er.
The busy man, accepts his duty as a matter of course, a ranges his
correspondence and work in systematic order and goes at the thing,
hammer and tongs, and gets the thing done.
Night work is usually evidence that the man does not do his work
properly in the day time and he is like our friend in the country who
wastes time in the day and tries to make up for it by night work.
The thing to do is to work hard in the day time and rest at night.
Obedience
Several years ago, our friend Elbert Hubbard wrote a little sermonette
entitled "Carrying the Message to Garcia." The story was simply this:
President McKinley called an orderly and gave him a letter and said:
"Deliver this letter to General Garcia."
The employe did not stand around and ask a lot of fool questions about
the trains and things. He put on his hat and duster and he delivered
the letter to Garcia. These facts were stretched out in many words and
made a little booklet. That booklet reached the sale of more than a
million copies.
It seemed to make a hit with business men throughout the country. A
certain railroad bought and gave a copy to every employe. Business men
followed the example. The great sale of the book and the wide-spread
interest it created would seem to indicate that carrying the message to
Garcia was an unusual thing and so remarkable that it attracted
attention.
As a matter of fact the whole theme of the story was simple obedience.
There are thousands of institutions in this country who have employes
who will carry the message to Garcia.
Richard Harding Davis, you remember, was dining with friends in London.
The discussion was along the lines of obedience and the like.
On a wager he called a messenger boy, gave him a letter addressed to
his fiancee in Chicago, told the messenger boy to deliver the letter to
the lady and bring back an answer. That fifteen year old boy carried
the message to Garcia, or in other words to Mr. Davis' sweetheart.
The Colonel of a regiment has under him about twelve hundred men.
Directly under him are his majors, and then come the captains,
lieutenants, sergeants, corporals and privates. The first rule in the
army is obedience of orders without question.
If obedience were subject to question on the part of the subordinates,
the colonel could win no battles.
When your superior gives an order, the thing to do is to carry it out.
If the order is wrong you will not be to blame, but y
|