On a rainy night, McKinley had boarded a crowded streetcar. One of the men he was now considering had also been aboard, though he didn’t see McKinley. Then an old woman carrying a basket of laundry struggled into the car, looking in vain for a seat. The job candidate pretended not to see her and stayed put. McKinley, however, gave up his seat to help her.

Remembering the episode, which he called “this little omission of kindness,” McKinley decided against the man on the streetcar. Our decisions-even the small fleeting ones-tell a lot about us.
-Taken from Bits and Pieces which adapted this from Presidential Anecdotes, Paul F. Boller, Jr.

The youngster reached deep in his pockets and pulled out an assortment of change, counting it carefully as the waitress grew impatient. She had “bigger” customers to wait on. “Well, how much would just plain ice cream be?” the boy asked. The waitress responded with noticable irritation in her voice, “Thirty-five cents.”

Again, the boy slowly counted his money. “May I have some plain ice cream in a dish then, please?” He gave the waitress the correct amount, and she brought him the ice cream.

Later, the waitress returned to clear the boy’s dish and when she picked it up, she felt a lump in her throat. There on the counter the boy had left two nickels and five pennies. She realized that he had enough money for the sundae, but sacrificed it so that he could leave her a tip.
-Taken from Bits and Pieces, which adapted the story from Fleming Revell