A CHRISTMAS SURPRISE.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 11, 28 January 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

A CHRISTMAS SURPRISE.

In a large New York business institution there was an employer whose Christmas gift had the saving‘grtice of individual consideration. He was a bookkeeper, nearly foity years in harness, and he had been overlooked in former years of fatneaa iu Wall bvreet, except for « customary and unvarying ten dollar gold piaca* Several days ’ efore Christmas last year tha oflicc became agitated with rumours of an unprecedented flood of good fortune. The old bookkeeper tried to ‘ keep calm, but his hopes ran riot, and the day before Christmas found him in a nervous flnrry. He saw Ins fellow employees called into the cashier’s office one by our, each returning with a sealed envelope. . The bookkeeper waited for his summons, but it came not, says the World’s Work. Even the office boys emerged, hiting new gold pieces to test them, and the roll was complete an hour before the bookkeeper summoned up courage to Rend ifl an inquiry whether a mistake had not been made in the case of Mr blank, or whether an envelope had been overlooked. The answer was;

“There is no envelope fpr Mr Blank, but the president wishpa.tp see him for A moment.’

The bookkeeper saw only one interpretation. Illis meant his discharge for failing efficiency. He fairly tottered into the sanctum, a pitifftf * flgtird -of panic fear. “Sit down, Mr Blank,” said the president. “1 have omitted your name in the list of Christmas rewards for faithful service, and I regret that the bank will had* to find another man to fill your positlim after to-morrow. Compose yourself, sirk tears arc undignified in this office. Yob should know better after being here fujj so long a term of service. Don't go. ’I have a few words more to say before you leave. The directors have decided to retire you on full pay for the rest of your life, and the year's salary will be paid to you in advance. This does not establish a ruinous precedent, for employees with .38 years of faithful service to their credit are not sprinkled very plentifully through Wall Street.”