The sun., 1890-01-15
Tho Way TO Get Ahead.

This letter from a young fellow OF the
neighborhood is worthy Of attention:
lam young man 81 years Of age, aud during my
youth my education neglected because OF necessl-
ty but shouid like to become journalist Now. how
can acquire the rudiments of journalistic education
and fit self for that professionf am at present en-
poyod in the newspaper business being distributor for
one OF the wholesale newsdeaer My hours that
| 1 might study four hours per day l should imagine
that at this rate could soon at myself for beginner
Ii you have so much leisure for study,
| why have you not already improved 1t TO
make up for the deficiencies of your early
education2 There have been q great many
men of intellectual distinction who start
ed out with no greater advantages than
you have had. ANDREW JOHNSON did not
even learn to read and write until he had
nearly passed through his apprenticeship to
the tailor's trade. HORACE GREELEY was
born on a farm in New Hampshire and Of
parents who were poor His years of school
ing were few, for he was only fifteen when
ho was apprenticed to printer and before
that time he had worked on his fathers farm.
How, then, could such distinguished men
get ahead, and yet you remain behind
complaining OF your fate2 They had no
more opportunities for educating them
selves than you have had, and yet, at your
age, ANDREW JOHNSON had already begun
his political career, and HORACE GREELEY
had come to New York a journeyman printer
OF remarkable accomplishment, and with a
well-stored mind, 50 that two years later or
when he was only twenty-three, he was edi-
tor of the NelD Yorker, so famous as po-
litical journal.
One great reason of their success, young
man, was that they improved their hours Of
leisure, and did not ask other people whether
by so doing they could gain any specific end.
Each of them was as poor as you are. but
for that very reason they acquired habits Of
industry and frugality, and from their boy
hood to their manhood understood that they
must depend on themselves for advance
ment. They knew that they could not afford
to waste any OF their time, however it might
be with the children Of the rich, who have
help from the outside, in the way Of money
and influence, to push them along; other
wise JOHNSON would probably have died a
tailor and GREELEY q printer
1t is true that these were men Of extraor-
dnary natural Abilities and that. no matter
how hard he should work, our correspondent
might never win their distinction. Proba-
bly, GoD has not made him for it. The high
peaks are few, and the average is q compare
lively low level. But he will never rise to
even moderate elevation il he does not put
to profitable use those four hours day.
They constitute about one-fourth of his |
working life, and he cannot afford to throw |
them away If he has the ambition to get up |
higher. Perhaps he cannot so employ them |
as to fit himself for literary labor on a news
paper. He begins late. He has much to !
learn; but his industry and his abstinence |
from frivolous pleasures that absorb his
earnings will bring their sure reward He
will be better off at study, and study will be
Tar less exhausting to him than the pleasures
with which the run of young men of his
employ their leisure.
AS to the preparation for journalism, it
consists of the whole range of requirement.
The wiser. the better informed the man is,
md the higher his moral and intellectual ele-
7ation, the more he is fitted for journalism.