." The answer +pleased Gessler, who replied, "Thou art right," and, planning future +vengeance, he passed on with his escort. + +The wife of Stauffacher, who had been standing near the new building, +but concealed from Gessler and his men, heard the conversation, and +reported it to her husband. The latter, filled with indignation, +without uttering a word, arose and started for the home of his +father-in-law, Walter Furst, in the village of Attinghaussen. + +On his arrival Staffaucher was cordially welcomed by his father-in-law, +who placed refreshments before him, and waited for him to explain the +object of his visit. Pushing aside the food, he said, "I have made a +vow never again to taste wine or swallow meat until we cease to be +slaves." Stauffacher then related what had happened. Furst's anger was +kindled by the recital. Both men were roused to such a pitch that they +resolved, then and there, to free themselves and their countrymen from +the chains which bound them, or die in the attempt. They conversed far +into the night, making plans for the gaining of national independence. +Then they sought out in his hiding-place Arnold of Melchthal, the young +peasant whom Landenberg had so cruelly persecuted. In him they found, +as they expected, an ardent supporter of their plans. + +The three conspirators, Stauffacher, Furst, and Melchthal, represented +different cantons; one belonging to Schwytz, another to Uri, and the +third to Unterwalden. They hoped to form a league and unite the three +cantons against the power of Austria. In pursuance of their plans, each +pledged himself to select from among the most persecuted and the most +daring in their respective cantons ten others to join them in the cause +of liberty. + +On the night of November 7, or 17 (the date is variously given), in the +year 1307, the confederates met together in a secluded mountain spot +called Rutli. There they bound themselves by an oath, the terms of +which embodied their purpose: "We swear in the presence of God, before +whom kings and people are equal, to live or die for our +fellow-countrymen; to undertake and sustain all in common; neither to +suffer injustice nor to commit injury; to respect the rights and +property of the Count of Hapsburg; to do no violence to the imperial +bailiffs, but to put an end to their tyranny." They fixed upon January +1, 1308, as the day for a general uprising. + +Events were gradually shaping themselves for the appearance of William +Tell on the scene. Up to this time his name does not appear in the +annals of his country. The bold peasant of Uri was so little prominent +among his countrymen that, according to some versions of the legend, +although a son-in-law of Walter Furst, he had not been chosen among the +thirty conspirators summoned to the meeting at Rutli. This, however, is +contradicted by another, which asserts that he was "one of the +oath-bound men of Rutli." + +The various divergences in the different versions of the legend do not +affect its main features, on which all the chroniclers are agreed. It +was the crowning insult to his country which indisputably brought Tell +into prominence and made his name forever famous. + +Gessler's hatred of the people daily increased, and was constantly +showing itself in every form of petty tyranny that a mean and wicked +nature could devise. He noticed the growing discontent among the +peasantry, but instead of trying to allay it, he determined to +humiliate them still more. For this purpose he had a pole, surmounted +by the ducal cap of Austria, erected in the market square of the +village of Altdorf, and issued a command that all who passed it should +bow before the symbol of imperial rule. Guards were placed by the pole +with orders to make prisoners of all who refused to pay homage to the +ducal cap. + +William Tell, a bold hunter and skillful boatman of Uri, passing by one +day, with his little son, Walter, refused to bend his knee before the +symbol of foreign oppression. He was seized at once by the guards and +carried before the bailiff. + +There is considerable contradiction at this point as to whether Tell +was at once carried before the bailiff or bound to the pole, where he +remained, guarded by the soldiers, until the bailiff, returning the +same day from a hunting expedition, appeared upon the scene. Schiller, +in his drama of "William Tell," adopts the latter version of the story. + +According to the drama, Tell is represented as being bound to the pole. +In a short time he is surrounded by friends and neighbors. Among them +are his father-in-law, Walter Furst, Werner Stauffacher, and Arnold of +Melchthal. They advance to rescue the prisoner. The guards cry in a +loud voice: "Revolt! Rebellion! Treason! Sedition! Help! Protect the +agents of the law!" + +Gessler and his party hear the cries, and rush to the support of the +guards. Gessler cries in a loud authoritative voice: "Wherefore is this +assembly of people? Who called for help? What does all this mean? I +demand to know the cause of this!" + +Then, addressing himself particularly to one of the guards and pointing +to Tell, he says: "Stand forward! Who art thou, and why dost thou hold +that man a prisoner?" + +"Most mighty lord," replies the guard, "I am one of your soldiers +placed here as a sentinel over that hat. I seized this man in the act +of disobedience, for refusing to salute it. I was about to carry him to +prison in compliance with your orders, and the populace were preparing +to rescue him by force." + +After questioning Tell, whose answers are not satisfactory, the bailiff +pronounces sentence upon him. The sentence is that he shall shoot at an +apple placed on the head of his little son, Walter, and if he fails to +hit the mark he shall die. + +"My lord," cries the agonized parent; "what horrible command is this +you lay upon me? What! aim at a mark placed on the head of my dear +child? No, no, it is impossible that such a thought could enter your +imagination. In the name of the God of mercy, you cannot seriously +impose that trial on a father." + +"Thou shalt aim at an apple placed on the head of thy son. I will and I +command it," repeats the tyrant. + +"I! William Tell! aim with my own crossbow at the head of my own +offspring! I would rather die a thousand deaths." + +"Thou shall shoot, or assuredly thou diest with thy son!" + +"Become the murderer of my child! My lord, you have no son--you cannot +have the feelings of a father's heart!" + +Gessler's friends interfere in behalf of the unhappy father, and plead +for mercy. But all appeal is in vain. The tyrant is determined on +carrying out his sentence. + +The father and son are placed at a distance of eighty paces apart. An +apple is placed on the boy's head, and the father is commanded to hit +the mark. He hesitates and trembles. + +"Why dost thou hesitate?" questions his persecutor. "Thou hast deserved +death, and I could compel thee to undergo the punishment; but in my +clemency I place thy fate in thy own skillful hands. He who is the +master of his destiny cannot complain that his sentence is a severe +one. Thou art proud of thy steady eye and unerring aim; now, hunter, is +the moment to prove thy skill. The object is worthy of thee--the prize +is worth contending for. To strike the center of a target is an +ordinary achievement; but the true master of his art is he who is +always certain, and whose heart, hand, and eye are firm and steady +under every trial." + +At length Tell nerves himself for the ordeal, raises his bow, and takes +aim at the target on his son's head. Before firing, however, he +concealed a second arrow under his vest. His movement did not escape +Gessler's notice. + +The marksman fires. The apple falls from his boy's head, cleft in twain +by the arrow. + +Even Gessler is loud in his admiration of Tell's skill. "By heaven," he +cries, "he has clove the apple exactly in the center. Let us do +justice; it is indeed a masterpiece of skill." + +Tell's friends congratulate him. He is about to set out for his home +with the child who has been saved to him from the very jaws of death as +it were. But Gessler stays him. + +"Thou hast concealed a second arrow in thy bosom," he says, sternly +addressing Tell. "What didst thou intend to do with it?" Tell replies +that such is the custom of all hunters. + +Gessler is not satisfied and urges him to confess his real motive. +"Speak truly and frankly," he says; "say what thou wilt, I promise thee +thy life. To what purpose didst thou destine the second arrow?" + +Tell can no longer restrain his indignation, and, fixing his eyes +steadily on Gessler, he answers "Well then, my lord, since you assure +my life, I will speak the truth without reserve. If I had struck my +beloved child, with the second arrow I would have transpierced thy +heart. Assuredly that time I should not have missed my mark." + +"Villain!" exclaims Gessler, "I have promised thee life upon my +knightly word; I will keep my pledge. But since I know thee now, and +thy rebellious heart, I will remove thee to a place where thou shalt +never more behold the light of sun or moon. Thus only shall I be +sheltered from thy arrows." + +He orders the guards to seize and bind Tell, saying, "I will myself at +once conduct him to Kussnacht." + +The fortress of Kussnacht was situated on the summit of Mount Rigi +between Lake Lucerne, or the Lake of the Four Cantons as it is +sometimes called, and Lake Zug. It was reached by crossing Lake Lucerne. + +The prisoner was placed bound in the bottom of a boat, and with his +guards, the rowers, an inexperienced pilot, and Gessler in command, the +boat was headed for Kussnacht. + +When about halfway across the lake a sudden and violent storm +overwhelmed the party. They were in peril of their lives. The rowers +and pilot were panic-stricken, and powerless in face of the danger that +threatened them. + +Tell's fame as a boatman was as widespread as that of his skill as an +archer. The rowers cried aloud in their terror that he was the only man +in Switzerland that could save them from death. Gessler immediately +commanded him to be released from his bonds and given the helm. + +Tell succeeded in guiding the vessel to the shore. Then seizing his bow +and arrows, which his captors had thrown beside him, he sprang ashore +at a point known as "Tell's Leap." The boat, rebounding, after he +leaped from it was again driven out on the lake before any of the +remainder of its occupants could effect a landing. After a time, +however, the fury of the storm abated, and they reached the shore in +safety. + +In the meantime Tell had concealed himself in a defile in the mountain +through which Gessler would have to pass on his way to Kussnacht. There +he lay in wait for his persecutor who followed in hot pursuit. + +Vowing vengeance as he went, Gessler declared that if the fugitive did +not give himself up to justice, every day that passed by should cost +him the life of his wife or one of his children. While the tyrant was +yet speaking, an arrow shot by an unerring hand pierced his heart. Tell +had taken vengeance into his own hands. + +The death of Gessler was the signal for a general uprising. The +oath-bound men of Rutli saw that this was their great opportunity. They +called to their countrymen to follow them to freedom or death. + +Gessler's crowning act of tyranny--his inhuman punishment of Tell--had +roused the spirit of rebellion in the hearts of even the meekest and +most submissive of the peasants. Gladly, then, did they respond to the +call of the leaders of the insurrection. + +The legend says that on New Year's Eve, 1308, Stauffacher, with a +chosen band of followers, climbed the mountain which led to +Landenberg's fortress castle of Rotzberg. There they were assisted by +an inmate of the castle, a young girl whose lover was among the rebels. +She threw a rope out of one of the windows of the castle, and by it her +countrymen climbed one after another into the castle. They seized the +bailiff, Landenberg, and confined him in one of the dungeons of his own +castle. Next day the conspirators were reinforced by another party who +gained entrance to the castle by means of a clever ruse. Landenberg and +his men were given their freedom by the peasants on condition that they +would quit Switzerland forever. + +The castle of Uri was attacked and taken possession of by Walter Furst +and William Tell, while other strongholds were captured by Arnold of +Melchthal and his associates. + +Bonfires blazed all over the country. The dawn of Switzerland's freedom +had appeared. The reign of tyranny was doomed. William Tell was the +hero of the hour, and ever since his name has been enshrined in the +hearts of his countrymen as the watchword of their liberties. Even to +this day, as history tells us, the Swiss peasant cherishes the belief +that "Tell and the three men of Rutli are asleep in the mountains, but +will awake to the rescue of their land should tyranny ever again +enchain it." + +Lamartine, to whose story of William Tell the writer is indebted, +commenting on the legend says: "The artlessness of this history +resembles a poem; it is a pastoral song in which a single drop of blood +is mingled with the dew upon a leaf or a tuft of grass. Providence +seems thus to delight in providing for every free community, as the +founder of their independence, a fabulous or actual hero, conformable +to the local situation, manners, and character of each particular race. +To a rustic, pastoral people, like the Swiss, is given for their +liberator a noble peasant; to a proud, aspiring race, such as the +Americans, an honest soldier. Two distinct symbols, standing erect by +the cradles of the two modern liberties of the world to personify their +opposite natures: on the one hand Tell, with his arrow and the apple; +on the other, Washington, with his sword and the law." + + + + +"WESTWARD HO!" + + +When the current serves, the unseen monitor that directs our affairs +bids us step aboard our craft, and, with hand firmly grasping the helm, +steer boldly for the distant goal. + +Philip D. Armour, the open-handed, large-hearted merchant prince, who +has left a standing memorial to his benevolence in the Armour Institute +at Chicago, heard the call to put to sea when in his teens. + +It came during the gold fever, which raged with such intensity from +1849 to 1851, when the wildest stories were afloat of the treasures +that were daily being dug out of the earth in California. The brain of +the sturdy youth, whose Scotch and Puritan blood tingled for some +broader field than the village store and his father's farm in +Stockbridge, New York, was haunted by the tales of adventure and +fortune wafted across the continent from the new El Dorado. "I brooded +over the difference," he says, "between tossing hay in the hot sun and +digging gold by handfuls, until, one day, I threw down the pitchfork, +went to the house, and told mother that I had quit that kind of work." + +Armour was nineteen years old when he determined to seek his fortune in +California. His determination once formed, he lost no time in carrying +it out. As much of the journey across the plains was to be made on +foot, he first provided himself with a pair of stout boots. Then he +packed his extra clothing in an old carpetbag, and with a light heart +bade his family good-by. + +He had induced a young friend, Calvin Gilbert, to accompany him in his +search for fortune. The two youths joined the motley crowd of +adventurers who were flocking from all quarters to the Land of Promise, +and set out on their journey. + +Tramping over the plains, crossing rivers in tow-boats and ferryboats, +and riding in trains and on wagons when they could, the adventurers, +after many weary months, reached their destination. During the journey +young Armour became sick, but was tenderly nursed back to health by his +companion. + +"I had scarcely any money when I arrived at the gold fields," said +Armour, "but I struck right out and found a place where I could dig, +and in a little time I struck pay dirt." + +He entered into partnership with a Mr. Croarkin, and, with +characteristic energy, kept digging and taking his turn at the rude +housekeeping in the shanty which he and his partner shared. "Croarkin +would cook one week," he says, "and I the next, and we would have a +clean-up Sunday morning We baked our own bread, and kept a few hens, +too, which supplied us with fresh eggs." + +The young gold hunter, however, did not find nuggets as "plentiful as +blackberries," but he found within himself that which led him to a +bonanza far exceeding his wildest dreams of "finds" in the gold fields. + +He discovered his business ability; he learned how to economize, how to +rely upon himself, even to the extent of baking his own bread. + + + + +THREE GREAT AMERICAN SONGS AND THEIR AUTHORS + +THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER + + +"Poetry and music," says Sir John Lubbock, "unite in song. From the +earliest ages song has been the sweet companion of labor. The rude +chant of the boatman floats upon the water, the shepherd sings upon the +hill, the milkmaid in the dairy, the plowman in the field. Every trade, +every occupation, every act and scene of life, has long had its own +especial music. The bride went to her marriage, the laborer to his +work, the old man to his last long rest, each with appropriate and +immemorial music." + +It is strange that Lubbock did not mention specifically the power of +music in inspiring the soldier as he marches to the defense of his +country, or in arousing the spirit of patriotism and kindling the love +of country, whether in peace or war, in every bosom. "Let me make the +songs of a country," Fletcher of Saltoun has well said, "and I care not +who makes its laws." + +Not to know the words and the air of the national anthem or chief +patriotic songs of one's country is considered little less than a +disgrace. To know something of their authors and the occasion which +inspired them, or the conditions under which they were composed, gives +additional interest to the songs themselves. + +Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star-spangled Banner," one of the, if +not the most, popular of our national songs, was born in Frederick +County, Maryland, on August 1, 1779. He was the son of John Ross Key, +an officer in the Revolutionary army. + +Young Key's early education was carried on under the direction of his +father. Later he became a student in St. John's College, from which +institution he was graduated in his nineteenth year. Immediately after +his graduation he began to study law under his uncle, Philip Barton +Key, one of the ablest lawyers of his time. He was admitted to the bar +in 1801, and commenced to practice in Fredericktown, Maryland, where he +won the reputation of an eloquent advocate. After a few years' practice +in Fredericktown, he removed to Washington, where he was appointed +district attorney for the District of Columbia. + +Young Key was as widely known and admired as a writer of hymns and +ballads as he was as a lawyer of promise. But the production of the +popular national anthem which crowned him with immortality has so +overshadowed the rest of his life work that we remember him only as its +author. + +The occasion which inspired "The Star-spangled Banner" must always be +memorable in the annals of our country. The war with the British had +been about two years in progress, when, in August, 1814, a British +fleet arrived in the Chesapeake, and an army under General Ross landed +about forty miles from the city of Washington. + +The army took possession of Washington, burnt the capitol, the +President's residence, and other public buildings, and then sailed +around by the sea to attack Baltimore. The fleet was to bombard Fort +McHenry, while the land forces were to attack the city. + +The commanding officers of the fleet and land army, Admiral Cockburn +and General Ross, made their headquarters in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, +at the house of Dr. William Beanes, whom they held as their prisoner. + +Francis Scott Key, who was a warm friend of Dr. Beanes, went to +President Madison in order to enlist his aid in securing the release of +Beanes. The president furnished Key with a vessel, and instructed John +L. Skinner, agent for the exchange of prisoners, to accompany him under +a flag of truce to the British fleet. + +The British commander agreed to release Dr. Beanes, but would not +permit Key and his party to return then, lest they should carry back +important information to the American side. He boastingly declared, +however, that the defense could hold out only a few hours, and that +Baltimore would then be in the hands of the British. + +Skinner and Key were sent on board the Surprise, which was under the +command of Admiral Cockburn's son. But after a short time they were +allowed to return to their own vessel, and from its deck they saw the +American flag waving over Fort McHenry and witnessed the bombardment. + +All through the night the furious attack of the British continued. The +roar of cannon and the bursting of shells was incessant. It is said +that as many as fifteen hundred shells were hurled at the fort. + +Shortly before daybreak the firing ceased. Key and his companions +waited in painful suspense to know the result. In the intense silence +that followed the cannonading, each one asked himself if the flag of +his country was still waving on high, or if it had been hauled down to +give place to that of England. They strained their eyes in the +direction of Baltimore, but the darkness revealed nothing. + +At last day dawned, and to their delight the little party saw the +American flag still floating over Fort McHenry. Key's heart was stirred +to its depths, and in a glow of patriotic enthusiasm he immediately +wrote down a rough draft of "The Star-spangled Banner." + +On his arrival in Baltimore he perfected the first copy of the song, +and gave it to Captain Benjamin Eades, of the 27th Baltimore Regiment, +saying that he wished it to be sung to the air of "Anacreon in Heaven." +Eades had it put in type, and took the first proof to a famous old +tavern near the Holliday Street Theater, a favorite resort of actors +and literary people of that day. The verses were read to the company +assembled there, and Frederick Durang, an actor, was asked to sing them +to the air designated by the author. Durang, mounting a chair, sang as +requested. The song was enthusiastically received. From that moment it +became the great popular favorite that it has ever since been, and that +it will continue to be as long as the American republic exists. + +Key died in Baltimore on January 11, 1843. A monument was erected to +his memory by the munificence of James Lick, a Californian millionaire. +The sculptor to whom the work was intrusted was the celebrated W. W. +Story, who completed it in 1887. The monument, which is fifty-one feet +high, stands in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. It is built of +travertine, in the form of a double arch, under which a bronze statue +of Key is seated. A bronze figure, representing America with an +unfolded flag, supports the arch. + +On the occasion of the unveiling of this statue, the New York Home +Journal contained an appreciative criticism of Key as a poet, and the +following estimate of his greatest production. + +"The poetry of the 'Star-spangled Banner' has touches of delicacy for +which one looks in vain in most national odes, and is as near a true +poem as any national ode ever was. The picture of the 'dawn's early +light' and the tricolor, half concealed, half disclosed, amid the mists +that wreathed the battle-sounding Patapsco, is a true poetic concept. + +"The 'Star-spangled Banner' has the peculiar merit of not being a +tocsin song, like the 'Marseillaise.' Indeed, there is not a restful, +soothing, or even humane sentiment in all that stormy shout. It is the +scream of oppressed humanity against its oppressor, presaging a more +than quid pro quo; and it fitly prefigured the sight of that long file +of tumbrils bearing to the Place de la Revolution the fairest scions of +French aristocracy. On the other hand, 'God Save the King,' in its +original, has one or two lines as grotesque as 'Yankee Doodle' itself; +yet we have paraphrased it in 'America,' and made it a hymn meet for +all our churches. But the 'Star-spangled Banner' combines dignity and +beauty, and it would be hard to find a line of it that could be +improved upon." + +Over the simple grave of Francis Scott Key, in Frederick, Maryland, +there is no other monument than the "star-spangled banner." In storm +and in sunshine, in summer and in winter, its folds ever float over the +resting place of the man who has immortalized it in verse. No other +memorial could so fitly commemorate the life and death of this simple, +dignified, patriotic American. + +"A sweet, noble life," says a recent writer, "was that of the author of +our favorite national hymn--a life of ideal refinement, piety, +scholarly gentleness. Little did he think that his voice would be the +storm song, the victor shout, of conquering America to resound down and +down the ages!" + + THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER + + Oh! say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, + What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? + Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, + O'er the rampart we watched, were so gallantly streaming, + And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, + Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there, + Oh! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave + O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? + + On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, + Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, + What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, + As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? + Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, + In full glory reflected now shines on the stream, + 'Tis the star-spangled banner' oh, long may it wave + O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! + + And where is that band, who so vauntingly swore + That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion + A home and a country should leave us no more? + Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution. + No refuge could save the hireling and slave, + From the terror of death and the gloom of the grave, + And the star spangled banner in triumph shall wave + O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! + + Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand + Between their loved homes and the war's desolation, + Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven rescued land + Praise the power that has made and preserved us a nation. + Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just, + And this be our motto, "In God is our trust" + And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave + O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! + + + + +II. AMERICA + + + "And there's a nice youngster of excellent pith; + Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith! + But he shouted a song for the brave and the free-- + Just read on his medal, 'My Country of Thee.'" + +In these lines of his famous Reunion Poem, "The Boys," Dr. Oliver +Wendell Holmes commemorated his old friend and college-mate, Dr. Samuel +Francis Smith, author of "America." + +Samuel Francis Smith was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 21, +1808. He attended the Latin School in his native city, and it is said +that when only twelve years old he could "talk Latin." He entered +Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1825, and graduated in +the famous class of 1829, of which Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, James +Freeman Clarke, William E. Channing, and other celebrated Americans +were members. + +Dr. Smith, like so many other noted men, "worked his way through +college." He did this principally by coaching other students, and by +making translations from the German "Conversations-Lexicon" for the +"American Cyclopedia." + +After graduating from Harvard, he immediately entered Andover +Theological Seminary. Three years later, in 1832, he wrote, among +others, his most famous hymn, "America," of which the "National +Cyclopedia of American Biography" says, "It has found its way wherever +an American heart beats or the English language is spoken, and has +probably proved useful in stirring the patriotic spirit of the American +people." + +Dr. Smith himself often said that he had heard "America" sung "halfway +round the world, under the earth in the caverns of Manitou, Colorado, +and almost above the earth near the top of Pike's Peak." + +The hymn, as every child knows, is sung to the air of the national +anthem of England,--"God Save the King." The author came upon it in a +book of German music, and by it was inspired to write the words of +"America," a work which he accomplished in half an hour. Many years +after, referring to its impromptu composition, he wrote: "If I had +anticipated the future of it, doubtless I should have taken more pains +with it. Such as it is, I am glad to have contributed this mite to the +cause of American freedom." + +In a magazine article, written several years ago, Mr. Herbert Heywood +gave an interesting account of an interview with Dr. Smith, who told +him the story of the writing of the hymn himself. + +"'I wrote "America,"' he said, 'when I was a theological student at +Andover, during my last year there. In February, 1832, I was poring +over a German book of patriotic songs which Lowell Mason, of Boston, +had sent me to translate, when I came upon one with a tune of great +majesty. I hummed it over, and was struck with the ease with which the +accompanying German words fell into the music. I saw it was a patriotic +song, and while I was thinking of translating it, I felt an impulse to +write an American patriotic hymn. I reached my hand for a bit of waste +paper, and, taking my quill pen, wrote the four verses in half an hour. +I sent it with some translations of the German songs to Lowell Mason, +and the next thing I knew of it I was told it had been sung by the +Sunday-school children at Park Street Church, Boston, at the following +Fourth of July celebration. The house where I was living at the time +was on the Andover turnpike, a little north of the seminary building. I +have been in the house since I left it in September, 1832, but never +went into my old room.'" This room is now visited by patriotic +Americans from every part of the country. + +Two years after "America" was written, Dr. Smith became pastor of the +First Baptist Church in Waterville, Maine, and also professor of modern +languages in Waterville College, which is now known as Colby +University. His great industry and zeal, both as a clergyman and +student and teacher of languages, enabled him to perform the duties of +both positions successfully. He was a noted linguist, and could read +books in fifteen different languages. He could converse in most of the +modern European tongues, and at eighty-six was engaged in studying +Russian. + +In 1842 Dr. Smith was made pastor of the First Baptist Church, Newton +Center, Massachusetts, where he made his home for the rest of his life. + +"When he died, in November, 1895," says Mr. Heywood, "he was living in +the old brown frame-house at Newton Center, Massachusetts, which had +been his home for over fifty years. It stood back from the street, on +the brow of a hill sloping gently to a valley on the north. Pine trees +were in the front and rear, and the sun, from his rising to his +setting, smiled upon that abode of simple greatness. The house was +faded and worn by wind and weather, and was in perfect harmony with its +surroundings--the brown grass sod that peeped from under the snow, the +dull-colored, leafless elms, and the gray, worn stone steps leading up +from the street. + +"An air of gentle refinement pervaded the interior, and every room +spoke of its inmate. But perhaps the library was best loved of all by +Dr. Smith, for here it was that his work went on. Here, beside a sunny +bay window, stood his work table, and his high-backed, old-fashioned +chair, with black, rounded arms. All about the room were ranged his +bookcases, and an old, tall clock marked the flight of time that was so +kind to the old man. His figure was short, his shoulders slightly +bowed, and around his full, ruddy face, that beamed with kindness, was +a fringe of white hair and beard." + +Dr. Smith resigned his pastorate of the Newton church in 1854, and +became editorial secretary of the American Baptist Missionary Union. In +1875 he went abroad for the first time, and spent a year in European +travel. Five years later he went to India and the Burmese empire. +During his travels he visited Christian missionary stations in France, +Spain, Italy, Austria, Turkey, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Burmah, India, +and Ceylon. + +The latter years of his life were devoted almost entirely to literary +work. He wrote numerous poems which were published in magazines and +newspapers, but never collected in book form. His hymns, numbering over +one hundred, are sung by various Christian denominations. "The Morning +Light is Breaking" is a popular favorite. Among his other published +works are "Missionary Sketches," "Rambles in Mission Fields," a +"History of Newton," and a "Life of Rev. Joseph Grafton." Besides his +original hymns, he translated many from other languages, and wrote +numerous magazine articles and sketches during his long and busy life. + +Dr. Smith's vitality and enthusiasm remained with him to the last. A +great-grandfather when he died in his eighty-seventh year, he was an +inspiration to the younger generations growing up around him. He was at +work almost to the moment of his death, and still actively planning for +the future. + +His great national hymn, if he had left nothing else, will keep his +memory green forever in the hearts of his countrymen. It is even more +popular to-day, after seventy-one years have elapsed, than it was when +first sung in Park Street Church by the Sunday-school children of +Boston. Its patriotic ring, rather than its literary merit, renders it +sweet to the ear of every American. Wherever it is sung, the feeble +treble of age will join as enthusiastically as the joyous note of youth +in rendering the inspiring strains of + + + AMERICA + + My country, 'tis of thee, + Sweet land of liberty, + Of thee I sing, + Land where my fathers died, + Land of the pilgrim's pride, + From every mountain side, + Let freedom ring. + + My native country, thee, + Land of the noble, free, + Thy name I love; + I love thy rocks and rills, + Thy woods and templed hills,-- + My heart with rapture thrills, + Like that above. + + Let music swell the breeze, + And ring from all the trees + Sweet freedom's song; + Let mortal tongues awake, + Let all that breathe partake, + Let rocks their silence break, + The sound prolong. + + Our fathers' God, to Thee, + Author of Liberty, + To Thee we sing; + Long may our land be bright + With freedom's holy light,-- + Protect us by thy might, + Great God, our King. + + + + +III. THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC + + +"No single influence," says United States Senator George F. Hoar of +Massachusetts, "has had so much to do with shaping the destiny of a +nation--as nothing more surely expresses national character--than what +is known as the national anthem." + +There is some difference of opinion as to which of our patriotic hymns +or songs is distinctively the national anthem of America. Senator Hoar +seems to have made up his mind in favor of "The Battle Hymn of the +Republic." Writing of its author, Julia Ward Howe, in 1903, he said: +"We waited eighty years for our American national anthem. At last God +inspired an illustrious and noble woman to utter in undying verse the +thought which we hope is forever to animate the soldier of the +republic:-- + + "'In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea + With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; + As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, + While God is marching on.'" + +Mrs. Julia Ward Howe is as widely known for her learning and literary +and poetic achievements as she is for her work as a philanthropist and +reformer. + +She was born in New York City, in a stately mansion near the Bowling +Green, on May 27, 1819. From her birth she was fortunate in possessing +the advantages that wealth and high social position bestow. Her father, +Samuel Ward, the descendant of an old colonial family, was a member of +a leading banking firm of New York. Her mother, Julia Cutter Ward, was +a most charming and accomplished woman. She died very young, however, +while her little daughter Julia was still a child. Mr. Ward was a man +of advanced ideas, and was determined that his daughters should have, +as far as possible, the same educational advantages as his sons. + +Of course, in those early days there were no separate colleges for +women, and they would not be admitted to men's colleges. It was +impossible for Mr. Ward to overcome these difficulties wholly, but he +did the next best thing he could for his girls. He engaged as their +tutor the learned Dr. Joseph Green Cogswell, and instructed him to put +them through the full curriculum of Harvard College. + +On her entrance into society the "little Miss Ward," as Julia had been +called from her childhood, at once became a leader of the cultured and +fashionable circle in which she moved. In her father's home she met the +most distinguished American men of letters of that time. The liberal +education which she had received made the young girl feel perfectly at +her ease in such society. In addition to other accomplishments, she was +mistress of several ancient and modern languages, and a musical amateur +of great promise. + +In 1843 Miss Ward was married to Dr. Samuel G. Howe, director of the +Institute for the Blind in South Boston, Massachusetts. Immediately +after their marriage Dr. and Mrs. Howe went to Europe, where they +traveled for some time. The home which they established in Boston on +their return became a center for the refined and literary society of +Boston and its environment. Mrs. Howe's grace, learning, and +accomplishments made her a charming hostess and fit mistress of such a +home. + +Her literary talent was developed at a very early age. One of her +friends has humorously said that "Mrs. Howe wrote leading articles from +her cradle." However this may be, it is undoubtedly true that at +seventeen she contributed valuable articles to a leading New York +magazine. In 1854 she published her first volume of poems, "Passion +Flowers." Other volumes, including collections of her later poems, +books of travel, and a biography of Margaret Fuller, were afterward +published. For more than half a century she has been a constant +contributor to the leading magazines of the country. + +Since 1869 Mrs. Howe has been a leader in the movement for woman's +suffrage, and both by lecturing and writing has supported every effort +put forth for the educational and general advancement of her sex. + +Although in her eightieth year when the writer conversed with her a few +years ago, Mrs. Howe was then full of youthful enthusiasm, and her +interest in the great movements of the world was as keen as ever. Age +had in no way lessened her intellectual vigor. Surrounded by her +children and grandchildren, and one great-grandchild, she recently +celebrated her eighty-fourth birthday. + +The story of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" has been left to the +last, not because it is the least important, but, on the contrary, +because it is one of the most important works of her life. Certain it +is that the "Battle Hymn" will live and thrill the hearts of Americans +centuries after its author has passed on to the other life. + +The hymn was written in Washington, in November, 1861, the first year +of our Civil War. Dr. and Mrs. Howe were visiting friends in that city. +During their stay, they went one day with a party to see a review of +Union troops. The review, however, was interrupted by a movement of the +Confederate forces which were besieging the city. On their return, the +carriage in which Mrs. Howe and her friends were seated was surrounded +by soldiers. Stirred by the scene and the occasion, she began to sing +"John Brown," to the delight of the soldiers, who heartily joined in +the refrain. + +At the close of the song Mrs. Howe expressed to her friends the strong +desire she felt to write some words which might be sung to this +stirring tune. But she added that she feared she would never be able to +do so. + +"That night," says her daughter, Maude Howe Eliot, "she went to sleep +full of thoughts of battle, and awoke before dawn the next morning to +find the desired verses immediately present to her mind. She sprang +from her bed, and in the dim gray light found a pen and paper, whereon +she wrote, scarcely seeing them, the lines of the poem. Returning to +her couch, she was soon asleep, but not until she had said to herself, +'I like this better than anything I have ever written before.'" + + THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC + + Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: + He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; + He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword: + His truth is marching on. + + I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps; + They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; + I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps; + His day is marching on. + + I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel: + "As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal; + Let the Hero born of woman crush the serpent with his heel, + Since God is marching on." + + He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; + He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat: + Oh! be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet! + Our God is marching on. + + In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, + With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me: + As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, + While God is marching on. + + + + +TRAINING FOR GREATNESS + +GLIMPSES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S BOYHOOD + + +In pronouncing a eulogy on Henry Clay, Lincoln said: "His example +teaches us that one can scarcely be so poor but that, if he will, he +can acquire sufficient education to get through the world respectably." + +Endowed as he was with all the qualities that make a man truly great, +Lincoln's own life teaches above all other things the lesson he drew +from that of Henry Clay. Is there in all the length and breadth of the +United States to-day a boy so poor as to envy Abraham Lincoln the +chances of his boyhood? The story of his life has been told so often +that nothing new can be said about him. Yet every fresh reading of the +story fills the reader anew with wonder and admiration at what was +accomplished by the poor backwoods boy. + +Let your mind separate itself from all the marvels of the twentieth +century. Think of a time when railroads and telegraph wires, +telephones, great ocean steamers, lighting by gas and electricity, +daily newspapers (except in a few centers), great circulating +libraries, and the hundreds of conveniences which are necessities to +the people of to-day, were unknown. Even the very rich at the beginning +of the nineteenth century could not buy the advantages that are free to +the poorest boy at the beginning of the twentieth century. When Lincoln +was a boy, thorns were used for pins; cork covered with cloth or bits +of bone served as buttons; crusts of rye bread were used by the poor as +substitutes for coffee, and dried leaves of certain herbs for tea. + +Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin in Hardin +County, now La Rue County, Kentucky. His father, Thomas Lincoln, was +not remarkable either for thrift or industry. He was tall, well built, +and muscular, expert with his rifle, and a noted hunter, but he did not +possess the qualities necessary to make a successful pioneer farmer. +The character of the mother of Abraham, may best be gathered from his +own words: "All that I am or hope to be," he said when president of the +United States, "I owe to my angel mother. Blessings on her memory!" + +It was at her knee he learned his first lessons from the Bible. With +his sister Sarah, a girl two years his senior, he listened with wonder +and delight to the Bible stories, fairy tales, and legends with which +the gentle mother entertained and instructed them when the labors of +the day were done. + +When Abraham was about four years old, the family moved from the farm +on Nolin Creek to another about fifteen miles distant. There the first +great event in his life took place. He went to school. Primitive as was +the log-cabin schoolhouse, and elementary as were the acquirements of +his first schoolmaster, it was a wonderful experience for the boy, and +one that he never forgot. + +In 1816 Thomas Lincoln again decided to make a change. He was enticed +by stories that came to him from Indiana to try his fortunes there. So, +once more the little family "pulled up stakes" and moved on to the +place selected by the father in Spencer County, about a mile and a half +from Gentryville. It was a long, toilsome journey through the forest, +from the old home in Kentucky to the new one in Indiana. In some places +they had to clear their way through the tangled thickets as they +journeyed along. The stock of provisions they carried with them was +supplemented by game snared or shot in the forest and fish caught in +the river. These they cooked over the wood fire, kindled by means of +tinder and flint. The interlaced branches of trees and the sky made the +roof of their bedchamber by night, and pine twigs their bed. + +When the travelers arrived at their destination, there was no time for +rest after their journey. Some sort of shelter had to be provided at +once for their accommodation. They hastily put up a "half-faced +camp"--a sort of rude tent, with an opening on one side. The framework +of the tent was of upright posts, crossed by thin slabs, cut from the +trees they felled. The open side, or entrance, was covered with +"pelts," or half-dressed skins of wild animals. There was no ruder +dwelling in the wilds of Indiana, and no poorer family among the +settlers than the new adventurers from Kentucky. They were reduced to +the most primitive makeshifts in order to eke out a living. There was +no lack of food, however, for the woods were full of game of all kinds, +both feathered and furred, and the streams and rivers abounded with +fish. But the home lacked everything in the way of comfort or +convenience. + +Abraham, who was then in his eighth year, has been described as a tall, +ungainly, fast-growing, long-legged lad, clad in the garb of the +frontier. This consisted of a shirt of linsey-woolsey, a coarse +homespun material made of linen and wool, a pair of home-made +moccasins, deerskin leggings or breeches, and a hunting shirt of the +same material. This costume was completed by a coonskin cap, the tail +of the animal being left to hang down the wearer's back as an ornament. + +This sturdy lad, who was born to a life of unremitting toil, was +already doing a man's work. From the time he was four years old, away +back on the Kentucky farm, he had contributed his share to the family +labors. Picking berries, dropping seeds, and doing other simple tasks +suited to his strength, he had thus early begun his apprenticeship to +toil. In putting up the "half-faced" camp, he was his father's +principal helper. Afterward, when they built a more, substantial cabin +to take the place of the camp, he learned to handle an ax, a maul, and +a wedge. He helped to fell trees, fashion logs, split rails, and do +other important work in building the one-roomed cabin, which was to be +the permanent home of the family. He assisted also in making the rough +tables and chairs and the one rude bedstead or bed frame which +constituted the principal furniture of the cabin. In his childhood +Abraham did not enjoy the luxury of sleeping on a bedstead. His bed was +simply a heap of dry leaves, which occupied a corner of the loft over +the cabin. He climbed to it every night by a stepladder, or rather a +number of pegs driven into the wall. + +Rough and poor and full of hardship as his life was, Lincoln was by no +means a sad or unhappy boy. On the contrary, he was full of fun and +boyish pranks. His life in the open air, the vigorous exercise of every +muscle which necessity forced upon him, the tonic of the forests which +he breathed from his infancy, his interest in every living and growing +thing about him,--all helped to make him unusually strong, healthy, +buoyant, and rich in animal spirits. + +The first great sorrow of his life came to him in the death of his +dearly loved mother in 1818. The boy mourned for her as few children +mourn even for the most loving parent. Day after day he went from the +home made desolate by her death to weep on her grave under the near-by +trees. + +There were no churches in the Indiana wilderness, and the visits of +wandering ministers of religion to the scattered settlements were few +and far between. Little Abraham was grieved that no funeral service had +been held over his dead mother. He felt that it was in some sense a +lack of respect to her. He thought a great deal about the matter, and +finally wrote a letter to a minister named Elkins, whom the family had +known in Kentucky. Several months after the receipt of the letter +Parson Elkins came to Indiana. On the Sabbath morning after his +arrival, in the presence of friends who had come long distances to +assist, he read the funeral service over the grave of Mrs. Lincoln. He +also spoke in touching words of the tender Christian mother who lay +buried there. This simple service greatly comforted the heart of the +lonely boy. + +Some time after Thomas Lincoln brought a new mother to his children +from Kentucky. This was Mrs. Sally Bush Johnston, a young widow, who +had been a girlhood friend of Nancy Hanks. She had three +children,--John, Sarah, and Matilda Johnston,--who accompanied her to +Indiana. The second Mrs. Lincoln brought a stock of household goods and +furniture with her from Kentucky, and with the help of these made so +many improvements in the rude log cabin that her stepchildren regarded +her as a sort of magician or wonder worker. She was a good mother to +them, intelligent, kind, and loving. + +He was ten years old at this time, and had been to school but little. +Indeed, he says himself that he only went to school "by littles," and +that all his schooling "did not amount to more than a year." But he had +learned to read when he was a mere baby at his mother's knee; and to a +boy who loved knowledge as he did, this furnished the key to a broad +education. His love of reading amounted to a passion. The books he had +access to when a boy were very few; but they were good ones, and he +knew them literally from cover to cover. They were the Bible, "Robinson +Crusoe," "Pilgrim's Progress," a "History of the United States," and +Weems's "Life of Washington." Some of these were borrowed, among them +the "Life of Washington," of which Abraham afterward became the happy +owner. The story of how he became its owner has often been told. + +The book had been loaned to him by a neighbor, a well-to-do farmer +named Crawford. After reading from it late into the night by the light +of pine knots, Abraham carried it to his bedroom in the loft. He placed +it in a crack between the logs over his bed of dry leaves, so that he +could reach to it as soon as the first streaks of dawn penetrated +through the chinks in the log cabin. Unfortunately, it rained heavily +during the night, and when he took down the precious volume in the +morning, he found it badly damaged, all soddened and stained by the +rain. He was much distressed, and hurried to the owner of the book as +soon as possible to explain the mishap. + +"I'm real sorry, Mr. Crawford," he said, in concluding his explanation, +"and want to fix it up with you somehow, if you can tell me any way, +for I ain't got the money to pay for it with." + +"Well," said Mr. Crawford, "being as it's you, Abe, I won't be hard on +you. Come over and shuck corn three days, and the book's yours." + +The boy was delighted with the result of what at first had seemed a +great misfortune. Verily, his sorrow was turned into joy. What! Shuck +corn only three days and become owner of the book that told all about +his greatest hero! What an unexpected piece of good fortune! + +Lincoln's reading had revealed to him a world beyond his home in the +wilderness. Slowly it dawned upon him that one day he might find his +place in that great world, and he resolved to prepare himself with all +his might for whatever the future might hold. + +"I don't intend to delve, grub, shuck corn, split rails, and the like +always," he told Mrs. Crawford after he had finished reading the "Life +of Washington." "I'm going to fit myself for a profession." + +"Why, what do you want to be now?" asked Mrs. Crawford, in surprise. +"Oh, I'll be president," said the boy, with a smile. + +"You'd make a pretty president, with all your tricks and jokes, now +wouldn't you?" said Mrs. Crawford. + +"Oh, I'll study and get ready," was the reply, "and then maybe the +chance will come." + +If the life of George Washington, who had all the advantages of culture +and training that his time afforded, was an inspiration to Lincoln, the +poor hard-working backwoods boy, what should the life of Lincoln be to +boys of to-day? Here is a further glimpse of the way in which he +prepared himself to be president of the United States. The quotation is +from Ida M. Tarbell's "Life of Lincoln." + +"Every lull in his daily labor he used for reading, rarely going to his +work without a book. When plowing or cultivating the rough fields of +Spencer County, he found frequently a half hour for reading, for at the +end of every long row the horse was allowed to rest, and Lincoln had +his book out and was perched on stump or fence, almost as soon as the +plow had come to a standstill. One of the few people left in +Gentryville who still remembers Lincoln, Captain John Lamar, tells to +this day of riding to mill with his father, and seeing, as they drove +along, a boy sitting on the top rail of an old-fashioned, +stake-and-rider worm fence, reading so intently that he did not notice +their approach. His father, turning to him, said: 'John, look at that +boy yonder, and mark my words, he will make a smart man out of himself. +I may not see it, but you'll see if my words don't come true.' 'That +boy was Abraham Lincoln,' adds Mr. Lamar, impressively." + +Lincoln's father was illiterate, and had no sympathy with his son's +efforts to educate himself. Fortunately for him, however, his +stepmother helped and encouraged him in every way possible. Shortly +before her death she said to a biographer of Lincoln: "I induced my +husband to permit Abe to read and study at home, as well as at school. +At first he was not easily reconciled to it, but finally he too seemed +willing to encourage him to a certain extent. Abe was a dutiful son to +me always, and we took particular care when he was reading not to +disturb him,--would let him read on and on till he quit of his own +accord." + +Lincoln fully appreciated his stepmother's sympathy and love for him, +and returned them in equal measure. It added greatly to his enjoyment +of his reading and studies to have some one to whom he could talk about +them, and in after life he always gratefully remembered what his second +mother did for him in those early days of toil and effort. + +If there was a book to be borrowed anywhere in his neighborhood, he was +sure to hear about it and borrow it if possible. He said himself that +he "read through every book he had ever heard of in that county for a +circuit of fifty miles." + +And how he read! Boys who have books and magazines and papers in +abundance in their homes, besides having thousands of volumes to choose +from in great city libraries, can have no idea of what a book meant to +this boy in the wilderness. He devoured every one that came into his +hands as a man famishing from hunger devours a crust of bread. He read +and re-read it until he had made the contents his own. + +"From everything he read," says Miss Tarbell, "he made long extracts, +with his turkey-buzzard pen and brier-root ink. When he had no paper he +would write on a board, and thus preserve his selections until he +secured a copybook. The wooden fire shovel was his usual slate, and on +its back he ciphered with a charred stick, shaving it off when it had +become too grimy for use. The logs and boards in his vicinity he +covered with his figures and quotations. By night he read and worked as +long as there was light, and he kept a book in the crack of the logs in +his loft to have it at hand at peep of day. When acting as ferryman on +the Ohio in his nineteenth year, anxious, no doubt, to get through the +books of the house where he boarded before he left the place, he read +every night until midnight." + +His stepmother said: "He read everything he could lay his hands on, and +when he came across a passage that struck him, he would write it down +on boards if he had no paper, and keep it by him until he could get +paper. Then he would copy it, look at it, commit it to memory, and +repeat it." + +His thoroughness in mastering everything he undertook to study was a +habit acquired in childhood. How he acquired this habit he tells +himself. "Among my earliest recollections I remember how, when a mere +child," he says, "I used to get irritated when anybody talked to me in +a way I could not understand. I do not think I ever got angry at +anything else in my life; but that always disturbed my temper, and has +ever since. I can remember going to my little bedroom, after hearing +the neighbors talk of an evening with my father, and spending no small +part of the night walking up and down and trying to make out what was +the exact meaning of some of their--to me--dark sayings. + +"I could not sleep, although I tried to, when I got on such a hunt for +an idea until I had caught it; and when I thought I had got it, I was +not satisfied until I had repeated it over and over; until I had put it +in language plain enough, as I thought, for any boy I knew to +comprehend. This was a kind of passion with me, and it has stuck by me; +for I am never easy now when I am handling a thought, till I have +bounded it north and bounded it south and bounded it east and bounded +it west." + +With all his hard study, reading, and thinking, Lincoln was not a +bookworm, nor a dull companion to the humble, unschooled people among +whom his youth was spent. On the contrary, although he was looked up to +as one whose acquirements in "book learning" had raised him far above +every one in his neighborhood, he was the most popular youth in all the +country round. No "husking bee," or "house raising" or merry-making of +any kind was complete if Abraham was not present. He was witty, ready +of speech, a good story-teller, and had stored his memory with a fund +of humorous anecdotes, which he always used to good purpose and with +great effect. He had committed to memory, and could recite all the +poetry in the various school readers used at that time in the log-cabin +schoolhouse. He could make rhymes himself, and even make impromptu +speeches that excited the admiration of his hearers. He was the best +wrestler, jumper, runner, and the strongest of all his young +companions. Even when a mere youth he could lift as much as three +full-grown men; and, "if you heard him fellin' trees in a clearin'," +said his cousin, Dennis Hanks, "you would say there was three men at +work by the way the trees fell. His ax would flash and bite into a +sugar tree or sycamore, and down it would come." + +His kindness and tenderness of heart were as great as his strength and +agility. He loved all God's creatures, and cruelty to any of them +always aroused his indignation. Only once did he ever attempt to kill +any of the game in the woods, which the family considered necessary for +their subsistence. He refers to this occasion in an autobiography, +written by him in the third person, in the year 1860. + +"A few days before the completion of his eighth year," he says, "in the +absence of his father, a flock of wild turkeys approached the new log +cabin; and Abraham, with a rifle gun, standing inside, shot through a +crack and killed one of them. He has never since pulled the trigger on +any larger game." + +Any suffering thing, whether it was animal, man, woman, or child, was +sure of his sympathy and aid. Although he never touched intoxicating +drinks himself, he pitied those who lost manhood by their use. One +night on his way home from a husking bee or house raising, he found an +unfortunate man lying on the roadside overcome with drink. If the man +were allowed to remain there, he would freeze to death. Lincoln raised +him from the ground and carried him a long distance to the nearest +house, where he remained with him during the night. The man was his +firm friend ever after. + +Women admired him for his courtesy and rough gallantry, as well as for +his strength and kindness of heart; and he, in his turn, reverenced +women, as every noble, strong man does. This big, bony, tall, awkward +young fellow, who at eighteen measured six feet four, was as ready to +care for a baby in the absence of its mother as he was to tell a good +story or to fell a tree. Was it any wonder that he was popular with all +kinds of people? + +His stepmother says of him: "Abe was a good boy, and I can say what +scarcely one woman--a mother--can say in a thousand; Abe never gave me +a cross word or look, and never refused in fact or appearance to do +anything I requested him. I never gave him a cross word in all my life. +His mind and mine--what little I had--seemed to run together. He was +here after he was elected president. He was a dutiful son to me always. +I think he loved me truly. I had a son, John, who was raised with Abe. +Both were good boys; but I must say, both now being dead, that Abe was +the best boy I ever saw or expect to see." + +Wherever he went, or whatever he did, he studied men and things, and +gathered knowledge as much by observation as from books and whatever +news-papers or other publications he could get hold of. He used to go +regularly to the leading store in Gentryville, to read a Louisville +paper, taken by the proprietor of the store, Mr. Jones. He discussed +its contents, and exchanged views with the farmers who made the store +their place of meeting. His love of oratory was great. When the courts +were in session in Boonville, a town fifteen miles distant from his +home, whenever he could spare a day, he used to walk there in the +morning and back at night, to hear the lawyers argue cases and make +speeches. By this time Abraham himself could make an impromptu speech +on any subject with which he was at all familiar, good enough to win +the applause of the Indiana farmers. + +So, his boyhood days, rough, hard-working days, but not devoid of fun +and recreation, passed. Abraham did not love work any more than other +country boys of his age, but he never shirked his tasks. Whether it was +plowing, splitting rails, felling trees, doing chores, reaping, +threshing, or any of the multitude of things to be done on a farm, the +work was always well done. Sometimes, to make a diversion, when he was +working as a "hired hand," he would stop to tell some of his funny +stories, or to make a stump speech before his fellow-workers, who would +all crowd round him to listen; but he would more than make up for the +time thus spent by the increased energy with which he afterward worked. +Doubtless the other laborers, too, were refreshed and stimulated to +greater effort by the recreation he afforded them and the inspiration +of his example. + +Thomas Lincoln had learned carpentry and cabinet making in his youth, +and taught the rudiments of these trades to his son; so that in +addition to his skill and efficiency in all the work that falls to the +lot of a pioneer backwoods farmer, Abraham added the accomplishment of +being a fairly good carpenter. He worked at these trades with his +father whenever the opportunity offered. When he was not working for +his family, he was hired out to the neighboring farmers. His highest +wage was twenty-five cents a day, which he always handed over to his +father. + +Lincoln got his first glimpse of the world beyond Indiana when he +worked for several months as a ferryman and boatman on the Ohio River, +at Anderson Creek. He saw the steamers and vessels of all kinds sailing +up and down the Ohio, laden with produce and merchandise, on their way +to and from western and southern towns. He came in contact with +different kinds of people from different states, and thus his views of +the world and its people became a little more extended, and his longing +to be somebody and to do something worth while in the world waxed +stronger daily. + +His work as a ferryman showed him that there were other ways of making +a little money than by hiring out to the neighbors at twenty-five cents +a day. He resolved to take some of the farm produce to New Orleans and +sell it there. This project led to the unexpected earning of a dollar, +which added strength to his purpose to prepare himself to take the part +of a man in the world outside of Indiana. Let him tell in his own +words, as he related the story to Mr. Seward years afterward, how he +earned the dollar:-- + +"Seward," he said, "did you ever hear how I earned my first dollar?" + +"No," said Mr. Seward. + +"Well," replied he, "I was about eighteen years of age, and belonged, +as you know, to what they call down south the 'scrubs'; people who do +not own land and slaves are nobodies there; but we had succeeded in +raising, chiefly by my labor, sufficient produce, as I thought, to +justify me in taking it down the river to sell. After much persuasion I +had got the consent of my mother to go, and had constructed a flatboat +large enough to take the few barrels of things we had gathered to New +Orleans. A steamer was going down the river. We have, you know, no +wharves on the western streams, and the custom was, if passengers were +at any of the landings, they were to go out in a boat, the steamer +stopping and taking them on board. I was contemplating my new boat, and +wondering whether I could make it stronger or improve it in any part, +when two men with trunks came down to the shore in carriages, and +looking at the different boats singled out mine, and asked, 'Who owns +this?' I answered modestly, 'I do.' 'Will you,' said one of them, 'take +us and our trunks to the steamer?' 'Certainly,' said I. I was very glad +to have the chance of earning something, and supposed that each of them +would give me a couple of bits. The trunks were put in my boat, the +passengers seated themselves on them, and I sculled them out to the +steamer. They got on board, and I lifted the trunks and put them on the +deck. The steamer was about to put on steam again, when I called out, +'You have forgotten to pay me.' Each of them took from his pocket a +silver half-dollar and threw it on the bottom of my boat. I could +scarcely believe my eyes as I picked up the money. You may think it was +a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me like a trifle, +but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely +credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day; +that by honest work I had earned a dollar. I was a more hopeful and +thoughtful boy from that time." + +In March, 1828, Lincoln was employed by one of the leading men of +Gentryville to take a load of produce down the Mississippi River to New +Orleans. For this service he was paid eight dollars a month and his +rations. + +This visit to New Orleans was a great event in his life. It showed him +the life of a busy cosmopolitan city, which was a perfect wonderland to +him. Everything he saw aroused his astonishment and interest, and +served to educate him for the larger life on which he was to enter +later. + +The next important event in the history of the Lincoln family was their +removal from Indiana to Illinois in 1830. The farm in Indiana had not +prospered as they hoped it would,--hence the removal to new ground in +Illinois. Abraham drove the team of oxen which carried their household +goods from the old home to their new abiding place near Decatur, in +Macon County, Illinois. Driving over the muddy, ill-made roads with a +heavily laden team was hard and slow work, and the journey occupied a +fortnight. When they arrived at their destination, Lincoln again helped +to build a log cabin for the family home. With his stepbrother he also, +as he said himself, "made sufficient of rails to fence ten acres of +ground, and raised a crop of sown corn upon it the same year." + +In that same year, 1830, he reached his majority. It was time for him +to be about his own business. He had worked patiently and cheerfully +since he was able to hold an ax in his hands for his own and the +family's maintenance. They could now get along without him, and he felt +that the time had come for him to develop himself for larger duties. + +He left the log cabin, penniless, without even a good suit of clothes. +The first work he did when he became his own master was to supply this +latter deficiency. For a certain Mrs. Millet he "split four hundred +rails for every yard of brown jeans, dyed with white walnut bark, +necessary to make a pair of trousers." + +For nearly a year he continued to work as a rail splitter and farm +"hand." Then he was hired by a Mr. Denton Offut to take a flatboat +loaded with goods from Sangamon town to New Orleans. So well pleased +was Mr. Offut with the way in which Lincoln executed his commission +that on his return he engaged him to take charge of a mill and store at +New Salem. + +There, as in every other place in which he had resided, he became the +popular favorite. His kindness of heart, his good humor, his skill as a +story teller, his strength, his courtesy, manliness, and honesty were +such as to win all hearts. He would allow no man to use profane +language before women. A boorish fellow who insisted on doing so in the +store on one occasion, in spite of Lincoln's protests, found this out +to his cost. Lincoln had politely requested him not to use such +language before ladies, but the man persisted in doing so. When the +women left the store, he became violently angry and began to abuse +Lincoln. He wanted to pick a quarrel with him. Seeing this Lincoln +said, "Well, if you must be whipped, I suppose I may as well whip you +as any other man," and taking the man out of the store he gave him a +well-merited chastisement. Strange to say, he became Lincoln's friend +after this, and remained so to the end of his life. + +His scrupulous honesty won for him in the New Salem community the title +of "Honest Abe," a title which is still affectionately applied to him. +On one occasion, having by mistake overcharged a customer six and a +quarter cents, he walked three miles after the store was closed in +order to restore the customer's money. At another time, in weighing tea +for a woman, he used a quarter-pound instead of a half-pound weight. +When he went to use the scales again, he discovered his mistake, and +promptly walked a long distance to deliver the remainder of the tea. + +Lincoln's determination to improve himself continued to be the leading +object of his life. He said once to his fellow-clerk in the store, "I +have talked with great men, and I do not see how they differ from +others." His observation had taught him that the great difference in +men's positions was not due so much to one having more talents or being +more highly gifted than another, but rather to the way in which one +cultivated his talent or talents and another neglected his. + +Up to this time he had not made a study of grammar, but he realized +that if he were to speak in public he must learn to speak +grammatically. He had no grammar, and did not know where to get one. In +this dilemma he consulted the schoolmaster of New Salem, who told him +where and from whom he could borrow a copy of Kirkham's Grammar. The +place named was six miles from New Salem. But that was nothing to a +youth so hungry for an education as Lincoln. He immediately started for +the residence of the fortunate people who owned a copy of Kirkham's +Grammar. The book was loaned to him without hesitation. In a short time +its contents were mastered, the student studying at night by the light +of shavings burned in the village cooper's shop. "Well," said Lincoln +to Greene, his fellow-clerk, when he had turned over the last page of +the grammar, "if that's what they call a science, I think I'll go at +another." The conquering of one thing after another, the thorough +mastery of whatever he undertook to do, made the next thing easier of +accomplishment than it would otherwise have been. In order to practice +debating he used to walk seven or eight miles to debating clubs. No +labor or trouble seemed too great to him if by it he could increase his +knowledge or add to his acquirements. No matter how hard or exhausting +his work, whether it was rail splitting, plowing, lumbering, boating, +or store keeping, he studied and read every spare minute, and often +until late at night. + +But this sketch has already exceeded the limits of Lincoln's boyhood, +for he had reached his twenty-second year while in the store in New +Salem. How he was made captain of a company raised to fight against the +Indians, how he kept store for himself, learned surveying, was elected +a member of the Illinois legislature, studied law, and was admitted to +the bar in Springfield, and how he finally became president of the +United States,--all this belongs to a later chapter of his life. + +Lincoln's rise from the poorest of log cabins to the White House, to be +president of the greatest republic in the world, is one of the most +inspiring stories in American biography. Yet he was not a genius, +unless a determination to make the most of one's self and to persist in +spite of all hardships, discouragements, and hindrances, be genius. He +made himself what he was--one of the noblest, greatest, and best of +men--by sheer dint of hard work and the cultivation of the talents that +had been given him. No fortunate chances, no influential friends, no +rare opportunities played a part in his life. Alone and unaided he +made, by the grace of God, the great career which will forever +challenge the admiration of mankind. + + + + +THE MARBLE WAITETH + + + THE STATUE + + The marble waits, immaculate and rude; + Beside it stands the sculptor, lost in dreams. + With vague, chaotic forms his vision teems. + Fair shapes pursue him, only to elude + And mock his eager fancy. Lines of grace + And heavenly beauty vanish, and, behold! + Out through the Parian luster, pure and cold, + Glares the wild horror of a devil's face. + + The clay is ready for the modeling. + The marble waits: how beautiful, how pure, + That gleaming substance, and it shall endure, + When dynasty and empire, throne and king + Have crumbled back to dust. Well may you pause, + Oh, sculptor-artist! and, before that mute, + Unshapen surface, stand irresolute! + Awful, indeed, are art's unchanging laws. + + The thing you fashion out of senseless clay, + Transformed to marble, shall outlive your fame; + And, when no more is known your race, or name, + Men shall be moved by what you mold to-day. + We all are sculptors. By each act and thought, + We form the model. Time, the artisan, + Stands, with his chisel, fashioning the Man, + And stroke by stroke the masterpiece is wrought. + + Angel or demon? Choose, and do not err! + For time but follows as you shape the mold, + And finishes in marble, stern and cold, + That statue of the soul, the character. + By wordless blessing, or by silent curse, + By act and motive,--so do you define + The image which time copies, line by line, + For the great gallery of the Universe. + + ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. + +At the gateway of a new year, emerging from the gay carelessness of +childhood, stand troops of buoyant, eager-eyed youths and maidens, +gazing down the vista of the future with glad expectancy. + +Fancy spreads upon her canvas radiant pictures of the joys and triumphs +which await them in the unborn years. In their unclouded springtime +there is no place for the specters of doubt and fear which too often +overshadow the autumn of life. + +In this formative period, the soul is unsoiled by warfare with the +world. It lies, like a block of pure, uncut Parian marble, ready to be +fashioned into--what? + +Its possibilities are limitless. You are the sculptor. An unseen hand +places in yours the mallet and the chisel, and a voice whispers: "The +marble waiteth. What will you do with it?" + +In this same block the angel and the demon lie sleeping. Which will you +call into life? Blows of some sort you must strike. The marble cannot +be left uncut. From its crudity some shape must be evolved. Shall it be +one of beauty, or of deformity; an angel, or a devil? Will you shape it +into a statue of beauty which will enchant the world, or will you call +out a hideous image which will demoralize every beholder? + +What are your ideals, as you stand facing the dawn of this new year +with the promise and responsibility of the new life on which you have +entered, awaiting you? Upon them depends the form which the rough block +shall take. Every stroke of the chisel is guided by the ideal behind +the blow. + +Look at this easy-going, pleasure-loving youth who takes up the mallet +and smites the chisel with careless, thoughtless blows. His mind is +filled with images of low, sensual pleasures; the passing enjoyment of +the hour is everything to him; his work, the future, nothing. He +carries in his heart, perhaps, the bestial motto of the glutton, "Eat, +drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die;" or the flippant maxim of +the gay worldling, "A short life and a merry one; the foam of the +chalice for me;" forgetting that beneath the foam are the bitter dregs, +which, be he ever so unwilling, he must swallow, not to-day, nor yet +to-morrow,--perhaps not this year nor next; but sometime, as surely as +the reaping follows the sowing, will the bitter draught follow the +foaming glass of unlawful pleasure. + +As the years go by, and youth merges into manhood, the sculptor's hand +becomes more unsteady. One false blow follows another in rapid +succession. The formless marble takes on distorted outlines. Its +whiteness has long since become spotted. The sculptor, with blurred +vision and shattered nerves, still strikes with aimless hand, carving +deep gashes, adding a crooked line here, another there, soiling and +marring until no trace of the virgin purity of the block of marble +which was given him remains. It has become so grimy, so demoniacally +fantastic in its outlines, that the beholder turns from it with a +shudder. + +Not far off we see another youth at work on a block of marble, similar +in every detail to the first. The tools with which he plies his labor +differ in no wise from those of the worker we have been following. + +The glory of the morning shines upon the marble. Glowing with +enthusiasm, the light of a high purpose illuminating his face, the +sculptor, with steady hand and eye, begins to work out his ideal. The +vision that flits before him is so beautiful that he almost fears the +cunning of his hand will be unequal to fashioning it from the rigid +mass before him. Patiently he measures each blow of the mallet. With +infinite care he chisels each line and curve. Every stroke is true. + +Months stretch into years, and still we find the sculptor at work. Time +has given greater precision to his touch, and the skill of the youth, +strengthened by noble aspirations and right effort, has become positive +genius in the man. If he has not attained the ideal that haunted him, +he has created a form so beautiful in its clear-cut outlines, so +imposing in the majesty of its purity and strength, that the beholder +involuntarily bows before it. + +THE MARBLE WAITETH. 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