Chapter 10

Because the city boy is surrounded with schools and the comforts of home he has much time on his hands. The boy is active, and if his activity is not turned on useful things, it will be turned on useless things. The young boy goes to the grammar school, and the daylight hours, outside of school hours, are devoted to play. This is right and as it should be, but when the boy gets along to twelve or fourteen years of age, the parents should arrange for him some little duties, some regular task to perform. The youngster will get accustomed to this, and it is decidedly beneficial. As the boy enters the high school he finds his hours shorter and his leisure hours longer.

The high school period is a most important one in the boy's life, and the father should see to it that the high school boy is occupied for several hours each day, either in his own place of business or in some other establishment.

There is no way of teaching a boy the value of money like having him work for money.

Arrange to pay your boy so much an hour for the duties he performs. Have his occupation regular, talk with him about what he has done during the day, be a companion to the boy, and soon you will notice that he evinces interest in the things he is doing, and as time passes, ambition is fired in his breast, and when the time comes for him to enter the threshold of business he has been prepared for the work.

It is strange that while we parents realize the importance of education, we pay so little attention to the boy while he is going to school. We should keep in touch with the boy's teachers and with the boy himself, taking an interest in his studies. The business man as a rule drifts apart from his son during his younger years.

There is nothing that will help the boy so much as being a companion to him, being interested with him in the things he does, whether work or study. Fathers and sons should be comrades.

A close companionship between father and son is not only a great satisfaction and source of happiness to each of them, but is decidedly beneficial to both.

By all means have some regular occupation for your boy while he is going to school. Keep in close touch with him. Explain to him the things he does not understand. Show him the great possibilities ahead of him if he does right, and the impossibility for him to succeed if he does wrong.

Pull

The young man who is expecting to get a fat job through pull is working on a false basis. The young man whose objective is to get a snap shows he has not ambition, and surely this young man will occupy inferior positions as long as he gets a job through pull.

There is a legitimate pull in business, and that is activity and ability. Don't look for snaps. Snaps are merely traps. Men are not paid for snaps, but for snap.

The average young man just out of college looks for a job through the pull of his father or some relation, and in this he is making a great error. The best way to get a job is to get it without pull through your own energy and aggressiveness.

The best jobs are obtained through push and not pull.

The City Hall and Government buildings all have the word "pull" on the front door, and in direct contrast with this you will notice the front doors of the successful business institutions are marked "push."

Gossip

It is surprising to see the extent to which gossip is carried on among business men. The funny papers always refer to women and the members of the sewing societies as gossips of the first class, but if the gossip going around business circles could be tabulated, we are sure the sewing society would have the joke on us.

It is a footless thing to spend valuable time in idle gossip, for the gossip is seldom a successful business man.

Gossip takes hold of some men to such an extent that most of their waking hours are spent in finding out something to tell to someone else, and thus leaves but little time for business.

Bribes

Many business men seem to think that bribes are efficient helps. It is not so. The moment you bribe a person you acknowledge your dishonesty by paying for his dishonesty, and you may be sure that the bribe habit will grow; the demands of the men accepting the bribe will grow to alarming proportions. For every dollar you make by bribing someone, you are losing ten dollars in other ways, especially in your own self respect and satisfaction.

The moment you give a bribe you are under obligations, and some day or other the facts will be brought out and you will suffer the consequences of your own weakness.

Underhand, clandestine information you get is no more than dishonesty on your part. You can get better information and accomplish your purpose more surely by going direct to a competitor, stating your case plainly, and announcing your abhorrence of underhand methods. Your competitor will appreciate you more for your fairness, and he will go out of his way to give you information when you have shown you are square.

Stenographers

Few young men realize the advantage of learning stenography. We all know the young man who writes shorthand comes in touch with the boss at once, and while acting as amanuensis or secretary is getting a schooling that money could not buy. He is going through and becoming familiar with business as it actually exists.

He sees the decisions made by his employer, and he unconsciously absorbs methods which would be almost impossible for him to learn were it not for his proximity to the boss.

Shorthand is decidedly beneficial, first--because it is a good training for the mind; second--it is a help all through one's life. It enables him to take down memoranda and keep notes of verbal transactions; it enables him to get in the private office, and to be in the middle of the nerve centers of business.

Some of the greatest men in this country were shorthand writers. The stenographer who is alert soon gets to the center of the business; he soon has responsibilities given him by the boss, and is in direct line for promotion.

Hypochondriacs

Here is a type we run across every day in business. We see the apparently well man taking out a pill box or a bottle of medicine as he sits down to lunch. We ask him what is the matter, and he proceeds to tell us about his bodily ills and infirmities.

Many men seem to take a keen delight in having something the matter with them. They go to a physician, though often the disease is practically mental.

You can't get health out of a glass bottle. The man who is taking medicine all the time is going at things wrong end to. If his stomach is out of whack he should change his method of living rather than to try to cure his dyspepsia with stuff that comes in a bottle.

The man who needs a tonic before he can eat a lunch had better take plenty of air and exercise than to take poisonous drugs into his system.

If you are a smoker and find you have no appetite for lunch, give up cigars in the forenoon, and you will notice an immediate difference when you sit down to the noonday meal.

The hypochondriac imagines he has things the matter with him, and he becomes confirmed in his belief, he finds that so long as he lives he has something the matter with him. He no sooner gets cured of one than something else attacks him. There is no medicine like air and exercise and occupation. The man who gives in to trifling ailments is in a sad plight. He is never happy unless he is sick. He is unreasonable, and he is the last one to appreciate what can be done by a man who cures himself through the mental processes.

We all know that we can take a perfectly well man and pre-arrange to have a dozen of his friends on a given day greet him with some remark about his ill appearance. That man will be sick before the tenth man accosts him.

Politics

Politics is a losing game. Every man owes it to himself and to his family and to his country to take an interest in politics to the extent of getting out to the primaries and voting for the right man, and help to get good men in office. But when a man carries politics to extremes or mixes it with his business, his business is sure to suffer.

There are two kinds of politics--the honest kind and the grafting kind. The honest politician gets very slight remuneration for the time and energy he spends, and the grafting politician sooner or later winds up in the soup through his dishonest practices.

There is no greater danger to business than to have the proprietor spend much of his time in politics. The upright business man will not descend to the things practised by the dishonest politician, and the sharp business man who has no compunctions on this score will make a loss in his business.

The law of compensation surely comes in here, for in proportion as a man plays politics his business is bound to suffer.

Profanity

Twenty-five years ago profanity was found on every side. Today you find it only among laborers. Business men won't allow profanity.

Swearing goes with lying. The truthful man can look you in the eye and chisel out his words and you know he means it.

The liar gets angry and swears, and he is a bluff.

Truth doesn't need curse words to make it stick.

Some great men swear and many small men swear. Usually, however, the truly great man doesn't swear.

Men who think, men who study and analyze, seldom swear.

Swear words are usually used as fillers in sentences. Some men have limited knowledge of adjectives so they resort to swearing.

Mark this when you hear a man firing a volley of profanity in rapid succession--You lose respect for that man!

Profanity is an easier habit to acquire and harder to give up than its distant relative, slang.

Slang has its value for it has taken place of much profanity.

Slang and profanity, and logic and thought don't mix well together. The more profanity, the less brains in your make-up. Profanity is a hold-back.

System

System is all right so long as it lessens labor. Generally system is complex and increases fixed charges.

The system of copying every letter is a waste of time. Not once in a thousand cases do you require to refer to a letter.

Have fixed rules and prices and you won't have to refer to letters.

When you do copy a letter copy it on the back of the letter you are answering. Use a carbon sheet.

Have Simplicity your rule instead of System.

System has tangled many institutions.

Beware of system that makes more work.

Don't clutter up your office with a lot of useless data and wagon loads of old letters and records.

Rule of Gold

Centuries ago Confucius was walking through the woods soliloquizing and analyzing and sizing up things in solitude. While thus engaged he was waylaid by two Chinese peasants. These men had heard of Confucius' philosophy, but they could not make much out of it, for Confucius used words beyond their limited understanding. These men, with raised clubs, halted Confucius and said to him: "Our minds are small. We do not understand the things you say. Tell us how to live. Make your story short or we will slay you. We can only remember as much as you can tell in a moment. Therefore, stand on one foot and tell us quickly what we are to do. We can only remember what you can tell while standing on one foot."

Confucius stood on one foot and said: "Sing, fat, bong, lung, looy," which, being interpreted, means "what you would like others to do to you, do to them."

This is the golden rule which has been handed down through centuries. It has been alloyed and simulated. It has been attacked, but, like all pure gold, it has endured forever. There is no line of action we can suggest or anything that will prove more valuable to the young man or old man through life than the golden rule.

The golden rule is not theoretical, but a wholly practical help, and so in closing this series of talks with you, the writer feels that the essence of all the logic, good advice and philosophy may be summed up in the following:

"Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."

In saying good-bye we suggest that you particularly remember the key to knowledge, which is O.R.B., and which means Observe, Reflect and Benefit, and the practice of the following: Work, Horse Sense and Golden Rule.

THE END

My Symphony

By

COL. Wm. C. HUNTER

I have set my mark at Truth, My purpose fixed, I shall not hesitate; Ever on and on again I go toward the goal of my ambition; I shall not turn aside or pause. The pleadings of the Siren, The wiles of the Devil, The threats of mine Enemies, Shall not make my Purpose change. Obstacles may block my path And Darkness blur my way. But ever firm with Right my guide I shall keep pushing on. I may not reach my grand Ideal, But be that as it may, The journey to it surely will Be a pleasant one; And should I fall upon the way, My face shall be toward the place I started for. Truth is Right and Right is Truth, Wrong shall surely fail; I shall not be discouraged At Clouds or Storms. I know the Sun doth shine, It beams somewhere tho' I see it not. I fear not but the end of Time Will show all Things that are, are best For the Eternal plan. Truth endureth and Lies shall not obtain For any length of time. In Shadow Land are upstretched hands And, midst the noise of this Great World Are feeble cries for help; My ear shall practice to hear such calls, My hands shall train to lift the fallen; Noble men and women who are pushed aside Need champions for their cause; Man, where'er he is or what he be Is none the less my brother And needs the strong to cheer him on. What we extend in help and cheer, Brings its reward in Happiness. It is not for me to say or think Look out for myself first; The bird, the beast, the stream that flows, The hills, the fields, the land, the sea, Are Parts, are Things like me, And all belong to one Grand Plan; The stars, the moon, the sky, And endless space as well, Are Parts of one machine, That runneth by but One Grand Power Of which I am in truth a part, An Atom though I be. All things that are, are best-- This much Truth I know, Though why things are I can't explain, My Vision still is dim. All answers will be given out When time shall be no more, And so I keep a-plodding on, And on and on my way; My face is to the Light, My heart doth sing for Joy; I strive to do the best I can each day In Act and Thought and Word; I know not just the plan of things that are But back of all is Truth, And Truth I seek; I shall not know all Truth Until the great Revealing Time.

Col. Hunter's Symphony is printed on heavy parchment paper. Illustrated in colors. Size 9 x 12 inches. It is suitable for framing or may be hung on the wall with ribbon. Price, postpaid, 25 cents a copy.

Another Colonel Hunter Book

This book is full of pathos and humor. It is all stories and sketches depicting life in the far West. It tells of the doings of Grizzly Pete, Joe Kip and other inhabitants of Frozen Dog, Idaho, where Colonel Hunter has his beautiful ranch. It breathes the spirit of the mountains and the forest. In Dollars and Sense you have read the business side of Colonel's life. In Frozen Dog Tales you get his life as he sees it while close to nature.

The book is much larger than Dollars and Sense. It is bound in fancy cloth covers in colors. It has 200 pages and one or more pictures on every page in colors.

If you like Dollars and Sense, you will love Frozen Dog Tales. It touches your heart strings and the next moment convulses you with laughter.

The price of Frozen Dog Tales is $1.00 per copy, postpaid.

Address HUNTER & CO., Oak Park, Ill.

COL. HUNTER'S Autographed Motto

We want every reader of Dollars and Sense to have one of these brass mottoes.

The illustration below shows the size.

The autographed motto is engraved and enameled. It has a hole in the center to tack it up.

The motto can either be worn as a pocket piece, or it may be tacked up on your desk, on your dresser, or on the wall.

THE PLATE IS TWO INCHES IN DIAMETER

PRICE 10 CTS. POSTPAID

Address HUNTER & CO., OAK PARK, ILL.