The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1893-02-03
LOOKING FOR WORK.
SUCCESS Is WON ONLY BY HARD
STRUGGLES AND PERSEVERANCE

1OCcS
dation Muscle and Brains Equally De-
sirable Industry and Thrift are Certain
of Success.
There is hardly any large establish
ments of any kind-whether it be
newspaper Office, mandatory or c.
trade establishment-tha has not ap-
plications constantly from young men
who want something to do. 1t is often
painful to see the hopeless look upon
the applicants faces as they turn away
disappointed and the scene becomes
more painful when it is reflected that
many of them doubtless have capacity
for remunerative work, and would
faithfully attend to it if they had the
chance.
The truth is that the world is slow to
take any man entirely on trust. The
greatest singers, the greatest painters,
the greatest writer's, have had to con-
vince the world that it had need Of
them before it was willing to give them
q subsistence So true is this that it
might almost be laid down as an axiom
of success that it is only to be won by
a hard struggle. 1t takes the attrition
of poverty to bring out what is bright
est in a man. 1t may be a hardship,
but it seems to be law of the social
economy, and, being law, it must
have justice and compensation in it
somewhere.
The question of getting position"
resolves itself into two grand essentials
first, proficiency OF some sort, which
stands for dollars and cents in the
worlds market-place and next to de-
monstrate this proficiency in way to
attract the worlds attention.
1t is mistake to depend on sin
huence" to get work in legitimate
calling; influence belongs more prop
erly to the domain of politics. As
rule, too, it is mistake to ask or to
expect employment ON the ground of
charity-not that charity and business
are incompatible, but that each should
stand on its own bottom. The best
recommendation is O sample of your
work; that, with frank address and
neatness. ofappearance-for "the apparel
oft proclaims the man"-may often
prove the open sesame" to success.
While it is good to have due appre-
citation of ones abilities, it is not good
to be too exacting as to the field for
their display. The distance betwixt
the foot of a ladder and the top is but
short span to him who has within
himself the power of rising.
It is another requisite of the success
fr,I xynrlrar hot ho ,Io1 L. -.
with his work. If he is a mechanic,
he will take pride in his tools; if he is
bookkeeper, he will plume himself
on the merits of his pen, and ON the
neatness and forwardness of his ac-
counts. Julian Hawthorne counts
among the pleasures of authorship the
satisfaction got from good writing
materials. As the late Colonel Forney
once said to a youthful member of his
staff "a man must work con- amore to
have his work worth anything
A young lady who wished place as
typewriter got it in a common. sense
way. She wrote out half a dozen
replies" SO to speak-brief, business
like, and respectful-setting forth her
experience, qualifications, and ideas as
to pay, putting her figures rather above
the market rate. Next morning there
were four advertisements for type
writer's in the papers. She promptly
mailed her four replies directly at the
main post-office, enclosing a two-cent
stamp in each. One of the four shots
brought down her bird. That evening
her position came to her by mail.
1t is not true that the world is bet
ter market for muscle than for brains,
The difficulty is that brain matter,
whatever its native brightness, Is prac-
tically worthless without training and
experience. For one play produced by
manager, thousand are rejected.
The accepted one may be inferior in
many respects to many q rejected one
may have less talent in IL; but it is
from a trained head, and it suits the
managers want, and that is enough.
1t is SO with story writing, with head
work of every kind. Suitability is
the quality that gives it pecuniary
Men and women who with certain
brilliant qualities fail to realize this
truth, often fancy that the conditions
OF success are hard and limited. Yet
theatrical managers, magazine publish.
ers, and many others, are subject to
the very same law themselves.
Finally, it is not necessary that a
want should be proclaimed il order to
exist Something's il NAY Be anticipated.
Sometimes it may even be created.
Whoever can create q want for his
wares or his work is on the way to
masterful success,
The philosophy Of success in life is
not a whit changed from what it was in
Poor Richards" day. His homely old
maxim on industry and thrift-which
he quantity admits that he himself
found it difficult to practise-have not
been outlawed by the lapse OF years.
There is an impression that opportuni.
ties saH individual success are being re-
stricted nowadays and overshadowed by
corporations. To some extent, and
temporarily, Ethis may be tyAe, but
corporations ip turn ara dependent on
the intelIleGtuaI and moral qualities that
insure individual success, and these
can no more be dispensed with than
manual labor can be superseded by the
multiplication Of machinery.