Audubon County journal., 1911-05-25
BEING
BUsINESsLlKE


the house shrugged her pretty shoul-
ders and returned to her guest in the
parlor
Business is a great fraud" she de.
clared.
I've always said so,' responded her
friend with some emphasis.
I've just signed an expressman's
book to show that I've received some
thing" the daughter of the house ex-
planned. Now, why sign? don't
know what's in that box. It's large
and heavy, but it may be empty. And
yet a delivery man would drop dead
If you stopped to look inside before
you signed. No one ever does"
Certainly not" said her friend,
warmly. THAT would be quite un.
professional. What that box contains
in a small matter, after all. The
point is, did 1t come? When you are
as old as l am, my dear, you will be-
gin to understand how many yards of
red tape men need to be truly busi-
nesslAe. They put up an appearance
of great caution"
"And do the saddest things ever
heard of"
Exactly. Leases that everybody
breaks"
Checks that any one can cash"
Contracts that no one pays any at
tention to-"
Deposit slips that you always
lose"
Passes for the bearer only-but
any one may be the bearer-and cards
not transferable"
Adele, I'm so glad to hear you
speak so" cried the hostess. i've al
| ways believed that business was SO
much pretense."
"A most cursory knowledge of busi-
ness methods SO called
shows how shallow they are''
I'm so glad you feel as do, Adele.
It's such comfort to hear you ex-
press those convictions. Father has
| always scolded us girls for not being
businesslike, and I've always tried to
conceal my ignorance more or less. It
seemed such matter for scorn."
"Scorn? My DEAR" SAID her friend
in tone of fnality, business is in
compatible with high thinking"
Adele" said the girl suddenly. how
do you send money ;"
Seal it up" snapped her friend.
How else?"
You darling! OF course how else!
But as long as | can remember, when
ever we sealed up money in an envel-
| ope and father found it out he would
| throw up his hands and implore the
| fates to help us. Then he has gone
about for days after, uttering instruc-
| tions about money orders and regis
tered letters. But neither Ethel nor
| | had ever paid any attention to him
| until last summer when 1 went to the
country 1t was very funny
Il had been away only a short time
when Ethel wrote in rather superior
tone that she had sent me registered
letter for $40 Just as If she had been
in the habit of doing those things ev-
| cry day Of her life! The money didn't
surprise me, you know, because she
owed it to me. But registered letter
sounded entirely too ambitious for our
little Ethel
| We'll. | went down to the postoffice
every day for week, insisting that
| there was registered letter for me.
The postoff1ce there was poor excuse
of place. and it had lot of suspi-
ctous looking clerks. So when my let
ter was overdue Just drew myself up
and insisted that the letter was there,
and so was the money. But they did
not seem greatly excited.
| The people Of the town began to
! interest themselves in my financial
condition. 1t was rumored that was
expecting lot of money that hadn't
come. so l had to spend money lavish
ly to show that l didn't really need it,
Then l wrote Ethel that something
was wrong. And l didn't hint that it
served her right
| Her next letter was suitably hum
BILE. She couldn't understand what
was the matter. but she inclosed lit
tie paper, which. she said, the man at
| the postoffice had given her as a re-
ceipt for her money. She said she had
given my name and address quite
plainly and she suggested that If /
showed the receipt they might be able
to trace the letter So down | went to
the postoftice with the little paper.
| Here's the receipt l said. Then,
Adele, you never heard such noise as
those crazy men made. You'd have
thought they had been saving up that
guffaw for the best part of their lives.
"As soon as they could frame words
they asked me in sort of chorus what
I wanted. Naturally, told them. when
my sister had given my address and
paid her money she expected that 1t
would be sent to me. l can't tell you
all they said They showed me all the
reading matter on that paper, which
was enough to drive any one insane.
But 1T seems, Adele. that after civ
ing your money to the clerk at the
postofice you have to send on the lit
tie receipts yourself and put the per-