The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1906-12-21
KEEP CHEERED UP.

| IA VIM iuhSo
his headquarters in Norfolk, and who
spends Sundays here, receives each
week letter from his house" giving
him changes in prices which he is to
] quote during the ensuing few days,
4 and other essential instructions. At
the close of every one Of these letters
"the boss" tenders this bit of advice
to his salesman: Before you attempt
to do any work in the morning, be
sure you are feeling well. Pay atten'
ton to your health. No man can sell
goods when he is tired out and un-
we'll"
That "old man." as he Is affection.
ally termed by the drummers who
work for him and who look up to him
as a father, wants his boys" to feel
well in order that they may sell the
goods. He realizes that more money
will come into the house in the course
of year if his statesmen are getting
plenty of sleep, plenty Of rest and,
4 more than all else, plenty of cheerful
| recreation. He wants them to shake
off the routine worry of their work
during a certain portion of every day,
and to loaf around for a couple of
hours or so, with no thought of bust
ness in their heads, and with no OBJ
ject in life at those particular moments
excepting personal enjoyment. He
wants them to keep up their good
cheer and their spirits.
What broad view that wholesale
man, with all of these commercial trav-
elers under his supervision, takes of
life! And yet it acts as a boomerang
and comes back to him in dollars and
cents every day in the year.
To do ones best work, one must be
good to himself.
To create new ideas for develop
ment, to do quickly what Is to be
done, and to be able to keep on in
creasing the constructive work every
day, every man must see to it, first of
all, that his health is just as it should
be-
To accomplish the most with ones
energy, one must take time out from
routine detail to sharpen the brain-ax
by means of cheerful recreation.
What food is to the stomach, recrea-
ton of cheerful sort is to the mind,
and both are essential to maximum
achievement. The brain, like the
stomach, can be dulled to the need of
this food, but at costly sacrifice in
the long run.
4 The tendency of the times in labor
and industry is to shorten the hours
1t is being demonstrated that a man
working ten hours day, and no more
can turn out so much more of the fin
ished product within a given week or
a given year, than he who works over
time and dulls his faculties, that it is
/ a paying investment for the employer
to force his men to quit working and
take rest during a certain portion
of every day. Time was when men
worked eighteen hours a day as a
steady thing, but hours were Topped
off as the true value of recreation was
impressed upon employers.
= And the workman is accomplishing
much more today, in his shorter hours,
than he formerly did in eighteen hours
of labor.
1t is natural for man to believe that
he can gain lap in life's race by
putting in hours at toll while the rest
of the world is dancing and laughing
at the theatrical comedian and playing
whist. But it is a fallacy long since
exploded. No man was ever made who
could cheat Nature in the long run
and Nature demands that human be-
ings rest and romp just as she de.
mands that the rest of her creatures
the animals and the plants, shall enjoy
a certain period of cheerful and inter
est-filled recreation between one days
rising sun and the next.
And there is more to think of, even
at that, than the mere accomplishment
of work. We work, after all, only as
means to an end-only as a means
to life's enjoyment. And to find all
enjoyment in toiling, with little in
other things, is not a normal tenden-
cy. 1t is bent tendency that needs
Strengthening.
Men are apt, in these arduous days
of business and industrial competition,
10 give over their minds and their very
selves to their work and worry. It is
NraIE REIMBURSEMENT because it
robs their families OF the best that is
in them-the aggressive cheerfulness