SILENT MAN

New Zealand Tablet, 6 November 1913, Page 62

SILENT MAN

The late Mr. Pierpont Morgan was always a silent man, and he would sometimes champion the silent with a story. ' - ' Old John Bates, an upholsterer,' so the story began, 'was renowned for his silence. People who had been his customers for a generation had, many of them, never heard a word from him except " Good morning. Five dollars. Thank you. Good day." Old John, in fact, cultivated silence as a genius cultivates his art. A patron one day said to John: ' "What's the best kind of mattress?" "Hair," was the reply. ' The patron, some twenty years later, had occasion to buy another mattress, and again he asked: ' "What's the best kind, John?" ' "Cotton." '"Cotton!" the patron cried. "Why, you told me twenty years ago that hair was the best!" ' The old man gave a quaint sigh. ' "Talking has always been my ruin," he said.'