218 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
§0p Comer. 
MAKE A CHARACTER FOR YOURSELF. 
It is related of Girard, that when a young 
tradesman, having bought and paid for a bag 
of coffee, proceeded to wheel it home him¬ 
self, the shrewd old merchant immediately 
offered to trust his new customer with as 
many more bags as the latter might desire. 
The trait of character revealed by the young 
man in being his own porter, had given the 
millionaire confidence in him at once. His 
reputation was made with Girard. He be¬ 
came a favored dealer with the interprizing 
merchant, throve rapidly, and in the end 
amassed a fortune. 
No mere capital will do so much for young 
men as character. Nor will always even 
capital and connexion combined. In our own 
experience, we have known many beginners 
who have utterly failed though backed by 
ample means, and assisted by the influence 
of a large circle of friends, in some cases, 
indeed, considerable experience as well as 
industry and perseverance, have been added 
to these advantages, yet without securing 
success. We have known such persons, af¬ 
ter a failure in their first pursuit, to try a 
second, and even a third, yet with no better 
result, although still assisted by capital, by 
friends and even by their own activity. The 
secret was that they had missed, somehow, 
making a character for themselves. 
On the other hand, it is a common occur¬ 
rence to see young men begin without a cent, 
yet rapidly rise to fortune. They achieve 
the triumph by establishing, at the outset, a 
reputation for being competent business men. 
Few are so fortunate as to do this by a single 
characteristic act, like the purchaser who 
won Girard’s good will by wheeling home 
the bag, for generally neither veteran mer¬ 
chants are as shrewd as the famous million¬ 
aire, nor young dealers as energetic as his 
customer. But a consistent life of sagacity, 
economy and industry, invariably establishes 
the right kind of a reputation in the end. 
Confidence grows up in influential quarters 
toward the young beginner. Old merchants 
shake their heads approvingly, and say, “ he 
is of the right stuff and will get along.” 
Credit comes, as it were, unsought. Con¬ 
nexion follows. The reputation of the new 
aspirant widens and deepens ; his transac¬ 
tions begin to be quoted as authority ; trade 
flows in on him from every quarter; and, in 
a few years, he retires with a competence, or 
remains to become a millionarie. All this 
is the result of establishing, at the outset, a 
character of the right sort. 
We may say to every young man about to 
start in life, make a character for yourself 
as soon as possible. Let it also be a dis¬ 
tinctive one. It is better to have a name for 
excelling all others in some one thing than 
to enjoy simply a notoriety for general mer¬ 
it. Are you a mechanic I—outstrip your fel¬ 
lows in skill. Are you a young lawyer I— 
become superior in a particular branch. 
Are you a clerk"?—be the best book-keeper 
your employers have. Are you in a store '!— 
make yourself acquainted with the various 
buyers. In short, become known for an ex¬ 
cellence peculiar to yourself; acquire a spe¬ 
ciality, as it is called ; and success is certain, 
because you will have, as it were, a monop¬ 
oly, and can dictate your own terms. 
Money may be lost without fault of our 
own, by some one or another of the acci¬ 
dents of life. Connexions may be broken 
up, by death or failure, or change of interests. 
But character remains through all. It be¬ 
longs to the individual, and is above the 
chances of fate. Thousands, who have lost 
all else, have recovered themselves by hav¬ 
ing a character to start anew with ; but no 
man, without a business character, has ever 
risen from the ruin caused by the loss of 
capital, or the destruction of connexion. 
Philadelphia Ledger. 
BEING SOMEBODY. 
A SKETCH FOR YOUNG MEN AND BOYS. 
“ Come, William, you will go with us this 
afternoon,” said James Grey to his cousin. 
“ No, James, I have already given you my 
reasons for refusing,” was the reply. 
“ A fig for such reasons ! You can’t afford 
the time! Why, man—or boy, rather, for 
you will never be a man—what is one after¬ 
noon, that you are so afraid of spending it!” 
“ Much, very much, James. I have a dif¬ 
ficult plan almost completed, and wish to 
finish it while the idea is fresh in my mind.” 
“ That everlasting plea again. Some old 
machinery, enough to puzzle the brain of 
Archimedes himself. Are you going to in¬ 
vent a perpetual motion ? I do declare you 
are* enough to provoke the patience of a 
saint. Forever moping over plans and dia¬ 
grams, and models, and heathenish machine¬ 
ry, that would make one think your room a 
Pagan temple. I expect you will apply for a 
patent for an improvement in the car of Jug¬ 
gernaut. But it is no use to talk to you, for 
you are joined to your idols.” 
“ I would try to be somebody,” he pettish¬ 
ly continued, as he turned toward the door. 
“ Would you, James "?” was the quiet re¬ 
ply of William ; “well, I am trying to be some¬ 
body.” 
“ You take a strange way for it, though. 
Here you are shut up in this dismal room, 
night after night, never enjoying a harmless 
trick with the rest of us or giving yourself 
any of the indulgences that make life pleas¬ 
ant. Even a holiday makes no difference 
with you. One would suppose you loved the 
very sight of the tools and workshop, for you 
have them forever with you.” 
“ Don’t get excited, James,” said William, 
smiling. “ Come, be serious no\\^ Do j 
neglect any of my duties"? Do I not perform 
as much labor and succeed as well in my 
trade as any of you I And as for enjoyment, 
no one loves pleasure better than I do. I 
should enjoy a sail with you this afternoon 
very much, but my means of improvement 
are limited, and but little of my time can I 
call my own. 
“James, we are machinists, causing gross 
material substances to assume shapes of 
beauty and fitness under the mysterious su¬ 
premacy of our wills. Some call this a low, 
a common business, a mechanical operation; 
but it is not so. There is a mental power to 
which matter must bow, and there is nothing 
higher than to elevate and ennoble our con¬ 
ceptions, so as to make this plastic matter 
subservient to the best interests of man. It 
is thus improvements are made. First, the 
ideal, then the corresponding outward form. 
In my mind there is shadowed forth, though 
but dimly-” 
“ Save me from such learned inflictions,” 
exclaimed James. I have no taste for 
what I can not understand. Well, William, 
be a dreamer if you please, I am for active 
life and its pleasures. Hurrah for our sail, 
and good by to the second Fulton!” 
“ Poor James ! a mere hewer of wood and 
drawer of water,” said William, as he closed 
the door and resumed his occupation. 
“Where’s Will"?” cried several voices, as 
James joined his companions in the street. 
“ Oh, in his room, of course, calculating 
how much beetle power it will take to draw 
an acorn up an ant-hill.” 
“ Could’nt you prevail on him to come? 
He is one of the best rowers we have.” 
“ Prevail on him 1 you might as well try 
to prevail on an oyster to leave his shell! I 
was really vexed, and gave him a short piece 
of my mind. I told him at length, I would 
try to be somebody,” said James, lighting his 
cigar and twirling his cane after the most 
approved fashion. 
“ Good !” said Harry Gilbert, “ I am glad 
you showed your spirit. He is a good-heart¬ 
ed fellow if he is full of oddities, and it may 
perhaps start him from his burrow. But 
what did he say V’ 
“ Oh, after arguing the matter awhile he 
went off into a learned dissertation, in the 
midst of which I made my escape. He will 
never be anybody in the world, that is the 
.long and short of it.” 
James and William Grey were cousins, 
and were apprentices in a machine shop, 
where various kinds of machinery were 
made. James, as may be inferred by the 
foregoing conversation, looked upon his em¬ 
ployment as a necessary evil. To him it 
was mere manual labor, a given number of 
blows, a requisite degree of heat, a certain 
expenditure of strength—in a word, it was 
toil in its most literal sense. 
William, on the; contrary, viewed it with 
the eye of an artist. There was not merely 
the rough iron to be moulded into some un¬ 
cared for machine, but, as he told James, a 
plastic material, assuming beauty by the 
will of man. He studied, therefore, not 
only the mechanical part of his trade, but 
his inventive genius was excited. Curiosi¬ 
ty led him to examine the uses and peculiar 
adaptation of the machinery he made, till at 
length his active mind suggested various im¬ 
provements. 
All his leisure time was employed in the 
construction of models, and his room might 
have been taken for a miniature patent-office. 
The last year of his apprenticeship was 
nearly at its close, and William had not only 
improved, but invented several really useful 
designs. 
Looking over a paper one day, he read an 
offer of a prize of $1,000 for the best model 
for a peculiar kind of machinery to be used 
in a cotten factory. 
“ Why should not I try,” said he. 
He understood what was wanted, and day 
after day did he study intensely on the sub¬ 
ject. At length he grasped the idea, and it 
was upon this he was at work when James 
urged him to join the sailing party. 
Late at night his cousin returned, weary 
with pleasure, and found him sitting at the 
table, a sealed package before him, his cheeks 
flushed, an unusual brightness in his eye, 
and a peculiar expression on his counte¬ 
nance. 
About a week after this, a gentleman 
knocked at the door. It was opened by 
James, who was alone. 
“ I wish to see Mr. Grey,” said the stran¬ 
ger glancing with a smile at the peculiar 
decoration of the room. 
“My name is Grey,” returned James, 
placing a chair for the guest. 
“Allow me to congratulate you on your 
success, Mr. Grey,” said the gentleman, 
pointing to a counterpart of the model which 
stood upon thq table. 
“ My success ! I do not understand you, 
sir,” said James. 
“ Are you not Mr. Grey, the inventor of 
this delicate and important machinery V’ 
“ I am Mr. Grey, but I am not the inven¬ 
tor of anything,” returned James somewhat 
bitterly. “ Here is the fortunate person, my 
cousin, William Grey,” he continued, as 
William entered. 
“ I rejoice in your success, young man,” 
said the stranger to William. “Your plan 
has met the entire approbation of the com¬ 
mittee, of which I am one. My name is 
Wilson, and I am authorized to pay you the 
thousand dollars, and also to advance you 
another thousand on condition that you super- 
