When John E. Clough was a student working his way through college, he
was employed in a menial capacity at a hotel in a western town. His
employer was absent for a season and the student was compelled to take
charge of the hotel. He was successful, for he learned how to handle men
of many sorts, how to provide for their comfort, how to make them feel
that he was doing his best for them.
Years later, when he was a missionary in India, it became necessary for
him to plan for the temporary entertainment of the men and women who
came to the mission station by hundreds, and even by thousands, seeking
Christian baptism. For days it was necessary to provide for their
comfort. Many men would have been dismayed by the task, but to Dr.
Clough the problem presented was simple; he had only to do on a large
scale the very things which made his boyhood efforts at hotel-keeping
such a pronounced success.
Experience in a hotel is a good course of preparation for any young man,
whether he plans to be a missionary or to serve in any of the home
callings that demand the Christian's time and thought. However, it is
not possible for more than a very small proportion of young people to
serve a period in a hotel; so it will be helpful to them to read some of
the suggestions that have been made by a successful hotel proprietor.
Those who heed these suggestions are apt to be successful in dealing
with men and women anywhere.
It is worth while to note some of these rules:
"The hotel is operated primarily for the benefit and convenience of its
guests.
"Any member of our force who lacks the intelligence to interpret the
feeling of good will that this hotel holds toward its guests, cannot
stay here very long.
"Snap judgments of men often are faulty. The unpretentious man with the
soft voice may possess the wealth of Croesus.
"You cannot afford to be superior or sullen with any patron of the
hotel.
"At rare intervals some perverse member of our force disagrees with a
guest as to the rightness of this or that.... Either may be right.... In
all discussions between hotel employees and guests, the employee is dead
wrong from the guest's standpoint, and from ours....
"Each member of our force is valuable only in proportion to his ability
to serve our guests.
"Every item of extra courtesy contributes towards a better pleased
guest, and every pleased guest contributes toward a better, bigger
hotel...."
Yet a young man should not have to go to a hotel to learn these lessons.
They were taught in the Book that every one of us should know better
than any other book in our library. Listen to these messages of the
Book, and compare them with the rules of the hotel:
"Not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the
things of others....
"Be tenderly affectioned one to another, in honor preferring one
another....
"Judge not that ye be not judged.... The rich and the poor meet
together: Jehovah is the maker of them all....
"Better it is to be of a lowly spirit....
"He that is slow in anger appeaseth strife....
"I am among you as he that serveth....
"Ye are the light of the world...."
The best book for anyone who is trying to be a success in the world is
the Bible, for the Bible teaches how to serve, and he who has the
courage best to serve his fellows in the name of the great Servant is
the most successful man.