How to Succeed | Page 8

go to
bed, tired and lame from the heavy rolling. In addition, I also had the
laborious task of carrying a quantity of water from the pump behind the
block around to the entrance in front, and then up two flights of stairs,
usually a daily job. I was at first everybody's servant. I was abused,
called all sorts of nicknames, had to sweep out the office, build fires in
winter, run errands, post bills, carry papers, wait on the editor, in fact I
led the life of a genuine printer's devil; but when I showed them at
length that I had learned to set type and run the press, I got promoted,
and another boy was hired to succeed to my task, with all its
decorations. That was my first success, and from that day to this I have
never asked anybody to get me a job or situation, and never used a
letter of recommendation; but when an important job was in prospect
the proposed employers were given all facilities to learn of my abilities
and character. If some young men are easily discouraged, I hope they
may gain encouragement and strength from my story. It is a long, rough

road at first, but, like the ship on the ocean, you must lay your course
for the place where you hope to land, and take advantage of all favoring
circumstances."
"Don't go about the town any longer in that outlandish rig. Let me give
you an order on the store. Dress up a little, Horace." Horace Greeley
looked down on his clothes as if he had never before noticed how seedy
they were, and replied: "You see, Mr. Sterrett, my father is on a new
place, and I want to help him all I can." He had spent but six dollars for
personal expenses in seven months, and was to receive one hundred
and thirty-five from Judge J. M. Sterrett of the Erie Gazette for
substitute work. He retained but fifteen dollars and gave the rest to his
father, with whom he had moved from Vermont to Western
Pennsylvania, and for whom he had camped out many a night to guard
the sheep from wolves. He was nearly twenty-one; and, although tall
and gawky, with tow-colored hair, a pale face and whining voice, he
resolved to seek his fortune in New York City. Slinging his bundle of
clothes on a stick over his shoulder, he walked sixty miles through the
woods to Buffalo, rode on a canal boat to Albany, descended the
Hudson in a barge, and reached New York, just as the sun was rising,
August 18, 1831.
For days Horace wandered up and down the streets, going into scores
of buildings and asking if they wanted "a hand;" but "no" was the
invariable reply. His quaint appearance led many to think he was an
escaped apprentice. One Sunday at his boarding-place he heard that
printers were wanted at "West's Printing-office." He was at the door at
five o'clock Monday morning, and asked the foreman for a job at seven.
The latter had no idea that the country greenhorn could set type for the
Polyglot Testament on which help was needed, but said: "Fix up a case
for him and we'll see if he can do anything." When the proprietor came
in, he objected to the newcomer and told the foreman to let him go
when his first day's work was done. That night Horace showed a proof
of the largest and most correct day's work that had then been done. In
ten years Horace was a partner in a small printing-office. He founded
the New Yorker, the best weekly paper in the United States, but it was
not profitable. When Harrison was nominated for President in 1840,

Greeley started The Log Cabin, which reached the then fabulous
circulation of ninety thousand. But on this paper at a penny a copy, he
made no money. His next venture was the New York Tribune, price
one cent. To start it he borrowed a thousand dollars and printed five
thousand copies of the first number. It was difficult to give them all
away. He began with six hundred subscribers, and increased the list to
eleven thousand in six weeks. The demand for the Tribune grew faster
than new machinery could be obtained to print it. It was a paper whose
editor always tried to be right.
At the World's Fair in New York in 1853 President Pierce might have
been seen watching a young man exhibiting a patent rat trap. He was
attracted by the enthusiasm and diligence of the young man, but never
dreamed that he would become one of the richest men in the world. It
seemed like small business for Jay Gould to be exhibiting a rat trap,