The Minneapolis journal., 1903-12-30
NEWS OF THE BOOK WORLD
"A RIght ATTITUDE toward ri Work is Pointed

Success and Better In Some Other Re-
q spects-A Hard Working Mans View.
spects-A Hard Working Mans View
/. Report OF Employers and Employees
Convention In Book Form,
We'll, I'm going home to read book
on Work, said a hardworking profess
sional man, as he threw away the end of
cigar and rose from his seat in a club
corner.
q Work? Great Scott! Don't you get
enough of that without reading about it o"
asked a friend who didn't work so hard.
Yes, set enough of it. but it's partly
because take the thing in the abstract
now and then and try to see just what is
the nature of this thing am spending so
much time at, that I'm able to go on with
so much Of it''
well, have you filled up on work in
the abstrsct?'" queried the man "who
didn't work SO hard" week LATER as the
two met again in the same club corner.
Yep came the reply, with smile
from the hard worker. ''It was Hugh
Blacks Work, and let me recommend the.
book to YOU"
No mnuendoes, thank you But I'm
curious to know what man can say about
work In a book that will attract readers" /"
That depends on what one reads for
This isn't a book for entertainment. It's
book with serious purpose for the in
dividual; it doesn't discuss the industrial
problems of the day, but it's a plea for a
right attitude toward work. After all, it
strikes me that that is the real essence of
the labor problem, but Mr.. Black doesn't t
discuss it such.
IdIeness Chief End with Many.
At the outset he says some pointed
things about the idea which is widespread
that idleneSs is the chief end of man. tha It
people work and slave that some day
they may live lives of ease, or lives in
which there shall be all the time there is
for excitement and the chase after new
sensations.
BY the way, he cites good treatise
days, a classic, In fact, on individual in
dustry-the book of Proverbs.
k Diligence Better than "Pu!I.'
To use a current phrase, ne throws it
into" another common fallacy, when he
says ornethins like this: .Allowine; for ali
possible exceptions, it is a fact that ear
nest, serious diligence does succeed It is
a good thing to have that reiterated now
and then to take the edge off much of this
talk about pull ~ ~ o.
"Mr. Black says some mighty good
things about the. habit Of. work, too
Habit? The word has a bad sound -
rejoined the other.
perhaps it :wohld have better if you
should get, the idea that habit is the pro-
cess by which acts and thoughts and feel
lngs are organized into life It is that
that makes it true for one who has ac-
quired good habits of work that Silently,
between all the details of his business, the
power of judging VIII have built. itself ur
within him as a possession that will never
a ic hott -
than genius. Or, at least, where genius
gives a man superiority once, habit, if OF
the right kind, will give it-Well, times
enough to give the honors nearly all to
poor, every day habit
Habit and "crossing the Bar"
GAS an example of what this power OF
habit will do for one, Mr.. Black finds Ten
nyson's Crossing the Bar very useful
It's interesting if you don't know it al
ready. The poem was written in Tenny-
sons eighty-first year on day in October
when the suggestion for it came to him
He showed the poem to his son. who said
That is the crown of your life's work.
He answered. 1T came in moment. The
lesson he draws is that the poem was sc
easily shaped because Of the infinite pains
Te1lla5zso on had been to in his earlier writ
ing. Saying what he wished to and saying
| it the way he wished to had become 8
habit with him.
Don't you recognize this type: Some
men are always preparing for work. which
usually means postponing any serious ef-
fort and ends in a mere waste of time.
s"rhe writer of the book empha sizes the
duty of work and the moral need of work
| We must accept duty, he says, mot fol
the sakei of what we can get or even
give, but what we can also become
Yes. he has a chapter on The Fruits
! Of yn,1-3 ,l1 -
fruits. Aside from the training of char.
acteF, be found in work, he lists these
as some OF the fruits. not gold but golden
Independence of mind balm for grief, hap.
piness.
Where Many Fan Down.
I t@And there is one thing in his chapter
on The Ideal Of Work., one temptation
which wrecks as many men of ability as
any other if not more. It is the tempta.
in the vaulting ambition for larger one:
and in the aggrieved belief that we arr
worthy Of better things than are possible
| to us now
but that's enough-too much. at second
hand If you want any you'll have
to go to Mr.. Black for it, All can ado
is that to me it would have been worth
as working capital, a thousand times thu
price Of the book, if on setting out in m,
profession could have learned from {
book and learned we'll the lessons which
this so plainly teaches. and could have go
them firmly fixed in my mind. 1t woul6
have been worth infinitely more in thu
contentment and pleasure T would hav,
hadgin my earlier work.
| .