#herbert watson

[asfaltics]

putterings, 238-232

  partially water, but position these entwines babbling for the sake of babbling, a kind of music   islands; apiary; garbage heap; patriarchy   all the shirts returned; a few readymades pasteboard and painted   personal, mysterious minor pursuits toys, amateur dressmaking   on Friday’s part, then, and only a letter withouting proof, machinist he   areca knowing nut how

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[puutterings]

on Friday’s part, then, and only a letter

  Robinson Crusoe, when he was alone on his desert island, practically was just a human machine. But when his man Friday appeared, and Crusoe took an interest in him, thus awakening a return of interest on Friday’s part, then, and only then, did Crusoe begin to express his personality. And a letter that talks entirely about the writer or entirely about the writer’s interests, of what he can do and what he can’t do, what his merchandise is or what it isn’t, is like Robinson Crusoe puttering about on his desert island with no one to observe, or admire, or obey, or care a snap of the fingers about him.

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ex chapter 5, “How to make your letter sincere,” in Herbert Watson, Applied Business Correspondence (A. W. Shaw Company, 1922) : 256 : link same (UC copy, via hathitrust) : link

Arch Wilkinson Shaw (1876-1962), founder of System, The Magazine of Business... : wikipedia : link