The Prescott daily news., 1912-01-09
The Rush
 of Business

l l. | tic. "This is the 'steentb +in,o r,,o barely got it started when some one wants to write his friend that he en. Joyed the dinner he took with hin, yesterday or wishes to inform some one whom he never saw and pever Will see that he received his valued iaVor-Whlch he never even read through-but though he can do abso- lutely nothing for him he begs. most ardently, to remind him that-and SD on! Huh! Talk about women gusb. ing."
 The bookkeeper turned an apprecia- tive countenance toward her and nre. pared to listen.
 on, buzz on!" she exclaimed cross. ly, as the summons became still more imperative. I'm engaged for a while yeti" And she snapped a rubbed band across the buzzer to deaden the noise.
 Actually, there aren't ten letters day that are absolutely necessary |" she declared. There's a lot of fol- derol. that passes back and forth. and gets filed as business, though it is simple waste of time and postage. When the men receive the letters they realize what rubbish they are and laugh at them. But when they get started dictating they like the sound of their own voices!
 Why" and she gave her notebook an angry fling. this thing here, I warrant, has about one page in ten filled with business that needed to be transacted! The rest is gush and affectation! And yet the men pride themselves on their quickness and their lack of red tape and their abil- ity to cope with big situations. And you won't find one man in a dozen who doesn't make supercilious re- marks about detail and say that he hasn't time to attend to that-that's what he keeps clerks for!
 "I heard Mir. Brown this morning tell his wife over the phone that he simply couldn't get home to her lun- cheon, he was so busy-his desk was simply piled with work. He was very sorry, but business had to come be- fore pleasure and she'd please make his excuses to the guests and so on all that rot.
 Well, I expected a busy day when l heard that and so I prepared for rapid dictation. We'll, what did I get? To one man he wrote that the matter was on his desk and as soon as he had time he'd look 1t over and write him in detail which he begged leave to trust was satisfactory! And to another he wrote that business, as he very likely knew, wasn't what it might be, and therefore he wouldn't be able to go into the matter, but we might in some months time-per- haps-with which he trusted he might sign himself very sincerely! And to another that he was in doubt as to the advisability of taking out such and such a paper, just at present, but after due consideration he would write him further, and he desired, Nllu Sttdl SuSlO, lO oubSNllpC L4hi- self his obliged friend. And so on through the whole list Why, there wasn't a letter that couldn't have been done away with altogether, let alone being put off until after his wife's luncheon,
 But all those letters made him think he was a very busy man and I've no doubt that he thinks he's in- dispensable to the company!
 Some day I'm going to run off lot of form letters, saying that I'm very sorry, but haven't yet had time to look into the matter, but will write further when time permits. l think 1t makes the men feel good to tell peo- pie they are too busy to think. Per haps it might be we'll for me to offer my services as thinker for them!
 "They all know that they'll decide against whatever matter 1t Is that keeps pending! It's hypocritical at titude. to say the least. They pretend to themselves that they're busy. Ihey pretend to the man to whom they write that the matter really interests them and that they're really going to discuss 1t. and think 1t over, when they know they aren't even going to look at 1t again, And they pretend to the company that they're doing business eight hours day' And then they'll go home and pretend to their wives that they've had hard day!
 "Oh. I've known too much Of them ever to marry one of them Marriage a ..nRdnnno oana aS | sec