VELVET SHOES AND SILK PAJAMAS
Harry Emerson Fosdick is credited with the observation that history is filled with the sound of wooden shoes coming up the stairs and velvet slippers coming down. The famous jockey, Eddie Arcaro, was making the same point when he confessed that he found it hard getting up at five in the morning to exercise horses once he started wearing silk pajamas. Humanly speaking, the prize tends to go to those who want it most and work the hardest for it. Most of the dynamics of wealth are negative. Comfort takes over from creativity. Security becomes a stronger passion than challenge. Velvet slippers and silk pajamas do not put us in mind of Daniel Boone or Thomas Edison. Some have claimed that the Roman Empire fell because its people took too many baths. The sound of wooden shoes on the stairs can be heard in Asia, Africa and South America. There is a haunting feeling in the U.S.A., and perhaps…
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