Year: 1876

| because n man whose sole work it is to


do one particular thing not only comes
to do it better, but learns to do it with


the least expenditure of time and the


least exertion of brain and muscle; in


fact he works very much like a machine.
The compositor's hand travels the same
! road every time as it goes from the case
to the stick: the brio Alayer always seizes


his brick with the same hand and makes


no unnecessary motions in conveying to


its place, in preparing its mortar lined


couch, or tapping it home; the shoema-


ker whose sole labor is mailing on heels


goes through the few simple motions au-


tomatically, no more stopping to think


which tool is next required or where ne


is to look for his nails than an old wo-
man when knitting thinks about the
stitch, or an ordinary person thinks
what muscles he is to call into play when
walking Does a rapid penman ever stop
to recall the shape OF letter, or do his
words and thoughts flow automatically
from his finger ends2 The fingers of an
experienced player find the keys of his
piano as a compositor finds his type box
es, or the hand knitter her needles and
yarn, automatically.


Habit is another term often employed
to designate what we do automatically,
but habit applies alike to mind and mus
Gle man accustomed TO smoke or
drink does not do these things without
thinking about them; habit only causes
and strengthens the desire. On the 9th
er hand a man who habitually swears,
like a woman who bites her finger nails,
does il unconsciously, and hence auto
matically. 1t is Acknowledged to be a
good thing to possess good habits, and
not merely be free from bad ones; so il
is equally desirable for a man employed
in any specially to acquire the simplest
and best way of doing his work; this
way selected, let him adhere to it perse-
veringly until it becomes automatic. Let
the habit become fixed, and he will find
his speed increase and the exertion di
minish. To accomplish this desirable
end, it j., however, absolutely necessary
that no superfuous movement be made.
In feeding small hand printing press,
where each card must be laid on sepa-
rately, if the cards be piled in such a
manner as to involve turning each one
over or around. the speed is reduced at
least 10 per cent. Every motion, how
ever slight, which must be repeated so
to 100 times per minute is time-robbing.
The writer who crosses his is and dots
his is cannot write so fast as he who
does not. The man who spells bought
through, received, etc, in their simpler
forms bot, thro, reed. saves a large per
centage of time; and if all the silent and
useless letters were omitted, the most
hasty scribblers could find time to write
distinctly. AS that system of shorthand
which has the fewest strokes consistent
with legibility receives the preference,
so that language which uses the fewest
and shortest words to express an idea
perspicuously deserves to become the
universal language of the commercial
world.


practice makes perfect is a good old
proverb and true one; but what is the
use of perfection in bad methods? The
man who always carried stone in one
end of the bag to balance his grist may
have arrived at perfection in the selec-
ton of a suitable stone; but what gain
was that2 First use your brains in de-
vising the shortest and quickest meth
ods, then by practice learn to do them
automatically end you have a maximum
of speed with minimum of labor.