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munity gets acquainted with itself. A pageant well done is sion for satisfaction and pride to each one taking part as as to all who attend or in the smallest way assist. Not inquently these great spectacles awaken such an earnest desire a better and more beautiful city that they serve as foreruns of extensive cleaning and beautifying enterprises.

is gospel according to Florence Magill Wallace is now a I according to the State of Illinois. Moreover, in issuing amphlet as an official document Illinois appends the lines hitman:

"Where the city of the faithfulest friends stands,

Where the city of the cleanliness of the sexes stands,
Where the city of the healthiest fathers stands,
Where the city of the best-bodied mothers stands,
There the greatest city stands."

is one thing, however, to grasp the civic importance of ues and pageants and poetical frolics and organize them ee them through, but quite another to give them artistic ty and charm. State Senator Hugh S. Magill, Jr., director e Centennial Celebration, is neither a poet nor a musician n accomplished stage manager. Like his colleagues in the - Legislature, he is a practical politician. And yet there I seem to be a special providence that watches over artistic its in Illinois. The makers of the incomparable World's at Chicago were anything but æsthetes. Nevertheless they somehow the genius to recognize special talent and employ ad let it have its way when employed. The Centennial mission, while of course undertaking a much smaller task running proportionately slighter risks, displays a good deal same gift for hitting on suitable appointments and for wing the appointees to escape being meddled with. The its are eminently satisfactory.

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r. Frederick Bruegger, pageant master to the State of ois, has "got out of it," as the French say, with very gratig success. Mr. Edward C. Moore, State composer pro ore, furnishes sprightly music, pleasing in itself and admiy suited to its purpose. Mr. Wallace Rice, poet laureate for teen months, writes odes, songs, hymns, masques, pageants, "little plays" with a practiced hand; for years he has been a er of poetical compilations, not infrequently adding to his ections of other people's verses highly creditable verses of own. An experienced journalist, he knows how to avoid g over the heads of a popular audience, and in writing for Centennial he has had the tact to remember always that s addressing a community of seven million people. Probv no one else in Illinois except perhaps Dr. Otto L. midt, Chairman of the Centennial Commission-possesses keen a relish for the romance of Illinois history. If Dr. midt has expended his fervor in promoting the work of the cago Historical Society, Mr. Rice at present expends his in ing for romantic material which, had it had a Longfellow xploit it—" Listen, my children, and you shall hear "would have been common property the country over. Parkman w the charm of that material. Popular histories-notably captivating new volume," Illinois: The Story of the Prairie te," by Grace Humphrey have developed it to excellent antage. Here and there fiction has touched it. But until allace Rice began dramatizing it for masques and pageants and ttle plays " nobody had quite sensed its poetic possibilities. What a range of fine suggestiveness in the titles of those six le plays-"Children of the Illini," "Children of France," Pioneer Boys and Girls," "The Underground Railroad," Children of the Civil War," "Children in the Great War"! ving belonged to the Indians, and then to France, and then England, Illinois was successively a county of Virginia, a t of the Northwest Territory, and a Territory in its own ht, so that on entering the Union a century ago the new ate had a singularly varied past abounding in adventurous ident. Mr. Rice has made the most of that. Among the amatis persone of his "Pageant of the Illinois Country' u find Henry de Tonty, a captain of France; the Sieur de isrondet, lieutenant to Tonty; Father Zenobe Membré, a collect friar; Etienne Renault, a soldier, lately of Paris; assazoac, chief of the Illinois; not to mention a gorgeous

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array of Onondaga, Cahokia, Michigami, and Shawanoe braves. Then comes Part II, introducing Negro slaves, men, women, and children, all of Kaskaskia; George Rogers Clark, lieutenant-colonel commanding; and bordermen, all of the Virginia Expeditionary Force. Among the notables in Part III behold the Rev. John Mason Peck, circuit rider, educator, and abolitionist. Part IV-" The Fringe of Fame"-introduces Abraham Lincoln, captain of Illinois Volunteers, along with that other distinguished participant in the Black Hawk War, Lieutenant Jefferson Davis. In Part V we recognize BrigadierGeneral Ulysses S. Grant, lately Colonel 21st Illinois Volunteer Infantry, for

"The South begins to smolder, and the North

Takes fire thereat, and in the glow our Grant Is fashioned to a blade of conquering flame." Wholly without intention, and though realizing the unfairness of it, I have quoted Mr. Rice's lines. Yet why, frankly, should I not? Nobody will take them for pretentious verse. They are purposely unpretentious-designed for a popular audience and to be heard rather than read. As such, are they not very acceptable? Having risked one quotation, I may perhaps go further and reproduce a stanza from his Centennial hymn:

"Our fathers' God, in thankfulness
Thy thousand mercies we confess
With solemn joy:

Our prairies rich in fruitful loam,
Our rivers singing as they roam,
The happiness that is our home,
Our hope, our Illinois."

The poet laureate pro tempore, if I at all understand him, is not given to overestimating his own lines, and yet he takes an unfeigned delight in his triumph as a writer of verse that pleases the average man, and of masques and pageants that lend themselves to spectacular as well as reminiscent effect, and of little plays that really "act." He enjoys being a public servant. He is happy over being " popular." If there is anything he especially abhors, it is an exquisite, but futile, preciosity. In the definitely useful thing he set out to accomplish he has succeeded magnificently, and the success of the Centennial thus far is in no small measure the result of his modest good sense, tact, and self-restraint. Few poets laureate anywhere have behaved more creditably.

The Centennial celebrations thus far have included, among other observances, a great many presentations of the six little plays, a festival at Springfield last April in honor of the hundredth anniversary of the Enabling Act authorizing the Illinois Territory to organize as a State, and on the Fourth of July the reading of Mr. Rice's ode at a celebration on the bluff overlooking the site of the vanished town of Kaskaskia, Illinois's first capital, now buried beneath the Mississippi River, which, by changing its course, obliterated what the Illinois "Intelligencer a century ago assured its readers would “ soon become a towering city.” On the bluff where "Kaskaskia: An Ode " was read lie buried the bones of early French settlers, reinterred after being brought there from the original Kaskaskia, far up the Illinois River. On the Fourth of July, 1918, a hundred and forty years had elapsed since the taking of Fort Gage by George Rogers Clark, of Virginia, and his band of Kentucky backwoodsmen, who thereby ended British rule in Illinois.

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During the first week of October comes the Centennial of the inauguration of Illinois's first Governor. Every county in Illinois will give Mr. Rice's masque. At Springfield the Douglas and Lincoln statues will be unveiled, and the corner-stone of the Centennial Memorial Building laid, and Mr. Rice's splendid "Pageant of the Illinois Country" performed in an armory seating twelve thousand people. The Governors of all the States have been invited to come or to send representatives. President Wilson will be there unless his responsibilities at Washington prevent. Foreign nations, particularly our allies, will be officially represented. On December 3 the State Historical Society and the Illinois Centennial Commission will unite in celebrating the hundredth anniversary of Illinois's formal admission into the Union.

SHOULDER STRAPS: HOW TO WIN AND WEAR THE

ESSENTIAL MILITARY QUALITIES AND HABITS

BY CHARLES F. MARTIN

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL, UNITED STATES CAVALRY

This article and the one to follow later are full of suggestions to those in authority, whether in the military service, or in t the home, the office, the factory, or anywhere else. THE EDITORS.

OU want to become an officer, or you have recently become one. Then from some inner voice comes a question. What should you do in order to make good? A wise man will not want to take a position without learning what will be expected of him.

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The second lesson is that the muscles of the body can be trained to do things in a certain way in given situations until they will involuntarily, automatically, act in that way in similar situations; and they will do this in situations where the mind has ceased, under the pressure of excitement, to exercise control or to think coherently.

Efficiency can come only through training. An officer-an efficient officer-is not a machine-made product. It is a common saying that everybody makes mistakes, and that the wise man profits from them. It is better to avoid making mistakes, particularly in the military service.

THEORY AND PRACTICE

The essential thing about reading for instruction is to make sure that you understand everything the author says that you get his meaning. In your military reading make it a habit to read with a pencil. Merely memorizing sentences is not sufficient; the statements must be analyzed, thought over, thoroughly understood, and assimilated. Make it a practice to shut your book and ask yourself questions about what you have read. Making notes about what you read-and about what you hear-and writing out your own thoughts about the matter in hand are two exceedingly valuable habits to cultivate, because they are modes of expression.

It is not sufficient to have book knowledge of a thing that depends for its application upon action. The value of intelligence is measured, not by the mass of facts or knowledge accumulated, but by the ability to use the knowledge possessed; by the power of turning thought into action.

Lose no opportunity to apply what you learn. Learn to put men into a firing position quickly and properly; to handle your unit on the firing line; to take over a sector of the trenches; to direct your unit, and the next higher unit, in all the phases of action in which it functions. Above all, learn to give clear, explicit orders and instructions for the execution of the duties you direct.

HABITS AND CHARACTER

An officer must have intelligence and be able to apply it; but without strength of character, self-control, unselfishness, habits of energy, will power, and a sense of devotion to duty, he will never have the confidence of his men. They will never follow him on the field of battle.

A man's character or nature is really nothing but his habits. of thought and action.

It is the duty of an officer not only to develop his own character, but to develop the character of his subordinates, to inculcate into them the habits that will make them effective.

Since a man's character is what he thinks and does, he has

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ATTENTION

The man without power of attention belongs to that having eyes see not, and having ears hear not. Attentio attending-taking notice. Attention is of little value can be sustained.

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The power of sustained attention depends upon the accomplish, upon the will to do. If you cannot keep you, fai tion from wandering at times, you can always bring ma You can say to yourself: "I am now doing this one thir ward, march!"

One way of gaining interest is to link up the sub another in which you are interested-that is, to find or lish relations between the two. Almost all abstract though be given concrete application. For most people it is concrete that makes the abstract endurable or durable

other and better way is to ask yourself why you are a to this thing, anyway. Has it any useful purpose?

OBSERVATION

The useful development of the power of observation de upon the power of attention and the power or faculty of ing inferences. Observation without purpose is a wasted and energy.

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At maneuvers I once saw a sergeant in command "point" of an advance guard move along a stretch of road with his point strung out in what he considered a very able patrol formation and approach a wooded bend in th without the 'slightest change in his dispositions. His poi appeared by ones or twos around the bend, and was all car with little or no fuss by the enemy waiting in ambush in the and shrubbery. The whole patrol was ruled "out of ac by an umpire who happened, unfortunately or fortunately. in observation, and not a man escaped to give warning. larger bodies following in the rear, which rode unsuspect into a heavy fire. The sergeant had seen the woods and the in the road, but he had not observed their possibilities.

In his "Diary of a French Officer" Lieutenant N gives an example of the right sort of observation.

For the purpose of straightening out a small salient attack was to be made by the French on two sides of the the proper time with a view to deceiving the enemy in fro held by his company. His rôle was to make a demonstratic

The German trenches were subjected to a heavy bomb ment. The Germans, in their turn, began to answer with st sent at first far to the rear of the French first line, in sear their guns. Lieutenant Nicolas's platoon was to fire and machine guns during exactly four minutes. This was done the proper time, and drew some fire from the German artille

As there was nothing more to be done, every one except the sentries went into the dugouts. We were hotly bombarded. W had of a certainty fulfilled our mission, for we had drawn bot! their attention and their fire.

The bombardment of his sector lasted some time.

Shells were raining down, but, as none of them had done any harm up to that time, we bothered no more about them. The fell more especially in front of the trench, in the wire entanglement. That set me to thinking.

Were they going to amuse themselves by attacking us? I doubled the sentries and gave orders that as soon as the bom bardment slackened every man should run to his loophole. ... I did not know the result of the flank attack.

Suddenly from the German trenches, like devils from their boxes, emerged the infantrymen.

But the lieutenant and his men, thanks to his reflective observation, were ready for them at a time when not a second could be lost, and in a couple of minutes had beaten back the

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If the lieutenant had not observed that the shells fall more especially in the wire entanglements, had vn the right inference as to the possible meaning of that 1 not taken the proper precautions to meet the possie and his men would have been surprised and over

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all you can about everything you come in contact with ine guns, trench mortars, searchlights, everything that ne you may terribly want to make use of.

PRECISION

military application the word "precision" means exactipromptness, and accuracy in doing things; clearness, accuracy in speech or writing-doing or saying a thing ight time and in the best way.

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attle, a lack of precision means disaster. An assault, for le, depends for its success upon accurate timing, and in exactitude on the part of one of the units taking part volve the useless sacrifice of many lives.

have an opportunity to practice precision in everything and in everything you say. Make it a habit to give all nstructions in the clearest and most accurate language. out the exact meaning of military terms; learn to use in their exact sense. Many a military disaster has been ht about by ambiguous language in orders, instructions, aessages. It is commonly said that a man's education is by his use of language his mother tongue.

FORESIGHT

e military man must keep asking himself what the enemy ng to do next, and what he himself is going to do to meet ituation. This does not mean, of course, that when the y is doing something he must devote his energy to think f what he or the enemy will do thereafter when he should eeping his mind on the job in hand; if he does that, there

not be any thereafter for him.

war things seldom work out according to schedule. Conwhat to do if the advance of the unit adjoining yours is ped by machine-gun fire, by unsuspected obstacles, or other, while your own finds its advance unimpeded and the ay fleeing pell-mell in front of it; consider what material will need for situations that may arise to block your plan, have the material on hand.

oresight is initiative exercised in advance.

JUDGMENT AND DECISION

ome men, though actuated by the best of intentions, are so cient in judgment that they are unfitted for any position of ponsibility. Some persons seem unable to arrive at any ision even when all the evidence is before them; they have self-confidence, or they are so deficient in the powers of ention and reflective observation that they have no sense of oportion. They have no very definite ideas about anything; ey lack the sense of values. Others belong to the impulsive be, swayed by emotions or impulses; they cannot wait till the ailable evidence is all in. Any one of these types will ruin e discipline of an organization.

Some men seem to have the habit of making good decisions quickly that it would appear that no weighing of values has r them been necessary; but the truth is that they have highly eveloped mental faculties, have had the necessary experience and practice to enable them to think quickly.

An ill-advised snapshot decision may bring disastrous results; n the other hand, delay may be just as dangerous. In arriving ta decision do not let your judgment be warped by your emoons-by anger, fear, or self-interest.

Remember that judgment, because it is the greatest of the aculties, needs assiduous cultivation.

INITIATIVE AND RESPONSIBILITY

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opposite bank of the river, and who finds the bridge over which he expected to cross to be missing, will find some other means of getting across; but he will deliver the message.

When you are charged with the direction of a military operation, it is your duty to get very clearly into your mind what your mission is. You may have a few side issues to attend to, but you will usually have one primary object in view, a definite mission to accomplish; keep that in mind. That is the thing that you are to do. If you cannot do it in one way, do it in another. Get it done.

It may sometimes even happen that circumstances will involve a change of mission for you. For example, a small mobile detachment, preceding larger forces, has orders to reconnoiter for signs of the enemy to a considerable distance beyond a river which its main body expects to cross. The advance detachment crosses by one of the bridges or fords which its main body wants to use, and finds that the enemy is much nearer than he was believed to be that, in fact, a hostile force is rapidly approaching the bridge which the detachment has just left behind. The detachment commander, knowing that his commanding officer expects to use that bridge, and that it will be some time before other parts of his force reach it, will proba bly decide that his mission has been changed by the circumstances, and that it is now his imperative duty to secure and hold the bridge until reinforcements arrive.

An odious fault is that of trying to avoid responsibility, or to shift it upon the shoulders of subordinates. It is only a man who puts self before duty who will try to do that.

The commander knows that the organization will reflect the qualities of its leaders. If his subordinate officers or his noncommissioned officers are badly trained, it is his duty to see that they are trained. The fault usually lies with him, assuming that he has had reasonable time and opportunity to do the training. If his subordinates do not possess the proper qualifications, he should replace them; but first let him look carefully into his own soul.

WORK AND ENERGY

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English officers will tell you that when their first went into trenches there was for a time a laxity in the enforcement of the requirements as to smartness in appearance. The trenches were dirty, uncomfortable places; in them it was hard to keep shaved, to keep clean, to keep one's buttons and equipment polished. It seemed reasonable perhaps that soldiers who had to live under such conditions, who had to endure so much fatigue, hardship, and danger, should be allowed to take it a bit easy when in rest billets or when not on post in the fire trenches.

But this idea was short-lived. The officers found that men who did not keep clean, who did not keep shaved, who did not clean up their buttons, would not keep their equipment and weapons in good order; they became careless about keeping their shelters and trenches in repair. They got so that they found even the most necessary work unbearable, and their discipline began to suffer. They suffered more from the blues, from homesickness and depression. Consequently the old habits which had made the English soldier famous for his smartness were re-established.

It is a good thing to cultivate and foster cheerfulness in work. We are just beginning to understand that in our service. Dr. Cabot, from whose excellent work "What Men Live By" I venture to quote, says: "A few rare spirits . . can touch any dull job with a magic which turns it into sparkling play. . . . A blithe spirit pulls off all the work labels from monotonous tasks, . . . sticks play labels upon them all, and proceeds to make those titles good.

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Paderewski says that if he leaves off practicing for one day, he notices the effect in his playing; if he leaves it off for two days, his wife notices it; if he leaves it off for three days, his audience notices it. I think that a pretty good reminder to keep posted in quarters. It may serve as an incentive to keep the enemy from noticing any falling off in a number of things..

PERSEVERANCE AND FORCE OF CHARACTER

Often the temptation comes to let things go or to allow them to be done in a makeshift manner. I have seen noncommissioned officers who had the mistaken idea that this was

a way to be popular with the men. They lacked the moral courage to face unpleasant or difficult situations. This is exactly the wrong attitude for a leader. Nobody admires a weak character. The leader should never demand unnecessary exertion or sacrifice of his men; but he must have the strength of character to do his own duties thoroughly, to set the right example, and to require his subordinates to live up to the same principles. The men come to recognize the value of the calm, steady forcefulness that asks no more than it gives, and that stands for right conduct.

CO-ORDINATION

Psychologists will tell you that power of co-ordination, which means the power of regulating and combining thought and action into harmonious adjustment, is the highest exercise of man's mental processes. It is needed to get results in training. It enables the commander to divide his work into essential elements and desirable elements; to see that the essential elements are not neglected for something that is merely desirable; to eliminate non-essentials.

It should be exercised not only in one's particular sphere, but should be extended for the purpose of furthering co-operation with others whose activities are directed to the common goal. A certain famous surgeon said that no man in the medical profession should become a specialist until he had spent ten years studying anatomy and the general practice of medicine. An army officer may, in modern warfare, have to become a specialist very soon after receiving his commission, but he must always and continually study his profession from the point of view of co-ordination. He must know as much as possible about the other arms, their powers, their limitations. Only in this way will he fit himself to work to the best advantage in his own arm. The officers of one arm should cultivate and foster the spirit of comradeship and co-operation with those of other arms, learn all they can from them, study how to act in co-ordination with them.

TACT

Let us see what are some of the dictionary definitions of tact. It is: An intuitive sense of what is true, right, or proper; fineness of discernment as to action or conduct; sensitive mental perception of what is fit or considerate under given circumstances; peculiar ability to deal with others without giving offense; ability to do or say what is best for (i. e., to achieve or obtain) the intended effect.

In the new army tact will be peculiarly necessary. The leaders will be dealing with men of all degrees of intelligence and all kinds of temperaments. What will be most effective in dealing with one will be quite out of place with another. One man's mind will leap to meet yours and will seize your meaning before you have completed your statement; another's will be several laps behind. One will be quick in imitating or learning movements or in following mechanical demonstrations; another, extremely slow, clumsy, or awkward. One man will be sensitively organized and will feel more keenly a word or a glance than his neighbor will feel a reprimand or a punishment. One will see quickly the value of discipline and grasp at once the significance of obedience; another, who has never obeyed anybody in his life, will have trouble in learning this vital lesson. Each widely different case will need widely different treatment.

DISCIPLINE AND MORALE

What do we mean by discipline? It is worth while to study closely its elements.

One of the things we should put out of mind at the beginning is the idea, sometimes expressed by persons that do not .comprehend the meaning of the term, that discipline means punishment or humiliation. True discipline the kind we want and seek to establish in our service-is not obtained by punish ment; it is not based on fear; it has nothing to do with humili.ation.

Discipline, as we understand it in our service, means the highest and best development of the moral qualities; it is voluntary. Expressed briefly, discipline means team spirit, intelligent co-operation between military men.

By the morale of an army we mean its mental state. When we say that the morale of the troops is good, we mean that they are in good spirits, full of confidence in their leaders, full of

1918

confidence in themselves; that they have faith in the and expect to win. Morale is a vital force that wins quick

THE SPIRIT OF OBEDIENCE

Every man who has been in a panic, such as has theater fires, has realized that if the crowd had had a leade voice every member of it had been taught to obey and without question, a leader who could have co attention; and directed the action of the crowd, the tem sults of the panic which turned men into beasts, trampe another under foot, could have been avoided. The cro have been saved from itself and from the danger. When a ship has been torpedoed, and every fractic minute is precious, the value of obedience is striking trated. The value of skilled direction on the one hand unhesitating, unquestioning obedience on the other, the revealed in their true and mighty significance.

So it is in war. Instant obedience is the price of sues the team.

Obedience is the first law of the soldier; if a man e obey, he cannot be made into a soldier.

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There is no humility involved in obedience to one's The leader obeys his superiors, just as implicitly and tatingly as his men obey him. The spirit of obedience essence of team work.

COURTESY AND RESPECT

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The salute is said to have had its origin in the ancient among friendly armored knights of raising the visor meetings in order that each might see the face of the It was difficult to recognize a man incased, body and i th steel; then, too, the natural desire of men to look into th of a friend might have had something to do with the lo ning of the custom. The present-day raising of the hand head-dress is but a continuation of this old knightly e in it has remained as the form of greeting between militar av in all civilized armies-the greeting of friendly knights respects the other. No man who understands the digni the significance of the salute will want to avoid it or to sig performance of it. It conveys no idea of humility; it is ered erect, head up, eye to eye-the greeting of soldi symbol of mutual respect and comradeship.

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The approach of the leader does not of course always sa that he will have orders to issue, but it often does so and, as can readily be seen, time in moments of emergen priceless value. If the leader had always to resort to vari sundry measures to gain the attention of those to whom to give orders, very serious consequences might ensue. Th another important psychological reason for the habit of o to attention. It has already been pointed out that min muscles can be trained to make particular reactions in part situations. Now, in the roar and whiz of heavy proje the whistling of bullets—in all the dizzy excitement prod by the conditions of battle-men are likely to get out of ba become incapable of acting with any degree of co-ordinati calmness. Under such conditions some touchstone is ne some powerful antidote which the leader can oppose deadly, fast-spreading poison that has seized upon the br his men. He finds it in the word " Attention !"

In one case a unit was in grave danger; it was under a fire; the bullets were whistling and the shells exploding all it; the men were getting out of hand; demoralizationmeant certain destruction-was threatening. The leader manded: "Attention! Fall in! Dress!" exactly as if he forming his men for drill. The men instantly became co manageable. He formed them into squads, and moved the a new position with very little loss.

In another case an officer who saw that he must do somet

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to get his men back in hand remembered that he had a mera in his pocket. He commanded attention, ordered to stand in line, directed them not to move lest they ≈ picture, and calmly photographed them; he was then control their movements in the combat without further

difficulty. Miscellaneous directions shouted to them had not been sufficient to overcome their demoralization, but the magical power of the word "Attention!" coupled with the calm bravery of their leader, brought their minds back to the normal state and saved the situation.

rticle will be followed in a subsequent issue by another under the same general title and dealing with the principles of leadership

HATS

BY DOROTHY CANFIELD

Y attention was first attracted to him by the ring of his voice as he answered the question a woman near me put to him, amiably trying to start a conversation: "And ask, Mr. Williams, what are you in France for--Red or Y. M. C. A., or perhaps reconstruction work? I'm es myself. It's always interesting to know other people's ties. You often have so much in common. The only es I don't know anything about are orphans and the

his the distinguished-looking gray-haired man responded, y, "Madam, I am in France for hats." ats!" exclaimed the war worker. ats," he reaffirmed, quietly.

looked at him wildly and moved to another part of the towards a recognizably tagged young woman in a gray

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› timbre of his voice struck curiously on my ear. I cannot ss its quality other than to say that it made the voices of est of us sound like those of college professors and schoolers, and I don't pretend to know exactly what I mean by

aroused my curiosity. I wanted to investigate, so I began ng vague, letting my eyes wander, and answering at ranPresently the earnest talker holding forth to me grew nant at my lack of attention, broke off abruptly, and went . I turned to the man with the different voice and asked, at in the world makes you come to France for hats just in the midst of the war?"

answered, with instant decision, "Because the only hats buying are made in Paris."

Now? With France bleeding to death, how can they make invent new fashions?"

s eye kindled. "Madam, a good French modiste on her -bed could make a better hat than any one in New York could."

pondered this. His accent was indubitably American, not to New York: But there are cases of French people who have part of their childhood in the States who speak English ctly. "You must be at least partly of French extraction able so to understand and admire France," I ventured. e opposed a rather startled and very emphatic negative. ? Not much! I'm as American as they make 'em. Born wer Broadway and brought up in the New York public ols. I don't know anything about France except that we to come here to get the right styles in hats. I don't even k any French except to say "combien and enough to t."

was put off the scent entirely. "Oh, I thought from the you spoke that you knew France well. This is your first - then?"

e was silent a moment, making a mental calculation. Then aid: "This is my fifty-first visit to Paris. I have come twice ar for a little more than twenty-five years." Always for hats?" I queried, my imagination reeling at

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Always for hats," he said, seriously.

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tried to be facetious. Dear me! You must know all there - know about hats."

e shook his head. "Nobody knows anything about hats," added, very much in earnest. "Style is one of the great, ure mysteries of life."

his had always been one of my observations, but one I have

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petulantly and impatiently deplored. I had never thought to hear it expressed with such heartfelt gravity and weight by a man of such evident vigor of personality.

I said, laughing uneasily, "It makes one very self-conscious about one's own hat to know one's self in the presence of such a connoisseur."

He reassured me. "Oh, I never look at hats except in the way of business." In his turn he looked vague and let his eyes wander, evidently much bored with my remarks. In another moment he would have turned away, but just then an acquaintance came up to me, addressing me by name, and my new interlocutor broke in with quite a human eagerness, “Oh, are you Mr. John P. Hulme's niece?"

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"Why, do you know my Uncle John?" I cried, astonished. "He's one of the best business friends I have," he assured me, and I have often seen the picture of you and the children he has on his desk. You must let me go to see them. I've got grown-up children of my own. It will be a real treat to me to know some American children here."

In this casual manner, slipping in on the good graces of my little son and daughter, I entered a world the very existence of which I had never suspected, long and frequent as had been my sojourns in Paris-the world of hat-buyers. And I had for guide the very dean and master of the guild, to whom the younger aspirants looked up, whose sure, trained instinct was their despair and inspiration.

It was perhaps his influence dominating that circle which made them all so serious and intent on mastering their profession, so respectful of their chosen occupation, so willing to give it the very best of their judgment and taste. This was the more remarkable as, with the exception of my new friend, they were quite the opposite of serious-minded men and women, and, in the intervals of the exercise of their profession, enjoyed rather more than was good for their health, morals, and pocketbooks the multiple occasions offered by a great city to damage those possessions. I was not at all in sympathy with what seemed to me the indifference of their relaxations in a country so stricken as France; but I could not withhold my astonished admiration for the excellent seriousness with which they approached their business. I would have blushed to disclose to them the light, shallow femininity of my precious, rather slighting attitude towards la mode. Also I was amazed at the prodigious financial importance of their operations. The sums which without a blink they paid out for hats, and the number of hats they thus secured, and the further sums which they looked forward to paying into the coffers of the United States customs, sounded to me as unbelievable as those nightmare calculations as to the distance of the stars from the earth or how much it has cost to build the Panama Canal.

"All that for hats!" I cried; " and every year, twice a year!" "Oh, this is only the smallest part of what goes into hats," the expert assured me. hats," the expert assured me. "What I'm buying now are only single models, you understand. The successful ones, the wellchosen ones, will be copied by the hundred dozen in the States and in Canada. That chenille toque you saw me buy the other day-"

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That little, plain, ugly scrap of a thing you paid a hundred dollars for ?" I asked, giddy again with the remembered shock of that price.

"Yes. Well, probably that will be very widely copied ; at first in New York, and then everywhere. It's a fair guess to say, that being a model that's sure to be popular, that there will be at

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