The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1896-02-08
THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
The Boy Who Wins and the Stuff of
Which He Must be Made.


when some unusual novelty drew our feet
to the show case in which was the display.
Here were the playthings OF a world ex-
hibited upon which the genius of the me
hausted. Even the balls were perfect
spheres with coverings that appeared to fit
as the skin fits on an apple. The dolls
were dressed in Worth gowns, and their
hats were after Nirot's own designs Ex-
changing a word or two regarding the dis
play the young West Pointer said with a
little sigh: 81 never in all my childhood
owned toy except such as | made with
my own hands" The story of this young
friend of ours is worth telling, for the
benefit of our boys. He has just graduated
from our Military Academy among the
honor men of his class, and is off presently
for study and travel in the Old World
Eight years agoh he was a friendless lad upon
Il farm in Kansas. There was many Il
bitter struggle in his own mind over ques-
tons OF right and duty, and tie possibili-
ties of the future but at last tie ,,in was
cast, and the boy was on his way, sun
burnt, foot-sore and with less than half a
dollar in his pockets as his sole fortune
His first job in the city was what he had
been most used to on the farm,
aid that was driving n team. But the
close of the summer found him little
hettered in pocket and wholly out of EN-
ployment. He did not sit down and wait
for work to come to him, but in forty eight
hours he had made for himself another
! place, engaging to work for moderate wages
and the privilege of going to school while
he cared for the stables and carriage horses
o. his employer. Now began the battle in
dead earnest, and no Wilmington about to
be Lord Mayor of London ever applied
himself more assduously to his task.
Steadily he forged ahead of his class mates
though limited in his hours of study, hut
meeting with sympathy on the part of his
employer and his family, the clouds began
to part above his head. A copy of the
Youths Companion told him for the first
time the story of West Point, and that fired
his inextinguishable ambition. Here was
an opportunity to rise by his own exertions.
Ascertaining when the next vacancy in his
district would occur, he set himself reso-
lutely to distance the most favored com
petitor. BY the time his examination was
to be held he knew his arithmetic by heart
and had read a standard history of the
Urited States through sixteen times. In
the Military Academy he was brought into
competition with young fellows who were
already graduates Of Yale and Harvard and
Cornell; but nothing daunted, he climbed
steadily to the front and, as we have stated
before, graduated among the foremost men
of his class. To-day he is an honored guest
where he was formerly an employee "A
gentleman i'll his manners, soldier in his
bearing. and every inch a man
In this country it is the boy of grit and
courage and perseverance that gets there. y
Some one has said that among Americans
sit is only three generations from short
sleeves to shirt sleeves" Wealth breeds
habits OF Incidence and thoughts of easy
triumph; and the result is IA mapping FOX
and tortoise at the goal
Within the past few years we have per
sonally fallen into the habit of asking oul
successful friends what start they had il
life towards the career in which they have
shown such speed and bottom; and without
single exception here and there we have
found that the merchant princes, lordly
financiers and eminent statesmen of our &C
quaintance were all poor boys and most Of
them farmers sons. But they did not Leaf
into influence or fame. They began as
boys the steady upward climb which LED
unfailingly to the places where they now
stand. They fought their way into college
and battled their way through it. They die
not attempt to win with rusty arms and
clumsy hintlocks. They realized that tht
conditions of success become more onerou:
every year; and realizing this they knew
that their poverty was spur while the rich
lads abundance was handicap to hi.
future. Instead of repeating the tramp.
excuse that "a poor man has no chance, ,
they said to themselves that the poor mar
had every chance accorded to industry
self-denial and ambition. Some of our boy
readers will do well to cut this out and
paste it in their scrap-books. The story We
have told is true story, not founded upon
facts" but fact itself. Perhaps the recital
of it may rouse the necessary courage in the
heart Of some lad whose fortune and honor
and happiness all lie in the awakening Of
his soul to high endeavor In Americs
it is not the most favored, but 'the best
man" that wins. If nowhere else, it i.
with us distinctly case of the Survival
of the tittest."