The Washington times., 1918-10-14
1"Well, It's Just a Friendly Game"

II
We All Quit About Even, Nobody Comes Out Ahead
They were coming down in the elevator together not
very early very late They packed in
Il was the hour when the crowd-ordnary failures
90 home from their work
a They were typical everyday human beings. Their
coats not very warm, not very new yet fairly re-
spectacle
Their faces were the ordinary kind, not much concen
tration-no speculation Macbeth says of the ghost
Of Banquos eyes in Macbeth
- They belonged to the class that get along somehow
lodging halfway between poverty and prosperity Just
managing to i've while others going up and making
themselves secure.
This was the conversation that the rest car
heard
o. "Wen, what kind of game do you play?"
"oh, Just little FRIENDLY game. We play ten
same crowd of u.s. good jolly crowd ALL FRIENDS It's
little ten-cent game, until little while before break
around"
"HOw do you come out Who wins the dough-?
a 1--WE quote this conversation verbatim.)
s., "oh, NOBODY WINS in the long run One of the
boys started keep track of the game and who
came out ahead but found at the end of few weeks it
eyened itself up just of the boys letting each
other hold their money for while, and then getting it
back
- The man who runs the elevator said: Ground floor
-an out"
The two men who spent two hours so charmngly each
evening got out and went their way
That conversation is so ordinary that it bores you
You have heard the talk thousand times.
spent in the ordinary mscalled friendly game?"
In the first place, there IS NO FRIENDLY GAM
BLING There is hypocrisy which calls the gambling
friendly" But those who play know perfectly wen that
they play with keen desire TO WIN.
The man in the friendly game" spends two hours
HAS BEEN WASTING HIS OWN TIME and his own
chances
We should like to ask the young who waste their
time friendly games" whether they have thought
WHAT 1T Is THAT MAKES SUCCESS.
The who succeeds to begin with, is he who puts
his VITAL ENERGY INTO HIS WORK
EACH has within himself only a certain LIN
TIED AMOUNT of energy In that respect he is like al
dynamo in house his energy is used up in one
way for instance in the aimess concentration Of poker
THAT MIGHT BRING REAL SUCCESS.
The successful mans attention, vitality, and INTER
EST ARE cENTERED ON HIS IMPORTANT HARD
- The foolish man looking forward to his poker game
IN the evening looking forward to other kind of
CHANCE.
- If that young man in the elevator would 90 to his
home eat his dinner talk for short time with one two
friendsnot trying to win their money like drunken In
dian the plains-then read for while some book of
INTEREST TO HIS WORK OF THE NEXT DAY, as he
looks forward to his poker game he would be the
coming man in his office.
If the recording angel could look down-or up de-
pending the earths position in its revoution-on all
the friendly" poker games in America, he would be
able to make very good and accurate list of the future
failures Of the United States.
- who after early youth continues to waste his
time with cards amounts to little ordinarily But even the
card players the poor silly geese of the friendly poker
games COULD SUCCEED.
2 If the men that play poker gamble on the races
with waste Of time in studying horses could put into their
work the real energy that they waste in gambling THESE
MEN WOULD BE SUCCESSFUL.
Outside of the lunatic asyums and the homes for
idiots almost every human being has the possibility of
SOME success inside of him.
1t is not supendous genius that makes the ordinary
successful The of millions are not men with
brains constructed in unusual way And the more
worthy and decent successful men-those who work un
fshy for others with good results-are not really diff
ferent from their fellow human beings.
Each of us contains in himself ENOUGH FORCE
AND ENERGY TO MAKE HIM SUCCEED.
p Rut dHicutv of is rso ~,