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buy them a half dozen at a time in order to get them cheap, fifteen or
twenty dollars each. He would have them slightly repaired, he would
paint them red or blue or some other bright colour, and he would sell
them to high school boys for three or four times as much as he had
paid for them. He filled the town with red and blue and green used
automobiles, and the whole countryside, was full of them, high school
boys taking their girls to the country at night and on Sunday
afternoons, and anybody knows what that means. In a way, it was a
pretty good thing for the boys, only a lot of them had to get married a
long time before they had found jobs for themselves, and a number of
other things happened, only worse. Two or three girls had babies and
didn't know who the other parent was, because two or three fellows
with used cars had been involved. In a haphazard way, though, a lot
of girls got husbands for themselves.
Harry himself was too busy to walk with girls. All he wanted
was to keep on making money. By the time he was seventeen he had
earned a small fortune, and he looked to be one of the best-dressed
young men in town. He got his suits wholesale because he would not
think of letting anyone make a profit on him. It was his business to
make profits. If a suit was marked twenty-seven fifty, Harry would
offer the merchant twelve dollars.
"Don't tell me," he would say. "I know what these rags cost. At
twelve dollars you will be making a clean profit of two dollars and
fifty cents, and that's enough for anybody. You can take it or leave it."
He usually got the suit for fifteen dollars, alterations included.
He would argue an hour about the alterations. If the coat fitted well
and the merchant told him so, Harry would think he was being taken
for a sucker, so he would insist that the sleeves were too long or that
the shoulders were too loose. The only reason merchants tolerated
him at all was that he had the reputation of a well-dressed fellow, and
to sell him a suit meant to get a lot of good free advertising. It would
bring a lot of other young fellows to the store, fellows who would buy
suits at regular prices.
Otherwise, Harry was a nuisance. Not only that, the moment he
made a purchase he would begin to talk about reciprocity, how it was
the basis of American business, and he would begin to sell the
merchant earthquake insurance or a brand-new Studebaker. And most
of the time he would succeed. All sorts of business people bought
earthquake insurance just to stop Harry talking. He chiseled and he