The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1854-09-22
Business Endurance.

/ lUT HIS peIsOl anu seTFlCeS.
Business Endurance.
Men of genius without endurance canno
succeed. Men who start in one kind of bu
siness may find it impossible to continu,
therein all their days. Ill health may de-
mand a change. New and wider fields oI
enterprise and success may be opened tC
them; new elements Of character may be de-
veloped. Men may have a positive distaste
! for some pursuits, and success may dema nd
change. None of these cases fall within
the general rule. Men may have rare tai
! ents, but if they are 'every thing by turns,
and nothing long, they must not expect to
prosper. No form Of business is free from
vexations; each man knows the spot on
which his own harness chafes; but he cannot
know how much his ne:ghbor suffers. 1t is
said that Yankee can splice rope in many
| different ways; ali English sailor knows but
one method, but in that method he does his
work well. Life is not long enough to al
low any one to be really master OF more
than one pursuit.
The history ofeminent men in all profess
sions and callings prove this. The great
statesman Daniel Webster was a great law
yer. His boyhood was marked only by un.
common industry; as a speaker he did not
! excel in early life. With great deliberation
he selected the law as his profession, Tor
could he be deferred from his chosen pursuit.
While poor student not the tempting prize
of fifteen hundred dollars year as clerk of
tho rtS than m larna nod 5,y: th IRA ot
difficulty for him by the zeal and influence OF
his father. nor could ali the persuasions OF the
father turn him from the mark he had set be-
fore him; and his great eulogist, the Attorney
General of Massachusetts, is another marked
illustration oc resolu;e endurance and indom-
table -lie.long-centering in one
profession, making him one of the chief orna-
ments of that professional not its head in the
United States.
Our late distinguished Ambassador at the
Court OF st. James, Hon. Aobot Lawrence,
whose wealth has poured out for all benevo-
lent purposes in donations large as the sea.
can recall the time when he had his profess
sion to select, and the first dollar Of his splen-
did fortune to earn. He chose deliberately
a calling; he pursued that occupation with in
tegrity and endurance, through dark days and
trying seasons, and the result is before the
word. This case affords an apt illustration
of the proverb Of the wise man, that man
"diligent in his business shall stand before
kings, and not become mean men,"
The late John Jacob Astor, as he left his
native Germany, paused beneath linden
tree not far from the line that separated his
native land from another, and made three re-
solutions, which he intended should guide
him through life; 81. He would be honest.
2. He would be Industrious. 8. He would
never gamble" He was OH foot; his wealth
was in the small bundle that swung from the
stick laid on his shoulder. The world was
before him. He was able to carry them out.
His success is the best comment on his en-
durance. Stephen Girard, at the age of 20
years, was in quite moderate circumstances,
being the captain OF small coasting vessel
on the Delaware, and part owner of the same.
No trait in his character was more marked
than his endurance, and this eleme mt gave
him fortune.
All men who have succeeded we'll in life
have been men of high resolve and endurance.
The famed William Pit was in early life
fond of gaming; the passion increased with
his years; he knew that he must at once mas
ter the passion or the passion would master
him. He made firm resolve that he would
never again play at game of hazard. He
could make such resolution, he could keep
it. His subsequent eminence was the fruit
of that power. William Wilberlorce in his
earlier days, like most young men of his rank
and age, loved the excitement of places OF
hazard. He was one night persuaded keep
the faro bank He saw the ruin of the vice
of gaming; as he never saw it before; he was
appalled, with what he beheld. Sitting amid
gaming, ruin and despair, he took the resolu-
ton that~he would never again enter ga
ming house. He changed his company with
the change of his conduct, and subsequently
became one of the most distinguished Eng
lishmen of his age.
DR.. Samuel Johnson was once requested
to drink wine with friend; the Doctor pro-
posed tea. But drink little wine,' said his
host Il know abstiLence-l know excess
but know no medium. Long since, re-
solved, as could not drink little wine |
would drink none at ALL A man who thus
supports his resolution by action was a man
of endurance, and that element is as well dis
played in this incident as in the compilation
of his great work. When Richard Brinsley
Sheridan made his first speech in parliament
il was regarded on all hands as most morti-
fyiag failure. His f,iends urged him to aban-