In his earlier years W.H.  Smith made a list of subjects for daily prayer, embracing repentance, faith, love, grace to help, gratitude, power to pray, constant direction in all things, a right understanding of the Bible, deliverance from besetting sin, constancy in God’s service, relatives and friends, missionaries, pardon for all ignorance and sin in prayer, etc., etc.; and it was one of the characteristics of his nature that he felt prayer both in youth and age to be a necessity.

It was a busy life in which Smith was launched at the commencement of his career.

His father had already laid the foundation of the newsagency business which is now of world-wide fame.  Every week-day morning, summer and winter, throughout the year, sunshine or rain, fog or snow, father and son left their home for the business house in the Strand, at four o’clock.  Sometimes, indeed, the younger man was at his post as early as three o’clock in the morning; and from the time he arrived at the place of business there was constant work to be done.  It was difficult and anxious work too, and the constant strain told upon the young man’s health.

The collection and distribution of newspapers, which formed then the chief part of the business of W.H.  Smith & Son, was one that needed the closest attention and the most untiring energy.

“First on the road” was old Mr. Smith’s motto; and he carried it out.

Smith’s carts were in attendance at all the great newspaper offices, ready to carry off printed sheets to the Strand house for sorting and packing; and thence they sped swiftly through the streets in the early morning to catch the first trains for the country.  Occasionally The Times, which was the last printed journal, did not arrive at the station till the final moment.  The whistle would have sounded, the doors would have all been locked, the guard would have given his warning signal, when in would come at hurricane speed Smith’s cart bearing its load of “Thunderers”.  Ready hands would seize the papers, and the last packet would perchance be thrown in as the train was already steaming out of the station.

A great deal of the forwarding of newspapers was in those days done by coaches.  To catch these with the later papers, Smith had light carts with fast horses.  If the coaches had started, Smith’s carts would pursue for many miles, till they caught up the coaches at one of their stopping places.

At the death of William IV.  Smith made gigantic efforts to distribute the papers early, and he got them into the country many hours before the ordinary mails would have taken them.  He even hired a special ship to carry over the papers to Ireland, so that they reached Belfast on the same day.  By such means the fame of Smith grew rapidly, and the business vastly increased.  When Mr. W.H.  Smith became a partner in 1846, at the age of twenty-one, it was valued at over L80,000.