Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-12-03
SOME FAMOUS MEN WHO
NEVER WENT TO COLLEGE
Qualified for Success by Home Study.
Achievement Against Great Odds.
Remarkable Record of a Blacksmith.
Advantages of Disadvantages.
BY Joseph II. nnE1I

t | watt George Stephenson Humphry Davy, Rich
, ard Arkwright-the four great Engllshmen u
whom civilization owes much. Robert Fulton
Elias Howe John Ericsson, Ezra Cornell, Petei
Cooper Cyrus w. Field and Thomas Edison ar,
among the famous American inventors WHIT
never had college training Commodore Van
derbilt, A. T. Stewart, Johns Hopkins, Marshall
Field, Philip y. Armour and John Wanamake,
are examples Of successful merchants who are
not university graduates. jay Gould, Russell
sage, Henry Clews, Charles Broadway Rouss,
John D. Rockefeller Andrew Carnegie, Leland
Stanford, Charles NJ Schwab and j. j. Hill ara
rev or the giants Of finance who started life
without the advantages of college education
Yet TO speak Of any of these as uneducated
would he unfair and untrue They were edu-
Gated because their powers were disciplined and
| trained by reading, observation and constant
| application to the gathering Of information or
! the solving Of problems
| man may be taught great many things by
| professional teachers. and yet not be educated
| The brain can be stuffed Just as the stomach.
hut If the mind-food or the body-food is not
disested it is wasted Education is the devel-
opment Of the latent powers: it Is not putting
something into from tho outside. but
drawing out -educing-what is already there. 1t
is a process that may be carried on by any one
who is determined and patient No one is OUT
OF the race because he has not spent four years
within the Gothic walls of a university He
can discipline and direct his own faculties
strengthen and sharpen his own powers and he
can reach almost any position on which his
heart is set even though he has no Latin diplo-
ma to frame.
Stephensons Career
George Stephenson, the inventor OF the steam
locomotive could neither read nor write at the
age oil S He was working as a fireman and
man of odd jobs in a coal mine Suddenly he |
realized that his life would be one of coarse
manual toll at the lowest wages unless he got
some Kind of an education. At 10 he could read
iiuently and sign his name. At 20 he could write
with ease, and had also mastered elementary
arithmetic. AT 2l he had grasped the first prin-
oiples OF dynamics and mechanics. Every hour
given to study snatched from sleep after
working l2 hours day in the mine William
Cobbett the grammarian learned to read after
ne had reached manhood and was serving as n
private in the army. Doctor Rittenhouse the
astronomer, began with only a few books. and
these he committed to memory in the night
He covered the fences. barn doors and loose
shingles with diagrams. Alone and unaided. bv
.reless study, he became one OF the greatest
nathomatcians of his time. Benjamin Frank
IN studied while he ate his meals. Henry Kirke
Nhlte mastered the Greek language and liter
Lture while walking to and from lawyers
fice Hugh Miller, the stonemason of Cro-
Marty became a world-famous geologst and !
ersatile scholar by devoting his evenings to
ooks after day of manual labor in the quarry.
cience owes much to Cuvier for the result of :
tudies pursued while riding in carriage from +
lace to place on other duties +
There is price to pay of course The young n
ian who wishes to fit himself for llfe's highest h
onors and richest prizes must be prepared to S
AXE sacrihces-he must work while others
ay, study while others sleep and think while T
hers dream. There was time when what a d
an might be was decided by his BIRTH now It Ii
determined by his initiative and diligence. No n
udal baron or social law of caste can hold rc
Ick the one who persists in qualifying himself m
r a commanding place. Each is his own Des- ca
~, the arbiter of his own fortunes And as M
e rewards of this age yield themselves only til
the trained mind, education is absolutely i'm th
ratiYe' That solid achievements can be won ca
dinst the most dscouragng odds has been m
not once, but a thousand times 1t as
no handicap that the ambitious is with op
t the influence of money powerful friends ha
social standing Such losses are really gains. la
they are properly understood. ITO be thrown wi
On ones own resources" wrote Benjamin en-
ankn. 'is TO be cast into the very Ian of all
rtune, for our faculties then undergo de- list
opment and display an energy of which they th'
re previously unsusceptible" col
The Case of Burritt A.,
llihu Burritt backsmith's apprentice | :
New England. He determined to obtain an -.
leation. He began by studying practical ~
'jeets, such as mathematics and surveying nc
Zen about half way through his apprentice g.,
Iaa oil
ter he read the Aeneid OF Virgil Cicero 49,, 49,
parts of other classics Then he tackled -
sek. During the winter months he had TO 49,
nd every hour OF daylight at the forge. ana ~ ~
n in the summer he had few leisure mo- ''-a
lts' He carried his Greek grammar in his
and often found chance, while waiting
a piece Of iron to get hot, to open the book
a his black fingers, go through a pronoun 80 80,
adjective or part Of verb without being ''
ced by his fellow apprentices. In this way
learned all the principal languages OF Eu-
and then passed on until he mastered sew Tur
Asiate tongues He became known far
wide 1.-The learned blacksmith Here are ~
W lines from his private diary that should ant
as a tonic upon any one who Is dIscour- mos
londay, June IS; Headache; 20 lines he
ler's Theory Of the EARTH "a pages French; sug
ours forging, uTal
uesday June 49, Sixty lines Hebrew; 80 he
IS French; 10 pages cuvieri lines syriae; two
ines Danish; 10 lines Bohemian: lines doni
ihi Is names Of stars 10 hours forging. es eIae
fednesday, June 20; Twenty-Five lines He ferr
2 lines syriae; II hours forging" soye
3 famous Scotch scientist. John Hunter. EpiE
made an anatomical collection which the ,,sg @si'
sh Government bought for s75 co. learned 70 man
and write while working at the earDen- ians
bench He believed Il was IN bt,, - seize
. grsst ma, - a.. i. - y % SO
ei'u suat no saefihee vas war.