LEARN SOMETHING USEFUL
Every man should make his son or daughter learn some useful trade or
profession, so that in these days of changing fortunes of being rich
to-day and poor tomorrow they may have something tangible to fall back
upon. This provision might save many persons from misery, who by some
unexpected turn of fortune have lost all their means.
LET HOPE PREDOMINATE, BUT BE NOT TOO VISIONARY
Many persons are always kept poor, because they are too visionary. Every
project looks to them like certain success, and therefore they keep
changing from one business to another, always in hot water, always
"under the harrow." The plan of "counting the chickens before they are
hatched" is an error of ancient date, but it does not seem to improve by
age.
DO NOT SCATTER YOUR POWERS
Engage in one kind of business only, and stick to it faithfully until
you succeed, or until your experience shows that you should abandon it.
A constant hammering on one nail will generally drive it home at last,
so that it can be clinched. When a man's undivided attention is centered
on one object, his mind will constantly be suggesting improvements of
value, which would escape him if his brain was occupied by a dozen
different subjects at once.
Many a fortune has slipped through a man's fingers became he was engaged
in too many occupations at a time. There is good sense in the old caution against
having too many irons in the fire at once.
BE SYSTEMATIC
Men should be systematic in their business. A person who does business
by rule, having a time and place for everything, doing his work
promptly, will accomplish twice as much and with half the trouble of him
who does it carelessly and slipshod.
By introducing system into all your transactions, doing one thing at a time,
always meeting appointments with punctuality, you find leisure for pastime
and recreation; whereas the man who only half does one thing, and then turns
to something else, and half does that, will have his business at loose ends, and
will never know when his day's work is done, for it never will be done. Of course,
there is a limit to all these rules.
We must try to preserve the happy medium, for there is such a thing as being
too systematic. There are men and women, for instance, who put away things
so carefully that they can never find them again. It is too much like the "red tape"
formality at Washington, and Mr. Dickens' "Circumlocution Office,"--all theory and
no result.
When the "Astor House" was first started in New York city, it was
undoubtedly the best hotel in the country. The proprietors had learned a
good deal in Europe regarding hotels, and the landlords were proud of
the rigid system which pervaded every department of their great
establishment.
When twelve o'clock at night had arrived, and there were
a number of guests around, one of the proprietors would say, "Touch that
bell, John;" and in two minutes sixty servants, with a water-bucket in
each hand, would present themselves in the hall.
"This," said the landlord, addressing his guests, "is our fire-bell; it will show
you we are quite safe here; we do everything systematically." This was before
the Croton water was introduced into the city. But they sometimes carried their
system too far.
On one occasion, when the hotel was thronged with guests, one of the waiters
was suddenly indisposed, and although there were fifty waiters in the hotel, the
landlord thought he must have his full complement, or his "system" would be interfered with.
Just before dinner-time, he rushed down stairs and said, "There must be
another waiter, I am one waiter short, what can I do?" He happened to
see "Boots," the Irishman. "Pat," said he, "wash your hands and face;
take that white apron and come into the dining-room in five minutes."
Presently Pat appeared as required, and the proprietor said: "Now Pat,
you must stand behind these two chairs, and wait on the gentlemen who
will occupy them; did you ever act as a waiter?"
"I know all about it, sure, but I never did it."
Like the Irish pilot, on one occasion when the captain, thinking he was
considerably out of his course, asked, "Are you certain you understand
what you are doing?"
Pat replied, "Sure and I knows every rock in the channel."
That moment, "bang" thumped the vessel against a rock.
"Ah! be-jabers, and that is one of 'em," continued the pilot. But to
return to the dining-room. "Pat," said the landlord, "here we do
everything systematically.
You must first give the gentlemen each a plate of soup, and when they
finish that, ask them what they will have next."
Pat replied, "Ah! an' I understand parfectly the vartues of shystem."
Very soon in came the guests. The plates of soup were placed before
them. One of Pat's two gentlemen ate his soup; the other did not care for it.
He said: "Waiter, take this plate away and bring me some fish."
Pat looked at the untasted plate of soup, and remembering the
instructions of the landlord in regard to "system," replied: "Not till
ye have ate yer supe!"
Of course that was carrying "system" entirely too far.
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