Page:Manhattan Transfer (John Dos Passos, 1925).djvu/159

Rh have a ticker ribbon out of my hand day or night, and in ten years I only took a cropper three times, till the last time. Gentlemen I'm going to tell you a secret. I'm going to tell you a very important secret Charley give these very good friends of mine another round, my treat, and have a nip yourself My, that tickles her in the right place Gentlemen just another illustration of the peculiar predominance of luck in human affairs. Gentlemen the secret of my luck this is exact I assure you; you can verify it yourselves in newspaper articles, magazines, speeches, lectures delivered in those days; a man, and a dirty blackguard he turned out to be eventually, even wrote a detective story about me called the Secret of Success, which you can find in the New York Public Library if you care to look the matter up The secret of my success was  and when you hear it you'll laugh among yourselves and say Joe Harland's drunk, Joe Harland's an old fool Yes you will For ten years I'm telling you I traded on margins, I bought outright, I covered on stocks I'd never even heard the name of and every time I cleaned up. I piled up money. I had four banks in the palm of my hand. I began eating my way into sugar and gutta percha, but in that I was before my time But you're getting nervous to know my secret, you think you could use it Well you couldnt It was a blue silk crocheted necktie that my mother made for me when I was a little boy Dont you laugh, God damn you No I'm not starting anything. Just another illustration of the peculiar predominance of luck. The day I chipped in with another fellow to spread a thousand dollars over some Louisville and Nashville on margin I wore that necktie. Soared twentyfive points in twentyfive minutes. That was the beginning. Then gradually I began to notice that the times I didnt wear that necktie were the times I lost money. It got so old and ragged I tried carrying it in my pocket. Didnt do any good. I had to wear it, do you understand? The rest is the old old story gentlemen There was a girl, God damn her and I loved her. I wanted to show her that there was nothing in the world I wouldnt do for her