SELLING LUMBER 



131 



I can't tell what tact is ; now I can't tell. I have often asked fel- 

 low salesmen, when we would be smoking cigars together in the 

 sleeping cars ; I ask : What is tact ? This is what they usually 

 say: Tact is diplomacy; and they jump from the tip of that word 

 to the tip of this (illustrating upon his spreaded fingers). I say, 

 all right ; but they haven't got anywhere ; and I say : What is 

 diplomacy? And they say diplomacy is shrewdness. I say: What 

 is shrewdness ? And they say shrewdness is tact, and they get 

 right back whence they started from. Many times a bright man 

 thinks he is defining a thing by merely putting another word in 

 its place. DC finis is to define the parts. What are the parts of 

 tact? Then you will see what it is. It is four rights 

 in a row. If you say the right thing to the right person at the 

 right time in the right way, that is tact. But if you say the right 

 thing to the right person at the right time in the wrong way, that 

 spoils it. If you say the right thing to the right person in the 

 right way at the wrong time, that spoils it, or if you say the right 

 thing to the wrong person in the right way at the right time, that 

 spoils it, too ; and if you say the wrong thing to the right per- 

 son at the right time and in the right way, that spoils the whole 

 business. But if you do say the right thing to the right person 

 at the right time in the right way, believe me, something will 

 move in your direction. 



Thompson got married, and Smith sent him a wedding pres- 

 ent; and two weeks afterward Smith meets Jones and says: 



"Jones, do you know, Thompson don't speak to me?" 



He says : "Yes, I don't understand it." 



Jones said: "Did you send Thompson a wedding present?" 



Smith says : "Yes, I did ; a fine, vellum-bound book." 



"What book did you send him?" 



"Paradise Lost." (Laughter). 



Now that is where you say the right thing 1 to the right per- 

 son in the right way, but at the wrong time. 



Now, you take indigestion, for instance. Suppose a sales- 

 man has indigestion. Now he is liable to be irritable over little 

 things, and say little stabs unconsciously; and suppose the cus- 

 tomer has indigestion, too. Then there is nothing doing. You 

 might as well both go to the doctor and quit for awhile until you 

 are feeling- a little better. So you see you can go into the sales- 

 man with considerable depth. 



The Elusive 

 Definition 

 of Tact 



The Right 

 Thing at the 

 Wrong Time 



