The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1909-04-22
TIMELINESS.

Punctuallty Is one OF the prllhdiy 'n'o
which no young person contemplating
successful career can afford to neglect.
The immense amount of advice garnered
in literature respecting the observance OF
fundamental duties, supplemented oy the
precepts of parents and teachers, has per-
haps lost some of it's force by iteration.
Nevertheless there is always coming on the
STAGE A new generation to whom the OLD
teachings must be addressed as if they were
new discoveries. Perennial preaching Isl
necessary. and there must be constant
revival of s'frst principles" The mighty
procession of humanity is ever on the
move New Regiments are appearing on
the scene that must be drilled and instruct"
ed as if training and instruction began
with them. 1t has been we'll said that ex-
perience is the best school; but young
persons, from the nature of the case, cannot
be equipped with experience, and must
accept the valuable tuition derived from
the experience of others as formulated in
good advice. One of the best lessons that
can be impressed upon young persons, and
upon all persons, is the exceeding I'M
portance of timelness in keeping promises,
engagements, contracts and agreements OF
all kinds.
The person who is not punctual in attend
ance at a meeting at which his presence is
essential FOR the advancement of the bust
ness in hand commits an offense which is
not far from venial in the court of morals,
unless he have reasonable excuse for his
hardness. By the careless disregard of
the element of timelness in keeping en-
gagements the person who comes late robs
others of their time and commits kind of
intangible petty larceny not punishable by
the statute, but species of immortality
which should produce some twinges of
demoralize the days schedule for many
other trains. The belated participant in a
business meeting may sadly interfere with
many other important transactions in
which the other participants in the delayed
meeting are interested.
This is a busy world. It's affairs pro-
coed on the theory and confident expecta-
ton that engagements will be kept; that
the conference will be hello at the appointed
time. Even the old legal concession to
tts.rcihesz-- -ff5a three ''days of grace" al
lowed for the payment of promissory notes,
has been abolished in most of our States.
The modern business world moves on time
and cannot abide the archaic consideration
for the slow debtor recognized in days. of
grace. 1t is almost impossible for men
actively and not merely nominally engaged
in numerous great enterprises to discharge
their multifarious duties without becoming
precisonists as to the disposal of their
time. 1t is related of Kant that the people
OF kronigsberg could set their watches and
clocks by his movements. He always ap-
peared at the same moment every day at
the place where he took his daily walk.
This severely precise method may not APP
peal to that mystic individual, the average
man. Talleyrand observes that methods
are the masters of masters, and Addison
remarked that irregularity and lack of
method are only endurable in men of great
learning and genius, "who are often too
full to be exact, and therefore choose to
throw down their pearls in heaps before
the reader rather than be at the pains of
stringing them"
Lord Burleigh remarked that method is
like packing things in box; that good
packer will get in half as mnch again as a
bad one. 1t is a standing wonder that
certain men with extensive private bust
ness to direct are able te give fruitful at
tentlon to the numerous corporations in
whose directorates they serve. If the SER
vice Of such directors be not simply hon.
orary, it cannot be effective without prompt
attendance at all meetings, and probably
this is the explanation of the ability of
necessarily busy men to keep the pace.
Lord Nelson, with excusable self-lauda-
ton, is credited with saying that he had
always been present quarter of an hour
before the time, land it has made man
OF me- In purely social engagements it
is not so important, perhaps, to arrive at
the appointed moment, but it is not we'll to
come so late that the arrival seems to in
dictate that little pleasure is anticipated,
and that the guest wishes to spend as little
time as possible with the entertainer and
his company. Hazlitt, in one of his essays,
declares that few things tend more to alien