New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-10-22

who / was; since he was friend of
mine he would be not unlikely to know
the nature of my business. I returned
the slip with those three lines vacant.
He started to walk away with it, and
l experienced little thrill of triumph.
| was a match for any unshaved Office
boy in the world. But then his eye fell
on it, and he came back and handed il
to me again.
"Whaddaye wanta see him about ?" he
said.
as that necessary" bridled.
Cant see him unless you put down
what you wanta see him about"
"Whose rule is that?'
He went back to his papers. as the
rule, that's all. If you wanta see him
you gotta put down your business"
Then and there l made up my mind.
Having taken a firm stand in the mat
ter, to the extent of questioning the
boys authority, was not going to hum
BILE myself at that stage by confessing
that l wanted a job. My pride was
worth the old job, and perhaps there
wasn't any opening anyhow. l turned
around and walked out of there.
Yes, you will say Tor / shall assume
that you willy, but it is exactly for such
cases that the system is there. Hun.
dreds and hundreds of people come
around to Offices and want jobs, and lots
of them have better introductions than
yours, and if they were all entitled to
walk right into the boss's office he'd
never get any work done. My answer
to this is that you're right--and yet
wrong. l have cited case in an en-
deavor to show how the system works;
the visitor does not always want job.
Not infrequently he is there to perform
a service for the man in the inner of.
fice-such as to put his name in the
newspapers or to buy a mess of his
goods or to tell him his aunt has left him
a lot of money-and is frightened away
by the deadly and sure operation of
the office boy system. / know, for |
have been there when it happened
On many occasions have longed to
put down something facetious on one of
those slips, and have restrained myself
with difficulty. l would like to select
very naughty and proud man, for ex-
ample, and write on his little piece Of
paper that | wanted to see him about
proposition to balance pink elephants on
the end of his nose. And many other
times have grown deeply philosophical
and wondered what becomes of all the
slips filled out in the course of years
business. And at other times have
merely reflected on the system as
whole, and wondered why it was kept
up atm most cases-the certain loss
of business.
| said at the start that I was prob
ably wrong about this story, and | am.
1t is not story about office boys at all.
They are merely the lay figures. 1t is
a story about the bosses who invented
the system-a foolish system at best
and then intrusted it to the care of I'M
tidy office boys, who couldn't be ex-
pected to be tidy on five dollars week.
To drop office boys entirely, | am merely
trying to sound piping note Of wonder
that outer offices are not just as COM
fortably furnished as the presidents
sanctum, and that one of the officers Of
the company, or somebody else with
authority and discretion, is not out
there to receive visitors. You can't tell
who is going to drop in.
But let me announce right here that
l don't know anything at all about BUSH
ness.