HE WHO HAS A FIRM WILL MOULDS THE WORLD O finish whatever you begin is one of the first indications of a genuinely strong man. Fifty per cent of the people who make a failure of life, fail because they have not the will power to finish the things they start. When Coleridge, the famous Englishman, died, Charles Lamb wrote, "He has left forty thousand treatises on metaphysics and theology unfinished." It is so easy to start things, but after running against a few obstacles the enthusiasm is apt to evaporate. The drudgery becomes more and more apparent, and the man turns away in disgust, leaving the duty only half performed. Every time a man leaves a piece of work unfinished, he weakens his power. The great men of the world have always been "stickers." Watt, amid poverty and care, worked twenty years to perfect his condensing engine. Harvey took eight years to discover the circulation of the blood; and for twenty years after making his discovery public, he was looked upon as a quack. Goodyear worked sixteen hours a day for five years before he gave to the world the product of his brain and hand. Read the story of the world's great men—the men nations delight to honorand you will find that every one developed a will power that held him to his task, no matter what obstacles stood in the way. There are so many people whom nature has endowed with excellent ability, but for some reason they are unable to "connect up" with the world's work, and, as a result, they are about as useful in this practical world of ours as a wooden image. Dr. Ludlow says, "The will is like a dynamo. When the armature spins rapidly close to the magnetic field, the mechanical power which drives it-steam or water-is changed to electric power. It is no longer confined to the factory, but conducted through wires to do its work miles away, lighting the city or propelling its cars. But if the shafting is not properly connected, or the mechanical and electric parts are not carefully adjusted, no power passes out; the engine hums as a gigantic illustration of wasted energy." "Never depend upon your genius," said John Ruskin. "If you have talent, industry will improve it; if you have none, industry will supply the deficiency." The first thing the average man needs to decide is whether or not he is in his right place in the world. Sit down and think it over. Is your work the kind of work that appeals to your best endeavor? that interests you? If it is, be as true as steel. Never mind difficulties, these may be overcome; throw the full strength of brain and hand into your work, and turn out a finished product. Superiority in trade or profession is very largely the result of resolution. The iron will that holds a man to his task never fails to win the respect of society. Marcus Morton ran for Governor of Massachusetts sixteen times before he won the coveted position. He was elected by men who had previously voted against him, as a tribute to his courage. We fail to appreciate what may be accomplished by an average brain and a willing pair of hands. Dr. Johnson described study as holding one's face to the grindstone until one's wits were sharpened. The great men in every department of human energy have been men of strong wills-Napoleon, Franklin, Darwin, Edison, and a hundred others are illustrations of this truth: From the Minneapolis Journal. JOHN BULL: "NO WONDER THE BLOOMIN' AMERICANS GET AHEAD. If You Any Spare Time WE WANT TO HE magazine subscription business has grown enormously within the past three years, and hundreds are finding it a pleasant and luc ative employment, especially at this season of the year. A large sum will be spent in every community this winter in subscribing for new magazines and renewing old subscriptions. Most of this money would ordinarily go direct from subscriber to publisher; but the latter would just as soon receive it through an agent, and the subscriber would usually prefer to patronize a "home industry" by placing his subscriptions through a fellow-townsman. By putting this idea into practice, one of our subscription representatives, in a recent month's canvassing, earned $524.00; another, in the same month, $494.00, and still another, $334.00. And this, mind you, at work calling for the investment of not one penny, and no previous experience. You do as well. Will you try it? may WE WANT A REPRESENTATIVE in every community this winter to whom we can send lists of expiring subscriptions for renewal, also to obtain new subscriptions. The pay is the largest offered by any first-class magazine, and the assistance rendered subscription-getters the most helpful. Any person of average intelligence and energy can earn much more in this way than could be earned in any ordinary salaried position. THE MAKING OF A CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY BEING CHAPTERS FROM THE EARLY LIFE OF JOHN BOTTS, NOW PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL AIR ENGINE COMPANY I By HENRY M. HYDE was N the '40's a red-haired baby was born on an Ohio farm. The baby grew up to be a freckled-faced, bare-footed boy. The boy sent to a small college and graduated. During the next ten years he tried three or four different businesses, making fair success in each. Twenty-five years ago, at the death of his father, he inherited property worth, perhaps, $8,000, and he invested the money in the manufacture of an entirely new article. To-day he is at the head of a corporation with $5,000,000 capital, which practically controls the trade of the world in its line. The following incident and those which may appear in other articles are drawn from the actual experiences of his early life. They are significant because, according to his own statement, they had most to do with shaping his career and influencing his character. For obvious reasons the real name of the man in question and that of the company which he controls are not here given. The story, however, is told practically in his own words: "It was a red-hot September morning in 1860. Father had sent the three hired men and me out to plow up the big corn field below the hill and out of sight of the farm house. I was a freckled-faced, red-headed, little boy of sixteen, small for my age and even homelier than I am now, which, you will all admit, is saying a great deal. We left the house at 5 o'clock in the morning, soon after sunup, and we took our lunch with us into the fields-a big basket full of sliced meat, bread, cheese and pie, and a twogallon jug of buttermilk. I, being the smallest and weakest of the party, naturally carried the jug, which was the heaviest part of the provender. "In one corner of the far eighty where we were to begin work stood a thick clump of scrub oaks, and we put the bas (70; ket and jug there, under the shade, to keep them out of the sun. "Then we set to work, and long before the sun had climbed up to the middle of the sky, I, for one, was tired to death and almost ready to drop down in the furrow behind Prince, my old white plow horse. We were all mighty glad when Jim Betts, the oldest of the hired men, heard the far-off whistle of the vinegar factory in town sound the hour for noon. "Noon, boys,' called Jim across the furrows, and we all drove over to the scrub oaks in the corner of the field, unhitched our horses, let them drink at the little creek in the pasture beyond, and fed them their noon rations of corn. Then we all lay down in the shade under the oaks and started to eat our lunch. "Nowadays I have to be mighty careful what I eat, but then my only trouble was to get enough. At any rate the four of us had no difficulty in emptying the big basket and in getting very close to the bottom of the buttermilk jug. Lunch finished, we rolled over on our backs there in the shade of the trees and listened to Jim Betts talk. Jim was a mighty talker. Presently he climbed up and sat on the rail fence; and from that elevated position, with his boots on the third rail, he laid down the law to the rest of us on the ground below. "It was the year before Sumter was fired on, and the very air was full of excitement. Jim was a red-hot rebel. At least he took that position, perhaps because the rest of us were such strong Union men. The other two hired hands talked back to Jim; and between them they marched armies back and forth across the country from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson's Bay, until my young eyes fairly popped out of my head with excitement. "I, of course, was too small and too insignificant to take any active part in (Continued on page 72) WITH protractor printed on right-hand page whereby sketches are made rapidly and approximately to scale; also will necessarily show location of the Meridian; detects errors in azimuth and distance. Adaptable to any method of recording; endorsed by the leading Schools of Technology. Substantially bound in sheep and perfectly flat opening; ledger paper equally adaptable to pencil or ink; rulings |