Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1936-12-10
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An Autocrat of the Breakfast,
Lunch and Dinner Table

Lunch and Dinner Table
nut of Vancouver 7 p. m.
~ reaching Kamaloops Junction
by dawn, and onward into the
Canadian Rockies, one of the
grandest mountain ranges on the
North American Continent, it be-
hooves the traveller to breakfast
early, lest he miss the splendor of
the newborn day, midst snow
capped pinnacles.
On this trip, my travelling com
panion, whom I met for the first
time at table spread with light
repast of orange juice, British Co
lumbia cantaloupe, coffee and toast,
proved to be a psychologist of the
first class, and also an industrialist
familiar with all phases of employ
ment. His company carried a pay
roll of 1900 men, twenty-six of
whom were experts and craftsmen.
''It is with engaging these spe-
cialists that most of my time is
occupied" said he, "and it may
amuse you to learn that it is my
practice when investigating the fit
ness of a candidate to invite him
for breakfast, luncheon or dinner,
as the case may be, before actual
business negotiations are entered
into"
AS it is easier to listen than to
ask questions. I allowed the job adj
juster to have the floor, confident
that he wanted it and had some
thing entertaining to offer.
Breakfast as Job Test.
CHOW, for example," he con-
tinued, declining cream for his COT
fee, eff the applicant is young
man, I invite him to breakfast at
my club or a frst-class hotel; eight
o'clock sharp. If he hesitates or
suggests a later hour, I instantly
approve, and defer to his every
whim when he arrives. But nine
times out of ten, regardless of what
ever Endorsements he may have
from others, the barometer, so far
as he is concerned, has begun per-
ceptibly to fall.
"Any young man looking for job,
who isn't ready for food at eight
o'clock belongs to the class that
retires too late the night before.
However, I do not take as an in
dication of unftness any mans dis
inclination to break his fast. If he
consumes good breakfast, as
young men should, it is a mitigating
circumstance in his favor, but if
he has no appetite, no capacity for
starting the day with proper nour-
ishment, he isn't pegged with me
for job on his first performance. If
the applicant is an elderly man, I
let him set the time, refraining, on
my own part, from any adverse
conclusions. When a man passes
forty, he has acquired habits and
inclinations that are no other mans
business.
Thinking With Their Teeth.
Luncheon! Well, that's an en-
tirely different proposition in this
age when metabolism, diet and the
quest of proper calories are having
widespread fling. Only, I am of
the opinion that consumers of heavy
food at the noon hour have a tend
ency to dullness for longer period
in the afternoon than is consistent
with high percentage of mental
activity. want man who does
not lack capacity to think for him
self; otherwise, how can I expect
him to think for me?
"No intelligent person eats himself
out of a job. 1t has probably oc-
Cured to you that I am 'dictatorial.
On the contrary, I have never, at
any preliminary conference with a
possible employee, discussed the
subject of food or restrained the
gentleman in prancing through the
entire bill of fare from aperitifs
to coffee. I do, however, exercise
my observational powers when
negotiating with one whom I have
every hope will measure up to the
pOS1tlOIl LnaC IL is my earnest QeSlTe
to bestow. I am not looking for
misfits, or men who think with their
teeth. I am in search of brains,
Dinner Is Supreme Trial.
''Now in the matter of dinner or
supper, whichever you prefer to call
the third phase, have become
somewhat elastic in my analysis of
character as it develops at the din
ner table. Here one must take stock
of ceremony. We should come to
it with high hope that limited
indulgence is essential to enjoyment.
I don't care to dine with a man
who evades the opportunity for en-
joyment that is or should be
prime factor at the dinner table,
whether it be set for two or twenty.
Always it should be an intellectual,
physical and. spiritual ceremony,
free from discords; something de-
signed to elate and not to exhaust.
Here, geniality, expanding in
proper ratio with the understanding
of those present, should reach it's
maximum. There is no better place
to appraise strangers capabilities