himself enough in performing his duties will find it exceedingly difficult to get along. He cannot hope to win the approval of those above him in authority, or to make lasting friends of his customers. He is like a man toiling up an icy glacier without the aid of an alpenstock. The most arduous effort too often means a sudden plunge into the yawning abyss.

IT

CHAPTER VIII

THE QUICK-TEMPERED SALESMAN
If a man opens his door, his dog runs
out in the street before he knows it.
Your tongue is a sort of revolving
fan to a fire; and the first time you
let your tongue go, you are gone.

T is astonishing how many things will come up to the salesman, and come when he least expects them, upon his tongue.

Some one has told us that we get our idea of the word "temper" from the blacksmith's shop, where the blacksmith is shaping an axe, for instance, and upsetting the blade of it. He heats the blade and pushes it down into the water, and, taking it out, he watches it take its color; and again he pushes it into the water and takes it out and watches it take its color; and then directly he passes it to the hand of the farmer, and says: "I think that is tempered, but I don't know. If you will grind it and take it out to that knotty log and throw it in a time or two, I shall be able to tell you whether it is tempered or not.”

And the farmer takes up the axe and goes out to the log and strikes it a time or two, and the axe is full of notches. He takes it back to the blacksmith, and says: "You missed it this time. Look here!

It is notched all over with gaps." And the blacksmith takes it and puts it in the fire again and tests it; and when the owner next takes it out to the log, its edge is all right, and he says: "This edge is perfect." That is where we get our idea of temper.

Many a time the salesman has his disposition upset and tempered, and then he goes out and says: 'Well, now, I will never get that way any more. I have got the edge all right this time. I have got it tempered up in every respect." But the first old knotty customer he gets to, away it goes, and the notches are made in it, and the edge is destroyed, and he says: "Dear me! It's of no use for me to try at all. I did worse this time than I ever did before."

Haven't you ever felt that?

A good temper will stand anything without the breaking out of a gap or the turning of an edge.

There is a great difference between the goodnatured salesman and the good-tempered salesman.

We hear people say, “Oh, that person has less temper than anybody I ever saw." Well, he is of less account than anybody you ever saw, if you mean by that that he is simply good-natured.

Given a man with immense temper, and when that temper is of the right sort, then it is you've got the finest character this world ever saw.

We can have good tempers only with vigilant, watchful care over them. Did you ever manage your temper by clinching your teeth together and not letting your tongue run a bit? Your tongue is a sort of revolving fan to a fire, and the first time you your tongue go, you are gone. Did you ever try to curb your tongue once? If you'll do it, you'll be astonished.

let

If you are a Quick-tempered Salesman, begin now by saying, “I will watch my temper; I will watch my tongue; I will watch my disposition; I will watch within; I will watch without; I will be vigilant; I won't be surprised by anything. I am going to see my enemy approach; I am going to watch him as he comes, and I am going to meet him as he comes.

A soldier in the last war said: "One of the hardest things I had to do was to lie still under fire."

Humanity wants to fight back, and kick back. But the salesman never fought back, or kicked back, or talked back in his life that he was not sorry that he did it. The best thing is to stand and hold out and let your enemy kick himself to death, and he will soon do that if you will hold right still.

Speaking on the subject of self-control, a noted reformer once said: "If a man called me a liar, I would not get mad and fight him. I would say to

him, 'If I'm a liar I ought to be ashamed of myself; and if I'm not a liar you are a liar." "

It is a mighty good plan to combat insult and injury with wit or a smile. These quickly disarm our adversary.

The value to the salesman of self-control in meeting the selfishness or insults of a customer, or of managers, is demonstrated over and over again in the life of every man on the road. Many instances occur in the career of every salesman where righteous indignation seems justifiable, but if used at all as an antidote, it should be in homoeopathic doses only.

While travelling on the road, long before embarking in business for myself, I once lost my temper under very trying circumstances in dealing with the buyer of a large firm.

Years afterwards I secured the services of a traveller who was intimately acquainted with that buyer. The first time our new man called on him he was surprised at the reception he received upon presenting the firm's card. The man with whom I had quarrelled opened up on our new representative with, "We have been good friends, and you have always given me a square deal. It would be a real pleasure to continue my business relations with you personally, but you can go back and tell your employer that I will see him in Hades before he