Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/113

 ANDREW CAENEGIE By Jambs Casey yiNDEEW CAENEGIE is one of the most typical, and, let ^^^ it be added, one of the most impressive representatives of what will hereafter assuredly be known as a great and strenuous age. We do not intend to present him here as a perfect man ; for if he were perfect he would not be typical either of the species to which he belongs or of the times. No man or age is perfect. Man must be weighed by the standards of the eternally human, and, in a particular sense, by the special standards of his time. If Mr. Carnegie be weighed by either of these standards — or by them conjointly, as is the better and juster way — he will certainly not be found want- ing. Mr. Carnegie with all his defects — and no man has more frankly admitted his deficiencies — is emphatically a great man. The world is agreed in so proclaiming him. He is a self-made man. Behind his successes lie character, judgment, resolution, and persistency. A poor lad, a new arrival in a strange land, he never allowed himself to become discouraged. He had confidence in himself. To begin with, he had a sound body and a sound mind. This young Carnegie knew, and that was enough for him. With time, all else would come. Andrew Carnegie started out in life with a definite purpose ; he steadfastly pursued that purpose, and, so far, he has ac- complished it in ample and full measure. We say **so far'' advisedly, for as the old Greek philosopher was careful to re- mind his followers: **No man can be called happy until he has fulfilled his days. " So no man, in the fuller sense, can be said to have accomplished his mission — and Mr. Carnegie believes he has one — until he has passed away, and in passing away left behind him a completed and well-rounded career — a career conunenced in purpose, pursued with unfaltering per- sistency, and perfected so far as human endeavor can be per- fected in any direction.