The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1855-07-26
"They don't Use their Brains" ."

Pat Lyons, the famous blacksmith, was
once asked how he had made so much
more money than men of his avocation
generally, His pithy answer was, BE
cause they don't use their brains as l do
1t was bis custom, be added, whenever he
had complex piece of work to DO, to
shut himself up in a room, and draw
plans, not only of the perfected whole,
but of every separate portion. Each OF
these parts he gave to different work
man, distributing them according to the
skill of the operators. To one who made
a superior screw, he gave the plans of the
screw; to another, different part of the
machine; and SO throughout. In this way,
not only was every portion executed IN the
best manner, but no material was wasted
no time was lost in making the parts
fit. Other employers planned out the
Job as they went along, and often had to
have their work executed over again; in
a word, they didn't use their brains
There is many person with vastly
more pretensions than Pat Lyons, who
might take lesson in this respect from
the eccentric blacksmith. Scores Of gne
schemes have failed, simply because their
projectors did not use their brains, or on
ly called in their aid when it was too late.
Thousands of men have made shipwrecks
of fortune from similar neglect. If
Webster had never thought over a case
till he rose to plead, he would, in spite of
his intellect, have died in comparative OBJ
scurity. Sir Walter Scott never sat down
to write without first having revolved his
subject again and again. Dickens has a
novel on the tapis, but be will not begin to
publish it till next November; and mean
time he is thinking continually of the
characters and plot, he says, as he has
been for months. The orations of De-
mosthenes were carefully prepared, and
so were those of Cicero. Shakespeare had
evidently matured his dreams before he
took pen in hand, while Milton spent
whole life in preparing for Paradise Lost.
Napoleon digested every one Of his cam
paigns before he put his armies in mo-
ton, not only specifying what marches the
several corps should nake each day, but
descending even to the details of the COM
missariat All these great men used their
brains.
So, in every career, it saves time to
have plan. The merchant who embarks
in new trade without one, is almost
sure to fail, while his rival, who rests on
fixed principles, and aims at specific ends,
succeeds. The politician who has no plan
never becomes a statesman. The car
penter, bricklayer, or other mechanic,
who docs not plan out his work, wastes
material continually, and often has to do
half of his job over again. The youth
who starts out in life without certain
line of conduct distinctly marked out in
his mind to follow, generally becomes a
ne'er-do- DWELL The business man who
has no regular daily method, soon finds
his affairs at skies and sevens. The wife
who has no plan in housekeeping is al
ways in debt or wasteful, or both. The
scholar who would become learned, knows
he can never succeed by desultory read
ing. A traveller who had a journey to
make from one town to another might as
we'll set forth without inquiring the road,
without ascertaining whether it was far to
walk, without providing himself with mo-
ney for his expenses, as man start in
life without plan, or even begin the most
trivial undertaking. Forethought, in 9TH
er words plan, makes the difference, as
Pat Lyons said, between those who sue
ceed and those who don't. 1t is the diff
ference between using brains and not
PHILADELPHIA Ledger.