? And if you get where
they pay you twenty-five dollars a _minute_ instead of a week, you
wanna try and make 'em think you're worth thirty! The mistake you and
a lot of young fellers make is quittin' at a given point. They ain't
no point to quit! I bet when you was makin' eighteen dollars a week
you hustled like blazes to make twenty, but when you got up to
twenty-five you prob'ly told yourself that you was makin' as much as
most of the boys you knew and more than some, so why wear yourself out
and slave for a fatheaded boss, eh? Right in sight of the grandstand
you blew up and quit in the stretch. I bet you think right now that
you're makin' good because you're holdin' down the job, hey? That
ain't makin' good, that's stealin' the boss's money--petty larceny, and
deprivin' your future kids of a even chance--a felony! Give the boss
everything you got, and he'll pay for it. If he don't, get out and
dive in somewheres else! They ain't no place on earth where they ain't
a openin' for a live one at any hour of the day or night!"

The lovely Wilkinson says nothin'.

Pretty soon and much to my delight, this here picture comes to a end,
and while we're goin' out in the lobby, the lovely Wilkinson calls his
wife aside and whispers somethin' in her ear. It ain't over a second
later that we're all invited up to the Wilkinson flat for a little bite
and the like before retirin'.

The girls starts a hot and no doubt interestin' argument about how many
purls make a knit and so forth, and the lovely Wilkinson, after
fidgetin' around a bit, calls us into another room. He closes the door
very careful.

"I got something very personal and very important I'd like to speak to
you about," he says to Alex.

"I'll go out on the fire escape," I says.

"No!" he says. "I want you to stay and hear this too." He turns to
Alex again. "I been thinking over what you said in the theatre
to-night," he begins, "and I guess you're pretty near right about me.
However, I have a big chance now to make good and get out of the
twenty-five dollar class, only, as usual, luck is against me."

"They is no such thing as luck," says Alex. "Forget about that luck
thing, put the letter 'P' before the word and you got it! That's the
first rule in my booklet, 'Success While You Wait.' I must send you
one."

"Thanks," says the lovely Wilkinson. "You see, I'm a salesman for a
big wholesale clothing house downtown and right at the beginning of