Business Life 133 



land, and became a great and shining example to 

 his race for all time. 



Now Mr. Bok's paper — as has been said — laid 

 stress upon the comparative value of effort, but he 

 laid still greater stress upon the superlative value 

 of concentrated effort. According to him, it is ne- 

 cessary to place all your eggs in one basket — and 

 to watch that basket. 



Unhappily, this advice does not commend itself 

 to the Native Son of the Golden West. He likes 

 to place his eggs in many baskets ; and then he 

 sets himself the task — thereby wearing himself 

 to skin and bone — of trying to be in two places 

 at one and the same time, — like Sir Boyle Koche's 

 bird. If you had access to the ledgers of the men 

 who have become bankrupts in the last decade, 

 you would find, under Profit and Loss, that the 

 profits made in the bankrupts' regular business had 

 been squandered and lost in half a dozen or more 

 wild-cat enterprises. They will generally plead in 

 extenuation that they have had bad luck ; which 

 reminds one of the story of the man who murdered 

 his father and mother, and then invoked the mercy 

 of the Court upon the ground that he was an 

 orphan. 



In a certain town I know there is a sign, upon 

 which is inscribed the following legend : — 



"Home-Made Bread: Job Printing: 

 Rubber Stamps." 



Bread, of course, demands in the making clean 

 hands ; job printing is more defiling than pitch. 

 One person was baker, printer, and rubber stamp 



