The life of George Stephenson, railway engineer - Lighthouse ...

50 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap. vi.
Many years after, when addressing a society of young men at
Belper, in Derbyshire, on the necessity of Perseverance,—his
favourite text,—he said, " Well do I remember the beginning of
my career as an engineer, and the great perseverance that was
required for me to get on. Not having served an apprenticeship,
I had made up my mind to go to America, considering that no
one in England would trust me to act as engineer. However, I
was trusted in some small matters, and succeeded in giving satis-
faction. Greater trusts were reposed in me, in which I also
succeeded. Soon after, I commenced making the locomotive
engine ; and the results of my perseverance you have this day
witnessed."*
In 1808, Stephenson, with two other brakesmen, named Robert
Wedderburn and George Dodds, took a small contract under the
colliery lessees, for brakeing the engines at the West Moor Pit.
The brakesmen found the oil and tallow ; they divided the work
amongst them, and were paid so much per score for their labour.
There being two engines working night and day, two of the
three men were always at work ; Itoe average earnings of each
amounting to from 18s. to 20s. a week. But Stephenson resorted
to his usual mode of ekeing out his earnings. His son Robert
would soon be of an age to be sent to school ; and the father,
being but too conscious, from his own experience, of the disad-
vantages arising from the want of instruction, determined that
his boy should at least receive the elements of a good education.
Stinted as he was for means at the time, maintaining his parents,
and struggling with difficulties, this early resolution to afford his
son proper culture must be regarded as a noble feature in his
character, and strikingly illustrative of his thoughtfulness and
conscientiousness. Many years after, speaking of the resolution
which he thus early formed, he said, " In the earlier period of
my career, when Robert was a little boy, I saw how deficient I
was in education, and I made up my mind that he should not
labour under the same defect, but that I would put him to a good
school, and give him a liberal training. I was, however, a poor
* Speech to Mechanics' Institute at Belper, July 6th, 1841, the members of the
Chesterfield Institute having travelled thither by railway train over the line
constructed by Mr. Stephenson.