Lives of Poor Boys Who Became Famous

These characters have been chosen from various countries and from varied professions, that the youth who read this book may see that poverty is no barrier to success. It usually develops ambition, and nerves people to action. Life at best has much of struggle, and we need to be cheered and stimulated by the careers of those who have overcome obstacles.

If Lincoln and Garfield, both farmer-boys, could come to the Presidency, then there is a chance for other farmer-boys. If Ezra Cornell, a mechanic, could become the president of great telegraph companies, and leave millions to a university, then other mechanics 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 world for his thousands of workingmen, then there is encouragement and inspiration for other toilers in factories. These lives show that without WORK and WILL no great things are achieved.

I have selected several characters because they were the centres of important historical epochs. With Garibaldi is necessarily told the story of Italian unity; with Garrison and Greeley, the fall of slavery; and with Lincoln and Sheridan, the battles of our Civil War.

S. K. B.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

GEORGE PEABODY Merchant 1

BAYARD TAYLOR Traveller 13

Captain JAMES B. EADS Civil Engineer 26

JAMES WATT Inventor 33

Sir JOSIAH MASON Manufacturer 46

BERNARD PALISSY Potter 54

BERTEL THORWALDSEN Sculptor 65

WOLFGANG MOZART Composer 72

SAMUEL JOHNSON Author 83

OLIVER GOLDSMITH Poet and Writer 90

MICHAEL FARADAY Scientist 96

Sir HENRY BESSEMER Maker of Steel 112

Sir TITUS SALT Philanthropist 124

JOSEPH MARIE JACQUARD Silk Weaver 130

HORACE GREELEY Editor 138

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON Reformer 156

GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI Patriot 172

JEAN PAUL RICHTER Novelist 187

LEON GAMBETTA Statesman 204

DAVID G. FARRAGUT Sailor 219

EZRA CORNELL Mechanic 238

Lieut.-General SHERIDAN Soldier 251

THOMAS COLE Painter 270

OLE BULL Violinist 284

MEISSONIER Artist 303

GEO. W. CHILDS Journalist 313

DWIGHT L. MOODY Evangelist 323

ABRAHAM LINCOLN President 342

[Illustration: GEORGE PEABODY.]

GEORGE PEABODY.

If America had been asked who were to be her most munificent givers in the nineteenth century, she would scarcely have pointed to two grocer's boys, one in a little country store at Danvers, Mass., the other in Baltimore; both poor, both uneducated; the one leaving seven millions to Johns Hopkins University and Hospital, the other nearly nine millions to elevate humanity. George Peabody was born in Danvers, Feb. 18, 1795. His parents were respectable, hard-working people, whose scanty income afforded little education for their children. George grew up an obedient, faithful son, called a "mother-boy" by his companions, from his devotion to her,--a title of which any boy may well be proud.

At eleven years of age he must go out into the world to earn his living. Doubtless his mother wished to keep her child in school; but there was no money. A place was found with a Mr. Proctor in a grocery-store, and here, for four years, he worked day by day, giving his earnings to his mother, and winning esteem for his promptness and honesty. But the boy at fifteen began to grow ambitious. He longed for a larger store and a broader field. Going with his maternal grandfather to Thetford, Vt., he remained a year, when he came back to work for his brother in a dry-goods store in Newburyport. Perhaps now in this larger town his ambition would be satisfied, when, lo! the store burned, and George was thrown out of employment.

His father had died, and he was without a dollar in the world. Ambition seemed of little use now. However, an uncle in Georgetown, D.C., hearing that the boy needed work, sent for him, and thither he went for two years. Here he made many friends, and won trade, by his genial manner and respectful bearing. His tact was unusual. He never wounded the feelings of a buyer of goods, never tried him with unnecessary talk, never seemed impatient, and was punctual to the minute. Perhaps no one trait is more desirable than the latter. A person who breaks his appointments, or keeps others waiting for him, loses friends, and business success as well.