COMMUTER'S THANKSGIVING 247 



The truth is, all of the theorizing, sermoniz- 

 ing, inculcating professions ought to be made 

 strictly avocational, strictly incidental to some 

 real business. Let our Presidents preach (how 

 they love it !) ; let our preachers nurse the sick, 

 catch fish, or make tents. It is easier for the 

 camel, with both his humps, to squeeze through 

 the eye of the needle than for the professional 

 man of any sort to perform regularly his whole 

 duty with sound sense and sincerity. 



But ballast is a universal human need — chores, 

 I mean. It is my privilege frequently to ride 

 home in the same car with a broker's book- 

 keeper. Thousands of dollars' worth of stock pass 

 through his hands for record every day. The 

 "odor" of so much affluence clings to him. He 

 feels and thinks and talk in millions. He lives 

 over-night, to quote his own words, "on the end 

 of a telephone wire." That boy makes ten dollars 

 a week, wears " swagger clothes," and boards 

 with his grandmother, who does all his washing, 

 except the collars. What ails him? and a mil- 

 lion other Americans like him? Only the need 

 to handle something smaller, something realer 

 than this pen of the recording angel — the need 



