The Appeal., 1922-06-17
GOOD ADVICE FROM THE RE.
FORMATORY PILLAR.

|
FORMATORY PILLAR.
| The Reformatory Pillar, is little
1 paper published in the prison at st
/ Cloud, Mimi, has many good thing.
| in it, from time to time, but one Q.
the best we have seen lately follows
Lack Of information regarding
matters that have no direct bearing
on a mans life is not ignorance
neither is it disgraceful circunl
stance. Never be ashamed to admit
| that you know nothing whatever
about the subject under discussion, il
you don't. Only a fool will laugh al
you and as snickering is a fools nat.
ural mode Of expression, don't get
angry at hin-pity= him. If you are
in mixed crowd and someone asks
you whether you know how certain
things are performed, don't say "Cer-
tainly," unless you do know. If you
don't know, say "No, how is it done -
and then listen carefully to his ex-
planation so thta you can say Ger
tainly" next time. -. - II.
You will get much more liberal
education by keeping your ears open
than your mouth. Very few of the
human encyclopedias ever get to the
top, or even near it in any trade or
profession. Usually they are third
or fourth-raters and their friends
can't understand why. They can't
understand why John is not a howl
ing success. They say "Why, there
is hardly subject you can mention
but that John seems to know all
about it." That is just what is the
difficulty with John, he seems to
know all about everything, but boiled
down to facts, he knows nothing
about anything. In his wild desire
to be considered we'll read, he Grams
his head with a little of this and a
little of tbat-just skins the surface
so that he really knows very little
of anything. Just enough to know
the name of a thing when it is men
toned. # e.
He cheats himself Of real educa-
tion on any one subject, because his
air of authority kills off general dis
cussion among those who do know.
All ne can say about most any sub
ject is what he has figured out for
himself, because he has not taken the
time to study the matter, either from
books or from men of actual knowl-
edge and experience. For instance,
he has never heard a mechanical en-
gineer expound the why's and where
fores of locomotive, probably has
never even heard an engine crews
opinion; he has only the passengers
angle. Yet when railroads are men
toned he claims to know just what
steam pressure a mogul engine can
stand, and makes an ass of himself
arguing about it when there are loco
motive dremen present.
The sorriest boob on earth is the
fellow who. will not admit honest
ignorance. Learn by varied opinions
all there is to know about subject
you are interested in and flavor the
whole with your own ideas for an in
telligent discussion when it comes up
again.
Never bluff about your knowledge.
The weakest man in any organiza-
tion, or any place in life is the buffer.
If you don't know thing confess it,
and your associates will at least take
notice of your honesty, your mental
integrity. The way to avoid the tenn
tation to bluff is to fill your whole
mind with the facts, figures and prob
lens of your life's work. Avoid try
ing to be jack-of all-trades: If you
work in bank, then think, eat and
dream banking three hundred and
sixtyfve days in the year. If you
are in a printing establishment, sat-
urate yourself with printers ink
twenty hours a day and seven
days week. Never be afraid to ask
questions from anyone who knows
anything about any phase Of your
work. p. !. -. - -
Many people sneer at man who
sticks diligently to one thing and say
he is handicapped by single-tracE.
mind. Well, if there is not enough
right-of-way for more than one track,
just remember that a single track
will bear a great amount of traffic if
it is properly regulated: A one-track
mind is the mind of a specialist and
the mind of specialist is the mind
of success. =. =. .- g.. ~
- To be informed on many subjects
is desirable ESPECIALLY as social
asset-but if you cannot be well in
formed don't pretend to be and be
content to be expert on one subject.
Some men are capable of making a
success of more than one thing at a
time, but where one such man makes
a remarkable success, thousand
make equally remarkable failures
Study over the records of all the sue
cessful men you have ever heard of
and you will find that they all con-
fined their. efforts, diligently and con-
stantly to the one thing, or to things
closely allied to the one thing or
which they founded their success.