Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1908 — HOW THEY DISPOSE OF BORES. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOW THEY DISPOSE OF BORES.

Ingenious Devices Resorted to By Prominent Business Men. One of the most serious problems tor busy men and men of nence to solve is how not to see people without giving offence. Also It Is quite as vexing a problem and quite as serious a one to find a way to git rid of callers expeditiously. The average caller who has succeeded in getting an audience with some prominent man Is very apt to forget how very valuable that prominent man’s time is and to feel

no compunction or hesitancy in monopolizing as much of it as may suit his own sweet will. Of course this does not apply to the stereotyped and well known class of bores after they have been found out to be such. An attendant or a clerk with ordinary discrimination and discernment easily detects the professional bore and keeps him away from annoying his chief. There are, however, plenty of well meaning people In business and the professions who are bores without knowing It They are the amateur kind and would be very much offended If they were classed as business annoyances. It is against the persistency of this kind of people that the bnsy man has to employ hts Ingenuity. The Wall Street magnate, bank president or head of a big mercantile house is perforce obliged to see many people In the course of the day. Sometimes the callers run Into the hundreds. It is therefore Important to limit the calls of those who have but little business to transact to as few moments as possible and to get rid of them without In any way giving offence or breaking In on the business relations which already exist. Many and varied are the schemes utilized to this end. There Is hardly a big office downtown that has not some special method of its own of accomplishing this end. Perhaps one of the most amusing and at the same time simple methods of all employed Is that of one of the magnates of the Standard Oil. He is a very difficult man to see at best unless the caller Is personally known to him or has some really Important business that the secretary cannot attend to. Naturally this condition frequently arises, and the magnate’s method of making the call brief is to have the caller shown Into a reception room In which there are no chairs. Of course, the magnate’s suite of offices contains other reception rooms, in which there are plenty of chairs, but this especial room, reserved and set aside for the “quick callers," is-entirely devoid*of any place to sit down on. Thebe are elaborate tables with inkstands and

Pfn pads, and glsp roller top desks. It would be a sacrilege to even lean against any of them. This particular magnate has learned by long qxpdHence that whefi once a man bits on a chair he is likely to sit there much longer than he Is wanted. The caller. Is shown Into this gfydiless room., The magnate is here waiting for jhim with a pleasant smfls and a, warm handshake. lie tells his business, naturally as brief as he can, because it is not the most comfortable thing in the world to stand up and be verbose. The result is entirely satisfactory to all parties. The visitor goes away quickly. He has told all he has to say and the magnate is saved any embarrassing remarks to the effect that "You will have to excuse me dow,” or "I am very busy,’’ or words to that effect That is ths method of the Standard Oil’s quick action with callers thsy do not to have linger. Procees servers do not even get that amelioration of kindness. Then there is also a theatrical manager who has a method of hie

owr ttf gsttln* rtff of people quickly. His method le “the push out handshake.“ ' - •*. The visitor is brought in and Introduced. The manager grasps his hand In a warm and fervid embrace and holds on to It. He holds on to it for the very beet reason In the world —that If he ever let go he would be lost. He shakes and pushes and he pashes toward the door. The visitor finds himself unwittingly saying “good by" before he has really had a good opportunity to say “How do you do.” Actually before he knows it he Is pushed out Into the hall and the attendant leads him away. The man with numerous deputies who impersonate him Is the most common form of getting rid of people that are not wanted. It Is not an Infrequent occurrence that a beardless youth will go to some anteroom to see a caller and Impersonate the personality of a gray whiskered veteran of business or profession. The guileless caller, In a majority of cases, will possibly wonder how the man he called on has been able to keep his age so well. But he will go away satisfied and pleased that he has had a personal Interview with the man he came to see. There Is also, the telephone trick, which many prominent men use. This Is the operation. The caller, whose business has been consummated and who Is simply sitting around with the Idea that he is making himself agreeable and solid with the man he came to see, is interrupted in possibly a good story by a vigorous ring on the telephone. The "big man” that he Is calling to see necessarily has to attend to it. No sooner Is he finished wlt& this call and turns politely to his visitor and says “Yes” than comes another ring on the telephone. The unwelcome caller Is simply rung out, and all simply because there Is a wide awake clerk In the outer office who understands that a certain bell ring or a certain signal means to call up the central exchange and keep the magnate’s telephone busy until the unwelcome caller has been got rid of. There Is still another way. It Is the haughty, sarcastic and contemptuous way of receiving callers. This can be done and is done without even indulging in any mannerisms or unkind words. Aa, for instance, a gentleman was very desirous of seeing the president of a bank. There was no especial reason why the president of

the bank wanted to see him. but there were very good reasons why the caller wanted to see the president. He (the duller) was armed with letters of introduction and with cards from people whose names should have counted for something. He made two or three fruitless calls, only to be Informed that the president bad gone *to a directors’ meeting or was at Atlantic City or Palm Beach or at lunch.. At the best he hoped for a possibility of catching him In the corridor when he was rushing to keep one of these nuerous engagements. Finally, after sitting around the bank president’s office for four hours, during which time he was told that the aforesaid president would probably be at leisure in an hour, he was ushered in through a long suite of exterior offices until, finally, he reached the personal sanctum of the president. There he expected to find a man with a worried look, a stream, of people coming out after seeing him, and the president Bitting in front of a desk with a mass of correspondence which he had not time to attend to. and in fact every other indication of an extremely busy and overworked human being. .On the contrary, what he saw was a dignified, pleasant man, who leaned back in a very comfortably upholstered chair, shooting coffee beahs from his thumb and forefinger at a target on the opposite wall, which was nothing else than the nose of a reproduction of a very celebrated painting. The caller said: "Are you very busy, Mr. President!" The president of the bank replied —"Yes, L am very busy, but I can give you a minute. What is it?" It Is unnecessary to add that the sail was a very brief one. Hundreds of stories could be told in a like velp. They all amount to the same thing, that the busy men must resort to actlftg to stage devices to get rid of unwelcome callers and at the same time not offend the unwelcome caller.

The pushaway handshake