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MAKING MONEY AT HOME 389
the means of his choice of a vocation and he had become a scientific farmer.
No matter what work is attempted in the summer-time, the requirements are just as great as those made of employees who work all the year round. Perhaps they are greater, for an employer is naturally less patient with a boy or girl who is at work only temporarily and in some branch of his business that does not require or show skill and trained ability.
We would like to quote part of a statement which was gathered by the superintendent of schools in Houston, Texas, from a very fair and very successful storekeeper in that city. What he says applies to young workmen and bookkeepers and errand boys nearly as much as to young clerks.
The first thing that I want of a clerk is that he should be attentive. Some children seem unable to put their minds on what they are doing, and to keep it there. I have no use for a clerk who does one thing while he is thinking about something else. I want him to put all his mind on the thing he is doing. If boys and girls in school learn nothing else than merely how to pay attention they learn something that is worth money to them.
Then again, I want boys and girls who are accurate. It is not necessary that they be able to do a great many things, but what they do, they should do well. They should make plain figures. If a boy makes a 2, he should make it so that just anybody can tell whether it is a 2, or a 5. If he writes the name of a customer, he should write it so there will be no doubt about the way it is spelled. It is not necessary that our young folks write beautifully, or even that they write particularly rapidly when they first come to us; but it is necessary that they should write plainly.
It is necessary that a boy know how to use a decimal point.
If he makes a bill and you cannot tell whether it is for $3.05
or for $305, it is absolutely useless. When he puts down
figures to add on a bill, he must put one exactly under the
other, so that there will be no difficulty in adding them. X—26 |
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