Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1880 — The Courtesy of Promptness. [ARTICLE]

The Courtesy of Promptness.

In all the list of popular proverbs, there is none which is neater or truer than the old Latin declaration that “he gives twice who gives quickly.” Nor is it only in charitable deeds that the advantages of promptness are thus manifest; for there is scarcely a line of human conduct in which such celerity as is consistent with prudent action is no; found to be an effective promoter of good results. . But while all are ready to admit that promptness in thought, word and deed is an excellent characteristic, and one which is of great advantage to him of whose life it is an element, too many regard it as a matter within their own concern, and not affecting the interest or the comfort of others. If they choose to be a little dilatory, they confess that they are doing themselves some harm thereby, but declare that it is their own business, with which nobody else need trouble himself. In point of fact, however, a lack of due promptness in one's own actions, however personal and individual they may seem, is quite sure to be a marked inconvenience or discourtesy or positive loss to some one else. In this social world, where no one can live for himself, and where the whole fabric of society is woven with threads of mutual assistance, one man's neglect or failure must work injury to others; and this is specially true in matters of time. If you delay to do your part of any work, you are actually stealing time which does not belong to you, and may be thus diminishing the length of the working life of your friena or neighbor, or of some one whom you never will know. An unanswered letter, an undone errand, an unspoken message, an unperformed piece of work—if such things as these worked injury only to the lazy or forgetful man who has neglected his duty, the loss to the world's good work would still be material; but the injury is far greater because it hinders or destroys that which would have been done by some one else, or many others. And the pettiest men, by their lack of promptness, may impede great works on the part of the world’s best laborers.

Indeed, it may truly be said that, if promptness is not always a characteristic of great men, it is an essential mark of true greatness, and that its lack is a defect, not an eccentricity. As a rule, the most successful and compe.tent persons, in any department of human effort, are those who most constantly bear in mind the duty of undelayed action. It is not the great merchants, or professional men, or statesmen, who are most negligent of the lesser duties of life, in all matters where Juickness is necessary or desirable. hose who are the busiest are pretty sure to be the most prompt, for without trustworthy readiness they could hardly have achieved success to begin with, nor kept it when won. It is the little people of the intellectual world, or the world of business, who make the most fuss about “ not having time” to do this or that. The Department of State, the large mercantile establishment, or the world-famous professional man, returns a prompt reply to your question of business; while it is the cheap cobbler or the cross-roads lawyer who keeps you waiting for a month, and disappoints you at last • A failure to arrange one's affairs with a view to their prompt management is more often due to shiftlessness, or incapacity, or downright wickedness, than to an overwhelming pressure of duties, or to an accidental oversight It was brutality, not greatness, which led Napoleon to leave all letters unopened for six weeks, because in that time nine out of ten would answer themselves. It was mental inertness which made that magnificent failure, Coleridge, leave all letters perpetually unopened and unanswered. Men succeed, or partly succeed, in spite of such neglect of moral duty, but never in consequence of it. It is not well for the most of us to think that our powers in other things are so great as to permit us to imitate that negject of social decency. in the matter of promptness and the keeping of promises, which some celebrated persons have felt themselves licensed to display. No man is too great to be absolved from the duty of courteous promptness, and no man is too small to be aided by its practice.— 8. 8. Times. —A scientific article discusses “What Eyes Are For.” It’s easy. Eyes—great, bright, sparkling eyes—are for the purpose of fooling a fellow into marrying a girl who has a mother and three older sisters, with ever ready hearts and guiding hands to boss your household.—/fae jKwot