general garcia is dead now，but there are other garcias. no man who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed，but has been well-nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man－the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it.
slipshod assistance，foolish inattention，dowdy indifference，and half-hearted work seem the rule；and no man succeeds，unless by hook or crook or threat he forces or bribes other men to assist him；or mayhap，god in his goodness performs a miracle，and sends him an angel of light for an assistant.
you，reader，put this matter to a test：you are sitting now in your office－six clerks are within call. summon anyone and make this request，“please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of correggio.”will the clerk quietly say，“yes，sir，”and go do the task？
on your life，he will not. he will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions：who was he？ which encyclopedia？ where is the encyclopedia？ was i hired for that？ don’t you mean bismarck？ what’s the matter with charlie doing it？ is he dead？ is there any hurry？ shan’t i bring you the book and let you look it up yourself？ what do you want to know for？
and i will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions，and explained how to find the information，and why you want it，the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find garcia—and then come back and tell you there is no such man. of course i may lose my bet，but according to the law of average，i will not.