140 SELLINGLUMBER 



that I have been giving him hot air; that the reality is something 

 different from what I said it is. In other words, that I haven't 

 told him the exact truth. I come back and say: "Mr. Jamison, 

 what I have said I won't take back. I have not overrated, and 

 I don't think I have underrated this proposition. It is just as 

 real as words can describe reality." Then I have answered his 

 feeling. But suppose he says: "Your proposition sounds good, 

 Sign Here" Mr. Krebs." I say, "All right. Just put your name on the dotted 

 line." (Laughter). In other words, you know when you are 

 at the psychological moment, and what to do when the psychologi- 

 cal moment comes. Now it doesn't matter how big a nose Jami- 

 son has got, what the color of his eyes, or how he parts his hair. 

 You have the clew that he himself gives you, and you are sim- 

 ply, like an artist, taking advantage of it. 



But now, my friends, I want to go into temperament. Let's 

 go a little deeper. Now, when we come to the word "tempera- 

 ment," of all the silly things that have been written about tempera- 

 ment it is ridiculous. Now I want to sum it all up as quickly 

 as I can. I want to eliminate the false, and then I want to use 

 three simple words, Anglo-Saxon words, and say to you that there 

 are only three temperaments on earth ; that is, all human beings, 

 male and female, all go into three different classes. Tempera- 

 fment tells you not how to approach a sale, but how to conduct 

 the sale. What are those three? The quick, the slow and the 

 medium. Now doesn't that sound simple? "But what do I mean? 

 I might use other words -here now, if 1 you care to the morbid, 

 sanguine, melancholic, phlegmatic, nervous, and so on, and then 

 Temperament those in between; but these are the main. If we have you in 

 the laboratory we can measure the time of the nerves and tell 

 you what class you belong to. It is just the quickness or the 

 slowness with which the nerves make muscular motions and form 

 ideas in the brain. Some have to take some time to form an idea 

 and more time to express themselves, more time to make a mo- 

 tion. You can 1 tell the temperament I belong to ; I belong to the 

 quick. You can tell that a man belongs to the quick tempera- 

 ment when he walks into your office. He walks in rapidly, and 

 asks you promptly for what he wants. He is the quick man. 

 You take him out to show him the lumber in your yard, and he 

 asks questions, and he asks them fast. That is the quick man. 

 The slow man comes in in a deliberate manner. He will talk at 

 about the rate I am speaking now (speaking slowly). I had to 



