The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-07-17
Short Talk With the Boys.
BY NJ. QUAD.

| BY M. QUAD.
Now, my lad, if you have arrived at the
age of 16 it is time you began to think Of
trade or profession. This isn't a country
in which you can live on your fathers
name for any length of time, and even il
you are calculating on coming into
possession of a comfortable fortune al
your majority you may see the day be-
fore you are 40 that trade would clothe
and feed you.
Ninety-nine out of every hundred
young men of to-day must make their
own future. What that future will be
depends, first, how you start in. 1t is
easy enough to answer that you intend
to become a merchant, lawyer, doctor,
editor, dentist, machinist, carpenter,
matchmaker, and 80 on, but just wait a
minute and examine yourself Take
your horse to the blacksmith shop and
you may see the smith look over hun.
dred ready.made shoes before he gets one
to fit. All are horse-shoes, but perfect
fit is the question. Now, then, examine
yourself and seek to discover what par.
ticular forte you have. You were born
to fill certain place in the world. It
may be that of carpenter or it may be
that Of a poet. Make no mistake in
starting out.
When you hear man who has moth
ing in particular to work at wishing that
he had learned q trade. he is talking
nonsense. He had no fitness for one.
Had he set out to learn any of the dozen
you can name he would have been fail
ure. Every city has dozens of lawyers
and doctors who live starvation lives,
and more or less preachers and artists
who are seldom, if ever, mentioned by
name. These men are mistakes. They
have no heart in their professions, and
never belonged there. I can name you
carpenters, painters, blacksmiths, wagon.
makers and others, who are out of work
half the time, and the other half is mostly
consumed in kicking and complaining
against the times. 1t is their own fault.
They are both workmen. 1t is like put
ting an ACCORDION under piano and ex.
pecting it to play piano music. Had
each learned the trade be was fitted for
he would have excelled.
You have the same idea of being q
merchant that I had at your age. 1t was
simply to buy and sell goods. That
seems easy enough, but the merchant
who hasn't "knack" at the busiv s is
doomed to certain failure. Not Que out
of fifty clerks ever become merchants.
Probably not more than three or four out
of fifty are fitted to do business for them
selves.
A boys idea of being a doctor is to
yisit the sick, cure them if possible and
collect fifty dollars, and the one who
answers that he is going to make a law
yer of himself thinks Of nothing but big
fees and verdicts in favor of his clients.
But, as I told you at the outset, if you
have arrived at the age of Is or 16 it is
time you looked matters square in the
face and had some idea of your future.
IF you were to answer at once you would
say that you would take profession in
preference to trade. A profession
means several years of hard study, quite
large cash outlay and then trials and
rebuffs to get a start in
business. It is one thing to graduate
as lawyer or doctor, and quite another
to pick up clients and patients. If you
have fully decided on a profession be
careful of your first move. If you have
large head your grand mother has
doubtless many times exclaimed "What
a great lawyer this boy would make"
Don't try to make one on the size of
your head. We've got any number Of
that class in the country now, and they
can't pay their grocers' bills. Ifyou can
pull silver out of your finger without
winking it may be sign that you would
make a great surgeon. 1t may also be q
sign that you are born to be a butcher.
How will you know what to pursue?
Your own feelings are the safest guide.
If left to your parents and to circumstan.
ces you may be forced into trade OF
profession which you can never make
success. When you come to realize that
you must make your own way in life
your particular forte will be apt to re.
veal itself. One of the best lawyers in
Detroit was intended for the ministry
another served three years as a journal
ist, but all the time feeling that he was
out of his element; another was forced
by his father to learn the trade of har.
ness maker. know machinist who at
first studied medicine; of matchmaker
who tried to become lawyer; of a car.
pcnter who threw away three years of
his life trying to become dentist.
After you have selected your profession
or trade, what then? Strive to master
it in all its details and to excel. If you
become q carpenter don't be satisfied
when you can saw and plane and match.
Don't be satisfied with So per day. Make
yourself worth So. Master details and
push yourself from carpenter to builder.
Don't imagine that man in search of a
lawyer walks down the street and drops
in at the first sign hanging out. 1t is
the lawyer who has climbed above his
fellows that he seeks out. If our friends
are i'll we want the best doctor. We
want the man who has made himself the
best by study and energy. The black
smith who is content to mend old wagons
will never iron new one. The machin.
ist who stands at the lathe to do about
so much work in ten hours need not hope
to be better off. 1t is the men who put
their heart into what they do who sue
ceed.
I can name you twenty instances in
Detroit where skilled workmen have
been taken as partners in large factories.
The clerk who is capable, honest and
preservering is bound to win in higher po,-
sition. The joiner who does his work
to last for years instead of months is
never out of work. There are house
painters who are satisfied to stand on a
ladder or scafold at $3.50 per day. There
are other house painters whose energy
and enthusiasm have made them sign.
writers and decorators and raised their
wages to $40 per week. 1t is not so
much what you do, but how you do it,
that brings prosperity.
How to Kill Fish.
CT t1.L =. f~s11,I -, ~ ad;o fo1yy mill