er Cooper failed until he took to making
glue, then his business "stuck" to everybody and he made a fortune out
of which he built Cooper Union for the education of poor boys.

I have a grandson whose calling was indefinite. He was named for his
grandfather, to whom fishing is a fad. During my rest season I go
fishing almost every day. While I make an exception of Sunday I can
appreciate the minister who was a great fisherman. On his way to an
appointment Sunday morning he came upon a lad fishing in a wayside
stream. Halting he said: "My boy, this is the Sabbath day and the good
Book says you should remember to keep it holy." Just then a fish
seized the boy's bait and drew the float under, when the good minister
excitedly said: "Pull, pull. Ah! that's a good one. I'll try that
place myself _some other day_."

Fishing is my favorite sport. My grandson was a baseball fiend and a
football player. He was hurt in a football game and I wrote him,
warning him against his recklessness, and to the admonition I added:
"Twenty-five boys have been killed already this season playing
football; it's a brutal game anyway."

He replied: "Dear Grandfather, I am sorry so many boys have been
killed playing football, but I read recently that last summer two
hundred and fifty men were drowned while out fishing; would it not be
well for you to keep off Lake Ellerslie? You say football is a brutal
game; I submit to you, Grandpa, that the man who takes an innocent
worm or a minnow, strings it on a steel hook, and sinking it into the
water, jerks the gills out of an innocent fish, is more cruel than the
boy who kicks another around for exercise. I need a pair of baseball
shoes, number six and a half; send them by express." He got the shoes,
and I decided _he_ was called to be a lawyer.

Young man, if you get to be a preacher and cannot put force into your
sermon, the world doesn't want to hear you preach, but if you are a
good cobbler it will wear your shoes, if a good baker it will eat your
bread, or if a good barber it will let you put your razor to its
throat. Remember in making your choice,

"Honor and fame from no condition rise,
Act well your part; there the honor lies."

If I could live life over, I would not be content with a common school
education. In my youth circumstances lifted a dead wall against my
hopes, but if given another chance I would somehow press my way to
where higher education scatters its trophies at the feet