“BEAUX,” SUCH AS BRUMMEL, NASH, ETC.,

goes to show the immense importance of the art, and its influence in determining the success of any man in business.  Good-breeding shows itself the most where to an ordinary eye it appears the least.  Says Chesterfield:  “How often have I seen the most solid merit and knowledge neglected, unwelcome, and even rejected; while flimsy parts, little knowledge, and less merit, introduced by the Graces, have been received, cherished, and admired.”  You have seen beautiful swords of auroral flame dart into the zenith; you have seen marvelous flights of meteors, which were gone ere your admiration had given rise to a cry of pleasure.  So it is with manners.  They irradiate our presence, giving to our associates

MOMENTARY VIEWS

of those qualities which are universally loved and respected—­gentleness, unselfishness, gladness and peace.  Your clothes, while under twenty-five years of age, should be very neat.  Your shirt should be clean.  This does not imply that you are to break extra backs to keep fresh shirts ready for you, but that you are to make extra efforts to keep the one you have on unsoiled for a decent length of time.  If your clothes are dark, get in the habit of wearing a black silk or satin neck-tie and wear it some one way all your life.  It helps people to “place” you.  Generally a sack coat makes a very tall man look shorter, and a frock-coat looks all the better for a change.  The clothes should be loose, so that they will

OCCUPY AS LITTLE OF THE MIND AS POSSIBLE.

The young man who purposely keeps his mind on his fine clothes is lost.  He is a coxcomb.  He has no greater influence with the young ladies for all his fine feathers.  Let me leave you selling a large bill, remembering that civility costs nothing and buys everything, and feeling that the very perfection of good manners is not to think of yourself.

[Illustration]

ECONOMY.

    Behold there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. 
    —­I Kings, XVIII, 44.

Franklin says that, if you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone.  Cicero, many hundreds of years before Ben Franklin said:  “Economy is of itself a great revenue,” and another Roman writer put it still better when he said:  “There is no gain so certain as that which arises from sparing what you have.”  “Beware of small expenses,” again writes Franklin; “a small leak will sink a great ship.”  In our large cities there are thousands of servant girls earning from two and a half to three dollars a week.  The men who employ them often get from twenty-five to one hundred dollars per week, yet it is a notorious fact that the prudent servant girl usually has more money at her command, clear of all debts, than her employer, whose expenses scrape very closely against his income.  Now you are on a salary in a store.  Perhaps that salary is yours, to spend as you see fit.  If so, remember that, like the highest officer in the land, you have certain duties.  If you were President you could not appoint your old schoolmate Secretary of State unless he had made as much progress in politics as yourself.  So, too,