Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1913-10-30
THERE WERE TWO BOYS.

Once upon a time there was bust
ness in a city long way from Mar
shalltown, let us say lest some one
should imagine that this story Is local,
a business that employed a boy among
men. The boys thus employed had a
chance to learn a trade, a trade that
educates those who work at 1t and
which pays extra good wages as wages
lost because of weather and the like.
Every little while q new boy was
needed because the other boys soon
learned enough to get a little higher
than the beginners Job. And that
brings US to the story of the two boys.
! They both had precisely the same
chance. They came to the business
very green boys and without much
education at about Is years Of age.
They worked among the same men, for
| in the particular business to which
reference is made. the men stay
! long time and the management has
not changed in many years. And one
of these boys landed in one Of the best
and best paying positions in the me-
chanical department of that business
while the other is in the penitentiary.
Now this cheap beginners job is
very important one in many respects
about that business. One of these boys,
the first one, was absolutely to be
trusted He tried at his work. 1t was
his job and he meant to make it good.
He did. He got a step as soon as he
was fit for it. because there were other
such sense of personal responsibility.
He went home of nights. He didn't
imagine that one of the certain evil
dences of manhood is drink Of booze
and a working knowledge Of craps or
poker. He paid board to his mother.
Mind that boys, he paid his board to
his mother. There were lots Of places
where he needed fixing. Some of them
he fixed. Some fixed themselves and
a few still need fixing. But he was
decent, took his work and his future
seriously rendered the best he had for
his wages and had a steady, lucrative
job and the confidence of men and
mana cement by the time he was p.
And he's there on the job yet.
The other boy never took his job at
its best. He never seemed to under
stand that he was responsible. He
scamped his work some times. His
mind wasn't there. He had the run
were missed and circumstances pointed
boyward. But he had every chance the
other boy had. He had a great deal
more for he was talked to and en-
couraged and warned over and over
again and was kept on the job long
after 1t would have been better for
the business to have fired" him. He
ran the streets at night. His COM
partnership was degenerative. And
finally while a mere boy the law seized
him for a most serious offense and he
is in prison just when he should have
been getting his foot firmly fixed on
the ladder of opportunity and success.
That's the story Of the two boys.
A. boy or a man must needs take
himself and his work seriously. This
! idea that life is merely a playspell and
that labor is curse Is all wrong. be-
| leve, me, boys. The main business Of
| life is a good, hard, honest work and
in the long run the best fun in the
world is the work adapted to the mans
| capacities and talents. There's nothing
but disease, and disrepute and perhaps
the pen in this hell of fellow" bust
I! leads to a bigger one. And mind this,
! the fellow who does a small Job well
/ can always do on little bigger one
little better next time. And so 1t goes
on up to the biggest things men do.
! When Goethals ok the canal job
he says he was simply stunned by the
magnitude of it. He didn't know that
he knew how to do it. In fact as you
| understand IL was Jop l'ihl hau hoNe'
| been done before in the worlds history.
Some wise and talented men had said
1t couldn't be done. But the job is
done and we'll done, and Goethals the
greatest engineer in the world. He
took himself seriously, his job seriously
and behind the man and the canal was
| long wears of taking himself and his
| job seriously, taking responsibility as
a trust, working.
That's all. There were two boys
once upon time, and one went to one
Of the best jobs in the house and the
other went to the .penitentiary.