How to Become Rich: A Treatise on Phrenology, Choice of Professions and MatrimonyWindsor, William
Science
How to Become Rich: A Treatise on Phrenology, Choice of Professions and Matrimony
Windsor, William
Phrenology
He kept his word, and placed the boy in a musical conservatory under
first-class instructors, and before the seventy-five dollars was
expended, the boy was the pride of the institution. He led his classes;
graduated with first honors; is to-day the leader of a first-class
orchestra and a professor in a leading conservatory; commands better
compensation than any accountant in the city, and has an _entree_ into
the best society at all times by reason of his accomplishments. He
stands to-day a king among his fellows because he is using his strongest
faculties. But the best of it lies in the fact that he enjoys his
profession; his position is one of dignity and pleasure. Whether he
stands before audiences at the head of his orchestra, in the drawing
rooms of _elite_ society, or in the solitude of his study, his brain
vibrates with the harmony of his own grand usefulness.
I have a friend who holds the position of first book-keeper in a leading
bank, and he is master of the situation because he is able to add four
columns of figures at once with absolute accuracy. He commands a
first-class salary for first-class work, and it is pleasurable to watch
the pride, the dignity, and the evident enjoyment with which he performs
the duties of his station. On one occasion I went into the bank to
settle an account of long standing, and at the request of the cashier,
my friend, the book-keeper, made out the account and added it up in his
usual quick way. The cashier, being desirous of preventing any possible
mistake, said, "Mr. B----, will you please add that up again and see
that your figures are correct." The book-keeper was insulted. The idea
that he might make a mistake was not to be tolerated. With an expression
of lofty dignity that I shall never forget, he handed back the account
without looking at it, saying, "The account is correct, sir." And as the
cashier laboriously added it one column at a time he found that it was.
The book-keeper was master of the situation, and he was able to
humiliate anybody who dared to question his work. And as I saw his
satisfaction in the discomfiture of the cashier, I said to myself,
Verily the enjoyment of a man's business is a legitimate part of the
profits.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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