BY
"There is properly no History, only Biography."—Emerson.
Human portraits, faithfully drawn, are of all pictures thewelcomest on human walls.—Carlyle.
FORTY-FIRST THOUSAND.
NEW YORKTHOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.PUBLISHERS
Copyright,
By Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
1885.
Norwood Press:
J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith.
Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
TO
MY ONLY SISTER,
Mrs. Halsey D. Miller,
IN REMEMBRANCE OF
MANY HAPPY HOURS.
These characters have been chosen from variouscountries and from varied professions, thatthe youth who read this book may see that povertyis no barrier to success. It usually develops ambition,and nerves people to action. Life at best hasmuch of struggle, and we need to be cheered andstimulated by the careers of those who have overcomeobstacles.
If Lincoln and Garfield, both farmer-boys, couldcome to the Presidency, then there is a chance forother farmer-boys. If Ezra Cornell, a mechanic,could become the president of great telegraph companies,and leave millions to a university, then othermechanics can come to fame. If Sir Titus Salt,working and sorting wool in a factory at nineteen,could build one of the model towns of the worldfor his thousands of workingmen, then there is[vi]encouragement and inspiration for other toilers infactories. These lives show that without WORK andWILL no great things are achieved.
I have selected several characters because theywere the centres of important historical epochs.With Garibaldi is necessarily told the story ofItalian unity; with Garrison and Greeley, the fallof slavery; and with Lincoln and Sheridan, thebattles of our Civil War.
S. K. B.