nce I knew success was mine. Experience has taught
me that in all dollar matters the man to "talk up to" is the actual
owner of the dollars you are after, who when he hears your story and
weighs your goods can deal out the _yes_ or _no_ which means business. I
had discovered some years before that few bull's-eyes are scored
shooting at a target by mail or messenger. One's finest word-pictures
sound better than they read, and if you would have the next man see them
in as vivid colors as they appear on your mind's canvas, you must paint
them before his eyes. The enthusiasm of the artist, his love of the
subject, the deep or high tones of his voice, the very movements of his
hands, are all factors in aiding the other man's vision. When he sees
what you do, you have won. Nowadays when I have things to sell, I engage
the eyes as well as the ears of my purchaser. When the other fellow
would make me his customer, he must first sell his goods to my
secretary, who may, if he can, sell them to me. Thus I am always able to
dispose of the only merchandise I keep in stock, honest goods, and I
seldom buy chromos for oils.

As I waited the coming of my most powerful customer, I could not keep my
mind off the momentousness of the interview before me. I knew I was at a
fork of the road, at one of those departure points from which coming
events must date, and I thought of a dream I had had years before in
which I found myself drifting with the grim ferryman across the brimming
flood, the far bank of which is eternity. In my hand was a long staff
with strange and irregular notches on it. And these represented the
actions of my life. Some were shallow, others deep and wide, and as I
ran my fingers up and down, I seemed to remember what each nick
commemorated--the good things and the bad things, here a death, there a
disappointment, this a victory, that an error. I wondered, as the
circumstances of the dream came to my mind, what kind of marking this
day's events would make on my life staff, and I felt a conviction that
it would be both deep and wide.

Then, as I heard Mr. Rogers' footstep outside my door, I forgot all
about dreams and notches and plunged into my argument.

"Mr. Rogers," I began, "you and your associates have unlimited money.
You have not always had it. You have obtained it through business
projects and you are using it in business projects to get more. There
are two ways of adding new dollars to those in your possession: