



Produced by Darleen Dove, Sharon Verougstraete and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net









  LIVES
  OF
  POOR BOYS WHO BECAME FAMOUS.

  BY
  SARAH K. BOLTON.


  "_There is properly no History, only Biography._"
                                                  --EMERSON.

  _Human portraits, faithfully drawn, are of all pictures the
    welcomest on human walls._
                                                  --CARLYLE.


  _FORTY-FIRST THOUSAND._

  NEW YORK
  THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.
  PUBLISHERS




  _Copyright,_
  BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.
  1885.


  Norwood Press:
  J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith.
  Boston, Mass., U.S.A.




  TO
  MY ONLY SISTER,

  Mrs. Halsey D. Miller,

  IN REMEMBRANCE OF
  MANY HAPPY HOURS.




PREFACE.


These characters have been chosen from various countries and from varied
professions, that the youth who read this book may see that poverty is
no barrier to success. It usually develops ambition, and nerves people
to action. Life at best has much of struggle, and we need to be cheered
and stimulated by the careers of those who have overcome obstacles.

If Lincoln and Garfield, both farmer-boys, could come to the Presidency,
then there is a chance for other farmer-boys. If Ezra Cornell, a
mechanic, could become the president of great telegraph companies, and
leave millions to a university, then other mechanics can come to fame.
If Sir Titus Salt, working and sorting wool in a factory at nineteen,
could build one of the model towns of the world for his thousands of
workingmen, then there is encouragement and inspiration for other
toilers in factories. These lives show that without WORK and WILL no
great things are achieved.

I have selected several characters because they were the centres of
important historical epochs. With Garibaldi is necessarily told the
story of Italian unity; with Garrison and Greeley, the fall of slavery;
and with Lincoln and Sheridan, the battles of our Civil War.

                                                    S. K. B.




CONTENTS.


                                                 PAGE

  GEORGE PEABODY              Merchant              1

  BAYARD TAYLOR               Traveller            13

  Captain JAMES B. EADS       Civil Engineer       26

  JAMES WATT                  Inventor             33

  Sir JOSIAH MASON            Manufacturer         46

  BERNARD PALISSY             Potter               54

  BERTEL THORWALDSEN          Sculptor             65

  WOLFGANG MOZART             Composer             72

  SAMUEL JOHNSON              Author               83