Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1868-09-04
Learn a Trade.

Learn q trade.
JAMES PARTON says the following in a
late number of PdckdrdS Monthly: --..f.
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 apprer-
ticeship to some occupation akin TO that
which he afterward exercised and In
which his great success was made
Vanderbilt, for example, was q 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 a single lifetime, except by plum
der. There is not to-day in the world
man who knows as much about steam
boats, and steamships as this same Cor
nelius Vanderbilt.
Astor 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
a basket of trinkets and nick hacks, and
go round among the sleeps and markets,
driving hard bargains with boatmen, In
dians and marketmen, 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 tho 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 1t, 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.
Another case in point was the first
Rothschild, who, from his twelfth to his
twenty-seventh year, laboriously acquired
a knowledge of money, first as errand boy
and money counter to his father, and af
terward as bankers clerk.
Girard, too, was thorough sailor before
he ever owned q ship, and was personally
familiar with most of the commercial ports
long before he ever consigned cargo to
one of them.
John Gorham, of Providence, the head
of the largest mandatory of silverware
in the world, did not go into his fathers
counting room as 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 e
But such examples are numerous. 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 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 l was being
measured for a 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 yet, on that occasion, see
ing around me the same skilltul 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 l, "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 likeliest
, path for him TO strike into ?"
feel certain that the best thing he
could do would be to apprentice himself
to good tailor and learn all there is tG
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 sci
up a small tailor shop (well placed and
well conducted) and the overshadowing
clothing houses of Brooks or Devlin
Why, nothing but thirty years grOwthi
, The knowledge which a clerk acquire:
is part of the indispensable equipment o
man of business, but it is far from being
so vital to grand success as that whict
comes of true apprenticeship. Gibbor
says, that going out with the militia Oh
training days was of material assistance
/ to him in writing the history OF the gres
! Roman war. Just giving the word %
command TO 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 20 do something creditable and sub
Stantisl during your life Would you b.
an architect, and build the new capito
west of the Mississippif Well, then, gC
apprentice TO the best carpenter OF masoI
within your reach. Do you wish to be
, sculptor, and yet cannot pay master'i
feeS Instead of pining in your mother'i
chimney.corner, go to the nearest sGone
cutter and cut tomb stones.
The educating effect of learning a gooC
> trade has never been sufficiently eonsid
cred,
| Why have we, nowadays, so many sim
pering, silly girls about, who know moth
. ingS They have been at school Ions
. enough TO get little knowledge, and they
do not appear to be wanting In natura
capacity; and yet so empty are they o
sense and reflection, that, often when
: look into their expressionless cOuntensn
: ces find il difficult To believe in the i'm.
, mortality of their souls. 1t seems more
reasonable 20 think that such abOrtiVs
, efforts of Nature would be quietly alb
: sorbed OF dissipated, like the leaves which
nutter to the ground, and are no more
2 seen.
What is the matter with these poOl
5 creaturesy The matter Is, they have new
. / ar hOilad nOtatOaQ irOnad clOtheR made