HIS LIFE AND WORK 



of Cyrus McCormick was not his power of con- 

 centration, nor his spirit of pioneering, nor his 

 thoroughness. It was his strength of will 

 his Tenacity. This was the motif of his life. 



He was not at all a shrewd accumulator of 

 millions, as many have imagined him. He had 

 not an iota of craft and cunning. Neither was 

 he a financier, in the modern sense. It would 

 be nearer the truth to say that he was a farmer- 

 manufacturer, of simple nature but tremendous 

 resolution, whose one overmastering life-pur- 

 pose was to teach the wheat nations of the world 

 to use his harvesting machinery. 



"The exhibition of his powerful will was at 

 times actually terrible," said one of his lawyers. 

 "If any other man on this earth ever had such 

 a will, certainly I have not heard of it." 



A drizzle of little annoyances and little mat- 

 ters always irritated him, but he could stand 

 up alone against a sea of adversity without a 

 whimper. In fact, he would sooner be asked 

 for a thousand dollars than for fifty cents. He 

 would storm over the loss of a carpet slipper 

 and smile blandly at the loss of a lawsuit. " He 



