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68 SEIZB TH E DA Ytake a look at eggs. Didn't I predict they
couldn't go anylowerf They're risi ng and rising. If we had taken
eggswe'd befar ahead."
"Then why didn't we take themf ""We were lrst about to. I had a
buying order in at .24, but thetide ttrrncd at .26'/+and we barely
missed. Never mind. Lardwill go back to last year's evels."Maybe.
But whenf Wilhelm could not allow his hoPes togrow too strong.
Flor,vever, or a litde rvhile he could breathemore easily. Late
morning trading was getting active. Theshining numbers u,hirred on
the board , which sounded like ahuge cage of artificial birds. Lard
fluctuated between twopoints, br-rt yc slordv climbed.He closedhis
strained,greatly earnesteyesbriefly and nod-ded his Buddha's head,
too large to suffer such uncertainties.For severalmoments of
peacehe wasremoved to his smallyardin Roxbury.He breathed n thc
sugar of the pure morning.
He heard the long phrasesof the birds.No enemy wanted his
lilb.Wilhelm thought, I will get out of here. I don't belong
inNeu'York any more And he sighed ike a sleeper.Tamkin said,
"Excuse me," and left his seat. FIe cou ld notsit still in the room
but passedback and forth between thestocks and commodities
sections. {e knew dozens of peopleand was continlrally engaging in
discussions.Was he givingadvice,gathcrirtg rt lormarion.or giving i
t , or pract ic ing-whatever mvsteriolrsprofi:ssionhe
practicedfHypnotismf Per-hapshe could put people in a trancewhile
he talked to them.What a rare, peculiar bird he was, with those
pointed shoul-ders, that bare head, his loose nails, almost claws,
and thosebrown, soft, deadly, hear'y eyes.l{e spoke of things that
mattered, and as very few peopledid this he could take you by
surprise,excite you, move you.Maybe he wished to do good, maybe
give himself a lift to ahigher level, maybe believehis own
prophecies,maybe touchhis own heart. \44ro could tellf He had
picked up a lot ofstrange ideas; Wilhelm could only suspect, he
could not saywith certaint.v, hat Tamkin hadn't made them his
own.Now Tamkin and he were equal partners) but Tamkin had
SEIZE TH Eput up only three hundred dollaronly once but five
times; then andred dollars gave him five thousahad power of at
torncy t r e ler l cafrom one account to another. No,an eye on him.
Nevertheless t wathis made Wilhelm feel ill. ObvioBut how did he
get byf He must bsupport himselff Five years n EgyMichigan; Ohio;
Chicago. A manself for at least hirt.vyears.You conever worl
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StsIZB TH E DA YxF.I.,$FF
tfI*Fl'q\I$qIIII6I
69SE,TZE TH E DA YDicln't ,i predict thev ctlr"rlcln't go
ilnr.rr..1ising. If u'e had take n cggs ri'c'd be
c takc thetlf "ro . I l t r r , l r r t rv i r rgort lc t ' i t
t :r t z4 ' l r t r t hc
r ic l .arelv r i r isscd.Ncvcr t l l l l l t l l 'J r (
lcvels."
lVilhelm cotlld not allor'v I'rishopcs tt rfo r a little
r'r'hilc he coulcl brcathc
g tr;rcling \\r?ls gcttillg r1ctivc..'i'hclrn tl"te board,
u4rich sotrnclccl ikc 'rbirds. Lar:d flr-tctu:rtcd bcnvcctl
nvtt
climbecl.reatl,v earllest cycs bricflv 'lnci nod-
toll large to sufli:r such tttrccrtlilltics'hc n'as removcd to
his snllll vlrrtl
s t rg. i r , r i t l tc ptt t 'e tt tot l i t tg 'pl-irasesof
the bircls.hi s lifb.I rvil l ge t out of hcre' I clor-r 'tbclt lng
nAnd he sighed like a slccpe
mc," an d ieft hi s scat ' Hc ctlt t lcino tbut passcci back
ancl fbrtl.r bcnvccn thc
ecti,rr-,r.Hc knclv dozcl-ls of pcoplccttgaging in
cliscttssior-rs'Wls hc uivingor giving it , or
practtcttlg-rof'ession h c p racticecl I H,vp nori snl I i'e -
ii l a trt-itlcc rvhile hc talkccl to tltcm'bird l"ru l'as,
r'r'ith thosc poir.rtcclshoui--ris oose nlrils, aln'rost clarvs,
aucl thosc
hearry eyes.tlilt mattcrcd, and :1s rerv fcrv pcoplevou bv
surprisc, cxcltc YoLl) nl()\'e votr'
do good, rnal'bc give hirnself I liti nr 'tbeliei,c his ou'n
prophecics, t.lllYbc touch
coulcl tell? Hc hacl pickecl rtp I lo t otcould tlnh' sllspect)
hc c
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7o SEIZE THE DAYexplain, back and forth, and it was the
punishment of hell itselfnot to understand or be understood, not to
know the crazyfrom the sane, he wise from the fools, the young from
the oldor the sick from the well. The fathers were no fathers and
thesons no sons.You had to talk with yourself in the daytime
andreason with yourself at night. SIho else was there to talk to
ina city like New YorkfA queer look came over Wilhelm's face with
its eyes urnedup and his silent mouth with its high upper lip. He
went sev-eral degrees further-when you are like this, dreaming
thateverybody is outcast, you realize that this musr be one of
thesmall matters. There is a larger body, and from this you
cannotbe separated.The glassofwater fadesout. You do not go
fromsimple a and simple b to the great x and H nor does it
matterwhether you agree about the glassbut, far beneath such
details,what Tamkin would call the real soul savsDlain and
under-standable hings to everyone.There sonsand'fathersare
hem-selves,and a glass of water is only an ornament; it makes ahoop
of brightness on the cloth; it is an angel's mouth. Theretruth for
everybody may be found, and confusion is only-only temporary,
thought Wilhelm.The idea of this larger body had been planted in
him a fewdays ago beneath Times Square, when he had gone downtownto
pick up tickets for the baseball game on Saturday (a double-header
at the Polo Grounds). lIe was going through an under-ground
corridor, a place he had always hated and hated morethan ever now.
On the walls between the advertisementswerewords in chalk: "Sin No
More," and "Do Not Eat the Pig,"he had particularly noticed. And in
the dark tunnel, in the haste,heat, and darkness which disfigure
and make freaks and frag-ments of nose and eyesand teeth, all of a
sudden, unsought, ageneral love for all these imperfect and
lurid-looking peopleburst out in Wilhelm's breast. He loved them.
One and all, hepassionately oved them. They were his brothers and
his sisters.I{e was imperfect and disfigured himself, but what
differencedid that make if he was united with them by this blaze of
lovefAnd as he walked he began to say, "Oh my brothers-mybrothers
and my sisters," blessing them all aswell as himself.So what did it
matter how many languages there were) or
SEIZE TH E DA Yhow hard it was to describe a glassof wfew
minutes later he didn't feel anythingthe man who sold him the
ticketsfOn that very sameafternoon he didn'tion of this same onrush
of loving kindntof As they had the capacity and must upeople were
bound to have such involuonly another one of those subwaythingson
at random. But today, his day of rechis memory again and thought, I
must gthe right clue and may do me the most gbig. Truth,l ike.The
old fellow on the right, Mr. Rupp"and kept asking Wilhelm, "What's
the nber wheatl Give me July soy beans oo.,he didn't say hank you.
He said,"Okay,,and turned away until he neededyou agolder even than
Dr. Adler. and if vou beonce been the Rockefellerof the
ihi.k.rttired with a large fortune.Wilhelm had a queer feeling
about theit was sinister. On the road, he frequentlyThose big,
rambling, wooden buildingsfields; theywere like prisons. The lights
buto cheat the poor hens into laftrg. Thenthe coops ofthe
slaughtered on end, ango higher than Mount Everest or Mountfilling
the Gulf of Mexico. The chickensearth.How old-old this Mr.
Rappaport waburied in the flesh of his nose. and the catwisted like
a cabbage heart. Beyond reeyeswere smoky and faded."Read me that
soy-bean figure now, bohelm did. He thought perhaps the old mtip,
or some useful advice or informationno. FIe only wrote memoranda on
a padhis pocket. He let no one seewhat he hadthought this was the
way a man who ha
