Why Roy Was Chosen

1916

By E. L. Andrews.

"I'm going to hire an office boy," said Mr. Russell to his wife, as they sat at the supper table.

"How would one of the Wade boys do?" suggested Mrs. Russell. "They are such manly, businesslike boys."

"I was considering them," replied Mr. Russell. "I think I shall hire one of them, but I don't know which to choose. I want a boy who will stick to a task until it is finished. I pay my boys well, and I expect their best." As he spoke Mr. Russell arose from his chair. "I think I'll go over and talk to the Wade boys," he said. "Perhaps I can decide then which one of them to hire."

A few moments later, Mr. Russell opened the front gate of the Wade home. The two boys, Jim and Roy, sat on the lawn with the hammer, nails and boxes before them.

"Hello," called Mr. Russell, "what are you making?"

"Hello," answered both the boys, and then Jim, who was a year older than Roy, added, "We are building a tool box to put in the barn."

"And I have pounded my thumb three times," volunteered Roy, holding up that bruised member.

"You'd better tie it up," counseled Mr. Russell, examining the thumb.

"Oh, it will soon be all right," returned Roy, with a shake of the head; "it doesn't hurt a bit."

While Roy spoke, Jim was quietly gathering boards and nails into the box. "Let's quit for tonight, Roy," he said in a whining tone. "We can finish this tomorrow."

But Roy continued to pound nails. "I'm going to finish this tool box tonight," he said quietly.

As Jim disappeared around the corner of the house, Mr. Russell's face glowed with excitement. "Roy," he said, "I'd like you to be my office boy this summer. Would you like the work?"

"Like it!" echoed Roy. "Oh, Mr. Russell, I'd be so glad to have the job!"

So the bargain was sealed. As Mr. Russell walked home through the dusk, he said to himself, "I've found the very boy I'm looking for." And Roy, finishing the tool box on the lawn, paused in his work thoughtfully, "I wonder how he came to choose me, when Jim could have done his work just as well as I can do it." — King's Treasuries.

Note: That's a nasty story, as there's no reason why it'd be wrong to finish the project tomorrow. But it obviously hinges on Jim's "whining tone," and Roy's diligent persistence as to why Mr. Russell chooses Roy.

Office Boy Always Potential Boss

1910

By Jonas Howard

"Every office boy is a potential office manager. Every clerk is a potential head of the firm. The talk that the day of opportunity is past is all rot. The chance to 'work up' is as good as ever. It always is up to the boy."

These little extracts from the philosophy of James B. McMahon, whose recent election as first vice-president of the American Cotton Oil Company of New York supplemented his old position as vice-president of the N. K. Fairbank Company of Chicago, are worth the reading and remembering. The difference between them and the casual optimisms of the ordinary giver of "advice to the young" is that they emanate from a man who has the right to talk, especially along this line. Mr. McMahon does not say what he does simply because he believes it. He knows. Mr. McMahon began his career as an office boy with the firm of which he now comes near being the head.

The story of McMahon is a good, inspiring idea with which to begin the new year. It reeks with hope and optimism and has results to back it up. McMahon now is only 43 years old and from a start humble enough to suit anybody he has mounted pretty near to the heights of business success.

He was 14 when he began in the New York office of the Fairbank company. That was 28 years ago. There was nothing spectacular or meteoric about the boy. There are probably thousands of office kids around the country at this moment who show as much promise as did he. He was just a common office boy who had to work for a living and he did nothing but work, work hard, for his subsequent promotions.

He moved naturally from ordinary office boy to ordinary clerk and it wasn't until he was placed in charge of the export shipping business that the future began to promise much. There he displayed the ability that won him the confidence of his superiors and in 1896 he was appointed general sales manager and came to Chicago.

Chicago has been the scene of his most important activities, but he had won his spurs before he came here. It is easy enough to continue as a success; where the thousands fail is in making the big step upward.

Your Conscience Is Your Compass

1920

UNCOMMON SENSE
By John Blake

Your Conscience Is Your Compass

There are few men who do not know instinctively right from wrong. In their course through life their consciences are their compasses.

And those compasses are always in a convenient place, ready to be consulted. The thief knows he is a thief, although he may try to justify his thievery. The idler knows he is an idler, and is secretly ashamed of it, although he may find a hundred excuses for being idle. The man who succeeds is the man who uses the compass that nature has placed within him to direct his course and to warn him when he is going wrong.

He cultivates the habit of steering by compass. And he allows nothing to distract his attention.

Two lines that were greatly admired by Doctor Johnson are worth engraving on your mind. They are:

"Though pleased to see the dolphins play I mind my compass and my way."

Learn those two lines and their lesson, and you will be saved many idle and useless wanderings from your course as you navigate the difficult waters of life.

The love of pleasure is strong in man, and should of course be indulged to some extent. But to indulge it to the exclusion of the important business of making the port you are bound for is mere stupidity.

Be thankful for the "silent voice" that will give you your real position if you ask for it Be glad that the most useful information you can obtain is always at hand when you want it — the information as to where you ought to be bound.

Ships set forth through fog and storm, sure that while the compass holds true their course will be right, and they will reach the destination they desire to reach.

You too, by choosing your destination, can reach it, perhaps after delay due to storms or tides, but surely, if though you may occasionally watch the dolphins, your chief attention is upon your compass and your way.

—The Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News, Lincoln, Nebraska, February 25, 1920, page 6.