The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1871-01-21

gre salary of clerk or book-keeper, are mar
ried, add their quota to our ever-increasing
thousands, and die unthought of and unknown.
But are all these men failures? By no means.
Could we enter their home circle we should see
that the tired, neglected clerk often attains
that which is seldom the lot of the wealthy
employer-happiness and content. He has
failed as the world classes success, but he has
attained a nobler prize--the government of
himself, of his passions, and his ambitious
hopes.
Whatever any man would accomplish and
10 we'll he must thoroughly learn. He must
10 axe himself master of what he would under
ia ke, and never while following it lose sight of
the study of its general bearings. Nine-tenths
Of the failures which occur have their cause in
the persons failing have engaged in operations
outside of their legitimate business-in no way
connected with analogous to it. Put too
;nany irons in the fire, and one is sure to
burn,-none to be properly managed putonly
one in, and watch it, and you are sure to have
it heated thoroughly foruse. Concentration of
force iE a principle of nature in every depart
ment An aggregation of metallic matter pro-
duces our rich veins of ore-diffused through
space they would be useless. The sconcentra-
zion of energy, the constant study, the turning
Of every idea to bear on the era to be accom-
plshed is the sure guarantee ofsuccess, wheth-
-r it be the accumulation of fortune by
tual work, or the getting one with more appar
ent ease by marriage. The principle is ever
The same; STILL the latter is often attained more
by an exercise of the heels than the head, by
The skill of a fop's tailor than any heart or
brain of the fop.
1t is fair to say, though, that but few men
ever are an absolute success without having
as one time in their lives made a failure; yet
The principle of success seems born in some
| men. Those who fail and despair call it luck
we call it an inborn faculty Of sticking" to a
ching. To acquire this power of concentra-
tag energy and thought, most men have to go
through training, scholarship of expert
ence. This, alone, will not always give sue
ccss butt it is the principle, there must be also
u determination 10 save, careful study of all
The influences that bear for or against the bus
mess undertaking. If time arrives when
that business ceases to pay, and judgement
tells that it can not be revived, it must be
iropped forever. We would not say give up
business merely because it does not pay, pro-
tent. but if man is master of his business,
has made it his whole study, he knows how
soon, if at all, it may be revived, how much la
Dor and capital it will take, and can draw his
own inference whether the game is worth the
hunting. 1t is probable that Com Vanderbilt
has never assigned to any one his reasons for
so suddenly and so thoroughly quitting the
steam boat business; yet we can infer that with
an eve single to the control of the commercial
interests of New York, he saw that the railroads
centering there were lat least to be) greater
power than the marine transportation; that
the great grain carriage of the West would
give him more Of the elements of the power he
now holds, than all the steamship lines. We
all know that he changed; and as singly as he
devoted himself to his frs, he has as undivi-
dedly attached himself to his present interest
Success, them in whatever branch of busi-
ness or social life it be desired, is simply the
result of persistent effort, making every means
turn to the end aimed at, and never ecknowl-
edging defeat; but fdefeat come, willing or
unwilling, Immediately rallying for another
contest, and ever aiming at the highest point
Of possible attainment. Combine with these
ibstemiousness of habit, utter regardessness
Of snears Or contempt, respectful, perhaps hum
Die demeanor to apparent superiors, retaining
self-respect and innate consciousness of power,
never seeming to know but ever knowing, po-
lite in manner but firm in position taken /;
and if there is another rule would place
above all these it is study the faculty OF hold
ing your tongue. "Be sure where, when, and
to whom you speak"
This is our theory of success, and we submit
that it meets with practical illustration in the
lives Of all those men who are to-day our mer-
chant princes, railroad kings, or their bankers.
What man has done, man may do.-Phrenolog-
ical Journal.