Miscellaneous.

Patea Mail, 31 August 1881, Page 1 (Supplement)

Miscellaneous.

PUNCTUAL PEOPLE. The: question as to the merit or habits of punctuality—notwithstanding all that the philosophers and writers of books on “ good breeding" have said on the subject—must still be considered a moot one. Of course, in a general, and what the Yankees would call a promiscuous, way, we may all freely concede that punctuality is a prime virtue — the very first essential of good breeding, as Swift calls it. It is, we all know, and have known from our copy-book days onwards, the binge of business, the economist of time, a lubricator of social machinery, and so forth. In this, as in a good many other matters, however, it is important to be careful how wo apply general principles to individual oases. There are, indeed, good people abroad in the world who will hardly admit that there can be any individual cases in which rigid punctuality is not wise and virtuous. Kant, Dr. Chalmers, and Lord Nelson were men of this stamp. The story of Nelson’s attributing all his success in life to bis always being a quarter of an hour before bis time is well known. A characteristic more significant of failure to the great commander’s mind than a want of punctuality, could hardly have been found in any man. The same may be said of Chalmers, whose habits were all planned and arranged with a railway time/table precision, infinitely satisfactory to hizuself, no doubt, and very likely greatly conducive to the efficiency of whatever work he may have bad in.hand. A great many men, prominent in one way and another, might be named, all excessively punctual in their habits, and, of course, all excessively strong in the assurance that the particular virtue in which they so far excelled' most other people must be just as easy/and.advantageous to others as they have fouhd"it ; t|»pmealv€sv ’ Punctuality' is; ho doubt, very excellent, but the appreciation of it'requires to be tempered by a little common sense, or it is very apt to become a positive nuisance. “ Avoid unpunctual people if you would enjoy life,* 1 ' was the advice of one who had seen enough of the world to preside satisfactorily in one of the London police-courts on the one hand, and to write a pleasant, gossiping sort of book on the art of dining on

the other. There are times, however, when poor mortals who cannot boast that in any one point they are more virtuous and proper than their fellows, are almost disposed to say, “If you would enjoy life, keep as clear as yon can of fussy, fidgety people who are always looking at their watches, and fretting and fuming because somebody is ten seconds late.” Oi course, if yon happen to be in a hurry, it is vary satisfactory to have to do with a man who is to be relied upon to turn up somewhere between the first and last stroke of the appointed hour, just as it is pleasant if you happen to find your train punctual to the minnte. But even punctuality in trains is not all absolute gain, as many a laggard traveller will allow, and there are always little accidents and unforeseen delays which render it intensely unpleasant to know that some model of punctuality, with just four minutes and a half allotted to your interview, is growing hot and ill-tempered because yon are keeping him waiting. “But yon should not allow these little unforeseen accidents to put out your calculation,” says the punctual person; “they ought to be taken into account and allowed for.” Perhaps so; but if we are always to be allowing time for accidents that do not happen, what becomes of the wondrous economy of time for which your walking chronometer is always contending? A prominent American statesman was said to take a pride in always knocking at any door within which he bad an engagement precisely with the first stroke of the clock or with the first tick of bis waieb.

Perhaps if that wondrous wise statesman had taken the trouble toj“ tot up" alt the odds and ends of time he must have wasted in securing this pettifogging precision, be would have found that whatever he might have done for other people’s time, he had really been as wasteful of his own as the veriest sloven in this way may be supposed to be on the showing of very exemplary people—as wasteful, for instance, as Lord Palmerston, who was known to drop in to a public dinner four hours after the appointed time. People who eeem td" make’ punctuality " the whole duty of man,” who always make a point of being a quarter of an hour beforehand, and will stand on doorsteps waiting for the first stroke of the' clock before they ring the bell, are very apt to overlook the inconveniences of having to do with terribly particular people, either iu this respect or any other. They will not allow that a man who comes in a little late can possibly have any reasonable excuse to offer, much less that he may wisely deem it a matter of policy to do so. Yet if Brown wants to drive a good bargain with Jones, it may be anything but expedient on his part to be waiting on the doorstep five inmates before the appointed time. To be too sharp down on the stroke of the clock may convey 1 an impression of eagerness calculated ,very materially to stiffen the price. Then, again, as to that much discussed matter —the hour appointed for dinner. A good many people, great in their day and generation, have been terrible sticklers for punctuality here. When Boswell gave his fashionable dinners in Welbeok-street the guests were always given to understand that time must be observed to the minute, and that if they were not there dinner must proceed without them. It was not often that folks came late, for most people can be punctual when they know it is expected of them. On one occasion, however, it happened to be the Astronomer Boyal, who came iu half a minute or so behind the appointed dinner hour, and, as be no doubt expected, found the guests coming down the staircase to the diningroom. “ 1 trust, Mr. Friend,” said the host iu greeting him, “ that in future yon will bear iu mind we don’t reckon time here by the meridian of Greenwich, but by the meridian of Welbeok-street.” That sort of thing may be all very well when it is clearly understood that, in auctioneers’ phraseology, it is to be dinner time “prompt,” but it is not every host who can master the hardihood for such rigidity, even though their guests may not be Astronomers Boyal. Most people would agree with Dr. Johnson in his wellknown dictum on the point. " Ought six people to be kept waiting for one ?” asked Boswell, who himself was inclined to proceed without one laggard. “Why, yes,” said Johnson, “if the one will suffer more by your sitting down than the six will by waiting.” Perhaps there are no persons who. feel the difficulty iu this matter more than those who regard it from the point of view afforded by considerations of “ dignity.” There is dignity in being waited for, is a ssying that has almost been repeated into a proverb. Of course, it is a saying embodying a great amount of absurdity, but whether there is not a certain degree of truth in it also is a question over which many a “ poor relation and hanger-on of “society” must have seriously pondered. * Of course, in a house such as that in Welbeok-street it would never have done for a poor relation to come in late. But in houses where no such, definite rule exists, how to “ Come pat betwixt too early and too late” must often be a poser. To come too late will be pretty sure to look like an impertinence, and to come too early will be deemed vulgar. In the matter of punctuality there is, under most circumstances, a happy middle way, if we can but hit it, and any very marked deviation from this middle way, either in the direction of laxity or stringency, is to he deprecated “ if we would enjoy life.” —Globe.