ry.

Now this style of gaining information is low and contemptible, but of
two boys who talked, one of whom said a good deal that did not amount to
much, learning a good deal that did, and the other letting out a great
deal and learning nothing, there can be little doubt of the business
success of the first as compared to that of the second.

Put a copper-toe on your tongue. Remember that Gen. Grant made a great
part of his fame by letting other folks do his talking.

COURTESY.

When my friends are blind of one eye, I look at them in profile.
--Joubert.

There is no outward sign of courtesy that does not rest
on a deep moral foundation. If you are always courteous without
difficulty, you are endowed with a nature naturally moral. You are
naturally a gentleman. Anyhow, you are behind the counter, and you
desire to sell goods. You wish to have customers brighten up when they
see you. Very well, brighten up yourself. You ought to be glad to see
them. If they are not glad, they, perhaps, have less reason for joy.
They are about to part with their money in order to get something they
cannot part with so easily. You went to work in the morning hoping a
good many people would come in. Now here they are. You can smile on the
young lady, but can you smile on the old woman? You can if you are a
man. It is nothing but good-breeding to do it. What is this boasted word
"good-breeding?" It is "the result of much good sense, some good nature,
and a little self-denial for the sake of others, and with a view to
obtain the same indulgence from them." Chesterfield, a man who was as
prominent in England as Daniel Webster in America, expressed his
astonishment that anybody who had good sense and good nature could
essentially fail in good-breeding.

STUDY YOUR CUSTOMER.

If he or she be brusque, be yourself pliable, respectful, and by all
means quick. Do not stand in front of him or her with your head down
ready to hook or to butt. You are glad the customer has come in. That
should solve the whole problem. In the city you are required to "put up
with" the bad mannered fashion that people have of treating a clerk as
if he were a piece of furniture, but in the town this is all changed. A
majority of the citizens know you, and all regard you with better
breeding than would the city customer. You are young and positive,
because you know very little about life. Curb yourself. Let the customer
make all the statements h