boat
at one thousand dollars a year. For twelve years he ran between New
York City and New Brunswick, N. J. In 1829 he began business as a
steamboat owner, in the face of opposition so bitter that he lost his
last dollar. But the tide turned, and he prospered so rapidly that he
at length owned over a hundred steamboats. He early identified himself
with the growing railroad interests of the country, and became the
richest man of his day in America.

Barnum began the race of business life barefoot, for at the age of
fifteen he was obliged to buy on credit the shoes he wore at his
father's funeral. He was a remarkable example of success under
difficulties. There was no keeping him down; no opposition daunted him.

"Eloquence must have been born with you," said a friend to J. P.
Curran. "Indeed, my dear sir, it was not," replied the orator; "it was
born some three and twenty years and some months after me." Speaking
of his first attempt at a debating club, he said: "I stood up,
trembling through every fiber; but remembering that in this I was but
imitating Tully, I took courage and had actually proceeded almost as
far as 'Mr. Chairman,' when, to my astonishment and terror, I perceived
that every eye was turned on me. There were only six or seven present,
and the room could not have contained as many more; yet was it, to my
panic-stricken imagination, as if I were the central object in nature,
and assembled millions were gazing upon me in breathless expectation.
I became dismayed and dumb. My friends cried, 'Hear him!' but there
was nothing to hear." He was nicknamed "Orator Mum," and well did he
deserve the title until he ventured to stare in astonishment at a
speaker who was "culminating chronology by the most preposterous
anachronisms." "I doubt not," said the annoyed speaker, "that 'Orator
Mum' possesses wonderful talents for eloquence, but I would recommend
him to show it in future by some more popular method than his silence."
Stung by the taunt, Curran rose and gave the man a "piece of his mind,"
speaking fluently in his anger. Encouraged by this success, he took
great pains to become a good speaker. He corrected his habit of
stuttering by reading favorite passages aloud every day slowly and
distinctly, and spoke at every opportunity.

Bunyan wrote his "Pilgrim's Progress" on the untwisted papers which
were used to cork the bottles of milk brought for his meals. Gifford
wrote his first copy of a math