New-York tribune., 1875-11-27
THE OPEN SECBET or THEIR SUCCESS.

THE OPEN SECBET or THEIR SUCCESS
Few sermons preached tomorrow will be
weighted with as forcible meaning as were
the news dispatches of the present week, and
the brief story in them of the lives of one or
two men. The lives of public men in America
are so often dramatic and full of sudden and
great changes that they attract little notice,
and few of us trouble ourselves to dcduce any
signiication touching our own work or aims
from them. man dies who has reached the
second highest rank in the Government, and we
hear without surprise the story of the excess
siye poverty and hard straits of his childhood
From the day of his birth until he was II he
tells us that he had not had i'll all one dollar
TO spend After that he worked at shOemak-
ing, making 50 a week, of which S2 went for
board. His family and himself were ahjectly
ignorant as well as poor. Yet when We hear
that in this strait ho "made up his mind to
ego to school, and to succeed, and that he
did il, and died VicePresident of the United
States, we take it quite rs matter OF course,
and expend no wonder on the case. So
too, with the history of the elder Astor,
recalled by the death of his son. A butcher
boy sets out with his bundle OH his shoulder
for America having made up his mind to be
honest. to work, and to make money. We are
not startled at all to know that when he died
he beaucathed to his son $40, 100000. Every
one of us can reckon in our own experience in
stances Of success, not as extreme, but quite
as remarkable as these. Men start in Che race
of life handicapped with every weight of
poverty, disease, and inability. but they "make
cup their minds to reach this or that point,
- Il in
this country that we should receive it without
surprise The road is not broad, but narrow,
and the multitude are all in it. Where one
achieves the prize thousands sink discouraged.
and among the thousands there are men more
brilliant, shrewdcr, more richly endowed with
wit, culture, and even Judgment, than the win
ners. Why were they winners, then! Their
aims were not always the best, but they
conquered them, and surely it is worth our
while to know how they did it; what was the
secret of their power over other men and cir
cumstances. The secret we believe to lie in
their thorough earnestness and sincerity. They
"made up their minds as TO what they
wanted. They never altered them. There
was no sham OF faltering about Henry Wilson,
John Jacob Astor, Franklin, Girard, Andrew
JOilNSDu. lou may iilNui a pii-uoS idSc
of men; but it is the bulldog, after all, that
brings down the prey, not the graceful spaniel.
"Here stand l." says Luther, "and if all the
:" lies in Worms were devils, | could do no
"otherwise."
There is much talk to boys of general cul-
ture they are pruned and Topped OH every
side; il is held desirable that they be scholars,
men OF business, of society; shall know pol
itics, religion, trade, and bric-a-brac, dress
well, shine ut the dinner table IL this is the
best way, let us take it, but not growl
against fate when some homely nag, long
winded, and with tremendous staying power,
leaves our well-trained and dainty courser
behind. The horse or man who means to
reach the goal must see nothing but the goal.
He has no strength or time to waste on side
issues. The world has neither money nor