Previous inquiry had elicited the information that the members of the firm were very busy with various large orders, in addition to the rush of work on the “Columbia” and the “Defender”; so it was a very agreeable surprise when I was invited into the tasteful private office, where the blind president sat, having just concluded a short conversation with an attorney. “Well, sir,” said he, rising and grasping my hand cordially, “what do you wish?” “I realize how very busy you must be, Mr. Herreshoff,” I replied, “and will try to be as brief as possible; but I venture to ask a few minutes of your valuable time, with a view to obtaining suggestions and advice from you to young men and women at the threshold of their careers.” “But why select me, in particular, as an adviser?” This was “a poser,” at first, especially when he added, noting my hesitation: LET THE WORK SHOW. “We are very frequently requested to give interviews in regard to our manufacturing business; but, as it is the settled policy of our house to simply do our work just as well as we possibly can, and then leave it to speak for itself, we have felt obliged to decline all these requests. We have a very pleasant feeling toward the papers and their representatives, for they have treated us very kindly; but it would be repugnant to our sense of propriety to talk in public about our special industry. ‘Let the work show!’ seems to us a good motto.” “True,” said I. “But the majority of my readers may not care to hear of cutters or ‘skimming dishes,’ center-boards or fin keels, or copper coils _versus_ steel tubes for boilers. They are willing to leave the choice in such matters to you, realizing that you have always proved equal to the situation. What I want now is advice in regard to the great international human race—the race of life—the voyage in which each must be his own captain, but in which the words of others who have successfully sailed the sea before will help to avoid rocks and shoals, and to profit by favoring currents and trade winds. You have been handicapped in an unusual degree, sailing in total darkness and beset by many other difficulties, but have, nevertheless, made a very prosperous voyage. In overcoming such serious obstacles you must have learned much of the true philosophy of both success and failure, and I think you will be willing, like so many other eminent men and women, to help the young with suggestions drawn from your experience.” “I always want to help young people, or old people, either, for that matter, if anything I can say will do so. But what can I say?” “What do you call the prime requisite of success?” “I shall have to answer that by a somewhat humorous but very shrewd suggestion of another—select a good mother. Especially for boys, I consider an intelligent, affectionate but considerate mother an almost indispensable requisite to the highest success. If you would improve the rising generation to the utmost, appeal first to the mothers.”