V
July 7, 189—
Dear Pierrepont: Yours of the fourth has the right ring, and it says more to the number of words used than any letter that I have ever received from you. I remember reading once that some fellows use language to conceal thought; but it's been my experience that a good many more use it instead of thought.
A business man's conversation should be regulated by fewer and simpler rules than any other function of the human animal. They are:
Have something to say.
Say it.
Stop talking.
Beginning before you know what you want to say and keeping on after you have said it lands a merchant in a lawsuit or the poorhouse, and the first is a short cut to the second. I maintain a legal department here,
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