The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1871-03-02
CLEAR GRIT"
Some Extracts from Rev. Robert Col
fyer's Last Lecture in New York.
From Nav York Tribune.s Report.

1yer's Last Lecture in New York.
From Nav York Tribuness Report
We say that we have In Chicago 3O0.-
900 inhabitants-we claimed $50, 900 be-
fore the census was taken. Now among
these tire are not few first rate men,
and good many that think they are
but amt Laughter. Now, every
man in Chicago that is somebody is
poor mans son. Every man who is
doing any sort of work in Chicago to-day
was raised poor mans son, and had to
fight his way to his place; not one of
them, as [ can ascertain, was rich
man son, and had a good time when he
was boy, except that all boys should
grow as strnng as a steel bar fighting
their way to an education and then, when
they are ready, plunging into lite with
that traditional half dollar and little
bunlle tied up in red handkerchief, as
/ have observed all rich men start
Laughter. tell you that in five and
twenty years, when most Of US that are
now in our middle ages have gone to our
reward or our retribution, the men Of
mark in this country will not be sons of
those whose fathers can give them all
they wish for, and ten times more than
they ought to have, but will be those
who are brought up in farm house and
ftaG Al l.
thick-set hindrances of every sort; and
all the brown-stone houses of this metro
polls, will be as nothing to bringing out
the noble man. / do not remember any
preacher of commanding power who was
not the son Of some man that had no
fortune to give him, or very little Tay-
lor, Fox, Bunyan, Wesley, Parker, the
two great Beechers, Beliowes-(applause)
none of these were rich mems sons.
They had this fine hardness of q ain to be-
gin with, and tell you the reason so many
noble vessels drift on lee shores, is the
want of hardness and compactness.
If have clear grit and hold my own
for all time. must commence by eating
porri3ee. Franklin said-'So long as
can subsist on sawdust pudding you may
stop your subscription to my paper any
time" The subscription was not stop
ped. Now this was true of Sydney
Smiths noble and beautiful career. He
went into the solitude of Salisbury plain
and dined on potatoes day after day and
week after week, rather than barter "A
inele atom Of his manhood. The down
trodden masses found in him champion
| to fight their battles, and he stands
to day as one Of the nobest EngliShmen
Of the last generation, because, when he
was young man, he could be content
with his polridge. and this, as we can
| easily gather, must be one true reason
| why Mr.. Greeley, long years ago, was
able to establish his great Journal, AMI
| become the power he has been and is
to-day in the nation. To exchange his
porridge for chicken in those times.
| was never allowed to come as tempta
ton under that old white coat of his.
| Applause, [ remember that John
Bry ant, of Princeton, H., told me that
when his brother, William Cullen Bryant,
adopted Spartan habits-omitting of
course, stealing-he would take a piece
| Of bread and cheese with water for his
breakfast. do something that had work
|
in II before he came down TO newspaper
Office, work at his Office al day and then
| go back at night to the same sort Of sup
per. [ have no doubt that William Cul-
len Bryant owes his long life to being
contented with his porridge. Said Lin
coin 10 friend who came to the White
House Il should be glad if lou would
stay and dine with me, but [ have no
| idea of what we are going to have for
dinner, because when Mrs. Lincoln is
away just browse around" And this
was the reason for his being the man he
was. And so, turn where you will, you
encounter this truth: that to make much
or sure of yourself you must make sure
that you are clear grit first of ALL in
being able to say Nd to these good ser
wants but bad masters, your passions and
appetites, and it is not hard to see here
again the line between the false and the
trup.