ed his unseeing
eye-glass, and spake in this wise to the clerk. You see, he thought it
was "Hinglish, you know," to lisp. "Thir, will you have the kindness to
supply me with thome papah and enwelophs!" The hotel clerk measured that
man quick, and he pulled the envelopes and paper out of a drawer, threw
them across the counter toward the young man, and then turned away to
his books. You should have seen that young man when those envelopes came
across that counter. He swelled up like a gobbler turkey, adjusted his
unseeing eye-glass, and yelled: "Come right back here. Now thir, will
you order a thervant to take that papah and enwelophs to yondah dethk."
Oh, the poor, miserable, contemptible American monkey! He could not
carry paper and envelopes twenty feet. I suppose he could not get
his arms down to do it. I have no pity for such travesties upon human
nature. If you have not capital, young man, I am glad of it. What you
need is common sense, not copper cents.

The best thing I can do is to illustrate by actual facts well-known to
you all. A. T. Stewart, a poor boy in New York, had $1.50 to begin
life on. He lost 87 1/2 cents of that on the very first venture. How
fortunate that young man who loses the first time he gambles. That boy
said, "I will never gamble again in business," and he never did. How
came he to lose 87 1/2 cents? You probably all know the story how he
lost it--because he bought some needles, threads, and buttons to sell
which people did not want, and had them left on his hands, a dead loss.
Said the boy, "I will not lose any more money in that way." Then he went
around first to the doors and asked the people what they did want. Then
when he had found out what they wanted he invested his 62 1/2 cents to
supply a known demand. Study it wherever you choose--in business, in
your profession, in your housekeeping, whatever your life, that one
thing is the secret of success. You must first know the demand. You must
first know what people need, and then invest yourself where you are most
needed. A. T. Stewart went on that principle until he was worth what
amounted afterward to forty millions of dollars, owning the very store
in which Mr. Wanamaker carries on his great work in New York. His
fortune was made by his losing something, which taught him the great
lesson that he must only invest himself or his money in something
that people need. When will you salesmen learn it? When will you
manufacturers learn that