them into form; gave them to the world, and all women are reaping the benefit of them. "Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet." The world's history was changed when its Benjamin Franklin, its Abraham Lincoln, its Thomas A. Edison were let loose on this planet.

How little did the parents or associates of these boys think that they would change the course of American history; that they would cause the modern world to break away from the old method of doing things which had been sacred for centuries!

The tradition breakers have cared very little about what had gone before them, how others had done their work, or how they had thought or acted. Men and women with the courage of their convictions never wait for the approval of the crowd. They have faith in their own thought, their own inspiration, they step out of the crowd and act. That is about the last thing the average person ever learns to do. He will imitate, copy other people's ideas, follow the crowd, do anything else rather than use his own brain, do his own thinking, and act upon it.

Most people slide along the line of least resistance and do what everybody else does, carry out other people's plans. It is so much easier than to make our own program and follow it independently in the spirit of a master. But it is the people who make their own program who are in demand.

It is the young man or the young woman with initiative, with original ideas, the employer is looking for. The clerk who can arrange articles in a striking or original manner; the girl in a millinery shop who can arrange fabrics tastily and design new hats and originate new styles—these are sought everywhere.

It is the original worker, the original thinker, the original writer who is everywhere in demand. It isn't quantity so much as quality that is needed in every field. Many a writer has become immortal through a single poem or a few pages of prose. But no one ever yet gained immortality by writing many books.

Man was made to be an originator, not an imitator or copyist. Men and women with godlike powers and possibilities were not intended to follow sheep-like in one another's footsteps. Nature and history show us they were not. The progress of civilization is due to the precedent breakers, the brave men and women who dared to be original, dared to step out of the crowd and think and act for themselves.

THE QUALITY WHICH
OPENS ALL DOORS

—COURTESY

There is an indefinable power in fine manners which unconsciously, irresistibly, and instantaneously wins admiration.

Give a boy address and accomplishments and you give him the mastery of palaces and fortunes wherever he goes.— Emerson.

The good mannered can do without riches. All doors fly open to them and they enter everywhere without money and without price.

People instinctively know whether you are well or ill bred, or a lady or a gentleman in reality or a mere ape of gentility.

S

OME time ago New York newspapers gave

an account of the death of a man who was asphyxiated while alone in his rooms in a large apartment house. At the inquest which followed, a woman who lived on the same floor with this man said she had heard him groaning, but that he had always been so very rude to women, she did not make any effort to see what the trouble

was.

About the same time another news item appeared, stating that a wealthy woman, Mrs. Jane Elizabeth Granice, left in her will to an employee of one of New York's large trust companies, of

which she was a patron, a hundred thousand dollars, to mark her appreciation of his devotion to her interests and comforts, "as well as his unfailing courtesy, honor, and promptness!"

Each item tells its own story. But for his habitual rudeness and lack of courtesy the life of the first man might have been saved. Because of his habitual courtesy and kindness, the second man won a large fortune.

We frequently read of wealthy people leaving property, or making substantial gifts, to conductors of railroad trains and street cars, to clerks or other employees who have been especially kind to them.

People who go blundering through life, flinging out rudeness and discourtesy and snobbishness wherever they go, little realize how many people they antagonize; how they needlessly prejudice others against them. Such conduct has lost many a man a splendid opportunity for advancement, while the opposite has given multitudes a boost. It is human nature to appreciate courtesy and kindness and to return them; to assist in any way we can those who have made a happy impression upon us and have done us favors.

As to the value of courtesy as a business asset, the opinion of a man who has profited so much by it as did the legatee referred to above is worth having. In giving an interviewer what he considered the best rules for success in business this man said:

"I should say affability and courtesy come first. Never let those about you feel that it is a condescension for you to serve them. Let them think it is a favor. One should make an effort to be courteous, for, watch it, you will find that your opinion of yourself and those about you will be better for what you have done to be agreeable. It is amazing how easy it is to keep the habit of being courteous once you have acquired it. It's a little form of unselfishness that soon becomes second nature if you give it a chance."

We never know what will come of courteous conduct our kindnesses, smiles or little attentions to people whom we wait upon or come in contact with in any way; but we do know the immediate effect upon ourselves. We cannot hold a kindly attitude to others, we cannot be courteous and helpful without feeling better ourselves.

The gracious "Thank you," so often neglected, the pleasant smile, the suppression of rude, hasty words that are sure to give pain, the maintenance of self-control, and an agreeable expression even under the most trying conditions, the attention to others which we would wish accorded to ourselves —how easily life can be enriched and uplifted, made cheerful and happy, by the observance of these simple things! And how they help us to get on in life!

Some young people think that because they have business ability and book learning they will only