The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1859-11-05
Honor your Business.

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Honor your Business.
By henry WARD BEEcBER.
It is good sign when man is proud Of
bis work, or his calling. Yet nothing is
more common than to hear men finding
fault constantly with their particular bust
ness, and deemipg themselves unfortunate
because fastened to it, by the necessity of
gaining livelihood. In this spirit men
fret, and laboriously destroy all their comfort
in work. Or they change their business,
and go on miserably shifting from one thing
to another, till the grave or the poor house
give them q fast grip.
But while, occasionally, man fails in
life because he is not in the place fitted for
his peculic talent, it happens ten times Of
tener that failure results from neglect and
even contempt of an honest business. A
man should put his heart into everything
that he does. There is not profession in
the world that has not its peculiar cares and
yexations. No man will escape annoyance
by. changing business. No mechanical
business is altogether agreeable. Com
merce. in its endless varieties, is affected
like all other human pursuits, with trials,
unwelcome duties, and spirit firing necessi-
ties. It is the very wantonness of folly for
a man to search out the frets and burdens
of his calling and give his mind every day
to consideration of them. They belong
to human life. They are inevitable Brood
ing then only gives them strength.
On the other hand, man has power
given him to shed beauty and pleasure upon
the homeliest toll if he is wise. Let man
adopt his business, and identify it with his
life, and cover it with pleasant associations.
For God has given US Imagination not alone
to make some men poets, but to enable all
men to beautify homely things. Heart warm
ish will cover up innumerable evils and de-
fects. Look at the good things. Accept
your lot as man does piece of rugged
ground, and begin to get out the rocks and
roots, to deepen and mellow the soil, to en-
rich and plant it. There is something in
the most forbiddiDg avoeation around which
man may Irvine pleasant fancies. out of which
he may develop an honest pride.
We met, not long since, a fine specimen
of just the thing we mean.
He began life blacksmith. 81 never
wanted to be anything else than mechan-
ic," said he. He determined to make him
self respectable and honorable, not in spite
of his business, but by means of it. He
entered with heart and, soul and ambition
into it. Little by little improved it. Sc
Letting single line of articles. he began
manufacturing them. "When first enter
ed the market" said he, 81 found every
body trying to sell cheaper than his neigh
Dor, and SO making poorer and poorer arti-
cles, and running down the trade. deter
Il IL II ] L L
In this spirit he entered heartily into his
work, was proud of il, nursed and nourished
it, and now he is, in his own department.,
almost without competitor in the market.
He has gathered riches, which he employs
benevolently. and is respected and honored
by all his townsmen. The good which this
honest mechanic has done will not stop with
himself. He will have made his business
honorable to others. A man can impart to
business a favor of honor by his own
conduct. which shall make it thereafter
more creditable 70 any one who enters it.
Franklin left upon the printing Office an i'm
press which has benefited the profession of
printers ever since. Blacksmiths love to
speak of the yet uncannonizsd name of St.
Elihu Burritt.
Mr.. Dowse, by tanning and currying,
amassed fortune, and bequeathed it aud it's
literary products to the public in Boston
and Cambridge; and We venture to say, that
hereafter that business will be easier and
more encouraging to every lad that is bound
apprentice to the nasty trade. Once let q
man convert his business into an instru-
ment Of honor, benevelence and patriotism,
and from that moment it is TRANSPORTED,
and men judge its dignity and merit not by
what it externslly IS, bat by what it has
done and can do. Il is better to stick TO
your business, and by patient industry and
honorable enterprise crown it with honor,
than TO run away from it, and seek prosper
ity ready made 70 your hand. Its not what
man finds that does him good, but What
he does.-.H 7. Ledger.