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Show cou-izan' and x:ic; jo::. .. . Tta Crt college man I ever htrei tii olJ John Purbam'a oa, Jim, eaya Ceorre Horace Larlmtr la "Letter from a Self-Made Merchant to Hla Son.',' That waa a good many years ago, vhen the bouse was a much smaller affair. Jim'a father had a lot cf money till he started out to buck the universe and corner wheat And the boy took all the fancy courses and trimmings at college. The old man was mightly proud of Jim. Wanted him to be a literary fellow. But old Durham- found out what everyone learns who gets bis ambitions jnlxed up with No. S red that there's a heap of It lying around loose In the country. The bears did quick work and kept the cash wheat coming In eo lively that one settling- day half a dozen of us had to get under the market to keep It from going to everlasting smash.-. That day made young Jim' a candidate candi-date for a Job. It diJn't take hrm long to decide that the LctI kou!4 attend to keeping up the visible supply of poetry, and that he had better turn bis attention atten-tion to the stocks of mens pork. Next morning lie was laying for me with a letter of Introduction when-1 got to the office, and v hm ha fsund that 'I would not have a r ivate eecretary at any price, be ap;.;ed for every ortier position posi-tion on the premises rlht dowu to of-flee of-flee boy. I told him I w as sorry, but I couldn't do anything for him then; that we were letting men go, but I'd keen him in mind, and so on. The fact was that I d;Jn't think a fellow with Jim's training would be much good, anyhow. But Jim hung on eald he'd taken a fancy to the bouse, and wanted to work for it. Used to call by, about twice a week to And. out If anything bad turned up. Finally, after about a month of this, he wore me down so that I stopped him one day as he was passing me or the street. 1 thought I'd find out If he really real-ly was so red-hot to work as be pretended pre-tended to be; besides; I felt that, perhaps. per-haps. I hadn't treated the boy Just right, as I had delivered Quite Jag I that wheat to his father myself. "Hello. Jim." I called; "do you still war that Job?" . . "Tes. sir he answered, Quick as lightning. . "WelL, I tell you how It Is. Jim." I said, looking up at him he was one of those husky, lazy moving six-footers "I don't see any chance In the- office, but I understand they can use another good, strong man In one of the loading BTsnirsM I thought that would settle Jim and let me out, for if no Joke lugging beef, or ruling barrels and tierces a hundred yards or so to the cars. But Jim came right back at me with, "Done. Who'll I report tot" That sporty way of answering, as If be was closing a bet, made me surer than ever that be was not out out for a butcher. . But I told hlnv and off be started bot-foot to find the foreman. I sent word by another route to see that he got plenty to do. . ... v t I forgot all about Jim until about three months later, when his name was banded up to me for a new place and a raise in pay. It seemed that he had sort of abolished his Job. After he had been rolling barrels a while, and the sport had ground, down one of bis shoulders shoul-ders a couple of inches lower than the other, he got to scheming around for a way to make the work easier, and he bit on an idea for a sort of overhead railroad system, by which the barrels could be swung out of the storerooms and run right along Into the cars, and two or three men do the work f a gang. It was Just as I thought, Jim was laty, but he had put the house in the wsy of saving so much money that It could not fire him. So I raised his salary, and made him an assistant timekeeper and checker. Jim kept at this for three or four months, until his feet began to hurt him. I guess, and then he was out of a Job again. It seems he had heard something of a new machine for registering regis-tering the men, that did away with most of the timekeepers, except the fellows who watched the machines, and he kept after the superintendent until he got him to put them in. Of course he claimed a raise again for effecting such a saving, and- we Just had to allow it. I was beginning to take an Interest in Jim. so I brought him up into the office and set htm to copying circular letters. We used to send off a raft of them to trade. That waa Just before the general gen-eral adoption of typewriters, when they were still in the experimental stage. But Jim hadn't been In the office plugging away at letters for a month before he had the writer's cramp, and began nosing nos-ing around again. . The first thing I knew he was sicking the agents for the new typewriting machine on to me, and he kept them pounding away until they made me give them a trial. Then It was all up with Mister Jim's Job again. .L raised his salary without his asking for it this time, and put him out on the road to Introduce a new product that we were making beef extract. Jim made two trips without selling enough to keep them working overtime at the factory, and then he came into my office with a long story about how we were doing It all wrong. Said we ought to go for the consumer by adver- Using, and make the trade come to us, Instead of chasing It up. That was so like Jim that I Just laughed at first; besides, that sort of advertising was a pretty new thing then, and I was one of the old-timers who didn't take any stock in it. But Jim Just kept plugging away at me between trips, and finally I took him off the road and told him to go ahead and try It in a small way. y Jim pretty nearly scared me to death that first year. At last he had got into something that he took an. interest In-spending In-spending money and he Just fairly wallowed wal-lowed In It. Used to lay awake nights thinking up new ways of getting rid of the old man's profits. And he found them. Seemed an if I couldn't get away from Graham's Extract, and whenever I saw It I gagged, for I knew It was costing me money that" wasn't coming ; hack; but every time I started to draw In my horns Jim talked to me, and showed me where there was a fortune watting for me Just around the corner, f: Graham's Extract started out by being be-ing something that you could make beef tea out of that was all. But before Jim had been fooling with it a month he had got his girl to think up a hundred hun-dred different ways In which It could be used, and had advertised them all. It seemed there was nothing you could cook that didn't need a dash of it. He kept me between a chill and a sweat all the time. Sometimes, but not often. of-ten. I Just had to grin at his foolishness. foolish-ness. I remember one picture he got out showing sixteen cows standing between be-tween something that looked like a letter let-ter press, and telling how every pound or so of Graham's Extract contained the Juice squeezed from a herd of steers. If an explorer started for the north pole, Jim would send him a case of Extract Ex-tract and then advertise that It was the great heat-maker for cold climates; and if some other fellow started across Africa he sent him a case, too, and advertised ad-vertised what a bully drink It waa served up with a little Ice. He broke out in a new place every day, and every time he broke out It cost the house money. . Finally. I made kup my mind to swallow the loss, and Mister Jim was about to lose his Job sure enough, when the orders for Extract Ex-tract began to look up. and he got a reprieve; re-prieve; then be began to make expenses, and he got a pardon; and finally a rush came that left him high and dry In a permanent place. - Jim was all right In his way. but It was a new way, and I hadn't been broad gauged enough to see that it was a better way. . That was where I caught the Connection Connec-tion between a college .education and business. Tve always made It. a rule to buy brains, and Tve learned now that the better trained they are the faster they find reasons for getting their salaries raised. The fellow who hasn't bad the training may be Just as smart, but he's apt to paw the air when he's reaching for Ideas. 4 |