Evening star., 1924-10-31

ing In the doorway, THINKS thdL Is all
right. because, you see, she herself
would leave three out Of every ten
behind.
Down at the office members of the
janitorial force bring in a rug to be
put down for the Winter. 1t has
been in storage during the dusty
Summer days But now that the
shouting and tumult-of the world
series-has died. and the captains and
kings Of base ball have quickly de-
parted, the time for rugs Is here
again.
With much ado about something the
long rug, in its neat roll, is brought
in, and deposited at one side OF the
room. So part of the job Is done.
The inmates wait for the remainder
of it to be completed but, like many
things, including Christmas, 1T Is a
long time coming,
Days go by, still the rug rests
like a gigantic mummy at the side of
the room. The thing was only done
halfway. There will be many angry
telephone calls, and any amount OF
blah- blah, before the rugs finally get
rolled out into place.
In countless homes, now that the
furnaces are going. there will be
complaints Of poor coal, and growing
at the draft, and censure of the fur
mace itself, and imprecations at the
necessity for fires in general.
The whole trouble, however, will lie
in the least suspected place of all,
in the brain of the old man OF the
house. That gentleman, you know
although he does not-only does
things in a halfway fashion.
He allows the ashes to pile up in
I4 och nj nd of "a "a n
the furnace enough. "Just shake 1t
until a. few glowing Goals fall
through" he says. No, shake 1t until
the whole ash pit glows with light!
That is the 100 per cent way to shake e
a furnace. The thorough way to
clean out the ash pit is to do 1t twice
day, keeping the pit absolutely
clean of ashes. Not half full, not
one quarter full. not one-eighth or
even one-tenth full, but not even SO
much as an ounce of ashes. Does
this seem too much? Well, maybe SO,
but the results are worth 1t.
+ \ 4 \
Stores often bore us with the minis
trations of clerks who wait upon US
in a halfway fashion. when they
deign to notice us at all.
Yonder handsome youth is SO
enamored of his own good looks that
he fails to see our somewhat un-
calmly beauty. When he finally con-
descends to wait upon us, he does 1t
with an air or: II pray you, why did
you have to bother me just as l was
adjusting ray rawther clever cravat?'
AS a matter of cold fact, he is Civ
ing US a halfway service, and his
employer a worse raw deal, because
we simply will not go back to that
store any more. When We want to
get snobbed, we prefer to be snubbed
by real, first-class snubber, thank
you,
See yonder street car. bowling along
on a rainy night on the tracks of
the traction company whose combi-
nation of first initials has allowed
facetious gentlemen to poke fun at
the corporation.
The car stops at a loading plat
form, the crowd is huddled within.
The conductor makes ready to close
up his doors when an old, gray
haired woman runs through the rain
to get aboard. She passes the motor
man, who looks directly at her. No
thought of his own mother seems to
strike him. He gives no signal to
the conductor. BY this time the lady
is at the door, still open. but the
conductor does not signal the motor
man to stay. Instead, he deliberately
closes the doors in the face of the
old woman, and the car pulls out,
leaving her standing there in the
rain.
That is what 1 call doing a thing in
a halfway fashion. When you clean
off the walk, get every leaf. When
you wait on a customer. give him the
best you have, both in goods and
service. 1t is no easy thing to do.
doing things 100 per cent, but all of
US can do better by thinking about it.