Introductory Note
Chapter I: Marshall Field
THIS world-renowned merchant is not easily accessible to interviews, and he seeks no fame for his business achievements. Yet, there is no story more significant, none more full of encouragement and inspiration for youth.
In relating it, as he told it, I have removed my own interrogations, so far as possible, from the interview.
Chapter II: Bell Telephone Talk
HINTS ON SUCCESS BY ALEXANDER G. BELL.
EXTREMELY polite, always anxious to render courtesy, no one carries great success more gracefully than Alexander G. Bell, the inventor of the telephone. His graciousness has won many a friend, the admiration of many more, and has smoothed many a rugged spot in life.
Chapter III: Why the American People Like Helen Gould
MISS HELEN GOULD has won a place for herself in the hearts of Americans such as few people of great wealth ever gain. Her strong character, commonsense, and high ideals, have made her respected by all, while her munificence and kindness have won for her the love of many.
Chapter IV: Philip D. Armour’s Business Career
IMET Mr. Armour in the quiet of the Armour Institute, his great philanthropic school for young men and women. He was very courteous, and there was no delay. He took my hand with a firm grasp—reading with his steady gaze such of my characteristics as interested him,—and saying, at the same time, “Well, sir.”
Chapter V: What Miss Mary E. Proctor Did to Popularize Astronomy
YOU can never know what your possibilities are,” said Miss Proctor, “till you have put yourself to the test. There are many, many women who long to do something, and could succeed, if they would only banish their doubts, and plunge in. For example, I was not at all sure that I could interest audiences with talks on astronomy, but, in 1893, I began, and since then have given between four and five hundred lectures.”
Chapter VI: The Boyhood Experience of President Schurman of Cornell University
AT ten years of age, he was a country lad on a backwoods farm on Prince Edward Island.
At thirteen, he had become a clerk in a country store, at a salary of thirty dollars a year.
At eighteen, he was a college student, supporting himself by working in the evenings as a bookkeeper.
At twenty, he had won a scholarship in the University of London, in competition with all other Canadian students.
Chapter VII: The Story of John Wanamaker
IN a plain two-story dwelling, on the outskirts of Philadelphia, the future merchant prince was born, July 11, 1837. His parents were Americans in humble station; his mother being of that sturdy Pennsylvania Dutch stock which has no parallel except the Scotch for ruggedness. His father, a hard working man, owned a brickyard in the close vicinity of the family residence. Little John earned his first money, seven big copper cents, by assisting his father.
Chapter VIII: Giving up Five Thousand a Year to Become a Sculptor
“MY life?” queried F. Wellington Ruckstuhl, one of the foremost sculptors of America, as we sat in his studio looking up at his huge figure of “Force.” “When did I begin to sculpture? As a child I was forever whittling, but I did not have dreams then of becoming a sculptor. It was not till I was thirty-two years of age. And love,—disappointment in my first love played a prominent part.”
“But as a boy, Mr. Ruckstuhl?”
Chapter IX: Questions and Answers
“WHAT is your idea, Mr. Mills,1 of a successful life?” “If a bootblack does all the good he possibly can for his fellow-men, his life has been just as successful as that of the millionaire who helps thousands.”
