. And the
same little word, if published in its connection, would render Henry's
perforation device of far less value than a last year's bird's nest.
Henry felt proud of the young woman's ingenuity, and suggested the
improvement at the stamp office. As a result his system of perforation
was abandoned and he was deprived of his promised office, the
government coolly making use from that day to this, without
compensation, of the idea conveyed by that little insignificant word.

So Bessemer's financial prospects were not very encouraging; but,
realizing that the best capital a young man can have is a capital wife,
he at once entered into a partnership which placed at his command the
combined ideas of two very level heads. The result, after years of
thought and experiment, was the Bessemer process of making steel
cheaply, which has revolutionized the iron industry throughout the
world. His method consists simply in forcing hot air from below into
several tons of melted pig-iron, so as to produce intense combustion;
and then adding enough spiegel-eisen (looking-glass iron), an ore rich
in carbon, to change the whole mass to steel. He discovered this
simple process only after trying in vain much more difficult and
expensive methods.

"All things come round to him who will but wait."

The great lack of the age is want of thoroughness. How seldom you find
a young man or woman who is willing to take time to prepare for his
life work. A little education is all they want, a little smattering of
books, and then they are ready for business.

"Can't wait" is characteristic of the century, and is written on
everything; on commerce, on schools, on society, on churches. Can't
wait for a high school, seminary, or college. The boy can't wait to
become a youth, nor the youth a man. Youth rush into business with no
great reserve of education or drill; of course they do poor, feverish
work, and break down in middle life, and many die of old age in the
forties. Everybody is in a hurry. Buildings are rushed up so quickly
that they will not stand, and everything is made "to sell."

Not long ago a professor in one of our universities had a letter from a
young woman in the West, asking him if he did not think she could teach
elocution if she could come to the university and take twelve lessons.
Our young people of to-day want something, and want it quickly. They
are not willing to lay broad, deep foundations. The weary year