314 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



result was so creditable that I was complacent 

 over my conquest of another tool. 



But the workman warned me, "If ever you let 

 the upper corner of that chisel touch the wood 

 you'll have trouble." "I won't forget," said I. 

 "You'd forget in five minutes if I didn't give 

 you a lesson. Now hold the chisel tight and 

 let the corner touch the work," and I did as he 

 said. The chisel didn't get away but it jarred 

 my arm to the shoulder as it tore a great gash 

 in the work which broke loose from the chuck 

 and was sent flying across the room. "That 

 was the only way to make you remember it, and 

 you may need another lesson yet," was the work- 

 man's comment. I was a fairly apt pupil and 

 got out of the kindergarten department early, 

 but even to the last I received from the workmen 

 many practical solutions of problems that wor- 

 ried me. I will give a single and simple example 

 of this. 



I was turning a cylinder in an engine lathe 

 from bronze of a composition with which I was 

 experimenting. The broad-nosed tool with 



