140 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



If we get cross, we should never show it. A little act of kinduess 

 has frequently made a man a fortune. Mr. Butler, of Providence, 

 E. I., opened his store one night after all the doors were locked to 

 give a little girl a spool of thread. His act of kindness became 

 known and spread like wild-fire over the town and resulted in bring- 

 ing him a large increase in trade. We must be gentlemen at all 

 times; we must copy after our Saviour, who was reverently styled 

 by an old English poet, as the "first true gentlemen who ever lived." 



All of these things seem nice to talk about, but there is probably 

 no one who realizes the dilliculty of putting them into practice more 

 fully than the speaker. Back of it all there must lie a hidden yet 

 divine force which is usually termed "will power." "Wherever there 

 is a will there is always a way." Some years ago an English car- 

 penter was asked why he took so much pains in planing the magis- 

 trate's bench, which he was then working upon. His reply was, ''I 

 want a smooth bench to sit upon when I -become magistrate." In 

 after years, he actually became magistrate and sat upon the very 

 bench he made so carefully in former years. That is an example 

 of what "I will" can do. Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton says "The 

 longer I live, the more I am certain that the great difference be- 

 tween men, between the great and the insignificant, is energy, in- 

 vincible determination." An honest purpose once fixed, and then 

 victory or death. This quality will do anything in the world and no 

 talent, no circumstances will make the two-legged creature a man 

 without it. Men having this quality will be helped by opposition. 

 As the height to which a rubber ball rebounds depends upon the 

 force with which it is thrown upon the ground, so their success de- 

 pends upon the opposition they receive; the harder they are op- 

 posed, the harder they will work. Matthew says, "The school of 

 adversity graduates the ablest pupils and the hill of difficulties is 

 the best of all constitutionals for the strengthening of mental back- 

 bone. Great men can no more be made without trials than bricks 

 can be made without fire." Study the lives of many of the noted 

 men of this country and you will find that they had to struggle for 

 existence when they first started in life. Franklin, Patrick Henry, 

 Glay, Webster, Jackson, Lincoln, Grant and Garfield were all the 

 sons of poor parejits. 



We should not give up if we fail in the first attempt, for many men 

 have become noted for things in which they made utter failures the 

 first time. Daniel Webster is a most striking illustration of this. 

 As a schoolboy he would commit a selection to memory, but when 

 the time came for him to stand up in front of the school to declaim 

 it he was unable to rise from his seat and remained speechless. A 

 number of most thorough preparations ended in the same way. but 

 he continued in making an effort, and now, although dead, he lives 



