WORKADAY

 

            Another treasure Clem found among the “old papers” prompted this comment:  “The leaders had been stressing in our meeting for quite some time the importance of giving us an honest day’s work for a day’s pay.  This had aroused some feeling among the employees in this order because certain ones were not as diligent in attending to their duties as others.  I guess you could say some got less than they were worth and some got more.  And, then there were some slackers who weren’t worth the powder to blow them up.

 

            Pshaw, we could all have used a little more time to do what we had a mind to, but if a man accepts the terms and wages of his employment he ought to live by them and be faithful to the cause, especially when it’s the Lord’s work.

            I see by a notation in the journals that David Booth had made

arrangements in 1886 to act as janitor for the whole winter season for $1.50,”and it was agreed by vote that the quorum engage him on those terms,”  That meant he’d build the fire, straighten around, and clean up before and after the quorum meetings.  Why, confound it, you’d have a devil of a time trying to find anybody to do it for that nowadays.  Of course, most of the effort was charity on his part.

 

            I thumbing through the journals I was reminded of a list of house rules that Father had posted for a number of years in the old co-op store while he was manager.  He got them from a Salt Lake store and put them up for all of us to see.  Most of us took them at hard coin value, too.  I’ve since found a copy of them in the family Bible.  As I read through them again I remembered how the old court house bell used to toll at a quarter to seven workday mornings to remind us that the store was about to open for business, and woe to the employee who wasn’t on hand by that time for the morning prayer before the customers came in.”