I wish that more of our young men could graduate from the store of Push & Pull.  We have tens of thousands of young men doing nothing.  There must be work somewhere if they will only do it.  They stand round, with soap locks and scented pocket-handkerchiefs, tipping their hats to the ladies; while, instead of waiting for business to come to them, they ought to go to work and make a business.  Here is the ladder of life.  The most of those who start at the top of the ladder spend their life in coming down, while those who start at the bottom may go up.  Those who are born with a gold spoon in their mouth soon lose the spoon.  The two school bullies that used to flourish their silk pocket-handkerchiefs in my face, and with their ivory-handled, four-bladed knives punch holes through my kite—­one of them is in the penitentiary, and the other ought to be.

Young man, the road of life is up hill, and our load heavy.  Better take off your kid gloves, and patent leathers, and white vest, and ask Push, with his stout shoulder, and Pull, with his strong grip, to help you.  Energy, pluck, courage, obstinate determination are to be cultured.  Eat strong meat, drop pastries, stop reading sickly novelettes, pray at both ends of the day and in the middle, look a man in the eye when you talk to him, and if you want to be a giant keep your head out of the lap of indulgences that would put a pair of shears through your locks.

If you cannot get the right kind of business partner, marry a good, honest wife.  Fine cheeks and handsome curls are very well, but let them be mere incidentals.  Let our young men select practical women; there are a few of them left.  With such a one you can get on with almost all heavy loads of life.  You will be Pull, and she Push; and if you do not get the house built and the fortune established, send me word, and I will tear this article up in such small pieces that no one will ever be able to find it.

Life is earnest work, and cannot be done with the tips of the fingers.  We want more crowbars and fewer gold toothpicks.  The obstacles before you cannot be looked out of countenance by a quizzing glass.  Let sloth and softliness go to the wall, but three cheers for Push & Pull, and all their branch business houses!

CHAPTER XXIII.

Bostonians.

We ran up to the Boston anniversaries to cast our vote with those good people who are in that city on the side of the right.  We like to go to the modern Athens two or three times a year.  Among other advantages, Boston always soothes our nerves.  It has a quieting effect upon us.  The people there are better satisfied than any people we know of.  Judging from a few restless spirits who get on some of the erratic platforms of that city, and who fret and fume about things in general, the world has concluded that Boston is at unrest.  But you may notice that the most of the restless people who go there are imported speakers, whom Boston hires to come once a year and do for her all the necessary fretting.