In his effort to succeed many a young business man overlooks the detail of business courtesy. He does not realize the value that a buyer places upon that commodity. The more experienced man, however, knows that courtesy does more to hold a buyer than do bargain sales. In our large cities merchants have incurred great expense to fit up rest rooms where customers may spend an idle hour, write letters on stationery that is provided, and read the latest magazines. In the rural districts, where such luxuries are often impossible, the merchant provides chairs for his customers and a place for stationing their teams. The country merchant, however, can often accomplish his object more quickly than the city dealer by spending an hour gossiping with his customers. He recognizes the fact that buyers are flattered when the proprietor himself takes the time to say a few words to them. He knows just as well as his city competitor does, that if a buyer feels at home in his store, sales are practically guaranteed.
4
The rural landscape of Norway, on the long easterly slope that leads up to the watershed among the mountains on the western coast, is not unlike that of Vermont or New Hampshire. The railway from Christiania to the Randsfjord carried us through a hilly country of scattered farms and villages. Wood played a prominent part in the scenery. There were dark stretches of forest on the hilltops and in the valleys; rivers filled with floating logs; sawmills beside the waterfalls; wooden farmhouses painted white; and rail-fences around the fields. The people seemed sturdy, prosperous, independent. They had the familiar habit of coming down to the station to see the train arrive and depart. We might have fancied ourselves on a journey through the Connecticut valley if it had not been for the soft sing-song of the Norwegian speech and the uniform politeness of the railway officials.
—Van Dyke: Fisherman's Luck.
5
The plan of the Spectator must be allowed to be both original and eminently happy. Every valuable essay in the series may be read with pleasure separately; yet the five or six hundred essays form a whole, and a whole which has the interest of a novel. It must be remembered, too, that at that time no novel, giving a lively and powerful picture of the common life and manners of England, had appeared. Richardson was working as a compositor. Fielding was robbing birds' nests. Smollett was not yet born. The narrative, therefore, which connects together the Spectator's essays gave to our ancestors their first taste of an exquisite and untried pleasure. That narrative was, indeed, constructed with no art or labor. The events were such events as occur every day. Sir Roger comes up to town to see Eugenio, as the worthy baronet always calls Prince Eugene, goes with the Spectator on the water to Spring Gardens, walks among the tombs in the Abbey, and is frightened by the Mohawks, but conquers his apprehension so far as to go to the theater when the "Distressed Mother" is acted. The Spectator pays a visit in the summer to Coverley Hall, is charmed with the old house, the old butler, and the old chaplain, eats a jack caught by Will Wimble, rides to the assizes, and hears a point of law discussed by Tom Touchy. At last a letter from the honest butler brings to the club the news that Sir Roger is dead. Will Honeycomb marries and reforms at sixty. The club breaks up, and the Spectator resigns his functions. Such events can hardly be said to form a plot; yet they are related with such truth, such grace, such wit, such humor, such pathos, such knowledge of the human heart, such knowledge of the ways of the world that they charm us on the hundredth perusal. We have not the least doubt that if Addison had written a novel on an extensive plan, it would have been superior to any that we possess. As it is, he is entitled to be considered not only as the greatest of the English essayists, but as the forerunner of the great English novelists.
—Macaulay: Essay on Addison.
Exercise 209
Prepare a paragraph developing each of the following topic sentences:
1. The kitchen was a cheerful place. (Tell all the details that will explain the word cheerful.)