Bildungsromans; Families -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; New England -- Fiction
Nathan demurred against leaving old Caleb. If he had tutored the tanner
in the gentle art of poetic composition, the tanner had reciprocated by
schooling Nathan in the fundamentals and finesse of business until
to-day, down here in 1921, that same education is responsible for my
friend holding down a position that nets him an annual salary of—but
that is anticipating. Old Caleb laid the foundation for all that Nathan
knows about business. If Nathan has gone far and is going further, what
old Caleb taught him is responsible, augmented by his own artist’s
imagination and inherent creative ability. Yet Nathan’s demurring
availed him nothing. Nat bade old Caleb a tearful good-by one February
night and the tannery was a closed chapter in his life.
After six months without Nathan, old Caleb sold the tannery.
There were several antiquated job presses in the Campbell plant, fitted
with cutting dies, on which orders for folding cartons were executed.
But the bulk of the work was done by girls on a piece-work basis. There
were about twenty of these girls when Johnathan assumed the management.
Their average weekly wage was seven dollars. Johnathan looked over this
“organization”, was at once persuaded that Henry Campbell had not “held
expenses down to a minimum”, conceived that if all hands did twice as
much work, half the employees could be dispensed with, and the labor
item thereby reduced just fifty per cent. So the second morning the
“organization” consisted of one lone male to work the paper-cutter and
ten girls to paste the boxes. Nothing was said about giving these eleven
more money. They should count themselves lucky to retain jobs at any
wage. “Twice as much output or discharge” was the cheery motto that
Johnathan hung in his “factory” and he pursued it consistently.
He pursued it so consistently, in fact, that the second week no one was
working but Johnathan, Anna Forge, Nathan, Edith and an undersized boy
with adenoids. The pay roll had been cut from $163.00 a week to $4.50.
The boy got the $4.50. He had to be paid money or his folks wouldn’t let
him work.
Johnathan was so intent on holding expenses to a minimum that the art
and necessity of likewise holding his help was entirely overlooked. The
box-shop girls may have been only seven-dollar caliber but they had
their ideas about slavery, as practiced by Johnathan on his immediate
family. They walked out to a girl and the man with them. Then local
firms began wrathfully demanding boxes.
Johnathan knew how to hold down expenses. There was not a doubt about
it. Pay out no money, whether necessary or not. Bank the balance and
work the family.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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