Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-03-16
BUSINESS TRAINING.
An Example of the Results Of the Old
Fashioned Kind.

Fashioned KIND
A shabby man is William. Clothes
of that Slaty brown hue which Sug-
gests more wear than brushing. Usu-
ally later than other men in his style
of dress Tendency toward an over
coat in May and straw hat in Octo-
Der. Rather STOPPING and round-shoul.
dered for man of forty-fve. Face
showing, at the same time, timidity
and rashness Voice alternately BASH
fully low and brassily loud. Grammar
atrocious even for business man.
Not prosperous person, not a COM
Portable man, nor one likely to sue
coed. Ruined, in fact, by old-fashioned
business training.
His father. a spice dealer in a large
wholesale way, had brought him up in
his own "store," as he had been him
self brought up. He took him from
school at the age of thirteen, and made
him begin life by sweeping out the
store at half-past seven o'clock every
I morning, and subsequently building
fires and running errands. No customer
ever came to the 'store," by the way,
until some hours later. Similarly
William had to remain, and to put up
| the shutters at six o'clock of evenings.
| To be sure, business had ceased hours
before; but this was the way TO bring a
| boy up so as to make a great merchant
At the age of twenty-one William
could sweep. build fires, run errands,
and listen TO drivel about successful
business men as we'll rs any youth in
America; and he knew as much about
business as any youth on Robinson
Crusoe's island before Robinson arrived
So he launched out for himself ss Z
fruit importer, and at the end OF yea
his father gallantly came to the rescue
and saved William from failing.
The following year he became bank
rupt a. q feed and flour merchant IL
spite of the old gentleman.
What allied the boy2 He went to hi
business at unutterably early hours
and remained at it until late. He haG
no bad habits, was not lazy, and econo
mized to the verge of meannes. HI
was not fool. To be sure, he cOulC
not speak or write any language but hil
own, and his own was a shocking dia
lect of English, and certainly he knew
nothing which men learn from books
but he did not in these matters diffe
widely from his associates. Wha
could be the matter with him? Only
that he had been trained In the rea
old-fashioned business way, and ha'
learned the A so thoroughly tina
he knew nothing else.
He could balance ledger withou
any idea as to what his books meant
He could make and collect bills just a
: q horse can pull -unintelligentl.
and patiently, but without the faintes
= indea Of the principles involved. H
. could copy a letter neatly, but h
couldn't tell whether the letter wer
sense or nonsense. You see he ha
= been brought up on the old-fashione
: business plan.
He opened a small place for the SHARP
a ening of skates and repairs of sled:
e getting the unexpired part of leas
= from May to October as very low terms
r Tle business did not pay. He close
c IT In September. and secured nea
d by, at "a low rental, a store which we
t. to be torn down in the spring. Her
d he opened with straw-hats and palm
h leaf fans-bought ridiculously cheap
N auction. Somehow he failed in thi
Or Customers passed the place to buy flu
J. caps and arctics next door. Bad luc
p apparently pursued him in everythin,
H. He got an interest in a patent fl
IN making an imitation of mock turtl
shell hair-pins. This collapsed. a
gu though hundreds of patents have mao
fortunes for their owners
g His father died and left him son
DC money. He bought an interest in
n mine of solid silver at the subscriptic
y price of two dollars per share VIII,
as the price declined to fifty cents
bought more, and when finally he h,
eo paid out six dollars a share for asses
TX ments, and the stock declined to thir
ne cents, he traded, on that basis, +
en- mules, and is now trying to breed the
lu- on Long Island. The honest deal
wv who sold him the brood-mules frank
ed told him that he would have to wait
oh long time for returns. This sound
Nv safe because It was slow. So he
in waiting. He is used to that. for he W
nd brought up in the old-fashioned bu
'or ness way.-Puck.