The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1905-11-05
tBY Geo. Barton.

about them; he was utterly at sea he broke
down: he made a public failure The man
was voluntarily incompetent. and in this age
incompetence rarely succeeds.
Som Merely Neglect to Think.
Some men mean well enough; but they do
no, exercise the faculty Of thinking. A GER
+ tain young man was smitten with the idea
Of writing a novel. He forthwith purchased
paper, pens, ard ink, and proceeded to DO
So In the course of a few months he had
ground out a piece of historical fiction sutil-
d cient 10 make book OF 800 or 400 pages. He.
sent tito publisher. To his amazementit.
was returned with polite note Of rejection.
He was at q loss to understand what this
meant and took It to a friend who had a
deserved reputation as critic. The friend
read the book and said that the cause of It's
Reaction was self evident. He told the man
who was ambitious to be novelist that his
work showed all the faults of superficial
thought, and that its haphazard style was
In itself sufficient to cause rejection. The!
instant Intelligent thought real feeling. or
genuine comprehension Of the meaning Of
the English language was turned on the
manuscript It's plan, its details. and Its phras-t
ing crumbled like pound cake. or dissolved
into glucose covered emptiness Humanity
had not been observed; conditions had not
been studied Even the noble English tongue,
which has been a thousand years In the up
building. was habitually defiled.
To be brief the work showed lack OF prop.
err preparation. II the man had made his
plans and given the work the thought ana
study that 1t required he might not. 1t is
true have produced great novel; but he
surely would have written one that coulas
not be criticised as harshly
WHY One Shop Keeper Failed.
Still another man in another city started
n mems furnishing store In good neighbor-
hood. He made proper display of his goods
and had an attractive looking store. lie
failed He could not understand why no
should fail Men all around him In similar
lines of business succeeded and We're sue
ceeding. He had an ample stock and his
prices were no higher than those Of his COM
petitors.
If no had undergone rigid self-examina-
ton the man might easily have learned the
cause of his failure. In fact, " was not
single cause but many causes One of his
habits was to sleep late In the morning. lie
opened his store a half hour later than any
of his rivals When he Went to lunch he
stopped on the way back to drink one or two
GRASSES VI ptcC iAu w SA'AoAS - S'os~A' = 80
or four times In the week hetwent to the
baseball game and left his store In charge
OF small Grand boy. Inc man was not
necessarily lazy, but he lacked ambition, and
1t was the lack Of ambition that made tho
failure in that particular store and bust
ness.
Depa rtment Store Failures.
Nothing seems simpler or more easily
learned than the position OF clerk IN q
large department store, Any man OF ora1-
nary intelligence and ordinary INDUSTRY
would seem competent to NIL that position.
Yet there are failures in that as wei as ~
moro pretent!ous positions, One case comes
to mind, "A young man who had obta,ned 9
position of that kind through the inlluelce
Of a friend would go home at nlght ana COM
plain about his iii success. The friend 1908 el
the trouble to inquire into the cause 81 ln,s,
He discovered that the clerk was constantly
chewing Rum, that he read .Ae llewspaRers
While women were yuinly trying 70 Pc served yea,
1 HI was constantly gossiping with MS fellow
clerks; and when customer approacheat me
counter tho clerk greeted him or her Win q
bored tired look AT the end Of the second
week 1t was necessary. 70 reduce the force Of