TWO MEN WITH ZEAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1915, 3 August 1888, Page 31

TWO MEN WITH ZEAL.

Widely Different Careers, Which Both Achieved Worldly Success.

In 1839 a middle-aged man was incarcerated in the debtors' prison in Philadelphia. He was a grave, silent man, with marked features and grizzled hair. He spent his whole time at work with a miniature furnace, retorts, and chemicals, and was so absorbed in his work that he sometimes forgot to eat. He had been a partner in a hardware firm which had failed, and the gaoler explained to visitors that the failure had affected his reason. For nine years he had given himself up wholly to experimenting with the sap of the India rubber tree, trying to make a substance which would neither melt in summer nor crack in winter.

His friends paid his debts, and he left the gaol and took his wife and children to a village in Connecticut. There he remained for years in the direst poverty, often to the point of lacking food, but never for an hour turning aside from his work. His own money and all that he could borrow from friends or strangers went into his experiments. His child died, and, as he had not a dollar with which to bury it, he went on foot to the cemetery, carrying the little ooffin, and laid the baby to rest with his own hands. At last came success. He gave to the world vulcanised rubber, a substance invaluable to art and science, and also to everyday practical life, and founded a great fortune.

Not far from Charles Goodyear, in the days of his struggles, lived a young artist as pcor as he. He, too, gave himself to his work with absolute faith and fiery zeal. The sketches which he made at that time prove that he had exceptional power ; but he, also, had a wife and children. If he gave himself to the study of the highest art, they must starve. He chose rather to feed, clothe, and educate them well. He abandoned his hope and ambition and the work for which God had fitted him, and painted inferior popular pictures, which brought him in a comfortable income. When he died he left behind him a family of commonplace men and women, well-to-do and happy ; but the note which had been given him to strike in the great human orchestra never had been sounded.

Now, which of these men was true to his duty ? This is one of the riddles of life which come before many a young man to whom has been given ability for a special, noble work. Shall he sell his birthright for a mess of potrage, even for his children ?

" Be true to your art," said Guido, " and let the world sink."

" Know your own bone," wrote Emerson. "Gnaw at it alone, bury it, unearth it, but gnaw it still." — " Youths' Companion,"