The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1878-05-24
Room at the Top.

The following article from the pen of
DIR. j. g. Holland, editor of !Serbaer's
Monthly. Is recommended to the perusal
OF every young man:
To the young men, annually making
their entrance upon active life, with
great ambitions, conscious capacities
and high hopes, the prospect is, in
ninety.nine cases in Q hundred, most
perplexing. They see every avenue to
prosperity thronged with their superb
ors in experience, in social advantages,
and in the possession of all the elements
and conditions of success. Every post
II occupied. every Office filed, every
path crowded. Where shall they ind
room! 1t is related of Mr.. Webster
that when young lawyer suggested to
him that the profession to which be had
devoted himself was overcrowdsd, the
great man replied: ~ Dung man, there
Is always room enough at the top"
Never was a wiser or more suggestive
word said. There undoubtedly is al
ways room enough where excellence
lives. Mr.. Webster was not troubled
for lack of room. Mr. Clay and Mr..
Calhoun were never crowded Mr.
Evarts, Mr.. Cushing and Mr.. O'Connor
have plenty Of space around them.
The first years of every mans busi-
ness or professional life are years of
education. They are intended to be in
the order of nature and Providence.
Doors are not opened to man until he
Is prepared to enter them. The man
without wedding garment may get
in surreptiously. bat he Immediately
goes out again with II flea in his ear
We think it is the experience of most
successful men who lave watched the
course Of their lives in retrospect, that
whenever they arrived at point where
they were thoroughly prepared to 60
up higher. the door to q higher place
has swung back Of itself and they have
heard the call TO enter. The old die, or
voluntarily retire for rest. The best
men who stand ready to take their
places will succeed to their position
and its honors and emoluments.
The young men say that only few
will reach the top. That is true, and it
is also true that the further from the
bottom one goes. the more scattering
the nighborhood. One can fancy, for
illustration, that every profession and
every calling is pyramidal in It's living
constituency. and that while only one
man is at the top, there are several tiers
of men beneath him who have plenty
of elbow room, and that it is only at
the base that men are 80 thick that
they pick the meat out Of another's
teeth to keep from starving. If man
has no power to get out of the rabble
at the bottom, then he is self-convict-
ed of having chosen q calling or profes
sion to whose duties he has no adapta.
ton.
The grand mistake that young men
make during the first ten years of their
business or professional life. is in IDLY
waiting for their chance. They seem
70 forget, or they do not know, that dur
ing those ten years they enjoy the only
leisure time they will ever have. After
ten years in the natural course of things.
they will be absorbingly busy. There
will then be no time for reading. cul-
ture and study If they do not become
thoroughly grounded in the principles
and practical details of their profession
during those years; if they do not store
their minds with useful knowledge; il
they do not pursue habits of reading
and observation, and social intercourse,
which result in culture, the question
whether they will ever rise to occupy q
place where there is room enough for
them will be decided in the negative.
The young physicians and young
lawyers who sit idly in their offices,
and smoke and lounge away the time
waiting for something 20 turn up"
are by that course fastening themselves
for life to the lower stratum, where
their struggle for bare livelihood is
to be perpetual. The first ten years
are golden years, that should be filled
with systematic reading and observa-
ton. Everything that tends to pro-
fessionsl and personal excellence should
be an object of daily pursuit To such
men the doors of success open of them
selves at last. Work seeks the best
hands. as naturally as water runs down
hill; and it never seeks the hand of
trifler, or of one whose only recommen-
dstion for work is that he needs it.
In the realm of eminent requirements
and eminent integrity there is always
reom enough. Let no young man of in
dusiry and honesty, despair because his
profession or calling is crowded. Let
him always remember that there is
room enough at the top, and that the
question whether he is ever 60 reach
the top. or rise above the crowd at the
base of the pyramid. will be decided by
the way in which he improves the first
ten years OF his active life in securing
to himself q thorough knowledge of
his profession and . sound moral and
intellectual culture.