St. Paul daily globe., 1893-06-10
THE SUCCESSFUL MAN.

THE SUCCESSFUL MAN.
Archbishop Ireland Analyses His
Attributes.
The last toast wos responded to by the
archbishop Of st. Paul, Right Rev. John
Ireland, who spoke as follows:
The successful man! l am not at all
times wOrshiper before the shrine of
snccess; | am this evening. make my
terms when yield homage to success.
Splendor and might do not win with
me. Greatness and goodness do. These
two attributes of soul | should honor,
although | found them set in clouds OF
unavoidable failure. They deserve sue
cess it comes to them, outside untoward
circumstances, as the natural frultage,
and its largeneSS is the evidence of
their own largeneSS. Success reward
ing merit nd nire and revere; | rejoice
in its presence, and with the readleSt of
hands l protfer it tribute.
The successful man, full worthy of
all your praise and all your triumphS is
the citizen Of st. Paul James j. Hill.
Honors come to him regal in mag
nificence. The thoroughfareS of Mn
nesota's capital, in these days of reJolc-
Ing, recall the Appian and the Sacred
ways, as Titus aud Trojan wheeled
their chariots into imperial Rome. re-
turning from Asiatic and Daclan con-
quests Cities aud provinces OF the
nation send their Ambassadors to take
part in our festivities; the president of
the republic of the United States saluteS
our hero.
A great railroad has been completed
work gigantic when measured by the
difficulties which have been overcome,
and gigantic when measured in the i'm
menstv of the results of the enterprise
upon the fortunes OF millions OF people;
and this railroad is due, from its incep-
ton to its completion, to one man,
whose individuality enters into all its
parts and operations to degree such
that it is his, as no railroad in the coun-
try. OF other enterprise of equal magni-
tude, may be said to belong to or repre-
sent one man. -,
Thirty-six years ago, or thereabouts,
James j. Hill stepped from the deck Of
Mississippi steamer and walked up
the streets Of st. Paul
FrIendiess and Penniless Youth.
Today he controls over 1000 miles of
railroad, covering the vast territory
from the Mississippi river and Lake
Superior to the Pacific ocean. From
an Eastern outlet of the Great Northern
his majestic ships sail over our inland
seas into the bosom OF our Eastern
states. The day IS near its dawn when
other roads shall be built aud other
ships shall be manned, and this prince
of transportation will with one hand
touch China and Japan and with the
other distant Atlantic realms. The
Great Northern reaches today from st.
Paul to Seattle; the Great Northern,
James j. Hill's road, st. Paul's road,
complete in all appurtenances. strong
in financial life, most hopeful OF the
rewards of the futute.
The success Of James j. Hill as rail
road builder is unparalleled in America
or Europe. Whence his success? From
his own mind and will; and tor this we
honor him. The opportunity lay,indeed.
before him: the unrivaled West
stretched out its territory in all its
GOd-given wealth, from the Mlssis-
sippi valley to the Pacific ocean, and,
sooner or later, man would have put 1t
to profit. But he saw and and under
stood the opportunity when others did
not perceive it; he set to work to put it
to profit when his friends and fellow
citizens thought him to be dreamer,
and he adhered to his plans when none
others would have had the needed cOur-
age, and none others could have seen
pathway from the darkness of difficult
ties to the sunlight of success.
James J. Hill received from the Gre
ator singularlY acute intellect. In this
he was slngularly favored. All men
are not born equal Intellectually, and in
the race of life some must necessarily
be distanced by others. But natures
gifts do not suffice; they must be de-
veloped and supplemented by
Ones own LaDOrs.
1t is the absence of those laoors which
puts so many in the back ranks. These
and who envy it in others. Often they
are. without it through their own
Incidence. Mr.. Hill once casually
tod me an incident of his
early career, which reveals him so
clearly that l cannot refrain from re-
peating it. His residence during one
winter was the cabin OF a river steam
boat, tied up for the cold season at our
levee. lie took into the cabin. with a
few pieces of rough furniture, an arm
full of books, among which such volumes
as Milman'S history aud several scien-
tific treatises. When, in the following
spring, LD6 Ice lOOS6uGQ around his
boat, he had read and annotated all his
books and spent some days without
reading, as his store bad given out and
could not be repleniShed.
The young Hill was hard and per-
severing student of books on all sub
jects. as the older Hill is to this very
day. Mr.. Hill was and is thinker,
careful observer of things and men. He
wasted in foolish frOlics neither his
money nor his time; he resolved to
grow into useful man, and he grew
into great man. This Is why he dis
covered opportunities and was able to
form wise plans. This is why, the first
morning when he sat in the chair of the
manager of the old st. Paul & Pacific
road, he was as much at home in rail-
road matters as he had been previously
at home in steering his llgnt-draught
boat down the shallow and tortuous
waters of the Red river, or moving the
oak and maple of the big woods to his
st. Paul woodward. This is why he is
the railroad king and the great finan-
cier of America. This is why he Is the
successful man.
Born to Succeed.
As James j. Hill has succeeded in
railroading and in financ iering, so he
would have succeeded in any career
upon which he might have entered. in
any task which he might have taken