The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-10-01
A Word to Young Men.

An able lecturer in the East recently
gave the following true points for young
men: In order to have any success in
life, or any worthy success, you must
resolve to carry into your work full
ness of knowledge-not merely a suf-
fciency, but more than sufficiency.
In this respect, follow the rule of the
machinists. If they want machine to
do the work of six horses, they give it
nine-horse power, SO that they may have
reserve of three. To carry on the
business of life you must have q surplus
power. Be fit for more than the thing
you are doing. Let everyone know that
you have reserve in yourself; that You
have more power than you are now
using. If you are not too large for the
place you occupy, you are too small for
it. How full our country is of bright
examples, not only of those who occupy
some proud eminence in public life, but
in every place you may find men going
on with steady nerve, attracting the at
tention of their fellow citizens, and
carving out for themselves names and
fortunes from small and humble begin
nings, and in the face of formidable OBJ.
stacles. Let me cite an example of a
man I recently saw in the little village
of Norwich, N. Y. IF you wish to know
his name go into any hardware store and
ask for the best hammer in the world,
and if the salesman be an intelligent
man, he will bring you hammer bear
ing the name of D. sMaydole. Young
gentlemen, take that hammer in your
hand, drive nails with it, and draw in
spirrtion from it.
Thirty years ago boy was struggling
through the SHOWS of the Chenango val
ley, trying to hire himself to black
smith. He succeeded, and learned his
trade; but he did more. He took into
his head that he could make better ham,
mer than any other man had made. He
devoted himself to the task for more than
quarter of a century. He studied the
chemistry Of metals. the strength of ma
terials, the philosophy of form. He
studied failures. Each broken hammer
of the process that he did not master.
He taxed his wit to invent machines to
perfect and cheaper his processes. No
improvement in working steel or iron es-
capped his notice. What may not twenty
five years of effort accomplish when con-
centrated on single object? He earned
success; and now, when his name is
stamped on a steel hammer, it is his note,
his bond, his integrity embodied in steel.
The spirit of the man is in each hammer,
and the work, like the workman, is un-
rivalled. Mr.. Maydole is now acknowl-
edged to have made the best hammer in
the world. Even the sons of Thor, across
the sea, admit it.
Young gentleman, let not poverty
stand as an obstacle in your way.
Poverty is uncomfortable, as can
testify; but nine times out of ten the
best thing that can happen to young
man is to be tossed oberboard, and COM
PEELED to sink or swim for himself. In
all my acquaintance I have never
known one to be drowned who was
worth the saving. This would not be
wholly true in any country but one of
political equality like ours. The editor
of one o; the leading magazines of
England told me, not many months ago,
fact startling enough in itself, but of
great significance to poor man. He
told me that he had never yet known, in
all his experience, single boy of the
class Of. farm laborers (not those who
own farms, but mere farm laborers) who
had ever risen above his class. Boys
from the manufacturing and commercial
classes had risen frequently, but from
the farm labor class he had never known
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