Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-12-12
THE TALENT IN THE NAPKIN. How the Napkin Was Removed and the
 Talent Put at Interest.

III tue edIJll, ana gwen DaC K to the l4O q ou his return, only to bring down upon the servants head the severe reb1ke, be- cause that talent had not been put to use and increas d-that story is misfit in the modern world. Everybody knows nowadays that he has talent, ani every. body is trying very hard to find pla tn put it, where it will draw interest. The greatest obstacle is the napkin Talents are so securely done up that it is next to impossible to undo their coverings and turn them to account.
 This is what clever young fellow was thinking 10 himself one bright winter after noon as he sat at his sk and speculated This young man WAS a reporter, and his six was iu a newspape" office. He had already partly uncovered his talent. He was more than an ordinarily successful re porter, and to be that was distinct use in life to him. For in his early years life had not been over and above kind 10 him. He was born to st uggle, and he had to ''hustle" since he could first remember anything. ''Hustling' had gradually be- come secOnd nature to him. His early education had not been extensive. only the rudiment7 which, ly Uncle Sams ideas, are thought necessary for all who may be come presidents. But he IFS bright lad and he made the most of the books that came in his way. Aud then he had what was worth more to i'm than books in a struggle with the world, an intuition of the way one must deal successfully with men. This sort of thing, like poetry, is born in the man. But early contact with human nature on the ''hustlil g side is wonder ful de' elOper of tact and il sight So what this boy did Le did better than most other boys; and whether he was "cerking it" or running some little side show of biS ba nlyraVS T1o1a A,,l being ge ial, and kindhearted, ard honest, and loyal, he kept the friends he made and h. made more all the time
 This young man was lucky, too, in the city where he chanced to be born and had grown up. It was typical New England manufacturing city.
 Everylo ody i'll it, at least every body W ho deserved to be, was busy and prosperous. Without being booming city, it was one which saw it~el nearly double every ten years without making fuss about it. It had handsome churches of all religions, and handsome library, and first class school system. and a lovely appearance of home life in attractive houses, comfortable but yet not pretentious, and goa head business men who pull together, and a cultivated society, and some admirable local papers.
 Into the city Impairment of one of these this young man drifted because re- porting came a. natural to him as cursing to a sailor or singing to a primadorna He knew everybody, was interested in every body, and everybody was his friend.
 Who better than he could gather and rec 'rd the daily events which go to make the stranye, curious, tangled, amusing sad, tragic an heterogeneous chronicle which We call the "local page!" He made an unique name and place for himself. He was in position to do a favor for the richest and proudest of hi~ fellow citizens as well as for the poorest and lowliest
 He knew more about them all ,one could almost say, than they knew about them selves. The way in which anything which concerned them-remot~Iy or intin atelv- reached the public and formed that every real, though intangible thing called ''public opln on" about them and their connection with daily affairs, dep-nde upon his skill tact and discretion in shap- ing the statement which was to give the first and subsequent impressions. He krew his power, and it captivated him, as the exercises of any great power always does captivute its posse ssOr.
 Why then was this yourg men thought ful: Why was he trying to remove the nap kin from Il s talen1 Was not tha talent already in fullest fruitfulness! Yes-as regards the public, but ot as regards i'm self. He kl'rw men, plenty of them, who had not half the knowledge to work with which he lad, who Lad no special gift or training iu hadii, their fellow men, who had 10 ability f,r nding human nature, and SO stating an unpleasant fact tt at the statement Wou.d be stingless, who had II" wide acquaintance with the business and Icltical affairs of the city and state, vE" wele ig orant of the method by " hi Il money is made, and en- telprise ard capital are brought togeth r, wl.o wrle mere plodders, and yet those same person were making many times more Gull Is in a year than be- How shculd he get ike napkin off his talent How siurIld l"put that ta ent to such use, that iu~t,ul If building up another mans new spapcr he receiving d per cent of the returns in suItly--the real earnings of that talent should come fully and com plrtely to himself.
 This is what this ''hustling" young man was thinking about that winter after noon as he had often thought it over be- fore and eXpe ted often to think it over again. But it was to be otherwise. The idea he had been so long seeking was to be sought no longer.
 It was to come to him then and there The napkin was to be removed from the talent, his future iu-gatherings were to be all his own.
 How. All great ideas are so simple that when they are once evolved the wonder is that they were rot evolved long before. This young mans idea was simply this: to give to the pub ic the service he had been giving to newspaper and let the public pay him instead of paying the newspaper So he resl1el his place as a reporter and opened an uf1ice for himself. P ople wondered and could not imagine what he was at It Was all so new, so strange, so unprecedented. This young man was now servant of the public instead of be- ing an employe of a newspaper.
 He found himself, almost to his own surprise, the confidential adviser of host of clients who now knew to whom to turn in any of these unusual stuati' ms wh ch surprise us all-when we do not know, in inrXprrence, how to deal with them in the best and wsest way. Did man need a certain kind of manufactured goods in bis business but for some private reason wished to find the goods without publicity This young man was thoroughly familiar