of his friend brought out his true but latent courage.
What were a troop of vulgar and ill-mannered players to him? What was a
dramatic agent but a harpy? He was worth a whole theatre full of actors
such as had worked almost his ruin. Go back and put his nose down to the
grindstone, his desk, where, at least they paid men enough to live on,
and did not make it necessary to cheat a poor landlady!

JEREMY COLLIER

has said that "true courage is the result of reasoning. Resolution lies
more in the head than in the veins, and a just sense of honor and of
infamy, of duty and religion, will carry us farther than all the force
of mechanism." The young man had the courage to go back. His friend was
gratified. As the months passed the bitterness departed. Christmas Day
the young man was sent to the Stock Yards to do a week's-reporting. That
Christmas-week was one of the coldest ever seen in this climate. The
young man's unweathered ears and nose were badly frost-bitten. But
notwithstanding this great obstacle of a cold snap he made a success of
his expedition. His reports demonstrated that the Bible and Plutarch
had not been sown on stony places, and that good English could be used
in reporting the standing and prospects of a retail firm as well as in a
memorial to Congress. When he got back

THE MANAGER OF THE HOUSE HIMSELF

spoke to him, and the second assistant assured him that one of the
"outside men" would soon be put aside to give him a chance on the road.
When a young man goes on the road his board is paid, so that it is that
much of an advance of salary. Six long months, however, ran along at
eight dollars a week, and the unsatisfactory man on the road proved more
influential than the second assistant. When our young man saw this, he
went to the manager, demanded nine dollars a week, and got it after a
loud protest from that broad-hearted functionary. The next week--this
was in the summer--he went on the road in place of a sick man, traveled
through nearly all the towns in Illinois and Iowa, and made a fine
record, both as to the character of his work, his speed, and his
expenses. Upon his return a rival firm, hearing of his work, made him a
proposition at a thousand dollars a year and expenses, with two months'
holiday each year, and he signed a contract. His first year's tramp took
him through nearly all the towns of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas,
Nebraska, and Colorado. He returned in August, with nine hund