Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-08-18
OF THE PERSONAL EQUATION.
Counts In Business as Well as In As
tronon1y,

| NOunIS IN SuSlHCSS DO NNSli GO ih
| tronomy.
| The newspaper announcements that
certain magazines had offered Presi-
dent Roosevelt a dollar word for his
story of the African experiences, fur
nish a striking example Of the value Of
the personal equation in literature. It
Is not a question of what is to be writ
| ten, but Of who is to write It,
The personal equation, 1t may be
explained, is a certain figure, perhaps
only a fraction, with a minus or plus
sign attached, which represents the
allowance to be made because the
subject under consideration has been
handled by a specified individual
whose personal equation in such mat
| ters has been ascertained.
Strictly, personal equation belongs
to astronomy. In ali observatories
the personal equation of each men,
ber of the staff is a matter Of vital
importance, and great pains are taken
to ascertain 1t with accuracy. Some
men anticipate what they are looking
for and they will see a star reach the
meridian a fraction Of a second be-
fore it actually does so. Others al
ways want to be quite sure, and they
will never admit that a star has
reached a given point until they are
convinced of it by observing that 1t
has actually passed it.
The exact extent Of the error In
each case can be accurately measured,
and in the trained observer it is
found to be always precisely the
same. The man who waits until he
is quite sure that the star has passed
always waits the same length Of
| time to a fraction of a second, while
the one who anticipates is always just
the same fraction of second ahead
in every observation he records.
These fractions representing personal
equations are taken into account in
conjunction with other data with as
much confidence as II they were re-
corded by a split second watch.
Some business houses have reduced
the personal equation to a science in
the matter Of discounting reports
and analyzing views Of market prob
abilities, but they note that the frac-
ton has to be increased when the
a request for remittance. Perhaps
the largest personal equation ever
heard Of was that recorded by a mon
ument man in Cincinnati, who had
salesman named Jarvis covering Ken
lucky and Tennessee. Every time
Jarvis met a funeral on the road he
wrote to the house that he had an
other monument sold.
If the public could be provided
with a table of personal equations for
some of our press agents and for wri-
ters Of get rich quick circulars 1t
would be valuable safeguard. On
the other hand, the public itself has
a personal equation which has to be
taken into consideration. Any adver-
| tisement writer of experience will tell
you that it is useless to confine your
self to the strict facts Of the case. The
expert at writing advertisements
knows to a nicely how much the pub
lie will discount what he says, how
much it will read and how much 1t
will skip. He puts the gist Of what he
| has to say in the first line and the
last, because he knows the public is
too lazy to read 1t all unless both ends
G,aka T,, HI n1oor
his skill depends on his ability so to
adjust matters that his own personal
plus equation shall equal the public's
minus equation.
There are many things which can
never be quite relied upon, simply be-
cause the personal equation entering
into them is not accurately known.
Some fifteen or twenty years ago there
was a we'll known timer at athletic
meetings who was fully convinced
that a certain clubmate Of his could
do the hundred in 94-5, although less
enthusiastic watches always made 1t
10 1-5 No matter how often this
man ran, this particular official was
always on hand with his watch just
two-fifths of a second faster than the
other timers watches.
One day at Manhattan Field he
caught the time as 3-5, which stag
gered him a bit as he looked at 1t.
A bystander Immediately offered to
bet that the official time would be
evens, although the runner had. never
beaten 10 1-5 in his life, and he was
right Quite unconsciously perhaps
he had applied the personal equation,
which was always two-fifths too fast,
and had figured that the timer could
not possibly have made an error OF
three-fifths.
This story is told of the power Of
the personal equation in matters
which influence the public: pub
Usher had printed a first edition, l.
600 copies, Of a little book which both
he and his readers thought was
good thing Six months after publi-
cation only about eight hundred CO.
pies had been sold and the title was
scratched off the lists as not worth
second edition.
Returning froom Boston one day
this particular publisher had read all
the newspapers forward and back
ward and was looking around the
parlor car for something to suggest an
occupation for another hour when his
eye fell upon a local sheet carelessly
thrown on the floor.
Picking it up and glancing through
it his eye fell upon a report OF
speech made by President Roosevelt
the day before at Bangor. In that
speech the little book which had been
such a disappointment to its publish
er was mentioned, in fact 1t was re-
commended to everybody.
Two hours later the accuracy or the
report of the speech was verified by
telegraph and then followed Wgor-
Gus advertising campaign, exploiting
the presidents Endorsement Of that
book. Result: 100000 copies OF 1t
were sold within year. The book
was Wagner's Simple Life"