The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1888-12-29
JUST FROM SCHOOL.
CHAT WITH A BOY WHO IS START
ING OUT IN LIFE.

A Balance Sheet Of Advantages and Dis
advantages.
Here you are, IS 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 workf What comes firsta The
hard pan of the matter is Just here-what
can you dot
Read, write, and do short sums Readlngi
No money in that unless you mean to bo q
public reader, and that means beautiful
voice and years of training and study. Writ
ing and arithmeticl Why, everybody can
do that. There isn't cent in such things,
Then what was the use of learning these
thingsa 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 place.
and at once find that, while hundreds want
clerks, there are thousands who want to be
clerks. Not one of tho fellows who have
places seems to want to give it to you, and,
worse than all, half of the clerks are Girls.
Its enough to make a man discouraged to
see the way tho girls have pushed into all
tho good places down town. A fellow has
no chance now.
AT last you get a place-junior clerk in u
blS office, with n dozen clerks above YOU,
and half of them girls. The chief clerk gets
hundred month, the others very much
less, and you-well, it doesn't pay quite as
we'll us being brcklayer OF carpenter All
the same, you mean to try it. Besides, you
don't Know how to lay bricks, and us for
driving nails, you always hit your thumb.
Pretty soon you find the clerks, both men
ana women, are OH the lookout for something
"r'ter. The men want to so into the bust
ness, and the women-well, they hope to 80
home some day and never come back. Some
Il them, both men and women, hope to he,
come cashiers or head bookkeepcrs or ac-
countan's, because, as they tell you, the
higher tho work the bigger tho wages
SO the hard pan of the business is that to
earn gooi wages us II clerk, you must be nble
to do more than read, write and cipher
pretty we'll, or as well rs you do. You must
80 to work and learn Il complicated urt, and
1T is doubtful if you can do this without two
Years hard work in u school or an office.
Very hard pan. Just so, but here is the bot
tom fact To earn good wages, YOU must he
do as well as You can when you come out of
school The slow, tho stupid, the lazy and
the care ess will underbid you, will work for
less money, and unless you can do better.
Your chances of earning II living us mere
common clerk nre very small indeed. As
Tor making n fortune it isn't there
Suppose you do learn tho art, and become
II first rate bookkeeper and accountant what
are the bottom facts of tho busincsss Under
the term bookkcepcr, there are hundreds of
thousands of people employed in this coun-
Try i'll stores, offices, banks, steamship and
railroad Offices, telegraph Offices munufac-
tnrng companies ana shops of all kinds.
Now Is this the best thing for you-tho best
work you can do' Let us figure it up, and
strike II balance sheet of advantages and dis
advantages.
FIRST of all, health, as that is the most valu.
ave thing i'll the world. Tho work is done
indoors, i'll close and often dark rooms often
III u midst of noise, hurry and confusion.
Decidedly, it is not healthy trade, though,
OF course, 1T is not dangerous, and men do
often 1.-Two to be gray old clerks Second,
chances. Does it give chances to risel Yes
1t gives chances for smart young fellow
Ike You TO look about and pick up informa
ton, and learn some other business or pro
lesaion. This is tho chief value of n clrrksllip
1t leads to something else. 1t is true, on tho
other hand. that these chances are very much
less today than fifty years ago, because bus.
ness of all kinds now requires so much capital
A bookkecpcr in u bank or railroad office cum
hardly expect to start bank or set up his
own little railroad. Thirdly, is it u business
you want to follow all your lifcl Will You
Le content always to be clerk, and nothing
but clerkl Plenty of people, both men and
women, never expect to be anything else
and lcod 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 is
the hard pan of the matter. What do you
thinEs Is it n good thing for you-the best
thing You can dos Nothing like having a
straight up and down talk with yourself
about the real bottom facts Of the case
Would you like it1 That's tho point. Now
we arc fiat Oh hard pan. Would you like t7
What man likes he does we'll; what he
does well brings good wages. A mans work
is for his life 1t is not for this month or
this year. You are not working for next
Saturdays pay. You arc working for tho
wages you will get when you are forty years
older Ii you like accounts, if the work is
interesting, if you mean to rise to be
cashier, or chief bookkeeper in some great
house, all right. Work, study, practice,
prepare to rise, for you must rise if you do
these things. Go into the business as q life
work Climb on the clerks stool, resolved
to stay there.
But if you dislike to go to the desk in
the morning, and are glad the close the big
ledgcrs at night, consider well these things.
You will wear neat clothes, have white,
weak hands, and pale, thin blood, good pay
and nice home, and with frugal wife
may lay upa little money, join building
association, and some day own little homo
of your own-and you will hate it all your
life long. Better climb down from that
stool, and dig about among the real facts of
this world till you come to tho hard pan of
your life.-Charles Barnard in Once Week.
In an Old English Village.
With few exceptions the houses are built
close to the street; one steps from the side