The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1868-10-17
Rows Learn "a Trade.

Few persons have looked into the lives Of so
many remarkable men as have, Vet L cannot
call TO mind one of the acknowledged kings of
business who did not in early life serve a long,
rigorous apprenticeship 70 some occupation akin
10 that which he afterwards exercised, and in
which his great success was made.
Vanderbilt, for example. was a boatman, sloop
captain, and steamboat captain. for nineteen years
before he set up for himself in the business of
building and running steamboats,, in which he
gained more money than was ever before gained
in a single lifetime, except by plumber There
is not to-day in the whole world q man who
knows a. much about steamboats, and steamships
Is this same Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Aston Is another illustration. He learned the
fur business from the very rudiments. lie used
10 beat furs from morning till night in his mas
tets back shop, and after doing this awhile he
used 10 take n basket Of trinkets and nick-nacks,
and 60 round among the slOops and markets,
driving hard bargains with bOatmen, Indians and
market-men for such skins az they had brought
TO town. By-snd-by he shouldered his pack and
tramped the ~peltries; and. extending his journey,
az length be became familiar with every place,
every Tribe, and every person connected with the
fur trade in North America. Then he went TO
Europe, and learned all about the market for furs
and their prices in every part OF the world. Few
men have understood a thing go well as MIR. Astor
understood the business OF collecting, curing and
selling furs. He knew it, not Us a clerk might
have known IL; he knew 1t as u man knows the
trade 10 which he has served a long apprentice
ship under a watchful and ~exacting master.
Another case in point was the first Rothschild,
who, from his twelfth TO his twenty-seyenth year,
laboriously acquired a knowledge of money, first
rs errand-boy aud money-counter 10 his father,
and afterwards as bankers clerk.
Girard, too, was a thorough sailor, before he
ever owned a ship, and WAS personally familiar
with most of the commercial ports long before he
ever consigned a cargo 10 one of them.
John Gorham, of Providence, the head of the
largest mandatory of silyer-ware in the world,
did not 20 into his fathers counting-room Us Il
clerk, but into his fathers shop as an apprentice;
and he learned TO do with his own hands what
ever he has since had TO direct others in doing.
But such examples are numberless. All my
acquaintance with business men teaches me that
the fundamental secret Of success in business is
knOwledge-real knowledge, such knowledge as
is only acquired by becoming practically familiar
with methods and processes-such knowledge in
fact as u man gets by taking hold OF work, and
doing 1t until he can do it easily and perfectly.
There is n noble establishment in Broadway,
where many of US go, occasionally, for the reha-
b%llitation o. our outer man. Ii Was in the grand
upper room of this palace-like store, while l was
being measured for n coat, that | conceived the
idea of writing this article. In well-conducted
establishments of every kind you will notice the
same faces year after year; for able men natural
ly gather able men around them, and employers
and employed, by reciprocal justice and courtesy,
become attached TO one another. and have neither
mOlINc nor GeSlre 10 sever the COuncCtiOn. anu
yet, on that occasion, seeing around me the same
skiliful and Obliging persons that | had met there
ten years before, l could not but reflect how little
chance they had to advance from c~lerkship to
mastership.
.Suppose," thought /, ga lad of sixteen or
should proPose-tO himself, as an object
in life, TO become the proprietor of an establish
ment like this-what would be the shortest and
likeliest path for him 10 strike into?''
feel certain that the best thing he could do
would he 10 apprentice himself to Il good tailor,
and learn all there is to be known about the
making of clothes. Having acquired that knowl-
with his head only but with his fingers
rs well-nothing would be easier than to set up
small shop. Now, what is the difference be-
tween n small tailorshop (weli placed and well
conductcd) and the oyersEadowing clothing
houses of Brooks or Devlin's? Why, nothing
but thirty years growth
The knowledge which a clerk acquires is part
of the indispensable equipment of n man of bus
iness; but it is far from being 50 vital to a grand
success as that which comes of n true apprentice
ship. Gibbon Gays, that going out with the mil
itia ON training days was of material assistance
TO him in writing the history of the great Roman
wars. just giving the word of command to 4
iow companies of country militia let him into the
secret OF complicated battles and great campaigns.
Learn Il trade, then, lads, you who aspire TO do
creditable and substantial during your
lie. Would you be an architect, and build the
new Capitol west of the Mississippi! Well, then,
aud apprentice yourself to the best carpenter
Or mason within your reach. Do YOU wish to be
sculptor, and yet cannot pay a masters fee?
Instead of pining in your mothers chimney
corner, go to the nearest stone-cutter's and cut
tOmb-stUnes.
The educating effect of learning a good trade
has never been sufficiently considered
Why have we, nOw-a-days, 20 many simpering,
silly girls about, who know nothing, can do moth
ing, and are nothing? They have been at school
long enough to get a little knowledge and they
DO not appear to be wanting in natural capacity;
md yet, so empty are they of sense and rehec-
lion, that, often when | look into their express
sionless countenances, L find it difficult to believe
in the Immortality of their souls. 1t seems more
to think that such abortive efforts Of
nature would be quietly absorbed or dissipated,
ike the leaves which flutter to the ground, and
are no more seen.
What Is the matter with these poor creatures?
The matter is; they have never boiled potatoes,
roned clothes. made buildings, cleaned paint,
made beas, nor in any other way seriously applied
heir minds and hands to the exact and skillful
performance of homcly tasks. They have missed
,he precious education which comes of carefully
lone work. IL any good soul would take half %
lozen OF these unfortunate beings and give them
! good three years drill III the work of n weli-or-
Tered house, the educated effect would astonish
very one who knew them. You cannot boil an
'gg precisely right without GETTING a little educa-
ION out of it.
Compare the mechanics in the Novelty Works
With the clerks in Stewards store. The clerks
ne excellent fellows; they look well, dress well,
their business, and are in every res l
worthy members of society; but our best
mechanics have a certain force of manhood, 4
of character, and n depth of reflection
aTely seen in those who only buy and sell.
| should be sorry TO say anything to disparage
'ur institutions of learning. Nevertherless, |
eel confident that an intelligent youth, who re-
mains at school until lie is sixteen or seventeen,
nd then apprentices himself TO a good trade, can
a better education out of his shop with an
ours study Of principles in the EVENING" than
I is possible TO get in any college in existence
hat lie to say, u better education for this new =
nd forming country, where, for fifty years Mt
to come, no man can hopc to play a leading
except in welding material forces. :
/ saw. then. lads OF sixteen. if You would Law