Well, that's where the children get their liking for
things like that--I've got it too, a little--I could have done something
there if I'd had time. But I never had time.
"I could have done it when I got out of Harvard--drifted along like half a
dozen people I know, played at law, played at writing, played always and
forever at being a gentleman--ended up as an officer of the Century Club
with what little money I had in an annuity. But I couldn't stand the idea
of just scraping along. And for nearly ten years I put those things aside.
"You know about my going West and the way I lived there. It wasn't easy
when I'd been at Harvard and gone everywhere in New York and Boston--
starting in so far below the bottom that you couldn't even see the bottom
unless you squinted your eyes. But I never took a job with more money if I
thought I could learn anything in a job with less--and every place I went
I stayed until I could handle the job of the man two places ahead of me--
and if I didn't get his job when I asked for it I went somewhere else. I
don't think I read a book except a technical one for the first five years.
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