BRAINS IN THE WORK.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VI, Issue 36, 6 September 1890, Page 19

BRAINS IN THE WORK.

‘ How do I know a good saleswoman?’ said the owner of a large toy shop just after the last Christmas holidays. ‘Do you see that little girl ? I took her on as an “ extra ” two months ago. ‘ She was hopelessly diffident and clumsy, so I set her to arranging a shelf of dolls which had always hitherto stood in unmeaning, straight rows. When I came back, I found each doll in a characteristic attitude. One was at a mirror, another was rocking the cradle ; some of them were dancing a quadrille, others at the wash-tub and cooking-stove. A crowd surrounded them. They sold rapidly. I saw that I had secured a valuable assistant. She put her brains into her work.’ Richardson, it is said, was once asked by a publisher to furnish a series of letters which might serve as models of the epistolary art, ami teach English working men and women how to begin and end a letter properly. After a few days Richardson brought the first pages, saying that he had woven a story into the letters, in order to teach his readers to be virtuous as well as grammatical. The result was the novel of ‘ Pamela,’ which was welcomed with delight throughout Europe and has become an English classic. He had put brains into his drudgery. A French poet once sent a copy of verses to his publisher —an elegy on a child who had just died. It ended with the rather commonplace phrase : ‘ Et Roselle a vecu ec quo vivent les roses, L’espace d’un matin.’ A type-setter, who had brains in his fingers, added two dashes, and the words became : * Et, —Rose,—elle a vecu ce que vivent les roses, L'espace d’un matin.’ The exquisitely delicate touch of meaning made the line immortal in French literature. ‘ Do not be miserly of yourself,’ says an old German writer. Put your best thought and best feeling into all your work, however small or trifling. How can you know whether this seed or that which you plant will grow and bear fruit for all time ?

MOTHER: ‘You have drawn that donkey very nicely, Johnny, but you have forgotten one thing. Where is his tail ?’ Johnny : ‘ Oh, that donkey doesn’t need any tail. There are no flies on him.’