The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1869-07-30
BOYS 4" Learn a Trade"

lale bumu6T VI a uChWU NOHuJEs
Few persons have looked into the lives
Of so many remarkable men as | have;
yet / cannot call to mind one of the ac-
knovledged kings OF business who did not
in early life serve long, rigorous appTen.
ticeship to some occupation akin to that
which he aiterward exercised, and in which
his great success was made.
Vanderbilt, for example was 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 goined more
money than was ever before gained in a
single lifetime, except by plunder. There
is not to day in the whole world man who
knows as much about steamboats, and
steamships as this same Cornelius Wander
bilt.
Astor is another illustration. He learned
the fur business from the very rudimonts.
He used to beat furs from morning till
night in his masters back shop, and after
doing this awhile he used to take basket
of trinkets and uicknacks, and 20 around
among the sloops and markets, driving
hard bargains with boatmen, Indians and
marketmon, for such skins as they had
brought to town. Ey-and by he stouldered
ais pack and tramped the country for pei
tries, and extending his tramps at length
he became familiar with every place, every
tribe and every person connected with the
| fur trade in North America. Then ne 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 we'll as Mr.. Astor understood
the business of collecting, curing and SELL
ing turs. He knew it. not as clerk
might have known it he knew it az a
man knows the trade to which he has
served long apprenticeship under watch
ful and exacting master.
Another case in point was the first
Rothschild, who, from his twelveth to his
twenty seventh year, caborously acquired
a knowledge of money, first as errand boy,
and money counter to his father, aud after.
wards as a bankers clerk.
Gira1d, too, was thorough sailor before
he ever owned 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 bead
Of the largest manufactory of silver ware
in the world, did not go into his fathers
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 knowledge-real knowledge
such knowledge as is ouly acquired by
becoming practically familiar with methods
aud process-suoh knowledge, in fact, as q
man gets by taking hold of the work, and
doing it until he can do it easily and per-
fectly.
There is {. noble establishment in Broad
way, New York, where many of us go, oc-
casionally, for the rehabilitation of the outer
man. 1t was in the grand upper room Of
this palace like store, while I was being
measured for q coat, that | conceived the
idea of writing this article In well con.
Quoted establishments Of every kind, you
will notice the same faces year after year
for able men naturally gather able meu
around them, and employers and employed,
by reciprocal justice and courtesy, become
attached to one another, and have neither
motive nor desire to sever the connection
And yet, on that occasion, seeing 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 partner
ship
" Suppose" said I, "a lad sixteen OF
seventeen should propose to himself as an
object in life, to become the proprietor ol
an establishment like this-what would be
the shortest and lkeliest path for him tC
strike into