章节正文
single rule. Oh, that all the young people of
Philadelphia were before me now and I could say
just this one thing, and that they would remember
it. I would give a lifetime for the effect it would
have on our city and on civilization. Abraham
Lincoln's principle for greatness can be adopted
by nearly all. This was his rule: Whatsoever he
had to do at all, he put his whole mind into it and
held it all there until that was all done. That
makes men great almost anywhere. He stuck to
those papers at that table and did not look up
at me, and I sat there trembling. Finally, when
he had put the string around his papers, he pushed
them over to one side and looked over to me, and
a smile came over his worn face. He said: ``I
am a very busy man and have only a few minutes
to spare. Now tell me in the fewest words what it
is you want.'' I began to tell him, and mentioned
the case, and he said: ``I have heard all about
it and you do not need to say any more. Mr.
Stanton was talking to me only a few days ago
about that. You can go to the hotel and rest
assured that the President never did sign an order
to shoot a boy under twenty years of age, and
never will. You can say that to his mother anyhow.''
Then he said to me, ``How is it going in the
field?'' I said, ``We sometimes get discouraged.''
And he said: ``It is all right. We are going to
win out now. We are getting very near the light.
No man ought to wish to be President of the
United States, and I will be glad when I get
through; then Tad and I are going out to Springfield,
Illinois. I have bought a farm out there
and I don't care if I again earn only twenty-five
cents a day. Tad has a mule team, and we are
going to plant onions.''
Then he asked me, ``Were you brought up on a
farm?'' I said, ``Yes; in the Berkshire Hills of
Massachusetts.'' He then threw his leg over the
corner of the big chair and said, ``I have heard
many a time, ever since I was young, that up
there in those hills you have to sharpen the noses
of the sheep in order to get down to the grass
between the rocks.'' He was so familiar, so everyday,
so farmer-like, that I felt right at home with
him at once.
He then took hold of another roll of paper, and
looked up at me and said, ``Good morning.'' I
took the hint then and got up and went out.
After I had gotten out I could not realize I had
seen the President of the United States at all.
But a few days later, when still in the city, I saw
the crowd pass through the East Room by the
coffin of Abraham Lincoln, and when I looked
at the upturned face of the murdered President
I felt then that the man I had seen such a short
time before, who, so simple a man, so plain a
man, was one of the greatest men that God ever
raised up to lead a nation on to ultimate liberty.
Yet he was only ``Old Abe'' to his neighbors.
When they had the second funeral, I was invited
among others, and went out to see that same
coffin put back in the tomb at Springfield. Around
the tomb stood Lincoln's old neighbors, to whom
he was just ``Old Abe.'' Of course that is all they
would say.
Did you ever see a man who struts around
altogether too large to notice an ordinary working
mechanic? Do you think he is great? He is
nothing but a puffed-up balloon, held down by
his big feet. There is no greatness there.
Who are the great men and women? My
attention was called the other day to the history
of a very little thing that made the fortune of a
very poor man. It was an awful thing, and yet
because of that experience he--not a great inventor
or genius--invented the pin that now is called
the safety-pin, and out of that safety-pin made
the fortune of one of the great aristocratic families
of this nation.
A poor man in Massachusetts who had worked
in the nail-works was injured at thirty-eight, and
he could earn but little money. He was employed
in the office to rub out the marks on the bills
made by pencil memorandums, and he used a
rubber until his hand grew tired. He then tied a
piece of rubber on the end of a stick and worked
it like a plane. His little girl came and said,
``Why, you have a patent, haven't you?'' The
father said afterward, ``My daughter told me
when I took that stick and put the rubber on
the end that there was a patent, and that was the
first thought of that.'' He went to Boston and
applied for his patent, and every one of you that
has a rubber-tipped pencil in your pocket is now
paying tribute to the millionaire. No capital,
not a penny did he invest in it. All was income,
all the way up into the millions.
But let me hasten to one other greater thought.
``Show me the great men and women who live
in Philadelphia.'' A gentleman over there will
get up and say: ``We don't have any great men
in Philadelphia. They don't live here. They live
away off in Rome or St. Petersburg or London or
Manayunk, or anywhere else but here in our
town.'' I have come now to the apex of my
thought. I have come now to the heart of the
whole matter and to the center of my struggle:
Why isn't Philadelphia a greater city in its
greater wealth? Why does New York excel
Philadelphia? People say, ``Because of her harbor.''
Why do many other cities of the United States
get ahead of Philadelphia now? There is only
one answer, and that is because our own people
talk down their own city. If there ever was a
community on earth that has to be forced ahead,
it is the city of Philadelphia. If we are to have a
boulevard, talk it down; if we are going to have
better schools, talk them down; if you wish to
have wise legislation, talk it down; talk all the
proposed improvements down. That is the only
great wrong that I can lay at the feet of the
magnificent Philadelphia that has been so universally
kind to me. I say it is time we turn around in our
city and begin to talk up the things that are in
our city, and begin to set them before the world
as the people of Chicago, New York, St. Louis,
and San Francisco do. Oh, if we only could get
that spirit out among our people, that we can do
things in Philadelphia and do them well!
Arise, ye millions of Philadelphians, trust in
God and man, and believe in the great opportunities
that are right here not over in New York
or Boston, but here--for business, for everything
that is worth living for on earth. There was
never an opportunity greater. Let us talk up
our own city.
But there are two other young men here to-
night, and that is all I will venture to say, because
it is too late. One over there gets up and says,
``There is going to be a great man in Philadelphia,
but never was one.'' ``Oh, is that so? When are
you going to be great?'' ``When I am elected to
some political office.'' Young man, won't you
learn a lesson in the primer of politics that it is
a _prima facie_ evidence of littleness to hold office
under our form of government? Great men get
into office sometimes, but what this country needs
is men that will do what we tell them to do.
This nation--where the people rule--is governed
by the people, for the people, and so long as it is,
then the office-holder is but the servant of the
people, and the Bible says the servant cannot be
greater than the master. The Bible says, ``He
that is sent cannot be greater than Him who sent
Him.'' The people rule, or should rule, and if
they do, we do not need the greater men in office.
If the great men in America took our offices, we
would change to an empire in the next ten years.
I know of a great many young women, now
that woman's suffrage is coming, who say, ``I
am going to be President of the United States
some day.'' I believe in woman's suffrage, and
there is no doubt but what it is coming, and I
am getting out of the way, anyhow. I may want
an office by and by myself; but if the ambition
for an office influences the women in their desire
to vote, I want to say right here what I say to the
young men, that if you only get the privilege of
casting one vote, you don't get anything that is
worth while. Unless you can control more than
one vote, you will be unknown, and your influence
so dissipated as practically not to be felt. This
country is not run by votes. Do you think it is?
It is governed by influence. It is governed by
the ambitions and the enterprises which control
votes. The young woman that thinks she is going
to vote for the sake of holding an office is making
an awful blunder.
That other young man gets up and says, ``There
are going to be great men in this country and in
Philadelphia.'' ``Is that so? When?'' ``When
there comes a great war, when we get into difficulty
through watchfulwaiting in Mexico; when we
get into war with England over some frivolous
deed, or with Japan or China or New Jersey or
some distant country. Then I will march up to
the cannon's mouth; I will sweep up among the
glistening bayonets; I will leap into the arena and
tear down the flag and bear it away in triumph.
I will come home with stars on my shoulder, and
hold every office in the gift of the nation, and I
will be great.'' No, you won't. You think you
are going to be made great by an office, but
remember that if you are not great before you
get the office, you won't be great when you secure
it. It will only be a burlesque in that shape.
We had a Peace Jubilee here after the Spanish
War. Out West they don't believe this, because
they said, ``Philadelphia would not have heard
of any Spanish War until fifty years hence.''
Philadelphia were before me now and I could say
just this one thing, and that they would remember
it. I would give a lifetime for the effect it would
have on our city and on civilization. Abraham
Lincoln's principle for greatness can be adopted
by nearly all. This was his rule: Whatsoever he
had to do at all, he put his whole mind into it and
held it all there until that was all done. That
makes men great almost anywhere. He stuck to
those papers at that table and did not look up
at me, and I sat there trembling. Finally, when
he had put the string around his papers, he pushed
them over to one side and looked over to me, and
a smile came over his worn face. He said: ``I
am a very busy man and have only a few minutes
to spare. Now tell me in the fewest words what it
is you want.'' I began to tell him, and mentioned
the case, and he said: ``I have heard all about
it and you do not need to say any more. Mr.
Stanton was talking to me only a few days ago
about that. You can go to the hotel and rest
assured that the President never did sign an order
to shoot a boy under twenty years of age, and
never will. You can say that to his mother anyhow.''
Then he said to me, ``How is it going in the
field?'' I said, ``We sometimes get discouraged.''
And he said: ``It is all right. We are going to
win out now. We are getting very near the light.
No man ought to wish to be President of the
United States, and I will be glad when I get
through; then Tad and I are going out to Springfield,
Illinois. I have bought a farm out there
and I don't care if I again earn only twenty-five
cents a day. Tad has a mule team, and we are
going to plant onions.''
Then he asked me, ``Were you brought up on a
farm?'' I said, ``Yes; in the Berkshire Hills of
Massachusetts.'' He then threw his leg over the
corner of the big chair and said, ``I have heard
many a time, ever since I was young, that up
there in those hills you have to sharpen the noses
of the sheep in order to get down to the grass
between the rocks.'' He was so familiar, so everyday,
so farmer-like, that I felt right at home with
him at once.
He then took hold of another roll of paper, and
looked up at me and said, ``Good morning.'' I
took the hint then and got up and went out.
After I had gotten out I could not realize I had
seen the President of the United States at all.
But a few days later, when still in the city, I saw
the crowd pass through the East Room by the
coffin of Abraham Lincoln, and when I looked
at the upturned face of the murdered President
I felt then that the man I had seen such a short
time before, who, so simple a man, so plain a
man, was one of the greatest men that God ever
raised up to lead a nation on to ultimate liberty.
Yet he was only ``Old Abe'' to his neighbors.
When they had the second funeral, I was invited
among others, and went out to see that same
coffin put back in the tomb at Springfield. Around
the tomb stood Lincoln's old neighbors, to whom
he was just ``Old Abe.'' Of course that is all they
would say.
Did you ever see a man who struts around
altogether too large to notice an ordinary working
mechanic? Do you think he is great? He is
nothing but a puffed-up balloon, held down by
his big feet. There is no greatness there.
Who are the great men and women? My
attention was called the other day to the history
of a very little thing that made the fortune of a
very poor man. It was an awful thing, and yet
because of that experience he--not a great inventor
or genius--invented the pin that now is called
the safety-pin, and out of that safety-pin made
the fortune of one of the great aristocratic families
of this nation.
A poor man in Massachusetts who had worked
in the nail-works was injured at thirty-eight, and
he could earn but little money. He was employed
in the office to rub out the marks on the bills
made by pencil memorandums, and he used a
rubber until his hand grew tired. He then tied a
piece of rubber on the end of a stick and worked
it like a plane. His little girl came and said,
``Why, you have a patent, haven't you?'' The
father said afterward, ``My daughter told me
when I took that stick and put the rubber on
the end that there was a patent, and that was the
first thought of that.'' He went to Boston and
applied for his patent, and every one of you that
has a rubber-tipped pencil in your pocket is now
paying tribute to the millionaire. No capital,
not a penny did he invest in it. All was income,
all the way up into the millions.
But let me hasten to one other greater thought.
``Show me the great men and women who live
in Philadelphia.'' A gentleman over there will
get up and say: ``We don't have any great men
in Philadelphia. They don't live here. They live
away off in Rome or St. Petersburg or London or
Manayunk, or anywhere else but here in our
town.'' I have come now to the apex of my
thought. I have come now to the heart of the
whole matter and to the center of my struggle:
Why isn't Philadelphia a greater city in its
greater wealth? Why does New York excel
Philadelphia? People say, ``Because of her harbor.''
Why do many other cities of the United States
get ahead of Philadelphia now? There is only
one answer, and that is because our own people
talk down their own city. If there ever was a
community on earth that has to be forced ahead,
it is the city of Philadelphia. If we are to have a
boulevard, talk it down; if we are going to have
better schools, talk them down; if you wish to
have wise legislation, talk it down; talk all the
proposed improvements down. That is the only
great wrong that I can lay at the feet of the
magnificent Philadelphia that has been so universally
kind to me. I say it is time we turn around in our
city and begin to talk up the things that are in
our city, and begin to set them before the world
as the people of Chicago, New York, St. Louis,
and San Francisco do. Oh, if we only could get
that spirit out among our people, that we can do
things in Philadelphia and do them well!
Arise, ye millions of Philadelphians, trust in
God and man, and believe in the great opportunities
that are right here not over in New York
or Boston, but here--for business, for everything
that is worth living for on earth. There was
never an opportunity greater. Let us talk up
our own city.
But there are two other young men here to-
night, and that is all I will venture to say, because
it is too late. One over there gets up and says,
``There is going to be a great man in Philadelphia,
but never was one.'' ``Oh, is that so? When are
you going to be great?'' ``When I am elected to
some political office.'' Young man, won't you
learn a lesson in the primer of politics that it is
a _prima facie_ evidence of littleness to hold office
under our form of government? Great men get
into office sometimes, but what this country needs
is men that will do what we tell them to do.
This nation--where the people rule--is governed
by the people, for the people, and so long as it is,
then the office-holder is but the servant of the
people, and the Bible says the servant cannot be
greater than the master. The Bible says, ``He
that is sent cannot be greater than Him who sent
Him.'' The people rule, or should rule, and if
they do, we do not need the greater men in office.
If the great men in America took our offices, we
would change to an empire in the next ten years.
I know of a great many young women, now
that woman's suffrage is coming, who say, ``I
am going to be President of the United States
some day.'' I believe in woman's suffrage, and
there is no doubt but what it is coming, and I
am getting out of the way, anyhow. I may want
an office by and by myself; but if the ambition
for an office influences the women in their desire
to vote, I want to say right here what I say to the
young men, that if you only get the privilege of
casting one vote, you don't get anything that is
worth while. Unless you can control more than
one vote, you will be unknown, and your influence
so dissipated as practically not to be felt. This
country is not run by votes. Do you think it is?
It is governed by influence. It is governed by
the ambitions and the enterprises which control
votes. The young woman that thinks she is going
to vote for the sake of holding an office is making
an awful blunder.
That other young man gets up and says, ``There
are going to be great men in this country and in
Philadelphia.'' ``Is that so? When?'' ``When
there comes a great war, when we get into difficulty
through watchfulwaiting in Mexico; when we
get into war with England over some frivolous
deed, or with Japan or China or New Jersey or
some distant country. Then I will march up to
the cannon's mouth; I will sweep up among the
glistening bayonets; I will leap into the arena and
tear down the flag and bear it away in triumph.
I will come home with stars on my shoulder, and
hold every office in the gift of the nation, and I
will be great.'' No, you won't. You think you
are going to be made great by an office, but
remember that if you are not great before you
get the office, you won't be great when you secure
it. It will only be a burlesque in that shape.
We had a Peace Jubilee here after the Spanish
War. Out West they don't believe this, because
they said, ``Philadelphia would not have heard
of any Spanish War until fifty years hence.''
- civilization [,sivilai´zeiʃən]
n.文明，文化 (初中英语单词) - anywhere [´eniweə] ad.无论何处；任何地方 (初中英语单词)
- funeral [´fju:nərəl] n.葬礼，丧葬；困难 (初中英语单词)
- rubber [´rʌbə] n.(摩)擦的人；橡皮 (初中英语单词)
- patent [´peitənt, ´pæ-] a.专利的 n.专利品 (初中英语单词)
- tribute [´tribju:t] n.贡物；献礼；颂词 (初中英语单词)
- invest [in´vest] v.投资；授予 (初中英语单词)
- hasten [´heisən] vt.催促；促进 vi.赶紧 (初中英语单词)
- wealth [welθ] n.财富，财产 (初中英语单词)
- legislation [,ledʒis´leiʃən] n.立法；法规 (初中英语单词)
- venture [´ventʃə] n.投机 v.冒险；敢于 (初中英语单词)
- politics [´pɔlitiks] n.政治(学)；政治活动 (初中英语单词)
- privilege [´privilidʒ] n.特权 vt.给....特权 (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- mexico [´meksikəu] n.墨西哥 (初中英语单词)
- jersey [´dʒə:zi] n.毛织运动衫；毛线衫 (初中英语单词)
- lifetime [´laiftaim] n.一生，终生，寿命 (高中英语单词)
- greatness [´greitnis] n.巨大；高尚；卓越 (高中英语单词)
- sharpen [´ʃɑ:pən] v.削尖，(使)锐利 (高中英语单词)
- ultimate [´ʌltimit] a.最终的 n.终极；顶点 (高中英语单词)
- balloon [bə´lu:n] n.气球 (高中英语单词)
- millionaire [,miljə´neə] n.百万富翁 (高中英语单词)
- suffrage [´sʌfridʒ] n.投票(权)，选举权 (高中英语单词)
- whatsoever [,wɔtsəu´evə] (强势语)=whatever (英语四级单词)
- gotten [´gɔtn] get的过去分词 (英语四级单词)
- lincoln [´liŋkən] n.林肯 (英语四级单词)
- aristocratic [,æristə´krætik] a.贵族政治的；贵族的 (英语四级单词)
- chicago [ʃi´kɑ:gəu] n.芝加哥 (英语四级单词)
- watchful [´wɔtʃfəl] a.注意的；戒备的 (英语四级单词)
- holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 (英语六级单词)
- burlesque [bə:´lesk] n.&a.滑稽戏(的) (英语六级单词)
- jubilee [´dʒu:bili:] n.欢乐的节日 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
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