The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1909-10-14
SMALL TASKS.

SMALL TASKS.
Few persons have risen to high place IN
the professions and other callings who dlo
not pass through an apprenticeship to small
duties and tasks. The ideal manager IS
one who can acquit himself creditaoly IN
the duties of any of his subordinates. The
cheerfulness, alacrity and zeal with which
an employe accepts apparently insignlh-
cant and trifling duties determine to great
extent whether his industrial career IS TO
be progressive and successful or not. me
same observation applies to professional
and business pursuits. The young man
who entered college to learn to be the
president of railroad was set down as
fool. The commanding positions in all
callings are obtained usually only after a
long and diligent noviate in minor places
as if they were the most important.
Michaeal Angeles saying, "Trifles make
perfection, but perfection is no trifle," has
it's application in every field of endeavor.
Little would be accomplished if we &C
cepted only the agreeable duties. We
venture to say that the most of the arduous
work done in the world is entered upon
with a certain degree of shrinking and re-
luctance. The discharge of disagreeable
task is, therefnre, a step in self discipline.
A man must learn how to rule himself be-
fore he can rule and direct others. "He
that ruleth his spirit is better than he that
taketh CITY," In every vocation some
such self-control and self-disipline must
be applied if commanding or even moder-
ate success is to be attained. There are
drudgery, hard-work, unpleasant tasks in
all gainful occupations. These things may
be regarded as the raw material of success.
The beginnings of great regulations are
often to be found in the willingness with
which necessary but repellant duties are
done.
1t is imagined that there is more irksome
routine in ones own calling than in any
other. The artisan who thinks there are
no dull duties in the professions is greatly
in error. There is no "velvet course Of
fortune" in any pursuit in which one must
rise by ones own exertions. The youth
who recognizes this and acts upon it is
pretty sure to give good account of him
self twenty or thirty years hence. There
are occasional dazzling short cuts to for
tune, eminence and glory. The most of
the aspirants must travel the beaten way
and live in the day of small things. 1t is
a great wrong to the youth eager for the
fray to encourage him in the belief that
anything worth while is to be gained with
out tense application to and unyielding
industry in the field to which he is assigned.
Consider the crowded profession of the
law. The snowy forensic triumphs are
made possible by laborious and exhaustive
attention to the tedious details of difficult
cases, and to the refined, dry and abstruse
distinctions that apply to the case. Many
of the duties of the professions are minute
and nerve-racking. Nothing that has a
bearing on the case can be neglected with
safety. A builder may conceal a little bad
work in the painted structure. Hammer
ton, in his "Intellectual Life" remarks
that it is the triumph of discipline to over
come small and great repugnances: eve
bring ourselves by its help to face petty
details that are wearrisome and heavy
tasks that are almost appalling" The
writer goes on to say that the power of
discipline is shown in the application of the
mind in the trades and the professions to
things that have no interest in themselves: :
Lawyers are especially admirable for
this. They acquire the faculty of reso-
lutely applying their minds to the driest
documents with tenacity enough to end in
the perfect mastery of the contents, feat
which is entirely beyond the capacity of
the undisciplined intellect, however gifted
by nature. In the case of lawyers there
are frequent intellectual repugnances to be
overcome; but surgeons and other men of
science have to vanish class of repug-
nances even less within the power of the
will-the instructive physical repugnances.
These are often so strong as to seem ap-
parently insurmountable, but they yield to
persevering disicipline.''
1t would be going too far to say that for
the sake of the discipline one should 20
out of ones way to seek unpleasant tasks.
Hammerton wisely observes that personal
preferences, if there be choice of duties,
should not be altogether disregarded, be-
cause in most cases "they are the indica-