Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-11-27

an interesting family and needed a
job. Could he keep books? Well, he.
said he could, and he evidently
thought he was telling the truth. Yet
at the end of the first month, when it
came to taking of the trial balance, he
failed. His employer coming in one
afternoon found him sitting idly at
the desk. and asked Have you found
the error in the balance?" The reply
was mo. can't find it. l worried
about it last night and so did my
wife, Alas, that poor wife had rea-
son to worry about it," for her hus-
band was soon displaced by another
man who could KEEP BOOKS. and
who when he made an error found it.
In an interview published in the
Courier on his return from Europe
this fall, Thomas ID. Foster, managing
director of the John Morrell & Co.
packing house, commented upon the
great and growing necessity for more
general education of our youth along
technical lines and practical CONNER
cial training in order to successfully
meet the intense competition in the
markets of the world. 1t is not only
necessary for the United States to
produce, but she must excel in produc-
ton in order to get her full share of
the worlds business. Hence the con-
slant and increasing demand for
workmen, business and professional
men who can do things better tnan
they have ever been done before.
All cannot go to college, but there
is something that all can do. and it
the very next best thing to going to
college; indeed in many instances it
has accomplished much more than a
full college course. Every young
man and woman in this community
can have access to good books and re-
liable trade and technical publica-
lions. Some time every day can be
devoted to reading-solid, instructive,
healthful, helpful reading and study.
1t may not be over ten or fifteen min
utes daily, but the results in the
course of a few months will be as
surprising as they are delightful.
II We could induce every young man
and woman in this city to read this
winter Emerson's essays on Self Reli-
ance, Compensation, Wealth, Power
and Courage, these at any rate and
more if they will; and then reread
them again and again, until they alb
sorb the sentiments therein, there
would be such an awakening of origi-
nal thought, and an arousing of in
dividual effort in Ottumwa as wouIu
astonish the whole country. Then if
these same young men and women
would each day read just one chapter
in the bible-not as religious duty,
not perfunctorily because they think
they ought to do so, but intelligently
because they want to find out and
know what is in the bible, they would
be simply astounded at the wealth Of
valuable helpful information and
knowledge to be found in this. the
book of books. Take for instance the
book of Proverbs. 1t con-
tains just thirty-one chapters.
Read one chapter day for
month, the first day the first chap
ter, the second day the second chap
ter, and SO on for thirty-one chapters
and thirty-one days. Then read them
over again the next month and so con-
tinue for a year, and the reader will
find depth of meaning in this old
Jewish work that he has never before
dreamed Of
Spare time wasted in the youth can
never be recalled. Properly utilized,
with intelligent, systematic study and
effort, it will pay simply astounding
dividends.
Our young men need to learn from
Emerson that: Concentration is the
secret Of strength in politics, in war,
in trade, in short in all management
of human affairs"
And further that: 'All successful
men have agreed in one thing-they
We're causationists. They believed
that things went not by luck, but by
law