e president
needs no instructions. Already he has learned the great value of
courtesy. But this does not protect him always from discourtesy in other
people.

Every man who holds a high position in a big organization is besieged
with visitors, but no one so much as the president. He is a target for
cranks and idlers and freaks as well as for earnest business men who
want to help him or to get help from him. Thousands during the course of
a year come to call on him. If he saw them all he would have to turn
over the presidency to some one else and devote himself to entertaining
visitors. Many of those who come ask for him when he is not at all the
man they want to see, but they have been taught in the schools of
salesmanship or they have read in a magazine that it never pays to
bother with the little fellow, but that they should go straight to the
top.

Every minute of the time of the president of a big company is valuable
(all time is valuable, as far as that goes), and it must be protected
from the people who have no right to infringe upon it.

You would think that the vice-presidents and the managers and the
various executives would be his best protection. They are not. It is
the person who is placed at the front door to receive visitors. We shall
consider him next.

_The Man at the Door._ As a matter of fact, this person is usually a
girl, many times a very young and irresponsible one, because great
numbers of business men have not yet realized the importance of the
position. A well-poised girl or a woman who has had wide experience in
handling people can fill the place quite as efficiently as a man, and a
great deal more so if the man has not been chosen because he has the
quick sympathy and ready tact so necessary in taking care of the needs
of a miscellaneous assortment of callers.

In the house we are observing the person at the door is a young man who
began as a messenger boy, and who, because he did what he was asked to
do cheerfully instead of sullenly, with a "Certainly, sir," and a smile
instead of a "That's Bob's business" and a frown, was made manager of
the messengers, and then first assistant of the man at the door, and
later, when that man was given another position, was promoted to his
place. The job commands a good salary and offers chances of promotion.
The young man likes it.

A visitor comes, a young salesman, let us say, who has had little
experience. This is only the second or third time h