h was rejected to the builder, has become the chief of the
corner."

Yes--the neglected man is the important man. We do not think so day by
day, we idle observers of our Vanity Fair, we curbstone watchers of
the street parade. We think it is the conspicuous man who counts. Our
attention is mostly for him who wears the epaulettes of prominence and
favorable condition. Therefore most articles, papers, and volumes on
young men consider only that lucky favorite-of-fortune-for-the-hour,
the college man.

But this paper is addressed to the neglected man. I would have speech
with those young men with stout heart, true intention, and good
ability, who labor outside those college walls to which they look with
longing, but may not enter.

"Every soldier of France carries a marshal's baton in his knapsack."
Ah, yes! Very well. But what was a soldier of France in Napoleon's
time to a young American to-day? If Joubert, from an ignorant private
who could not write his name, became one of the greatest generals of
the world's greatest commander, what may you not become! Joubert did
it by deserving. Use the same method, you. There is no magic but
merit.

First, then, do not let the conditions that keep you out of college
discourage you. If such a little thing as that depresses you, it is
proof that you are not the character who would have succeeded if you
had a lifetime of college education. If you are discouraged because
you cannot go to college, what will happen to you when life hereafter
presents to you much harder situations? Remember that every strong man
who prevails in the merciless contest with events, faces conditions
which to weaker men seem inaccessible--are inaccessible.

But it is the scaling of these heights, or the tunneling through them,
or the blasting of them out of their way and out of existence, which
makes these strong men strong. It is the overcoming of these obstacles
day after day and year after year, as long as life lasts, which gives
these mighty ones much of their power.

What is it you so admire in men whom you think fortunate--what is it
but their mastery of adversity after adversity? What is that which you
call success but victory over untoward events? Do not, then, let your
resolution be softened by the hard luck that keeps you out of college.
If that bends you, you are not a Damascus blade of tempered steel; you
are a sword of lead, heavy, dull, and yielding.

Next to Collis P. Huntington, the ra