Pushing to the Front

Sam Cunard, the whittling Scotch lad of Glasgow, wrought many odd inventions with brain and jack-knife, but they brought neither honor nor profit…

The new Testament and the speller were Cornelius Vanderbilt's only books at school, but he learned to read, write, and cipher a little. He wished…

But Cornelius Vanderbilt was not the boy to give up. He at once began again, and in three years saved three thousand dollars. He often worked all…

The boy who gave his parents all his day earnings and had half of what he got at night, was worth thirty thousand dollars at thirty-five, and when he…

Lord Eldon might well have pleaded "no chance" when a boy, for he was too poor to go to school or even to buy books. But no; he had grit and…

Stephen Girard had "no chance." He left his home in France when ten years old, and came to America as a cabin boy. His great ambition was to get on…

John Wanamaker walked four miles to Philadelphia every day, and worked in a bookstore for one dollar and twenty-five cents a week. He next worked…

Behold this long, lank, awkward youth, felling trees on the little claim, building his homely log-cabin, without floor or windows, teaching himself…

His first term at Geauga Seminary cost him but seventeen dollars. When he returned the next term he had but a sixpence in his pocket, and this he put…

Soon we find him in Williams College, where in two years he is graduated with honors. He reaches the State Senate at twenty-six and Congress at…

"The little gray cabin appears to be the birthplace of all your great men," said an English author who had been looking over a book of biographies of…

With five chances on each hand and one unwavering aim, no boy, however poor, need despair. There is bread and success for every youth under the…

The country in America to-day is constantly paying a similar tribute to the city in the sacrifice of its best blood, its best brain, the finest…

One of our great men says that one of the most unfortunate phases of modern civilization is the drift away from the farm, the drift of country…

One of the greatest boons that can ever come to a human being is to be born on a farm and reared in the country. Self-reliance and grit are…

The very granite hills, the mountains, the valleys, the brooks, the miracle of the growing crops are every moment registering their mighty…

The sturdy, vigorous, hardy qualities, the stamina, the brawn, the grit which characterize men who do great things in this world, are, as a rule,…

The average country-bred youth has a better foundation for success-building, has greater courage, more moral stamina. He has not become weakened…

In other words, virility, forcefulness, physical and mental stamina reach their maximum in those who live close to the soil. The moment a man becomes…

There is a miracle going on in every growing blade of grass and flower. Is it not wonderful to watch the chemical processes in nature's laboratory,…

The fact is that there is such a diversity of attractions and distractions, of temptation and amusement in the city, that unless a youth is made of…

For one thing, the country boy is constantly developing his muscular system. His health is better. He gets more exercise, more time to think and to…

The drudgery of the farm, the chores which we hated as boys, the rocks which we despised, we have found were the very things which educated us, which…

Is it any wonder that the boy so trained in self-reliance, so superbly equipped with physical and mental stamina, should take such pre-eminence,…

There is a peculiar quality of superiority which comes from dealing with _realities_ that we do not find in the superficial city conditions. The life…

Self-reliance and grit are oftenest country-bred. The country boy is constantly thrown upon his own resources; he is forced to think for himself, and…

It is human nature to exaggerate the value of things beyond our reach. People save money for years in order to go to Europe to visit the great art…

We are immersed in a wilderness of mysteries and marvelous beauties. Miracles innumerable in grass and flower and fruit are performed right before…

What interrogation points, what wonderful mysteries, what wit-sharpeners are ever before the farmer boy, whichever way he turns! Where does all…

The very temptation in the city to turn night into day is of itself health-undermining, stamina-dissipating and character-weakening.

While the city youth is wasting his precious energy capital in late hours, pleasure seeking, and often dissipation, the country youth is storing up…

The time was when the boy who gave no signs of genius or unusual ability was consigned to the farm, and the brilliant boy was sent to college or to…

The science of agriculture is fast becoming appreciated and is more and more regarded as a high and noble calling, a dignified profession. Think of…

Think what it must mean to be a magician in the whole vegetable kingdom, like Luther Burbank, changing colors, flavors, perfumes, species! Almost…

Who can tell what the consequences would have been had Lincoln been born in New York and educated at Harvard? If he had been reared in the midst of…

What was there in that rude frontier forest, where this poor boy scarcely ever saw any one who knew anything of books, to rouse his ambition and to…

Had he not felt that imperious "must" calling him, the prod of necessity spurring him on, whence would have come the motive which led him to struggle…

Where in all the annals of history is there another record of one born of such poor parentage and reared in such a wretched environment, who ever…

To each man's life there comes a time supreme; One day, one night, one morning, or one noon, One freighted hour, one moment opportune, One rift…

What is opportunity to a man who can't use it? An unfecundated egg, which the waves of time wash away into non-entity.--GEORGE ELIOT.

"There are no longer any good chances for young men," complained a youthful law student to Daniel Webster. "There is always room at the top," replied…

No chance, no opportunities, in a land where thousands of poor boys become rich men, where newsboys go to Congress, and where those born in the…

A Baltimore lady lost a valuable diamond bracelet at a ball, and supposed that it was stolen from the pocket of her cloak. Years afterward she washed…

Many of us who think we are poor are rich in opportunities, if we could only see them, in possibilities all about us, in faculties worth more than…

The richest gold and silver mine in Nevada was sold by the owner for $42, to get money to pay his passage to other mines, where he thought he could…

Hundreds of years ago there lived near the shore of the river Indus a Persian by the name of Ali Hafed. He lived in a cottage on the river bank, from…

The discontented man sold the farm for what he could get, left his family with a neighbor, took the money he had at interest, and went to search…

The old priest of Buddha who had filled Ali Hafed with the fatal discontent called one day upon the new owner of the farm. He had no sooner entered…

You have your own special place and work. Find it, fill it. Scarcely a boy or girl will read these lines but has much better opportunity to win…

It is one of the paradoxes of civilization that the more opportunities are utilized, the more new ones are thereby created. New openings are as…

Thousands of men have made fortunes out of trifles which others pass by. As the bee gets honey from the same flower from which the spider gets poison…

First find out what the world needs and then supply the want. An invention to make smoke go the wrong way in a chimney might be a very ingenious…

An observing man, the eyelets of whose shoes pulled out, but who could not afford to get another pair, said to himself, "I will make a metallic…

An observing barber in Newark, N. J., thought he could make an improvement on shears for cutting hair, invented clippers, and became rich. A Maine…

The great things of the world have not been done by men of large means. Ericsson began the construction of the screw propellers in a bathroom. The…

Michael Angelo found a piece of discarded Carrara marble among waste rubbish beside a street in Florence, which some unskilful workman had cut,…

Patrick Henry was called a lazy boy, a good-for-nothing farmer, and he failed as a merchant. He was always dreaming of some far-off greatness, and…

The great natural philosopher, Faraday, who was the son of a blacksmith, wrote, when a young man, to Humphry Davy, asking for employment at the Royal…

Opportunities? They are everywhere. "America is another name for opportunities. Our whole history appears like a last effort of divine Providence…

We can not all of us perhaps make great discoveries like Newton, Faraday, Edison, and Thompson, or paint immortal pictures like an Angelo or a…