Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son Part 15

I've had dealings with a good many of them, first and last, and it's been my experience that when they've got a weak case they add their s.e.x to it and win, and that when they've got a strong case they subtract their s.e.x from it and deal with you harder than a man. They're simply bound to win either way, and I don't like to play a game where I haven't any show. When a clerk makes a fool break, I don't want to beg his pardon for calling his attention to it, and I don't want him to blush and tremble and leak a little brine into a fancy pocket handkerchief.

A little change is a mighty soothing thing, and I like a woman's ways too much at home to care very much for them at the office. Instead of hiring women, I try to hire their husbands, and then I usually have them both working for me. There's nothing like a woman at home to spur on a man at the office.

A married man is worth more salary than a single one, because his wife makes him worth more. He's apt to go to bed a little sooner and to get up a little earlier; to go a little steadier and to work a little harder than the fellow who's got to amuse a different girl every night, and can't stay at home to do it. That's why I'm going to raise your salary to seventy-five dollars a week the day you marry Helen, and that's why I'm going to quit writing these letters--I'm simply going to turn you over to her and let her keep you in order. I bet she'll do a better job than I have.

Your affectionate father, JOHN GRAHAM.

THE END