NEGLECT OF DUTY
John D. Rockefeller had for some months an expert greenhouse superintendent named Potts, who knew a good deal about greenhouse management. A recent visitor at the Rockefeller house missed Potts, and inquired for him. Then, according to The Saturday Evening Post, this conversation took place:
“Oh, Potts,” said Mr. Rockefeller. “Yes, he knew more about greenhouse plants than any man I ever saw.” “But where is he?” “Well, he’s gone. It was wonderful, his knowledge of plants.” “You must have hated to part with him.” “Yes, I did. But it had to be. You see, he kept coming later and later every day and going home earlier and earlier.” “Well, a man of his ability might have been worth retaining even on short hours.” “Perhaps, perhaps. First he came and stayed eight hours, then six, then four; then he got down to two.” “But two hours of such a man’s time was worth having.” “Yes, yes,” answered Mr. Rockefeller slowly. “Of course. I hope I appreciated Potts. I didn’t object to two hours’ service. But he got so he didn’t come at all—just sent his card; then I dispensed with him.”
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NEGLECT OF GENIUS
W. J. Dawson tells us in “The Makers of English Poetry” that Burns was sick, poor and in debt. The last letter he ever wrote was a pathetic appeal to his cousin to lend him ten pounds, and save him from the terrors of a debtor’s dungeon. It would not have been much to expect from that brilliant society of wealth and culture in Edinburgh that some help might have been forthcoming to soothe the dying hours of the man it had once received with adulation. But no help came. There he lay, wasted by fever, his dark hair threaded with untimely gray; poor, penniless, overwhelmed with difficulties, but to the last writing songs, which won him no remuneration then, but which are now recognized as the choicest wealth of the nation which let him die uncomforted.
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NEGLECT OF OPPORTUNITY
James Buckham is the author of the following: