The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-07-31
WHY THE BOY SUCCEEDED
HOW He SECURED A PARTNERSHIP.
other stories For Young PeopIe-A Drum
mer Boys Sad Death-Died to Save
Her.Baby BrOther-LittIe Folks
Talk-Knotty Problems

Eve have had good many boys with
Us from time to time" said Mr.. Alden, the
senior member of large hardware estab-
hshment in Market street, Philadelphia,
''as apprentices, to learn the business.
But the best boy we ever had is now with
US, and member OF the firm. He is the
one man in the establishment that we
couldn't do without. He was thirteen
years old when he was apprenticed to us,
and he was with us for eleven years acting
for several years as salesman. When he
first came we told him that for a long
time his wages would be very small,
but that if he proved To be a
good boy bis salary would be increased at
a certain 4 = egesy year, and as it turned
out, - Arcording to agreement we
should have been paying him $500 a year,
we paid hin. cine hundred, and ne never
said a word himself about an increase Of
salary. From the very outset he showed
that he had an interest in the business.
He was prompt in the morning, and il
kept little over at night it never seemed
TO make any difference with him. He
gradually came to know where every
thing was to be found, and if information
was wanted, it was to this boy Frank
Jones, that every one applied. The entire
establishment seemed to be mapped out
in his head and everything in it cata-
logued and numbered. His memory of
faces was equally remarkable. He knew
the name OF every man who came to the
store TO buy goods. what he bought and
where he came from. | used often to say
to him: Jones, your memory is worth
more than a gold minel How do you
manage to remember?
I make it nv bus mss to remember
be would say / know that If | can re-
member a man and call him by name
when he comes into the store, and can
ask him how things are going on where
he lives, 1 will be very likely TO keep him
as a customer.
/And that was the exact case. He
made friends of buyers. lie took the
same interest in their purchases as he
took in the store, and would 90 to no end
OF trouble to suit them and to fulfil to the
letter everything he promised.
''Well, affairs went on in this way until
he had been with US eleven years, when
We concluded to take him into the firm as
partner. We knew he had no extrava-
CANT habits, that he neither used tobacco,
nor beer, nor went to the theater. He
continued as at the beginning TO board at
home, and even when his salary was the
very lowest he paid his mother two dol
lars week Tor his board He was always
neatly dressed, and We thought it was
very probable that he had laid up one or
two thousand dollars, as his salary for the
last two years had been twelve hundred
dollars. so when we made him the offer
70 become a partner IN the business, and
suggested that it would be more satisfac-
tory II he could put some money into the
firm. he replied:
'''If $4,000 will be any object l can put
in that much. | have saved out of my
salary 50, 100, and my sister will let NE
have $500
Il can tell YOU that | never was more
astonished in my lie than when that fell
low said he could put in $4,000, and the
most OF it his own money. He had never
spent dollar, or p cents or } cents for an
unnecessary thing, and he kept his
money IN bank where 1t gathered a
small interest. ] am a great believer in
the bible, you know, and | always kept
two placarGs in big letters up in the store.
On one was this text: He that is faith
ful IN that which is least, is faithful also
IN that which is much > and on the other:
He that Is diligent in business shall stand
before kings and not before mean men,
And Frank Jones success was the literal
fulhlment OF those two texts. He had
been faithful in the smallest things as in
the greater ones, and diligent in business.
That kind OF boy always succeeds"
concluded Mr.. Alden.