The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1871-04-01
Anecdotes Of Prominent Men.

From Robert Collyer's lecture on
"Clear Grit - are taken the following
anecdotes
If | will have clear grit and hold my
own for all time, l must commence by
eating my porridge. Franklin said
. So long as / can subsist on sawdust
pudding, You may stop your subscrip-
ton to my paper at any time Now
that was true of Sidney Smiths beauti-
ful career He went into the solitude
of Salisbury Plains and dined on peta-
toes day after day and week after week,
rather than barter single atom of his
manhood. The down trodden masses
found in him a champion to fight
their battles, and he stands to-day as
one OF the noblest Enghshmen of the
last generation, because, when he was
a young man, he could be content with
his porridge; and this, as we can
easily gather, must be one true reason
why Mr.. Greedy, long years ago, was
able to establish his great journal and
become the power he has been and is
to-day in the Nation. To exchange his
porridee for chicken in these times,
l suppose, was never allowed to come
as a temptation under that old white
coat of his. [ remember that John
Bryant, of Princeton, Illinois, told me
that when his brother, William Cullen
Bryant, adopted Spartan habits-omit-
| ting, of course, stealing-he would take
piece of bread and cheese with water
for his breakfast, do something that
had work in it before he came down to
his newspaper office, work at his Office
all day, and then go back at night to
the same sort of supper. [ have no
doubt that William Cullen Bryant owes
his long life to being contented with
his porridge. Sail Lincoln to friend
who came to the White House: 81
should be glad if you would stay and
dine with me, but have do idea what
we are going to have for dinner, be-
cause when Mrs. Lincoln is away
just browse around" And this was
the reason for his beng the man he
was. And so, turn where yon will you
encounter this truth, that to make
much or sure OF yourself, you must
make more that you are clear grit
first of all, in being able to say no tC
those good servants but bad masters
your passions and appetites, and it is
not hard'to see the line here again be
tween the false and the true.
When an Irish gardener wye shot b,
an Irishman from another country, hi
refused surgical assistance on thu
ground that he wanted to die in ordel
that the other man might be hung
He had his wish; he net only died
but his assassin was strung up. Thi
was clear grit, but not the kind tina
we would care to initiate. England wep
over Peabody, and Victoria honoret
him with tokens other regard, but Their
was greater than he, who was not 81
widely mourned, and whom the Queer
did not invite to her palace. Prof
Tyndial has said that young
man, Faraday, who could have made
fortune, and was then in the receipt o
large income, gave up oil to devote
his life to scientific investigation
through chemical experiment. He thu
died poor, when he might have left
million | would not disparage thu
benefaction of Peabody, but Farada,
gave up what he might have made
one bequeathed his money, the othe
sacrificed his life. 1t was not because
. he was Indifferent to wealth, but be
, cause he was possessed of an enthus
Iasm for science.
In one of the terrible colliery &c
idents IN Yorkshire, where | formerl,
resided, an accident illustrative of clea
! grit occurred. The inundation of bilge
) water in a mine drove the workmel
back into the pit. They were mostl,
Nil l. a 1--we, uIrO ,5utuII ruI III
There was one exception, however,
dog faneier-a man Of wild, irregula
, life. There was also two small Boys IL
the party, and after they had been con
, fined some II hours, the boys began t,
: cry out from cold aud hunger. 1t S.
) happened that the dog fancier had il
, his lunch can little food, the onl,
! thing edible in the cavern, and which
if eaten would remove one of the feS
remaining chances of escape from starv
alton. Still the rough man, aecustom
ed to find pleasure in the batting o
dogs, couldnot harden his heart agains
2 the cries of these children, and he no
! only divided his portion between them
but wrapped the smaller boy in his rough
coat, next his heart He could neithe
sing nor pray like the others, but h,
J could not put aside the appeal of help
lessness. The party were afterwart
saved bysa miracle: and when | revisit
Yorkshire, as / hope to do, mean t.
find out this honest dog fancier, who,
J have no doubt, is just as rough, anC
going to the dogs Just as fast a:
ever, and grasp his hand for this ex
hlblhOn of clear grit.
Thus, too, in the Sepoy rebellion IL
India, the rebels were given theil
choice of renouncing their religion Of
being put to the most painful and ig
nominious of deaths, yet it is believed
in England that not one of them re
nounced his faith. So, too, have Eng
lish soldiers, though usually rough anC
wicked, refused, under similar circum
stances, to make a like remuneration
but died with the cross rather than the
crescent before their eyes. 1t was cleal
grit that made Quaker Allen, III 1776
say he would use no more sugar In his
tea until the slave trade was abolished
and on the afternoon of the day wheI
that event occurred, 40 years afterward
he said to his wife: "Mrs Allen, please
put lump of sugar IN my tea The
prize of the French Academy was once
given to an old Negro woman in Mar
selles, for perpetrating the noblest deed
of the year. Her master had become
! impoverished, and she had for many
years supported him without his knowl-
edge or that of any one else, by her
scanty earnings, eked out from day to
day. The fact was discovered after the