The record-union., 1897-12-01


survey railroad and asked for po-
sition.
! My dear fellow he said, you're
altogether too old. you know"
| BY at least five engineers successive
| ly was l rejected, and then l sought
| employment as time keeper on rail-
road contract. Even here my age mil
| itated against me. apparently, but the
contractor was averse to admitting that
| it did My time keeper" he explained,
! needs to be a pretty lively young fel-
! low. and to get over a good deal of
ground every day" 1t was of no avail
to assure him that l could fill the bin.
He was politely incredulous, and pre-
sumo some youth Of eighteen or nine
teen obtained the position.
| Next / tried to get a clerical position
with a banker and broker whom l had
| known intimately for years. but here
i again age was the stone wall that
barred my way The financial man was
profusely apologetic. but when l pushed
him hard. as had become my custom
by this time found that he, too look
/ ed upon my fifty-ive years as an in
! superable objection. / have observed
since that gentlemen in this line of
tu0tIiGSS nave d pItulcctloI lCi yOcAiS
men in their offices. which accounts
for the we'll known fact that a gray
haired and gray whiskered broker is
ing-house table
NO HAIR DYE FOR HIM.
And this reminds me- in winding up
my personal experiences. of the wise
advice L received from a friend while
/ hight. Why don't you get your hair
dyed?" he asked, and I have often
thought since that if 1 had only acted
upon his disinterested counsel / might
have been hard at work at this writ
ing.
SO far I have written exclusively of
my own personal experiences, which
prove to my satisfaction. at least, that
it is the tendency of the times we live
| in to give youth the preference; but
know of the experiences of others
which bear me out and strengthen my
| theory materially. For one thing / OBJ
serve in my reading of the Herald"
Wants and sad necessity has made
me a careful reader of these interest
ing columns for years-that, as a rule,
| only young men are advertised for.
Take any issue of the paper and you
will find nine times out of ten the ad-
vertisers specify young man; that
only once in a While do you find a call
| for a middle-aged man, and never one
| for an old man. The Spartans are said
to have mercifully killed their old when
| they reached the age of utter useless
ness, and some savage tribes / believe
still pursue this custom. 1t may come
| in this age of civilization that the prin-
| ciple of the survival of the fittest"
will be grated upon the law, as it is
| already grated upon the practice of
| the people. For surely it were more
merciful to kill the old at once than
to subject them to gradual starvation
Not many days ago l met on Park
| row-the favOite resort of the army
of the unemployed - an acquaintance
| who, quarter of century ago, rep
| resented one of the great news collec-
| tion agencies in this country in Eu-
| rope. Later he was employed in the
| home office of the agency, but a few
years ago he was dropped incontinent-
| ly, and since then has been living, or
rather existing, as best he could. Com
panions in misery we exchanged notes.
| More lucky than myself, he had Sc
| cured employment. He was, in a word,
| in clover, And what do you think he
| was doing? Well, the once brilliant
correspondent, the man who was wont
| to cable news that thrilled two conti-
nents, was reading papers for clip
| ping agency" And what was he get
ting for twelve or fourteen hours work
| every day? I am ashamed to put the
| figures in print. Let it suffice to say
| that the average messenger boys in
! come would equal his. And yet this
man is not 60 yet, and is capable OF
! good work.
HE LOOKS TOO OLD"
One case more. Another back num-
| ber,'' who once won fame in Journalism,
| some time ago, obtained a clerical po-
sition at a pitifully small salary with
certain big transportation company
in this city. He got it through the IN
| fiuence of a friend who had business
| connections with the corporation. one
| day recently the gentleman visited the
| office of the company and asked, HOW
! is So and SO getting on?" mentioning
! the name of the man whose appoint
ment he had procured.
"Oh. he's doing his work all right
replied the manager. But he's TOO
! old"
We'll, as long as he does his work
we'll his age ought not to make any
difference retorted the visitor.
"Oh, but he looks too old" retorted
the manager, as If that were clincher,
emphasizing the verb strongly. That
was it. The poor. old fellow showed his
age too palpably!
/ Yes There can be no question that
| age is a terrible drawback to any man
| in this country at this time. 1t did
not use to be so. / remember when l
was young man just entering into lie
| that gray hair was a recommendation
rather than a drawback Then man
| age indicated that he had gathered by
| experience knowledge of men and OF
| business, and made him of additional
value to his employer. Now the vef-
| dict seems to be, He's old, and hes
poor, How can he be of any USE?
/ If the statistics of business could be
| tabulated the figures would show that,
even in as rich country as our own,
there is only about one millionaire TO
every GOO, 600 people, and out or l,Vou
| boys starting out in life together, not
! more than fifty will turn out TO pc
successful men, Who shall say what
| caused the failure of the 800? How
many of them sacrificed themselves for
| the benefit of those made dependent
upon them by circumstances not under
their own control? How many lived
and died poor because they unluckliy