The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-10-02
DOING BETTER THAN THE OTHER
FELLOW.

Many years ago a raw country
youth went to Philadelphia and got a
job in store.
The rawness of country lad in
these days of automobiles and
chautauquas and long distance phones
is cosmopolitan elegance compared
with the rawness of a green country
lad in those days; and that lad was as
green as they. made them-in appear
ance.
But anyway, he got his job and
buckled down to work. And how he
did work! The other clerks made fun
of him because he worked SO hard.
Then they got "sore" about it, be-
cause his example was injurious to
them, they thought. 1t was hard for
them to get by with their old system
of doing as little as they had to when
this country jake was working like a
beaver all the time. So they first made
jokes about him, and then got mean
about it.
But that didn't bother Mr.. Country
Jake. He just kept right on working.
He did what they gave him to do the
very best he knew how. He studied
out the relationship of what he had to
do to the general work of the store
and pretty soon he was doing not only
his own work but part of the work
that others were neglecting. Then,
too, he did things that never had been
done before. because nobody thought
of them. He thought of them because
he had his mind on his job.
Half the things he did he didn't
really have to do, of course. He kept
his own work up so thoroughly that
he was always ready to jump in and
help somebody else.
1t didn't take the owners of the store
long to notice this fellow, and pretty
soon the lad was foreman of the store,
and those who had laughed at him
and then got mad at him were work
ing under him.
1T was good for me to be sneered
and scoffed at" said this lad in latter
life. ct helped me to arrive at the
destination l had started for"
For Mr.. Country Jake had destina-
ton. That's why he worked so. He
was aiming somewhere, and his &C.
tivity was his way of getting there.
Well, of course, he got where he
headed for. Most everybody does who
adopts a practical destination and
then hustles to get to it.
Pretty soon he owned store
Pretty soon his store was the biggest
in Philadelphia. Pretty soon he had
another big store, this time in New
York. And now he is John Wana
maker, the country's greatest mer
chant; rich in wealth and fair fame
And this, he said the other day, was
his motto, and the recipe that created
his remarkably successful career: u
always tried to do better than the
other fellow"
It's an old-fashioned story, of a sort
that isn't cited and admired so much
as it used to be. The reason for that
is that it or variations of it have beer
told so many times of men who, seek
ing only wealth and ceasing to care
how they got it, have crowned it with
infamy.
But there's value-very real and very
sound value-in that story. JohI
Wanamaker sought more than wealth
He sought prominence in his line
He aimed to be a better clerk, better
foreman and better merchant thar
the other fellow" And, sticking to i
and being thrifty by the way, he go
there.
He had an aim, he stuck to it, hi
wasn't afraid of work, and he galway:
tried to do better than the other fel
low"
So he's very easily accounted for
and the many who fail to arrive are a:
easily accounted for by the fact tina
they had no aim, or had no stick-to
it-iveness, or didn't mind it in the
least if they let somebody else de
better than they did.