270

was brought out to the delight of the assembled thou-
sands, .

Mr. Cooper soon erected at Trenton, N. J.,the largest
rolling mill in the United States, a large blast furnace
in Pennsylvania, and steel and wire works in various
parts of the State. He bought the Andover iron
mines, and built eight miles of railroad in a rough
country, over which he carried forty thousand tons a
year. The poor boy who once earned only twenty-
five dollars yearly, had become a millionnaire! No
good luck accomplished this. Hard work, living
within his means, saving his time, not squandering
it as some men do,. talking with every person they
meet, common sense, which led him to look carefully
before he invested money, promptness, and the sacred
keeping of his word, these were the characteristics
which made him successful.

Mr. Cooper was honorable in every business trans-
action. Once he said to Mr. Edward Lester, a
friend who had an interest in the Trenton works, “I
do not feel quite easy about the amount we are mak-
ing. Working under one of our patents, we have a
monopoly which seems to me something wrong.
Everybody has to come to us for it, and we are mak-
ing money too fast: it is not right.” The price was
immediately reduced. A rare man indeed was Peter
‘Cooper, to lower the price simply because the world
greatly needed the article he had to sell!

He was now sixty-four. For forty years he had
worked day and night to earn money to build his
Free College. He had bought the ground between
Third and Fourth avenues, and Seventh and Eighth
streets, some time previously, and now for five whole
years he watched the great, six-story, brown-stone
building as it grew under his hands. The once
penniless lad was building into these stones for all
future generations, the lessons of his industry, econ-
‘omy, perseverance, and noble heart. Ina box in the
‘corner stone he placed these words :

The great object that I desire to accomplish by the erection
of this Institution is to open the avenues. of scientific knowl-
‘edge to the youth of our city and country, and so unfold the
volume of Nature, that the young may see the beauties of crea-
tion, enjoy its blessings, and learn to love the Author from
‘whom cometh every good and perfect gift.

But would the poor young men and women of New
‘York, who worked hard all day, care for educa-
tion? Some said no, But Mr. Cooper looking back
to his boyhood and young manhood believed that
the people loved books, and would use an opportunity
to study them.

And when the grand building was opened, with its
library, class-rooms, hall, and art rooms, students
‘crowded in from the shops and the factories. Some
were worn and tired, as Peter Cooper was in his
youth, but they studied eagerly despite their weariness.
Every Saturday night two thousand came together in
the great hall to hear lectures from the most famous
people in the country. Every year nearly five hun-
dred thousand read in the Library and Free Read-

LITTLE BIOGRAPHIES.—HOW SUCCESS IS WON,

ing Room, Four thousand pupils came to the night-
schools to study science and art.

For twenty-four years this labor of love has been
carried on. The white-haired, kind-faced man went
daily to see the students who lovedhim as afather. His
last act was to buy ten type-writers for the girls in the
department of telegraphy. Hasthe work paid? Ask
the forty thousand young men and women who have
gone out from the institution to earn an honorable
support, with not a cent.to be paid for their educa-
tion. No person is accepted who does not expect
to earn his living, for Mr. Cooper had no love for
weak, idle youth who depend on their parents and

‘on the hope of an inherited wealth.

The work has now outgrown the building, and
another million dollars is needed as a monument to
the noble benefactor who gave two millions to found
Cooper Institute. Of the fifteen hundred who ap-
plied last year for admission to the School of Art for
Woman, only five hundred could be received, for
lack of room, The graduates from this department
last year, and the members of the present class, have
earned over twenty-seven thousand dollars in the
past twelvemonths, Three pupils are teaching draw-
ing in nineteen of the Public Schools of New Vork
City. One teaches twenty-five hours a week, in eight
Public Schools, at two dollars an hour. Several en-
grave on wood for Harper and Brothers, and for
the Century Company. One scholar is now at the
head of the Decorative Art Society in New Orleans,
with a salary of one hundred and fifty dollars a month,
earning nearly as much-in outside work. Another,
with a photographer in Concord, N. H., receives
twelve hundred ayear. The superintendent of schools
at Winona, Miss., receives one thousand dollars the first
year, and she is promised more afterwards, One lady
earns twelve hundred dollars in a decorating estab-
lishment in Boston, One is designing in the Brit-
annia works at Meriden, Conn. One having married
a man of means, has opened a “ Free School of Art,”
with fifty pupils, to show her gratitude to Mr. Cooper.

Is it any wonder when Peter Cooper died, that
thirty-five hundred came up from the Institution to
lay roses upon his coffin?

His last words to his daughter, Mrs. Abraham
Hewitt, and his son, ex-Mayor Cooper, and their
families, as they stood around his death-bed, were,
not to forget Cooper Union. They have just given
one hundred thousand dollars to it. The influence
of this noble charity will be felt as long as the Re-
public endures. It has given an impulse to the
study of art, opened a door for women as well as
men, and shown to the world that in America work
is honorable for all. b

Peter Cooper came tohighest honors. The learned
and the great sought his home. He was president
of three telegraph companies, one of the fathers of
the Atlantic Cable, and was nominated for the Presi-
dency of the United States by the National Indepen-
dent party, in 1876, but he died as he had lived, the