How To Write Special Feature Articles, page 209 by Willard Grosvenor Bleyer
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o Mr. Sears. He wants to be a "shoffer."
"Why do you want to be a chauffeur?"
"I don't know."
"Haven't you any reasons at all?"
"No, sir."
"Isn't it because you have many times seen the man at the wheel rounding a corner in an automobile at a 2.40 clip and sailing down the boulevard at sixty miles an hour?"
The boy's eyes light up with the picture.
"Isn't that it?"
And the boy's eyes light up with discovery.
"Yes, I guess so."
"Well, have you ever seen the chauffeur at night, after being out all day with the car? Overalls on, sleeves rolled up, face streaming with perspiration? Repairing the mechanism, polishing the brass? Tired to death?"
"No, sir."
The boy applicants seldom have any clear idea of the ultimate prospects in any line of work they may have in mind--as to the salary limit for the most expert, or the opportunities for promotion and the securing of an independent position. Many of them have no preconceived idea even of what they want to do, to say nothing of what they ought to do.
Here is an instance.
"I want a position," says a boy.
"What kind of a position?"
"I don't know."
"Haven't you ever thought about it?"
"No."
"Haven't you ever talked it over at home or at school?"
"No."
"Would you like to be a machinist?"
"I don't know."
"Would you like to be a plumber?"
"I don't know."
Similar questions, with similar answers, continue. Finally:
"Would you like to be a doctor?"
"I don't know--is that a good position?"
Sometimes a boy is accompanied to the office by his father.
"My son is a natural-born electrician," the father boasts.
"What has he done to show that?"
"Why, he's wired the whole house from top to bottom."
It is found by further questions that the lad has installed a push-bell button at the front door and another at the back door. He had bought dry batteries, wire and buttons