ropped and caught the limbs as he
went down so as to decrease the speed. The last drop was about thirty
feet. The fall didn't hurt, but the sudden stop broke his collar-bone,
knocked out three teeth, and cut a scar on his chin that lasted him all
of his days.

Life is a dangerous business--few get out of it alive. Life consists in
betting on your power to do--to achieve--to accomplish--to climb--to
become. If you mistake hornets for birds, you pay the penalty for your
error, as you pay for all mistakes. The only men who do things are those
who dare.

Safety can be secured by doing nothing, saying nothing, being nothing.
Here's to those who dare!

Because a thing had never been done before was to Peter Cooper no reason
why it should not be done now. And although he innocently stirred up a
few hornets' nests, he became a good judge of both birds and hornets
through personal experience. That is the advantage of making mistakes.
But wisdom lies in not responding to encores.

Peter Cooper's body was marked by the falls, mauls, hauls, and scars of
burns and explosions. Surely if God does not look us over for medals and
diplomas, but for scars, then Peter Cooper fulfilled the requirements.

When seventeen years old, he went down to New York and apprenticed
himself to a coachmaker, Woodward by name. He was to get his board,
washing and mending, and twenty-five dollars a year. It was a four-year
contract--selling himself into service and servitude. The first two
years he saved twenty dollars out of his wages. The third year his
employer voluntarily paid him fifty dollars; and the fourth year
seventy-five. In short, the young man had mastered the trade.

Woodward's shop was at the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street, which
was then the northern limit of the city. Just beyond this was a big
garden, worked by a prosperous and enterprising Irishman who supplied
vegetables to ship-captains. This garden later was transformed into City
Hall Park, and here the city buildings were erected, the finest in
America for their purpose. The Irish still command the place.

New York City then had less than forty thousand inhabitants. Peter
Cooper was to see the city grow to two million. For seventy-one years
after his majority he was to take an active and intelligent interest in
its evolution, tinting its best thought and hopes with his own
aspiration.

The building of coaches then was a great trade. It was stagecoach times,
and a go