The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1868-04-02
Ne 4 Ee ssEED ON HER TENTH
BIRTHDAY.

W 1CASfCi q iS6 iilCI GuIOWu GCRttu-
er In very close and constant association
as, for example, in the management Of
different departments of the same bust
ness-they tall, as if by gravitation, into
certain definite and fixed relationships to-
wards each other, which soon become so
well recognized and admitted that any in
version of them would seem unnatural.
And in all such small societies, whatever
types OF character are missing, We may
count with certainty on finding the wit and
the butt.
Indeed, l undertake to say with conf
dence that the reader never knew any
half-score of men, exclusively associated,
one Of whom was not recognized as the
sayer Of smart things, and another as the
good natured, stupid fellow on whom it
was always safe to crack your joke.
Al the establishment of Tovey and
Brother, in the Borough, these two char
acters were as well known as Tovey and
Brother themselves, and propose now to
make them known to the reader.
take it for granted that he does already
know Tovey and Brother, and is not one
of those who make the gross mistake of
calling that eminent firm Tovey Brothers.
To speak of "Tovey Brothers" is, in
fact, to be guilty OF very unjustifiable
misrepresentation-as if the brothers were
on an equal footing. Whereas the title
"Tovey and Brother" explains itself, and
enables any rejecting person to under
stand that "Tovey" is Tovey pure and
simple the head Of the firm; while
Brother" though Tovey, too, is only
Tovey with a limitation.
In the house itself the one is always
known as Mr.. Tovey, and the other as Mr.
Charles; and if the reader has any thought
of opening an account with the firm, it
I.,, af,,1t To, hot in,
Unless, however, he is himself in a con-
siderable way of business, Tovey aid
Brother will not thank him for his &C.
count, they being only wholesale, and
wholesale on the very largest scale
When you enter their place of business,
you might wonder Gf every one did not
know already what it IS they deal in A
few scores of little bottles ranged on
shelves and filled with various colored
liquids and powders; a few scores of lit
tie polished mahogany cases. each with its
printed Latin label; this is all in the way
of stock that meets the eye.
But when you see the long array of we'll
bound ledgers, journals, cash books, you
need no further assurance that they do deal
in something more than lttla bottles.
When you see Mr.. Tovey and Mr.
Charles, you need not to be told that they
are prosperous men, and that their rosy
faces and portly shapes are those Of men
who have long known something about
bigger bottles than any you see upon their
shelves.
Ordinarily, however, you might go in
without much chance of seeing either of
them. To get to their private offices, you
have to go through the clerks Office first,
and then through Mr.. Splutter's. And
unless your business is of very unusual
w will find 70 wifi
the capacity Of one of the clerks. or, they
falling then certainly within Mr.. Splut-
ter's, without interruption to the newsps-
per Of either of the principals.
myself confess that never in point of
fact got beyond the clerks office, and have
always had very considerable awe of Mr..
Splutter, the great mems great man and
manager.
Not that he was ever anything but very
civil to me when he saw me; but he had a
singular inability sometimes to see me
even when brushing close past me, and
this used to so ill me with perplexity as
TO whether | should say Good morning
or not, that before | could quite make up
my mind he had usually gone.
AS for MIR. Tovey and Mr.. Charles, l
don't think they ever did see me.
1t was to my father that my visits were
paid. | used to call on my way from
school, and generally had to wait few
minutes before he was ready to walk home
with me. He was one of their young men
in the clerks office. There were, if re-
member rightly, about ten of them, all of
whom had been young men very con-
siderable time, and many of whom had
younger men and women at home, their
children.
In the eyes of the house, however, any
one was a young man under sixty.
| remember that Office as model of
staid decorum and gravity. Everything
went on as if by machinery. There was a
time fo- everything, and everything done
in its time. A place for everything, and
everything in its place. l could have
found it easy to believe that the very height
of each clerks collar was regulated by
office law, and the style of each chain
and seal by fixed specification.
No starch has ever yet been made, how
ever, so stiff that q man cannot laugh in it ;
and good deal of quiet fun went on
amidst the monotony of business. MANY
joke was passed round from stool to stool
and think never called there once with.
out hearing some new witticism or some
latest joke of Mr.. Rasper's