John Habberton.
Poor boys' chances online
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Harvard College
Library
FROM THE BEQUEST OF
Lucy Osgood
OF MEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS
saasaas«[email protected]«»a!^S9g<
#^^WSS
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Frontispiece ** Poor Boys* Chances."
WHAT SHALL I BE?
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Poor. Boys' Chances
by
JOHN HABBERTON
Author of Helenas Babies, Trifand Trixy, etc, etc.
With numerous portraits and illustrations.
Philadelphia
Henry Altemus Company
Digitized by VjOOQIC
J u. u- ( ^ CP ,
3o
^.Ccjc/ C^f^-^J'^^
Copyright 1900
BY
Henry Alt emus Company
Digitized by VjOOQIC
CONTENTS.
Introduction 11
Benjamin Franklin .... 13
George Washington 30
Alexander Hamilton 48
Stephen Girard 66
John Jacob Astor 81
Eli Whitney 90
Andrew Jackson • 101
Henry Clay 122
Peter Cooper 133
Horace Mann 145
** Commodore" Vanderbilt 153
Abraham Lincoln 1()4
Alexander H. Stephens 182
General Grant 194
** Stonewall'' Jackson 212
George Peabody 222
President Garfield 231
Jay Gould 245
'^Buffalo" Bill 256
** Wizard" Edison . . . . „ 268
"1 Puor Boy»
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ILLUSTRATIONS.
What Shall I Be? Franiispiece.
The Boy's Dream 13
Benjamin Franklin 15
Benjamin Delivers Candles 16
Benjamin Heads While Eating 17
Benjamin Hears His Contributions Discussed 19
Benjamin Leaves Home 21
In Keith's Library 21
'*The Cold Water Printer'* 23
Starting the Philadelphia Library 25
Drafting the Declaration of Independence 27
Franklin at the French Court 29
George Washington 31
Washington's Birthplace 3?,
Washington's Mother Objects to His Going to Sea 35
Washington Breaking a Colt 37
Washington on His Mission to the West 39
Braddock and His Young Aide-de-Camp 41
Washington's First Interview with His Wife 43
Washington Taking Command of the Army 45
Washington at the Battle of Princeton 47
Alexander Hamilton 49
The Defeat at the Battle of Long Island 51
First Meeting Between Washington and Hamilton 53
Arrival of the French Fleet 55
Hamilton in the Trenches at Yorktown 57
Washington's Entry into Yorktown 59
John Marshall 61
Washington and Hamilton at Valley Forge 63
Duel Between Hamilton and Burr 65
Stephen Girard ... 67
7
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ILLUSTRATIONS.
British OflRcers Impressing American Seamen ,69
Girard's Residence in Philadelphia 70
Girard's Musical Secretary 71
Girard's Old Yellow Chaise 72
Main Building, Girard College ... 78
Drawing Room, Girard College . .6
Natural History Room, Girard College 76
Bathing Pool, Girard College 77
Girard College Cadet 79
Soldiers' Monument. Girard College 80
John Jacob Astor 83
The ** Astor House" 87
The '* Astor Library" 89
Eli Whitney 91
Cotton Boll Nearly Ripe 93
Cotton Boll Perfectly Ripe 94
The Boll Shedding Its Cotton 95
The Boll After Shedding Its Cotton 96
Picking Cotton 97
Ginning Cotton 99
Hauling Cotton 100
Andrew Jackson 103
Birthplace of Jackson 104
A Log Cabin School House 105
**Sir, I am a Prisoner of War" 107
** Andrew Walked Forty Miles" 109
Aaron Burr 115
The Battle of New Orleans 117
Vanquished Chieftain in Jackson's Tent 119
Jackson's Tomb at *'The Hermitage" 121
Henry Clay 123
Birthplace of Henry Clay 125
*'The Mill Boy of the Slashes" 127
Clay's Famous Speech in the Senate 129
Residence of Henry Clay— ** Ashland" . 131
8
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ILLUSTRATIONS.
Peter Cooper 136
The First Railway Train 137
The First Atlantic Cable 139
The Second Atlantic Cable 140
Laying a Cable at Sea 141
Cooper Unic New York 143
Horace Mann 147
Antioch College 149
Horace Mann's Monument 162
Cornelius Vanderbilt 166
"He was Successful with His Small Craft" 166
A Ferry Boat, New York Harbor 167
Village on the San Juan River 169
The "Merrimac'* in Action 161
** Commodore** Vanderbilt at Home 163
Abraham Lincoln in 1865 166
Birthplace of Lincoln 167
Lincoln's Early Home • 169
Lincoln Splitting Rails 173
Lincoln's Law OflSce 176
Lincoln's Residence at Springfield, Illinois 177
Abraham Lincoln in 1858 179
Lincoln and His Son "Tad" 181
Alexander H. Stephens 183
Jefferson Davis 186
A Southern School House 187
The Confederacy Inaugurated 191
The Confederate Capitol, Richmond, Va 192
General Ulysses S. Grant 195
Birthplace of Ulysses S. Grant 197
"It was Hard, Dirty Work" . . , 198
"A Regular Teamster" 199
"Hazing was then Common" 201
"He Made a Record as a Horseman" . , 203
The Cannon in the Church Tower 205
9
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ILLUSTRATIONS.
Bombardment of Fort Sumter 207
Grant's Attack on Fort Donelson 209
General Grant in 1880 211
Thomas J. Jackson 213
Jackson at the Battle of Churubusco 215
The Battle of Bull Run 219
** Stone wair* Jackson's Monument, Richmond, Va 221
George Peabody 223
Birthplace of George Peabody 225
The Grinnell Expedition in the Ice 227
Peabody Institute, Peabody, Mass .229
James A. Garfield 233
Birthplace of Garfield 235
Garfield on the Towpath . 237
Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio 240
Garfield as Ros6crans' Chief-of-Staff 241
The Battle of Chickamauga 243
Jay Gould. 247
Birthplace of Jay Gould 249
Building the Union Pacific Railway 250
Residence of Jay Gould's Father at Roxbury, N. Y 251
First Sight of the Locomotive ... 252
Store of Jay Gould's Father at Roxbury, N. Y 253
Elevated Railway, New York 254
William F. Cody, '* Buffalo BiW* 257
Cody as a **Cow-Boy" 260
A Post-Office on the Plains 261
The King of the Herd 263
Indian Attack on the Overland Mail 264
The *Deadwood Coach" 267
Thomas A. Edison 269
Edison Printing His Paper . . i 273
Edison's Incandescent Light 275
Edison's First Phonograpli 277
Moving Picture Exhibition 278
lO
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A full list of poor boys who have become successful men
would include the names of almost all prominent Ameri-
cans of past and present days. There are several reasons
for this ; one is that rich men's sons are few, in proportion
to population ; another is that rich boys have so many op-
portunities from which to choose that they seldom avail
themselves of any. A far better reason, however, is that
the boy who is poor feels the spur of necessity, so if he
has proper respect for himself he seizes whatever chance
is nearest at hand and makes the most of it.
But lazy boys, cowardly boys, thoughtless boys and
boys who are in haste to become rich are as apt as some
men at complaining that nowadays there are no oppor-
tunities, no ^'streaks of luck,'' no good chances, such as
there used to be. It is true that a few — a very few, of the
old-time chances are gone, but it is also true that for every
one that has disappeared there are a hundred new ones.
II
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INTRODUCTION.
Indeed, the wonder is that the boys of two or three genera-
tions ago found any special opportunities for bettering
their condition, for manufactures were few, and there was
little chance in them to get rich quickly ; there was none of
the railroads, mines and scores of other new businesses
which are now enriching many thousands of men and
stimulating the minds of hundreds of thousands.
How few and mean were the chances of boys of the
last generation and of the two or three which preceded
it may be learned from the following pages, in which are
noted briefly the opportunities of a score of American boys
who became famous in different departments of effort.
Almost all of these chances that were of any service are
within the reach of modern boys. What boys have done
boys can do.
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
Born January 17, 1706; died April 17, 1790.
In the good old times when lucky chances were supposed
to have abounded for poor boys, one of the most fortunate
of Americans was Benjamin Franklin, for he was re-
spected by every one who knew him and feared by every
one whom he opposed ; he succeeded at almost every thing
he undertook, he enjoyed life to his latest days, which were
prolonged far beyond the customary three-score years and
ten, and he never was out of money. Most men of prom-
inence owe their success to proficiency in some one single
line of endeavor, but Franklin knew so much, and about
so many things that his most recent biographer calls him
"The Many-Sided Franklin." No one, not even Washing-
ton, was more useful than he to the patriot cause during
the Revolutionary period, yet he retained the friendship of
13
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POOR BOYS' CHANCES.
the many Englishmen who had known him while he was
the agent in England of the Pennsylvania Colony. In his
old age he became the ^'social lion*' of Paris, though he
dressed plainly and was as simple and direct of manner
as while he was at home. He was liked, respected and
trusted by every member of the Continental Congress,
though those worthies were so full of the jealousies of
their respective colonies that they were suspicious of
almost all their fellow members ; Franklin did more than
any one but Washington to allay this suspicion and make
a permanent union of the colonies possible.
Yet this remarkably successful American was **born and
bred in poverty and obscurity" (the words are his own,
from his autobiography). He was the fifteenth child of
his father, a maker of soap and candles in Boston,
at a time when that city contained only a few thousand
people and most of the inhabitants made their own soap
and candles, so the elder Franklin's business was a poor
one. As Benjamin once said that he could remember to
have seen thirteen of his brothers and sisters at table at one
time, no farther evidence of the family's poverty is neces-
sary.
Nevertheless the elder Franklin wished to make Benja-
min (his tenth son), a minister, and to prepare the youth
for college he sent him to the grammar school at the early
age of eight years; a grammar school, at that time, at-
tempted to teach little but the elements of Latin and Greek,
so a boy might pass through one successfully without
knowing even the multiplication table. But the expense of
the grammar school course became too great for the elder
Franklin to meet, so Benjamin was removed to a lower
school to learn reading and writing, these, with reading,
being the only branches in which instruction was given.
Even this elementary schooling stopped when young
Id
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN."
Benjamin Franklin.
Franklin reached his tenth year, for the boy's hands were
needed in the shop, to help earn the family living.
It was a chance to learn a trade, but Benjamin did not
like soap boiling and candle-making; he wished to go to
15
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FUOR BOYS' CHANCES.
sea, where the greater business chances of the period ap-
peared to be, though it is true that they were attended by
great risks. His father objected to his becoming a sailor,
so the boy gratified his nautical tastes to the best of his
ability with small boats. Many years afterward he wrote
that he handled them well, young though he was, "and was
commonly allowed to govern, especially in any case of
difficulty, and upon other occasions I was generally a
leader among the boys.''
These few words fore-
shadow his entire career,
for whatever he did
throughout life, from the
first we knew of it, was
well done, so although he
was assuming or aggres-
sive he was sure to find
himself in a position of
leadership among men.
His dislike of the soap
and candle business con-
tinued ; so did his desire to
Benjamin Delivers Candles. ^^ to sea, but his father,
who seems to have been a
model parent, found time to take him about to see
men at work, hoping that some form of handicraft
would engage the boy's fancy. The experiment did not suc-
ceed to the father's liking, but young Franklin's eyes
seemed to see as well as to look ; there is a great diflference
in these two ways of using the eyes. In those occasional
hours began the interest in the mechanic arts which Frank-
lin always manifested afterward and which he often put
to practical use.
Young Franklin manifested early in life a fondness
for reading, but the books he names in his autobiography
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BENJAMIN FKANKLIN.
as having read
before his twelfth
year would not
appeal to any
small boy of the
present day; they
were John Bun-
yan's works, Bur-
ton's "Historical
Collections," De-
foe's "Essays on
Projects" and
Mather's "Essays
to Do Good."
Perhaps he had
to choose between
these and noth-
ing, for it is cer-
tain (and perhaps
it was lucky for Benjamin Reads While Eating.
Benjamin) that
novels and story-books were not to be had in Bos-
ton in those days ; boys had never even heard of such
means of killing time.
Franklin's first real chance came when he was about
twelve years of age, but it was not at all to his liking. One
of his adult brothers, who had been to England and learned
the printer's trade, returned to Boston to begin business
for himself, and Benjamin was apprenticed to him. The
boy learned quickly to set type, but what pleased him more
was that the business made him acquainted with book-
sellers' apprentices, some of whom lent him their employ-
ers* books, to read over-night. It was thus he began his
education, for he never went to school again. His reading
hours were few, for the working day was long in New
17
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POOR BOYS' CHANCES.
England in the early part of the last century, but he
read far into the night, in order to finish a book and
return it before the owner could miss it.
While still a boy in his brother's shop there came
to him a chance which many an older lover of literature
would have hailed with joy. He had taken a fancy to
poetry, which led to the making of verses. Noting this,
his brother set him to writing ballads on tragic events of
the day ; the brother printed them and sent Benjamin about
the town to sell them, so the boy had the satisfaction, de-
nied to many older poets, of knowing who really read his
verse. ''They were wretched stuff," Franklin wrote many
years later, but they "sold wonderfully" ; evidently Boston
had not yet become fastidious about poetry. What the
nation might have suffered and lost had Franklin aban-
doned himself to verse is dreadful to contemplate, in
the light of later days ; fortunately for all of us the boy's
father laughed at the ballads and told his son that verse-
makers generally became beggars, so Benjamin was saved
for nobler efforts and entirely through heeding his father's
warning — a chance that occurs frequently in the lives of
boys, though many of them have reasons of their own
for not profiting by it.
To a similar chance Franklin owed that command of
language which made him far more effective at writing
and speaking than most of the public men of his day. He
had the common boyish belief, which the majority of boys
retain until they grow old and die, that mere disputation is
argument. He quarrelled for months by letter, with an-
other boy, over the advisability of educating women — ^boys
seem as bad as men in selecting, for discussion, subjects of
which they are utterly ignorant. Franklin's father saw
some of the letters and suggested that his son's writing
lacked method, clearness and p-race. Nobodv enjoys that
sort of criticism, but again Franklin heeded his father, and
i8
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
Benjamin Hears His Contributions Discussed.
soon another great chance came in his way — one that is in
reach of almost every American boy to-day, for it was
merely an odd volume of Addison's ^'Spectator." Franklin
19
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POOR BOYS' CHANCES.
immediately set himself to improving his style by studying
that of Addison, and he could not have had a better model
at that time ; indeed, though modern aspirants to elegant
English can study also Macaulay, Ruskin and Hawthorne,
the boy who masters Addison's methods of expression will
never lack listeners and readers if he really has any thing
to say. But imagine, if you can, a modern 'prentice boy,
only fifteen years of age, spending his spare hours over the
pages of the old ^'Spectator," as Franklin did! He read
other **heavy" books, too, of his own accord — Locke's
"Human Understanding,*' and Xenophon's ** Memorabilia
of Socrates," and he also studied hard at arithmetic and
grammar — two studies which most boys dodge whenever
they can. Yet he was not a prig, nor a recluse, nor a book-
worm ; on the contrary, he was a big, healthy boy, full of
animal spirits and love of fun.
Meanwhile his brother had begun the publication of a
newspaper — a startling enterprise, for only three other
papers had been started in America, and one of them had
suspended publication. Benjamin immediately began to
contribute by the indirect method of slipping his contribu-
tions, unsigned, under the office door. When his brother
finally identified the new writer he did not make him assist-
ant editor and raise his pay ; on the contrary, he was dis •
pleased, apparently fearing that success at writing would
make the boy vain. Soon afterward, however, the editor-
proprietor was sent to jail for a month for having printed
something which displeased the local government. Then
Benjamin had a chance indeed, for he, although only six-
teen years of age, "ran the paper," and he did it so skilfully
as to keep himself out of jail, though he also freed his
mind regarding the government. Perhaps he was too
smart — a not uncommon failing of editors, for when his
brother was released the Massachusetts Assembly ordered
20
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
that ''James Franklin
should no longer print the
paper called the New Eng-
land Courant/'
But the Franklins were
not Yankees for nothing;
James put up the name of
Benjamin as the printer of
the paper, and soon the boy
found himself in a pecu-
liar position ; nominally an
editor and publisher, he
was really apprentice and
newsboy to his brother,
Benjamin Leaves Home. who was also his master,
and who frequently exer-
cised the master's right, under the laws of the time, to
give his apprentice a sound thrashing!
Benjamin ended this anomalous state of affairs by
leaving his brother, who
retaliated by warning all
other Boston printers not
to employ the runaway ap-
prentice. The boy made
his way to New York but
could get no work there,
for the present metropolis
was not much of a town a
hundred and seventy-five
years ago. He heard of a
possible job in Philadel-
phia, where he knew no
one. He was but seven-
teen years of age, Philadel-
phia was a hundred miles in Keith's Library.
2 ^oor Boy a o j
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FUUK BUYS' (JHAJNUiiiS.
away, he had very little money, there were no railway
trains on which a boy could beg or steal a ride, and travel
of any sort was risky for boys who could not give a
straight account of themselves, for at that time many
white men and boys, called indentured servants, were liter-
ally bought and sold for specified terms of service ; many
of them ran away from their masters, and the capturing of
these, for the rewards offered, was quite a flourishing
business. Yet Franklin started, and succeeded; when he
reached Philadelphia his cash had been reduced to a single
dollar, but he soon found employment.
This was the only chance for which he had been looking,
but not long afterward a brilliant one appeared unexpect-
edly, for Sir William Keith, the governor of the province,
heard him mentioned as a clever young man and printer,
called on him, invited him to his house, and finally offered
to set him up in the printing business for himself, to send
him to England to buy type and a press and to become
acquainted with London printers and stationers, who pro-
duced most of the books and paper sold in America.
At eighteen years of age Franklin started for Lon-
don, paying the passage-money from his own savings. The
letters of introduction and the letter of credit promised
by the governor did not reach him before he sailed, nor
did they ever reach London, so the boy found himself three
thousand miles from home, with but little money, and,
worse still, with a good-natured but good-for-nothing-
companion who frequently borrowed but never repaid any
thing. At that time Franklin's only gain from his seeming
great chance was his first knowledge of politicians' profes-
sions and promises ; this knowledge proved of great value
in later years, but no boy could be expected to rightly
estimate such knowledge so far in advance.
Still, he took to work instead of to drink, though he
found the latter tcJ be the favorite diversion of Lon-
22
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
don printers. Indirectly, this drink-habit gave him a
chance which he improved and of the results of which
he was afterward quite proud. He was nicknamed the
*'cold-water printer/' yet he could carry two ''forms'*
of type, while the other men, who sought strength in
beer and spirits,
and thought they
found it there,
could carry but
one. This differ-
ence in strength
caused great won-
der ; Franklin at-
tributed it to his
non-drinking habit,
and many of his
brother workmen
afterward followed
his example with
satisfactory results
to their physiques
and pockets.
Before he came
of age another
great chance came
in his way. A Phil-
adelphian of Eng- " The Told Water Printer »
lish birth and high ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^'^ ^°*®';-
character, who had crossed in the ship with him, pur-
to make the world's books discoverable online.
It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject
to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books
are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.
Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the
publisher to a library and finally to you.
Usage guidelines
Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.
We also ask that you:
+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for
personal, non-commercial purposes.
+ Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.
+ Maintain attribution The Google "watermark" you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.
+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe.
About Google Book Search
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web
at http : //books . google . com/|
Harvard College
Library
FROM THE BEQUEST OF
Lucy Osgood
OF MEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS
saasaas«[email protected]«»a!^S9g<
#^^WSS
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Frontispiece ** Poor Boys* Chances."
WHAT SHALL I BE?
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Poor. Boys' Chances
by
JOHN HABBERTON
Author of Helenas Babies, Trifand Trixy, etc, etc.
With numerous portraits and illustrations.
Philadelphia
Henry Altemus Company
Digitized by VjOOQIC
J u. u- ( ^ CP ,
3o
^.Ccjc/ C^f^-^J'^^
Copyright 1900
BY
Henry Alt emus Company
Digitized by VjOOQIC
CONTENTS.
Introduction 11
Benjamin Franklin .... 13
George Washington 30
Alexander Hamilton 48
Stephen Girard 66
John Jacob Astor 81
Eli Whitney 90
Andrew Jackson • 101
Henry Clay 122
Peter Cooper 133
Horace Mann 145
** Commodore" Vanderbilt 153
Abraham Lincoln 1()4
Alexander H. Stephens 182
General Grant 194
** Stonewall'' Jackson 212
George Peabody 222
President Garfield 231
Jay Gould 245
'^Buffalo" Bill 256
** Wizard" Edison . . . . „ 268
"1 Puor Boy»
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
ILLUSTRATIONS.
What Shall I Be? Franiispiece.
The Boy's Dream 13
Benjamin Franklin 15
Benjamin Delivers Candles 16
Benjamin Heads While Eating 17
Benjamin Hears His Contributions Discussed 19
Benjamin Leaves Home 21
In Keith's Library 21
'*The Cold Water Printer'* 23
Starting the Philadelphia Library 25
Drafting the Declaration of Independence 27
Franklin at the French Court 29
George Washington 31
Washington's Birthplace 3?,
Washington's Mother Objects to His Going to Sea 35
Washington Breaking a Colt 37
Washington on His Mission to the West 39
Braddock and His Young Aide-de-Camp 41
Washington's First Interview with His Wife 43
Washington Taking Command of the Army 45
Washington at the Battle of Princeton 47
Alexander Hamilton 49
The Defeat at the Battle of Long Island 51
First Meeting Between Washington and Hamilton 53
Arrival of the French Fleet 55
Hamilton in the Trenches at Yorktown 57
Washington's Entry into Yorktown 59
John Marshall 61
Washington and Hamilton at Valley Forge 63
Duel Between Hamilton and Burr 65
Stephen Girard ... 67
7
Digitized by VjOOQIC
ILLUSTRATIONS.
British OflRcers Impressing American Seamen ,69
Girard's Residence in Philadelphia 70
Girard's Musical Secretary 71
Girard's Old Yellow Chaise 72
Main Building, Girard College ... 78
Drawing Room, Girard College . .6
Natural History Room, Girard College 76
Bathing Pool, Girard College 77
Girard College Cadet 79
Soldiers' Monument. Girard College 80
John Jacob Astor 83
The ** Astor House" 87
The '* Astor Library" 89
Eli Whitney 91
Cotton Boll Nearly Ripe 93
Cotton Boll Perfectly Ripe 94
The Boll Shedding Its Cotton 95
The Boll After Shedding Its Cotton 96
Picking Cotton 97
Ginning Cotton 99
Hauling Cotton 100
Andrew Jackson 103
Birthplace of Jackson 104
A Log Cabin School House 105
**Sir, I am a Prisoner of War" 107
** Andrew Walked Forty Miles" 109
Aaron Burr 115
The Battle of New Orleans 117
Vanquished Chieftain in Jackson's Tent 119
Jackson's Tomb at *'The Hermitage" 121
Henry Clay 123
Birthplace of Henry Clay 125
*'The Mill Boy of the Slashes" 127
Clay's Famous Speech in the Senate 129
Residence of Henry Clay— ** Ashland" . 131
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ILLUSTRATIONS.
Peter Cooper 136
The First Railway Train 137
The First Atlantic Cable 139
The Second Atlantic Cable 140
Laying a Cable at Sea 141
Cooper Unic New York 143
Horace Mann 147
Antioch College 149
Horace Mann's Monument 162
Cornelius Vanderbilt 166
"He was Successful with His Small Craft" 166
A Ferry Boat, New York Harbor 167
Village on the San Juan River 169
The "Merrimac'* in Action 161
** Commodore** Vanderbilt at Home 163
Abraham Lincoln in 1865 166
Birthplace of Lincoln 167
Lincoln's Early Home • 169
Lincoln Splitting Rails 173
Lincoln's Law OflSce 176
Lincoln's Residence at Springfield, Illinois 177
Abraham Lincoln in 1858 179
Lincoln and His Son "Tad" 181
Alexander H. Stephens 183
Jefferson Davis 186
A Southern School House 187
The Confederacy Inaugurated 191
The Confederate Capitol, Richmond, Va 192
General Ulysses S. Grant 195
Birthplace of Ulysses S. Grant 197
"It was Hard, Dirty Work" . . , 198
"A Regular Teamster" 199
"Hazing was then Common" 201
"He Made a Record as a Horseman" . , 203
The Cannon in the Church Tower 205
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ILLUSTRATIONS.
Bombardment of Fort Sumter 207
Grant's Attack on Fort Donelson 209
General Grant in 1880 211
Thomas J. Jackson 213
Jackson at the Battle of Churubusco 215
The Battle of Bull Run 219
** Stone wair* Jackson's Monument, Richmond, Va 221
George Peabody 223
Birthplace of George Peabody 225
The Grinnell Expedition in the Ice 227
Peabody Institute, Peabody, Mass .229
James A. Garfield 233
Birthplace of Garfield 235
Garfield on the Towpath . 237
Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio 240
Garfield as Ros6crans' Chief-of-Staff 241
The Battle of Chickamauga 243
Jay Gould. 247
Birthplace of Jay Gould 249
Building the Union Pacific Railway 250
Residence of Jay Gould's Father at Roxbury, N. Y 251
First Sight of the Locomotive ... 252
Store of Jay Gould's Father at Roxbury, N. Y 253
Elevated Railway, New York 254
William F. Cody, '* Buffalo BiW* 257
Cody as a **Cow-Boy" 260
A Post-Office on the Plains 261
The King of the Herd 263
Indian Attack on the Overland Mail 264
The *Deadwood Coach" 267
Thomas A. Edison 269
Edison Printing His Paper . . i 273
Edison's Incandescent Light 275
Edison's First Phonograpli 277
Moving Picture Exhibition 278
lO
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A full list of poor boys who have become successful men
would include the names of almost all prominent Ameri-
cans of past and present days. There are several reasons
for this ; one is that rich men's sons are few, in proportion
to population ; another is that rich boys have so many op-
portunities from which to choose that they seldom avail
themselves of any. A far better reason, however, is that
the boy who is poor feels the spur of necessity, so if he
has proper respect for himself he seizes whatever chance
is nearest at hand and makes the most of it.
But lazy boys, cowardly boys, thoughtless boys and
boys who are in haste to become rich are as apt as some
men at complaining that nowadays there are no oppor-
tunities, no ^'streaks of luck,'' no good chances, such as
there used to be. It is true that a few — a very few, of the
old-time chances are gone, but it is also true that for every
one that has disappeared there are a hundred new ones.
II
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INTRODUCTION.
Indeed, the wonder is that the boys of two or three genera-
tions ago found any special opportunities for bettering
their condition, for manufactures were few, and there was
little chance in them to get rich quickly ; there was none of
the railroads, mines and scores of other new businesses
which are now enriching many thousands of men and
stimulating the minds of hundreds of thousands.
How few and mean were the chances of boys of the
last generation and of the two or three which preceded
it may be learned from the following pages, in which are
noted briefly the opportunities of a score of American boys
who became famous in different departments of effort.
Almost all of these chances that were of any service are
within the reach of modern boys. What boys have done
boys can do.
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
Born January 17, 1706; died April 17, 1790.
In the good old times when lucky chances were supposed
to have abounded for poor boys, one of the most fortunate
of Americans was Benjamin Franklin, for he was re-
spected by every one who knew him and feared by every
one whom he opposed ; he succeeded at almost every thing
he undertook, he enjoyed life to his latest days, which were
prolonged far beyond the customary three-score years and
ten, and he never was out of money. Most men of prom-
inence owe their success to proficiency in some one single
line of endeavor, but Franklin knew so much, and about
so many things that his most recent biographer calls him
"The Many-Sided Franklin." No one, not even Washing-
ton, was more useful than he to the patriot cause during
the Revolutionary period, yet he retained the friendship of
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POOR BOYS' CHANCES.
the many Englishmen who had known him while he was
the agent in England of the Pennsylvania Colony. In his
old age he became the ^'social lion*' of Paris, though he
dressed plainly and was as simple and direct of manner
as while he was at home. He was liked, respected and
trusted by every member of the Continental Congress,
though those worthies were so full of the jealousies of
their respective colonies that they were suspicious of
almost all their fellow members ; Franklin did more than
any one but Washington to allay this suspicion and make
a permanent union of the colonies possible.
Yet this remarkably successful American was **born and
bred in poverty and obscurity" (the words are his own,
from his autobiography). He was the fifteenth child of
his father, a maker of soap and candles in Boston,
at a time when that city contained only a few thousand
people and most of the inhabitants made their own soap
and candles, so the elder Franklin's business was a poor
one. As Benjamin once said that he could remember to
have seen thirteen of his brothers and sisters at table at one
time, no farther evidence of the family's poverty is neces-
sary.
Nevertheless the elder Franklin wished to make Benja-
min (his tenth son), a minister, and to prepare the youth
for college he sent him to the grammar school at the early
age of eight years; a grammar school, at that time, at-
tempted to teach little but the elements of Latin and Greek,
so a boy might pass through one successfully without
knowing even the multiplication table. But the expense of
the grammar school course became too great for the elder
Franklin to meet, so Benjamin was removed to a lower
school to learn reading and writing, these, with reading,
being the only branches in which instruction was given.
Even this elementary schooling stopped when young
Id
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN."
Benjamin Franklin.
Franklin reached his tenth year, for the boy's hands were
needed in the shop, to help earn the family living.
It was a chance to learn a trade, but Benjamin did not
like soap boiling and candle-making; he wished to go to
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FUOR BOYS' CHANCES.
sea, where the greater business chances of the period ap-
peared to be, though it is true that they were attended by
great risks. His father objected to his becoming a sailor,
so the boy gratified his nautical tastes to the best of his
ability with small boats. Many years afterward he wrote
that he handled them well, young though he was, "and was
commonly allowed to govern, especially in any case of
difficulty, and upon other occasions I was generally a
leader among the boys.''
These few words fore-
shadow his entire career,
for whatever he did
throughout life, from the
first we knew of it, was
well done, so although he
was assuming or aggres-
sive he was sure to find
himself in a position of
leadership among men.
His dislike of the soap
and candle business con-
tinued ; so did his desire to
Benjamin Delivers Candles. ^^ to sea, but his father,
who seems to have been a
model parent, found time to take him about to see
men at work, hoping that some form of handicraft
would engage the boy's fancy. The experiment did not suc-
ceed to the father's liking, but young Franklin's eyes
seemed to see as well as to look ; there is a great diflference
in these two ways of using the eyes. In those occasional
hours began the interest in the mechanic arts which Frank-
lin always manifested afterward and which he often put
to practical use.
Young Franklin manifested early in life a fondness
for reading, but the books he names in his autobiography
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BENJAMIN FKANKLIN.
as having read
before his twelfth
year would not
appeal to any
small boy of the
present day; they
were John Bun-
yan's works, Bur-
ton's "Historical
Collections," De-
foe's "Essays on
Projects" and
Mather's "Essays
to Do Good."
Perhaps he had
to choose between
these and noth-
ing, for it is cer-
tain (and perhaps
it was lucky for Benjamin Reads While Eating.
Benjamin) that
novels and story-books were not to be had in Bos-
ton in those days ; boys had never even heard of such
means of killing time.
Franklin's first real chance came when he was about
twelve years of age, but it was not at all to his liking. One
of his adult brothers, who had been to England and learned
the printer's trade, returned to Boston to begin business
for himself, and Benjamin was apprenticed to him. The
boy learned quickly to set type, but what pleased him more
was that the business made him acquainted with book-
sellers' apprentices, some of whom lent him their employ-
ers* books, to read over-night. It was thus he began his
education, for he never went to school again. His reading
hours were few, for the working day was long in New
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POOR BOYS' CHANCES.
England in the early part of the last century, but he
read far into the night, in order to finish a book and
return it before the owner could miss it.
While still a boy in his brother's shop there came
to him a chance which many an older lover of literature
would have hailed with joy. He had taken a fancy to
poetry, which led to the making of verses. Noting this,
his brother set him to writing ballads on tragic events of
the day ; the brother printed them and sent Benjamin about
the town to sell them, so the boy had the satisfaction, de-
nied to many older poets, of knowing who really read his
verse. ''They were wretched stuff," Franklin wrote many
years later, but they "sold wonderfully" ; evidently Boston
had not yet become fastidious about poetry. What the
nation might have suffered and lost had Franklin aban-
doned himself to verse is dreadful to contemplate, in
the light of later days ; fortunately for all of us the boy's
father laughed at the ballads and told his son that verse-
makers generally became beggars, so Benjamin was saved
for nobler efforts and entirely through heeding his father's
warning — a chance that occurs frequently in the lives of
boys, though many of them have reasons of their own
for not profiting by it.
To a similar chance Franklin owed that command of
language which made him far more effective at writing
and speaking than most of the public men of his day. He
had the common boyish belief, which the majority of boys
retain until they grow old and die, that mere disputation is
argument. He quarrelled for months by letter, with an-
other boy, over the advisability of educating women — ^boys
seem as bad as men in selecting, for discussion, subjects of
which they are utterly ignorant. Franklin's father saw
some of the letters and suggested that his son's writing
lacked method, clearness and p-race. Nobodv enjoys that
sort of criticism, but again Franklin heeded his father, and
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
Benjamin Hears His Contributions Discussed.
soon another great chance came in his way — one that is in
reach of almost every American boy to-day, for it was
merely an odd volume of Addison's ^'Spectator." Franklin
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POOR BOYS' CHANCES.
immediately set himself to improving his style by studying
that of Addison, and he could not have had a better model
at that time ; indeed, though modern aspirants to elegant
English can study also Macaulay, Ruskin and Hawthorne,
the boy who masters Addison's methods of expression will
never lack listeners and readers if he really has any thing
to say. But imagine, if you can, a modern 'prentice boy,
only fifteen years of age, spending his spare hours over the
pages of the old ^'Spectator," as Franklin did! He read
other **heavy" books, too, of his own accord — Locke's
"Human Understanding,*' and Xenophon's ** Memorabilia
of Socrates," and he also studied hard at arithmetic and
grammar — two studies which most boys dodge whenever
they can. Yet he was not a prig, nor a recluse, nor a book-
worm ; on the contrary, he was a big, healthy boy, full of
animal spirits and love of fun.
Meanwhile his brother had begun the publication of a
newspaper — a startling enterprise, for only three other
papers had been started in America, and one of them had
suspended publication. Benjamin immediately began to
contribute by the indirect method of slipping his contribu-
tions, unsigned, under the office door. When his brother
finally identified the new writer he did not make him assist-
ant editor and raise his pay ; on the contrary, he was dis •
pleased, apparently fearing that success at writing would
make the boy vain. Soon afterward, however, the editor-
proprietor was sent to jail for a month for having printed
something which displeased the local government. Then
Benjamin had a chance indeed, for he, although only six-
teen years of age, "ran the paper," and he did it so skilfully
as to keep himself out of jail, though he also freed his
mind regarding the government. Perhaps he was too
smart — a not uncommon failing of editors, for when his
brother was released the Massachusetts Assembly ordered
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
that ''James Franklin
should no longer print the
paper called the New Eng-
land Courant/'
But the Franklins were
not Yankees for nothing;
James put up the name of
Benjamin as the printer of
the paper, and soon the boy
found himself in a pecu-
liar position ; nominally an
editor and publisher, he
was really apprentice and
newsboy to his brother,
Benjamin Leaves Home. who was also his master,
and who frequently exer-
cised the master's right, under the laws of the time, to
give his apprentice a sound thrashing!
Benjamin ended this anomalous state of affairs by
leaving his brother, who
retaliated by warning all
other Boston printers not
to employ the runaway ap-
prentice. The boy made
his way to New York but
could get no work there,
for the present metropolis
was not much of a town a
hundred and seventy-five
years ago. He heard of a
possible job in Philadel-
phia, where he knew no
one. He was but seven-
teen years of age, Philadel-
phia was a hundred miles in Keith's Library.
2 ^oor Boy a o j
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FUUK BUYS' (JHAJNUiiiS.
away, he had very little money, there were no railway
trains on which a boy could beg or steal a ride, and travel
of any sort was risky for boys who could not give a
straight account of themselves, for at that time many
white men and boys, called indentured servants, were liter-
ally bought and sold for specified terms of service ; many
of them ran away from their masters, and the capturing of
these, for the rewards offered, was quite a flourishing
business. Yet Franklin started, and succeeded; when he
reached Philadelphia his cash had been reduced to a single
dollar, but he soon found employment.
This was the only chance for which he had been looking,
but not long afterward a brilliant one appeared unexpect-
edly, for Sir William Keith, the governor of the province,
heard him mentioned as a clever young man and printer,
called on him, invited him to his house, and finally offered
to set him up in the printing business for himself, to send
him to England to buy type and a press and to become
acquainted with London printers and stationers, who pro-
duced most of the books and paper sold in America.
At eighteen years of age Franklin started for Lon-
don, paying the passage-money from his own savings. The
letters of introduction and the letter of credit promised
by the governor did not reach him before he sailed, nor
did they ever reach London, so the boy found himself three
thousand miles from home, with but little money, and,
worse still, with a good-natured but good-for-nothing-
companion who frequently borrowed but never repaid any
thing. At that time Franklin's only gain from his seeming
great chance was his first knowledge of politicians' profes-
sions and promises ; this knowledge proved of great value
in later years, but no boy could be expected to rightly
estimate such knowledge so far in advance.
Still, he took to work instead of to drink, though he
found the latter tcJ be the favorite diversion of Lon-
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
don printers. Indirectly, this drink-habit gave him a
chance which he improved and of the results of which
he was afterward quite proud. He was nicknamed the
*'cold-water printer/' yet he could carry two ''forms'*
of type, while the other men, who sought strength in
beer and spirits,
and thought they
found it there,
could carry but
one. This differ-
ence in strength
caused great won-
der ; Franklin at-
tributed it to his
non-drinking habit,
and many of his
brother workmen
afterward followed
his example with
satisfactory results
to their physiques
and pockets.
Before he came
of age another
great chance came
in his way. A Phil-
adelphian of Eng- " The Told Water Printer »
lish birth and high ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^'^ ^°*®';-
character, who had crossed in the ship with him, pur-
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