And after I had
taken some $9,000,000 out of the soap business I made the rest in corn
and wheat futures. Now, you seem to have the literary and scholarly
turn of character; and I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll pay for your
education at the finest college in the world. I'll pay the expense of
your rummaging over Europe and the art galleries, and finally set you up
in a good business. You needn't make it soap if you have any objections.
I see by your clothes and frazzled necktie that you are mighty poor; and
you can't afford to turn down the offer. Well, when do you want to
begin?"
The hat cleaner turned upon old Tom the eye of the Big City, which is an
eye expressive of cold and justifiable suspicion, of judgment suspended
as high as Haman was hung, of self-preservation, of challenge,
curiosity, defiance, cynicism, and, strange as you may think it, of a
childlike yearning for friendliness and fellowship that must be hidden
when one walks among the "stranger bands." For in New Bagdad one, in
order to survive, must suspect whosoever sits, dwells, drinks, rides,
walks or sleeps in the adjacent chair, house, booth, seat, path or room.
"Say, Mike," said James Turner, "what's your line, anyway--shoe laces?
I'm not buying anything.
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