erns because of indifferent or insolent treatment
at the front door. Only a short time ago an advertising agency lost a
contract for which it had been working two years on account of the way
the girl at the door received the man who came to place it. He dropped
in without previous appointment and was met by a blonde young lady with
highly tinted cheeks who tilted herself forward on the heels of her
French pumps and pertly inquired what he wanted. He told her. "Mr. Hunt
isn't in." "When will he be back?" "I don't know," and she swung around
on the impossible heels. The man deliberated a moment and then swung
around on his heels (which were very flat and sensible) and carried the
contract to another agency. Instances of this kind might be multiplied.
Some business men would have persisted until they got what they wanted
from the young lady. Others would have angrily reported her to the head
of her office, but the majority would have acted as this man did.

Most men (and women), whether they are in business or not, do not
underestimate their own importance and they like to feel that the rest
of the world does not either. They do not like to be kept waiting; they
like to be received with a nice deference, not haughtily; they do not
like to be sent to the wrong department; and they love (and so do we
all) talking to important people. Realizing this, banks and trust
companies and other big organizations have had to appoint nearly as many
vice-presidents as there were second-lieutenants during the war to take
care of their self-important visitors. Even those whose time is not
worth ten cents (a number of them are women) like to be treated as if it
were worth a great deal. It is, for the most part, an innocent desire
which does no one any special harm, and any business that sets out to
serve the public (and there is no other kind) has to take into account
all the caprices of human vanity. We cannot get away from it. Benjamin
Franklin placed humility among the virtues he wished to cultivate, but
after a time declared it impossible. "For," he said, "if I overcame
pride I would be proud of my humility."

Courtesy is the first requirement of the business host or hostess and
after that, intelligence. Some business houses make the mistake of
putting back of the reception desk a girl who has proved herself too
dull-witted to serve anywhere else. The smiling idiot with which this
country (and others) so abounds may be harmless and even