y conversant with all military
exercises.

In the world of music, too, both in our own times and in the past, we find
many instances of boys giving an early indication of a remarkable career.

Handel and Mozart each showed a liking for music when young in years, and
soon made their mark.

Handel began composing a church service for voices and instruments when
only nine years old, and before he was fifteen he had composed three
operas.

Mozart began to play the piano when he was three years old, and at seven
he had taught himself the violin. At nine years of age he visited England,
and when departing gave a farewell concert at which all the symphonies
were composed by himself.

Several years ago attention was drawn to a little Polish boy who at eight
years of age could play from memory some of the most intricate
compositions of such composers as Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Rubinstein, and
others. This precocious youth, Ignace Jan Paderewski, is now the most
famous of all living pianists.

Some remarkable preachers have also started very early.

The Abbe de Rance, founder of the monastic order of the Trappists, was a
splendid Greek scholar at twelve, and shortly afterward was appointed to
an important benefice.

Bossuet preached before a brilliant Parisian assembly at the age of
fifteen; and Fenelon, who afterward became an archbishop, also preached an
extraordinary sermon at the same age.

Patrick Henry's Call to Arms.

The Famous Speech Which, Delivered by the American Hampden in the
Virginia Convention, Kindled the Fire of Revolution in
the Thirteen Colonies in 1775.

In the thick of national crises the ability to persuade
others is the strongest power an individual can wield. Such
a power was Patrick Henry's.

From the earlier disagreements with the mother country his
influence was all for the assertion of colonial liberties.
He was born May 9, 1736. In 1765, a young man not yet
thirty, he became a member of the Virginia House of
Burgesses. The Stamp Act had excited the people. Young
Henry, with a presumption which angered many of his maturer
colleagues, offered resolutions setting forth the rights of
the colony. In the debate he suddenly uttered the words:

"Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and
George the Third----"

A clamor arose, and cries of "Treason! Treason!"

With perfect coolness the orator continued: