OUR BUSINESS BOYS. 265

OUR BUSINESS BOYS.

(What Eighty-three Business Men Say.)

 

By Rev. F. E. Cruark.

III.
POLITENESS, SELF-DENIAL AND “ SIDE-SHOWS.”

ARTICULAR attention to little virtues which are
often overlooked, often makes a boy successful.
Disregard of these little virtues often makes his life
a failure,” says one of the eighty-three business men.
Among these lesser virtues which many of them
mention, is politeness. “If a boy would succeed,
he must be polite; he must have a pleasant address,”
is an idea that very often recurs in these letters.
It is plain that a “grumpy,” rude, cross boy, does
not stand nearly so good a chance of getting on well
in the world, according to these clear-headed business
men, as a pleasant-featured, good-natured boy.

And perhaps it may be a matter of degree, not of
kind, that makes all the difference between success
and failure. The boy who is a Z##/e more polite than
others, or a “vile more obliging, or somewhat more
ready to give up his own comfort for the comfort of
some one else, may outstrip his companions.

These trifles make up what President Garfield used
to call the “margins” of life. “The bulk itself of
almost anything is not what tells,” he says. “ That
exists anyway. That is expected. That is not what
gives the profit or makes the distinguishing difference.
The grocer cares little for the great bulk of the price of
his tea. It is the few cents between the cost and the
selling price, which he calls the margin, which partic-
ularly interests him. This same thing is all-important
in the matter of thought.”” Then he goes on to illus-
trate this truth by telling the story of his college class-
mate who always had the best lesson, whose “ margin ”
he found was fifteen minutes more of hard study after
the other boys had gone to bed. Young Garfield
then studied fifteen minutes longer still, after
his classmate’s light was put out, and that gave him
the margin which made him the class-leader. Every
business boy needs a large “ margin” of politeness as
well as of hard work, faithfulness and honesty.

I suppose that most of you when applying for a
position in a store, would put on your best suit of

clothes, and brush your hair very smoothly, and look
just as pleasant as possible when you first asked the
proprietor if he would not give you a place. Now if
that politeness is only put on for the occasion, it is
not worth much. Itis only skin deep. The kind of
politeness that these business men mean must be a
part of yourselves. You cannot put it on and take it
off as you do your overcoat. You may be sure that
genuine politeness will become known from the put-
on-for-the-occasion politeness, just as it is known that
a silver half-dollar is not a pewter one. If your po-
liteness is genuine, you are just as gentlemanly when
no one is looking on, as when the store is full of
people. When I use my telephone, one of the girls at
the central office has such a pleasant, good-natured
voice, that I always like to have her answer my call.
I do not know who she is, but I know she must be
polite and good-natured, for when I say “611 F. with
434,” she repeats “611 F. with 434.” in such a pleas-
ant tone that it makes me feel a little happier; and
I think her politeness must be a genuine part of her
life, or she would not be polite when she is a mile
away, and where I cannot see her.

Genuine politeness, too, treats the poor woman in
the rusty shawl who wants to buy a yard of calico,
just as well as the rich lady in the sealskin cloak
who wants a silk dress pattern.

“J have observed,” writes one, whose opinion is
entitled to respect, “many sly winks and blinks
among clerks which have driven many a_plainly-
dressed but valuable customer from certain stores.”
Again, this correspondent refers to the stolid, haughty
variety of clerks whose nonchalant ‘No, we haven’t
it,” is often the only answer vouchsafed to the
inquiring customer, and adds, “the haughtiness and
indifferent air of some of these young people in busi-
ness who have ‘accepted a position’ are exasperating
to the last degree.” Such a clerk loses his or her
employer many a dollar every day. You may be
sure that the quality of your politeness will be indi-
cated by the way you wait upon the poor woman
from the country, who wants to buy a paper of pins,