St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-09-26
1.-THE BEST BOYS STORY I EVER
HEARD.'

to you; at is the best boys story L
ever heard
Eve have had good many boys
with us from time to time" said Mr..
Alden, the senior member of large
street, Philadelphia, ''as apprentices
to learn the business. What may
surprise you is that we never take
country boys unless they live in the
city with some relative who takes
care of them and keeps them home
at night, for when a country boy
comes to the city to live everything
is new to him, and he is attracted by
every show window and unusual
sight. The city boy who is accus-
toned to these things cares little for
them, and if he has a good mother
| he is at home and in bed in due sea-
son. And we are very particular
about our bOys-and before accept
ing one as an apprentice we must
know that he comes of honest and
Industrious parents.
But the best boy we ever had is
now with us, and a member of the
firm He is the one man in the es-
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, act
ing for several years as salesman.
When he first came we told him that
for long time his wages would be
very small, but that if he was a good
boy his salary would be increased at
certain rate every year, and as it
turned out, when according to agree
ment we should have been paying
him five hundred dollars a year, we
paid him nine hundred dollars year,
and he 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 if
kept a little over time at night it
never seemed to make any difference
with him. He gradually came to
know where everything was to be
found, and if informant ton was want
ed, 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
catalOgued and numbered. His
memory of faces was equally remark
able. He knew the name of every
man who came to the store to buy
goods, what he bought and where
he came from. | used to say to him,
Jones your memory is worth more
than a gold minel How do you
manage to remember! =
L make it my business to remem-
ber,' he would say. L know that if
| can remember 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, l will be
very likely to keep him as customer
And that was the exact case. He
made friends of buyers. He took the
same interest in their purchases as he
took in the store, and would go 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 a partner. We
knew that he had no extravagant
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 dollars a week for
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 to become a
partner in the business, and suggest
ed that it would be more satisfac-
tory if he could put some money into
the firm, he replied:
If ten thousand dollars will be any
object can put in that much. | have
saved out of my salary nine thousand
four hundred dollars, and my sister
will let me have six hundred
| can tell you that | was never
more astonished in my life than
when that fellow said he could put
in ten thousand dollars, and most of
it of his own money. He had never
spent a dollar, or twenty-five cents
or five cents for an unnecessary thing,
and has kept his money in the bank,
where it gathered a small interest.
| am great believer in the Bible,
you know, and l always kept two
placards in big letters up in the store
One was this text: He that is faith
full in that which is least, is faithful
in that which is much and on the
other: He that is diligent in bust
ness shall stand before kings and not
before mean men, And Frank ZONES
success was the literal fulfillment of
those two texts. He had been as
faithful in the smallest things as in
the greater ones, and diligent in bust
ness That kind of a boy always
succeeds" concluded Mr. Alden.
A small boy of ten, who had listen
ed to the story with eager eyes, as
well as ears, said:
But we don't have any kings in
this country, Mr. Alden, for diligent
boys to stand beforer'
eve have more kings here than in
any other country in the world. We
have money kings, and business
kings, and railroad kings, and land
kings, and merchant kings and pub
fishing kings, and some of them WELD
an enormous power. This is a great
country for kings. y Mary Wager
Fisher in Wide Awake.
GOOD DEEDS.
Mr. Thomas A. Edison, before his
departure for Berlin, gave 10000
francs for the benefit of the poor of