The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-01-15
DIFFER IN HABITS
CARE OF Desks NOT AN iNplcA-
TON OF ABILITY.
While Some Men Must Have Things
Just 90, Others % Much Work
Amid the Utmost Apparent
Confusion.

Curious about mems desk habits"
said man whose business takes him
about more or less into various sorts
Of ofnces. II was in an once yester.
day where had occasion to write
something"
"'Here. sit down at my DESK says
the man. I guess you can find q place
there
"And l did find place there after
moving one or two things. but that
was all I found-a place just big
enough to write in, and that square in
the middle Of the desk.
"This was Hat top desk and. ex.
cept for that small. bare spot in the
middle, it was just covered with pa.
pers and things of every description,
and these not folded or stacked os set
up about in any orderly manner, but
all apparently In the utmost confusion.
"The desk looked as though its
owner, when he had got through with
a document or bill, just pushed 1t back
from the bare spot on the desk. And
SO he had stuff piled up ON his desk
overlapping and lying around any way
all around the top IL his desk, and
actually sloping down from all around
to that bare spot like a little fiat val.
ley, where he wrote in the center at
the front.
"And this was business man, too,
and, moreover, as was told, man
who has accumulated comfortable
property in the pursuit of his business
And found him, in the dealings I
had with him, not only personally ami
able in all things, as indicated by his
CHEEKY call to use his desk, but fair
and exact in his business ways.
How he ever did business with his
desk Uttered up in that way, how he
ever found anything there that he
wanted, or how he ever remembered
anything don't see; but as far as I
know he never forgot anything that
was important.
ut made me think of something a
minister asked me once. was saying
to this minister, talking about preach.
ino extemporaneously, that I should
think when man got up in the pulpit
to preach without any notes that he'd
be apt to forget some of the things he
wanted to say, and the minister said
that sometimes you might forget
things in that way, but then he recall.
ed what an experienced old clergyman
had said to him in reply to the same
suggestion from himself, which was to
the effect that the things the preacher
forgot to say were usually the things
not worth remembering.
"And maybe it was so about the for.
gotten things in the pile of papers on
that desk.
But he wasn't the only man have
met who kept his desk apparently in
the greatest disorder, but was never
theless successful; and then have
known plenty of men who went as far
the other way and who would have q
Mt unless they could keep everything
on their desks just so.
"The inkstand must be here and the
stamp box here, and the pen rack
here? all just SO, and kept so; and
Will uO uIIST duy WuSFS, Will every
thing free and clear and in order.
And I have known men who couldn't
write unless they had their paper
squared just right, and all that; pre-
else men, who must have everything
just SO before they could get to work:
all the very opposite of the man with
the Uttered desk, who has at least in
his favor the fact that he doesn't
worry himself over trifles. but keeps
on serene through 1t all.
SAnd while have known men who
must have everything just SO neat
about their desks, fresh blotters and
clean ,inkstands and all that, I have
known other men who didn't care II
their desks were a foot thick with
dust, and who only asked that their
things should not be moved or shifted
about; just simply and only that their
desks be let alone.
Gas . matter Of fact there is in
these days less and less disorder in
business methods and more and more
system; this in an age of system"