Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/677

 Popular Science Monthly

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���the standard in appearance, for which service each boy pays a small weekly rental. Three tailors are employed con- stantly to keep the uniforms clean and in repair. In the summer, washable blouses are provided instead of coats. The company maintains free baths for the boys, with free towels and soap.

Each boy is instructed in simple matters of courtesy. He is taught when and where to remove his cap. He is made to feel that he is identified with an important commercial house, and that his deportment should be such as to be worthy of his company. He knows that if he does not conduct -himself properly he will be reported to the manager. His oversights are entered upon the index card, and adverse entries count against him when the time comes for promotion. In this practical manner the boy is taught that good manners bring their reward in dollars and cents.

The company also maintains a small circulating library for the use of the boys, a former messenger acting as librarian. Every boy in the messenger service is entitled to the free use of this library.

The company desires to assist every boy to fit himself for something better, if the boy cares to do so; and to further this object, a typewriter is placed in the messengers' waiting-room. Any boy is at liberty to practice upon it while wait- ing for calls. A set of telegraph instru- ments has also been installed, with an inside connection, so that any ambitious boy may learn telegraphy and carry on communication with another boy at the end of the line in the same room.

Especially commendable work which Mr. Geigle performs is in training his boys to be men. A messenger boy is sub- jected to many experiences which rarely come to the boy employed in a business

��house. The boy's honesty and integrity are tested hourly by the very nature of his service, and he himself is subjected to the wily approaches of those who would profit by his commissions. Thus the boy is compelled to be doubly fortified, first entrenched .'ithin his own consciousness lest he be tempted to do wrong; and secondly, he must be ever watch- ful for the tempta- tion from without Avhich would

��Great quantities of clothes for messenger boys are kept in the stock room. Each new applicant is fitted with a suit of correct size. The necessary alterations are made in the company's tailoring department

��ensnare him and despoil his employers.

Among sev- eral hundred boys, it some- times happens that one is not so careful or particular in some matters as he should be. This lapse is reported to the manager, and the boy comes before him for ex- planation. A boy is never discharged for a first ofifense, unless it be of a very serious nature. Instead, the manager talks it all over with him in the desire to be helpful rather than harsh. The boy is given an opportunity to try again in another location, from which reports are also made. Should the boy fail even a second time to progress satisfactorily he is given still another trial, with the earnest, patient counsel of the manager to show him the right course to pursue.

Making Weather Forecasts with Flowers

WEATHER conditions may be pre- determined by means of a unique arrangement, easily prepared by anyone. Procure a bouquet of paper flowers. They may be made or purchased, but their colors must be pink and blue. Dip the flowers in a saturated solution of chloride of cobalt and allow to dry. Repeat the process five or six times; and place the flowers in a suitable ^•ase.

When wet weather is approaching, the flowers retain their original colors, but when it is going to be dry, the pink flowers become purple and the blue ones turn green.

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