Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1918-05-10
Hester Proves
Her Theory
BY JANE OSBORN
Copyright, 1918, by the McClu
per Syndicate.)
BY JANE OSBORN

To be quite honest Hester was STIR
| ing shamelessly at the man opposite
her and the predominant sentiment in
| her mind as she stared was one of adj
| miration. The man sat in posture of
F.! dejection-his shoulders slouched for
| ward and his chin sunk down on his
| chest. This was not the remarkable
| a man begrimed aud smudged from
| his days work at the Kingdom foun-
| dry. The remarkable thing TO Hester's
keen insight was that the young MAI
| did not look as if he were mentally
| slouching at ALL His rather large.
rudy face, unshaven and blackened
grotesquely, showed alertness and
none of the set lines that came from
long, sense-deadening drudgery in the
foundry.
That night after dinner Hester
! sought her father, the owner and man.
ager Of the foundry, in his study. He
| held an open magazine in his hand, but
his far-away, determined expression
| showed to Hester at a glance that his
mind was not in the magazine but on
the foundry.
mo fair having troubles you don't
tell me about" she began, drawing her
| low chair up to his and folding the
magazine that rested lightly in his
hands. eff you must think about bust
ness, think out loud. I'm enormously
| nterested-always.
Mr.. Kingdom little by little admitted
| to his daughter that the greatest
| source of worry In the management Of
| his business was more or less of a
| psychological nature. 1T isn't flaws in
| the metal or shortage of fuel or trans
| portation troubles that give me my
| greatest trouble. It's finding men l
| can trust. Sometimes. Hester, / mis-
| trust them ALL They are pulling away
| from me, and the man | feel the
most confidence in is always the man
! that shows the telling weakness. If
| there were only way to test the
| quality of men as there is to test
metal then | might find men to help
shoulder the responsibilities %
Hester's animated expression show
| ed the interest she felt. She told her
| father that this remark led up directly
| to the very thing she had in mind to
| ask him. Her only hobby outside of her
| beds of spring flowers was the study OF
| faces. She had worked up for herself
| a system by which she thought she
could interpret mems and women's ma
| lures and characters through their ia
| cial contour To be sure in her TWEEN
| ty-two years of life in a restricted cir
Gle of associates in the town where
| her fathers large foundry was located
| she had but little chance to test her
| theories, but though not extensive her
study had been intensive. Now she
asked her father for an opportunity to
| try it out. She told him thai she could
help him to find the right man for the
right place in his work if she could be
permitted to study the men in the fac
| tory and to test them by the standards
| she had worked out.
Let me have job as time-keeper-
| something SO that / can see the men
every day when they come TO work.
| They won't know who l am and they
| will be off their guard. | know there
| are men there that have the ability
needed to take the positions of trust,
| but because you have no way of dis
/ covering them they are wasted. They
| remain in the rut, doing something
| that is not big enough for their abili-
| ties, and other men without so much
| ability, through some accident or a
more pushing nature, take the bigger
| positions That is why they so often
| prove a disappointment. Why, this
very afternoon l got on crowded
| street car al. closing time just to study
| the mems faces. There was one young
| man-shabby enough and apparently
| doing the crudest sort of workout
| any one could see that he had ability.
! There was an expression about his
| mouth-a rugged determination-tha
| showed me what sort of man he was.
/ know III be able to help you. Won't
| you let me try?'
| During the two months that followed
| Testers assumption of the job of time
| keeper in the foundry there were sew
eral surprising promotions and more
! than one enforced resignation. All
that Mr. Kingdom would say when
asked for an explanation was that he
had been advised by an authority on
personal efficiency to make the
| changes, and that it was due to no pre-
| iudice of his own whatever, save. of
course, a perfect confidence in the
! ability of the efficiency expert.
Who was the efficiency expert? 1t
was admitted that he must be man
| of some shrewdness. More than one of
! the underlings in the office knew that
the young boOkkeeper who was dis
missed at the time of the first change
had been padding the pay roll for
weeks. Apparently the dismissal was
made without any knowledge of this
| bit of high finance, but merely as the
result of the studies in personality on
the part of the mysterious efficiency
expert.
Most remarkable of all the changes
had been the rapid rise of Peter Nor
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