could not afford a room, and he slept on the benches in the law library.

A representative American college president recently said: "I regard it as, on the whole, a distinct advantage that a student should have to pay his way in part as a condition of obtaining a college education. It gives a reality and vigor to one's work which is less likely to be obtained by those who are carried through colleges. I do not regard it, however, as desirable that one should have to work his way entirely, as the tax upon strength and time is likely to be such as to interfere with scholarship and to undermine health."

This last is a very important point, which needs to be emphasized. Health is your biggest asset in life. If you ruin that by skimping on food and necessary rest and recreation, not all the education or all the money in the world can compensate you for your loss. Common sense and ordinary intelligence should save one from any such folly. Health must always come first. Any sort of education worthy of the name means a sound mind in a sound body.

The average boy of to-day who wishes to obtain a liberal education has a better chance by a hundredfold than had Daniel Webster or James A. Garfield. There is scarcely one in good health who reads these lines but can be assured that if he will he may. Here, as elsewhere, the will can usually make the way, and never before were there so

many avenues of resource open to the strong will, the inflexible purpose, as there are to-day,—at this hour and at this moment.

Circumstances have rarely favored great men. A lowly beginning is no bar to a great career. The boy who works his way through college may have in some respects a hard time of it, but he will learn how to work his way in life, and will often take higher rank in school and in after life than his classmate who is the son of a millionaire. It is the son and daughter of the farmer, the mechanic, and the operative, the great average class of our country, whose funds are small and whose opportunities compared with those of the sons and daughters of wealth are few, that the republic will most depend upon in the future for good citizenship and brains.

BREVITY AND DIRECTNESS

"Brevity is the soul of wit."

"Boil it down."

"Directness is characteristic of successful men."

T

HE late General Kitchener, silent, stern, immovable, a hero of many hard-won battles, was a sphinx-like type of concentrated power of directness. He formed his plans unaided, and executed them with the precision and force of a huge engine. His chief of staff was the only one who knew anything of his intended movements when he started one day on an 'important expedition during the Boer war. He simply ordered a locomotive, a guard van, and a carload of "Tommies." Orders were given to clear the track. Everything had to stand aside for him. No warning was allowed to be telegraphed ahead. He arrived on the spot without previous notice, and no general in the army knew when or where he might appear. Another incident of his South African campaign is strikingly characteristic of the man. About six o'clock, one morning, he paid an unheralded visit to the Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape

Town, scanned the register, and found there the names of officers who should have been on duty. Without a word to any one, he went personally to the rooms of the offenders, and left the following notice: "A special train leaves for the front at 10.00 A. M.; the troopship leaves at 4.00 P. M. for England; you have your choice, sir." He would listen to no excuses, no parleying, no apologizing; that was his ultimatum, and every officer knew what he meant.

He wielded an absolute power over those under him, because of his positiveness, his self-possession, his consciousness of being equal to any emergency, whatever it might be. Everything about him was indicative of strength, largeness, and breadth of make-up. Free from petty vanity or any desire for praise or flattery, he had a frank contempt for all social distinctions and frivolities. His personality had all the impressiveness of some great natural force, working out its purpose, silently, effectively, and with the certainty of doom.

Like that other forceful character, the late J. Pierpont Morgan, General Kitchener possessed in an eminent degree those qualities of self-confidence, decision, concentration, promptness, firmness, and ability to grasp situations which every one who would be successful must cultivate, the measure of one's success being proportioned to the degree to which he develops these indispensable qualities. One of the greatest helps to success in any walk

in life is to learn to think concisely, to act promptly, and to express one's self briefly.

"Be brief," Cyrus W. Field once advised a friend. "Time is very valuable. Punctuality, honesty and brevity are the watchwords of life. Never write a long letter. A business man has not time to read it. If you have anything to say, be brief. There is no business so important that it can't be told on one sheet of paper. Years ago, when I was laying the Atlantic cable, I had occasion to send a very important letter to England. I knew it would have to be read by the Prime Minister and by the Queen. I wrote out what I had to say; it covered several sheets of paper; then I went over it twenty times, eliminating words here and there, making sentences briefer, until finally I got all I had to say on one sheet of paper. Then I mailed it. In due time I received the answer. It was a satisfactory one, too; but do you think I would have fared so well if my letter had covered half a dozen sheets? No, indeed. Brevity is a rare gift."

It is a good drill, in business correspondence, to imagine that you are writing a cablegram where every word costs twenty-five cents, and to try to express the greatest amount of thought in the fewest words. After you have written a letter or an essay as concisely as you think possible, go over it again and erase every superfluous word, recasting the sentences. By studying brevity of expression,