Discussion. 211 



anything we have the control of ought to be termed 

 drudgery. There are times when we have to work, and work 

 hard.but it does not folio w that it is drudgery because we have 

 to work hard. It has been my fortune to be on confidential 

 terms with quite a number of merchants, and if there are 

 any men on the face of the earth who have to work hard, 

 they are the men engaged in mercantile life. So far as the 

 world knew, they were doing a good business. They were 

 well dressed, but they worked more hours in a day than ten, 

 and not one in a hundred knew of the care and anxiety 

 they went through. I have known a number of such men. 

 I have known a good many farmers that lived as I have 

 been sorry to see them live; as there was no necessity for 

 their living. They were always behind with their work, 

 and, as a matter of course, their wives were behind with 

 theirs. Years ago, when I let my sons be managers in my 

 work, one of the first rules was, " don't let the work get 

 ahead of you." I authorized the one who was foreman, 

 " don't let the work get ahead of you. Hire all you want. I 

 will find ways and means to pay for them somehow. Keep 

 a little ahead of your work all the time." I am very certain 

 that that has been one reason of our success, such as it has 

 been. We always tried to be so up with our work that if 

 the boys wanted to go and spend a day or two, nothing 

 would suffer. I remember, years ago, a son of one of our 

 neighbors was helping us, and I was saying that the work 

 was getting behind, and that we must hire more help, when 

 my boys came up and told of some other boys who were 

 going hunting, and asked if they might go. I said yes. I 

 never should have thought of it again if it had not been for 

 that young man. After the boys were gone, he said, " Here, 

 you were talking about having to hire more men, and the 

 next thing you let your boys go off hunting. Our father 

 would not let us do that. He would thrash the hides oft" our 

 backs if we had even asked." I took the trouble to find out 

 something about that man. He was mean and ugly to his 

 whole family down to his wife, horses and dogs, and the re- 

 sult was that he was left in his old age, and nobody cared 



