Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-06-30
Striking the
Highway
OF Fame
BY GEORGE BARTON.

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What would you like to be. if you
wero not what you are? This ques-
ton has no doubt been asked and
mentally answered by millions of
minds: 1t is a curious fact that
almost every other man You meet in
the street feels that he has been mis-
placed in tie world, and that we're
he to follow his inclinations, he would
choose pursuit other than the. one
to which he has been assigned by
the blind Goddess of Fate. In this
connection it is interesting to note
that the great majority of men who
have achieved fame in this life usual
ly reached the highway of fame af-
ter being driven from pillar to post
by the curious tricks of Fortune.
Reverend Robert Colyer, the emf
nent preacher, was originally black
smith and spent many an hour over
the forge swinging the heavy ham
mer to the music of the anvil This
occupation, while severe and prosaic,
had its uses. for years of hard work
brought with it health, strength, good
lungs, and a brawny frame which
served DR.. Colyer in good stead in
the pulpit.
Russell H. Conwell, who is credit
ed with preaching to the largest Pro-
testant congregation in America, in
the Baptist Temple, Philadelphia, be-
gan life as reporter on Boston
newspaper. He had many vicissitudes
and finally went into the Union army
and served during the war, and it was
only after that event that he fiLaiiy
the ministry.
Elihu Root. Secretary of State, be-
gan life as a school teacher and af-
forwards drifted into law and politics.
United States Senator Perkins, of
California, earned his first dollar as
cabin boy; after that he had many
ups and downs, finally acquiring
wealth in the great west and return
ing to Washington as the representa-
tive of his State in the highest coun-
CHS Oh the udtlOH-
Wilfrid Laurier, Canadian states
man and Premier of the Dominion, or
iginally intended to become priest,
but studied for the bar, and then en-
tered politics. James A Garfield,
statesman and soldier, besides being
a towlboy on the canal, was a car
penter, and such a good one that he
designed and built with his own hands
the first house that he occupied in
his married life. Henry George be-
gan life as sailor, and died famed
as a political economist. John B.
Cough, starting out in life as a book
binder, ended as temperance lee
turer with a worldwide reputation.
Jay Gould, the first of the great Amer
lean millionaires. peddled rat trabs
in his youth, and after that reached
the sublime height of bookkeeper to
a blacksmith.
Dwight L. Moody was salesman IN
Boston, and those who were acquaint-
ed with him in his youth say that
he was a very persuasive and per-
sistent salesman, and had he con-
tinued in that line would undoubted-
" have made his mark in the COM
mercial world He elected, however,
to go along other lines and became
the senior partner of the famous
spiritual firm of Moody and Sankey
General Grant, as every one knows,
was in turn a clerk, tanner and a
farmer before he found his real voca-
ton as a great military commander.
(Murat Halstead was breI to farm
life. 1t was the means of giving him
good health and strong constitution
but very early in life he deserted
the plow in order to grasp the ferule
of the teacher. After that he entered
journalism in Brooklyn, and, at the
time he died was regarded as the
dean of free-lance journalism.
Literary men, more than any other
class, seem to meet with vicissitudes
in locating the narrow path which
finally leads into the broad and shady,
and smooth paved highway of
fame. William Dean Howells, who
will presently he regarded as "the
grand old man" of American litera-
ture, did his first serious work as
a compositor on a newspaper that
was owned by his father. When
Abraham Lincoln was nominated for
the presidency, Howells was employed
on the Ohio State Journal With an
enterprise unusual in those days he
Immediately sat down and wrote
campaign life of the presidential can
didate. and the one hundred and sixty
dollars he received for his work paid
his expense to Boston and started
him on his literary career. Henry
James studied law and made elabor-
ate plans for life at the bar, but
poor health made it necessary for
him to go aboard and before he re-
turned, his ambitions had been switch
ed towards literature.
Who would imagine that Thomas
buchanan Read, the author of ''Sheri-
dams Ride" a man of infinite genius,
who ranks with the great but erratic
poets of America, was once a cigar
maker and sign painter? OF course.
1t is no secret that James Whitconb
Riley, whose poems Of childhood have
delighted so many. was not only a
sign painter but at one time essayed
to be an actor. Victorien Sardou
studied medicine before he made up
his mind to be d-.amatist. Bret
Harte was composition in a newspa-
per Office and a miner before he
charmed the world with The Heath
en- Chinee," and The Luck Of Roar
ing Camp" Henry Wallace Shaw
Josh Biliings) was a farmer and
deck hand On an Ohio River steam
boat. and an auctioneer- Probably
the experience he gained in these
unique cailings made him so success
full as a humorist of the phonetic
spelling type
George keenan, was a telegraph OBJ