Albert J. Beveridge, United States Senator from Indiana, believes that
the direction of his career was completely changed by a careless laugh.
A writer in _Success_ quotes him as saying:
When I was a youth in Illinois I heard that the Congressman
from our district intended to hold an examination to determine
what young man he should appoint to West Point. I pitched in
and studied hard for that examination, and found it easy when I
came to take it. Most of the other fellows seemed to be still
struggling with it when I had finished, and I was so confident
that I had made few mistakes that I was in a pretty cheerful
frame of mind. This is why I laughed when one of the strugglers
asked a rather foolish question of the professor in charge.
The latter evidently felt that the dignity of the occasion had
been trifled with, for he scored one per cent against me. When
the papers came to be corrected this loss caused me to fall
one-fifth of one per cent below the boy who stood highest on the
list. He is a captain in the army now, where I suppose I should
be had it not been for that laugh. I believe in the power of
cheerfulness. Looking back, I am rather glad that I laughed.
(Text.)
(1757)