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Show Choose the Hardest Job First A young fellow, just starting out in life, applied to a business man the other day for a job. "I've got two jobs open," he was told. "One's easy ; the others hard. YVhicn one d'you want to tackle?" "I'll take the hard one," said the lad. "If I can do it all the other jobs, afterward, will seem easier." The boy chose wisely. He reminds this writer of "Switchback Bill" Smith. That's his name in the Cascades. Cas-cades. Over in the Rockies he's "Snow-King Bill." On the Great Northern's payroll i lie's William R. Smith. ! "Switchback Bill" got his first job with the Great Northern 32 years ago. He asked for a tough one and got the job of chaperoning trains over the Cascades on a switchback line that took i nerve, resource and imagination imagina-tion to tackle. ! It was such a tough job j that it made Bill sweat, cuss and stay awake nights but I he did it. j He did it so well that when , a tunnel replaced the switch- i back he got the job of pour- ing cars and locomotives 1 thru it. It was a trifle eas- ier than the first job. But still tough enough. i Tunnels thru the mountains moun-tains came lower and lower i down the hillsides. As time I wont on, Bill's job grew J easier and easier. Some of i 5 it was due to better equip- :'; ment, but most of it was dm i I to the fact that Bill, when j he started, tackled the hard- . "a X , , ' A 'rzi -V I y , J U ; " - I I 4 5 . V ' $ i r 1 s ' ' -f ? -j s A I; ,5 It i x t est job on the" road and William U. Smith made good at it. ' The temptation for every young man is to get an easy job. It is a dangerous temptation. Get the hardest job you can find. Work at it until you've mastered it. Every job you get afterward will seem that much easier. |