Colonel Nicholas Smith, in "Grant the Man of Mystery," says:
Grant is often called "The Silent Man."
While he wrote with fluency and with great
rapidity, it was difficult for him to express
himself extemporaneously until after his
Presidential career, and many interesting
stories are told of his attempts to talk. A
large body of ministers once called upon him
and made a long address, to which he was
compelled to reply. After a sentence or two,
Mr. Fish noticed that his voice faltered, and
fearing that he might be at a loss what to
say, the secretary, standing next to him,
caused a diversion by beginning to cough
violently. The President afterward said to
Mr. Fish, "How fortunate it was for me that
you had that cough, as I had felt my knees
begin to shake. I do not think that I could
have spoken another word."
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We may please and help and comfort the very same persons whom we may by different treatment irritate, bringing out the worst where we might with tact bring out the best that is in them. You take a piece of ribbon-grass and rub it from end to end and admire its velvet smoothness; but as you then rub it the other way you find it is pricking you as if malignantly. And one of the mysteries of electricity is that the same magnet with which you can attract by presenting one pole will repel if you present the other. (Text.)
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TACT, LACK OF
The natural effect of a lack of tact is seen in the man described below, who used the means to offend the very person who was to decide his fate.
Under no circumstances can a missionary,
worthy of the name, be ever induced to say
anything that would wound the susceptibilities
or grieve the heart of one of his heathen
or Mohammedan auditors. That is not necessary.
They tell the story of a judge in
Aleppo. He had but one eye. A person was
condemned to prison, as he thought, unjustly.
He rose before the judge and said: "Oh,
one-eyed judge, I am imprisoned here on a
false accusation; and I tell you, oh, one-eyed
judge, that this man who has testified
against me has received a bribe; and oh, one-eyed
judge, if I do not get justice, I will report
this case to the pasha; and if the pasha
do not do justice, oh, one-eyed judge, I will
report it to the sultan himself." The judge
rose from his seat in a rage and said: "Take
the man back to prison. I won't hear him
plead before me and call me forever a one-eyed
judge."—Pierson, "The Miracles of
Missions."
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It is a good story which Chauncey M. Depew tells of a dinner that the late King Edward as Prince of Wales once gave in honor of James G. Blaine, on one of his visits to England before he had even been a candidate for the Presidency. The one disagreeable man at the dinner was a duke of the royal house, who had a reputation for lack of tact. During a lull in conversation he blurted out: "The greatest outrage in history was the revolt of your people against King George III. There was no justification for it then, and there is no excuse for it now." The prince, according to Dr. Depew, was plainly embarrassed. The one man who had the tactfulness to carry off the situation was Mr. Blaine who, in a carefully-modulated voice replied: "Perhaps if George III had possest as much diplomacy as his great-grandson, America might still be English." The Prince of Wales, after the subject was passed, gript Blaine's hands with a twinkle of admiration.—Boston Transcript.
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Taint—See Impure Thoughts.
Talent Neglected—See Neglect of Duty.
Talent, Using the Best—See Advantage,
Working to the Best.
TALENTS
Rev. G. Campbell Morgan tells this story:
Some years ago a woman came to me at
the close of the Sunday morning service and
said, "Oh, I would give anything to be in
this work actively and actually. I would
give anything to have some living part in the
work that is going on here next week in
winning men and women to Christ, but I do
not know what to do."
I said, "My sister, are you prepared to give the Master the five loaves and two fishes you possess?" She said, "I do not know that I have five loaves and two fishes." I said, "Have you anything that you have used in any way specially?" "No," she did not think she had. "Well," I said, "can you sing?" Her reply was, "Yes, I sing at home, and I have sung before now in an entertainment."
