The Washington herald., 1914-03-17
HISTORY BUILDERS.
Words Of Wisdom from Edward
Everett Hale.
Cwritten expressly for The Herald.)
BY DIR. n. j. EDWARDS.

(written expressly for The Herald.)
BY DIR. y. ,. EDWARDS.
Il was on my way back from a winters
lsoJourn In Southern California to M
home in New York In the spring OF 1885,
On the morning OF the third day out.
went into the smoking compartment tt
wait until my s.eeping-car section hac
been made resdy by the porter for ths
day. There we're two persons in the com
lpartment-one man with bushy haii
and beard. who was listening attentivels
to man about thirty years Of age
romewhat overdressed, but whose face
! and tone OF voice showed me that he wa,
speaking with enthusiasm upon a subject
In which he had great interest.
/ In this way William r. Grace, who had
twice been mayor OF New York City. and
who was the fOunder OF an important
mercantile house which carried on ex.
tensiye commerce with the coast Of South
Smerica. began the narration OF an i'm
lcident whose recollection seemed to cause
him a good deal OF amusement.
| II had been seated not more thar
five minutes when the younger man be-
gan TO talk TO me. He spoke Of a
N nagnificent city which had grown ur
upon site which only thirty years
earlier had been uninhabited land. He
ratified on figures telling OF its popu-
lation. He spoke of its banking capital
and OF the great commerce II had de-
veloped. His manner of talking TO my.
self and TO the stranger was that OF a
man who thought his hearers were antag'
onistic. although we had said nothing
At last he said: j tell you. gentlemen
that city will in the course OF ten OF
/ hfteen years have Chicago. ST. Louis
Minneapolis. and New Orleans all beaten
1 Ii Is going to be by and by the greatest
metropolis upon the American continent.
| The enthusiasm OF this man began
| to be little wearisome, and l at last
| said to him:
"'How long have you lived in that
city,
~ have lived there ten months he
| replied. and ought to know all about Il
| in that time.
well, INV friend. ] replied, II the
city is all you claim for il when you
| lived there twenty years you will know
| more about II than you do now. For
have observed that the men who have
lived the longest in a great city are those
who realize how little after all they know
about it
The man glared at me and in a few
| moments went out. The gentleman with
the long beard and long hair and who
wore q queer kind of Rat turned TO me
and said:
1T was almost too bad TO throw cold
water upon that young mans enthusiasm.
Yet what he said and his manner OF say
ing it ar" another illustration OF the
profound truth which I learned many
years ago. I discovered in my early life
the the men who talked the most
thought the least and that the man who
had the smallest things to brag about
are usually the Ioudest braggarts. The
great men are silent
Il was so interested in what this man
said and by the gentle dignity OF his
manner and certain atmosphere Of high
authority about him that asked him If
he would tell me his name.
He said, My name is Edward Everett
Hale and now. having introduced myself
to YOU. | want YOU to return the COM
pliment'
Il told him who I was and he took my
hand again. We had long converse ton
that day and in the course of il he Te-
peated to m" that he had been guided
throughout life to some extent by his
perception of the fact that the men who
talk tn" loudest think the least
Tomorrow-"B n Ines Remarkable
Memory for Faces and Names-
tCOTgrizht ma