Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1879 — Do It Well. [ARTICLE]

Do It Well.

Whatever you do, do it well. A job slighted, because it is apparently unimportant, leads to habitual neglect, so that men degenerate, insensibly, into bad workmen. “That is a good rough job,” said a foreman in our hearing recently, and he meant that it was a piece of work not elegant in itself, but strongly made and well put together. Training the hand and eye to do work well leads individuals to form correct habits in other respects, and a good workman is, in most cases, a good citizen. No one need hope to nse above his present situation who suffers small things to pass by unimproved, or who neglects, mataphorically speaking, to pick up a cent because it is not a dollar. Some of the wisest law-makers, the best statesmen, the most gifted artists, the most merciful judges, the most ingenious mechanics, rose from the greaq mass. A rival of a certain lawyer sought to humiliate him publicly by saying: “You blacked my father’s boots once. ” “Yes, ” replied the lawyer, unabashed, ‘ 1 and I did it well.” And because of his habit of doing even mean things well, he rose to greater. Take heart, all who toil! all youths in humble situations, all in adverse circumstances, and those who labor unappreciated. If it be but to drive the plow, strive to do it well; if it be but to wax thread, wax it well; if only to cut bolts, make good ones; or to blow the bellows, keep the iron hot. It is attention to business that lifts the feet higher up on the ladder. Says the good Book: “Seest thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.”— Scientific American.

—S. L. Harvey, of Greenville, Pa., met with a singular accident a few days ago. He had boiled some chestnuts. After taking them from the pot he poured cold water on them and immediately placed one in his mouth for the purpose of breaking the shell. The hot water had filled the nut with steam, and when the shell burst the steam escaped, burning the gentleman’s mouth so badly that -he was unable to partake of food fo'r two daj s.