The Post-Hole.
He was a vigorous worker, and he was digging a post-hole in the bed of a river. A post was to be placed in it, as part of the extension of a wharf.
He worked hard, and got rapidly deeper and deeper.
He struck stones, but he reached down and pried them up.
He got thoroughly soaked, but he grinned cheerfully.
He sung at his task, and was an inspiration to all the other workmen.
Five o'clock came, but he faithfully finished his post-hole, though it took him ten minutes longer. He was no time-server.
Then he climbed, dripping, out on the bank and walked home, happy in the consciousness of good work accomplished.
But he did not put a post into the post-hole, and when he came back the next morning he found the hole filled again with mud, and completely obliterated.
However, he cheerfully went to work again, singing as he labored, and dug the hole once more.
And the company paid the bill. Moral: Cheerfulness is good, zeal is better, but a bit of brain is best of all.
"Sense First."
The wise slogan, "Safety First," needs to have back of it the stern command, "Sense First." Most accidents are due to a lack of good sense, ordinary common sense. Men, women, and children are killed every day by the score because other persons are fools. And the fools themselves for their foolishness come to their death.
For instance, an automobilist encountered two railway-crossing gates, and when the gateman refused to raise them in answer to his demand he rammed his car through them, was grazed by a passing train, and barely escaped with his life. Again, a boy driving an automobile truck defied all warning signs and struck the middle of a passing locomotive. On a single railway, a short one, during half of a recent year sixty-two lowered gates were broken down by impatient and reckless automobile drivers. These are only samples of what is happening everywhere.
Is it any wonder that we cry, "Sense First"? There can be no safety while fools are at large.