The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1889-02-09
ROOM AT THE TOP.
Tho Kind OF Young Men Who Arc Bound
to Succeed in Life.

Tho KIND OF Young Men Who Are Bound
to Succeed in Life.
The principles of business that can
be taught are not many; those that can
be learned are almost without end.
A clerk very soon reaches the place
where he has been told all that is act
ually necessary that he should be told
about the details of the business; he
falls into the ruts of the house. UNDER
stands the run of trade, the variations
in people and prices, and how to get in
and send out goods to the best advant-
age. But all these details, while they
are necessary to be learned, only fit the
young man for that particular place,
and If he is ambitious he is always
looking to something better. Others
have been teaching him; it is necessary
that he should now teach himself.
A clerk who remains in one position
all his life advertises himself lacking
in one of two things-ability or ambi-
ton. There undoubtedly are instances
where clerk is kept so constantly and
continually employed at one task that
he has no opportunity to learn any
thing but his present work, but such
instances are very rare. As a general
rule, every clerk has some time at his
disposal, either at intervals during the
day or in the evening. These are
hours that he can not afford to throw
away. Not that it follows that he must
deprive himself Of every pleasure, or
must desert every form of entertain
ment. All work and no play makes
Jack dull boy, and dullness does not
lead to success. But let him have his
entertainment as recreation, and not
seal it as business, and then he will
still have many valuable hours for self
improvement.
One of the prosperous merchants OF
this city began life as an errand boy in
an Office. Most boys, and most men,
too, for that matter, would say that
his position offered but little hope of
advancement. The men in the Office
were busiiy employed, and saw or
spoke to the boy only when they had
an errand or order for him. He had
no accounts to keep, no writing to do.
But the desire being there, the oppor-
tunities came. He carried the mail to
and from the post-office; watching the
letters that passed through his hands,
when he found an envelope unusually
well addressed he saved it from the
waste-basket. and with this before him
he began to try to initiate it.
1t was his duty to copy the letters in
the copying press, and he read and re-
membered the phraseology and the
style until he could have sat down and,
with the topic given him, have dressed
it up in the same form.
He was SO ready and willing to dc
any and every thing asked of him that
the men sent him on many private err
rands of their own, and in return they
could not but answer his questions
when he asked about the books or the
business. A chance offered where he
might do little writing, and he did
the work before any one there knew
that he could. There was some sur
prise at the good hand he wrote, still
more at the good form of his matter,
and then he told them how he had
learned. He was given place at the
desk, while another boy ran the err
rands, and before he had ever thought
of studying to be book-keeper he was
one, and good one.-O,s the Road to
Riches.