iS MODERN BLACICSMITHING 



seems to mean only horse-shoeing, and our trade 

 journals are nut much better posted. Whenever a 

 blacksmith is alluded to, or pictured you will always 

 find a horse-shoe in connection with it. Yet there are 

 thousands of blacksmiths that never made a horse-shoe 

 in all their lives. Horse-shoeing has developed to be 

 quite a trade, and if a man can learn it in a few years 

 he will do well. I would not advise any young" man 

 to start out for himself with less than three or four 

 years' experience. - Every horse-shoer should make an 

 effort to learn blacksmithing. He will be expected to 

 know it, people don't know the difference; besides this, 

 it will, in smaller cities, be hard to succeed with horse- 

 shoeing alone. On the other hand, every blacksmith 

 should learn horse-shoeing, for the same reasons. 

 Therefore, seven or even ten years is a short time to 

 learn it in. But, who has patience and good sense 

 enough to persevere for such a course, in our times, 

 when everybody wants to get to the front at once? 

 Let every young man remember that the reputation 

 you get in the start will stick to you. Therefore be 

 careful not to start before you know your business, 

 and the years spent in learning it will not be lost, but 

 a foundation for your success. Remember, that if a 

 thing is not worth being well done it is not w^orth being 

 done at all. It is better to be a first-class bootblack 

 or chimney sweep, than be a third-class o£ anything 

 else. 



Don't be satisfied by simply being able to do the 

 work so as to pass, let it be first class. Thousands of 

 mechanics are turning out work just as others are 



