courtesy should be, of course, so
thoroughly a part of the surroundings that it is accepted like air or
sunshine without comment. But it is not, and never has been except in
old civilizations where manners have ripened and mellowed under the
beneficent influence of time. Our traditions here--speaking of the
country as a whole--are still in the making, but we have at least got
far enough along to realize that it is not only worth while to do things
that are good, but, as an old author has it, to do them with a good
grace. It cannot be accomplished overnight. Courtesy is not like a
fungous growth springing up in a few hours in the decayed parts of a
tree; it is like that within the tree itself which gives lustre to the
leaves and a beautiful surface to the whole. It takes time to develop
it--time and patience--but it is worth waiting for.

IV

PERSONALITY

All that makes a man who he is and not someone else is called
personality. It is the sum total of his qualities, a thing inborn, but
including besides such externals as dress, manner, and appearance. It is
either a tremendous asset or a terrific liability, and so important that
certain schools which purport to teach success in business declare that
it is everything. Which is just as foolish as saying that it is nothing.

One of these success-before-you-wake-to-morrow-morning schools of
business instruction dismisses the fact which has remained true through
three thousand years of change, namely, that there is no short cut to
success, as a myth, and even goes so far as to say that it is almost
impossible to achieve success to-day by working for it. E. H. Harriman
they give as an example of a man who did no work but won success by
smoking cigars while other men built railroads for him, quoting a joking
remark of his to prove a serious point, when, as a matter of fact, Mr.
Harriman was one of the large number of American business men who have
literally worked themselves to death. Foch said that he won the war by
smoking his pipe, but does any one believe that the great commander won
the war by not working? What he meant was that he won the war by
thinking, and the worn face, which seemed almost twice as old when the
conflict was over, showed how hard that work was.

It is so impossible for a false doctrine to stand on its own feet that
the spread-eagle advertisement of this school contradicts itself long
before it gets to the "Sign here and mail to-day" coupon