Andrew Carnegie began work in a Pittsburg telegraph office at $3 a week.

C.P.Huntington sold butter and eggs for what he could get a pound or dozen.

Whitelaw Reid was once a correspondent of a newspaper in Cincinnati at $5 per week.

Adam Forepaugh was once a butcher in Philadelphia.
Sarah Bernhardt was a dressmaker's apprentice.

Adelaide Neilson began life as a child's nurse.