NOT ASHAMED TO WORK

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 2, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 46.

NOT ASHAMED TO WORK.

MR. GEORGE W. CHILDS, of Philadelphia, is not a child, but a man—a very wealthy and successful publisher, and a public-spirited man, known all over the country for his patriotism and benevolence. But Mr. Childs was a child once—a poor boy, and a boy not afraid nor ashamed to work. This is what he says about it himself, and it ought to be a lesson to boys—and perhaps to grown-up children—never to be ashamed to do any work that is honorable.

“I was self-supporting at a very early age. In my twelfth year, when school was dismissed for the summer, I took the place of errand-boy in a book store in Baltimore, at a salary of two dollars a week, and spent the vacation in hard work. And I enjoyed it. I have never been out of employment; always found something to do, and was always eager to do it, and think I earned every cent of my first money. When first at work in Philadelphia I would get up very early in the morning, go down to the store, and wash the pavement, and put things in order before breakfast, and in the winter-time would make the fire and sweep out the store. In the same spirit, when books were bought at night at auction, I would, early the next morning, go for them with a wheelbarrow. And I have never outgrown this wholesome habit of doing things directly and in order. I would to-day as lief carry bundles up Chestnut Street as I would then. As a matter of fact, I carry bundles very often. But I understand that certain young men of the period would scorn to do as much.”—Chicago Standard.