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Show What Shall It Do? been working for the firm three ol four years, say, he will be getting $2i a week, and will be in a direct line ol promotion. It will imt be long till he will be a regular Investigator on the firm's stall at a weekly salary of $25 to $40, and will be becoming a fair Judge ol human nature, and bllod with Inform tlun about hundreds of people. When a newcomer applies for credit, wish Ing to purchase a fair sized bill ol furniture, or to open a regular account to be paid monthly, or to get stock for a little store he plans to start for himself, your boy will be the one to get all information about the applicant appli-cant on which to base his firm's attitude atti-tude toward him. And his opinion, after he has made his Investigation, will be taken without further test! mony. Of course, your boy Is bound to be manager of the credit department; for that is what he has bcn preparing for. and this will come, perhaps, by the time lie 1.4 ;;o cr a little less, so-eot.Ilv; so-eot.Ilv; to the z al and Intelligence ti'ul kt'Piiess that be haH shown Id lower positions. From Sn Investigator, or detective of promise, who is given pome of the most Intricate cases to handle, ami when be earns probably $T0 a week, he Is made assistant man-I man-I ger, If the establishment is of considerable con-siderable sle, Ht 1 l.OOu to $1,000 A year, and then manager, which pays anything from f::,oiio up to $10, ouo, ttciording to the magnitude of the business. Hy tills time he Is one cf the most Important men connected with the firm some say the credit nan Is lbs most important for bis opinion will bo accepted as to the trustworthiness of anybody and everybody that wishes to buy goods, and be has become an authority on human nature Frequently Fre-quently he will lie able to read a man at sight, so great will have been his cxpetlence mid the acumen that has resulted therefrom, and the exorcise of this faculty will save his company from losses that might amount to thousands of dollars through the. unwise un-wise extension of credit. Of course such a man Is bound tc be a member of the firm, If ho re mains with It; but In this case In would bo succeeded In the credit de partment by another direct manager and himself would exercise only Indl rect supervision. If his ambition led toward continuing tho credit line, In would be a likely candidate for the management of a credit association, cither one of the large Independent Institutions, such as Hrndslreets oi Puns, or one that has been formed by merchants or others In a single general gen-eral line for mutual protection, such as the lumbermen's, or the credit a soclation of retail merchants In New York city. In these cases bis services would bo almost Invaluable; for It Is within his powers to be one of the few men really competent to conduct such s business with absolute. Justice, pro tectlng his firm or associates against deadbeats and Irresponsible, and al the same time being so Just as not tc lose customers. Some men are en llrely worthy of credit for a few bun dred dollars, but could not tie safely trusted for two or three thousand; Just as a man might be able to pay monthly Instalments of, say, $25, but could not afford $"i0, though he might delude himself Into thinking he could The keen credit man, such as your boy may become, often knows men bet lei than they know themselves. (Copyright, ll'l-l. by lb Aasuciatetl Ut-erary Ut-erary l'ren ) CREDIT MAN T Not a detective In the ordinary ordi-nary sense of the term, but one who makes himself familiar with the commercial Integrity of the community and whoss skill and trustworthiness In this delicate business are of the greatest service to merchants and others In determining the responsibility of prospective customers A form of life work which Is not overdone and which requires no cspltal other than intelligence, leal and scrupulous Integrity. By C. W. JENNINGS. i " m O long as mankind remains ifr'Si 88 11 18 an(l the comnl('clR, tjvj, world revolves In Its pres- luJhi nt orbit, there is one V-4j fnrrn of 1p'''',,v activity which Is not likely to bo jverdone. So long ss buying and selling sell-ing are the principal orcupaMoru of civilized man, there will be no luck of opportunity for the credit man. It Is a career that should appeal strongly to the bright American boy, and one that offers him certain advantages which are not to be found In many of tho overworked callings of the present day. Here Is a llfework that, while of a sort of detective nature, is a sublimated sublimat-ed phase of prying Into the nffalrs of the other man, because It has to do, rot with finding out If the object Of the Inquiry has actually done wronr or committed a crime, so much as discovering dis-covering If be might do so; In other words. If he pays bis bills. This Is the place that the credit man fills In commercial life. He Is the product of the great advance In business that has been made In the last quarter of n century, which makes It necessary for merrhants and others to learn all they pan about prospective customers, bo as to be sure of them. If your boy Is a keen youngster, he could not get Into a line of work that offers greater opportunities; for Integrity In-tegrity Is the life of commerce, and the only way to discover Integrity Is to Inquire, and the process of Inquiring Inquir-ing Into things of such a delicate nature na-ture requires the greatest tact, which means that there must be places for the employment of this tact when It advances beyond the rudiments. No special preliminaries, in the way of education or otherwise, are necessary neces-sary for your boy to make his start; for, anyhow, he must begin at the bottom bot-tom and prove himself at every stage of bis progress. This means that, at 16 or so, be applies to the head of the credit department of a large store or other mercantile establishment for a Job. When accepted, he will be little more than an office boy; for he knows nothing, as yet, of commercial life. He will receive $.1 or $S a week, and will go through the usual office boy stunts taking In cards of callers, running run-ning all sorts of errands for everybody every-body In the office, sorting reference cards, etc. Thru, when he has got the run of things, be will be set to putting away the cards and reports, and then maybe he will be set at making mak-ing various entries on cards or In books. All these entries have to do with people: With their personal habits, with their earnings; with their rhurch going; with their paying their bills promptly; with their spending more than they earn; with their habit of running up bills, paying promptly In the beginning, then not so promptly and finally not at all. with a balance still due; with their being ext'ava-gant; ext'ava-gant; with the character of their associates; as-sociates; with whether or not their wives and families are extravagant In short, with whether or not they are sober, Intelligent citizens, thrifty, honorable, hon-orable, trustworthy. That it the credit man's business, to find out all thefto things, and have it In such form that It can be told to the man at tie bead of tho department selling a bill of goods, to n stranger asking credit, and there he will know whether to give the man the credit he eeks. Your boy naturMly asslnillaten all this In a general ay before be has been filing these records very long, and will bgln to manifest Interest In bow tt Is sll done. If h Is apt, be will be called Into the office of the manager a couple of years after the b'-ginning, when be will be earning $10 or $12 a week, and told to go out and discover so and so about a ne customer. It will probably be only to learn If the nisn's actual addreos cor responds with the one be gave on bis application for credit, or to request one of the references lo fill out a "(on Udentlal" blank telling what be knows about the applicant; but this Is get ting Into the credit business for the Srst time In earnest. Ikitng this sort of Investigating' well, the aspiring credit detective will be set to harder work, such as Interviewing Inter-viewing the persons referred to themselves, them-selves, and perhaps running down cluea as to the seeker after credit tMt may give his proprietor a more accurate opinion of the customer's re Lability. Hy this time, after be has |