The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1884-08-22

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 or money for
any length of time, and even il you
are calculating on coming into posses
sion of comfortable fortune at your
majority you may see the day before
you are 40 that a trade would ciothe
and feed you. o..
Ninety-nine out of every hundred
| young men of to-day must make their
own future. What that future will be
depends, first, upon how you start in.
1t is easy enough to answer that you
intend to become q merchant. lawyer,
doctor. editor, dentist, machinist, car
penter, Matchmaker, and so on, but
just wait a minute and examine your
self. Take your horse TO the black
smith shop and you may see the smith
look over hundred ready-made shoes
before he gets one to fit. All are horse
shoes, but a perfect fit is the question.
Now, then. examine yourself and seek
to discover what particular forte you
have. You were born TO fill a certain
place in the world. 1t may be that Of
4" NeA PShtSk VI ~ may OC lldl VI q pOcL-
Make no mistake in starting out.
When you hear q man who has
nothing in particular to work at wish
ing 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 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
there. L 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. It is their own fault,
They are botch workmen. 1t 10 like
putting an accordion under piano and
expecting it to play piano music. Had
each learned the trade he was fitted for
he would have excelled.
You have the same idea OF being a
merchant that had at your age. 1t
was simply to buy and sell goods.
That seems easy enough, but the mer-
chant who hasn't "knack" for the
business Is doomed to certain failure.
Not one out of fifty clerks ever become
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
visit the sick. cure them If possible,
and collect fifty dollars, and the one
who answers that he Is going to make
lawyer of himself thinks Of nothing
but big fees and verdicts in favor OF
his clients.
But, as l told you at the outset, IL
you have arrived at the age of Is or 18
it is time you looked matters square in
the face and had some idea of you-
future. If you were TO answer at once
you would say that you would take a
profession in preference to q trade. A
profession means several years of hard
study, quite large cash outlay and
then trials and rebuffs to get a
start in business. 1t is one thing to
graduate as a lawyer or q doctor, and
quite another to pick up clients and
patients. If you have fully decided on
profession be careful of your first move.
Ii you have large head your grand
mother has doubtless many times ex-
claimed: 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. II you can pull silver out of |
your finger without winking it may be
a sign that you would make q great
surgeon. It may also be sign that
you are born to be butcher.
How will you know what to pursuep
Your own feelings are the safest guide.
If left to your parents and to cir
cumstances You may be forced into
trade or 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 reveal itself. One
OF the best lawyers in Detroit was in
tended for the ministry; another
served three years as journalist, but
all the time feeling that he was out of
his elementsj another was forced by
his father to learn the trade of harness
maker. l know q machinist who at
Iirst studied medicine; of matchmaker
who tried to become a lawyer; of 3
carpenter who threw away three years
of his life trying to become dentist.
After you have selected your profess
sion or trade. what then? Strive to mas
.er it in all its details and to excel. II
iou become carpenter don't be satis-
led when you can saw and plane and
match. Don't be satisfied with 81 per
lay. Make yourself worth IS. Master
ietails and push yourself from q car
,enter to builder. Don't imagine that
man in search of lawyer walks
lown the streets and drops in ut the
irst sign hanging out. 1t is the lawyer
Who has climbed above his fellows that
le seeks out. II our friends are Ill we
want the best doctor. We want the
nan who has made himself the best by
tudy and energy. The blacksmith
Who Is content to mend old wagons will
lever iron new one. The machinist
vho stands at the lathe to do about SO
much work In ten hours need not hope
0 be better Off 1t Is the men who put
heir heart into what they do who
ucceed.
can name you twenty instances in
)etroit where skilled workmen have
cen taken as partners in large
actories. The clerk who is capable,
onest and persevering is bound to win
higher position. The joiner who
oes his work to last for years instead
months is never out of work. There
re house painters who are satisfied to
and ON a ladder or scaffold ut $3.50
er day. There are other house paint
IS whose energy and enthusiasm have
lade them sign-writers and decorators
nd raised their wages to $40 per
eek. 1t is not so much what you do.
~ how you do 1T that brings prosperity.
M Quad