,' was the reply, 'and you know very well that you ought to be
ashamed of what you're doing.'

This drew the matter directly to a moral issue. It brought the guerrilla
up roundly. The clergyman was only a stripling beside this seasoned border
ruffian. But he threw a burden of moral proof on to the raider, and in a
moment the latter was trying to demonstrate that he might be a better
fellow than circumstances would seem to indicate.

After waking this New Englander to kill him on account of his politics, he
spent twenty minutes on the witness stand trying to prove an alibi. He
went into his personal history at length. He explained matters from the
time when he had been a tough little kid who wouldn't say his prayers, and
became quite sentimental in recalling how one thing had led to another,
and that to something worse, and so on, until--well, here he was, and a
mighty bad business to be in, pardner. His last request, in riding away,
was: 'Now, pardner, don't think too hard of me, will you?'

The personal equation is eternally throwing the burden of proof on the
people it controls, and forever raising moral issues. The man who has it
may operate by no definite plan, just as this clergyman had none for
saving his own life. But he will be a confidence man of the most subtle
character. His capacity for expecting things of those under him will be
tremendous. Subordinates may never have demanded much of themselves. But
for him they will accomplish wonders, just because he expects them to.

Three men were placed at the foreman's desk of a growing factory. Each had
technical knowledge enough to run a plant three times the size. But all
failed. The first was an autocrat, who tried to boss from a pedestal, and
the men didn't like him. The next was a politician, whom the men liked
thoroughly--which was his shortcoming, for he tried to run the place as
they thought it should be run. As for the third, he tried to run it on
nerves, to do everything himself, to be everywhere at once. He didn't
fail, really--he snapped like a fiddle-string. By that time working
tension was relaxed and production wabbling on the down-peak. Nobody knew
who was in charge, or what would happen.

Then along came a fourth candidate, with an abnormally developed bump of
expectation. He knew how to approve and encourage. Sometimes he said
pleasantly: 'I knew you could do that, Bill,' Again, he put it
ironically: 'I didn't think you had it in you.' But his s