n, that instead of
paying four per cent for services, the American firm was really paying
about ten. The whole transaction had to be called off and a new one
instituted at considerable expense of time and money.

Another American came to Paris without knowing the language, used an
interpreter every day for nine weeks, and was unable to place a single
order. Yet in this time he spent enough money on his language
intermediary to pay the rent of a suitable office in Paris for a whole
year.

The dependence of Americans with important interests or commissions upon
interpreters is well nigh incredible. On the steamer that took me to
France last summer was the new Continental Manager of a large American
manufacturing company. I assumed, of course, that he could speak French.
A few days after I arrived in Paris I met him in the Boulevard des
Italiens in the grip of a five franc a day interpreter. He told me with
great enthusiasm that an interpreter was "the greatest institution in
the world." In six months he will probably reverse his opinion.

The lesson of this lack of knowledge of French as applied to
salesmanship is this: That while the average Frenchman is greatly
flattered when you tell him that his English is good, he prefers to talk
business in his own vernacular. He thinks and calculates better in
French. Frequently when you engage him in conversation in English and
the question of business comes up, you find that he instinctively lapses
into his mother tongue.

I was talking one day with Monsieur Ribot, the French Minister of
Finance, whose English is almost above reproach, and who maintained the
integrity of his English through a long conversation. But the moment I
asked him a question about the proposed bond issue, he shifted into
French and kept that key until every financial rock had been passed.

In short, you find that if you want to do business in France, you must
know the French language. It is one of the keys to an understanding of
the French temperament.

Even when Americans do become energetic in France, they sometimes fail
to fortify themselves with important facts before entering into hard and
fast transactions. As usual, they pay dearly for such omissions. This
brings us to what might be called The Great American Deluge which
overwhelmed not a few Yankee pocketbooks and left their owners sadder
and saner.

Fully to understand this series of events, you must know that since the
beginning of the w