Failed and Succeeded

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 7, 1886

Failed and Succeeded.

MEN admit that no man is equally great in all things. Yet they often do not see that a man's failure in one line of work is no reason why he may not succeed in a different calling.

An incident which occurred some years ago in a London linen store illustrates this blindness.

A young man whose bluntness was such that he was of no use as a salesman, was told that he did not suit and must go. Seeking the head of the house, the youth said,—

"Don't turn me away; I am good for something."

"You are good for nothing as a salesman," replied the principal.

"I am sure I can be useful," continued the youth.

"How? Tell me how?"

"I don't know, sir; I don't know."

"Nor do I," said the principal, laughing at the boy's eagerness and ignorance.

"Don't put me away," continued the youth; "try me at something else. I know I can't sell; but I can make myself useful somehow, I know I can."

Moved by his earnestness, the principal placed him in the counting-room. Immediately his aptitude for figures showed itself. In a few years he became the head cashier of the concern. Throughout the country he was known as an eminent accountant.—Sel.