St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-10-29
WAITING SERVICE.

1t is wonderful what IL large part of
our life is absorbed even in the little
"waitings" which happen every day
! We have all heard of the French law
yer who wrote the whole of an impOr-
tant work on Jurisprudence during
the minutes, rarely numbering more
than fifteen ut time, while he waited
for his wife to join him for social Occa-
siOns. The writer has known a busy
lady, an active professional woman,
| and the mother of Il household, who
kept her family provided with hand
knit stockings, the product of waste
"0dds and ends of time" when, as she
herself put it, sit would have been
quite impossible to do anything else"
We question whether the superior
richness of some lives is not entirely
due to a faculty-largely capable of
develOpment-of utilizing fragments of
time, which others would allow to slip
through their fingers. 1t is common
saying that busy people have most
leisure. The man who receives most
letters is the man who generally ans
wers by return of post. When an In
dian chief heard somebody excusing
the nOn-perfOrmance of II certain duty
on the score that ''there was no time"
he wittily remarked, ~ suppose each
of us has all there is"
One peculiar trial besets most of the
little inevitable daily waitings. They
generally seem so unnecessary-nay,
are quite unnecessary, so far as those
who impose them are concerned. Com
mittees should not wait for the mem
Der who is always late. Excursions
should start without the lOiterer who
contrives to miss the appointed train.
1t is il habit which spreads with dead
ly rapidity. Busy people, who can be
punctual only by pains and manage
ment, are apt to relax their efforts when
they find they are always wasted by
some idler.
1t is always well to have some little
by-wOrk for waiting seasOns-sOme
thing which will therefore tend to keep
us sweet and smooth, when otherwise
we should be only too liable to fret and
chafe. But the manner of too many of
our waitings fOrbids our emulation of
the example of the French lawyer, or
the busy professional woman.
We cannot write, or knit, or sew, or
sketch, in other peoples rooms, in rail
way stations, or i'll the street. A book
is more manageable resource. We
knew doctor who made himself
splendid German scholar while driving
i'll his carriage from patient to patient.
But then his unOccupied intervals could
be reckoned on. With most of us it is
not so. Generally the time, place, and
manner of our waitings are infinitely
various.
Different kinds of waiting must be
taken each on its own merits. For
waitings in our own house there should
be certainly some resource which is
our waiting work" For other wait
ings there should be always the prompt
question, "What can | do 7" to be fol-
lowed by the equally prompt execution
of the decision, once it is arrived at.
Often conversation can be entered
into, with some other waiting one !;
and it is wonderful how soon a CONVEX
satiOn may be made interesting and
pertinent if we give our minds to that
end, instead of to desultOry chat. Of
ten there lis something to be observed
and learned from our surroundings,
and scarcely an observation or a fact
can be stored away in our minds but is
sure to come ont again some day, and
to make itself useful in way we can
not now dream Of.-[The Culver.