CHAPTEE XLIII. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DUDLEY W. ADAMS. 



YOUTH AND EMIGRATION WESTWARD. 



The subject of this sketch was born at Winchester, Mass., 

 on the 30th of November, 1831. Like many of the now 

 prominent men of the nation, he passed his childhood and 

 grew up to man s estate in a section where farming means 

 the tillage of a soil never rich, and whose natural produc 

 tions are rather rocks and stones than rank herbage and 

 generous crops. But if the soil of the New England States 

 is not celebrated for its agricultural wealth, the constant la 

 bor necessary to gain daily bread has taught her sons les 

 sons of persistent industry and self-reliance that are simply 

 invaluable. 



It is not those reared in the lap of luxury, and who take 

 to their studies as a fashionable dandy does to dress, as a 

 mere superficial adornment, that furnish the country her 

 statesmen or her master minds in trade and finance. On 

 the contrary, it is those who thirst for knowledge ; who in 

 cessantly employ the brain, whether at labor or actual 

 study ; who train their mind habitually, in working out ideas, 

 to grasp, connectedly, whatever subject may present itself. 

 Many of the brightest names and strongest characters in 

 American history were self-made men ; and such, if imbued 

 with sympathy for their fellows, and a willingness to la 

 bor for their well-being, are the real noblemen of nature. 



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