THE MANAGER OF THE HOUSE HIMSELF

spoke to him, and the second assistant assured him that one of the “outside men” would soon be put aside to give him a chance on the road.  When a young man goes on the road his board is paid, so that it is that much of an advance of salary.  Six long months, however, ran along at eight dollars a week, and the unsatisfactory man on the road proved more influential than the second assistant.  When our young man saw this, he went to the manager, demanded nine dollars a week, and got it after a loud protest from that broad-hearted functionary.  The next week—­this was in the summer—­he went on the road in place of a sick man, traveled through nearly all the towns in Illinois and Iowa, and made a fine record, both as to the character of his work, his speed, and his expenses.  Upon his return a rival firm, hearing of his work, made him a proposition at a thousand dollars a year and expenses, with two months’ holiday each year, and he signed a contract.  His first year’s tramp took him through nearly all the towns of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado.  He returned in August, with nine hundred dollars in cash credited to his account in the bank and demanded and received fifteen hundred dollars and expenses for going over the same route the next year, and to-day he stands with his head as high among his fellows as any young man in America.  Now a retrospect of the young man’s short career shows that

HE HAD GENUINE COURAGE.

He never failed when he had any chance to succeed.  He never will.  For such a man the world is not a world of chance.  It is almost a certainty.  The opportunities are more frequent than the men with courage.

DURING THE HARDEST WINTER

since 1842 the young man passed through experiences on the road, brought about by deep snows and blundering Postmasters that would sicken anybody’s heart, experiences that without excellent brain-work would simply have stalled anybody, but his coolness, his use of the telegraph with unerring judgment in following the movements of his superior (who was traveling in like difficulties—­it was like Kepler making a path for Mars while himself riding on the earth),—­extricated him, and made his journeys little more costly, all told, than those of the preceding year.  In the city all depends on courage.  This young man espied a few weak places in the enemy’s lines.  He attacked with vigor.  In the charge on the theatre he met the enemy in force and was thrown back with heavy loss, but in all the other onsets the enemy had no force to withstand him.  One quality which the young man had in a large measure was the fear of failure.  “The brave man is not he who feels no fear, for that were stupid and irrational; but he whose noble soul its fear subdues, and bravely dares the danger Nature shrinks from.”  There is a quality much akin to moral courage, which, however, is not present very noticeably in the strongest natures, but which is