n their earnest efforts to succeed, and yet
render success impossible by their cross-grained ungentlemanliness.
They repel patronage, and, naturally, business which might easily be
theirs goes to others who are really less deserving but more
companionable.

Bad manners often neutralize even honesty, industry, and the greatest
energy; while agreeable manners win in spite of other defects. Take
two men possessing equal advantages in every other respect; if one be
gentlemanly, kind, obliging, and conciliating, and the other
disobliging, rude, harsh, and insolent, the former will become rich
while the boorish one will starve.

[Illustration: Jane Addams]

A fine illustration of the business value of good manners is found in
the Bon Marche, an enormous establishment in Paris where thousands of
clerks are employed, and where almost everything is kept for sale. The
two distinguishing characteristics of the house are one low price to
all, and extreme courtesy. Mere politeness is not enough; the
employees must try in every possible way to please and to make
customers feel at home. Something more must be done than is done in
other stores, so that every visitor will remember the Bon Marche with
pleasure. By this course the business has been developed until it is
said to be the largest of the kind in the world.

"Thank you, my dear; please call again," spoken to a little beggar-girl
who bought a pennyworth of snuff proved a profitable advertisement and
made Lundy Foote a millionaire.

Many persons of real refinement are thought to be stiff, proud,
reserved, and haughty who are not, but are merely diffident and shy.

It is a curious fact that diffidence often betrays us into
discourtesies which our hearts abhor, and which cause us intense
mortification and embarrassment. Excessive shyness must be overcome as
an obstacle to perfect manners. It is peculiar to the Anglo-Saxon and
the Teutonic races, and has frequently been a barrier to the highest
culture. It is a disease of the finest organizations and the highest
types of humanity. It never attacks the coarse and vulgar.

Sir Isaac Newton was the shyest man of his age. He did not acknowledge
his great discovery for years just for fear of attracting attention to
himself. He would not allow his name to be used in connection with his
theory of the moon's motion, for fear it would increase the
acquaintances he would have to meet. George Washington was awkward and
shy