Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-02-19
The Man Who s'Sits Awhile"

Some nuisances are not indictable-
more's the pity. You can arrest a man
for libel, and pay costs too if you choose,
but you cannot imprison him for boring
you. 1t is a crime for man to steal your
pocket-book even If it is trash; but he
may steal out of your working day three
or four hours, worth perhaps ten dollars
Il money and double that in discipline,
TfJll perfect impunity 1t is called muir
der for one man TO destroy another's life,
but when Mr.. S. drops in and kills the
choicest hours of your day, throttles your
l9Sst ideas, and throws your whole train
OF thought of the track, there is nothing
80 be said, save that he 'just thought he'd
run in for q moment and sit awhile and
have a friendly chat" No penalty in
law, no fine, no Imprisonment, no gal
lows. Such laws, or rather such lack
of them, reflect upon the so-called adj
vanced civilization of century No. 19.
have heard editors utter bitter com
plants against this class Of offenders.
They seem to regard a man who comes in
to chat with them for an hour very much
as they do enc who does not pay his bills.
There is apparently no hope for either of
them, and it is very hard for any man,
and especially hard for an editor, to spend
time and energy upon hopeless case.
His usual course is to send the "devil"
after a man who does not pay up, and he
has q sincere desire, no less real because
not formulated, 10 pursue similar course
with man who comes in to sit awhile.
But editors are not the only victims of
these vile and unmitigated interrupters
of legitimate effort. They are curse to
all professional men. The man that works
10 10 al Of I,n
of his own time. He always has a real
and admitted excuse for continuing labor
His work is seen to suffer- to be retarded
by interruption. Then, too, when labor is
mainly mechanical there is opportunity
for brain work also, and conversation may
readily accompany the manual employ
ment. Not so with men who work with
their brains. Often when apparently
most idle they are putting in their biggest
ticks. What seems to be the mere idle
watching OF the curling smoke which
issues from their lips is really the solving
Of social problems, the diagnosis of dis
ease, the analysis of q compound, the ar
rangement of discourse. Hour after
hour may pass with no visible work and
no visible results, but the work is there
and tue result is there. Now these proc
eSses, unlike those that are merely me-
chanical, can not be carried on stimuli
faneously with others that require con-
tinUed mental eXertion. Some men after
years of severe discipline may have ac-
quired the faculty of thinking several
things at time, turning out their mental
products by the dozen or great gross in
stead of singly. Napoleon could give his
attention TO three or four processes al
once. But most men are not NapoleOns
4 Of
than one thought at time, and hence
with the majority of US the interruption
of thought is the removal of it for the
time, if not its absolute destruction. Il
is in view of these facts that we make oul
outcry against men who seem to have nc
other business than to go round and sit
upon their friends after the similitude OF
peripatetic coToneT'S inquest; who really
have no Ostensible occupation but tC
''drop i'm on busy men and '.juSt have d
chat"
It would seem, further, that some pro-
fessional men can escape these infections
of friendly burdens with greater readi-
ness than others. Physicians are forced
very often by the absolute necessities OF
the case to cut theainquest short. Their
patients demand their presence-it may
he q matter of life and death. SO editors
must get their copy ready for the press
thew cannot be interrupted-and, as
privileged characters, can hang up all
sorts of ominously warning notices in their
sanctums, and can give any kind of sug
.gestive hint TO their visitors; and if words
faiI can resort to revolvers and horse
whips to clear the boards; But the pro
fessional man who is not bound by mex
.orabIe necessity-who cannot positively
saw that the loss or delay of an hour vii
make slsa' great re deal of disturbance or al
entire failure in his work, becomes thu