a visit to
his birthplace.

One evening he went down to the store where the village congress
was assembled, sitting on the barrels and the counter. They
welcomed him very cordially, and then an inquisitive farmer said
to him: "Melville, it is reported around here that you are getting
a salary of nigh unto ten thousand dollars a year."

Mr. Ingalls, who was getting several times that amount, modestly
admitted the ten, which was a prodigious sum in that rural
neighborhood. Whereupon the old farmer voiced the local sentiment
by saying: "Well, Melville that shows what cheek and circumstances
can do for a man."

I recall an incident connected with one of the ablest of the
executives in our system. One day we had a conference of rival
interests, and many executives were there in the effort to secure
an adjustment. For this purpose we had an arbitrator. After a
most exhausting day in the battle of wits and experience for
advantages, I arrived home used up, but after a half-hour's sleep
I awoke refreshed and, consulting my diary, found I was down for
a speech at a banquet at Delmonico's that night.

I arrived late, the intervening time being devoted to intensive
and rapid preparation. I was called early. The speech attracted
attention and occupied a column in the morning's papers. I was
in bed at eleven o'clock and had between seven and eight hours'
refreshing sleep.

On arriving at our meeting-place the next morning, one of the
best-known presidents took me aside and said: "Chauncey, by
making speeches such as you did last night you are losing the
confidence of the people. They say you cannot prepare such
speeches and give proper attention to your business."

"Well," I said to him, "my friend, did I lose anything before the
arbitrator yesterday?"

He answered very angrily: "No, you gained entirely too much."

"Well," I then said, "I am very fresh this morning. But what did
you do last night?"

He answered that he was so exhausted that he went to Delmonico's
and ordered the best dinner possible. Then he went on to say:
"A friend told me a little game was going on up-stairs, and in
a close room filled with tobacco smoke I played poker until two
o'clock and drank several high-balls. The result is, I think we
better postpone this meeting, for I do not feel like doing
anything to-day."

"My dear friend," I said, "you will get the credit of giving your
whole time to business, while I am by doing what