The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1890-09-19
THE BEST BOY STORY I EVER
HEARD

! US from Time 10 time, sald MT. hlueH
the senior member Of a large hardware cs
Enlistment on Market street, Philadelphia
''as apprentices to learn the business
What may surprise you is that we neve
take country boys, unless they live in thu
| city with some relative who takes care o
them and keeps them home at night, fo
wheh country boy comes to the city tt
live, everything is new to him, and he Ii
attracted by every show window and un
usual sight. The city boy, accustomed tC
these things cares little for them, and, il
in bed in due season. And we are very
particular about our boys, and before ac.
cepting one as an apprentice, We must
know that he comes of honest, 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 establishment that
we couldn't do without. He was thirteen
years old when he was arprenticed to us,
and he was with us for eleven years, act
ing 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 proved to be good boy, his
salary would be increased at certain rate
every year, and, as it turned out, when,
according to agreement, we should have
been paying him $500 year. we paid him
$500, and he had never said word about
an increase in salary. From the very out
set, he showed that he had an interest in
the business. He was prompt in the
morning, and if kept little over time at
night, it never seemed to make any Diff
ference with him. He gradually came to
know where everything was to be found,
and, if information was wanted, it was to
this boy, Frank Jones, that every one ap-
Piled The entire establishment seemed
thing in it catalogued 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 q gold niue! How do you
manage to remember
~ make it my business to remember,
he would say. i know that if l can re-
member a man, and call him by name
when he comes into the store, and ask him
how things are going on where he lives,
will be very likely to keep him as Gus
toner.
And that was the exact case. He made
friends of buyers. He took the same in
terest in their purchases as he took in the
store, and would go to no end of trouble
to suit them and to fulfill to the letter
everything he promised
swell, affairs went on this way until he
had been with us eleven years, when we
concluded to take him in as partner.
We knew that he had no extravaganza
habits, that he neither used tobacco nor
beer, nor went to the theatre. lie con-
tinued, as at the beginning, to beard at
home, and even when his salary was at
the very lowest he paid his mother two
dollars a week for his board. He was al
ways 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 hum
dred dollars. So, when we made him the
offer to become partner in the business,
and suggested that it would be more salts
factory if he could put some money in the
firm. lie replied:
If ten thousand dollars will be any
object, | can put in that much. have
saved out of my salary S, 400, and my sis
ter will let me have $780,
81 can tell you was never more aston
ished in my life than when that fellow said
he could put in SO, 600, and the most Of it
his own money. He had never spent a
dollar, or twenty five cents, or five cents,
for an unnecessary thing, and kept his
money in a bank where it gathered a small
interest. | am a great believer in the
Bible, you know, and l always kept two
placards, in big letters, up in the store
On one was this text: lie that is faithful
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 be-
fore kings, and not before mean men.
And Frank Jones success was the literal
fulfillment of those two texts. He had
haau faithful in tba sn,sIIor III ;ros q g =,