Page:Lewis - Babbitt.djvu/88

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
78
BABBITT

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

POWER AND PROSPERITY IN PUBLIC SPEAKING

A Yarn Told at the Club

Who do you think I ran into the other evening at the De Luxe Restaurant? Why, old Freddy Durkee, that used to be a dead or-alive shipping clerk in my old place—Mr. Mouse-Man we used to laughingly call the dear fellow. One time he was so timid he was plumb scared of the Super, and never got credit for the dandy work he did. Him at the De Luxe! And if he wasn't ordering a tony feed with all the "fixings" from celery to nuts! And instead of being embarrassed by the waiters, like he used to be at the little dump where we lunched in Old Lang Syne, he was bossing them around like he was a millionaire!

WHAT WE TEACH YOU

  • How to address your lodge.
  • How to give toasts.
  • How to tell dialect stories.
  • How to propose to a lady.
  • How to entertain banquets.
  • How to make convincing selling-talks.
  • How to build big vocabulary.
  • How to create a strong personality.
  • How to become a rational, powerful and original thinker.
  • How to be a MASTER MAN!

I cautiously asked him what he was doing. Freddy laughed and said, "Say, old chum, I guess you're wondering what's come over me. You'll be glad to know I'm now Assistant Super at the old shop, and right on the High Road to Prosperity and Domination, and I look forward with confidence to a twelve-cylinder car, and the wife is making things hum in the best society and the kiddies getting a first-class education."