ACCURACY

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 6, 1874

Boys, listen to what President Tuttle says: I saw a young man once in the office of a Western railway superintendent. He was occupying a position that four hundred boys in that city would have wished to get. It was honorable, and it “paid well,” besides being in the line of promotion. How did he get it? Not by having a rich father, for he was the son of a laborer. The secret was his beautiful accuracy. He began as an errand boy, and did his work accurately. His leisure time he used in perfecting his writing and arithmetic. After a while, he learned to telegraph. At each step, his employer commended his accuracy, and relied on what he did, because he was sure it was just right.

And it is thus with every occupation. The accurate boy is the favorite one. Those who employ men do not wish to be on the constant lookout, as though they were rogues or fools. If a carpenter must stand at his journeyman’s elbow to be sure his work is right, or if a cashier must run over a book-keeper’s columns, he might as well do the work himself as to employ another to do the work in that way, and it is very certain that the employer will get rid of such an inaccurate workman as soon as he can.