The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-03

the Food Placed Before Them
Punctuality Is the Real Thief of
Time.
A ST. Paul woman says that pune
tuality. not precrastination, is the thief
of time. There is a great deal in that
remark, and there are not many of us
who fail to understand. it. Hardness
is universal; punctuality is so rare
that it hardly exists. And the rare
woman who is always waiting for the
later ones, and consequently wastes
more time than if she were behind
hand. We all know and have suffered
from the hardness of friends, but there
are people who seem to have been
born late, and 1t is impossible for them
to overcome it. Only those who have
belonged to clubs and have been on
committees-and not only among
women-know what a tremendous
drawback is this universal hardness.
1t interferes with business, upsets all
sorts of plans and sometimes being
late has made the difference of life and
| death. The first acts Of most plays
are spoiled by late corners at the the
aters, and the first numbers on most
concert programmes are generally
sung or played in a hubbub unless the
| doors are kept closed. st. Paul people
are not any more guilty in this re-
gard than those of other cities. In
! New York it is said that there are
| thousands Of women and men who
never see the first. act of any opera or
play. A late dinner Is considered more
important than anything else. OF
course 1t is useless to deny that wom-
/ en- are the greatest sinners in this
matter. They are late for meetings,
for trains, for church, for theaters, for
| funerals, for weddings, for everything
1 under the sun. Then therelsis the wofn-
| an who is not. late enough to miss
anything, but comes rushing in at the
| last moment, GREATNESS, after all her
friends have nearly had nervous pros
tration imagining she was not coming
or had forgotten the engagement. She
is usually smiling and good-natured,
while everyone else is thoroughly eX-
asperated and worn out. There is. too,
the woman whose watch is slow, and
she is perfectly astonished to think
you have been waitiag!
1t would be well for a mother to
make a special point of punctuality
with her children, but in order to do so
she must be on time herself. There are
mothers who insist upon their children
| being in the house and ready for a
meal five or ten minutes before the
appointed time and take no excuse for
| hardness. A training of this kind may
be invaluable to a man or woman later
in life. The writer knows a mother of
/ a large family who also made a rule
that no complaints were ever to be
| made by the children about the wealth
er or what was put before them on
the table. She very wisely brought
them up to eat every thing, as she said
/ if she once allowed nine children each
to like this and not like that she would
have no end of trouble. zShe said, too,
that there is never a day when it is
not too cold or too warm, the wind is
| blowing or something is wrong, and
she taught her boys and girls never to
| complain of climatic conditions. The
| result was that the household was a
| very pleasant one.
Once in a while we find some one
| who is just on time without hurry or
| rush, but who never wastes a moment
unnecessarily. AS a rule the very
prompt woman who is to take a 8
o'clock train will go to the station at
half past and waste all the valuable
time between. However, that is better
than being a minute too late. OF course
the tremendous demands on the time
of men and women workers may have
somewhat to do with this general
hardness, but it is very trying, and
there does not seem to be any remedy.