Evening star., 1923-10-14

genuine in its worth. and the secre-
tary. while very nice about it, showed
| that he had not been fooled.
! Along comes a party that has some
request to make. They have re-
! hearsed their little speeches, and the
! chairman, stepping a pace to the
front and clearing his throat, begins
to tell why their request should be
granted. Slemp listens. He is a won
, der at'listening. Then he tells them
that he will bring their matter to the
! attention of his chief.
x x x
60 it goes all day long, one caller
how mortal man can stand the strain,
| let alone remember the thousand and
one things that have been said to him
| during the day, for all the time you
have been there he has not made a
| note. He has tucked away in some
brain cell what was said. You pom
| der as TO how he gets any time to
| sleep, and you just picture to yourself
| that every night he gets his desk
4
| nights rest he tries to recall every
| thing that has happened the day be-
| fore. Some efficiency expert will tell
| you that such things cannot be done,
| but you are convinced in your own
| mind that here is a man that can and
does do it. He has filed away every
| thing that he needs to know for the
days work, and has it so arranged as
! to be able to open a mental drawer
! and obtain just what is needed at the
I time ne wants it.
| 1t is a remarkable gift and makes
| him a very valuable man. 1t is a
1 characteristic that was possessed by
| George B. Cortelyou during the time
that he was secretary to Mckinley
| and Roosevelt.
/ When you consider the many, many
| things that come to the secret&ryss s
attention every hour of the day, to
say nothing of the kilograms, tele-
phone messages and letters, you mar
vel at his ever remembering any
thing, let alone remembering all of
| the things that come to his attention.
l IL
ihsd about a dozen things put up to
| you to remember and to act upon at
tthe time when it is important that
| they be handled, you will consider, at
the expiration of the days business.
| that you have had what you may
rightly call full days calendar. but
tif you augment that about fifty or
more times, you will have learned of
a small part of the work that the
/ fronting him every day while he Is
on the job.
/ II you keep tab on telephone calls
that come into Slemps Office during
the hours from nine In the morning
until after six in the evening, you
iwiIl find that they total about 100,
and If you are desirous of calculating
I how many visitors he sees a day you
will find that the number is about
the same. This does not, however,
Include those who merely call to pay
their respects and to leave some mes
sage for thte President. If you count
ed them, IL would easily carry you
beyond the 500 mark.
| y X x
WHILE Slemp is not of major pro-
| w portions physically, he is. accord
Ing to those who have hunted with
| him, as hard as nails. One day last
year the writer asked him what his
! favorite sports were, and just why he
tindulged in them. The answer was a
most unusual one. He found recrea-
ton in building houses and garages
tdown in his home town, rather a re-
markable way of spending hours in
search Of physical betterment, for the
average man does not go into those
| things as a recreation. OF course
while in his present job he canno'
knock off at the end OF the day and
erect a few garages before the nexi