Pushing to the front; or Success under difficulties, a book of inspiration and encouragement to all who are struggling for self-elevation along the paths of knowledge and of dutyThe author's aim has been to spur the perplexed youth to act the Columbus to his own undiscovered possibilities; to urge him not to brood over the past, nor dream of the future, but to get his lesson from the hour; to encourage him to make every occasion a great occasion, for he cannot tell when fate may take his measure for a higher place; to show him that he must not wait for his opportunity, but make it ;to tell the round boy how he may get out of the square hole, into which he has been wedged by circumstances or mistakes; to help him to find his right place in life; to teach the hesitating youth that in a land where shoemakers and farmers sit in Congress no limit can be placed to the career of a determined youth who has once learned the alphabet.The standard of the book is not measured in gold, but in growth; not in a position, but in personal power; not in the capital, but in character. It shows that a great checkbook can never make a great man; that besides the character of a Washington, the millions of a Croesus look contemptible; that a man may be rich without money, and may succeed though he does not become President or member of Congress; that he who would grasp the key to power must be greater than his calling, and resist the vulgar prosperity that retrogrades toward barbarism; that there is something greater than wealth, grander than fame; that character is a success, and there is no other.If this volume shall open wider the door of some narrow life, and awaken powers before unknown, the author will feel repaid for his labor. No special originality is claimed for the book. It has been prepared in odd moments snatched from a busy life and is merely a new way of telling stories and teaching lessons that have been told and taught by many others from Solomon down. In these well-worn and trite topics lie " the marrow of the wisdom of the world."