Arizona republican., 1914-07-06
nto that which saps the soul of the

unto that which saps the soul of the
tramp.
| So many letters beg for business
with stammering speech and haltine
gait, or other congenital disorder thai
makes one believe them to have beer
brought into being by foolish fathers
who neither planned nor prepared the
, way for their coming. Some babble
out their story in that empty, ex-
pressiOnless style employed by the
| wandering mind. Others are flabby
fleshly word hulks that flop around
without any argumentative facts to
serve as the bracing bones for their
bulk Some are equally disgusting
! at the other extreme for their facts
stand up as grisly skeletons without
the graceful covering of courtesies
Others make splendid starts or fitful
| misunderstanding flashes that make
! these spasms of activity show more
strikingly the general weakness.
What the letter world needs-and
needs now-is a Law of Eugenics
L
enough of his human instruments
! to make them after his i'm
Iage" surely we should think enough
of our brain children to make them
representative of their parenthood. AS
wise father is careful in the train
ing of his son. seeing that his mind
acquires only that which is best and
his body be fed to make bone and
Drawn. so. too should we plan and
care for our letters that they may
grow into efficient offspring. Let us
make our letters like ourselves. Let
US take our bare, bony facts and so
assemble them that they have an ar
ticulated skeleton. 1t must be a
working skeleton-leg must not be in
arms place-all the joints want to
be we'll protected and well oiled so
that they neither protrude too plainly
nor creak in motion. Upon our skele
ton let us build a body of attractive
ideas covered with carefully selected
words, paying attention as we go
along that each muscle really flexes
and that each word really pictures.
One thing is yet lacking: LIFE. All
that has been done is worthless if
ones does not start the heart to
pumping the red blood of personality,
that gives the living power to your
letter. You possess this personality
this magic, indefinable something that
makes you different. Your physical
appearance, your facial expressions.
your carriage these are not small
parts of your personality. Its greatest
force is felt rather than seen, and
this portion of yourself IS what you
the spirit of yourself-put SOUL into
your pen and paper salesman.
The trouble with most business
men, when they write letters, is that
they become too self-cOnscious of
their task They seem to get out of
their natural state-to forget what
ever ability they may have had as
flesh and blood statesmen and either
sing down into some miring rut, from
which they pitifully pipe their pleas
for business, or else they stoldly
strut around on stiff stills. Is there
any reason for other than naturalness
in our lives, in our selling or in our
letters? If we can be humanity natu-
raj in our face-tO-face selling-if we
can use crisp, cracking. clean and
clear conversatiOn-why do we change
all this when we write business let
ters and involve ourselves in floun-
dering flap doodle? 1t but tends to
handicap business letters in general
and to a deterioration of our letters.
in particular, until these become like
the tramp, chronically out of work
and impossibly inefficient.
Among tramps I've met long-haired
ex-actors who We're quite capable of
weaving words, stringing sonorous
phrases, polishing rhetoric-but it was
all sound and little sense. They We're
superficial parasites, incapable of real
acting. Lofty literature, "hifalutin
spread eagleism," conjuring with
catch phrases and the like are as
much out of place in real result-ren-
dering letters as is deadly, dull, drab
The tramp knock
ing at your back door has a negative