San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1884-01-10
Wanted-A Soft Place.

day from partics In the city or at n dis
tance, asking for information as regards
a situation. Not unfrequently these In
quiries arc accompanied with the in
formation that they take pleasure In re-
ferring TO Hon. so-and-so, Rev. so
and.so, etc. There arc thousands OF
men in Georgia, II not o good many
more, who are looking for soft places
and have been looking for soft places
ever since they were big enough to keep
out of the reach OF their mothers slip.
per, and the very fact Of this continued
hunt for soft places has cost the Amer
lean people millions Of dollars. Soft
places are not to be had for the 2sking.
and tho general construction OF this
slang phrase Is a place with fat sala-
nv and not much work or responsible
~. Just the sort OF men are always
looking for these places that are neil
Their fitted by nature, by culture, quail.
fication or disposition to properly fill
them.
There arc places In this city, but not
soft ones, which intelligent young men
can fill, and that, too, with much proiit.
This Is q manufacturing town, and If
Young men will enter our mills and ma
chine shops, they can earn aposition
that will pay them and the country at
large. There are several young men
now at work In the mills in this city,
whose parents are wealthy but who de-
sire to have business men of their boys,
and have entered them upon the lowest
round, expecting them, In the course OK
time, to reach the top. What we want
to-day are men who are fitted by expe-
rience and contact with business to do
business. and TO manage business: A
man who never saw u cotton mill, no
matter how smart he is, is unfit to have
the management of one. The man who
has not had actual experience with a
railroad, can not run II successfully at
least, and it does not mako any differ
encc whose son-in-law no Is, or how
much he has learned Mt college. The
man who can erect the machinery in
cotton mill, who can figure his own
drafts, twists, chang s. etc., Is the very
man to know whether the people who
are working urder his direction are
doing their work as they should do it
or not.
We take the ground that it is no dis
grace to q man to have a collegiate
education. The majority OF men form
habits during their attendance upon the
average college which are not any par,
ticular benefit TO them through life, and
the simple fact that o man has been
through college, and has graduated. Is
no sort of warrant to o cotton spinner,
a machine maker, q railroad or steam
ship manager that that man is any more
fit to take practical charge OF either one
of these matters, than as though he had
never seen college, except insomuch as
he may be able to write or figure better.
The oertaintes are that he will not know
rs much or as well about doing the
routine work required ms some man who
has been for several years employed in
line of business which gives him
familiarity with what no is In daily eon-
tact with.
Capitalists and business men are be-
ginning to. take this view OF matters,
and within the last few years mon who
have been expecting soft places or de-
sirable positions. have had to stand back
and see men who have been in the work
promoted. As a matter OF fact, the last
seven or eight years have taught capital
lists and stockholders that we have been
On the wrong track. They have switched
off; they are runningm eupon common
sense principles than ever before. and
the man who requires soft place here
after will have to work for it, and not
only make himself fit to be promoted,
but fit to hold the place after he has
been put into it.
Men who have never been obliged tc
depend upon themselves are not men tc
be trusted with the working out of i'm
portant problems. Men who have beer
Compelled to earn their own living anc
to get their education by such means a.
good books or papers. out OF working
hours. not only learn faster, but wha
they learn they are sure of. Seemingl.
soft places are not always so soft a
they appear to be; and if man is capa
BILE of holding position, the surest wa,
for him to get il is 10 attend strictly Il
whatever he has in hani and he ma,
be assured that his time will come from
some source or other, and it will mos
likely como when he least expects it
Columbus (Gd.) Enquirer.