and
their care during their minor years were so before them, but more and
more is it becoming one's own fault if, all through life, he remains
second-class. Education of some sort, and even a pretty good sort, is
possible to practically everyone in our land. Failure to get the best
education available, whether it be in books or in business training, is
sure to relegate one to the ranks of the second-class.

There is no excuse for incompetence in this age of opportunity; no
excuse for being second-class when it is possible to be first-class,
and when first-class is in demand everywhere.

Second-class things are wanted only when first-class can't be had. You
wear first-class clothes if you can pay for them, eat first-class
butter, first-class meat, and first-class bread, or, if you don't, you
wish you could. Second-class men are no more wanted than any other
second-class commodity. They are taken and used when the better
article is scarce or is too high-priced for the occasion. For work
that really amounts to anything, first-class men are wanted. If you
make yourself first-class in anything, no matter what your condition or
circumstances, no matter what your race or color, you will be in
demand. If you are a king in your calling, no matter how humble it may
be, nothing can keep you from success.

The world does not demand that you be a physician, a lawyer, a farmer,
or a merchant; but it does demand that whatever you do undertake, you
will do it right, will do it with all your might and with all the
ability you possess. It demands that you be a master in your line.

When Daniel Webster, who had the best brain of his time, was asked to
make a speech on some question at the close of a Congressional session,
he replied: "I never allow myself to speak on any subject until I have
made it my own. I haven't time to do that in this case, hence, I must
refuse to speak on the subject."

Dickens would never consent to read before an audience until he had
thoroughly prepared his selection.

Balzac, the great French novelist, sometimes worked a week on a single
page.

Macready, when playing before scant audiences in country theaters in
England, Ireland, and Scotland, always played as if he were before the
most brilliant audiences in the great metropolises of the world.

Thoroughness characterizes all successful men. Genius is the art of
taking infinite pains. The trouble with many Americans is that they
seem to t