I am not sure, but I will hazard
the guess that a majority of the great business men of Chicago never
saw a college.
These illustrations occur to the mind as I write, and without special
selection. Doubtless, the entire space of this paper might be occupied
by nothing more than the names of men who have blessed the race and
become historic successes in every possible department of human
industry, none of whom ever saw the inside of either college or
university.
But all of these do not prove that you ought not to go to college if
you can. Certainly you ought to go to college if it is possible. But
the lives of these men do prove that no matter how hard the conditions
that you think surround you, success is yours in spite of them, _if
you are willing to pay the price of success_--if you are willing to
work and wait; if you are willing to be patient, to keep sweet, to
maintain fresh and strong your faith in God, your fellow men, and in
yourself.
The life of any one of the men whom I have mentioned is not only an
inspiration but an instruction to you who, like these men, cannot go
to college. Consider, for example, how Samuel B. Raymond established
the New York _Times_.
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