Part 1

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Transcriber's note:

A large number of printer's typographical errors have been corrected. In some cases, questionable spellings, tense and words (e.g.: vindicative) have been retained.

HIDDEN TREASURES

Or,

Why Some Succeed While Others Fail.

H. A. LEWIS.

Finely Illustrated.

"Not Failure, but low aim is crime."

Sold by Subscription Only. Cleveland, Ohio: Moses, Lewis & Co. 1888. Copyright, 1887. by Wright, Moses & Lewis. All rights reserved.

PREFACE.

Some succeed while others fail. This is a recognized fact; yet history tells us that seven-tenths of our most successful men began life poor. As our title indicates, we shall endeavor to show "why some succeed while others fail." Knowing that everybody desires success, and recognizing the old adage, "Example is the best of teachers," we have selected representative characters from the multitude of successful men who have climbed the ladder of success, beginning at the bottom round. These we have followed from childhood to manhood, dwelling at length on the traits of character that have made them so rich and successful, believing that a careful study will convince all that the proverbial "luck" had little to do with it. On the contrary, one is taught those lessons of self-helpfulness and self-reliance which are so essential to success in life's struggles. It is fearful to think how many of our young people are drifting without an aim in life, and do not comprehend that they owe mankind their best efforts. We are all familiar with the parable of the slothful servant who buried his talent--all may profit by his example. To those who would succeed, we respectfully present this volume.

Every young man is now a sower of seed on the field of life. The bright days of youth are the seed-time. Every thought of your intellect, every emotion of your heart, every word of your tongue, every principle you adopt, every act you perform, is a seed, whose good or evil fruit will prove bliss or bane of your after life.--WISE.

INTRODUCTION.

Dear reader, it is a grave undertaking to write a book, especially is it so in writing a treatise on success and failure, as we have attempted to do in the work we hereby present you. It is a solemn thing to give advice. Experience teaches that no one thing will please everybody; that men's censures are as various as their palates; that some are as deeply in love with vice as others are with virtue. Shall I then make myself the subject of every opinion, wise or weak? Yes, I would rather hazard the censure of some than hinder the good of others.

There need neither reasons to be given nor apologies to be made where the benefit of our fellow-men is our aim. Henry Clay Trumbull says: "At no time in the world's history, probably, has there been so general an interest in biography as that which has been shown of late. Just here lies a weighty obligation upon these who write, and those who read, of the lives of men who have done something in the world. It is not enough for us to know WHAT they have done; it belongs to us to discover the WHY of their works and ways, and to gain some personal benefit from the analysis of their successes and failures. Why was this man great? What general intentions--what special traits led him to success? What ideal stood before him, and by what means did he seek to attain it? Or, on the other hand, what unworthy purpose, what lack of conscience and religious sense, what unsettled method and feeble endeavor stood in the way of the 'man of genius' and his possible achievements?" In this volume one sees the barefoot boy rise to the eminent statesman, the great millionaire, the honored inventor. How was this accomplished? We believe that a careful study of the different characters, by the light of the author's opinion of the characteristics essential to success, as shown in Department Fifth, will show why they succeeded.

Let the reader follow each character separately, from childhood to manhood, noting carefully the different changes in the career of each and the motives which actuated and brought them about. If this book shall serve to awaken dormant energies in ONE PERSON who might otherwise have failed, we shall feel abundantly repaid. Doubtless, there are others who are better qualified to write a treatise on such a subject; nevertheless, we have done our best, and this done, we have attained success.

CONTENTS.

ADAMS, JOHN, 129 ARTHUR, CHESTER A., 352 ASTOR, JOHN JACOB, 85 BARNUM, PHINEAS T., 81 BEECHER, HENRY WARD, 404 BENNETT, JAMES GORDON, 77 BENTON, THOMAS HART, 248 BLAINE, JAMES G., 362 BONNER, ROBERT, 45 CALHOUN, JOHN C., 209 CASS, LEWIS, 207 CHILDS, GEORGE W., 72 CLAFLIN, HORACE B., 26 CLAY, HENRY, 256 COOPER, PETER, 95 CORCORAN, WILLIAM W., 119 DISSTON, HENRY, 93 DODGE, WILLIAM E., 27 DOUGLASS, STEPHEN A., 267 DREW, DANIEL, 11 EDISON, THOMAS A., 476 EVERETT, EDWARD, 328 FAIR, JAMES G., 54 FARGO, WILLIAM G., 48 FIELD, CYRUS W., 467 FILLMORE, MILLARD, 281 FLOOD, JAMES C., FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN, 429 FULTON, ROBERT, 436 GARFIELD, JAMES A., 342 GIRARD, STEPHEN, 106 GOODYEAR, CHARLES, 457 GOULD, JAY, 30 GRANT, ULYSSES S., 299 GREELEY, HORACE, 61 HAMILTON, ALEXANDER, 179 HANCOCK, WINFIELD S., 293 HARPER, JAMES, 90 HAYNE, ROBERT Y., 216 HOE, RICHARD M., 454 HOWE, JR., ELIAS, 444 JACKSON, ANDREW, 237 JACKSON, STONEWALL, 303 JEFFERSON, THOMAS, 168 JOHNSON, ANDREW, 338 LAW, GEORGE, 101 LAWRENCE, ABBOTT, 271 LAWRENCE, AMOS, 21 LEE, ROBERT E., 306 LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, 312 LOGAN, JOHN A., 357 LONGWORTH, NICHOLAS, 43 MACKAY, JOHN W., 52 MADISON, JAMES, 184 MARSHALL, JOHN, 175 MCCLELLAN, GEORGE B., 297 MILLS, DARIUS O., 103 MONROE, JAMES, 200 MORSE, PROFESSOR S. F. B., 462 PALMER, POTTER, 88 PEABODY, GEORGE, 116 PULLMAN, GEORGE, 473 RALSTON, WILLIAM G., 112 ROTHSCHILD, NATHAN MAYER, 122 SAGE, RUSSELL, 14 SEWARD, WILLIAM H., 204 SEYMOUR, HORATIO, 289 SINGER, ISAAC M., 451 STANTON, EDWIN M., 332 STEPHENS, ALEXANDER H., 272 STEPHENSON, GEORGE, 421 STEWART, ALEXANDER T., 39 TAYLOR, MOSES, 110 TILDEN, SAMUEL J., 396 VAN BUREN, MARTIN, 263 VANDERBILT, CORNELIUS, 16 VASSAR, MATHEW, 84 WANNAMAKER, JOHN, 37 WATT, JAMES, 415 WEBSTER, DANIEL, 218 WEED, THURLOW, 69 WILSON, HENRY, 310 WHITNEY, ELI, 435

WHY SOME SUCCEED WHILE OTHERS FAIL.

SUCCESS AND FAILURE, 481 CONCENTRATION OF EFFORT, 486 SELF-RELIANCE, 490 ECONOMY OF TIME, 495 CAUSES OF FAILURE, 499

QUOTATIONS.

A man, to succeed, must possess the necessary equanimity of temperament to conceive an idea, the capacity to form it into some tangible shape, the ingenuity to put it into practical operation, the ability to favorably impress others with its merits, and the POWER of WILL that is absolutely necessary to force it to success.

--THOMAS A. SCOTT.

Labor rids us of three evils.--Tediousness, Vice and Poverty.

--CARLYLE.

"Never start upon an undertaking until you are sure it is practicable and ought to be done, and then let nothing stand long in the way of accomplishing that undertaking. It is better to deserve success than to have it; few deserve it who do not attain it."

"There is no failure in this country for those whose personal habits are good, and who follow some honest calling industriously, unselfishly, and purely. If one desires to succeed, he must pay the price--WORK!"