BUSINESS OPENED WITH PRAYER

Evening Star, Issue 20057, 24 December 1928, Page 9

BUSINESS OPENED WITH PRAYER

: Former-business customs are recalled in the bi-centenary number of '* Fry’s Works Magazine/, which records the 200th -anniversary 'of the founding of tchocolate firm of J. S. Fry and Sons.- Ltd. Mr E, "R. Short, a retired official ot the firm, states that when he joined the staff in 1866 the prefix “Mr” (and the same applies to Miss). was seldom written or spoken. “John Smith” or “Mary Jones,” or “Smith, Jones, and Company,” ■ was considered sufficient on invoices, statements, and envelopes, until one day a customer returned-an envelope with the curt remark; “ I usually have a handle to my name.” ' ' This gave-the directors cause for. serious consideration, and they came to the conclusion that "perhaps the time had arrived for Old World simplicity to yield to modern habit, although for some while longer correspondence would commence’ “Respected friend” and end “’Thine” or “Yours respectfully.?-’ At a few, minutes to 9 o’clock every morning'a bell ” used to ring,’ and all the workpeople and clerks mounted to a largo top 'room, where for some fifteen or twenty-minutes-Mr■ Joseph Stores Fry .would read;,a; portion of the Old Testament and. anothef from the iN.ew, and then 'perhaps a pimple prayer wouldbe offered-and a hymn sung. , ,