New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1909-10-17
YOUR BOYS LIFE WORK
BANKING OFFERS CAREER
TO AVERAGE YOUTH.
With Honesty and Industry Impor-
tdnt and LucratiUe Post Mag
Be attained.
By @. W. Jennings.

To the. average man the banker Is a thing apart,
sort of superior creature who moves on another
plane-always CARRIED in apparent richness with
look Of prosperity. self-possessed, shrewd, able
The rest Of simply look up to him. that's all
And so the boy looks up to the bank messenger or
the bank clerk-the one that comes out OF the for
bidding portals, with black package or a satchel
in his hand and air Of aloofness that makes
the envious youthful observer sort of gasp
And yet that same banker and his messenger are
not so far above us, after all. They are not dlr-
ferent it we that are difrerent-we have clothed
them In atmosphere somewhat like that which
We draped around the that wore silk hat
and frock coat when were ten or twelve and
lived in the country or small town
Anybody can be a banleFi Your boy is an ordi-
nary boy, say OF thirteen to fifteen, and you have
dreamed dreams about his future. and, somehow
you have wondered if-no, he could never be
banker-a banker is so far out Of your comprehen-
sion So you dismiss banking and banker from
your calculations, and decide that the youngster
shall be a civil engineer. or school teacher or
take Job helper to the family grocer, or some
thing
But If you and your boy have the right kind OF
nerve you hold brief talk with him, and then ne
off trembling ask the minister OF the church
where his mother attends and he goes to Sunday
school for letter telling what fine, honorable.
ambitious young fellow he is. and how he is bound
TO succeed In anything he attempts. Then he gets
another from the family DOCTOR and one or two
then he goes to the bank itself
And once there? Well. he finds that it isn't so
hard to get a job after all. That same aloofness
that seems to surround the banker has apparently
Kept the boys from applying for Job there, as it
has the ordinary grown-up individual from keeping
his hat on when he enters the impressive doorway.
The cashier of prominent metropolitan bank ex-
pressed TO me the other day his wonderment that
his institution couldn't get enough boys.
THE FIRST WEEKS OF Toll.
They don't pay much at the start, Of course
only SIS or month (we're talking of the big
city banks), but this is to boy Of thirteen TO
Fifteen and after a year managing a feather
duster or pushing the lever of a coin counting
chine running errands. he gets SIS TO $50. Then
he must have bond. because he is messenger
and goes out collecting drafts and checks on
other banks, etc. but the bank furnishes this, and
there is bother about it at all
Then, after two years So he is assistant or
| head messenger and may get as much as SIPS a
month. And from there, IL he is bright enough to
work out of the messenger rutland the average
boy is-he goes into the receiving tellers cage or
! the bookkeeping department, the discount, or
the collecting, and gets not s125 month. but only
! $50 or $50 a month Quite drop in salary, it is
true but the ambitious boy will make this tenn
porary monetary sacrihce-and you will encourage
him TO do so-that he may not remain messen-
ger all his life. but Will open UP before him &C.
cupational vista that has at its end bank presi-
| dents chair.
his next STEP MAYBE is receiving teller ltselLs
when he will be paid sometimes much s., 800
a year, or as assistant the paying teller's booth
at much salary (the paying teller gets more
than the receiving). and on as paying teller then
assistant cashier then cashier. then-vice-presi-
dent, president anything big the
young banker has in him.
If your boy has position teller by the time
| he is thirty he has gone on pretty fast-but not
more than fairly bright young man ought to-
| and by five years later, at the most when he
| is forty, he is to be well along and highly
regarded in business circles. Cashier at thirty
five; salary. $500 up (referring to large city
/ banks) big man-this is not at all remarkable,
! for the ambitious boy surely get there. From
/ there on is simply realizing the aims he has
1 formed in the mean time through his own inita-
| tive and your encouragement.
The average boy of thirteen to fifteen has edu-
| cation enough to start him, but II you and your
boy plan banking for his career he should have
striven little harder than the usual lad 20 get
| hold of arithmetic. Addition and subtraction and
multiplication and divislOn-they count, and count
big, in banking, and the young fellow that can
| figure and knows the groundwork OF arithmetic
pretty well has great advantage over the others.
| Bankers complain bitterly over the difficulty of
finding boys that readily compute the simplest
| sums and do figuring that schOolbOy of twelve
| ought achieve without difficulty.
| When your boy seeks his first job he should
call on the prospective employer himself. and not
send letter Of application, written and rewritten
the night before and altered and approved by all
the members of the family, till all the originality
is taken out of il. For the banker will learn all
| he wishes 10 know, and he soon discover in q
little talk if the boy is fundamentally honest and
is bright.