Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1910-11-04
A Story OF Inspiration.
From the Baltimore Sun.

The story of David J. Lewis, of Cumber-
land, should be lesson and an inspiration
to every young man of the country. 1t is
story the main features of which have
been often taught by the lives of successful
men of America, and yet it is one profit
able to read and ponder. for it has lights
and shadows peculiar to itself and so diff
fering from those of other stories of the
same general tenor as to furnish proof that
the day of the self-made man is not yet
gone-that the door of opportunity still
swings widely open to whomsoever will
show himself worthy to enter. Briefly, it
is the story of a young man who worked
in the coal mines from the time he was
nine years old until he had passed his ma
jOrity who became reader over wide
range of subjects. of some important ones
among which he gained a mastery that
having been encouraged to study law he
did so by the light of the miners lamp in
his cap and the hardly more luminous one
in his room at the miners boarding house ;
that he was finally admitted to the bar
and has built up a practice that affords
him competency, Eta
Did you ever visit the inside of a coal
mine? Did you ever take passage in the
cage" and let yourself be dropped down
thousand feet below the surface of the
earth, where the vein of coal is found ex-
tending horizontally from all sides, being
perhaps only thick enough to allow man
to work while on his knees, and in very
rare cases so thick that he may stand
erect? Even in the best mines the air is
so bad that artificial ventilation must be
called into play to keep the workers alive,
and not even the best can be entirely freed
from air so foul as to make it horribly dis
agreeable. Now imagine boys working
in such place and working hard, for
there is no more laborlous toil-and yet
taking the extra minutes at lunch time to
read history, science, politics, and law.
Imagine his going from that place to his
boarding house, in many instances not
much more cheering or comfortable. and
there, amid almost impossible surround
ings. with dim light and subjected to the
noises and distractions incident to min
ing community and miners boarding
house. again taking up his books and,
forcing himself to keep awake, pursuing
his studies far into the night The boy
who has the nerve to do that grows into
the man with the courage, the persistence,
the endurance. to accomplish anything he
undertakes.
That is the story of David j. Lewis,
Democratic nominee for Congress in the
Sixth District that the kind of spirit that
has made him useful man in his COM
munity, in the Legislature of the State, and
will make him useful to the people of the
entire country when he is sent to Congress,
as he is in fair way of being sent as a
result Of next months election,
The general lesson in the lives of the
self-made men of this country is that it is
the spirit of the man that makes for sue
cess, and not the fOrtuitous circumstances in
which he may have been born The lesson
of David j. Lewis life. added to these
is that the young man need not have been
born to any particular kind Of hard work
| to enable him to make his mark. He need
not split the tough and back breaking rail
| as did Abraham Lincoln; nor cut. stitch
| and fit the clothes of other men, as did
| Andrew johnson nor pursue the reluctant
and uncertain mule along the weary tow
path, as did James A. Garfield-he need
not even 60 down into the bowels Of the
earth to dig therefrom the potential coal
as did Lewis. Not one of these occupa.
tons in itself helped any one of these meT
TO rise each lifted himself to higher
sphere of usefulness in spite Of it,
II will be, as Congressman Hefin elo
quently put it in his speech of Monday
night, glorious day for the South If. wher
the roll of States is called in the mex
House Of Representatives summoning the
members to the bar to take the oath. 81,
Maryland Democrats shall walk down The
aisle and hold up their hands and swea
to support the Constitution of the Union
Nor will it be any the less glorious dag
because one of those hands labored with
pick and shovel to support the physical
being of David J. Lewis the while hi
character was being formed and his minC
stored for the better service of his country