--G.M.
BUSINESS ETHICS
Johnny was at the grocery store.
"I hear you have a little sister at your house," said the grocer.
"Yes, sir," said Johnny.
"Do you like that?" was queried.
"I wish it was a boy," said Johnny, "so I could play marbles with him, and baseball."
"Well," said the storekeeper, "why don't you exchange your little sister for a boy?"
Johnny reflected for a minute; then he said sorrowfully:
"We can't now; it's too late. We've used her four weeks."
A Priest in Ireland went to Rome, and a number of his parishioners asked him to buy things for them. Some gave him the cash; others did not. When he returned, he brought the articles for those who paid for them in advance. When the others complained, he said, with a wink:
"While I was at sea I got out all the commissions and spread them on the deck. On the papers of those who had given me the coin I put the money. The others had nothing to weight them down. A squall of wind came up. It blew all the unweighted papers into the sea! So the ones who gave me the money got what they asked me to get. The others must ask Father Neptune for theirs."
A New York lawyer had in his employ an office-boy who was addicted to the bad habit of telling in other offices what happened in that of his employer. The lawyer found it necessary to discharge him, but, thinking to restrain him from a similar fault in the future, he counseled the boy, on his departure, in this wise:
"Tommy, you must never hear anything that is said in the office. Do what you are told, but turn a deaf ear to conversation that does not include you."
This struck the boss as such a happy inspiration that, to the end that his stenographer might learn the same lesson, he turned to her and said:
"Miss Jones, did you hear what I said to Tommy?"
"No, sir," she returned, promptly.
The firm of Hansen & Fransen was started in wartime and did very well for a couple of years. But last year things were on the down grade, and the other day, when the two partners had finished making up their none-too-good record for the year, Hansen said: "This would make anyone thoughtful. Now that the good times are over, how about a little honest business?"
"No, thanks," said Fransen. "I never indulge in experiments."
"There are no more enterprising young men. Why, I remember when it was a common thing for a young man to start out as a clerk and in a few years own the business."
"Yes, but cash-registers have been invented since."
The junior partner was harried.
"I shall have to get another typist," he lamented. "Miss Take is continually interrupting my dictation to ask how to spell a word."
"Dear, dear!" said the senior partner. "That seems a great waste of time."
"It's not that I mind," responded the other. "But it's so bad for discipline to keep on saying, 'I don't know'!"
_How Business Men Keep Their Spirits Up_
"Cancel my order at once," came the telegram to the factory. The owner perpetrated the only new joke in the millennium. His telegram in reply read: "Your order cannot be cancelled at once. You must take your turn."
CUSTOMER--"Gee, this is a rotten cigar!"
SHOPKEEPER--"Well, don't complain. You've only got one of them--I've got ten thousand of the darn things."--_Life_.
EMPLOYEE--"I don't like your methods of doing business, Mr. Grafton. I resign."
"PRACTICAL" BUSINESS MAN (sneeringly)--"You're a holier-than-thou guy, eh?"
EMPLOYEE--"No; merely a square peg in a crooked hole."--_Puck_.
A New York lawyer tells of a conversation that occurred in his presence between a bank president and his son who was about to leave for the West, there to engage in business on his own account.
"Son," said the father, "on this, the threshold of your business life, I desire to impress one thought upon your mind: Honesty, ever and always, is the policy that is best."
"Yes, father," said the young man.
"And, by the way," added the gray-beard, "I would advise you to read up a little on corporation law. It will amaze you to discover how many things you can do in a business way and still be honest."
"Dod-burn the luck!" snarled old Gideon Cronk, glaring at the clock.
"That confounded bank is closed! That's a thunderin' pretty howdy-do!"
"Well, you've set round the stove here foolin' with the checkerboard all the afternoon and let the bank close on you," returned the landlord of the tavern, "What you kickin' about anyhow?"
"I demand that a public institution shall accommodate its patrons; that's what!"
"Can't you cash your check in the mornin'?"
"I ain't got no check. But if I had one I'd want to cash it when I wanted to, wouldn't I? Well, it's the principle of the thing I'm talkin' about!"