Did you ever think of how lowly was the start in life of many of our
great men? Read the pages of history and you will find that fully
seven out of ten of the great men were really poor. Bonaparte used to
be a book agent, Gould was a surveyor, Franklin was a printer,
Garfield worked on the tow path, Lincoln was a rail splitter, Grant
was a tanner, Poe was always in financial distress; Crome, the great
artist, used to pull hair from his cat's tail to make his brushes;
Astor came to New York with nothing as the foundation of his fortunes.
The list is almost endless.
To us, there is much encouragement in these facts. By looking into the
lives of such men we find the secret of success. Lincoln was a poor
Illinois farmer, with no visionary dreams of his great future. He was
poor and unlearned. Of the poverty he was not ashamed; of his lack of
learning he was by no means satisfied. He resolved to gain knowledge.
He studied, studied hard, and at a time in his life when other men
felt they had passed the age of schooling. Of his work, we find he
always tried to give an honest day's labor; his motto was to do well
everything he put his hands to. It was this trait of character that
attracted the attention of his neighbors, and this it was that first
started him on the road to great success.
[Illustration: GRANT'S HOUSE, NEAR ST. LOUIS.]
Look at the early days of Grant. There was no indication of unusual
brightness in him. At West Point, where he was sent to military
school, he did not stand at the head of his classes. He only seemed an
earnest worker, with plenty of determination. Later, when he lived on
his little Illinois farm, there was nothing about him that pointed him
out as the future great general. It was only when the great civil war
broke out that he had an opportunity to show the kind of a man he was.
His only thought was to accomplish the task assigned him, be it ever
so difficult. This naturally found him in the line of promotion, and
step by step he climbed higher, earning by hard work every step he
gained, until he reached the highest office in the land.
Take Edison, the inventor. He was only a tramp telegrapher, but he was
not satisfied with being anything but the best, and many are the
stories of speed he attained in sending or receiving messages. He was
inquisitive--wanted to know more of the mysteries of the electricity
that carried his messages. He began experimenting, and by close
application to his studies, has astonished the world with his
telephone, phonograph and other inventions.
Now, these great men are not merely the products of chance. Not at
all. Study each of them and you will find they were workers, gaining
by just such struggles as you and I can make. We may not reach such
distinction as these have reached, but rest assured there is just as
great a demand now as ever for good, earnest men, and earnest,
successful men grow from painstaking boys. The boy who, as clerk in
the counting-house, watches after the interests of his employers, will
be the coming merchant; the young man on the farm who slights not the
work assigned him, will own a farm of his own.
Let this lesson make an impression. The road to success may be rugged,
but it is not so steep but that enough steps, if in the right
direction, be they ever so short, will in time carry you a long way
toward the top.
[Illustration: {A MOUNTAINOUS LANDSCAPE.}]