Keeping Up with William: In which the Honorable Socrates Potter Talks of the Relative Merits of Sense Common and PreferredBacheller, Irving
Philosophy
Keeping Up with William: In which the Honorable Socrates Potter Talks of the Relative Merits of Sense Common and Preferred
Bacheller, Irving
World War, 1914-1918
“It would seem that Mrs. Butters enjoys an arrogant and heartless
monopoly of all knowledge about them. One does not feel like asking her
to dispel his ignorance when she speaks the word 'Shrimpstone' as if it
opened vistas of incomparable splendor and inspiration. No, there are
things which even a lawyer can not do. There is a special look
in her eye and a lyrical note in her voice when she says 'my
grandfather, the late Joshua Shrimpstone.' I imagine that Bill
Hohenzollern looks like that when he says: 'My grandfather, Frederick
the Great' But I imagine, too, that Bill's manner is a bit more casual.
“I had done some business for Mrs. Butters now and then, and one day she
came to get my advice on a strictly personal matter. Her son, John
Shrimpstone Butters, was just out of college. She had expected Butters &
Bronson, of the great corset factory, in which she had a considerable
interest, to take him into the firm and give him a commanding position
in the office. As they had not come forward with an invitation, she had
asked them for that favor. They had refused--actually and firmly
refused--and what do you think they had offered John--a great grandson
of Joshua Shrimpstone? Why, they had offered him a place as errand boy
at five dollars a week. They actually expected him to begin at the
bottom of the ladder and work his way up as if he were nothing more than
the ambitious son of a ditch digger. Mrs. Butters lost her self-control
and sobbed as she confided the distressing fact to me.
“I told her that I would have a talk with Bill Bronson, the head of the
firm, and see what could be done about it, and she left me.
“In my talk with him, Bill said:
“'We should like to do anything we can for Mrs. Butters's boy but all
we can do is to give him a chance--the same chance that my own boy will
have. He can begin at the bottom and we will push him along from one
department to another as rapidly as he can master its details. He must
learn every process from the making to the delivery of the goods. Above
all, he must learn to be a good salesman. After a few years he might
become the Butters of Butters & Bronson if he were willing to work
hard.'
“I wired Mrs. Butters to call again at my office. She called. I told her
what Bill Bronson had said to me.
“'What!' she exclaimed. 'He expects my son to become a common drummer
and travel around selling goods to little shopkeepers! Impossible!'
“'Why?' I asked.
“'Because he does not have to. My grandfather, the late Joshua
Shrimp-stone, left us enough so that we do not have to do that kind of
thing. Besides. I do not think it is necessary. My son has intelligence
enough to learn those menial pursuits without having to do them.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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