ing for six florins a month, and
eighteen years on St. Peter's for nothing!

Dr. Johnson was so afflicted with king's-evil that he lost the use of
one eye. The youth could not even engage in the pastimes of his mates,
as he could not see the gutter without bending his head down near the
street. He read and studied terribly. Finally a friend offered to send
him to Oxford, but he failed to keep his promise, and the boy had to
leave. He returned home, and soon afterward his father died insolvent.
He conquered adverse fortune and bodily infirmities with the fortitude
of a true hero.

Ichabod Washburn, a poor boy born near Plymouth Rock, was apprenticed to
a blacksmith in Worcester, Mass., and was so bashful that he scarcely
dared to eat in the presence of others; but he determined that he would
make the best wire in the world, and would contrive ways and means to
manufacture it in enormous quantities. At that time there was no good
wire made in the United States. One house in England had the monopoly of
making steel wire for pianos for more than a century. Young Washburn,
however, had grit, and was bound to succeed. His wire became the
standard everywhere. At one time he made 250,000 yards of iron wire
daily, consuming twelve tons of metal, and requiring the services of
seven hundred men. He amassed an immense fortune, of which he gave away
a large part during his life, and bequeathed the balance to charitable
institutions.

John Jacob Astor left home at seventeen to acquire a fortune. His
capital consisted of two dollars, and three resolutions,--to be honest,
to be industrious and not to gamble. Two years later he reached New
York, and began work in a fur store at two dollars a week and his board.
Soon learning the details of the business, he began operations on his
own account. By giving personal attention to every purchase and sale,
roaming the woods to trade with the Indians, or crossing the Atlantic to
sell his furs at a great profit in England, he soon became the leading
fur dealer in the United States. His idea of what constitutes a fortune
expanded faster than his acquisitions. At fifty he owned millions; at
sixty his millions owned him. He invested in land, becoming in time the
richest owner of real estate in America. Generous to his family, he
seldom gave much for charity. He once subscribed fifty dollars for some
benevolent purpose, when one of the committee of solicitation said, "We
did hope for more, Mr. Ast