That， too， was one of the secrets of Theodore Roosevelt’sastonishing popularity. Even his servants loved him. His valet，James E. Amos， wrote a book about him entitled TheodoreRoosevelt， Hero to His Valet. In that book Amos relates thisilluminating incident：
My wife one time asked the President about a bobwhite. Shehad never seen one and he described it to her fully. Sometimelater， the telephone at our cottage rang. [Amos and his wife livedin a little cottage on the Roosevelt estate at Oyster Bay.] My wifeanswered it and it was Mr. Roosevelt himself. He had called her，he said， to tell her that there was a bobwhite outside her window and that if she would look out she might see it. Little things likethat were so characteristic of him. Whenever he went by ourcottage， even though we were out of sight， we would hear himcall out： “Oo-oo-oo， Annie？” or “Oo-oo-oo， James！” It was just afriendly greeting as he went by.
How could employees keep from liking a man like that？ Howcould anyone keep from liking him？
Roosevelt called at the White House one day when thePresident and Mrs. Taft were away. His honest liking for humblepeople was shown by the fact that he greeted all the old WhiteHouse servants by name， even the scullery maids.
“When he saw Alice， the kitchen maid，” writes Archie Butt，“he asked her if she still made corn bread. Alice told him that shesometimes made it for the servants， but no one ate it upstairs.
“‘They show bad taste，’ Roosevelt boomed，‘and I’ll tell thePresident so when I see him.’
“Alice brought a piece to him on a plate， and he went over tothe office eating it as he went and greeting gardeners and laborersas he passed...
“He addressed each person just as he had addressed themin the past. Ike Hoover， who had been head usher at the WhiteHouse for forty years， said with tears in his eyes：‘It is the onlyhappy day we had in nearly two years， and not one of us wouldexchange it for a hundred-dollar bill.’ ”
The same concern for the seemingly unimportant peoplehelped sales representative Edward M. Sykes， Jr.， of Chatham，New Jersey， retain an account. “Many years ago，” he reported，“I called on customers for Johnson and Johnson in theMassachusetts area. One account was a drug store in Hingham.
Whenever I went into this store I would always talk to the sodaclerk and sales clerk for a few minutes before talking to the owner to obtain his order. One day I went up to the owner of the store，and he told me to leave as he was not interested in buying J&Jproducts anymore because he felt they were concentrating theiractivities on food and discount stores to the detriment of thesmall drugstore. I left with my tail between my legs and drovearound the town for several hours. Finally， I decided to go backand try at least to explain our position to the owner of the store.
“When I returned I walked in and as usual said hello to thesoda clerk and sales clerk. When I walked up to the owner， hesmiled at me and welcomed me back. He then gave me doublethe usual order， I looked at him with surprise and asked himwhat had happened since my visit only a few hours earlier. Hepointed to the young man at the soda fountain and said that afterI had left， the boy had come over and said that I was one of thefew salespeople that called on the store that even bothered tosay hello to him and to the others in the store. He told the ownerthat if any salesperson deserved his business， it was I. The owneragreed and remained a loyal customer. I never forgot that to begenuinely interested in other people is a most important qualityfor a sales-person to possess—for any person， for that matter.”
I have discovered from personal experience that one can winthe attention and time and cooperation of even the most soughtafterpeople by becoming genuinely interested in them. Let meillustrate.
Years ago I conducted a course in fiction writing at the BrooklynInstitute of Arts and Sciences， and we wanted such distinguishedand busy authors as Kathleen Norris， Fannie Hurst， Ida Tarbell，Albert Payson Terhune and Rupert Hughes to come to Brooklynand give us the benefit of their experiences. So we wrote them，saying we admired their work and were deeply interested ingetting their advice and learning the secrets of their success.
Each of these letters was signed by about a hundred and fiftystudents. We said we realized that these authors were busy—toobusy to prepare a lecture. So we enclosed a list of questions forthem to answer about themselves and their methods of work.
They liked that. Who wouldn’t like it？ So they left their homesand traveled to Brooklyn to give us a helping hand.
By using the same method， I persuaded Leslie M. Shaw，secretary of the treasury in Theodore Roosevelt’s cabinet； George W.Wickersham， attorney general in Taft’s cabinet； William JenningsBryan； Franklin D. Roosevelt and many other prominent men tocome to talk to the students of my courses in public speaking.
If we want to make friends， let’s put ourselves out to do thingsfor other people—things that require time， energy， unselfishnessand thoughtfulness. When the Duke of Windsor was Prince ofWales， he was scheduled to tour South America， and before hestarted out on that tour he spent months studying Spanish so thathe could make public talks in the language of the country； and theSouth Americans loved him for it.
For years I made it a point to find out the birthdays of myfriends. How？ Although I haven’t the foggiest bit of faith inastrology， I began by asking the other party whether he believedthe date of one’s birth has anything to do with character anddisposition. I then asked him or her to tell me the month and dayof birth. I wrote down the name and birthday and later wouldtransfer it to a birthday book. What a hit it made！ I was frequentlythe only person on earth who remembered.