a cigar
and invited him to tell the story. The salesman betrayed such egotism
that his employer was disgusted. The president was plain-spoken. He
warned the successful salesman against getting a "swelled head."

The egotist felt insulted. He resigned his position, arrogantly
declaring that he would not work for a house where results were so
little appreciated. He was cocksure of himself. However, when he offered
his services to a competing firm, his application was turned down. The
rebuff stunned him. He did not realize that his egotism disgusted the
second executive as much as the first. The salesman's spirit was broken.
He has never since been more than a fair peddler.

[Sidenote: Giant and Pigmy Successes]

Think of "successful" men you know. _Compare them as they are now with
the men they used to be before they succeeded._ As they rose did they
loom bigger and bigger in your respect, or grow smaller and smaller in
admirable qualities? There are so-called successful men whose characters
seem to be dwarfed by the mountain tops they attain. Other men grow to
be giants and overshadow any eminences they climb. The littleness of the
last Kaiser and Crown Prince of Germany was only emphasized by their
elevation above the common people. On the other hand the bigness of
Lincoln and Roosevelt was so tremendous that their personalities towered
above even the highest honor in the world.

[Sidenote: Breaking Training]

_When football players are fighting_ for the championship of the season,
they are governed by rigid rules of living. _They keep themselves fit_
by strict diet, by the avoidance of all dissipations, by hardening
exercise, and by recuperative rest. But after the "big game" is won,
they break training. They stuff themselves with rich food until their
bodies and minds are sluggish. Then they celebrate their victory by some
sort of jollification that lasts half the night. _The next day a
second-rate team could beat the champions._

A man who has kept himself lean, hard-muscled, and healthy all the way
to the achievement of his ambition is apt to take on flabby flesh and
gout when he succeeds. The celebration of Thanksgiving is an ordeal from
which one does not recover for weeks. Turkey and mince pie immoderately
eaten are poisons. Our annual Feast Day is more deadly than the Fourth
of July.

[Sidenote: Rusting in Self-Satisfaction]

A great many people "break training" mentally as well as physically at
the ce