The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-18
DAILY DRUDGERY
ByIRENE WESTON

T am square peg in a round hole. My work is wholly uninteresting to me. Here I am in a bank, when I ought to have been-''
 Well, never mind what he thinks he ought to have been. But is it not quite common complaint-that of being the square peg in the round hole?''
 T don't believe In a person being dis satisfied with his occupation" said my friend, the minister. "but between our selves, I am sometimes sorry did not go to sea. One of my boy chums ran away. from school and I was near going with him. If I could have raised Sl for the railway fare I should have gone, but that sum was impossible at that time. So he went by himself. Who knows. Perhaps I should have been an admiral by this time"
 He sighed at the idea of what might have been. I asked him what became of his friends
 Drowned" he replied. Drowned, poor chap A very sad affair"
 It never seemed to occur to him that if he had followed in his friends steps he might have met with a like tragic fate. It's the way of the world. Life would have been so much more enjoy able and successful if one had only been something else. We should have fitted that other hole exactly
 We are all acutely aware of the disad- vantages of our occupations. Whatever a man orfwoman's work is. there are diff culties connected with 1t cropping up to worry us. It is so easy to imagine that other occupations are pleasant going af- fairs compared with our own.
 Nine-tcnths of our people are convinced that they are in the most uninteresting oo, ft<x, fv, <txo ,x.I {c ,uk that conviction that helps to render their own occupation the most uninteresting. One can spend so much time thinking of the other occupations that one becomes blind and deaf to the interest of one S own.
 Daily work will not be interesting if we don't begin by taking an interest our side first. A great deal of work seems deadly dull simply because we don't take the trouble to make it other wise. It needs thinking over and examin- ing carefully to discover It's interesting sides. The mind can do an enormous amount in that direction T. is easy as the Christian Scientists say, to persuade oneself that one has pain by thinking over 1t.
 Toole. the actor. once revenged himself on an extremely disagreeable fellow pas- senger with whom he was travelling by suddenly making dash at him with his handkerchief and pretending he had just failed to flick off an earwig he had seen on his collar. They looked for the ear- wig all over the train, but could not find him. A minute or two later Toole saw his travelling companion wriggling violently in his seat. He decleared he felt the earwig most distinctly walking about him. The wretched thing eluded all his attempts to kill him and he had that earwig as a companion during a journey of 50 miles.
 One can do much the same thing with work. If one only pursuades oneself that it is weary and painful business. one will certainly find 1t so. It will be full of aches and pains.
 How is it that so many workers neg lect the pleasure of showing slxill?" re- gently remarked a great engineer. 'To do think skilfully Is like playing a game against an invisible opponent. You are to be beaten. That's the spirit that makes labor into something like playing a game.''
 There is lot in his words Comparing ones work with the work of someone who does 1t better affects people differ ently. There are folks who only find disappointment in seeing how their work can be improved. There are others who set their teeth and are too proud to be interiors. These are the people who are bound to succeed. It is the "do-you-im- agine-I-am- going to- be-b -beaten-by Jones?'' feeling. The man who feels that, wont find work uninteresting until he is better fha n Joues