Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1876 — Suggesstions for Young Master Mechanics. [ARTICLE]

Suggesstions for Young Master Mechanics.

j£&;£££L! , &n=& enough of hie trade to bo considered a mod Band and now ooatomplstes start utf for himself, that all he haa to do is to hang out a sign and people will thereupon rush to employ him. Every man has got to build up two thing*, first, his education, second, his business. Then is no loyal road to either. Because a workman has his trade-education, it loos not at all follow that he can command trade. True, he may have his reputation, and through it nuyr obtain employment under others with ease, but in* starting for himself, he should remember this distinction: that he beoOmp the servant not of one or of a doaasnperaona, but or the whole public; and for him to prove to the public, who knows nothing about him at lint, that he it worthv of employment, take* time and patience! Now, it ia usually the case that the young workman has no large amount of funds wherewith to maintain himself during that period of enforced idleness which must follow before sufficient business for his support is secured by him. To expend that amount in high rent, or in tools other than those absolutely necessary, or tor costly fittings to the shop, is excessively fool-hardy and rash. He does not know how long he must wait before his period of independence will arrive, and it is therefore the commonest prudence to husband every resource, under the assumption that that period ia a very long time in the Aiture. The best policy, then, is to take a email room, just large'enough for the purpose of the work to be done, and for the workman not tv attempt anything “in all its branches.” We never landed that addition to a sign on a small shop; in ninety-nine esses out of a hundred, it is a misstatement of the capabilities of ita owner. Better begin with the specialty that can be done best, and then, as business increases, add on the branches Get a reputation estab lisned for doingone thing extraordinarily well, and it wifi go a long way toward extending a business toother affair* when the proper time arrives. Never slight a job, no matter how small and trivial it may appear. People form estimates of ability from small things very frequently, arguing that a workman who attends to minufi<z carefully will be likely to produce more important work complete in ail its parts. Besides, the favorable impression conveyed by some little action has laid the foundation of many a man’s subsequent future. Be satisfied with small though just profits. Because you perhaps can do a job a shade better than any one in the vicinity, do not be exorbitant. We heard an unpublished story of the great drygoods merchant, Stewart, recently, which £» just to the point here. He said he never took advantage of the market but once, and then he had a large stock of a very superior fabric, not elsewnere found. The temptetion was strong to run up the price, and he yielded. Despite the high figures, every yard was sold, and he realized two or taree hundred thousand dollars. “ I thought tiiis a good bargain at the time,” i,». <u<t «<i,nt t afterward discovered that ■‘three millions. 1 found ‘Stewart has first-class e got to pav good prices ok all my efiorts to dispel and I believe it affected $ incss operations.” msel young workmen to ilyof money out of brains easier to spend money uuo to get u, and it is easier to forget ■than to learn. \We have great faith in .savings* banks, when they can show a good surplus; t ana in this respect we would advise working men to avoid those institutions that i offer remarkable inducements In the way of interest, and to deEsit their funds in banks which pay less t which are firmly established. Thousands of New York workmen had their savings swept away recently by neglecting this precaution. Money at reasonable interact increases wonderfully fast, and nothing Can make a man feel more independent of fortune than a neat sum, safely storeib-awav, which cad oe drawn upon in timee of emergency. To riharapliase a well known axiom, “The price of korhledge is eternal study.” Hie world moves. Because you mastered,;* suiiject ten years ago, it does not follow that you know all about it now. A person that expects to keep abreast with foe times, and especially one engaged in a mechanical pursuit, in which improvements are constantly made, must read, or fall in the rear. Brains can be saved by reading, just as money can be by putting it in the bank. Study scientific anu practical books and papers an hour a day, and the accumulation of money at interest will not be nearly so rapid as the growth of your knowledge. VVe believe more can be learned in half an hour's intelligent sti'dy, followed by a thorough thinking over of the subject, than in six hours’ steady application. Tne study can be done out <>f working hours; the thinking you can do a: the lathe, or while performing any job which requires no special skill. Honor your calling, and it will honor you. it is a thousand times better to be a successful mender of pots and pans than sn unsuccessful mender of people's bodies; better to be able to draw a straight forging than a bad brief; better be able to compose good mortar than a poor sermon. There are plenty of examples of good workmen becoming great lawyers, and inventors, and senators, and but veiy tew of poor doctors, or attorneys, or cletgymen transforming themselves into aayuiiug useful at ail. it is a pretty safe rule to believe that, in this world, sooner or later, every man finds his proper level; it is only a question of starting low and working slowly upward, or starting tto high and coming quickly down. The one w usually graceful, the other disgraceful; and then is no human task half so hard aa regaining a lost position, nor One in which honest work more often falls, to- command success.— Scientific