down to business. There are multitudes of people who have pluck, but there is only now and then a man with that bull-dog grip which never yields.

When a man has lost his grip he is through. That is, there is nothing left for him but failure. How much nerve have you got with you? That is a good question to ask yourself every morning. "Have I got my nerve with me? That is, have I got that determination, that clear grit which never gives up, even when beaten, because it does not know when it is beaten?"

Clear grit is a quality which most people lack, yet it is a tremendous asset, especially when it is accompanied by sound judgment. The grit of a man who lacks common sense, the grit which hangs on to a foolish venture simply for the sake of hanging on, is not the sort of grit I mean. Grit and nerve are twins. They always walk with a militant tread. They never bow. They do not apologize, excuse, or whine. They neither bend nor sag. They radiate assurance, hope, confidence. They have iron in their blood, lime in their backbone.

I know men who may be stripped of every material thing they have in the world, their property, their families, everything may be swept away, but I know perfectly well that whatever happens to them they will still face toward the goal of their ambition. I can not imagine these men giving up under discouragement.

Not long ago a company of men were discussing a certain business man when one remarked, "There is a man you can't down. I have seen him go through some frightful experiences in business, when the goods remained unsold on the shelves, and when his capital was small and money was tied up, and when it was almost impossible to get a dollar from the bank. I have seen him go through great business panics when men in the same line with much greater capital went to the wall, but he held his head, he never flinched and never lost his nerve."

Now, that is the kind of man the world is looking for. The man you can't down; the man who will not flinch or lose his nerve under any condition. You can rely upon that sort of man. There is no use trying to discourage him.

I once saw the following sign over the door of a bank in one of our large cities: "Everything has happened to this bank that could happen to any bank."

This is a bold motto with which to start a new banking business after it has been wrecked, but it is the kind of note of fearlessness that the American people admire. We like the man who, when he has failed, simply says: "Let Fate do her worst to me; I shall not give up. I may lose lose my property, my credit, my money and my friends, but my faith, confidence, my grip on myself never." During our Civil War, at the frightful battle of

my

Shiloh, following the capitulation of Fort Donelson, General Buell came on the field and asked Grant what preparations he had made for retreat. "I have six boats," said Grant.

"But," said General Buell, "these will only take about ten thousand men."

"There won't be that many when I go back," replied Grant. The army then numbered fifty thousand men.

Grant meant that when he gave up there would not be very much of an army to take away on the transports.

The Confederate generals said that Grant's success was due to the fact that he never knew when he was beaten.

It is the men and women who have never known defeat who have lifted civilization up from the Hottentots to the Lincolns and the Grants, the Wellingtons and the Gladstones.

To stand up under the terrific strain of modern competition one must have staying power, a lot of stamina, a lot of grit in his nature. He must have a lot of lime in his backbone, and above all he must stick and hang, or he will quickly be crowded out of the current and thrown up high on the shore and, like driftwood, left behind.

Mark well your giving-up point, your turningback point, for that, and not what you dream of, will be your goal. You will never get beyond the courage, your stamint wheries

yoint where your

you. When that gives out, all of your other faculties give up. Clear grit is the leader.

Grit makes the difference between the man who wins out, the man who goes clear to his goal, and the man who fizzles. The man who wins is just beginning to get his second breath when others give up, quit, or turn back.

The spirit with which we meet the various vicissitudes of life measures our fiber, tests our quality.

A boy scout was met not long since by the Germans in a little town in France, and because he refused to give information as to whether there were any French troops ambushed near the town he was told that he would be shot. Without a particle of flinching the boy walked resolutely to the telegraph pole indicated, and backed up against it, while the rifles were leveled at him.

It is said that he not only did not show the slightest sign of fear or flinching, but he received the volley of shots with a defiant smile on his boyish face.

It makes a tremendous difference how we face the inevitable, with what spirit we receive the blows of cruel fate, whether like a coward or like a hero.

The manner in which this brave boy met his fate made a tremendous, lasting impression upon the soldiers who shot him down.

Recently, in Mexico, a private soldier, Samuel Parks, disappeared into the Mexican lines, and this

is the report of the Mexican lieutenant who executed him: "Parks died bravely, facing the firing squad with his eyes unbound and without a sign of flinching."

Commodore Perry was only twenty-seven years old and he had never seen a naval battle when he led his little fleet of only nine small vessels, carrying but fifty-one guns, against the English fleet, carrying sixty-four guns, on Lake Erie.

Early in the morning he had hoisted a flag on the Lawrence, his flagship for the day, which bore the dying words of Lawrence, "Don't give up the ship."

As he led the little flotilla to battle, the English guns were all concentrated upon him, and for hours his flag reeled under a terrific fire, but he did not leave the Lawrence until her last guns were disabled, twenty-two men killed, sixty-one wounded, and only thirteen unhurt. Perry was made of the stuff that does not surrender. When his ship was totally disabled, he hauled down his flag and was taken in a small boat to the Niagara, passing within pistol shot of the British guns. On taking command of the Niagara, he wrote on the back of an old letter his historic message to General Harrison: "We have met the enemy, and they are ours."

When Frederick the Great was a young man he showed very decided signs of cowardice. The first time he was in battle he ran away in mortal terror