Instructional "papers" were popular material for the older readers of St. Nicholas. This entry is interesting in its 19th century salaries and advice. Imagine going to a drugstore today where the pharmacist learned his trade from the previous pharmacist! Seidlitz powders are "a laxative composed of two powders, one of sodium bicarbonate and Rochelle salt, the other of tartaric acid: the two are separately dissolved in water, combined, and drunk while effervescing."A SERIES OF PRACTICAL PAPERS FOR BOYS.
Introduction.
Let us suppose suppose that a boy has arrived at the age when he wants to answer for himself and friends the question: "What work shall I do? What occupation shall I follow in which I can make name and fame and money?" And the boy sometimes, nay ofttimes, ruminating on this all-important subject thinks, we will imagine, in this wise: "I 'd like to be an architect or a house-builder. I wonder how I 'd be pleased with such work? Wonder if it's hard ? No; I 'd rather be a sea-captain. But how do boys ever get to be sea-captains? To be a traveling salesman would be pleasant—to go all around the country and see the different cities, and stay only a little while here and a little while there. Yes, that would be fine; but how do boys get to be traveling salesmen, and is it really as agreeable an occupation as I think it is? Perhaps, to keep a store might be better. Really, I wish I did know what I would like to do best. I 've asked Father; he 's a lawyer, and though they say he 's great on 'authorities,' he is no authority on this matter. He just says I must think of what I want to be, and then start out. I do think, and the more I think, the less I am able to decide what 1 want. If I only knew some one who could give me an idea about the good and bad features of the different occupations that I think I should like, why, I could decide very soon which one to take."
If I am right in supposing there are a large number of boys who think as I have just suggested, the series of sketches, of which this is the first, will be found useful. My aim is to give in them what might be called an inside view of various trades and businesses which, as a rule, are attractive to youth, and to help the lad in either making his selection from a number of industries, or give him more light on the one which he feels sure will please him, but about the real nature of which he has probably only a cursory knowledge. In other words, the effort will be made to answer just such questions as a boy would naturally ask about an occupation while he was making up his mind as to whether or not he would like to enter it.
On the general topic of how to succeed in life, I shall in these articles have little to say. Scores of books have been written on success, and hundreds of men, some great, but many small, have endeavored to tell us the secret of success. I have read many of these works, and doubtless my young readers have perused volumes of that kind; but I have failed to find any new or short road to that goal for which we all are striving.
And so, at the outset, let my young reader understand that I have no new or mysterious suggestions to make on how he can be successful. Let him remember that in each and all of the occupations of which 1 shall speak, he must, if he would reach a high place in the business, work hard and be attentive, always willing to learn, steady in his habits, that he must choose good associates, and must have within him a thorough determination to work up higher. Success in any calling, it seems to me, depends on a great many conditions, among which may be mentioned temperament, industry, quickness to learn from your own experience and the failures of those about you, and an ever-watchful eye for opportunities to reach a better position than the one you occupy.
I shall aim to make these articles thoroughly reliable. The facts in regard to each calling have been obtained, in personal interviews, from prominent and trustworthy persons engaged therein.
I. — A RETAIL DRUG STORE.
THERE have been two important changes in the drug business within the past few years. In the first place, the scope of the drug store has been enlarged. In old times the term "drugstore" indicated an establishment where simply drugs were kept. Now you can go to many drug stores and purchase cigars, tobacco, canes, umbrellas, tea, coffee, stationery, confectionery, and many kinds of fancy articles. Some say that druggists have been forced into selling these goods on account of the competition they have had to contend against in the sale of patent medicines by dry-goods establishments and book stores, and because some of their own number sell the patent, or proprietary, medicines below the regular marked price. There is much truth in this statement, but I think there is another reason to account for the practice, and that is the increased rate of rent. In former times the item of rent was not so great as it is now, and the druggist could make a good living by confining himself to drugs proper. Now the expense for rent is a matter for serious financial consideration. It is true that the business yields a large percentage of profit, but the total sales are comparatively small. At one time, when the calling was confined to its legitimate sphere, the profit was fifty per cent. Now the average rate of profit is probably twenty-five or thirty per cent.
In the second place, the drug clerks of to-day are required to be better educated than those of former times. Many of the men—in fact, most of the men who are the owners of drug stores now—learned the business simply by working with a druggist for a greater or less period, and "picked up" their knowledge from behind the counter and at the prescription desk. Literally, they have "grown up" in the business. Some got into it accidentally. As boys, they were looking for something to do, they found a situation in a drug store, staid there because they could not find any better place, gradually obtained a knowledge of the business, and have made it their life-work. At the present time, in most of the States, a drug clerk is either required to serve a certain period in a store, and to pass a satisfactory examination as to his qualifications before he can become a licensed druggist, or else he must be a graduate of a college of pharmacy.
In the allusion just made to the druggists who have not been compelled to comply with these conditions, I do not mean to be understood as stating that they are all incompetent druggists or pharmacists, for that would be untrue. Some men, under the most adverse circumstances, in any trade, business, or profession, will learn more and do better than others with every advantage. But it is not too much to affirm that, owing to this condition of affairs in the past, there are now many druggists and old clerks who have contented themselves with obtaining only a superficial knowledge of their calling, and have burdened themselves with no more than enough information to get along quietly and comfortably. Hence, the assertion can be safely made that there is room for thoroughly competent, well-qualified drug clerks and druggists.
Aside from the preliminary study required, it is not what may be called an easy business, at least in its early stages. It requires constant care, and, even with the best of care, money and reputation may be lost in a very short space of time, not through the fault of the druggist himself, but from the negligence, carelessness, dishonesty, or stupidity of his clerks. But such failures are rare, and only call for incidental mention.
Now, what will a boy do who wants to be a druggist? He should be an apt scholar, quick to learn, and should have what may be called a good technical memory; that is, the ability to keep in mind arbitrary terms and phrases. A knowledge of Latin, even of the rudimentary principles of that language, would be found very useful, while a taste for botany would be the very groundwork for love of the occupation, and an almost certain prophecy of success. He must have a good knowledge of the English branches, and, though he need not have a student's love for books, he must not be absolutely averse to study. These preliminaries borne in mind, let him, not earlier than at the age of sixteen, enter a drug store, taking for wages any sum that is offered. It will be small, probably not more than two dollars a week, and he will have to board himself. But it is presumed that he lives at home, and that his parents or guardians are giving him his living while he is making his start in life. For a year or two he will do little more than open and sweep out the store, carry medicines to the homes of customers, learn to do up packages neatly, and, perchance, his professional acquirements will have grown so great that he can be trusted to sell a seidlitz powder or a small cake of Windsor soap. But, no matter what he is allowed to do, he must, within two years, if he is a bright, observing boy, have gathered considerable miscellaneous information about drugs and the drug business.
He is now prepared to enter a college of pharmacy. There are sixteen of these colleges, or schools, in the United States. There is a college of pharmacy at each of the following cities: Albany, New York; San Francisco, California; Chicago, Illinois; Cincinnati, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky ; Baltimore, Maryland ; Boston, Massachusetts ; New York City, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; St. Louis, Missouri; Washington, D. C., and Iowa City, Iowa. And there are schools of pharmacy connected with the Michigan University, the University of Wisconsin, and the Vanderbilt University of Nashville, Tennessee.
It will not be necessary to speak of the method of instruction in each of these institutions. It is substantially the same in all. The plan pursued in the New York College will serve to show what is done in each. The full course extends over two years, and is divided into junior and senior classes. The instruction is by lectures and practical experiments. In the department of materia medica, all the parts of plants and animals that are used in medicine are described, the student being taught where they come from, how they are obtained, how they are used, and the proper doses to be given. In the chemical department, all the fundamental principles of chemistry are presented and the chief compounds carefully studied, with special reference to their mode of occurrence in nature, the methods employed in their preparation, their effects upon and with other substances, the methods for determining their purity, and their application in the arts. The great chemical operations arc investigated, and the chemistry of the metals and organic chemistry studied in detail. Lectures are given on botany, illustrated by plates, diagrams, and plastic models. In the department of pharmacy the student is taught how to make the finished product from the organic vegetable, or chemical. Analytical chemistry is taught, and the chemical nature of poisons, their antidotes, and the methods for detecting them. The total charge for full courses in the various departments is sixty dollars. To those who comply with the rules, and who pass a satisfactory examination, diplomas, conferring the title of Graduate in Pharmacy (Ph. G.), are granted.
The student is now, or ought to be, a good pharmacist. He has had his early experience in the drug store; he has obtained a large amount of theoretical knowledge at the college, and has seen there many interesting experiments in the laboratory and the lecture-room while attending college. Possibly he has kept his position in the store, working during the evenings of the week, in which case he has had a great advantage, for he has had daily opportunity to make a practical use of some of the knowledge he has gained.
What does he do when he gets out of college? If he is favorably situated financially, and feels confident that he has the ability, he may open a store for himself, or enter into partnership in some concern already established. If neither of these conditions exists, he will get a clerkship in a store. Now he will receive say $12 a week, or more, depending on the location of the store and the liberality of his employer; also upon whether he is in a large city, a good-sized town, or the country. But all the time the ambitious worker is looking forward to a store of his own.
Now, it would not seem probable that a drug clerk, without money of his own and with no prospect of getting any by gift or inheritance, could become the owner of a store. And yet, by perseverance, ability, and energy, a great many do. The amount of capital required to start the business, of course, varies. The young apothecary might start a little store in a small town for $500. But it would look very plain indeed. There would be very modest fixtures, common shelves, no inclosed cases bordering the side walls. One authority says that no one ought to start with less capital than from $2000 to $5000. Another thinks $1000 or $1500 would be sufficient. But no rule can be laid down on this point, except that it requires more money in large cities, less in smaller cities and towns, and still less in villages, where, by the way, the druggist often combines the functions of pharmacist and postmaster, or keeps a stock of newspapers and periodicals and a miscellaneous assortment of cheap fancy articles.
Clerks of real ability, who have not only gained the confidence of their employers, but have established a reputation on account of their attainments, their energy, and good management, can nearly always find some responsible person who will back them in starting a store. Sometimes a man will loan the necessary amount and take a mortgage on the business, but more often the mortgage is on the personal responsibility, the ability, and the character of the young man. This may seem a little strange to the reader; it certainly seemed strange to me when I heard of it. But, after all, though the financial backer might lose his money, the young man has everything to gain by striving to be successful, and loses everything if he acts negligently or dishonestly.
Here is a true story, by way of illustration. A young drug clerk wrote from the Far West to a prominent pharmacist in New York, saying he would like to come to the city and enter a store. He came, but when the pharmacist questioned him personally he found that his visitor had never put up prescriptions written in Latin; consequently, he could not get a situation. He did not know a soul in the great city, not even the gentleman to whom he had written (until he met him at his store). He sought in vain for a place, and finally found a subordinate position, where he was given five dollars a week and had to board himself. He was a studious, pushing, active young fellow, and soon managed to attend the lectures at the College of Pharmacy. The gentleman with whom he had corresponded took an interest in him, and invited him to come to his store and assist in the manufacturing of fluid extracts. Once he showed his employer what he could do in that line. The man was surprised. "Why can't you do something of that kind for me?" he asked. The clerk said he could, and his salary (which, in the meanwhile had been slightly increased) was raised to very respectable proportions. He worked for a time in this way, eventually receiving a salary of $50 a week; finally he opened a laboratory of his own, and to-day he employs forty or fifty "hands." And yet, when he arrived in New York he did not have a dollar, and was without influence and without friends.
The successful young druggist must be a good salesman. Many of the sales of medicines, especially in the city stores, are of the "patent," or proprietary, kind. Their name is legion. Most druggists keep a good-sized catalogue containing a list of the different varieties. Some of them are said to be good, and many of them are undoubtedly bad.
Care in compounding prescriptions is of great importance. Two druggists may put up the same prescription, and the prescriptions will look the same to an ordinary observer, but there will be a difference in the method of compounding them, noticeable at once to the eye of a physician. When a doctor finds a pharmacist who understands his business, he is pretty sure to take pains to recommend him to his patients. So the druggist gets a good reputation, becomes better known, and grows more prosperous from year to year.
As the making up of prescriptions requires great care, a prescription clerk should be careful to have "all his wits " about him. He should not suffer any interruption or engage in conversation while he is at his work. In the handling of poisons, it is needless to say he should be exceedingly cautious, for one mistake in dealing them out might cost him his reputation for life. It is proper to add, however, that the cases of carelessness of drug clerks in this particular are yearly becoming more rare. In many drug stores all the poisons are kept on a shelf by themselves, each bottle being plainly marked. In stores where this is done, it is claimed that mistakes are less liable to occur than in places where the bottles are put on shelves in different parts of the establishment.
The young druggist will be just to his subordinates. Knowing that their work is hard, he will allow them to take respites when business is dull. He will "keep up" in his knowledge of pharmacy, by reading one or more of the journals devoted to the interests of druggists, and, having secured a good location, he will endeavor to keep it all his life, unless, for some very good reason, he believes a change would be greatly to his advantage.
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