lacked directness or the faculty of focusing their ability upon one point until they burned a hole

in it.

Indirect people flash all their powder in the pan, and never fire the charge or start the ball.

In selecting a boy from a score of applicants, a shrewd employer will take the one who gets to his subject directly, states it concisely, with the fewest words, outlines his position briefly and stands or falls by it, and does not bore him by telling of the great things he has accomplished or of what he can do.

Conciseness and clearness of expression are valuable acquisitions and always create a good impression.

When a person is long on words and short on ideas, we know that he either lacks brain power or he has become a victim of prolixity; he has formed the vicious habit of chattering without thinking.

This habit of loose-jointed, slovenly speech is largely due to the fact that children are not taught to think, but to jabber. Thought should precede the language, but the majority of people begin to talk before they think, and then they stammer and repeat themselves and jumble their conversation all up.

Direct, wise, clean-cut language indicates a clear brain, a brain that has been trained to think. Slipshod, loose-jointed, slovenly language indicates a lack of logical training.

At General Grant's war councils, his generals would spend a great deal of time in discussing situations, the probabilities of the success or failure of the proposed move upon the enemy; but General Grant would walk back and forth in his tent with his arms behind him, smoking his cigar, seldom opening his mouth or making a suggestion. He would simply smoke and think, and when the other generals were talking he would often draw a paper from his pocket and give it to them with these words: "Gentlemen, to-morrow morning you will proceed at daylight to carry out these orders."

An excess of any virtue may transform it into a vice. We all know that this condensing idea can be carried too far, to such a ridiculous extent that its very purpose is defeated. We can condense our schooling, our preparation for life and spoil our careers; we can scimp on our work, hurry up on a task that requires the utmost carefulness and precision, and ruin it; we can injure our health by bolting our food, by not exercising properly, by not taking a vacation, because we must save time. In a thousand and one ways we can condense and hurry to our great injury, as we Americans in too many instances do, but the examples of condensation and brevity in business cited illustrate the tendency of this efficiency age. This is an age of brevity and directness. Except in European diplomacy people go directly to the point, without circumlocution or ambiguity. All roundaboutness, all

indirection, all redundancy, all unnecessary verbiage is being cut out of our literature just as all unnecessary motions, all unnecessary processes are being cut out of business. Efficiency, at the smallest outlay of time and energy, is the general aim. All complicated methods are being reduced to their utmost simplicity. The route to every goal wherever possible is being shortened. Railroads are expending millions of dollars in shortening curves, tunneling mountains, and under rivers in great cities in order to save a few minutes' precious time.

People will no longer tolerate the old-time round-about methods of traveling, of doing business. Brevity is the word everywhere.

WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK

OF YOU AND YOUR

CAREER

We stamp our own value upon ourselves and cannot expect to pass for more.

The very reputation of being strong-willed, plucky, indefatigable is of priceless value. It cows enemies and dispels opposition to our undertakings.

W

HEN some one asked General Lew Wal

lace what inspired him to write "Ben Hur," his answer was, "The desire to stand well in the opinion of my contemporaries." One of the governors of Minnesota said his ambition was "to make good in the town where I was born, and make good for myself and the folks."

Was there ever a grander ambition, a nobler motive, than the desire to carry weight in one's own community, to stand well with the people in one's own town or to have the esteem of the men and women of one's own times?

A gentleman inquiring of a lady about a strange man, asked if he had a local or a national reputation. "National only," she replied.

A great many men stand well with people who

do not know them intimately. It takes a pretty good man to stand well in his own neighborhood, in the estimation of people who know him best. It is the local reputation that counts. It is comparatively easy to get a good reputation with those who do not come in contact with us. If you can have only one kind of a reputation, take the local every time.

Every business man knows how careful he must be to avoid any report affecting his credit; and yet these same men who are so careful and jealous of their financial standing may be very careless and indifferent regarding anything which affects their moral reputation, their personal character.

Most youths do not appreciate how much their future depends on what other people think of them. They do not realize that it may take many years to change a bad impression to a good one, even after the youth has completely changed his course of life for the better. The picture of the bad boy persists many years after the good one has taken his place.

I have often heard young girls say they did not care what gossipers said about them as long as they were conscious themselves of not doing wrong. But how many a girl's future has been blasted by carelessness, indiscretion, by creating a wrong impression regarding herself, which she could not live down! How many a girl has thus lost the opportunity to get a good home of her own!