Page:Our Little Girl (1923).pdf/94

 those things-and then I told him what was what.

"'The Way to make this show a success,‘ I told, him, 'is to get back of it and push. Now, if I were you, I’d never leave the house without a pocketful of tickets, and I’d never come back to the house without having sold them.

“‘Vou’re the boss of a big organization,’ I told him, ‘and what you want to do is get everybody in your shop together and make them work. Sell the proposition to your employees. Get ’em out selling tickets. Offer a bonus for the man who brings in the biggest returns. Make every mother’s son of them take a couple of seats for himself. Let him take them on deferred payments if necessary; but see that nobody, man, or woman or child, in your place is anywhere on the night of that concert except at the concert. That’s the way to put it over. Get together and push!’”

Uncle Elliott ground the burnt end of his cigar aggressively in the ash-stand.

“Mind you,” he added, “hats are my line. But business is business, whether you’re selling hats or shoes or automobiles or concerts. It’s the man who goes out and puts the business on the books that wins! So call on me when you're ready to give a concert, and we'll show them whether we can’t put the thing across—and put it across big!”

It seemed to Dorothy as though everyone were expecting her to rush from the platform after graduation to Aeolian Hall and to burst into the opening selection of a recital program. Her father looked at her with a quixotic pride. She would have been little surprised if he had kissed her suddenly and said, “What wonders hath God wrought!” Mrs. Loamford took her out to buy a graduation dress and informed the saleswomen that the wearer