Ralph Parlette

              About Ralph Parlette





Richard Mansfield 23






Reproduction of a Painting by Richard Mansfield





Ralph Parlette
 
Author · Editor · Lecturer







Compiled and Published by
 
PARLETTE-PADGET COMPANY WILLIAM PADGET
, 
President
 122 S. Michigan Ave. 
CHICAGO







After trying for days to write about Ralph Parlette from impressions, the compiler of this book asked Mr. Parlette to jot down some of his life's experiences, and this is what he got:





How Ralph Parlette's Lecture Work Started



I WAS janitor in the public school where I attended, I swept the room and built the fire for 5 cents a day.  I worked my way thru college after that.  I am as proud of it now as I was ashamed of it then.  I am not advising anybody else to do it just as I did it, for it calls for a tough hide.




I always dreamed of being a printer and a writer.  That started me as 'devil' in the home printshop at a dollar a week.  That enabled me to become editor after-while.  I began to write pieces for the paper that I signed 'Honest John.'  The stuff was supposed to be humorous and philosophical.  It contained my views of life and many laughed thereat.  Some of the people written about wanted to lick the writer, so I didn't divulge and they didn't know whom to lick, the K. K. K. not then being reincarnated.





My Platform Debut



The 'Honest John' stuff got widely read, and other papers began reprinting it.  The home town college needed money for a 'doings' and they decided to offer me up.  The committee advertised that 'Honest John' would make his public debut one night in June, and give a lecture, admission ten cents, for the college







J L HARMAN 
PRESIOENT


J MURRAY HILL, 
VICE PRESIDENT


W S ASHBY, 
BUBINESS MANAGER



 THE EMBLEM OF THE EFFICIENT SCHOOL




BOWLING GREEN BUSINESS UNIVERSITY
BOWLING GREEN, KY.

August 10, 1922.



Mr. William Padgett, 122 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill.




Dear Mr. Padgett:




The Bowling Green Business University features its commencements probably above all its other annual events and for twelve to fifteen years we have been engaging the best known men in America to deliver the commencement addresses.




This year we had Mr. Ralph Parlette with us, who spoke on the subject of 
The University of Hard Knocks
 Statesmen frequently discuss subjects in which young men and women have no particular interest but Mr. Parlette dealt with life—with young life—and his address can never die.  I think he is one of the best commencement speakers I have over heard because he addresses himself in a unique way to the things young people ought to know.  We were pleased with his delivery, his thought and his personality and we are very grateful to have had him with us.




Respectfully yours,
J. L. Harman.








'doings.'  That night 900 people attended, that being all the college hall would let in, while others stood outside.  A great many had various weapons because of their memories.




I escaped with a whole hide, and nobody asked for his dime back.




I didn't have the slightest idea what a lecture should be.  But I fixed up a sort of monolog-patter about a string of big pictures that I had painted on about 1,000 feet of white paper sheets pasted together.  I think this was the start of the moving picture business.  I had the film rolled upon an upright turning stick at one side, and the other end of the film carried across a ten-foot frame and attached to another turning upright, with a crank at the bottom, so that when the crank was turned the film would travel across and wind up on this crankupright.  I had a man sit at the crank-side, and had a rope tied to him, holding the other end as I stood off to one side.  I would pull the rope, which would yank the man in full view of the audience, and he would crank across the next picture.




When the curtain went up and the indignation died down, I explained to the 900 people that I would now exhibit my Roller-crank-o-graph.  I would lecture some and then pull the rope and as the next picture came on I would lecture some more.  The cranker went to sleep sometimes and I had to yank a great deal, which made the audience laugh.  The pictures were local scenes and cartoons of citizens and professors, and intimate glimpses of skeletons in a lot of social, religious and





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GENERAL SECRETARY


EXECUTIVE BOARD


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Advertising-Selling League of Omaha



THE LARGEST CLUB OF ITS KIND IN THE WORLD MEMSERSHIP TWELVE HUNDRED




September Fifteenth
1923




Mr. Ralph Parlette, Parlette-Padget Company, 122 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.




My dear Mr. Parlette:




I have been holding your check hoping that I would get a chance to write you a letter telling you about the wonderful impression your message made on your audience last Monday night.




Now it is Saturday afternoon so I am going to send the check along today and will write you a letter next week.




The opening meeting was a grand success, went over just like we had planned.  You made an ideal opening address.




With best regards, Sincerely yours,
ADVERTISING-SELLING LEAGUE FOMalm General Secretary




FOM:RC






political closets of the community.  Some of the audience didn't laugh, feeling wrath inside.  But those who weren't in the picture would cheer wildly, their turn for wrath coming in the next picture, perhaps.




They gave me an ovation at the end, which was cheaper than a fee.





The Lecturing Spread



I was so ashamed of myself for all that showing-off that I went up the alley to the printshop for about a week.  Also there were citizens I was not sure about.




Then letters began to come from towns where students lived, asking me to come and irritate their community that way.  I had to get some new speeches.  And I went out.  O, say, I learned what every home-talenter learns—that the foreign audience doesn't cheer like the sympathetic home-bunch.  But it pays real money, and the home-bunch gives a vote of thanks.




I got to going 100 miles and maybe getting $5.  The committee thought it was an awful lot to give me.  But they got an awful lecture.




I never got back to the printshop after that.  The people kept inviting me farther and farther until I got to Maine and California.  I learned to talk two or three hours.  That is why I didn't say much, there being too many words in the road.  Now I am learning to talk thirty minutes and can say more things because of not having to say so many words.




I found out that audiences are made up of pints and quarts and gallons.  Mainly pints, and they fill up in






MINNEAPOLIS CHAPTER, Inc. AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF BANKING SECTION OF AMERICAN BANKERS ASSOCIATION



 CHAPTER




OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE





L. A. DYREGROV, President


First National Bank




A. H. JOHANNSEN, 1st Vice-President


Northwestern National Bank




S. P. MARTIN, 2nd Vice-President


Farmers and Mechanics Sav. Bank




CLARENCE GADNEY, Secretary


First National Bank




W. S. LEE, Treasurer


Wells-Dickey Trust Co.




S. L. ALLEN


Federal Reserve Bank




PAUL BRICK


Northwestern National Bank




THEO. J. HAAS


Metropolitan National Bank




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Northwestern National Bank




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First National Bank




WM. A. KRAMER


Farmers and Mechanics Sav. Bank




JOSEPH H. PERSON


Federal Reserve Bank




HARRY H. SIVRIGHT


Northwestern National Bank




L. L. D. STARK


Midland National Bank




R. S. STEBBINS


Union State Bank







September 7th, 1923




Mr. William Padget, Pres., Parlette-Padget Company 122 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill.




My dear Mr. Padget:




It is a pleasure for me to tell you that we appreciated the opportunity we had last June of listening to Mr. Parlette.  I think our Annual Banquet at which he appeared this year was by far one of the most successful we had, due very largely to the inspirational talk which he gave us.




It is now sometimes since his appearance, yet almost every day I am reminded by some member of our organization of his talk on Human Nature and the illustration he used to visualize it, namely 
the big nuts and the little beans.




Many members of our organization have read several of Mr. Parlette's books, and it seems the more they read of them the more they want to read.  To make a long story short, I am sure that Mr. Parlette can deliver a message that will benefit bank employees in any part of the country, and personally, I shall be very pleased indeed to recommend him at every opportunity.




Yours most sincerely,
LADyregrov President.




LAD/HH






twenty or thirty minutes.  A man's worst enemy is that gallon-fellow who comes up afterwards and says, 'I could have listened to you for two hours more.'  But all the pints were already slopping over.




The lecture work grew all over the United States and Canada, managed by a lot of good bureaus.  The bureaus and audiences were always fine to me.  I don't see how the audiences stood it so well.




I never lectured in Mexico.  No doubt many wished I would go there and lecture, Mexico needing punishment; but I never got invited.  Mexico never wanted my lectures, but did want my money.  Nobody ever knew how many gold and silver mines in Mexico I invested in.  Nobody ever will know, if I can keep my 'fool drawer' of my desk locked.  I don't know where are either the mines or the money since the revolutions.  My money went down and never came up, likely being asphyxiated.  At any rate there was gas about the propositions somewhere.




My first lecture was 'Looking Backward,' but soon I got to looking forward instead.  Then I lectured on 'Sunshine and Moonshine,' but this subject would be suspicioned to-day, tho there was much kick in it then.  'Living and Laughing,' 'Twice-thunk Thoughts,' 'Millionaires,' 'Weighed in the Balances' and more such efforts followed.  I set out with a lot of reform lectures once, but didn't get anywhere, because I wanted to reform the other fellow, and do it with a club.




One day I heard Mark Hanna in a speech say, 'I am a graduate of the university of hard knocks.'  I was





MORRIS WISNER LEE

Advertising
 220 So Michigan Ave Chicago



January 25th, 1923




Parlette-Padget Company, 122 South Michigan Ave., Chicago, Illinois.




Gentlemen:-




I want you to know that we were very much pleased with Mr. Parlette's talk at the Armour Alumni Association dinner given last night at the University Club.  His humor, philosophy and sincerity seemed to touch a responsive chord in the men.  His remarks were at the same time amusing and instructive, and I feel he left a lasting impress for good upon his audience.




Sincerely yours,
 Lee President, A.I.T.Alumni Association.






thrilled.  That is my school, and I am going to lecture about it.  I sat a few days in Goodale Park, Columbus, Ohio, making a lecture on 'The University of Hard Knocks,' and have had the time of my life for twenty years lecturing about it.  I reckon I have made about twenty lectures on that subject and haven't scraped the surface.  It's the biggest mine since Calumet, and everybody sympathizes, being in it, too.




Then I hit on 'Pockets and Paradises,' 'Hurrahs and Heroes,' 'Big Business,' 'Why I Quit Lying' (The humor test of committeemen is what they say when I suggest that subject) and others.  But why bother with all this?




I have lately had a lot of fun lecturing upon such business, industrial and inspirational subjects as 'The Best Is Yet To Come—Go on South,' 'It's Up To You' (using the jar of beans and nuts), 'Swat the Snake!' (using the films), 'The Financial Shepherd and His Sheep,' 'Go-Getters and Go-Givers,' and such.  Critics have suffered at my use of such 'intelligence insulting' demonstrations as the jar of beans and nuts, the flash-light, the films, etc., but I have discovered that such illustrations 'stick,' and the simpler and truer they are the longer and better they stick.  I do love to 'insult intelligence.'  It makes a higher grade of intelligence—more like 'becoming as a little child.'







ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT 
AMERICAN STEEL & WIRE COMPANY
 WESTERN RESERVE BUILDING 
CLEVELAND, OHIO




CUYAHOGA WORKS, 10/26/22.




Mr Ralph Parlette, Editor, Lyceum Magazine, Peoples' Gas Bldg., Chicago, Ill.




Dear Sir:-




Our members are very desirous of hearing you in the near future and for this purpose I am writing you to ascertain if we can arrange a date on January 6th, or as close thereto as your engagements will permit.




Will you kindly answer at your earliest convenience, stating the amount we would be indebted to you for a lecture?




We have in mind having you repeate the same talk you gave before the Industrial Association early this month.




Yours truly
American Steel & Wire Club, J.E. Kelley Chairman, Entertainment Committee.



Address c/o 
Cuyahoga Works



JEK*LZ



Note- This is the Club, before which you talked on April 12(th) 1922 - at our American Works.





Ralph Parlette's Way of Lecturing



W
HEN asked how he put his lectures across Mr. Parlette answered:




You read about brilliant orators and kings of the platform.  I am glad for all of them.  I do love to hear a silver-tongued orator and a king of the platform.  And there are so many to hear.




I am no brilliant orator nor king of the platform.  I wish I were.  I am a mighty poor speaker.  I am generally scared stiff.  The smaller the audience the bigger my scare.  I have to get desperate to speak.  I once took lessons in elocution and gesturing and voice-control, but you can't notice it any more.




They say I am a funny man, a comedian or a humorist.  People often engage me to come and 'entertain' them.  I can't.  I don't know what a humorist is.  When I want people to laugh they won't.  When I don't want them to laugh they generally do.  When I try to say a funny thing the audience receives it in solemn silence.  I had cracked my ribs in my room about that.  'That'll knock 'em cold.'  It always does knock 'em cold, when I shoot it.  They rarely thaw.




But I'll tell you what I always try to do on the platform.  I try to say things that I believe as I believe my own life.  True things.  Fundamental things.  Optimistic things.  I do believe in everybody, believe there is success and happiness just as much for one as





Michigan Building and Joan Association League



THE AMERICAN HOME THE SAFEGUARD OF AMERICAN LIBERTIES.




EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE





D. A. LEONARD ALSION


PRESIDENT




CHAS E. KEAN PT HURON


V PRESIDENT




IRVING B. RICH JACKSON


SECRETARY




FRED M. PHELPS ADRIAN


TREASURER




WM  SAGENDORPH


JACKSON




WM K. PECK


KALAMAZOO




FRANK B. MC KIBBIN


LANSING







LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE





FRED JEROME


SAGINAW




WM C. SHEPPARD


GRAND RAPIDS




ISAAC W. BYERS


IRON RIVER




WM H. PECK


KALAMAZOO




IRVING B. RICH


JACKSON







PUBLICITY COMMITTEE





FRANK B. MC KIBBIN


LANSING




CHAS E. KEAN


PT HURON




E. B. SAGENDORPH


JACKSON




CHAS N. REMINGTON


GD RAPIDS







Jackson, Oct. 12, 1923




Parlette-Padget Co.




Chicago




Gentlemen:




Herewith check covering the Grand Rapids meeting.




The convention was a success and the members were more than pleased with the Parlette lecture.




Thanking you for the interest manifested and Mr. Parlette for the very able address, I remain




Yours very truly
IrvingBRich Secretary






for another, and believe that our troubles and bumps only help us to be wiser and happier when we learn the lessons of them.  I believe today is better than yesterday and that tomorrow will be better than today.  I believe in going on to better things in life.  I believe the best is yet to come in everybody's life.  I believe in strength from struggle.  And as I try to say these things—usually with some picture to make it stick, a jar of beans, a flashlight, a bunch of films—I find the people get interested and they remember what I tried to say.




Usually they gasp when they see me come on the platform.  I am not pretty nor graceful.  After five or ten minutes they begin to think better of me.  They may not be a whole lot impressed with what I say; as they go home, they don't give me any ovations, nor curtain-calls.  I am no matinee hero.  I wish I were!  But next day they think better of it.  Next week they may still be thinking about it.  After awhile they like me better; I believe I say things that stick, for they often invite me back.






SPOKANE GHAMBER OF COMMERCE SPOKANE, WASHINGTON



COLUMBIA BASIN IRRIGATION PROJECT WILL IRRIGATE 1,753.000 ACRES WILL PROVIDE $240.000,000 OF WEALTH ANNUALLY WILL SUPPORT 500.000 PEOPLE




OFFICERS





ROY R. GILL


PRESIDENT




R. R. ROGERS


FIRST VICE PRESIDENT




W. D. VINCENT


TREASURER




J. A. FORD


MANAGING SECRETARY







EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE





GEO. W. DODDS


CHARLES HEBBERD




R. INSINGER


BEN C. HOLT




F. T. McCOLLOUGH


THADDEUS S. LANE




R. R. ROGERS


W. D. VINCENT







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DR X. L. ANTHONY
OCULIST


M. B. CONNELLY
PRESIDENT THE WASHINGTON TRUST CO.


W. H. COWLES
PUBLISHER THE SPOKESMAN REVIEW


L. M. DAVENPORT
PRESIDENT DAVENPORT HOTEL CO.


GEO W DODDS
MANAGING EDITOR SPOKESMAN REVIEW


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MERCHANT AND CLOTHING MANUFACTURER


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SEC'Y TREAS CLEARWATER TIMBER CO.


EARL C. FINLAY
PRES. FINLAY STUDEBAKER CO.


F. J. FINUCANE
PRES. HOLLEY-MASON HARDWARE CO.


E. E. FLOOD
VICE PRES. EXCHANGE NATIONAL BANK


A. B. FOSSEEN
PRES. MAN. WASH. BRICK LIME & S P CO.


LEONARD FUNK
CITY COMMISSIONER


ROY R. GILL
VICE PRES. A MGR. HOLLEY-MASON HDW. CO.


RALPH S. GORDON
VICE PRES B. L. GORDON & CO.


THOS. S. GRIFFITH
PROP OLEN TANA FARM


CHARLES HEBBERO
SECY-TREAS-MGR, TULL & GIBBS. INC.


BEN C. HOLT
PRESIDENT, NORTHWEST MARVESTER CO.


D. L. HUNTINGTON
PRES, WASHINGTON WATER POWER CO.


R. INSINGER
MGR. N. WESTERN & PAC. HYPOTHEEKBANK


B. H. KIZER
GRAVES, KIZER & GRAVES LAWYERS


FRED E. KRAUSE
PRESIDENT TRU-BLU GISCUIT CO.


THADDEUS S. LANE
PRES. LANE INVESTMENT CO.


SYDNEY S. McCLINTOCK
SEC'Y, MECLINTOCK-TRUNKEY CO.


F. T. McCOLLOUGH
SECY-TRERAS. CRYSTAL LAUNDRY CO.


J. K. McCORNACK
PRESIDENT, UNION SECURITIES CO.


W. S. McCREA
McCREA & MERRYWEATHER


JAMES L. PAINE
VICE-PRES, SPOKANE DRY GOODS CO.


WALDO G. PAINE
VICE-PRES, TRAFFIC MON 1, E R R CO.


R. B. PATERSON
PRESIDENT, SPOKANE DRY GOODS CO.


GEORGE A. PHILLIPS
PALACE DEPARTMENT STORE


JAMES S. RAMAGE
PRESIDENT CONTINENTAL COAL CO.


JOHN H. ROBERTS
GEN. AGENT. OREGON LIFE INS. CO.


R. R. ROGERS
PRESIDENT VERMONT LOAN A TRUST CO.


FRANK M. SMITH
DIRECTOR. BUNKER HILL SMELTER


FRANK SWEENY
INVESTMENTS


R. K. TIFFANY
PROJECT MGR SPOKANE V. L. & W. CO.





January 18, 1923




Mr. Ralph Parlette 122 South Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois




Dear Mr. Parlette:




We greatly appreciated your splendid address at the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce.  I have had congratulations on it from scores of members who regarded it as one of the best that has ever been delivered to the Chamber of Commerce and we have had some very good speakers, I can tell you.




The interesting and very human way that you have of presenting your subject cannot help but make an appeal and drive home a civic lesson that will not soon be forgotten.  More Chambers of Commerce should hear that address and I hope you will receive calls from many similar organizations.




I have a very wide acquaintance among the commercial organization secretaries and would be mighty pleased to have you refer any of them to me at any time as I feel that I would be doing them a real favor in helping them select the kind of a speaker that commercial organizations are on the hunt for — a speaker who can awaken the civic consciousness without tiring and wearing out his audience.  I do not think a single person left our banquet room while you were speaking.




As I told you over the phone, one of the things I most appreciate was the opportunity it afforded me to make your acquaintance.  I appreciate that and I value it and I hope it will be only the beginning of a long friendship.  If I can ever be of service to you in any way, do not hesitate to call upon me.




I am attaching hereto a copy of the letter I am sending today to Robert B. Beach of the Chicago Association of Commerce.




With all kinds of good wishes, I am




Sincerely yours
JAFord Managing Secretary




JAF:M






Some of Parlette's Recent Engagements
Spokane Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner



THE Spokane Chamber of Commerce is one of the largest and most influential business organizations of the West.  They make a great feature of their Annual Dinner, and for that occasion January 16, 1923, they asked the Chicago Chamber of Commerce to recommend a speaker who could give them a real message in entertaining form in thirty minutes.  The Chicago Chamber of Commerce recommended Ralph Parlette.  The dinner was attended by 1,200 leading citizens and by representatives of forty adjoining cities and towns.  Ralph Parlette's address on 
Swat the Snake!
—an appeal for all people to cooperate for each other's welfare, was the outstanding feature of a most elaborate program, and an ovation greeted him at the close.  The Spokane Chamber thanked the Chicago Chamber of Commerce for sending him, and Secretary J. A. Ford's letter said in part:




We greatly appreciated your splendid address at the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce.  I have had congratulations on it from scores of members who regarded it as one of the best that has ever been delivered to the Chamber of Commerce and we have had some very good speakers, I can tell you.




So impressed with the importance of Parlette's message, 
Swat the Snake!
  was the Spokane and Eastern Trust Company, that the next day this great financial institution gathered its force of workers together and had him





THE INDIANA BANKERS ASSOCIATION



PRESIDENT
, C. D. BILLINGS 
PRESIDENT FIRST NATIONAL BANK SEYMOUR


VICE-PRESIDENT
, CLAUDE S. KITTERMAN 
PRESIDENT FIRST NATIONAL BANK CAMBRIDGE CITY


SECRETARY
, ANDREW SMITH 
VICE-PRESIDENT INDIANA NATIONAL, BANK INDIANAPOLIS




COUNSEL
, JONES, HAMMOND & JONES 308 
ODD FELLOW BUILDING INDIANAPOLIS




310 Odd Fellow Building




INDIANAPOLIS




TREASURER
, P. H. McCORMICK

VICE-PRESIDENT FIRST STATE BANK NORTH JUDSON




Parlette-Padget Company, 122 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Ill.




SEPTEMBER 26, 1922




Gentlemen:




I beg to advise you that we were greatly pleased with the address of Mr. Ralph Parlette at our.  Convention in this city September 14th.




Mr. Parlette abundantly fulfilled our expectations.  His address was greatly enjoyed by all present.  I heard some of our members say that it was the best address of the meeting.  It was the kind of an address that I greatly enjoy bringing to our members.  Mr. Parlette gave them something to think about.  He also amused them with this many funny stories and witty remarks.




I would not hesitate to recommend Mr. Parlette to any of my brother Secretaries over the United States.  He will certainly do more than his part to make their conventions a success.




It gives me much pleasure to say to you that we were more than pleased with Mr. Parlette and wish we might be able to have him again next year.




Wishing him continued success and prosperity, I beg to remain




Yours very truly,
Andrew Smith SECRETARY






deliver the same address to them.  Treasurer E. V. Klein said of it:




We appreciated the excellent talk Mr. Parlette gave us.  He is a gentleman worth while and drives his ideas home.  We shall be delighted to have him talk to our employees again in July when he comes through, and will count on it if he can spare the time.




When Mr. Parlette went West in July to address the National Convention of Building and Loan Associations held in Tacoma, he talked again to the Spokane and Eastern Trust Company people, this time giving them, 
It's Up to You!—Are You Shaking Up Or Rattling Down?
, using his famous jar of 
beans and nuts.





Indiana Bankers Association Convention



ADISTRICT bankers' association was so pleased with Ralph Parlette's address, 
The Salvation of a Sucker,
 his story of his foolish investments, at its meeting, that the Indiana State Bankers Association engaged him to address its annual convention September 14, 1922.  Ralph Parlette spoke on a program of financial leaders headed by Comptroller Crissenger, on 
The Financial Shepherd and His Sheep,
 an appeal for the bankers to keep close to the common people and teach them right finance.  Secretary Andrew Smith, many years the secretary of the Indiana Bankers Association, wrote of the address:




Mr. Parlette abundantly fulfilled our expectations.  His address was greatly enjoyed by all present.  I heard some of our members say that it was the best address of the meeting.  It was the kind of an address that I greatly enjoy bringing to our members.  Mr. Parlette gave them something to think about.  He also amused them with his many funny stories and witty remarks.





CO-OPERATIVE EXTENSION WORK



IN AGRICULTURE AND HOME ECONOMICS STATE OF INDIANA




OFFICE DAYS: SATURDAYS AND MONDAYS OFFICE PHONE 52




PURDUE UNIVERSITY AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION DEPARTMENT, AND U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, CARROLL COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION AND CARROLL COUNTY FARMERS ASSOCIATION, CO. OPERATING.




EXTENSION SERVICE, COUNTY AGENT WORK DELPHI, INDIANA




Aug. 25, 1923.




Mr. Ralph Parlette, 122 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Illinois.




Dear Mr. Parlette:




You made some folks smile in this community who have not wrinkled their faces in a good many months.  You were the first speaker to address an audience of farmers in this County since I have been working here who has pictured anything other than the gloomiest prospect for the man on the farm.  Our people greatly appreciated the excellent talk which you gave them and hope that they may have the privilege of hearing you again at some future time.




You scored a home run when you called the woman with the thirteen children and the other lady, 'just girls'




Thanking you for your good work in our community, and with best wishes, I am,




Very truly yours,
H. E. Ackerson County Agent.




HEA:MM






Among the numerous requests this address brought for Mr. Parlette to speak elsewhere came one from the Extension Service of Carroll County, Indiana, urging Mr. Parlette to come and speak to about 2,000 farmers on Farmers' Day in the afternoon.  We replied that perhaps they would better get someone to address this gathering of farmers who was closer to the farming situation.  The committee then appealed to a number of the bankers in surrounding towns and cities and Mr. Parlette received a number of letters from bankers who had heard him at Indianapolis urging him to go and address this farmers' meeting.  So August 22, 1923, after a trip to the west coast and back around by the southern route on which trip he made a point to interview many farmers, farm editors and authorities on farming, he did speak to this mass meeting of farmers and a facsimile of a letter from H. E. Ackerson, county agent, printed on another page of this book tells of the impression made on the audience.






REPRESENTING EMPLOYERS



A. C. BROWN

BROWN HOISTING MACHINERY CO.


H. B. BOLE

THE HYDRAULIC STEEL CO.


CHESTER K. BROOKS

NATIONAL MALLEABLE CASTINGS CO.


GEORGE E. CARROTHERS

BOARD OF EDUCATION


SHELDON CARY

THE BROWNING CO.


H. N. CLARKE

THE CORTE-SCOPE CO


WILLIAM C. DUNLAP

THE AMERICAN MULTIGRAPH CO.


F. G. HODELL

THE CHAIN PRODUCTS CO.


EDWARD S. JORDAN

THE JORDAN MOTOR CAR CO.


JAMES R. MILLS

THE CARNEGIE STEEL CO.


E. E. NOBLE

CLEVELAND ELECTRIC ILLUMIN. CO


H. D. NORTH

FERRY CAP
 & 
SET SCREW CO.


FRANK V. REID

THE GRASSELLI CHEMICAL CO.


H. A. ROCK

THE VAN DORN IRON WORKS CO.


K. E. ROOF

THE WILLARD STORAGE BATTERY CO


ASA SHIVERICK

THE  CO


SAMUEL SCOVIL

THE CLEVELAND COMMERCIAL


VICTOR SINCERE

THE BAILEY CO.


L. B. STAUFFER

THE WARNER
 & 
SWASEY CO.


ALLARD SMITH

THE UNION TRUST CO.


GEORGE T. TRUNDLE, 
JR.
TRUNDLE ENGINEERING CO.





REPRESENTING EMPLOYES



LAURETTA BEAN

INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION OF OHIO


WM. L. CONNOR

LONGWOOD COM. HIGH SCHOOL


ALEXANDER DENHOLM

LAKEWOOD ENGINEERING CO.


E. J. DUNLAP

THE NATIONAL CARBON CO.


OSCAR FRIEDMAN

FREIDMAN-BLAU-FARBER CO.


MARY B. GILSON

THE JOSEPH
 & 
FEISS CO.


E. W. GLOR

STRONG. CARLISLE
 & 
HAMMOND CO


D. C. HARRIS

THE BROWNING CO


L. J. HENGESBACH

THE VAN DORN  TOOL CO


ROBERT HOPE

PERFECTION SPRING CO.


W. B. McCANN

THE BROWN HOISTING MACH. CO.


MAURICE M. MIGNARD

WARDEN
 & 

T. C. OBERLE

THE HIGBEE CO.


F. A. OLMSTEAD

THE CHAIN PRODUCTS CO.


GEORGE RAU
G. C. 
KUHLMAN CAR CO.


ERNEST SCHAEFER

GUSTAV SCHAEFER WAGON CO.


C. F. STOCKING

GRANT MOTOR CAR CORPORATION


GEORGE H. THOMPSON

CLEVELAND METAL STAMPING CO


J. H. WILLIAMS

AMERICAN STEEL
 & 
WIRE CO.


W. A. WOOD

THE CRAIG-CURTIS CO.


R. T. WOOD

THE SHOE SYSTEM SHOP


LAWRENCE ZAMPOL

CLEVELAND PLASTER CO.





INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION OF CLEVELAND



AN ALLIANCE OF CLEVELAND EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYES TO DEVELOP RIGHT RELATIONS IN INDUSTRY




OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE



L. J. HENGESBACH, 
PRESIDENT
THE VAN DORN ELECTRIC TOOL CO.


CHARLES M. NEWCOMB

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY


F. A. OLMSTEAD. 
TREASURER
THE CHAIN PRODUCTS CO.


H. B. BOLE

THE HYDRAULIC STEEL CO


HARRY N. CLARKE, 
VICE-PRESIDENT
THE CORTE-SCOPE CO.


W. B. McCANN, 
VICE-PRESIDENT
THE BROWN HOISTING MACH, CO.


ASA SHIVERICK

THE HIGBEE CO.


ALLARD SMITH

THE UNION TRUST CO.





MAIN 133




W. B. DAVIS BUILDING
335 
EUCLID AVENUE

CLEVELAND, OHIO




J. P. PATTERSON

COUNSEL




October 17th 1922




Mr. E. L. Toach, Sec'y., Parlette-Padget Co., 122 So. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill.




Dear Mr. Tosch:-




Ralph Parlette gave his lecture 
Pockets and Paradises
 as the opening number on our course this year.  This is the second time we have had Mr. Parlette.  The first time he talked on the 
University of Hard Knooks
, using the striking illustration of the beans and the nuts.  He gave such universal satisfaction that our committee, in selecting a speaker to open the course this year, were unanimous in choosing him.




The theme developed in his lecture on 
Pockets and Paradises
 is tremendously helpful and deals with some of the fundamental laws of human relations.




Ralph Parlette is a philosopher!  He is also a great humorist and his fine philosophy seasoned with his genial humor, makes a combination which cannot be excelled.




Sincerely,
Industrial Association of Cleveland. 
Chas M Newcomb
 Executive Secretary.




CMN-C






Cleveland Industrial Association



THIS is an organization of the employers and employees of the leading industrial concerns of the 
Sixth City
 to promote understanding.  It holds meetings of members and friends that draw a great throng.  Ralph Parlette addressed its meeting in the Hotel Winton Auditorium April 19, 1921, on 
The University of Hard Knocks.
  The audience was so pleased that at the first opportunity he was re-engaged, and addressed the meeting October 3, 1922, in the great Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Auditorium on 
Pockets and Paradises.
 Secretary Charles M. Newcomb wrote after his last appearance:




Ralph Parlette gave his lecture, 'Pockets and Paradises,' as the opening number on our course this year.  This is the second time we have had Mr. Parlette.  The first time he talked on the 'University of Hard Knocks,' using the striking illustration of the beans and the nuts.  He gave such universal satisfaction that our committee, in selecting a speaker to open the course this year, were unanimous in choosing him.




These addresses induced the American Steel and Wire Club to engage Ralph Parlette for an address before their organization April 12, 1922, and a re-engagement January 6, 1923 followed.  The Cleveland Y.M.C.A. Technical Schools engaged him for their annual dinner, attended by a thousand, in the Masonic Auditorium, February 13, 1923.  But to enumerate Ralph Parlette's addresses in Cleveland would take more space than is available.  He has spoken more than fifty times in Cleveland.






GOODWYN INSTITUTE



COMMISSIONERS
JNO.
 R. 
PEPPER

W. J. 
CRAWFORC

S. E. 
RAGLAND




FOUNDED BY WILLIAM A. GOODWYN STATE OF TENNESSEE, TRUSTEE




FREE PUBLIC LECTURES
FREE REFERENCE LIBRARY




GOODWYN INSTITUTE BUILDING
MEMPHIS, TENN.




C. C. 
OGILVIE
SUPERINTENDENT




MARILLA
 W. 
FREEMAN

LIBRARIAN




November 20, 1922




Mr. E. L. Toach, Secretary The Parlette-Padget Co., 122 South Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill.




Dear Sir:-




I want to most highly commend the lectures of Mr. Ralph Parlette which he recently gave to crowded houses at Goodwyn Institute.




His lectures not only greatly entertained but left a deep impression upon all those who were fortunate enough to hear him.  His wholesome philosophy of upright conduct, proper preparation and efficient action so graphically and naively presented with striking, humorous and sometimes pathetic illustrations, compels closest attention and must leave lessons of lasting inestimable value with his hearers, no matter from what class of society they may be.




I particularly commend his lectures for assemblies who need encouragement and inspiration and really helpful suggestions.




We certainly want Mr. Parlette to come again to Goodwyn Institute.




Very truly yours,

C. C. Ogilvie




CCO:E






Throngs at Goodwyn Institute Memphis, Tenn.



MEMPHIS has a remarkable free lecture course in the Goodwyn Institute Building endowed by the late Mr. Goodwyn, which engages scores of the greatest speakers and authorities of the world.  Ralph Parlette has spoken there on several occasions.  October 24 and 25, 1922, he gave two lectures, 
Big Business
 and 
Pockets and Paradises,
 and a throng was attracted in which hundreds were unable to gain admission.  Mr. C. C. Ogilvie, the manager, wrote:




His lecture not only greatly entertained but left a deep impression upon all those who were fortunate enough to hear him.  His wholesome philosophy of upright conduct, proper preparation and efficient action so graphically and naively presented with striking, humorous and sometimes pathetic illustrations, compels closest attention and must leave lessons of lasting inestimable value with his hearers, no matter from what class of society they may be.




This year a special petition was presented by the citizens of Memphis to the Board of Trustees of Goodwyn Institute requesting the return of Ralph Parlette on this year's program.  Mr. Parlette had appeared there so consecutively over a period of years, the Board had thought best to omit him for one year.  But in response to the petition they re-engaged him, and on December 3, 1923, he gave his famous 
Shake the Jar
 lecture—
It's Up To You!—Are You Shaking Up Or Rattling Down?
  At 7 o'clock on that evening the doors were closed and many hundreds turned away.





THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION
 COATESVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA



OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS



A. F. HUSTON, 
PRESIDENT


DR. S. W. RIDGWAY, 
VICE PRESIDENT


DR. S. H. SCOTT. 
SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT


C. O. BENNER. 
RECORDING SECRETARY


F. W. HARRIS 
TREASURER


C. L. HUSTON


WM. H. RIDGWAY


J. H. ALEXANDER


DR. H. I. HAINES


HARRY M. ZOOK


W. F. DAVIS


THOMAS Y MOORE


F. H. WOODHULL


C. A. NICHOLS


WM J. TRUNK


DR. GEO. E. DIETRICH


H. A. WHITAKER


GEO. A. FORBES





EXECUTIVE STAFF



J. I. HOFFMAN, 
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY


I. H. FARNHAM. 
BUSINESS SECRETARY


O. L. HAMPTON, 
EDUCATIONAL AND MEMSERSHIP SEC'Y


B. W. AITKEN, 
BOYS' WORK SEC'V


H. A. BICKEL, 
PHYSICAL DIRECTOR


C. K. CAMPBELL, 
AUDITORIUM MANAGER


R. M. PYLE, 
ASSISTANT SEC'Y


GEO. HOLBROOK. 
GAME MANAGER


MISS H. I. SPANGLER, 
CAFETERIA MANAGER





November 9, 1922.




Parlette Padget Co., Chicago, Ill.




Gentlemen:




Mr. Ralph parlette spoke to about one thousand men in our Auditorium last Sunday afternoon.  This is his seventh visit to our platform.  We have had all the great orators, lecturers, and entertainers in our thirteen years of meetings, but we very frankly state that Mr. Parlette is the most popular speaker to men that we have ever engaged.  We hope to repeat him again next year.  Behind his abundant humor there is always a lot of wholesome philosophy which seems to leave a lasting impression with our people.




As you possibly know, we are in the habit of drawing people for miles around, to our meetings.  Last Sunday they were here from every town and hamlet in Chester County and some from the Counties of Berks and Lancaster.  I further wish to say that every time Mr. Parlette has given a lecture in Coatesville, he has used a vivid illustration, which has stayed with the men until his next trip.  For instance, after his recent lecture you could hear a good many men saying to other fellows, 
your films are not clear
.




Very truly yours,

J. I. Hoffman
 Executive Secretary






The lecture was broadcasted thru the Memphis Commercial Appeal Radio Station WMC.  The next day's issue of the appeal in reporting the lecture added they had received scores of long distance calls during and after the lecture expressing appreciation of it.





The Great Coatesville, Pa., Sunday Mass-Meetings



THE Y.M.C.A. of this manufacturing city has sustained for years a nationally known men's Sunday mass-meeting that draws attendance within a radius of fifty miles around.  The founder and director, Mr. J. I. Hoffman, combs the land for speakers who can interest this crowd.  Each year the crowd votes on whom of the year's speakers shall be returned and who is the most popular.  Ralph Parlette was last year voted the most popular and returned to address this audience for the seventh time October 29, 1922, on which occasion Mr. Hoffman wrote:




Mr. Ralph Parlette spoke to about one thousand men in our Auditorium last Sunday afternoon.  This is his seventh visit to our platform.  We have had all the great orators, lecturers, and entertainers in our thirteen years of meetings, but we very frankly state that Mr. Parlette is the most popular speaker to men that we have ever engaged.  We hope to repeat him again next year.  Behind his abundant humor there is always a lot of wholesome philosophy which seems to leave a lasting impression with our people.




Parlette was re-engaged to speak at Coatesville on Sunday, January 6, 1924.  This time the ladies were invited to hear him too.






THE BUCKEYE STATE BUILDING AND LOAN CO.



DIRECTORS



J. E. KINNEY, 
PRESIDENT


L. P. McCULLOUGH, V 
PRES-CASHIER


JAMES H. BURNS, 
VICE PRES
.


HON FRANK RATHMELL, 
VICE PRES
.


DR. GEO W. KNIGHT, 
VICE PRES


B C BLACHLEY, 
SECRETARY


FRED CRECTOR, 
GENL. COUNSEL


ALLEN R RANKIN, 
ASST SECY
.


C C GUTHERIE, 
ASST CASHIER


ROBERT LIVINGSTON


WESLEY J. EILBER


DR A O ROSS.


J ELMER JONES.


OSCAR AVERY


BEN J THROOP





IN YOUR REPLY REFER TO

COLUMBUS, OHIO
.




August 9, 1923.




The Parlette-Padget Company, 122 South Michigan Ave., Chicago, Illinois.




William Padget, President.




Gentlemen:




The delegates and visitors present at the recent National Convention of Building & Loan Associations at Tacoma, Washington, were exceedingly pleased with Mr. Parlette's address.




Not only was it very entertaining, but he displayed a remarkable insight concerning Building & Loan business, and brought out the relation of the homes of the country to the prosperity of the nation in a most effective way.




Yours very truly,

J. E. Kinney
 PRESIDENT.




JEK:RES






National Convention of Building and Loan Associations



MR. J. E. KINNEY, president of the Buckeye State Building and Loan Co., at Columbus, Ohio, having used the Ralph Parlette Thrift Stories in his Institution which is one of the largest in the country, engaged Mr. Parlette to address the Annual Convention of the National Building & Loan Association at Tacoma, Wash., in July 1923.  Ralph Parlette in his address gave them a new vision of their work and inspired them to carry on.  Mr. Walter F. McDowell, chairman of the Executive Committee on arrangements, wrote in a letter:




Mr. Parlette's address to the Convention made a wonderful impression and everyone present was delighted.  Mr. Parlette also spoke before the Kiwanis Club and the Rotary Club, in both of which meetings he made wonderful addresses and held his audiences to the last man, and was given a spontaneous rising expression of appreciation at the conclusion of each address.




Mr. Kinney, who was president of the National Association last year, wrote:




Not only was Mr. Parlette's address very entertaining, but he displayed a remarkable insight concerning Building & Loan business, and brought out the relation of the homes of the country to the prosperity of the nation in a most effective way.




Mr. Irving B. Rich, president of the Michigan Building & Loan Association, was so much impressed with Parlette's talk at the National meeting at Tacoma, that at his suggestion the Michigan State Association





Pennsyhania Railroad System Contral Region Pittsfurgh, Pa.,



ELISHA LEE, 
VICE PRESIDENT




Nov. 5, 1923.




My dear Mr. Parlette:




I was very glad to get your letter of the 26th ultimo with the pamphlet enclosed.  I certainly do recall the night that I listened to you on 
The Little Beans and the Big Nuts
.  Your talk made a very strong impression on me, and was a very striking illustration of the Ups and Downs in life.




I believe you have adopted the proper method of talking to audiences of young workers, and your manner of presenting the argument is so clear that even beginners should understand it.




It is true that I will be located in Pittsburgh hereafter, and if you are out this way I shall be very glad indeed to have you stop in.




With kindest regards, I am,




Sincerely yours,
Elisha Lee




Mr. Ralph Parlette, 1247 Peoples Gas Bldg., Chicago, Ills.






engaged him for their State Convention held in Grand Rapids in early October.





Vice-President of Pennsylvania Railroad Holds Train to Hear Parlette



WHEN Ralph Parlette addressed the annual meeting of the York (Penn.) County Bankers Association in October last, Mr. Elisha Lee, then vice-president of the Eastern Region of the Pennsylvania System, was the other speaker of the evening.  He had come to York on a special train and had instructed his crew to have the train ready to return immediately after his address, which came first on the program.  When he had finished he stayed just a minute to hear the opening remarks of the speaker that followed, who was Mr. Parlette.  Then he sent word to his train crew to hold the train until the lecture was over.  And so he sat for an hour and twenty minutes thru the Parlette lecture.  At its close he thanked Mr. Parlette and invited him to visit him when he passed thru Philadelphia.




A few days later Elisha Lee was made vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad System. Upon receipt from Mr. Parlette of a letter of congratulation Mr. Lee wrote the reply which we are pleased to reproduce on the opposite page.






SPOKANE AND EASTERN TRUST CO. SPOKANE, WASHINGTON



May 9, 1923.




Mr. William Padget, President, Parlette-Padget Company, One Twenty Two South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.




Dear Mr. Padget:




Replying to your letter of May 3, we shall be delighted to have Mr. Ralph Parlette talk to our employees again in July when he comes through, and will count on it if he can spare the time.




In the meantime, I will see whether the other banks would like to have a joint meeting and will advise you later.




We too, appreciated the excellent talk Mr. Parlette gave us.  He is a gentleman worth while and drives his ideas home.




With best wishes, I remain




Sincerely yours,
E. V. Klein Treasurer.




AL.






Just a Few of Thousands



WE HAVE given just glimpses of Ralph Parlette's platform work.  Wherever he speaks, it is the beginning of his speaking history there.  He is not interested in taking on miscellaneous engagements or filling his time solid as heretofore, but can take on only such as his time permits.  He is chiefly interested now in considering business, financial, educational and club engagements where he believes his messages can be of present-day service.




Other recent engagements have been the American Institute of Banking, Minneapolis, Minn.; Advertising Selling League, Omaha; Grand Rapids Furniture Manufacturers' Assn., Annual Dinner; Rollins Hosiery Co., Des Moines; American Extension University Convention, Chicago; St. Paul, Minn., Institute Lecture Course; Bowling Green, Ky., Business University Commencement; Grenada, Miss., Bank Convention; Pennsylvania College for Women Alumnae dinner, Pittsburgh; Gary, Indiana, Sunday Mass-Meeting; Cleveland, O., High School commencement; Minot, N. D., community meet; Ohio Northern University commencement; Girard College, Philadelphia, boys meeting; Sanford, Florida, First National Bank public meeting.






COMMONWEALTH STEEL COMPANY



FOUNDERS
OPEN HEARTH STEEL CASTINGS

ST. LOUIS

CABLE ADDRESS:  COMSTEELCO.




CLARENCE H. HOWARD, 
PRESIDENT


HARRY M. PFLAGER, 
SENIOR VICE-PREST
.


GEO. K. HOBLITZELLE, 
VICE-PREST, AND TREAS
.


GEO. E. HOWARD, 
VICE-PREST, AND SALES MAR
.


GOONE V. H. JOHNSON, 
VICE-PREST
, & 
SALES AGT
.


H. C. BELLVILLE, 
VICE-PREST
, & 
PUBLICITY DIN
.


FRANK L. MOREY, 
SECRETARY


ARTHUR T. MOREY, 
GENERAL MANAGER


CHAS. T. WESTLAKE, 
CHIEF MECH. ENGINEER


HARRISON HOBLITZELLE, 
ASST, TREASURER


A. W. CARTEN, 
PURCHASING AGENT


C. S. SHALLENBERGER, 
SALES AGENT




January 22nd, 1923.




Mr. Ralph Parlette, Parlette — Padget Co., 122 So. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill.




My dear Mr. Parlette:




While enroute to Boston and New York last week I had the pleasure of completing the reading of your latest book, 
Pookets and Paradises
 and I want to again tell you how thoroughly I enjoyed your book.  It was not only interesting, entertaining and amusing in various parts but was most helpful and inspiring.  How grateful we all should be that we have a man like you to write these things which bless, encourage and strengthen us!  I have given a number of copies of this book to friends of mine and they too have enjoyed it.




Mrs. Howard and I and our son are sailing on February 10th down the Mediterranean to the Holy Lands and over to Rome where I will attend the meeting of the International Chamber of Commerce which is to be held there in March.  I want to take a number of these books with me and so I have wired your office today to kindly send me two dozen copies by Special Delivery.  I am sure you will give me your best price on these and undoubtedly I may want more later.  It is one of the finest and most helpful books I have ever read and anyone who reads it cannot help but feel better for having done so.




With kind personal regards and best wishes, I am,




Very cordially yours,
Clarence H. Howard President.






How the Parlette Books Started



P
EOPLE would ask after the lectures, 'Is that lecture printed?' I had been warned by wise people not to print a lecture
, continued Mr. Parlette.  
The people would read the lecture and then they would not come to hear it.




But one day ten years ago 'The University of Hard Knocks' got printed.  I had heart failure, also cold feet and sinking chills when I saw the book.  For a time nothing happened.  I was ashamed of the book, like my first lecture.  I thought that pretty soon we would go down the back alley and have a quiet little bonfire of the books.  But pretty soon the book began to sell and we never had to burn up any of them.  We had to print a bigger edition.  And each year since has seen a new edition of 'Hard Knocks.'




That encouraged the printing of 'Big Business' and then 'Pockets and Paradises.'




Then came the 'It's Up To You' booklet, and it 'caught on.'  It was the post-war chaos and employers of a thousand of concerns bought scads of them to distribute to their employees.  Then was printed 'The Best Is Yet To Come,' and 'Salvation of a Sucker.'  Folks seemed to like these too and I suppose that more than three-quarters of a million of the books are now in the hands of the reading public.




This experience has been just the reverse of the advice we got before we began to print the lecture-books.





PUBLIC LEDGER COMPANY



PUBLIC LEDGER




Evening Ledger

ESTABLISHED 1914




INDEPENDENCE SQUARE PHILADELPHIA




OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT




Mr. Wm. Padget, President, Parlette-Padget Co., 122 So. Michigan Avenue, Chicago,




Dear Mr. Padget,




It's Up to You
 is the best thing of the kind I have ever seen and I have started our executives reading it.  I want to sell it to them first and then decide on the number to order.  The whole force of 4200 should have a copy eventually.




It is so clear and convincing that I think the most ordinary intellect can grasp its meaning instantly.  The writer has the rare gift of using the simplest words to express clearly and logically his point, and you get it at once.




Very truly yours,
Cyrus  Curtis






The publication seemed to stimulate the interest in the delivery of the lecture.  In communities where the most lecture-books had been sold in advance there seemed to be the most interest in hearing the lecture and the largest attendance.  Almost invariably I would be asked to give the lecture that that community had been reading in books.  I cannot account for it, save that perhaps the readers wanted to see if the lecture could be as bad as the books!





Follow Your Call!



I have always struggled to follow my dream and be myself.  When I do try to follow my call, I seem to prosper and am happy, and when I follow some outside call I make a mess of things.  I am doing the things today I dreamed of doing when a boy in school.  I am happier doing them than I ever dreamed I would be.  That is why I wrote to the high school at Owatonna, Minnesota, the other day when they asked me for a 'sentiment':


I believe in the dreams of what you would do;


I believe you must make all your dreaming come true.


As you follow God's call, the doing will seem


More wonderful far than ever the dream!







UNION TRUST COMPANY



COMMERCIAL BANKING, SAVINGS BANKING, TRUST DEPARTMENT, INVESTMENT DEPARTMENT, FOREIGN EXCHANGE, FISCAL AGENCY DEPARTMENT.




CAPITAL & SURPLUS $4,700,000.00




UNION TRUST COMPANY
CHICAGO A BANK OF STRENGTH AND CHARACTER




F.H. RAWSON President


H.A. WHEELER, Vice President.


C.B. HAZLEWOOD, Vice President


R.F. CHAPIN, Vice Pres & Secy


J.S.GLEASON, Asst to the President


H.L. BENSON. Asst Cashier


H. LINDSAY WHEELER, Asst Cashier.


PH. WEINHEIMER, Asst Cashier


R.K. OHARA, Asst Cashier.


A.C. BOETTIGER, Asst Secretary


E.V.BACHARACH, Auditor.


C.R. HOLDEN, Vice President


B.G. McCLOUD, Vice President


C.P. KENNING, Vice President


F.P. SCHREIBER. Cashier


E.A. HOEFT, Asst Cashier


J.J. ANTON, Asst Cashier


W.A. HANDTMANN, Asst Cashier


F.W. LOCO, Asst Cashier


W.R. CURTIS, Asst Secretary


R.J. DARBY, Trust Officer.


F.G. MURBACH, Manager Savings Department.


C.C PORTER, Manager Investment Department




ESTABLISHED 1869




DEARBORN & MADISON STREETS
TELEPHONE CENTRAL 523




CHICAGO
May 23, 1922.




Mr. William Padget, President, Parlette-Padget Company, 122 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.




My dear Mr. Padget:




Permit me to congratulate you on the excellence of your new edition of Parlette General Thrift stories.  The first folder was mailed only last week to several thousand savings depositors, and the many warm compliments and expressions of approval since received have been very gratifying.




These stories appeal to me strongly because they are full of originality and human interest.  To my way of thinking, they show the simple, practical philosophy of Mr. Parlette at its best, and the attractive manner in which they are produced leaves little to be desired.




Undoubtedly, this series represents a long step forward in publishing effective thrift literature, and I predict that it will be enthusiastically received by the more progressive banks of the country.




Very sincerely yours,
Paul L. Hardesty Publicity Manager




PLH-AM






What Ralph Parlette Is Doing Now



W
HEN Mr. Parlette was asked the other day 
Why did you quit the regular lecture platform where you were nationally known and had more calls than you could fill?
 he replied:




Because I hadn't time to ride trains longer.  I had to get down to hard work in one place.  I haven't time to lecture all the time, and haven't time to make money.  I am sorry for the 'Babbits' and should like to help them.  I would like to give the boosters' club the real things to boost.




I am writing more books, booklets and stories.  More of the latter.  Books stay on shelves.  Booklets and stories get inside of people before they throw them away.  And then every little while I write a booklet or story they don't throw away, but pass on to some other sinner and then I am sure happy.




I am writing stories on Thrift—the real Thrift that doesn't make tight-wads and misers.  The thrift that teaches us to thrive.  To save and spend for self-development.  Millions for development but not a cent for deviltry.  I reckon I've written more than fifty stories and want to write a thousand more.  You know the start of anybody's education is reading, writing and thrift.  The fellow who can't learn to save money when he ought to save it and spend it when he ought to spend it will always be a human runt if he grows eight feet high.






THE BOY SCOUTS ASSOCIATION




INPORPORATED BY GOYAL CHARTEN



Dear Parlette
Kindly note this cordial letter from the chief of the Boy Scouts, and originator of the Scout idea.
Clarence A. Howard 1630 Pierce Bldg St Louis, Mo



THE BOY SCOUTS ASSOCIATION, 25, BUCKINGHAM PALACE ROAD, LONDON, S. W. 1.




29th October, 1923.




Dear Howard,




How very kind of you to send me that book the 
Big Business of Life
 and how generous of you to deal it out to your Scout workers.




I know, and appreciate very greatly, Parlettes works and have quoted him in my book 
Rovering to Success
 — pages 28, 60 & 150




With cordial thanks and good wishes,




Yours sincerely,






I am writing on Co-operation, which is the enlightened selfishness.  It is the real Individualism.  We are all playing in the same band and we've got to get in tune and each play our part.  There is only one man in this world—Giant We-The-People, and there is a Snake always trying to tear him apart.  Swat the Snake!  The man who wants his pound of flesh is Snake-bitten, and he is hurting himself when he hurts the other fellow.  There is only one wage and one price that is right—the wage and the price that does all people the most good.  We work for the Party of the Third Part.




I am writing on Self-Development.  We aren't saving the world—we are saving ourselves.  We save the world to save ourself.  We help ourself by helping others, and we help others by showing them how to help themselves.  We love our neighbor as ourself and we love ourself just as much as our neighbor, 50-50.




I am writing to show that there is just as much success and happiness for one as another.  Our Big Business is to be Ourself, not an imitation of somebody else.




I am trying to show that the salvation of the race is hard work and overcoming.  That as we develop ourselves all work becomes play.  As we fail to develop ourselves we need more movies and rattleboxes, to keep us from discovering our emptiness.  I am trying to abolish old age, which is only stagnation.  As long as we learn we are young.  The best is yet to come and comes as fast as we'll let it.  We have to grow more and then we have more, like a jug in the water,—the bigger it gets the more runs in.





Montgomery Ward Ho.



CHICAGO, KANSAS CITY FORTWORTH, PORTLAND




ESTABLISHED 1872 BY A.MONTGOMERY WARD GEO.R.THORNE




CHICAGO,
June 7, 1919.




Parlette-Padget Co., 122 So. Michigan Ave., Chicago




Gentlemen:




Please send another one hundred (100) copies of the little booklet entitled 
Are You Shaking Up or Rattling Down?




I also authorize you to send another hundred (100) of these booklets to the Kansas City store.




This book has made a trmendous hit with our executives, who read it and passed it on to their supervisors and operating people.  It made such an impression upon the latter, that we are ordering another hundred to further distribute amongst others of our employees, who failed to see the first copies.




Yours very truly,
John W. Sorrelle, EMPLOYMENT MANAGER.






I am trying to show that we don't die to go to hell or heaven.  I have been in both many times.




I am reading, studying, thinking, interviewing people in mansions and people in ditches.  I am trying to make my theories practical.  I am lecturing just now and then to get the reaction from others.  I am far more interested in living my theories than talking them.




Some big, happy job I have?  Yes!  I'll have to live a hundred years here yet to get started.  I am just beginning.  And say!—I am not saying a thing new.  There isn't a new thing in the universe.  But everybody is a Christopher Columbus discovering the same old worlds.  And discovering them is the greatest fun in the world!






The Prudential
 
INSURANCE COMPANY OF AMERICA



FOREST F DRYDEN, 
PRESIDENT




HOME OFFICE, NEWARK, N. J




IN RE




FOUNDED BY JOHN F. DRYCEN




THE PRUDENTIAL HAS THE STRENGTH OF GIBRALTAR




PIONEER OF INDUSTRIST INSURANCE IN AMERICA




TELEPHONE CONNECTION




ERNEST M. BERGER, 
SUPERINTENDENT
 2204 
SOUTH CRAWFORD AVENUE
 CHICAGO, ILL.




March 25, 1919.




Parlette-Padget Company, Mr. Wm. Padget, President, 122 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago




Dear Sir:—




In ordering a quantity of your splendid little booklet 
It's Up To You
 permit me to say that I consider it one of the best and most inspiring publications of the kind ever written.  It supplies the punch and prod that will enable any one with red blood in his veins to take on new courage and determine to 
Carry On.




Hoping your publication will reach a demand worthy of the principles expounded,
I remain,




Yours very truly,

E.M.Berger
 Superintendent






A Pen Picture of Ralph Parlette



Ralph Parlette!  Who will unravel the mystery of this man's power or disclose the secret of his genius?  Lacking every grace cultivated by public speakers, this paradox of the platform eclipses them all.  He takes the commonplace fact of daily life, clothes it with homely language, breathes into it his own grotesque personality, and by some alchemy of genius unfolds a great truth of beauty and power.  From the metallurgy of his crude experience, he fashions a mirror in which every man discovers his own image.  He makes a new garment from the old cloth, but the fit is perfect and the cloth is clean.




Parlette is a combination of paradoxes.  He is awkward to the point of gracefulness; attractive in his homeliness; naive, yet brimming with wisdom; the intellect and body of a man with the temperament and physiognomy of a boy.  The audience laughs at, sympathizes with, and at length pays homage to his incongruities, and departs under the spell of a magnetism that defies analysis.  It has feasted at a banquet whose delicacies were the wholesome viands of everyday life.




Everyone you meet is still talking Parlette, yet not one will concretely tell you why.




—
GLEASON A. DUDLEY
, 
Editor






Ralph Parlette's Books



THE UNIVERSITY OF HARD KNOCKS


The School that Completes Our Education



THE BIG BUSINESS OF LIFE


Finding Joy in Your Job



POCKETS AND PARADISES


We own what we use, not what we put in our pockets



IT'S UP TO YOU!


Are You Shaking Up or Rattling Down?  The story of the 
big nuts and little beans



THE BEST IS YET TO COME—Go On South!


A story likening our lives to the Mississippi River



THE SALVATION OF A SUCKER


Confessions of Ralph Parlette's fool Investments and how he was saved





Three-fourths of a million of these books are now in the hands of the reading public




PARLETTE-PADGET COMPANY
, 
Publishers

WILLIAM PADGET, 
President

122 South Michigan Avenue
CHICAGO






Parlette Says:



How successful are you?  always means how happy are you?




The man who always agrees with you is either a fool or thinks you are.




It matters little what people think of you; it matters much what you think of people.




Let's stay acquainted.  The world's so small we'll need each other before we get out of it.




Custom doth make cowards of us all.  You may not fear to go up against guns, but you do fear to go up against a tip.




Seems like as my self-esteem falls my salary rises.  And the less I discover I know, the more people come to hear me lecture.




I know when I am growing—I am so dissatisfied with myself.  I know when I am not growing—I am so satisfied with myself.




Success is self-expression.  An imitator never dug a Panama Canal, planted a church, headed a party, nor found the real joy of living.




Most anybody can be a hero for a few minutes.  But heroes who can get along with their neighbors and run jarless households are scarce.




When I was a baby I reached so far out of my crib for the moon I fell out and bumped my head.  Most of us are babies reaching for moons.  That's why there are so many soreheads.




Of course, I have had more trouble than anybody else.  I have never known anybody that hadn't had more trouble than anybody else.  But life only gets good after we have been killed a few times.





Down where I grew up if a man died without life insurance he was a total loss.  But if he died without fire insurance we weren't half so much worried!




Don't worry about the wrinkles in your face.  Rub the wrinkles out of your heart and you rub them off your face or turn them into lines of beauty.




There is no strength without struggle, no success without sacrifice, no greatness without service, no life without labor.  Just stop your labor, service, sacrifice, struggle—then you're dead.  You are not alive just because you're not buried.




Most of us think we would be great if we could just get into a great place.  But we'd be a great joke.  We don't become great by getting a great place any more than a boy becomes a man by putting on his father's boots.  He must grow greater feet before he gets greater boots.




We work for wealth, not money.  Wealth is what you put in your heart, money what you put in your pocket.  We take money for our work so that we can go on working, just like we eat that we can go on living.  We don't live to eat, we eat to live.  Wealth is the real product of our work; money is just the buy-product.




I don't care to hear about your creeds.  I want to know if your religion is making you happier today than yesterday—making you a better neighbor, making it easier to overcome your meanness, making today your best day.  I don't want to see the label on a tree—show me the fruit.  Then I'll tell you if it's sweet-apples or crab-apples.




We don't learn from books, we learn from bumps.  Every bump is a lesson.  If we get the lesson with one bump, we don't get that bump again; we get promoted to the next bump.  But if we are naturally bright or there is something else the matter with us, that same bump must come back and bump us again.  Some of us learn with a few bumps, but most of us are naturally bright and have to be pulverized.