The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-10-15
EVENING CHAT
Letters of a Successful Business Wom-
an to Her Niece
BY RUTH CAMERON.

AcitcfS OF a SucceSSIuI business WON.
an to Her Niece.
Dear Niece:-What's all this I hear
from your mother, about your working
evenings and lying awake nights wor-
rylng about some important document?
Mr. dear Joan, you are right about the
bread of independence being sweet eat
ing, but let me tell you one thing
There's one mighty good way to make
1t sour on your stomach, and that is
buttering it with the butter of over
work and nervous exhaustion.
don't believe your father will think
that few dollars a week repays him
for having his jolly, sweet tempered
daughter transformed into a nervous,
irritable creature who flies off the ham
die over nothing and has Mysteries ev-
cry time her big brother leases her a
little.
yet, but that's the goal you seem to be
aiming for.
Now, niece, no doubt you've read a
good deal in the newspapers. and so
forth about the clerk who doesn't see
Miss Opportunity when she beclxons to
him, because he is too all fired busy
watching the clock.
Of course, there's plenty of truth in
that kind of dope. But as usual there's
another side to that question. There's
lain awake nights worrying over his
business so much that he's too dead
sleepy to open his eyes wide enough
to see the lady of the reckoning finger
even when she shakes it right under
his very nose
To keep yourself bright, and alert.
and efficient is your duty, both to your
self and your employer.
And that doesn't mean that you
should always refuse to work overtime
either. That would be absurd. There
are exigencieS in every business that
nd nd Oil
who has her hatpins all poised ready
to ram them into the correct holes at
the first stroke of five, and who acts
like an abused wife when her employer
asks her to stop a few moments and
take an important letter, loses as many
jobs as she deserves to. But being ask
ed to work overtime or in the evenings
as regular thing, is something that no
girl should stand. When that happens
it means that your employer is trying
And you can't do that even though
you think you'd like to. except by
drawing on the future. That means
that some day you will have to pay up
on that overdrawn account by not be-
ing able to do the work of one. And
that doesn't pay.
Now for the lying awake and worry
ing. That's got to stop right here
niece. Believe me, if you spend your
first year just learning to leave your
at night, and learn nothing else. you
will have done well.
And doing that isn't lack of devotion
to your employer and your business
either. It's the height of devotion.
Which do you think a business man
would rather have come to work in
the morning for him-a fagged-out,
nervous girl who was so devoted to his
interests that she spoiled her evening
relaxation and her nights rest worry
ing over a fancied mistake, that she
couldn't correct until morning anyhow
or a bright, efficient young person who
had put her business out of her head
the minute she left the office, and
rested and relaxed for all she was
worth, and came back to her desk with
a clear, steady brain, ready to correct
any past mistakes and to minimize
mistakes in the future?
Well then, niece, why don't you prove
your common sense by being the right
kind and justifying the skyhigh good
opinion of
Your fussy but devoted to-your-in-
terests Old Aunt.