The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1866-01-25
LET US TALK ABOUT A PRINTER,

LET USTALK ABOUT A PRINTER
There has always been a clan of writer,
ready to sound the praises of self-mad,
men-those whose fortunes have beef
the result of their own hard and per.
sistent exertions-and we have always
felt refreshed and encouraged with reel
tails, which famed the hope that Oul
turn was to come, when all of our strug.
giles would eliminate in the success that
we felt was deserved. Frank Leslie hes
commenced, in his Weekly, a series OF
these papers, and some valuable names
and facts have been given to the world,
that the world is better for knowing or,
that portion of it that is striving with
the hope of like results %springing from
like causes in their cases. Useful to us,
especially, more at the present time,
when we are rising from the prostration
in which recent events have placed us,
through the indomitable energy and
perseverance that characterize the peo-
pie, and need such lessons as stimulants
to activity.
There is this, however, too often seen
in sketches of self-made men, that the
mere fact of their condition is dwelt
upon, and the position in which their
wealth has placed them, irrespective of
the true manhood that may, all the
while, be wanting. We cannot shut our
eyes to the fact that money-making and
Misunderstanding are too often con-
founded, and that the glare of dollars,
like charity, may conceal or obscure
many serious defects in character, that
would be but too plain in one who is not
self-made, or even made at all, reckon
ing his life by his shekels. In estimating
self-made men we should take all into
the account, and the noble individual
who, by his industry, self reliance, saga
city and manly worth, has won himself
fame and fortune, should in justice have
precedence of him who has secured his
fame by the ability or brains of others,
or by the accident that at times suffers
a clown to rank wisdom in the great
battle.
One of the most fallacious teachings
of the times, W. think, is that where
money is represented as the be-all and
end-all of life, and that virtue should be
regarded only as it is represented by
1.-The TIM" There are certain firms in
the large commercial cities who, on
New Years Day, give their clerks, as a
present, the life of a very excellent man.,
who had died rich after a life of hard
rubbing and close saving; the argument
of which is that every young man who
strives for money and saves it, will come
out in the end as he did, with half o
million, more or less, and go straight to
heaven at last, without a question being
asked.
We have in our mind one who comes
fully up to our w high standard of
excellence as a "self-made man"-one
who has become rich by his own indus.
try, but who has so cultivated the
amenities, the while, that his happiness
10 coequal with his dividends, from the
return ofthe happiness he imparts to all
around him. He is of the New England.
Boston, stock of self-made men-one
who sprung from the hard subsoil of
life, made fallow by the pillow of neces-
sity. Have readers ever heard OF
John II. Eastburn, printer?u who was
for nearly thirty years " city printer of
Boston, and would have been till this
time but that some one wanted the place
more than he did? We have selected
him to illustrate our meaning of a
" self-made man." and those who know
him as we do, will readily assent to the
propriety of the example.
Mr.. Eastburn is a Bostonian, born in
April, 1906, and at the age of sixty-one,
is a handsome and hearty specimen of
well preserved manhood. He was left
fatherless in 1872, and thus early learned
that he was to rely upon himself for adj
vancement. In 1890, he went apprentice
to Major Ben. Russell, of the Columbian
Gntinel, with whom he remained until
he was twenty-one, discharging all the
duties of his position, from "devil" to
graduate, with fidelity and ability. His
mother died on his twenty-first birth
day !; a sad calamity for the commence
ment of manhood, but one which served
to strengthen his manly resolution. He
began business with his freedom.