The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 14, 22 April 1925, Page 61

The Family Circle

X . “MARY.” jpO wondrous Mother! Since the dawn of &-*(■ time Was ever joy, was ever grief like thine? ::. Oh, highly favored in thy joy’s deep flow And favored e'en in this, thy bitterest woe ! Poor was that homo in simple Nazareth, Where thou, fair-growing like some silent flower, 1 Last of a kingly lineunknown and lowly, 0 dear lily!—passed thy childhood’s hour. - The world know not the tender, serious maiden, Who through deep, loving years so silent X grew, Filled with high thoughts and holy aspirations,* A "Which, save thy fathers’ God, no eye might view.' And then it came, that message from the Highest, Such as to woman ne’er before descended; The Almighty’s shadowing wings thy soul o’er spread, And with thy life the Life of worlds was blended. i Well did thy dark eye* kindle, thy deep soul Rise into billows and thy heart rejoice; f. Then woke the poet’s fire, the prophet’s song Tuned with strange, burning words thy timid i' \ voice, ■ - x • 1 hen in dark contrast came the lowly manger, The outcast shed, the tread of brutal fee Again, behold earth’s learned and her lowly— Sages and shepherds prostrate at thy feet! Then to the temple bearing, hark again, What strange, conflicting words of prophecy -> > Breathe o’er the Child, forshadowing words > ; of joy, High" triumph, and yet bitter agony. T; Oh, highly favored thou, in-many an hour Spent in lone musing with thy wondrous Son, ■ When thou didst gaze into that glorious eye, And hold that mighty hand within ,thine own. •V, v V' Blessed in those thirty years, when in thy dwelling He lived, a God, disguised with unknown power, ; » And thou, His sole adorer best love Trusting, revering, waitedst for His hour ! THE SUCCESSFUL BOY. v _ “I want a job!” Mi ? The head of the electric lighting concern looked up from his desk and saw a gangling hoy of 17 ; facing him with a look of respectful v determination that carried conviction. v But I haven’t any position that you could :v possibly fill, - and ; right now I’m so driven ■ that—” —A-

“I want a job,” interrupted the boy with an odd smile that didn’t detract from the serious determination of his genial expression. “And I’m willing to work six months without a cent of pay.” “Well, that’s rather a new one,” exclaimed the owner of the lighting plant. “But” The boy was looking for that “but,” and caught it on the fly. “You see it’s this way, sir,” he interrupted, “I’ve just finished at the manual training school, and I’ve made up my mind that electric lighting’s the thing for me and that I’m going to be started in it. 1 It has a future, and I want to understand it and make it my line.” His eyes were kindling with enthusiasm when the man at the desk opened with another “But —” He didn’t get an inch beyond the depressing qualification, for the boy shot into the sentence with; “I’ll work for nothing and keep just as careful hours as your foreman or anybody else on your payroll. You’ve got a good plant, sir, and I can see that it’s bound to grow a lot in the next three years. Electric lighting has just started. It’s the best business to get into in the world and I’m going to learn it from the ground up. I want a job with you. No pay for six months.” “But I don’t see how I can possibly use you,” responded the man of the plant.” “Although I’m bound to say that I like your grit, and I think you are on the right track and” “Just give me the job,” cut in the boy, “and I’ll find something to do that will help you. There’s always work around a plant like yours that a boy who’s had a little technical training can find to do — are some references from my instructor and two or three business men who know me—” “Look, here,” suddenly interrupted the man at the desk, “you certainly do want a job. And you are going to get it. I can see that right now. I know you reminded me of somebody, but I couldn’t think who. Now I know. When I was a little boy we had a dog that used to go into the woods and hunt coons, all day by himself. If he treed the coon, he’d stay at it till someone hunted him up and chopped the tree down. You’ve got a family resemblance to that dog. I’ll give you a letter to the superintendent.” When, a fortnight later, he called at the plant, the foreman remarked: “Say, that boy you sent up here’s the oddest old duck you ever saw. He takes his job just as hard as if he was drawing profits or my salary instead of working for nothing a week and paying 1 his own carfare! Why his aunt died the other day and he did not come for two days, but he sent a substitute . and paid him out of his own pocket. He’s the first man on the job in the morning and the last to leave at night. From the minute he gets here till he leaves he’s as busy as a boy at a circus. That boy is certainly fond of his job.”

' A few weeks • later ■ the boy spoke to the man who had given him a Job. “A little testing department would save • you money,” said the boy, “and it would not cost you much, either. You and I’ve found out that some of it isn’t up to the standard. They’re working considerable off on you I” “How much would it cost?” asked the owner of the plant. Instantly the boy drew from his pocket a ;■ list of every item needed in the equipment of the testing laboratory. . He had it all ready waiting for the ques- C tion. “Get it and go ahead,” said the man, after . he. had glanced over the list. - The laboratory was installed and saved the business a neat sum of money. The day the boy’s gratuitous service was up, he appeared again at the proprietor’s desk and said, “My time is up, sir.” “But you stay,” was the quick answer, ; “and the salary you get is going to cover the unpaid time in which you were serving me.” And it did. That wasn’t so very long ago. The electric lighting plant grew until it was big enough to be absorbed. It has been absorbed several times since, but the boy who struck for a job stuck through every change. Each set of absorbing capitalists saw that he was the one man who could not be spared. They saw that he knew his old shoes. They played him for a favorite, and to-day he could buy out the man who gave him his first job buy him out several times over! He is head of a big electric lighting corporation and J gets a salary of $12,000 to $15,000 a year, besides a profit in half a dozen thriving interests. Any boy who has the stuff in him to play ' the game to-day as that boy played it will win out. You couldn’t keep him down if you buried him under the weight of a skyscraper. There are plenty of boys who are waiting to accept a position—and always will be ! But when it comes to boys who go and beat bushes for a job just a plain job, in which they have a chance to make good without 'regard to J pay, they in danger of being captured for exhibition purposes in a museum. —Chicago Tribune. MKKK3A HOUSEKEEPER’S EPITAPH. (Author Unknown.) . > y Here lies a poor woman who always was tired; She lived in a world where the work wasn’t ")t hired. Her last words on earth were : “Dear friends, I am going ’ .Where washing ain’t done, nor sweeping nor , sewing; 5 But everybody there is exact to my wishes, Tor where they don’t eat there’s no washing 7M of dishes; I go where loud anthems will always be ring- 3$ ing, But, having no voice, I’ll get clear of the X singing. ;>vj Don t mourn for me now, don’t mourn for mo never, .. . Pll •ry • i ' i I’m going to do nothing for ever and ever.”

. TACTFUL. ■; ” ■ “You seem strong enough,”, remarked the housewife coldly, when the bedraggled specimen of humanity presented itself at the door in quest of a meal. “You should be at work.” “Appearance * are deceitful, madam,” re- - plied .' the gentlemanly tramp, bowing gallantly. “Might I add that you seem beautiful and charming enough to be acting , for the films, yet, evidently you prefer the simple life?” ‘ He dined heartily. NO WONDER! .. The editor of an unnamed paper, published “Out West,” tells of a man who was mortally afraid of thunder storms, and once crawled into a hollow log for shelter and , safety. The 1 thunder rolled,* the lightning flashed, the rain poured down in torrents, and the log swelled up until the poor fellow was wedged in so tight that he could not move. While all the sins of his life were ..passing before him, he remembered that he had not paid his newspaper subscription. This made him feel so small that, as soon as the storm was over, he crawled out of the log through a knot hole without the least difficulty.

y A CATASTROPHE. - | ;■ A farmer had built a big barn, and had given his two sons the task of making a small hole in the ■ side in order to allow the eat to get in or out at, will. The boys cut the hole just beside the door, and made a thoroughly good job of it. Nevertheless, the farmer, on seeing it, became very annoyed. “You boys,” he growled, “can’t do a thing right. Don’t you see that the hole’s in the ■ wrong place?” “Why, what do you mean?” chorused the unhappy youngsters. - The farmer seized the door and flung it, wide open, and, of course, covered the aperture. “Now, where is your hole?” he shouted/ “How can that cat get into the barn when the door’s open?” ’ - ; ' ; SMILE RAISERS. Griggs; “The idea of your letting your wife go around saying she made a , man of you! You don’t hear my wife saying that!” Briggs: “No,, but I heard her telling my wife that she did her best.” ; Hit “Good morning, parson,” exclaimed the retired sea captain. “I haven’t seen you lately.” ' : "‘ ; - ‘‘No, captain, I’ve been very busy. Only this morning I married three couples in fifteen minutes.” 1 - “Smart . going, parson 1.. That’s twelve knots an hour!” :v - A few days after a farmer had put his two children to school a book agent called on him and said: ' . “Now that your children go to school, you ought to buy them an encyclopedia.” - “Buy them ah encyclopedia? Hanged/ if I do!” was his retort. “Let.’em walk, like I did”. ‘ w \ *..*■: ‘ 1