W. H. Smith, the originator of the enormous traffic in the sale and loan of books, and in the sale of newspapers and periodicals, in connection with our extended railway system, was born on the 7th of July, 1792. As he was, from early years, intended for entirely different pursuits from that which he eventually followed, he cannot be said to have received a special business training. While still a boy, family circumstances rendered it desirable that he should take the control of a small newspaper establishment at the West End of London, and though his inclinations were decidedly opposed to a petty trade of this nature, he made duty paramount to likings or dislikings, and gave all his attention to his business. In a short time he was able to move to a larger shop in the Strand, and here he added the sale of stationery to the newspaper traffic. At that time the mails were conveyed from London by coaches leaving at night only, so that the morning papers could not be received in Liverpool or Manchester until forty-eight hours after publication. Smith now conceived the idea of forwarding the newspapers by express parcels by the coaches leaving London in the morning, and as these coaches generally left before the delivery of the morning papers, he kept a relay of swift, long-legged horses, which started as soon as the papers came to hand, and caught up the coaches where they could. By this means he actually secured the delivery of the news in the large Northern towns four-and-twenty hours in advance of the mail. For some years the returns from this business were altogether inadequate to the cost and trouble incurred, and many men would have abandoned so desperate an enterprise, but Smith had faith in the scheme, and his perseverance was rewarded by the largest newspaper business in Europe. His attention was almost entirely given to the newspaper branch of his trade, and after a time everything else gave way to it.