The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-07-05

perlenced rOad-maker from each con-
gressional district, such commission
to have power to Sexpend all state
funds in building roads in various
sections of the state, where most
needed, so that those who have charge
OF local road work may learn from
the work done by such commission
what are the best methods to be
pursued in road-making.- Lakefeld
Standard.
When Is Mans Uusefulness Outgrown.
AT what age does a man reach the
point where he should be chloroformed
out OF the business world? Ones
answer will vary with his age. I had
the opinion last week of a man up
ward of sixty years, the head of de-
partment in Chicago house. He had
had need Of a man in his department
to take the place of a giddy young fell
low who was looking for lighter work
ana more pay. He had asked the
chief clerk of the house to consider
the application of a certain man of
t1tty-tive years. After the clerk had
dismissed the application with short
ceremony. he reported that the man
was too old. "We don't want any
more fossils in this house, he said.
"He's as bald as a baby" II don It
care what's on the outside of man s
head" answered the older man. "In
my department we use the stuff on the
inside. Let me try this FOSSIL" So
the fossil was installed. "He has
proved to be the best man have. -
said my informant. "Why? For one
thing he has had nearly half century
of business experience. &. This keeps
him from being Eighty. 1t would be
hard for him to go out and get an
other job if he should lose this. He
knows that. And that helps. He has
set out to know everything he ought
to know and to make him valuable in
my department. He doesn't close up
his desk half an hour early. He never
begs a day off to attend his grand.
mothers funeral. He isn't baseball
rooter. He doesn't gossip with the
stenographer girls in business hours.
He takes his life seriously, and so he
| comes as near putting in full day s
work as any man in the house. Now
I don't mind telling you that my.
self am putting in my odd minutes
perfecting the system in my depart.
ment, making myself authority on
things the boss wants to know. When
60 out of my Office I want to go out
feet first with the boss wiping his eyes
and feeling like he'd never get another
good man to warm my Office chair.
may be fossilizing, but I'm hustling to
keep my joints limber.''
What are some Of the sure signs OF
human fossilization? Here is one: A
disposition to be head-set- having
contempt for other peoples ways OF
thinking and doing things. Some old
men believe that just because they are
old that all younger men are too
young to teach them anything and all
older men too old to do it. A man
needn't be old to get this kind of a
crust on him. Some people are born
that way. 1 once knew a schoolboy
who had read some of Tyndall's
philosophy before he had ciphered
over to decimal fractions. He was
ready to combat anything promul-
gated from the teachers desk, from
the binominal theorem to the immor-
tality of the soul. He was so fossil
lied at fifteen that he couldn't even
have played a good game of one-old-
cat with the girls.
Another sign of fossil is dis
position to do something sitting down
when you know it can be done better by
getting up and going after 1.-THE will
lingness to use your thumb for rule
because it is always handy and your
rule isn't. Now that may be an old
man or a yOung-man fault. It is
awfully common at all ages. If any
young man wants to avoid this kind
of fossiIization he can do so by studi-
ously ignoring his thumb while taking
measurements, or by getting up and
running to the dictionary several
times a day. Fossilization comes
from methods of thinking, not from
years of living. It is a national trait
in China and among some other peo-
Piles. The world is full of it, and it
is catching. It may get you if you
don't watch ut.-Sharpshooter in
Commercial West. --.-
Marks Midsummer Horse Sale.
Several cars of western and native