Delaware inquirer. (Wilmington, Del.) 1859-18??, 1860-01-14
'TIs USELESS TRYIN G.

| ing, was the answer we received ono day when
talking Of something quite unimportant to you
dear reader, but very ncnr our own heart. The
voice was one We always listen to, apd not sell
dom follow; but this time its discouraging ar
gnments were unheeded. We didtry, and We
| did succeed. ".' v =" -,
| The fact set us moralizing on the good OF
evil tendency of these three words" 'Ts use-
less trying" And the conclusion we came to
was this, that for one vain idea dispelled, one
wild project overturned by their prudentiniu-
ence, these chilling words haverung the knell
of hundred brilliant and ife-sustaning hopes,
and paralyzed into apathy thousand. active
andarden minds, who might otherwise have
elevated themselves, and helped the world on
iii its progress. What would america have
been if that strong hearted Columbus had been
discouraged by sneers and arguments about
the uselessness Of his attemptto discover anew
world? Or where would have been Newtons
istupendous theory, if, at the commencement Of
his researches, some meddling friend at his
ear had whispered Dont,t try;. you will be
sure to fail p In aid of the " Never-try" doc
trine comes vanity with its potent arguments
that no attempt at oil is better than a failure.
We deny the fact in tofo Should man fail
in. a project too high for him he at least be-
comes acquainted with the extent of his own
powers; he loses that inflated .self-exaltation
which is the greatest bane to real merit and
in finding his own level, he may yet do well.
And better, far better, that all the pretenders
in the world should sink back into deserved
obscurity; than that one spark of real talent
shodd be extinguished by the cold-hearted
check-"Tis useless trying r. Now, having
prosed enough, let us ehlighten our arguments
by a story. Ss4s ...sS IL,
Between ten and twenty years'ago-the pre-
else date is immaterial- was in the city
of New York BARRIERS apprentice, young
boy named Reuben Vandrest- His Dutch lin
eage was shown by his surname, which, in
course of years and generations, had beencor-
rupted from Van der Dest to yandrest, while
for his Scriptural Christian name he was in
debted toaa worthy Quaker, his maternal
grandfather, who had come over with William
Penn. These names were, in truth, all the boy
owed to his progcnitors,eas from his cradle he
had been an orphan cast on the charity of the
wide world But the excellent sect TO which
Reubens mother had belonged, is one of the
few who never cast the lambs from their bosom,
and the orphan child was not deserted. The
Friends toell care of him. and when he was
able to earn livelihood, one of their number
received him as an apprentice. Such was the
short and simple story of the barbers boy
Without entering on metaphysics, every hui
man being has some inner life which the world
outside know nothing of. Thus from his earliest
childhood the passion of Reuben Vandrest had
been music. lie would follow the itinerant
minstrels of the city through one street after
another often thus losing his meals his rest
everything except his schooling, which hprecious
thing he was too wise to throw away even for
music. lie made friendship with blind pipers,
Italian hurdy-gurdyists, and above, all, with
wandering iiddlers for, with an intuitive per-
ception, the yolin-the prince of string instru-
ments-was his chief favorite. From all and
each of these wandering musicians Reuben was
intent on gaining something; they were won
by his childish manners and his earnest admi-
ration--for love of praise is the same in a blind
fiddler us in an opera singer-and by degrees
Reuben not only listened, but learned to play.
No instrument came amiss to him !; but his
sole private property was an old fife;'and with
this simplest of all orchestral varieties the poor
I. IL. l. -, IN Il 10 and
there strive, with his acute ear and retentive
memory, to make out the tunes he had heard
in the streets, or invent others.
But the grand era in the boys life was CO.
ming. One day as he stood .wistfully looking
at Il violin which he held in his arms fondly
and lingeringly, prior to returning it to its
right owner, poor street musician, the idea of
its construction first entered Reuben's mind.
He had been accustomed to regard a violin as
a mysterious thing-a self-creating, sound
producing being aud never once had he con-
sidered of what it was made, or how Now he
began to peer into its mysteries, and to find
out that it was only wood and catgut after all.
He questioned his friend the fiddler, but the
man had scraped away during lifetime with
outonce casting a thought on the mechanism of
his instrument. True, he could replace bro
ken string and at times even manufacture
bridge with his penknife, but that was all
When Reuben inquisitively wanted to learn
how violins were made, the fiddler shook his
head, and said he did not know,
ado you think could make one 2" pursued
the anxious boy.
(. A burst of laughter, so cuttingly derisive,
that Reuben's face grew crimson, was the only
answer. why, You little simpleton,' cried
the fiddler when his mirth had subsidized
2. surely you'll not be so silly as to try? You
could as soon build house,
"But violns must be made by somebody
HYes, by people who know all about it; not
by lad like you. Take my advice, and don't
try
Reuben said no more but he could not get
the idea from his mind. Every violin that he
saw he begged to look at; he examined the
varieties of construction, the sort of wood used,
the thickness and fashion of the strings; and
after weeks of consideration, he at last deter
mined to try and make one for himself During
the long light summer nights, he worked hour
after hour in his garret, or on the roof of the
house his natural mechanical skill was aided
by patience and ardor; and with the few tools
which he borrowed from the good-natured
carpenters who had given him the wood, he
succeeded in forming the body of the violin,
Rat hara a 1nnt, casqatinn tOnk ,,laca in Ran.