meet him at the Grand Central
station, would pay him for the ticket. The conductor liked the
youngster--perhaps because there was something about him that reminded
him of his father, for as chance would have it, the conductor was the
same one who had brought Mr. McAdoo the coffee and bread in the smoking
car so many months before.

"Who is your father?" he asked.

"Mr. McAdoo."

"President of the Hudson Railroad?"

"Yes."

"Boy, you can have the train!"

So far as monetary value of courtesy is concerned we might recount
hundreds of instances where a single act of politeness brought in
thousands of dollars. Only the other morning the papers carried the
story of a man who thirty years ago went into a tailor's shop with a
ragged tear in his trousers and begged the tailor to mend it and to
trust him for the payment which amounted to fifty cents. The tailor
agreed cheerfully enough and the man went his way, entered business and
made a fortune. He died recently and left the tailor fifty thousand
dollars. Not long before that there was a story of an old woman who came
to New York to visit her nephew--it was to be a surprise--and lost her
bearings so completely when she got into the station that she was about
ready to turn around and go back home when a very polite young man
noticed her bewilderment. He offered his services, called a taxi and
deposited her in front of her nephew's door in half an hour. She took
his name and address and a few days later he received a check large
enough to enable him to enter the Columbia Law School. A banker is fond
of telling the story of an old fellow who came into his bank one day in
a suit of black so old that it had taken on a sickly greenish tinge. He
fell into the hands of a polite clerk who answered all his
questions--and there were a great many of them--clearly, patiently, and
courteously. The old man went away but came back in a day or so with
$300,000 which he placed on deposit. "I did have some doubts," he said,
"but this young man settled them all." Word of it went to people in
authority and the clerk was promoted.

Now it is pleasant to know that these good people were rewarded as they
deserved to be. We would be very happy if we could promise a like reward
to every one who is similarly kind, but it is no use. The little words
of love and the little deeds of kindness go often without recompense so
far as we can see, except that they happify the world, but that in
itself i