The Dupuyer Acantha

HOW CHAMBERLAIN WORKS.
Secret of His Power of Getting Through a Vast Business.

A glance at Mr. Chamberlain's room in the colonial office will reveal part of the secret of his power in getting through work, says the New Penny Magazine. There is nothing superfluous, nothing out of place; and every morning when he comes to business his desk is absolutely clear. There is not a paper in the room. Mr. Chamberlain works in a large room, looking on the great quadrangle round which are built the foreign, colonial, home and Indian offices. He often lunches in his room when too occupied to go to his club, the Athenaeum. Sitting at his large desk at the farther end of the room, he has accorded interviews to men of all nationalities and all colors. Mr. Chamberlain's morning at the colonial office is taken up in dealing with a great mass of papers. In addition he has to give verbal instructions to his subordinates and to see a large number of important people. In the afternoon he has to go down to the house of commons during the session, where as a minister he must attend daily to answer questions, besides transacting his general parliamentary business. To his private room in the house of commons papers follow him in boxes, labeled with slips of paper, red, green or white according to the urgency of their contents. Nor is the day's work ended there. At midnight, when he goes home, he finds papers at his private house; and even when he is away from London they arrive with regularity by post or by special messenger. In fact, Mr. Chamberlain cannot escape them unless he were to disappear altogether.