Evening star., 1949-04-14
This and That
BIZ Charles Z. Trdce,1ell

When the dime fell out of his hand nd
rolled back under the big dictionary on its
sprawly stand, Templeton Jones thought
thst would be the end of it, s
He was too busy at his desk to stop and
pick it up. Jones has always looked down
his long nose at Ben Franklin's advice
about take care Of the pennies. the dimes
will take care Of themselves"
Jones despises pennies, and has very little
use for dimes. Ae4 ~ as.ssrs>x
Both he regards as nuisance coins.
Pennies. in addition. he fears. They look
as If they harbored germs. to him.
He knows, as well as the next man. that
1t is not popular to say one despises pennies
and has very little use for dimes.
Such statements only let one In for nice
normal lectures from smuggies. uf you
don't know what smuggy is. look around
you. There probably is one or more In your
own offce.)
Coming originally from the Far West,
Templeton Jones came by his honest con-
tempt for small coins naturally.
The Nickel he feels, is a good coin. You
can still buy all sorts of things with scent
piece. A dime is not good for much any
more. except to give to beggars.
It may be realized. then. that when the
dime rolled out of his hand, and came to
rest behind the big dictionary stand. 1t
might be there forever. as far as Jones was
concerned.
He gave It one look, and that was all.
There were dimes and dimes. Of course. One
type Jones always spent as quickly as pos
sible. (We will give you one guess) But
the other designs Jared little better. He
either spent them, threw them away, or
let 'em lie, as in the present case.
Every now and then, as the hours passed,
Jones took look at his dime.
1t was pretty far down. and too far back.
Those legs of the dictionary stand had an
embarrassing way Of swelling out and get
ting into ones knees If one bent over.
Jones had tried 1t before.
Just why big dictionary stands must be
built after this one design nobody knows
except the manufacturer.
Not only are they in the way, invariably
delivering sulky blow to the shins. every
time q seeker after knowledge approaches.
but they are top heavy. The big book inva-
riably starts to fall on.
The moment the dictionary begins to fall.
the little wheels at the bottom Of the four
legs begin to roll.
Then the whole thing upsets.
- =
''Take a memo, Miss Smith: Remind me
to write dictionary manufacturers in regard
to their top-heavy stands"
Jones turned back to his heavily laden
desk, and as he did so, he ran his hand
right on one of those old-fashioned spikes
"Ouch!" yelled Jones. Why do we still
have these spikes? They have no place in
o modern office"
He took the offending spike. unscrewed
the base. and then threw both base and
spike into the wastepaper basket.
He felt better. but still sulked. as he ap-
piled antiseptic second long drawer on the
right to the wound.
"You would think business supply houses"
he growled, would do something. Take
wastebaskets. Jones glared at that unof-
tending article. mot big enough. Why
doesn't some one make wastepaper basket
as big as baryel?"
Templeton Jones forgot about his dime.
The days passed. the spring came. and
Jones went along with them.
One morning he happened TO think about
the lost 1o-cent piece. you see. maybe the
fellow wasn't as indifferent as he pretended.
People seldom are. After all. . dime win
buy slice Of bacon.)
Templeton Jones wondered II he dare look
beneath the dictionary.
It wouldn't be there by this time. he
thought I'VE have very eficient janitor
service he mused)
Slowly he let his gaze sink downward.
down behind those curved and sprawiy die
tionary stand legs
Sure enough. there was the dimef
This time Templeton Jones forgot his
dignity.