Hidden Treasures; Or, Why Some Succeed While Others Fail — Harry A. Lewis
Hidden Treasures | Project Gutenberg You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : Hidden Treasures; Or, Why Some Succeed While Others Fail Author : Harry A. Lewis Release date : December 20, 2006 [eBook #20151] Most recently updated: January 10, 2026 Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20151 Credits : E-text prepared by Chuck Greif and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/c/) from materials generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana) *** START OF In some cases, questionable spellings, tense and words ( e.g. : vindicative) have been retained. —OR,— Why Some Succeed While Others Fail . BY H. A. LEWIS. FINELY ILLUSTRATED. "Not Failure, but low aim is crime." SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY. CLEVELAND, OHIO: MOSES, LEWIS & CO. 1888. Copyright , 1887. BY WRIGHT, MOSES & LEWIS. All rights reserved. CONTENTS. Preface. ——— Introduction. ——— Quotations. ——— Daniel Drew. Russell Sage. Cornelius Vanderbilt. Amos Lawrence. Horace B. Claflin. William E. Dodge. Jay Gould. John Wannamaker. Alexander T. Stewart. Nicholas Longworth. Robert Bonner. William G. Fargo. James C. Flood. John W. MacKay. James C. Fair. Horace Greeley. Thurlow Weed. George W. Childs. James Gordon Bennett. Phineas T. Barnum. Mathew Vassar. John Jacob Astor. Potter Palmer. James Harper. Henry Disston. Peter Cooper George Law. Darius O. Mills. Stephen Girard. Moses Taylor. William C. Ralston. George Peabody. William W. Corcoran. Nathan Mayer Rothschild. John Adams. Thomas Jefferson. John Marshall. Alexander Hamilton. James Madison. James Monroe. Lewis Cass. John C. Calhoun. Robert Y. Hayne. Daniel Webster. Andrew Jackson. Thomas H. Benton. Henry Clay. Martin Van Buren. Stephen Arnold Douglass. Abbott Lawrence. Alexander H. Stephens. Millard Fillmore. William H. Seward. Horatio Seymour. Winfield S. Hancock. George B. McClellan. Ulysses Simpson Grant. Stonewall Jackson. General Robert E. Lee. Henry Wilson. Abraham Lincoln. Edward Everett. Edwin M. Stanton. Andrew Johnson. James A. Garfield. Chester A. Arthur. John A. Logan. James G. Blaine. Samuel J. Tilden. Henry Ward Beecher. James Watt. George Stephenson. Benjamin Franklin. Eli Whitney. Robert Fulton. Elias Howe, Jr. Isaac M. Singer. Richard M. Hoe. Charles Goodyear. Prof. S. F. B. Morse. Cyrus W. Field. George M. Pullman. Thomas A. Edison. Why Some Succeed And While Others Fail. Success And Failure. Concentration of Effort. Self-reliance. Economy of Time. Causes of Failure. PREFACE. Some succeed while others fail. This is a recognized fact; yet history tells us that seven-tenths of our most successful men began life poor. As our title indicates, we shall endeavor to show "why some succeed while others fail." Knowing that everybody desires success, and recognizing the old adage, "Example is the best of teachers," we have selected representative characters from the multitude of successful men who have climbed the ladder of success, beginning at the bottom round. These we have followed from childhood to manhood, dwelling at length on the traits of character that have made them so rich and successful, believing that a careful study will convince all that the proverbial "luck" had little to do with it. On the contrary, one is taught those lessons of self-helpfulness and self-reliance which are so essential to success in life's struggles. It is fearful to think how many of our young people are drifting without an aim in life, and do not comprehend that they owe mankind their best efforts. We are all familiar with the parable of the slothful servant who buried his talent—all may profit by his example. To those who would succeed, we respectfully present this volume. Every young man is now a sower of seed on the field of life. The bright days of youth are the seed-time. Every thought of your intellect, every emotion of your heart, every word of your tongue, every principle you adopt, every act you perform, is a seed, whose good or evil fruit will prove bliss or bane of your after life. — Wise . INTRODUCTION. Dear reader, it is a grave undertaking to write a book, especially is it so in writing a treatise on success and failure, as we have attempted to do in the work we hereby present you. It is a solemn thing to give advice. Experience teaches that no one thing will please everybody; that men's censures are as various as their palates; that some are as deeply in love with vice as others are with virtue. Shall I then make myself the subject of every opinion, wise or weak? Yes, I would rather hazard the censure of some than hinder the good of others. There need neither reasons to be given nor apologies to be made where the benefit of our fellow-men is our aim. Henry Clay Trumbull says: "At no time in the world's history, probably, has there been so general an interest in biography as that which has been shown of late. Just here lies a weighty obligation upon these who write, and those who read, of the lives of men who have done something in the world. It is not enough for us to know what they have done; it belongs to us to discover the why of their works and ways, and to gain some personal benefit from the analysis of their successes and failures. Why was this man great? What general intentions—what special traits led him to success? What ideal stood before him, and by what means did he seek to attain it? Or, on the other hand, what unworthy purpose, what lack of conscience and religious sense, what unsettled method and feeble endeavor stood in the way of the 'man of genius' and his possible achievements?" In this volume one sees the barefoot boy rise to the eminent statesman, the great millionaire, the ho