In the Arena

Excerpt from In the Arena

Plenty of men go to pot horse-racing and stock gambling; and I guess this has just been my way of working off some of my nature in another fash ion. There's a good many like me, too; not out for office or contracts, nor anything that you can put your finger on in particular nothing except the game. Of course, it's a pleasure, knowing you've got more in?uence than some, but I believe the most you ever get out of' it is in being able to help your friends, to get a man you like a job, or a good contract, something he wants, when he needs it. I tell you then's when you feel satisfied, and your time don't seem to have been so much thrown away. You go and buy a higher-priced cigar than you can afford, and sit and smoke it with your feet out in the sunshine on your porch railing, and watch your neighbour's children play ing in their yard; and they look mighty nice to you; and you feel kind, and as if everybody else was.