any person
living. I had a fund of information, mainly of a superficial nature, but
it enabled me to turn my hand to a great many different things. I had once
studied shorthand and I put this acquirement to what I thought was a
useful purpose. I carried a number of note-books and took down everything
that I saw or heard. Whenever a man of reputed wisdom was heard speaking,
either from the rostrum or in private conversation, I was busy in the
mechanical act of writing it down, and in so doing failed to get from the
talk that inspiration which is so often more important than the mere
words of the story. I had such a mess of notes in these little hooks and
crooks that I never found time to hunt anything up and read it over. In
fact, I doubt whether in all this rubbish I could have found anything I
wanted had I searched ever so long. Still I obtained considerable
information, mainly as I did when a boy, by absorption.

I was full of tables and statistics. By keeping some of these in my brain
in an easy place to get at them when wanted, I was able to formulate rules
and plans for almost any condition that might arise. By unloading abstruse
and unusual facts at the proper time and place I gained the reputation of
being a very shrewd fellow, but I was always careful to introduce subjects
in which my assertions were likely to go unchallenged. I had established
the habit of reasoning by deduction and analogy, and would often startle
people by what they thought was my profound wisdom. I had a system of cues
by which I tried to cultivate a memory so tenacious that nothing could
escape me, but this proved a great deal like my voluminous note-taking. It
often crowded out some things of the most vital importance; besides, I
often forgot my cues--just as one ties a string in his button-hole to keep
from forgetting something and then forgets to look at the string.

By my suave manners and versatile speech I was enabled to work myself into
the good graces of people and thus obtain desirable positions. But always
on some pretext I shifted from one thing to another. Once I held for a
short time a very remunerative place in a banking establishment, but I got
to thinking that in case of robbery or defalcation I might be unjustly
accused; so I promptly handed in my resignation. Through the
recommendations of influential friends I was next able to secure a
Government clerkship which I held for a few months. My reason for
remaining with it so