The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1884-07-30

Leave .9:aU q. m.
Arrive Livingston 1870 p. m.
Leave Livingston. Las p. m.
Arrive BOZeman, $50 p. m.
Short talk with The Boys.
Now, my lad, if you have arrived at the
age of l6 1t is time you began to think of
trade or profession. This isn't coun-
! try in which you can live on your fathers
name or money for any length of time,
and even if you are calculating on coming
into possession of a comfortable fortune
at your majority you may see the day be-
fore you are 40 that q trade would clothe
and feed you.
Ninety-nine out Of every hundred
young men ofto.day must make their own
future. What that future will be depends
first upon how You start in. It is easy
enough to answer that you intend to be.
come merchant, lawyer, doctor. editor,
dentist, machinist, carpenter, matchmaker
and SO on, but just wait minute and ex-
anime yourself Take your horse to the
blacksmith shop and you may see the
smith look over hundred ready made
shoes before he gets one to fit. All are
horseshoes, but perfect fit is the ques-
ton. Now, then examine yourself and
seek to discover what particular forte you
have. You were born to fill certain
place in the world. It may be that of a
carpenter or 1t may be that of poet.
Make no mistake in starting out. When
you hear man who has nothing particu-
lar to work at wishingt that he had learned
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 a failure. 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.
l can name you carpenters, painters,
blacksmiths, wagonmakers and others,
who are out Of work half the time, and
the other half is mostly CONSUMED in kick
ing and complaining against times. 1t is
their own fault. They are bad workmen.
It is like putting an ACCORDION under a
piano and expecting it to play piano fnu-
sic Had each learned the trade he was
fitted for he would have excelled.
You have the same iIea ofbeing mer-
chant that had at courage. 1t was sim
ply to buy and sell goods. That seems
easy enough, but the merchant who
hasn't "knack'' for ike business Is doom
ed to certain failure. Not one out offifty
clerks ever becme merchants. Probably
not more than three or four out Of fifty
are fitted to do business for themselves.
A boys idea Of being doctor is to Wis
it the sick, cure them if possible, and COL
lect fifty dollars, and the one who answers
that he is going to make a LAWYER Of him
self thinks of nothing but big fees and
verdicts in favor of his clients.
But. as told you at the outset, if you
have arrived at the age of Is or l6 it is
time you looked matters square in the
face and have some idea of your future.
Ifyou were to answer at once you
would say that you would take profess
ion in preference to trade Aprofession
means several years Of hard study, quite
a large cash outlay and then trials and
rebuffs to get start in business. 1t ls
one thing to graduate as a lawyer or a
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 a large head
your grandmother has doubtless exclaim-
ed: "What great lawyer this boy would
make" Don't try to make one on the
size ofyour head. We've got any number
of that class in the country now, and they
can't pay their grocers' bills. Ifyou can
pull a silver out of your finger without
winking ic may be a sign that you would
make great surgeon. 1t may also be
sign that you are born to be butcher.
How will you know what to pursue?
Your own feelings are the safest guide.
Ifleft to your parents and to circumstan-
ces you may be forced into trade or pro-
fession which you can never make sue
cess. When you come to realize that
YOU must make your own way in life your
particular forte will be apt to reveal itself
One of the best lawyers in Detroit was
intended for the ministry; another as
journalist, but all the time feeling that he
was out ofhis element: another was forced
by his father to learn trade of harness
maker. l know machinist who at first
studied medicine; of a matchmaker who
tried to become lawyer; of a carpenter
who threw away three years of his life
trying to become a dentist.
After you have selected your profession
or trade, what then? Strive to master it
in all its details and to excel. You be-
come a carpenter don't be satisfied when
you can saw and plane and match. Don't
be satisfied with 81 per day. Make your,
self worth So. Master details and push
yourselffrom carpenter to builder. Don't
imagine that a man in search of 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 ill we
want the best doctor. We want the man
who has made himself the best bv study
and energy. The blacksmith who is con-
tent to mend old wagons will never iron
a new one. The machinist who stands
at the lathe to do about so much work in
ten hours need not hope to be better of.
1t is the men who put their heart into
what they do who succeed,
l can name youtwelve instances in De-
troit were skilled workmen have been
taken as partners in large factories.
Tho xr,1,o ;o oorob1o boroof a nd ,>rooovor