The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1908-05-29
ST|FFEN UP YOUR BACKBONE
IF YOU'RE AF|CHTER YOU'LL WIN
t6y Or. Madison c. Peters1

N""'''S SuNlutT Sdlu. mere are
three things necessary: OD Back.
bone. t2) backbone. CD backbone" ="
When Linsoln was asked how Grant
impressed him as a general, he re.
piled:
The greatest thing about him is
his cool persistence Of purpose: he
has the grip of bulldog; when once
he gets his teeth In, nothing can shake
him"
This was the whole compendium OF
Grants character. his epitome as a
soldier. Nothing could shake him OF.
With him 1t was. "Ou to Richmond
and Il shall fight It out on his line II
II takes all summer" that broke the
backbone Of the Confederacy and
eventually made Lee surrender This
wonderful man, at 3s an obscure cit.
izen OF Galena, drawing but $500 a
year in his fathers tannery, at AZ
was one OF the greatest generals of
history.
After his defeat at Shiloh nearly
every newspaper of both parties IN
the north, almost every member OF
congress and public sentiment all
over the country odamored for his re-
moval Friends of Lincoln pleaded
with him as president to gi.e the
command TO some one else, not alone
for the good of the country, but for
the sake of his own reputation.
The president listened one night for
hours until the clock struck /. Then
after long silence, he said: 81
can't spare this man; he fights" IA
was Lincoln's insight and determine.
tion that saved Grant from the storm
of popular passion and so gave Us the
greatest hero OF the civil war.
When Phil Sheridan found his amy
retiring before the victorious Early.
the general in command said:
20, sir, we are beaten"
NO, sir" said Sheridan, "you are
beaten, but not this army
Then, selling his army as Jupiter
his thunderbolt, he hurled II u,on
the enemy and snatched victory from
defeat.
DO you know how Gen. Thomas
Jonathan Jackson received the sotri.
quet Of "Stonewall,' which never left
him? The troops OF South Carolina.
commanded by Gen. Bell had been
overwhelmed at the battle of Manassas.
and he rode up to Jackson in despair,
eXclaiming:
They are beating us back"
Then" said Jackson, I'VE will give
them the bayonet'
Bell rode off TO rejoin his command.
and cried out to them to look at Jack.
son, saying:
There he stands like stone wall.
rally behind the Virginians!'
at is in me, and shall come ont.
said Richard Brlnsley Sheridan, wher
told that he would never make an ora.
tor, as he had failed in his first
speech in parliament. He became one
of the foremost orators of his day.
Behold William Lloyd Garrison, A
broad-oloth mob is leading him
through the streets OF Boston by
rope; he is hurried to jail. He re
turns unfllnchingly to his work. be.
at the point at which he was
interrupted, Note this heading in
the Liberator:
81 am in earnest. will not equiv.
ocate, ] will not excuse. will not
retreat a single inch, and | will be
heard"
That one man of grit become Gods
red-hot thunderbolt that shiyered that
colossal iniquity-slayery Even the
gallows erected in front of his doors
did not daunt him, His grit made
an unwilling world hear the word
Freedom" which, was destined nev.
IT W N'hN' It's NluldllblS uulll IL ndl
breathed its sweet secret to the last
slave
Clear grit always commands re.
spect; II is the quality which achieves
something, and everybody admires
achievement. Backbone, even with.
out brains, will carry against brains
without backbone. Seeming impossi
bilities surrender to inyincible pur.
pose and imperial energy. Kitto, the
master Of oriental learning lost his
hearing at II, and his fathers circum
stances became so wretched that
young Kitto was sent to the poor
house, where he learned shoemaking.
He piteously begged his father to
take him out of the poorhouse, say
ing that he would live upon blackber-