Aids to Success. 



Speech delivered by Martin E. Lee of Westtown, N. Y., at Unionville Institute, 



January 23, 1901. 



The great problem of the ages and the burning question of to- 

 day, id, " How to succeed % " Every generation of the past has 

 been confronted by this problem, and each individual is to-day ask- 

 ing the same vital question. Our ideals of happiness as success 

 may differ, but each is striving for that ideal we call success. In 

 order to succeed in life one should early take an account of his 

 stock in hand. For what is he naturally fitted % For what has he 

 an aptitude ? Occasionally early in life, a strong bias of mind 

 toward some particular pursuit is manifested. It is nature's indi- 

 cation of a calling and should be followed. Some notable instances 

 are on record: Benjamin AVest, when a child, robbing the tail 

 of his cat of hairs to make brushes for painting, and with remark- 

 able skill sketching with a bit of charcoal the sleeping face of his 

 baby sister to the delight of his mother, showed what nature de- 

 signed him for. 



A farmer who had a fine farm of 300 acres, with nice build- 

 ings, had an only son, and he naturally desired that when the 

 son should grow up he would follow in his footsteps and 

 relieve him from the care and management of the farm. But the 

 boy was in the habit of buying candy by the pound and selling 

 it out by the stick to the little urchins of his own age who came 

 into his mother's kitchen, and with them a great deal of mud. 

 When he grew up his father could not interest him in farm mat- 

 ters, but he became a successful merchant. 



So, we argue, to achieve the greatest success, a man should 

 engage in a business for which he is adapted; in a business of 

 which he is fond and by nature inclined, and farming is no 

 exception to the rule. It is evident to the most careless observer 

 that, if the farmers of the present day and the future expect to 

 achieve any great success in their chosen calling, they must adopt 

 or pursue different methods of agriculture from those of 

 their ancestors. We all know that our forefathers were 

 the founders and homemakers of this great United States 

 of North America. They found here a virgin soil, rich 

 in its pristine elements of fertility, which gave to them 



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