In the year 1878 the American businessman first became hitched to the telephone. Not that the telephone was new that year. The businessman had come to know it as an instrument for talking at some distance by means of a pair of telephones connected with telegraph wires or wires put up for that purpose. He could, for instance, lease such a pair of phones for $12 a year from the Bell Telephone Company of Boston. But such use of the new instrument was limited.

In a sketch of the activities of a Genoese public notary of the late twelfth century, which appeared in this Bulletin some time ago, it was pointed out that his records included a considerable number of partnership contracts. Such contracts were almost always concluded for the purpose of trading overseas. As we know, the Genoese merchants of the twelfth century were chiefly engaged in the trade with North Africa, Romania (the Byzantine Empire), the Levant, and also Spain, southern France, Sicily, and Sardinia.

What does it take to be successful in business? In the letter printed below, a doctor advised a brother who contemplated entering trade in a certain small Massachusetts town in the year 1807. In spite of its quaint tone, the letter raises interesting questions. Is the doctor's analysis of the situation essentially sound? What do you think of the qualifications he lists for success in trade in this instance? Does this simple consideration of the question have meaning for other times and business situations?

A small book, recently come to the editor's desk, merits attention. It is entitled Inventory of Business Records: The D. Connelly Boiler Company, The J. B. Savage Company.