Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-01-01
| At the End Of the Rainbow.
PRIDE IN YOUR WORK.
By Walt Mason.
By Walt Mason.

Jim Spiker, the blacksmith, is the big
gest blowhard in town." said the horse
doctor IF you'd listen to him while
you'd think nobody ever knew how to
make horseshoes before he opened his
shop 1 used to find him amusing. but
I'm getting tired of his eternal Dragging"
"It is possible that Jim carries his self
glorification to extremes remarked the
village patriarch, but 1 notice that he
does the business. Half dozen men
have owned and operated the opposition
horseshoeing palace during the past year
or two, and they all have sought fresh
pastures they found the picking so poor
here. Jims always busy and he told me
| the other day that he's going to build an
addition to his shop in the spring and en-
gage an assistant I've heard good
many complain of his stunts in elocutfon.
| but never heard anybody say that he's
| a poor blacksmith. He refuses to hide
| his light under bushel, and 1 can't say
| that I blame him.
II like to hear a man brag of his skill.
l don't like to hear a man speak In terms
of praise of his whSkerS or his beautiful
shape or his ability as a tenor singer,
| but If he is satisfied that he can manicure
| a mule better than anybody else in his
neighborhood he is privileged to say so.
and no well balanced citizen will be Of
Tended. Jim Spiker's motives and prin-
ciples are all right, and If it ever becomes
necessary to have my COW shod IL send
| her to his shop.
THE trouble with the world today is
| that people don't brag enough. If a
| blacksmith brags of his deXterity with a
| hammer il is reasonably certain that he
! is interested in his work and that he
will do the best job he knows how when
you patronize him. And when you want
| him he's generally at his headquarters.
The blacksmiths who hang around the
village pump talking politics and wait
ing for some patriotic citizen to come
along and invite them to have refresh
ments are the ones who should be re-
buked The man who wins is the one
who Is enthusiastic over his business,
whatever that business may be: and the
one who has trouble sidestepping the
sheriff is the man who goes to his task
like galley slave.
When j was in the feed business my
discourse was chiefly Of hay. l have no
doubt that fnicky people criticised me
and said l talked shop too much, and
some probably considered me bore.
But 1 took a profound interest in hay.
and L didn't care whoop about the
nebular hypothesis or Browning's poetry,
| so l discussed the theme. l understood
best. l really believed, and believe to
this day. that bale of hay is the noblest
work of man, and l could talk like an
inspired prophet when it was a question
| of hay, but l was at II loss for words
when subjects more abstruse were intro
duced.
The result was that I did the biggest
feed business in town, and in my old age
| / have an ample supply Of the where
withal in the bank. Whenever q man in
this town needed hay he thought OF me:
whenever his cows cried for bran or his
pigs for shorts my name naturally rose In
his mind. There's nothing like Identify
| ing yourself with your business in that
way, even at the risk OF being denounced
at pink teas as bore.
| Contrast Bob blacksmith with Jim
Spiker. Box fixes pumps and has shop
down under the hardware store. You
never hear Bob Dragging of the way he
repairs a pump. He's always Dragging
of some fool thing that makes no differ
lence-the fish he caught last June or the
number of rabbits he shot in one day
last January, or something like that. He
takes no interest in his business. II the
handspring of your pump breaks and you
want to have Bob for 1t you have to get
| a dark lantern and set of false whfskers
land track him down. And when you find
| him he'll want to tell you how he beat
Tom links at pool and you have to back
him into a hallway and sit on him be-
fore you can get him to listen to your
spiel.
Then he'll promise to come and up
holster your pump at certain time and.
of course. he won't do ii, and you have to
carry water from the creek, mile away,
for three weeks before Bob arrives to
make repairs. 1t would be real pleas