Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1879-01-17
How Boys may succeed in Life.

The choice Of an occupation depends
partly upon the individual preference,
and partly upon circumstances. Itmay
be that you are debarred from entering
upon the business for which you are
best adapted. In that case, make the
best choice in your power. Apply your
self faithfully and earnestly to what
ever You undertake, and you cannot
well help achieving a moderate success.
Patient application sometimes leads to
great results.
You emphasize the fact of your being
a poor boy, but this affords no grounds
OF diseouragement Not only many,
but most of our successful business
and professional men we're trained in
the hard school of penury. Stewart,
Vanderbilt and John Jacob AstOr, strug-
gled upward from a youth of poverty
A well known member of Congress as
sured the writer that at the age Of nine
teen he was a fat-boatmau on the Mis-
sissippi river. The obscure beginnings
of Abraham Lincoln are familiar to all
Americans. Yet more remarkable was
the rise of President Andrew johnson,
who did not learn to read and write till
after he was twenty-One, So numerous
are similar cases that it almost seems as.
If poverty, instead of being a hindrance,
were a positive help. Rich boys are
often spoiled, and their energies sapped
and undermined, by luxurious habits,
the too free use Of money, and the lack
OF that discipline which comes from
indigence.
AS an element Of success great stress
must be laid upon incOrruptibIe integ-
rity, which of late years is unfortunate
ly too rarely found. A business man
once said to the writer
E" can find plenty of smart young
men to work for me. What want is an
honest clerk, whom 1 can implicitly
trust.''
Scarcely a day passes in which some
defaleation is not brought to light.
Widespread misery often results from
the lax principles of some young man
placed in a position of trust. Let our
young friend resolve he will live on
bread and water rather than appropriate
penny that is not his own. Let him
initiate the stern integrity of John
Quincy Adams, who would not wrire a
private letter upon Government paper
but provided a separate stock Of station
cry for such uses. A boy or man who
establishes reputation for strict hon
esty will not remain out of employment.
Don't give up all your time to busi-
ness. Reserve a part, if only an hour
daily, for reading and mental improve
ment. If Abbott Lawrence had been
familiar only with the details of his
business he would never have received
the appointment of Minister to Egg
land, place which he filed with cred
1t to himself and to his country. Some
men prominent in business have found
time also for wide and varied course
OF reading, which made them agreeable
and instructive companions. Once at a
dinner party an eminent clergyman
made an incorrect historical aIlusion,
and was at once set right BY a quiet
merchant who sat beside him.
Last of all, remember that you owe a
debt to humanity. Try to live and labor
so that the world may be the richer and
mankind the happier for your having
lived. A great inventor, great phil
anthropist, leaves a legacy to his race.
Who can estimate the ineaIcuIabIe debt
of the world to the inventor of printing,
of the steam engine, of the telegraph?
Who will deny that Washington, Frank
lin and John Howard, helped to make
the world better than they found it?
How long will the memory of Scott, Of
Dickens and Of Thackeray live in the
fund of innocent pleasure which their
works are destined to afford for genera
tons to come? All cannot attain their
celebrity or emulate their great achieve
ments, but no one is so humble that he
cannot promote in some degree the hap
plness of those around him.
A good mother, when her son was
leaving the home of his childhood and
going out into the great world, knowing
that he was ambitious, gave him this
parting Injunction
Ny son, remember that though it is
a good thing to be a great man, it is a
great thing to be a good mau."
No sOunder or ruer words were ever
spoken. A great man may dazzle, but a
good man is a beacon afar, by whose be-
nehcent light a multitude are enabled
to walk in safety. The best success is
often achieved by the humblest, and an
obscure life well spent, is better than
wicked renown.