Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1868-09-04
Learn a Trade.

JAMES PARTON says the following In
late number of Pach;drd's Monthly;
Few persons have looked into the lives
of so many remarkable men as have, yet
L cannot call to mind one of the acknowl-
edged kings of business who did not in
early life serve long rigorous appren--
ticeship to some occupation akin to that
which he afterward exercised, and in
which his great success was made.
Vanderbilt, for example, was a boat
man. sloop captain, and steamboat cap
tain, 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 single lifetime, except by plum
der. There is not to-day in the world a
man who knows as much about steam
boats, and steamships as this same Cor
nelius Vanderbilt.
Aston is another illustration. He learn
ed the fur business from the very rudi-
ments. He used to beat furs from morn
ing till night in his masters back shop,
and after doing this awhile he used to take
basket of trinkets and nick-naoks, and
go round among the sloops and markets,
driving hard bargains with boatinen, In
dams and marketnien for such skins as
they had brought to town. BY and by he
shouldered his pack and tramped the
country for peltries and, extending his
journey, at length he 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 ever understood thing so
well as Mr. AstOr understood the business
of collecting, curing and selling furs. He
knew it, not as a clerk might have known
it; he knew it as man knows the trade
to which he has served long apprentice
ship under a watchful and eXacting mas
ter. vft. rs l}s5ts1 e5rt
Another case in point was the first
Rothschild, who, from his twelfth to his
twenty-seventh year, laborieusly acquire |
a knowledge Of money, first as GRAND boy
and money-counter to his father, and al
terward as bankers clerk.
Girard, too, was thorough sailor before
he ever owned ship, and was personally
familiar with most of the commercial port s
long before he ever consigned cargo to
one of them. ~ t8H tg9l
John Gorham, of Providence. the head
of the largest mandatory Of silverware
counting room as a clerk, but into his
fathers shop. as an apprentice; and he
learned how to do with his. own hands
whatever he has since had to direct others
in doing. ~
But such examples are numerous. All
my acquaintance with business men
teaches me that the fundamental secret OF
success in business is acknowledgement
knowledge-such knowledge as is only
acquired by becoming practically familiar
with methods and processes-such knowl-
edge, in fact, as man gets by taking hold
of work, and doing it until he can do it
easily and perfectly,
There is noble establishment in
Broadway, where many of us go OCCASION
ally, for the rehabilitation of the outer man.
1t was in the grand upper room Of this
palace-like store, while [ was being
measured for coat, that / conceived the
idea of wiring this article. In we'll CON
Quoted establishments of every kind, you
will notice the same faces year after year
for able men naturally gather able men
around them, and employers and en-
ployed by reciprocal justice and courtesy,
become attached to one another, and have
neither motive nor desire to sever the con-
nection. And yev, on that occasion, see
ing around me the same skillful and
obliging persons that | had seen there ten
years before, | could not but reflect how
little chance they had to advance from
clerkship to mastership.
Suppose" thought /, "a lad Of sixteen
or seventeen should propose to himself,
as an object in life, to become the pro-
prietor of an establishment like this
what would be the shortest and lkeliest
path for him to strike into ?"
l feel certain that the best thing he
could do would be to apprentice himself
to good tailor, and learn all there is to
be known about the making of clothes
Having acquired that Acknowledgement
with his head only, but with his fingers as
well-nothing would be easier than to set
up small tailor shop well placed and
well conducted) and the overshadowing
clothing houses of Brooks or Devlin ?.
Why, nothing but thirty years growth!
The knowledge which clerk acquires
is part of the indispensable equipment of
man of business, but it is far from being
so vital to grand success as that which
comes of true apprenticeship. Gibbon
says, that going out with the militia on
training days was of material assistance
to him in writing the history of the great
Roman war. Just giving the word of
command to a few companies of country
militia, let him into the secret of compli-
Gated battles and great campaigns.
Learn trade, then, lads, you who as
pire to do something creditable and sub
stantial during your life, Would you be