Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1901-11-22
AN ANSWER TO AN AD.
THE Case of the Young Man Inv'eo
10 succeed Himself.

an big city like New YORK. salu
man who has made Il success OF ne III
the metropolis to reporter, "a young
man in that happy irresponsible periou
when he is not endowed with either 'oo
much money or too much care Is pretty
certain to have some peculiar expert
ences-eXperiences rich in serlo-coihie
elements, where the grave ana gay CO.
mincle in the same adventure,
81 remember a laughable and yet
rather serious incident which occurred
TO me shortly after | had come 10 the
city, very green young chap from tHe
country. ! was reasonably well educa'-
ed and possessed some excellent reier,
ences, so II was not long before fouhd
position with an elderly lawyer whose
name was Marston.
81 was to be his secretary, but ID
reality | was the general factotuni-
that Is, | did everything-wrotep ponder
ous letters to clients, kept books ana
swept up, and when winter came 1
added the duties of stove engineer 10
my other multfarious vocations
well, this was not so bad, and !
would have been perfectly satisfied, but
what CALLED me was that nothing ala
suited the old man, If | wrote a letter
il was either too short or too long; II l
swept up. | had either not sprinkled
the floor enough or | had put too much
. water on it.
"IIe was, in fact, such a crank that l
was tired Of mg position and of the old
man. and had good reasons to suspect
that he entertained a similar affection
for me. At any rate. | had learned
from previous secretaries Of his land
they were legion that he was not IN
the habit Of keeping a man in his en-
ploy for more than six months, ana
had already been with him whole
year,
80 | decided to get out before 1t
came TO an open breach. in which case
would I've out Il recommendation ana
inserted an adj. in a paper stating that
wanted a position as secretary. The
next morning ! went to the newspaper
office. where the clerk handed me two
letters one was from an employment
burn | threw that in the wastebasket.
The other seemed more businesslike.
1t read:
"My secretary will leave ne on saturday. when
the position will be open. Kindly call before 1t
date, with references, on JoIiS MsRsToH'
"Now, you may imagine my amaze
ment! Between the humor of the sit
uatlon and the grave prospect of losing
my position was lost in a medley of
conflicting emotions. But the idea of
getting my own position when | had
vacated II, of myself succeeding my
self and the trap into which the old
; man had fallen was too much for my
optimistic disposition. | was con-
vulsed with mirth.
This happened on Monday Sat
urday came. and | was almost crazed
with expectation. During the morning
the old man was somewhat nervous. as
J ii he expected some one who hadn't
shown up At last he couldn't contain
himself any longer.
HAS there been no young man
here this morning wanting to see me?
No! Well. if he does come, tell him
to wait for me in my private office
t But the mysterious young man
2 failed to show up and had not yet APP
pcared when at o'clock the old man
bounced into his office, wearing a rath-
or disappointed expression.
HAS that young man not been here
YETI he demanded.
"'You mean the fellow you sent for
to take my position| l inquired.
He jumped up as if some one had
thrown glass of ice water down his
back.
"'Why, who told you that" he cried.
"'You YOURSELF replied 1 am the
: man whose ad. you answered.
l There was a moments silence. Then
CLEAN of humor stole into the old fel-
, lows eyes You're a brighter boy
than first gave you credit for he
said. I guess we had better stick to-
Ccthcr.'
But we didn't, for the following
week | inserted another ad. and got a
position that was more secure and
where the boss was less eccentric.''-
Now Norl; Times