“All right, my boy”, and opening the bag, exclaimed, “Old carpet bag, I have paid for your lunch and you shall have it.” Quicker than a flash he threw in a mince pie, a plate of doughnuts and several sandwiches, and departed amid the shouts of everyone in the station. One does not mind unintentionally stumbling on a hasty eruption in temper of a decent chap who has just found five of his letters opened by intent or on the part of a careless firm with a similar name, but we would rather not be granted an audience with an apple exporter who fathers four hundred barrels of fruit lying on the dock at Halifax ready for a ship’s hold at the psychological moment when an inspector condemns the lot because the centres are filled with undersized apples. Tenacity of purpose and “Never say die”--which compel results--are well exemplified by a happening that came to my notice some years ago, involving two cars of shoes which were routed and definitely promised to one trans-continental line. A rival corporation sent a city solicitor after them without securing the footwear. The city freight agent then essayed the task with like success. Undaunted the “D.F.A.” was the next to try, but the shipper remaining firm stuck to his guns when the fourth application was made in the person of the freight traffic manager. The news spread and on Wednesday evening of that week, when the gentleman who shewed such valor in defending his citadel of shoe leather, to the accompaniment of the silent prayers of the party of the first part, called at the president’s residence to visit his daughter, the _denouement_ hung fire no longer. A word, under such circumstances from the high official proved sufficient and the loser then understood the quotation, “An idol but with feet of clay.” An active traveling agent and irresistible business getter told me once of a prominent London firm promising him a carload if he would remain absent for six months, of another who suggested “Sell some goods for us and we will favor your route,” while the third--an old ‘Q’ employee who claimed the ‘Q’ was a large family--looking at his watch, said “Wait twenty minutes.” Waiting twenty minutes is a nerve-racking ordeal that also affects a gentleman’s prestige and a better method of procedure would be to pre-arrange a meeting out of deference to the demands on busy people’s time. It is awkward, after traveling some distance for the purpose, to find on meeting the member of Messrs. Frett & Growl Limited, that he will not meet your eye, will not shew signs of animation, but with head down apparently saving his breath for a long distance race, terminates the interview in melancholy with “No!”