The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-07-23
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THE HUSKS Of
RE TR0S Pc CTIDN.

! ms is the story or Ine MahluS u
The Boy. These incidents recorded
took place a dozen years ago.
The Boy was like the majority OF
well regulated, full lunged American
boys and he liked play better than he
liked work and his likes predominated
over his dislikes except when arbltra-
ton, and perhaps the rod or some lesser
punishment, caused him to reflector
a very short time.
The Father of the Boy was a good
father, just as we'll regulated and
fatherly as the average father goes-no
more so and no less. In the case of The
Boy and The Father the general aver
age was struck by both.
The Father sent The Boy through the
graded school and offered MIN nlgn
school or college or an apprenticeship
but the boy declined them all for a
time but finally consented to daily
through 4 business college. When he
got through he didn't know a trial bal-
ance from a bill of ladlng and he
couldn't compose a straight draft any
quicker than he could a quarrain
The Boy announced to The Father
that he was going to WORK. lie got a
place in a drug store at $15 month.
The Father informed him that unless
he studied to become q registered phar-
macist he would make SIS a month to
the end of his days. The Roy was not
stirred. His real, true Split slept
1t kept on slumbering until The
Father announced that beginning with
the first of the year The Boy would be
required to pay $15 month Tor BOARD
at home.
But 1 am only making SIS a
month"; said The Boy.
Make more" said The Father.
One night a couple of lesser Santa
Fe officials dropped into the drug store
for Havannas. While they were Sc
lecting them one remarked to the
other:
do you know where 1 can get a
good shorthand man at a salary of IS
a month ?"
81 don't know" said the other man,
"they are scarce"
To The Boy 500 a month looked as
big as Rockefeller's income does to
Rookie.
The next day he asked one of the
Santa Fe men what shorthand man
was. The man explained. The Boy
decided to study shorthand. He found
a shorthand school and found that the |
tuition was SIS for the term.
The Boy told The Father that he |
intended to study shorthand if The |
Father would advance the SIS. The |
Father would not advance the money !,
and what was more he again informed
The Boy that the SIS a month for !
board would begin running against The I
Boys account January 1. The Father |
was obdurate. The Boy was more de- |
termined than ever.
In those days there was a man who |
kept a grocery store in the neighbour
hood and he, was the father confessor
to the boys who had trouble, real or |
To the Grocer went The
Boy and he told him of the SIS a |
month board bill, the SIS tuition and
his determination to study shorthand.
THAT shorthand man." said The
Grocer, loves me a grocery bill of
1856 and if he will let you work it
out studying with him 1 will give him
/ receipt in full and take your note
at six per cent for $37.6S.''
The Boy was jubi1anr and he told
NafI hrrf hn fa cfil1 ct |
10 the SIS a month board bill an
louncement and declined to advance
even $37.68.
Back to The Grocer went The Boy
and finally The Grocer and The
Father held a conference and the re-
suit was that the SIS a month board
pill would not begin running until
July 1. The Grocer advanced the
money and The Boy went to work
studying shorthand. He got up at
)'cIock in the morning and studied
md he worked on the hooks and
iashes and dots and curlycues until
20 o'clock at night. To make long
narrative short, it is enough to say
hat in three months he was pro-
icient and he took a job with big
aw firm at $50 a month. That $50
l month opened the world before
rhe Boy. He paid the SIS a month
BOARD bill at home and he paid The
trocer. with interest, and did as all
veil regulated American boys do-fell :
n love and was married.
Now it wasn't meanness on the p,
art of The Father that moved him !
o demand that monthly price for :
,oard. nor was it stinginess when he :
efuaed to pay the tuition for The :
Boy, but it was that he saw that The :
Boy was becoming enthusiastic and l
Interested and he knew that under =
he conditions the more obstacles The !
Boy would have to surmount the =
more determined he would be to sue .
eco. His logic was genuine, as the
esult proved.
1t was only a month ago that The
Soy declined Il job as one of the Off :
ial shorthand reporters of the ma
lonal Democratic convention at st. !
.oUis. because he was just finishing
is work on a case which was on trial =
or three months and which Melted :
i'm i'll fees $4,000.