The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-02-27
Opportunities and Conditions Of
Success in Life.

Opportunities and Conditions Of
Success in Life.
"The Worlds Opportunities is the
title OF new book just published, in
which the author takes a comprehensive
survey of the principal industries and
vocations which are or can be carried on
IN the United States, with a view to as
certain and to point out the opportun-
ties which they present for the attain
nent of success in life. The author
says truly that whenever a change in
ones condition is desirable it is right to
effect a change. 1t is right if a mans
position is a bad one that he should
seek for o better one. Tho right posi-
ton for q man to occupy is the best one
to which he can honestly and honor
ably attain by the exercise OF all his
powers and the best use of oil his OPP
portunities. The chapter en- Mechanics
and Manufactures contains a great deal
of valuable information and advice, which
can be proftably studied byall who are
engaged in those pursuits. The author
sums up the main conditions as fol-
ows:
First-Choose we'll the particular
advocation in which you are to engage,
having special reference to your
wv qualifications, mental as well as
physical. If you are of delicate
:rame, the trade of blacksmith and
carpenter is not for you. If your
fingers are deficient in suppleness,
and in CELEBRITY Of movement, the
craft of ~compositor is not for you. If
you happen to be color blind, do not
try to become a painter. If there is no
special disqualification, then of all the
occupations open to you, select the one
which promises to pay best. If for any
reason, or even for no reason which you
can definitely assign, you have O liking
for any particular trade, that one, other
things being equal, should be chosen.
If you are fond of reading, that is a
good reason for becoming a printer; if
you have natural mechanical turn, you
are specially fitted for a m%achinest, q
cabinet-maker, or s mill wright, and all
the more SO if you have an inventive
gerius. The inventor who cannot, with
his w hands. make, at least, a model
of his invention, labors under q serious,
though not insuperable disadvantage.
Second-Make yourself o thorough
master of your trade, including the use
of the machinery and other tools used
in it; but do not confine yourself to it on
to render yourself incable Of doing any
thing else. No one handicraft is sutfi-
cientto exhaust all the capabilities of
any Il man. You will be the better
painter for being able to handle the saw;
the better joiner for knowing how to use
the brush; the better machinist for ac-
curing the use of the pencil.
Third-Having learned your trade,
whatever it may be, look we'll for a
location in which to exercise it. It is
as important to know where to doa
thing as how to do it. Do not become
30 enamored of your present abode as
to refuse to leave it for a better one, nor
SO given to change as to seek it merely
for its own sake. OF course healthful-
ness or unhealthfulness of a place is O
great reason for or against choosing it.
Fourth-Be on the alert for oppor-
tunities to better your condition. Look
for them, for it is not often they will
come unsought, or that accident will
throw them in your path. It is very
right and proper to be always con-
tented with u present condition"
provided always that it is the one we
are best fitted to fill. But it is by
no means certain that the condition
in which n finds himself is the one in
which Providence designed him to re.
main. To George Washington it may
have seemed ct a time that the lot of o
land surveyor was divinely appointed
to him; and he would certainly have
made a good surveyor. George Ste
phenson was a GOLFERS helper, ignorant
of the alphabet until he had al
most reached manhood. When al
thirty he was made IN engine
driver at 9100 o year, he thought he
was o "made man" and had reached the
highest stage to which Providence had
assigned him; but Providence willed
that he should not be content in that
position. Had Peter Cooper remained
In any one of the various occupations to
which Providence had apparently called
him, we cannot we'll imagine how great
losers we should have been. It is the
men who have not been content with
their present condition" but have al
ways yearned after and striven for
something better, who have not only
improved their own affairs, but those
of the world.
Flfth-To skill and industry, presis-
tence and energy, with intelligence to
guide them, add honesty in act and
purpose. Be content with no present
state, however good, so long as there
appears to be something beyond at
tainable. However high you have
climbed, let your motto and watchwordl
still be "Excelsior"-yet higher.