I have no sympathy with the
old man who says, ``I would just as soon march
up to the cannon's mouth as eat my dinner.''
I have no faith in a man who doesn't know enough
to be afraid when he is being shot at. I never
was so afraid when the shells came around us
at Antietam as I was when I went into that room
that day; but I finally mustered the courage--
I don't know how I ever did--and at arm's-
length tapped on the door. The man inside did
not help me at all, but yelled out, ``Come in and
sit down!''
Well, I went in and sat down on the edge of a
chair, and wished I were in Europe, and the man
at the table did not look up. He was one of the
world's greatest men, and was made great by one
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.
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