Wichita eagle., 1888-11-02
JUST FROM SCHOOL.
CHAT WITH A BOY WHO Is START
ING OUT IN LIFE.

The Hard Pan Of the Matter - Junisr
Clerk in . Big Omce-The Bookkeeper.
A Balance Sheet Of Advantages and Dis
advantages.
here you are, 10 years old, just from
! school, and ready to start out for yourself
Have you ever got down to hard pant What
are you going to do nexti Going into bust
ness-going to works What comes firsti The
hard pan of the matter is just here-what
| can you dot
Read, write, and do short sums. Readings
No money in that unless you mean to be a
| public reader, and that means a beautiful
voice and years Of training and study Writ
| ing and arithmetic2 Why, everybody can
do that. There isn't q cent in such things.
| Then what was the use Of learning these
things, Because they are the hard pan Of
| every art, trade, business and profession;
and while they will not bring wages, you
cannot get good wages without them
Every business requires some one to keep
the books" There is something for you.
Become clerk. You set out to get a place,
| and at once find that, while hundreds want
clerks, there are thousands who want to be
places seems to want to give it to you, and,
worse than all, half of the clerks are girls
It's enough to make a man discouraged to
see the way the girls have pushed into all
the good places down town. A fellow has
no chance now.
At last you get place-junior clerk in a
big office, with q dozen clerks above you,
and half of them girls The chief clerk gets
a hmm VQd tNa ~ oh
less, and you-well, It doesn't pay quite as
well as being a bricklaysr or carpenter. All
the same, you mean to Try IT. Besides, you
don't know how to lay bricks, and as for
driving nails, you always hit your thumb.
Pretty soon you find all the clerks, both men
and women, are on the lookout for something
better. The men want to go into the bust
ness, and the women-well, they hope to go
home some day and never come back. Some
Ct them, both men and women, hope to be-
come cashiers or head bookkeepers or &C
countants, because, as they tell you, the
higher the work the bigger the wages.
So the hard pan of the business is that to
earn good wages as clerk, you must be able
to do more than read, write and cipher
pretty well, or as well as you do You must
go to work and learn complicated art, and
it is doubtful if you can do this without two
years hard work in a school or an office
Very hard pan. Just so, but here is the bot
tom fact. To earn good wages. you must be
able to do something well Thousands can
do as well as you can when You come out OF
school The slow. the stupid, the lazy and
the care less will underbid you, will work for
Less money, and unless you can do better,
your chances of earning living as q mere
common clerk are very small indeed. As
for making fortune-well, it isn't there
Suppose you do learn the art, and become
a first rate booskeeper and accountant, what
are the bottom facts OF the businessa Under
the term booIkeeper, there are hundreds of
thousands Of people employed in this couD-
try in stores, offices, banks, steamship and
railroad offices, telegraph Offices, manufac-
turing companies and shops of all kinds.
Now is this the best thing for you-the best
work you can dos Let US agure it I'D, and
strike a balance sheet of advantages and dis
advantages
First OF all, health, as that is the most valu-
able thing in the world. Tho work is done
indoors in close and often dark rooms, often
Ii the midst Of noise, hurry and confusion.
Decidedly, IL Is not a healthy trade, though I
OF course, 1t is not dangerous, and men do
often hive TO be gray old clerks Second, !
chances. Does it give chances to risei Yes /
1t gives chances for smart young fellow /
like you TO look about and pick up informa- !
ton, and learn Some other business or pro- /
fession. This is the chief value Of cerkship. /
1t leads to something else. 1t is true, on the /
other hand, that these chances are very much I
less today than fifty years ago, because bust
ness OF all kinds now requires 50 much capital /
A bookkeeper in q bank or railroad Office CAR /
hardly expect to start bank or set UP hs
own little railroad Thirdly, is It q business
you want TO follow all your lifei Viii you
be content always to be a clerk, and nothing
but clerk Plenty Of people, both men and
women, never expect to be anything else,
and lead quiet, sensible safe, and often very
happy lives, saving money and earning the
respect OF all who know them.
Strike your own trial balance. There ID
the hard pan Of the matter. What DO you
think Is it q good thing for you-the best
thing you can dol Nothing Ike having
strsigh; up and down talk VITA yourself
about the real bottom facts Of the case.
Would you Ike til That's the point Now
we are Tat On hard pan Would you liks i'll
What a man Likes he does well; what he
does well brings good wages A mans work
IL for bis life. Ii u net for Tits month or
this yea-. You are not working for next
Saturdays pay. Yoa are working for tie
wages you win get wien you arc forty yesrs
older. II you Like accounts, II the work =
Il yoa mean 70 r1ss 70 Be
cashier, or ehaet booskeeper In socos great
house, al right. Work, stady. practice,
prepare to rtse, for you ruus: riss II yOu do
these thingA Go into the business - q lie
work. Climb On ths clerks stool. resolved
20 stay there
Bot you diE,iks TO % to The dAsk Ia
tie u0ra.ng, and are glad tbs eioss to- big
ledgers at night, coossd~ vail thss tAingR
You WIN wear nea: clothes, have white,
weak hands, and pale, TIN blood, gqod pay
Md . nios Iona, aod with . frugal vito
nay lag up iisth ns1ey, 5xA . euild,g
And some day Own tsk,s ho<os
If To0r owa-aot you VII hate IL IL Jour ,
dfe ioog. Better climb down froU toA:
sooi, and dig about among tie real fscs a
Its world I'll yo1 cone 60 the lard pan q
Tour lxA-Chario Barnard u O1cs Week