el
clerk and the waitress and the bootblack and the paper boy he is likely
to find that the smile has straightened out into a genuine one. It does
not always work--it is like counting to a hundred when one is angry--but
it is worth trying.

Salesmen find their greatest difficulties among people of little
education. It is the people with fewest ideas that cling to them most
tenaciously. Scholars and scientists and business men who have learned
to employ scientific methods are constantly watching for something new.
They welcome new discoveries and new ideas, but the man in the backwoods
of ignorance has a fence around the limits of his mind and it is hard
for anything to get inside it. He is open to conviction, but like the
Scotsman, he would like to see the person who could "convict" him. It is
hard work to get a new idea into the mind of a man who is encased in a
shell of ignorance or prejudice, but the salesman is worse than
bad-mannered who lets another man, whoever he is, know that he thinks
his religion is no good, that his political party is rotten, that his
country is not worth a cancelled postage stamp, and that the people of
his race are "frogs," "square-heads," "dagos," "wops," or "kikes."

Salesmen who are themselves courteous usually meet with courtesy. The
people who move graciously through life find comparatively little
rudeness in the world. And a good salesman is courteous to all men
alike. With him overalls command as much respect as broadcloth. It
pays--not only in money, but in other things that are worth more.

A salesman should be especially careful of his attitude toward the
representatives of rival houses and their products. His eagerness to
advance his own cause should never lead him into belittling them. He
need not go out of his way to praise them nor should he speak of them
insincerely in glowing terms; but an honest word of commendation shows
that he is not afraid of his rivals in spite of the fact that they too
have excellent goods, and when it is impossible to speak well of them it
is best to stay silent.

It is not hard to see why business men spend so much time and effort in
selecting their salesmen. They know that one who is ill-mannered or
offensive in any way indicates either a lack of breeding or a lack of
judgment on the part of the parent concern. And one is about as bad as
the other.

VIII

THE BUSINESS OF WRITING

Half the business letters which are written should