Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1911-09-29
A RAISE" FOR HORACE.
If He Doesn't Hunt for 1t HE May Get
a Jolt Instead.
From the New York Tribune.

q ~ ttShCdN'
From the New York Tribune
Things are running along pretty
smoothly for you, eh Horace? That
same old job isn't such a lemon after
all, is it? While your salary doesn't
sound big in toto, when you spread 1T
out over each month it's at least
enough to get by on isn't it? And
though there are lots of things you
wish o q and wish you could do,
there are still man luxuries at your
command, aren't there?
somehow, you manage to pay your
board bill each month, get a couple Of
new suits of clothes each year., n
plenty to smoke, eat and drink, n
have enough left Over to take in quite
a respectable amour Of the good
things of life. OF course, you realize
that you ought to be getting more and
that your salary has increased slight
ly in the last few years. Other chaps
seem to be mounting the ladder of sue
cess with lightninglike rapidity.
They're dragging down bigger salaries
each year. More than that, they are
almost certain Of further increases in
the future.
Blu you are still ambling along at
the same old job and the same monthly
pay envelope. You have planned many
a time to change it all and go after
something better. But one months runs
n the next and one year into an
other, with you still doing business at
the same old stand. Next year-not
this one-is the time you'll make the
big effort to show what you can make
of yourself. Then youth cut loose from
the routine n strike out for your
fortune. But stop q moment. Two
years 6 didn't you make the same
declaration? And two years before
that. too?
Which Ir;,.r. ,- TJ1~ooo tn tIn
question Of whether 1t pays to live
in the present and let the future take
care of itself, or to live with an eye
to the future solely. 1t is SO easy to
drift along in an environment that is
reasonably comfortable and to dread
any change that reverses the old order.
1t is disconcerting to say the least, to
pass UP a certainty and jump into an
uncertainty. In some new line of work,
or in the same line with another firm
one has to make good all over againJ
and convince the stranger that n is
really worth his salary. At the old
stand they knew all about you. You
know their ways and they yours.
Some one once said, Horace, hat a
man who states that he has worked
20 years for the same firm should fol-
low it up with an apology for having
don so. This may or may not be-
sound logic. For some it is; for others
1t is but Sophistry. Like q shoe, it hts
one man. but misfts another.
Just look ahead, and ask yourself
whether your job is leading to any,
thing worth having in the end. What
are the men ahead Of you making-theI
men who began where you are now
long years ago and gradually worked
up to what they have at present? Are
their positions worth having? Have
they accomplished that which YOU
would be satisfied to let stand as the
result of your Iife's achievement? Is
the game worth the candle?
All progress, Horace, is but a sue,
cission of steps upward and onward.
But there are many different flights of
steps one can endeavur 10 mount. Arei
you climbing q flight that offers real
reward for your efforts at the top?,
Or are you lodged on a certain stepl
and more interested in sitting there
and resting than in looking upward
to the next step? If you are content
with that, you will wake up some day.
to find that you no longer occupy that
step. Others are crowding you from
b~ehind-and there's room for only a
certain number on each step.
Presently, unless you keep on climb
ing up, you'll be pushed off clear TO
the bottom. And there, there is no
room for you. Only at the top-on
each step higher up than the one you.
now occupy-is there room. Fix your
eyes on the topmost step-or fall off.
Climber slip back. Look out for the
future. and the present will take care
of itself.