aster had long before abandoned the
study of medicine, for which he was not fitted, and gone in, let us say,
for playing the banjo, he might have become end-man in a minstrel show.
Yes, that was it.

Let me pass on to other elements in success.

I suppose that anybody will admit that the peculiar quality that
is called initiative--the ability to act promptly on one's own
judgement--is a factor of the highest importance.

I have seen this illustrated two or three times in a very striking
fashion.

I knew, in Toronto--it is long years ago--a singularly bright young man
whose name was Robinson. He had had some training in the iron and steel
business, and when I knew him was on the look out for an opening.

I met him one day in a great hurry, with a valise in his hand.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Over to England," he said. "There is a firm in Liverpool that have
advertised that they want an agent here, and I'm going over to apply for
the job."

"Can't you do it by letter?" I asked.

"That's just it," said Robinson, with a chuckle, "all the other men
will apply by letter. I'll go right over myself and get there as soon or
sooner than the letters. I'll be the man on the spot, and I'll get the
job."

He was quite right. He went over to Liverpool, and was back in a
fortnight with English clothes and a big salary.

But I cannot recommend his story to my friends. In fact, it should not
be told too freely. It is apt to be dangerous.

I remember once telling this story of Robinson to a young man called
Tomlinson who was out of a job. Tomlinson had a head two sizes too big,
and a face like a bun. He had lost three jobs in a bank and two in a
broker's office, but he knew his work, and on paper he looked a good
man.

I told him about Robinson, to encourage him, and the story made a great
impression.

"Say, that was a great scheme, eh?" he kept repeating. He had no command
of words, and always said the same thing over and over.

A few days later I met Tomlinson in the street with a valise in his
hand.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I'm off to Mexico," he answered. "They're advertising for a Canadian
teller for a bank in Tuscapulco. I've sent my credentials down, and
I'm going to follow them right up in person. In a thing like this, the
personal element is everything."

So Tomlinson went down to Mexico and he travelled by sea to Mexico
City, and then with a mule train to Tuscapulco. But the mails, wit