AN INSPIRING LECTURE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4414, 15 May 1922, Page 4

AN INSPIRING LECTURE.

FAILURE AND SUCCESSTRUISMS FOR EVERYBODY. Ralph Parlet,te, a Chicago business man, has gained a very wide reading public through the publication of a series of -lecturettes delivered by him from time to time. His words have a big interest, and we publish one of the lecturettes, styled “Failures and Successes,” taken from the book "The Big Business of Life,” as under: THE MISERABLE CRITTER. I am sorry for tihe man who says "This is the worst town on the map.” He is helping to make it so. I am sorry for the man who says, "People never used me right.” He never used people right. I am sorry for the many who says, “Everybody is out for the coin. Beat ’em to it. What’s there in it for me ? I’m not in business for my health. Come across with the dough !” Poor ilitCle runt I He- is not in business at all. He is just in the daily job of robbing himself of the joy of! life and turning himself into an embalmed cash register. He follows his nose around and the only world he knows is the path from where he sleeps to where he grinds. He shuts in every, gleam of his batteries unless somebody pays him money. By the time he has scraped together a big pile of money his poor old carcass wears bu% dries up, and blows away, and his children’s liv.es are blighted squabbling over the estate. I am sorry for the alleged mer-' chant who keeps his store with flaming “selling out below cost” banners, who "undersell everybody,” who “runs the cheapest store on earth ” and whose main business is to unload shoddy goods upon ignorant customers. SUCCESSFUL MERCHANT. Bui I like to go into a store where the proprietor says, “My store is my playground., I get a lot of joy running a good store I can be proud of, and stocked with goods that I am proud oL It is a pleasure to sell goods at right prices. Salesmanship is being a big brother to every customer. It is a pleasure to sell them right things, so that people say the goods are good like .the man who sold them to us. Running a store is just. ns much, an art as painting a picture,” Th a’ merchant is a success. THE BANKER. I an: sorry for the banker with the shifty eye and the metallic laugh, who never tells ypu anything above a whisper, and looks furtively around as he whispers. He never thinks outside o® dollars,. But I like to go into the bank where the banker looks me straight in the face and smiles a .wholesome smile. He is the rn'an the farmer comes to for financial advice and c: edit. He is the man the manufacturer seeks for counsel. His constant thought is how to make every dollar do its utmost, with safety to the interests of all. He can be one of the community’s greatest teatehers of honesty as he teaches faith in meeting financial obligations, even when he sues some laggard. That banker is a success. THE LAWYER,

I am sorry for the petifogging lawyer who haunts the courthouse corridors to fatten like a vulture on the unfortunate on the battlefields of life. He is the Esau, the Judas of modern life. But I am proud to meet'the lawyer who says, “I am a lawyer be- 1 cause I could not be anything else. The law appeals to ine. I love it. It is a wonderful profession. I am just as happy—yea, happier—when I keep people out of Jaw suits than when they get into them. I am happy when I can induce them to settle their troubles out’ of court. The lawyer becomes the honoured and trusted friend of the community. Fathers leave this earth secure in the knowledge that their families and dependants will be cared for by such a trustee. He stands a Gibraltar among men.. That lawyer is a success. NEWSPAPER MAN. I am sorry for .the newspaperman with a cynical view of life. God knows he sees the weak, selfish, •sordid, cynical side of life more than any other, but God pity him when he allows it to get into his heart. When he gets to the place where he sells his opinions to the highest bidder, and lets his advertisers dictate his policies, or has no policies, he is a very unhappy little peanut. But I like to meet the newspaperman who says,. “I love the business, and could : not be happy at anything, else. I love tto run a clean; bright, truthful paper. 11 am father confessor to this comfmunity, I preach to more people here ;than anyone else, I dare to tell the

truth. I am shaping the life of! the people.” .When you open the newspaper and say “There’s no news in the paper to-day," be glad that the editor did not print all he knows. A real newspaper is known, not fpr what it prints, but for what it refuses to print. What it prints is constructive, never destructive. . That editor is a success. THE TEACHER. I am sorry for the teacher who says, “I am a fool to stick to this business. I ‘am. underpaid, and I am going to use it as a stepping stone to something else. There is nothing in teaching as a profession. Get out of it to-day, brother. You are injuring it and yourself. But, when I hear a man or woman say, “I teach year after year because I love to teacn, because I love to work with' young people, because I f;eel that this is my place wheer I can be happiest,” then I want to bow low before a heal teacher with a caljL Happy the pupils who can study under such a teacher. That teacher is a success. BONIFACE. T am sorry for the people who have to stop in many of the hotels in the small towns of the United States. And I sm sorry, for the people who keep them., for they do not keep the hotel —the hotel keeps them. They have no pride nor, joy! in making them comfortable, clean, and inviting. But here and there is an hotelkeeper who makes a bright, clean, welcome home for tired travellers. That person is a minister,, an artist, and a blessing to the public. That landlord is a success.

I could go on calling the community roll of Littlle Businessmen and Big Businessmem. Some of the finest players and greatest successies never get into type. They peddle papers, shine shoes, wash, dishes, drive drays, and shift the’scenery of the community playhouse.