Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1896-12-26
Advice To Young Men.

n Chicago Record asked several
successful business men to write art!.
cles upon the subject of success in life
Tor young men, pointing out how, &C.
cording to their own experience, 1t Is
pest achieved. From an article written
by Harry @. S~elfridge, of the firm OF
Marshall Field q Co., the following IL
, an extract:
'Statisticians inform us that in New
York city, for example, of the recog-
nized successful business men. includ-
ing bankers, railroad presidents, large
merchants and manufacturers, vessel
owners, doctors, lawyers, ministers,
etc, ninety-siX out OF every 100 are
country-bred boys, n those who spent
the first twenty years of their lives on
farms or in small villages, and that, ap-
parently, the better air, the freedom
from confinement n the usual phys
zeal labor give 10 country-bred boys
such splendid constitutions that in the
battle Of life with city-bred boys the
country lad too often has a great ad-
vantage.
u being easily proved facts, we
are led 10 think hat country life during
boyhood is the chief requirement for flu
ture success in the city. but it must not
be forgotten that while the ninety-six
men are building monuments of success
out OF the stones in each days path
there are thousands or hundreds OF
thousands OF country-bred men whose
starts in city life seem desirable in ev-
cry way, who utterly fail in reaching
the goal.
Why is it?
The young mar who Is about to
start out for himself should, If possible,
thoroughly know his own strengths and
Weaknesses. OF you, therefore, young
man, the asker of the question which l
am trying to answer, L ask in return:
can o resist temptation
Have you the moral courage to say
Mo- when, perhaps, the word will
bring upon you the rid.cule OF others?'
Are o able to pick your compan-
ions carefully, or, when experience
proves them to be not such as you
shoul have, nave you strength suf-
hclent to allow you to break with them
ana form other assoclations?'
Have o determination
a you perseverance or are YOU
easily discouraged
Have you good health?' For the
battle of life is rarely successfully
NS VIC SlSdl tlllSS without ms
splendid gift.
Are YOU energetic, even when the
work in hand is not of a pleasing kind,
or Is there a thread Of laziness in your
nature You can't keep up with the
leaders II you are lazy, and the city is
no place for II who is. and the fact
mat there are great numbers of lazy
men in every city makes it more posi-
Die Tor those who are free from this
handicap TO success to win the goal.
Are you willing to do?
Can you control your temper
Are YOU absolutely honest--not rea-
sonably honest, but is your determine
tlon' no matter what happens, to do
that which will always Withstand the
strongest investigation Of any critic or
Of your own conscience?'
I'm answering these questions to
yourself, don't fool yourself, don't make
yourself think that conditions exist
which do not; that you have persever-
ance when sober thought tells you that
you lack it; that energy is there when It
$ really wanting; that you can say mo-
when q nav trisd il and failed.
Don't fool yourself. Ii is much wiser TO
assume that you are not right in these
points u then try to prove to yourself
the contrary. Because one lacks these
things today is no reason for always
lacking them. Young men can. | be-
lievc, make themselves largely sucn as
they choose, and that desirable trlit IF
character which is wanting can b, huils
up n encouraged Until it becnnies a
part or ones self"