Let your secret sympathies and your compassion be always with the under dog in the fight—this is magnanimity; but bet on the other one—this is business.
AT POKER
If you draw to a flush and fail to fill, do not continue the
conflict.
If you hold a pair of trays, and your opponent is blind, and it
costs you fifty to see him, let him remain unperceived.
If you hold nothing but ace high, and by some means you know that the other man holds the rest of the aces, and he calls, excuse yourself; let him call again another time.
WALL STREET
If you live in the country, buy at 80, sell at 40. Avoid all forms of eccentricity.
IN THE RESTAURANT
When you wish to get the waiter's attention, do not sing out "Say!"
Simply say "Szt!"
His old abandoned notion of "Hamlet" with an added burlesque character came back to him and stirred his enthusiasm anew, until even Howells manifested deep interest in the matter. One reflects how young Howells must have been in those days; how full of the joy of existence; also how mournfully he would consider such a sacrilege now.