Show IT the grit gr laddie laddle laddie ll 11 sixta c tears ago igo I 1 a stout r rears bi bony youth 0 ol 01 of eighteen years old who had been known among his hig neighborhood as a grit bare barelegged legged laddie called on a poor village schoolmaster and said 1 I would like to attend your evening school air bir 1 what do you wish to study asked the teacher 1 I want to learn to read and write replied the lad the teacher looked into the lads face with a somewhat acorne glance shrugged his shoulders and an sala bald very wel wei ivelle lyou cd qan attend now oy lad iad had sald said to the teacher 1 I pelillo become a great inventor fo to be the companion af f rich and noble men to hold field conversation with frith kings ad ad fo write my name among tho great men of the world I 1 daresay dare say the teacher would have call cail called edthe the boy bo a fool for cherishing c such wild dreams yet that poor bony lad who at eighteen did not know the alphabet did all these thele things ings before he died who was he his llis name was george steph enon enion the great railway pione pioneer erl eri it was not the fault of young george that he was ignorant it was only his misfortune ilis his parents were too poor to send him to school ile jie was the son eon of a fireman of a pumping engine in a colliery ills his birthplace was a cottage with a clay floor mud wall and bare rafters he had to help earn his living from his earliest years first by herding cows and barring up the gates of the mine at night next he was put t t to 0 pic picking i ki it ig stones froal flom the coal and after tra tva that tto to driving a horse which hauled coal from a pit by lly and by he lie was avas made assistant fireman to his father when he was seventeen he was made of a pumping engine a higher post than his ids fathers and had climbed as it seemed to 0 o the top of ms nis ladder what hope was there of a youth who could not read at seventeen but george had hope in his breast ilis his engine was a lesson book to him ile he took it apart and put it together again studied it loved it and when he was told that there were books which told about eng nes he made lip his mind to go to school to school ne went and soon lear learned tied fied all that the village master could teach when twenty years old be he was made brakesman and began to think about inventing invent hi 0 better engines than lie he saw about him thus working 1 thinking readi reading nghe he kept on avoiding al all ail bad habit habits sf until lie he built a locomotive that traveled at the rate of four miles an hour on a tramway this was a D great reat affair at that time his ills next work was a railway e egit gif mlle mile miles in length and from this point he went on until lie was known as the great railway pioneer of the world george was often laughed at by men who thou thought lit themselves much wister than lie he one dache day dar he was proposing to build an engine to run twelve miles an hour A grave looking gentleman thinking to put him down dOWD said sald suppose one of these engines to be going along a railroad at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour and that if a cow were to stray upon the line would not that be a very awkward circumstance 2 gyes yes replied mr stephenson very awkward indeed for the cow thus by his own industry did the grit barelegged bare legged 0 laddie climb to a very high place among men great men and even kings sought his advice wealth flowed into his purse his jils name was honored his character respected at a ripe age he died and went to his eternal reward let this sketch of the g grit r t barelegged bare legged laddie cheer on the boys a and na girls to patient effort in the path of duty leam learn something everyday every overy day press forward forwar dl be good and androu ou will prosper S S advocate |