Has not self-help accomplished about all the great things of the world?
How many young men falter, faint, and dally with their purpose because
they have no capital to start with, and wait and wait for some good luck
to give them a lift. But success is the child of drudgery and
perseverance. It cannot be coaxed or bribed; pay the price, and it is
yours. A constant struggle, a ceaseless battle to bring success from
inhospitable surroundings, is the price of all great achievements.


CONQUERORS OF FORTUNE.

Benjamin Franklin had this tenacity of purpose in a wonderful degree.
When he started in the printing business in Philadelphia, he carried his
material through the streets on a wheelbarrow. He hired one room for his
office, work-room, and sleeping-room. He found a formidable rival in the
city and invited him to his room. Pointing to a piece of bread from
which he had just eaten his dinner, he said:

"Unless you can live cheaper than I can, you cannot starve me out."

It was so that he proved the wisdom of Edmund Burke's saying, that "He
that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill:
our antagonist is our helper."

The poor and friendless lad, George Peabody, weary, footsore, and
hungry, called at a tavern in Concord, N.H., and asked to be allowed to
saw wood for lodging and breakfast. Yet he put in work for everything he
ever received, and out-matched the poverty of early days.

Gideon Lee could not even get shoes to wear in winter, when a boy, but