18S4 



GLEAKINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



16 



the horse too fast, but he never drives the 

 horse any faster than he goes himself, ac- 

 cording to his strength. In our work here 

 we constantly employ a messenger boy, as 

 we call him. This boy goes to and from the 

 postoffice, and executes errands of a similar 

 nature. Once in awhile we have to change 

 messenger boys ; and although almost everv 

 boy thinks be can do it all right, I have ' 

 learned by sad experience there are very few i 

 who will not make us much trouble. Our \ 

 letters to go to meet each train are put in a 

 special pigeon-hole. Now, it would sf^em a 

 small matter to take all these letters to the 

 postoffice ; but I have learned by experience 

 that a new hand will almost invariably leave 

 a letter or a postal card or two in the box, 

 and sometimes some very important matter 

 is thus left over. Again, when boys go for 

 the mail, our packages are put in a large 

 tray, or. rather, on a table with boards 

 around the sides. You would think anybody 

 of common intelligence would take the 

 whole contents of tliis tray when he had 

 learned that it was for us, and of course 

 much of it important and valuable. Well, a 

 good many bo.\s will leave part of this mail, 

 instead of taking it all. J^ast fall a mes- 

 senger boy would repeatedly leave queens 

 lying in this box. His excuses were, they 

 were up in one corner, and he did not see 

 them. 



!Now, this is not confined to boys alone. 

 A year or two ago I raised a pretty good 

 crop of rye, which was harvested while I 

 was away at our State fair. Although an 

 old farmer was employed to cut the grain, 

 he skipped quite a little piece of it that he 

 forgot The ones who tied up the bundles 

 also left a swath alongside of the field, that 

 they did not see. I sent them out to finish 

 raking and binding; and then when they 

 drew the grain into the barn, they left a 

 couple of shocks of grain that they "did not 

 see. The team was hitched up the second 

 time to go and get them. After all, on look- 

 ing over the work, several bundles were left 

 scattered about the field until they were 

 spoiled by the rain. Now, this work was 

 done by three or four different individuals — 

 those who were brought up on a farm too. It 

 not only taxed my brains to look after them, 

 and to pick up after them, but it discouraged 

 me in my life work of trying to furnish em- 

 ployment for those who were constantly 

 begging for it. I was obliged to say to my- 

 self, " I shall have to give up. I can not 

 undertake to set men or boys at work who 

 will do their work in such a half-hearted way 

 as this." Since then I have watched farm- 

 ers, to see if they work for themselves in 

 such slip-shod, listless ways, and I am com- 

 pelled to admit that they do. How anybody 

 can labor hard to raise a crop, and then let 

 it lie and rot, after all the labor has been ex- 

 pended on it, is beyond ray comprehension. 

 Machinery left out in the weather, going to 

 ruin, is from the same piece. 



Now, friends, lest you get an idea that 

 this half-heartedness belongs to men only, I 

 want to relate a little experience of yester- 

 day. While reading the mail I ran on to the 

 following : 



Mr, Root:— I wrote to you somcthinfir like a month 



ago, for youi" terms on the Waterbury watch, series 

 B, and have had nothing from you. Why is this? 

 I know you used to be very prompt to answer. 

 Please give me the very best on the above watch in 

 quantities, in at least ie-dozen lots. Ihavejnst re- 

 ceived a }i dozen from New York, and have dispos- 

 ed of them at a profit, and will await your answer 

 before I make my next order, as I have always 

 found your prices as low as the lowest. 



Your old custcmfr, Jno. S. Cooper. 

 Goodbar. Tenn., Dec. 10, 1883. 



As soon as I got part way through, I spoke 

 to one of the clerks : '• Why, this letter 

 came over a week ago." 



I was assured that it did not ; but I re- 

 membered feeling a little indignant to think 

 that a request for prices liad been overlook- 

 ed in that way, and also that I carried it to 

 the clerk who sends price lists, that it might 

 have immediate attention. As she was ab- 

 sent, I put it under her weight. How did it 

 come that it was delayed a week after so 

 urgent an appeal for jiist common business 

 courtesy V It came about this way, as I 

 found after some questioning. As the man 

 does not ask directly for a price list, the 

 clerk who mails them carried it to the book- 

 keeper, to ask if that letter belonged in her 

 department. The book-keeper glanced over 

 it hastily, and decided that another cleik 

 had better answer it. This other clerk was 

 behind with her work, so it was given to me 

 to read over again, to decide who should 

 answer it, and here it was four or five days, 

 after our friend's pathetic appeal — not 

 even a price list sent him ! 



I do not know but I shall wound here in 

 what I am going to say ; but the wounding 

 will be like pulling the sliver out of your 

 finger. It may hurt more than to let it alone; 

 but it will make the finger better eventual- 

 ly. Through all my business experience 

 there have been complaints almost constant- 

 ly from people, saving that they have asked 

 for price lists, and asked for them repeated- 

 ly, and yet they are not sent. Over and 

 over again have I had the correspondence 

 hunted up, and the matter investigated; 

 and it almost alwavs results in showing that 

 the clerk overlooked the request for a price 

 list, or forgot to send it, or did not know that 

 I it came in her department, and such like ex- 

 j cuses. I use the pronouns slie and her be- 

 I cause all this work is in the hands of the 

 I girls. It is not only young girls, but wo- 

 I men of all ages, who are guilty of this kind 

 I of half-heartedness. Our price lists are got- 

 ten up with great pains and much expense. 

 We pay hundreds of dollars yearly in adver- 

 tising, "that we may get applications for price 

 ! lists. Several thousand dollars are also 

 i yearly expended in printing and arranging 

 I the names of those who want price lists ; and 

 yet after all this plowing and sowing and 

 harvesting and binding, the ripe grain is al- 

 lowed to lie and spoil, because of the half- 

 heartedness of the clerk who importuned 

 for something to do. I am glad to say, there 

 are some exceptions to this, I know of a 

 few girls who, the minute their eye had 

 caught the contents of the letter I liave given 

 above, would have sprung fiom their seats, 

 gone to the large basket of price lists, picked 

 one up and addressed it, and put it in the 



