The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-12-07
LIES LESSONS
One of the Most Important Is,
Deliver the Goods.
Business Man Tells How He
Was Cured of "Kicking.o

There is nothing in the world
makes me so tired as to hear a man
kicking about the amount of work he
does for the amount of money he re-
| ceives," said a successful Topeka bust
ness man. 1T makes me tired on
general principles because I hate to
hear men grumbling, and as another
reason because it is a certain sign of
poor workmen, and failure.
Il know whereof / speak along this
line, for I had ample experience. I
am sure that if 1 had not stopped
short in my career of kicking at my
job, would never have pulled myself
out of the rut. And yet the man who
cheerfully does what he is hidden do,
and does it with all his might and to
the best of his ability, is sure to rise.
What pity the kickers cannot be
made to realize the truth of that.
tAre you interested in some of my
experiences" he asked when the re-
porter suggested the past he mention
ed might be of interest.
II started as a clerk in a small gro
Gerry. L was paid SIS week and the
work was hard. I don't believe there
is anything easy about a grocery Be
fore had been there long was kick
ing, and my father rather took my side
of the case. 1t appeared to him, as it
did to me, that l was doing a good
deal of work for the money 1 recefv-
ed. Then one day I was fired and
my father was amazed beyond words.
had good idea why I had been
fired, but 1 didn't care much had
been woefully neglecting my work.
Next l got a clerkship in a dry
goods store. There was more money
in it, and for a time things went love-
ly. Then somebody was advanced
ahead of me. L got to watching the
clock closer than I did my work, and
did not do any more than 1 had to-
felt 1 was being underpaid and gem
orally mistreated, and didn't care. It
crr,B%
This time my father said very little,
but got me another place. This time
a druggist took me in and promised
to teach me the business.
TT isn't worth while stringing out
the story. I stayed there six weeks. 1
worked at my next job in a hardware
store just little less than five weeks,
and / held my next job, an under
clerkship in a wholesale house. about
the same length of time. Then my
father took me in hand
The next time you get fired he
told me, and he said it in a tone
knew he meant it, I'll thrash you till
you can't move for week
Then he told me a lot of other things
that I didn't know he knew-about
some of the ingenious ways I had de-
vised for sighting my work that I
didn't know even my employers were
aware of, and gave me some good,
wholesome advice. Then he put me
to rustling' freight for a wholesale
grocery house, the manager of which
was a friend of his, and warned me
to stick.
''It was the bitterest pill I ever swal-
lowed, but I stuck. Gradually the work
grew interesting. I was promoted to a
delivery wagon, and then to a respons-
ible position inside. But it took years
to accomplish it-years that cost me
many a pang. 1 shall always be thank
full to know that the head of the house.
when 1 finally quit to accept a much
better position on the road than he
could offer, babe me come back if ever
I needed a job and take anything he
had to offer.
1T just takes work and grit, and a
to do any amount more
than your share of the work to sue
coed. And any man who does this can
not help but succeed, to considerable
mea sure at least