Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-09-26
A ROLLING STONE.

/ gathers no moss which is applied to
men who often change their business.
going from one pursuit to another success
full in none. But the truth of the maxim
depends on the qualities of the man. Sa-
gacity, decision and perseverance may
turn the maxim into a lie, as it did in the
life of the late Peter Cooper His father
was halter in New York, with nine
children, Peter being the fifth child. With
SO many mouths to feed and bodies to
clothe, Peter was obliged TO pull, pick and
clean wool used in hat bodies when he was
mere child. He was kept at this work
during his boyhood, except one year, when
he attended a poor school and learned
something of arithmetic, reading and writ
ing. When he was fifteen years of age he
was a good halter. Then his father re-
linquished his business and removed to
Peekskill, where he ran brewery, and
Peter mastered the art of beer-making in
two years. But he disiked the business /;
1t was too low and mean for boy of his
aspirations.
With his fathers consent he went to
New York for employment of some kind.
Entering carriage factory, he inquired,
Have you room for an apprentice
Do you know anything about the bust
ness ~ the proprietor asked.
No, sir; nothing was Peters frank
reply;
Have you been brought up to work.
| Peters answer was brief story of his life.
Is your father willing that you should
learn this business" continued the man.
He has given me my choice of trades"
answered Peter
II take you will you stay with me and
work out your time?"
81 will, certainly was the youths as
| surlng answer. So a bargain was struck
S25 year and board-and Peter learned
the coachmaldng business. -Four years he
spent at this shop, when, at
| twenty-one years of age his employ
ers offered to build HIM shop and set him
up in business, which offer he declined
because he had horror of being bur-
dened with debt" 1t was during his ap-
| premiership to the carriage-maker that
| Peter began TO feel his need of more educa-
| ton. He procured books, and spent his
| evenings and leisure moments and other
times in mental improvement. He looked
about for an evening school which he
might attend, but there was no such school
| in the city Disappointed and somewhat
discouraged, Peter resolved, then and
| there, that if ever he made money enough
| he would establish an institution where
Intelligent and aspiring youths like himself
might have an opportunity 10 learn-a
years after in the erection of Cooper In
| stitute in New York.
The war of 1872 began about the time
Peter reached his majority, and it ruined
the carriage-making business. Atthe same
time the war created demand for cloth
ing, and Peter Cooper invented machine
| for cutting away the nap on the surface of
cloth, for which the demand became SO
! great within short time that he found
himself unexpectedly in thriving money
| making business. The return of peace,
however, in 1915, destroyed that business
as suddenly as it was created, for American
manufacture could not compete with the
English IN the absence of tariff and the
market overlooked with English goods.
Next he bought out. a grocer, doing
| business on the spot where Cooper Institute
now stands. He prJspered in this venture,
but at the end of the year sold out and en-
| gagged in the manufacture of glue bust
ness to which he could stick, for in it he
saw fortune. The latter business proved
| so lucrative that in few years it yielded
him an income OF $4,000 annually. His
| fortune was madel
| Halter, brewer, coachmaker, inventor,
| grocer, glue manufacturer "a rolling
stone gathers no moss" 1t gathered pile
of moss in this case. Cooper upset the
| maxim. While in nine cases in ten the
maxin proves true, in this case Cooper
proved it false. His sagacity, decision, ap-
plication and perseverance enabled him to
swap good chance for better one sue
cessfully. His rolling was not indis-
criminate and aiInless. There was method
in it. He was forewarned and forearmed
by his observation, circumspection and
self-reliance. No inefficient, shiftless youth
could have accomplished so much by any
amount of = rolling Changing from one
/ pursuis to another without reason or iudg-
mountaineering for the mere sake of chang
| ing q jack-at-all-trades and good at none
that is the rolling stone that gathers no