The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-04-11
BY J. GEORGE FREDERICK

ment That artist Of yours" he said.
/ lis cutting up some shines that l don't
/ know how Ia handle"
So" asked the president. with in
terest; what's the natter"
We'll, was the reply hes been
sending around to the girls some notes
with nutty poetry on them. for in
stance, and one of the girls has been
silly enough to take them to heart. She
is neglecting her work, and brings him
apples and fudge and makes goo-goos
at him until she's on the verge of up
setting cur whole force with il. Here
is one of the notes he's been sending
around
The president took a piece Of soiled
paper upon which was written the fol-
lowing:
For several virtues
| Have I Hkened several women; never any
With so full soul. but some defect in her
Did quarrel with the nobiest grace she
And put it to the foil. But you, o. you,
So perfect and so peerless, are created
/ OF every creatures best.-Shakespeare.
The president smiled for his reply as
! he handed back the note.
well" asked the sales manager,
waiting for a reply, what do you think
IL ought to do about the matter? He is
4
CARS ] think [ ever smelt, and he struts
! into the office every morning about the
/ time some of our clerks are going out
/ for lunch, walking like the cock of the
! place, too. He gets some of the billing
clerks and bOokkepers together every
now and then, and he crates TO them
for an hour at a time, until I've got to
/ interfere He doesn't seem to under
stand what business means. When he
talks or laughs he is as loud as a sailor,
with that bass-viol voice he has"
"You think we ought to fire him,
/ then, do yOu2" asked the president, still
smiling.
We'll" replied the sales manager I'M
certainly, Il don't know that he's doing
US any particular good"
! Suppose that you give him that little
room on the second floor that ThOmp-
son used to have suggested the presi-
dent. THAT viii get rid of a good deal
of the difficulty, won't ito"
/ Yes. that's the idea, responded the
/ perpleXed manager quickly.
Once given possession of an entire
room, the artist proceeded to domesti-
cate himself characteristically. His
desk become more hopelessly Uttered
than ever, and the room filled up rap
| idly with every sort of miscellany. Pos
| tiers, drawing books, cracker-boxes, a
mirror and cheap plaster-paris casts
were strewn carelessly in all quarters.
/ The room became so ill-smelling that it
| grew to be a joke about the office, and
| few ventured in.
| One day President Jennings visited
| the artist As he came to the door he
/ heard a resonant bass voice reciting
| something. and he stopped to listen.
l. As the gentle rain from heaven
| Upon the place beneath: it is twice
blessed
The president knocked and received
! lazy Come"
What was it that you were quoting
| just as 1 came in?" he inquired.
'You didn't recognize it?" asked the
artist in surprise. 1T was one of our
friend Williams best ages-from
/ The Merchant Of Venice
! Whose writing" asked the president
of the Northwest Lumber & Furniture
company, a trifie self-consciously.
| William Shakespeare the mighty
/ bard Of the Avon" replied the artist;
the man who knew all hearts. young
and old. light and heavy, dead, living
/ and unborn. the man who knew a mai
denis delicate modesty as intimately as
/ he knew d soldiers blOOdthirsty COur-
age"
Where did you learn these things?"
asked Jennings with increasing inter-
1 est
| The artist leaned back lazily in his
chair, and relit his stumpy black cigar.
! My dear Mr.. Jennings" he replied, I
was reared on that sort of thing. Ny
mother read from Shakespeare almost
as often as she did from the Bible, and
at school We put nearly all of Shake
| speaTe on the boards. 1 could recite
you pages from any of his plays. It's
part of my daily food, my dear sir, TO
| read Shakespeare and 'Cyrano de Ber-
| gerac' and Scott and Stevenson, to say
nothing of Homer. Do you mean to
| say that you know nothing about any
| OF these writer52"
Very little" replied Jennings, apollo
! getically; you see, have had TO fight
/ my own way I'm the world, and I have
! never had time to read much
| "Of course" replied the artist with
quick and gracious courtesy. but there
was nevertheless in his eyes a surprised
pity which was too frank to be hid
den. But what does this banal mod
| ern life amount to, Mr.. Jennings. with
| its struggle for fame and fortune? It's
a blah-sted nightmare of petty pursuits
and vain fOllies-a kind of seething
/ tooth-and-nail struggle after a wiI-o'-
] I
stand the thing if I couldn't turn TO
| some matchless poetry every now and
| then. Just listen TO this aWhile'-and
I he suddenly whipped out of his pocket
"a copy of Swinburne with just one
| cover left, and began to read from 1.-THE
Garden of Prosapine." dwelling upon
/ its musical phrases, and gesticulating
| gracefully with his right hand as he
! read.
! The president listened attentively, and
/ the artist read another from the same
/ volume. When he had finished that he
seemed To be in new mood. and, after
/ rubbing his forehead bit, he recited a
] passage from "CyranO de Bergerac"
with dramatic fervor.
/ will you come out to lunch with
me2" asked the president.
4 should be pleased" was the artists
! reply. in a manner as though he was in
/ the daily habit of accepting invitations
/ to dine out.
! At the restaurant Jennings could not
| help but admire the dignity and impress
| siveness with which Hamilton took his
meal. In better clothes and with that
of his r7oea 70 MIGHT ss1x-