14. WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



I made lucifer matches before "phossy jaw" 

 was discovered, but the longest job of the many 

 at which I worked, was making patent clothes 

 pins. Payment was to be by the piece, and I 

 competed earnestly with my nearest friend, 

 whose bench was beside mine. He was the bet- 

 ter workman, and though I gave my mind to 

 eliminating every waste motion, I only averted 

 defeat by an hour of secret work each morning 

 before the factory was known to be open. 

 When years later I explained to my friend the 

 method by which I had won out, he told me that 

 I had cleared up the one mystery of his life. 



My experience in that shop made a socialist 

 of me, though I didn't call it by that name then, 

 for while the product of the shop sold well, my 

 employer kept the cash and I never received a 

 penny of wage. The loss sombered my spirits 

 for a time, but a later philosophy taught me that 

 my boyish romanticism had given me the joy 

 of embarking the lost money in at least fifteen 

 silly schemes. 



But they were not all work, those early days. 



