Smyrna times., 1875-12-08
The Open Secret of Their Success,

| tN' WIN 'HO Dllcl story IN lnCm OF The
lives OF one or two men. The lives of pub
llc men i'll America are so often dr9mati,
and full OF sudden and great changes thar
they attract little notice, and few of Il,
trouble ourselves to deduce anv sionifca
ton 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 stolv OF
the excessive poverty and hard straits Of
his childhood. From the day of his birth
until he was 2l he tells us that he had not
had IN all one dollar to spend. After that
he worked at shoemaking, making S. y
week, Of which 81 went for board. His
family and himself where aIjectly ignorant
as well as poor. Yet when we hear that
IN this strait he g." made up his mind to 90
TO school = and to succeed, and that he did
it, and died Vice President of the United
states, we take it quite as matter of
course, and eXpend 10 wonder on the case.
50, too, with the history of the elder Astor.
recalled by the death of his son. A butcher
! boy sets out with his bundle ON his should.r p
Tor America, having made up his mind to
| be honest, to work, and to make money
| We arc not startled at all to know that
when he died he bcqueathcd to his son 500.
100000. Every one of us can reckon in
our own experience instances of success.
not as extreme, but quite as remarkable a,
these. Men start in the race of life bapdi.
capped with every weight of poverty.
disease, and inability, but they ..maLe nm
their minds to reach this or that point.
and they reach it. Nor is success 50 casv
N this country that we should receive il
without surprise. The road is not broad
but narrow, and the multitude are all in if
Where one achieves the prize, thousands
SINK discouraged, and among the thousands
there are men more brilliant. slrewdcr.
more richly endowed with wit, culture. and
even judgment, than the winners. Wbv
where they winners then? Their aims were
not always the best. but they conouercd
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 circum.
stances. The secret we believe to lie in
their thorough carnestncss and cinccritv
They made up their minds as to what
they wanted. They never altered them.
There was no sham or faItering about
Henry Wilson, John Jacob Astor. Franklin
Girard, Andrew johnson. You may cali
them a bulldog race Of men: but it is the
bulldog, after all, that brings down the
prey, not the graceful spaniel. "Here
stand !, says Luther, "and if all the tiles
in Worms were devils, could do no other.
wise"
There IS much talk to boys of general
culture; they are pruned and Topped on
every side; it is held desirable that they
be scholars, men of business. of society .
shall know politics, religion, trade. and
bric-a-brac. dress well, shine at the dinner
table, If this is the best way, let us take
1t, but not growl against fate when some
homely nag, longwinded, and with tremen. |
dous staying power leaves our wclltrained |
and dainty courser behind The horse or
man who means TO reach the goal must see
nothing but the goal. He has no strcnotb
or time to waste on side issues. The world
has neither money nor fame to nav for
dilcttante effort; heaven is not to be gained
by it.
Looking back through history, the men
whose stature rises above the dead level are
those who know the work for which they
were fitted, and strained every nerve and
muscle, not for day or year, but life
long to accomplish it.
There is no better proof of this than the
success of the revivalists now among Ms.
They are not logical men, nor scholarly ON
The platforms beside them are dozens of
1lergymen who can preach sermons which
will read better than thers-scrmons full of
learning, pathos, and truth-and who have
preached all their lives to drowsy congre-
cations; while tens of thousands flock to
hear Sankey's simple songs and Moodv's
lngrammatical talks. The power of tho
men lies in their surrender of body and
'oul to their mission; churches, creeds.
iogmas are nothing to them but garments
md wrappings; they only see men soon to
lie before them, heaven above and hell
beneath, and Jesus waiting, and they tell
Is OF these things with terrible sincerity.
The effects of their sermons may be lasting
n not, but it speaks much for the sincerity
1t human nature that multitudcs follow
hem that Methodist, Quaker, Ritualist,
ven Roman Catholic, throng together to c
lear this story of the Savior told by men I
'ho know in whom they have believed, and {
10 not question the manner in which it is r
old.
The moral remains. If our boys are to
onquer anything in life, let it be money.
anne, or religious faith, the surest prepare
ion is to give them obstinacy of purpose
laying power. The halEhearted fellow.
he man who plays critic all his days, the y
lan who sits scowling in the corner, show
ig the sores of some long.ago disappoint. "
lent, carping at luckier men-these will i
lWaVs he the uudar DOGS In tho f,b4 - ~