Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1899 — HIS START IN LIFE. [ARTICLE]

HIS START IN LIFE.

As Inventor Who W<s Not Daunted by gmall nbstsfl The late G. W. U. Yost, inventor qf the typewriter, used to tell nii friends that his business success was due to hk always bearing down hard on line point until he made it felt, illustrating the remark by gradually increasing the pressure of one thumb • on any available and tender portionje of his friend’s thigh, until the friend acknowledged the force and application of the pointWhen a young man on his way to Washington, Mr. Yost arrived in Chicago with no funds to carry him farther. Accordingly, he-set out in quest of work, and calling first at a large iron foundry asked to he directed to the foreman. When the foreman had been pointed out, tbe young man approached him and saia: ‘ifiir, I have come to work for you, and want ydu to tell me what I’m to do first.” “We’ve all the hands we need,” said the foreman, gruffly, turning away. “But you don’t quite understand me,” exclaimed the young inventor. “I said that I have come to Work for you. Now, I want you to tell me what I’m to do first.” The foreman turned with a surprised expression. “See here, young man,” he skid, sharply, “I tell you we have all the hands we need. Now, go along.” “Why, my dear sir,” said Mr. Yost, with the blandest smile and greatest geniality of voice, “that isn’t at all the question we are to discuss. What I said is that I have come to work for you. Now, I want you tell me what I’m to do first.”

The young man’s manner was so engaging that the foreman could not feel himself offended, and, after a moment, pointing to three Irishmen piling pig iron, hesaid, ironically: “Do what those three men are doing”’ Nothing daunted, the young mqn obeyed his instructions literally, and in an hour piled as much pig iron as did the three other men. “Now boss those men and make them work like that,” observed die foreman. Mr. Yost was rapidly promoted, and soon earned enough to enable him to complete his journey. “But I had a harder time to get that foreman to let me go,” he said, in telling the story, “than I had in getting him to tell me what to do first.”— London Tit-Bits.