{"product_id":"2940013158290","title":"TREADING THE NARROW WAY","description":"EARLY FOOTSTEPS.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRobert Emmett Barrett was the soothing and patriotic cognomen my father\u003cbr\u003efastened upon me when I first opened my eyes and I looked him squarely\u003cbr\u003ein the face. I say my father named me and I honestly think he did. The\u003cbr\u003efirst two-thirds of the name proves my contention and opens the book\u003cbr\u003ewide enough that the reader has no trouble in discerning the nationality\u003cbr\u003eof my father. Mother was an English woman and I knew it the first time\u003cbr\u003eshe called father “Arry.” If mother had had her equal rights in naming\u003cbr\u003eme, I might have been a Gladstone; but somehow or other father\u003cbr\u003emonopolized mother’s half interest and she finally became disgusted and\u003cbr\u003etold him to name me any blooming thing he wanted to. If mother could\u003cbr\u003ehave foreseen this savage war across the orient, I believe, she would\u003cbr\u003ehave handled the center name, but the way it stands I wouldn’t shoulder\u003cbr\u003ea gun for England and I can’t use my undeveloped oratory against\u003cbr\u003eIreland, and I am about half persuaded to let them settle their own\u003cbr\u003etroubles. It being no fault of mine that I am half Irish and half\u003cbr\u003eEnglish, I let it go at that and get along with everybody the best I\u003cbr\u003ecan. It’s hard to separate the halves from the whole, and so, from a\u003cbr\u003eperpendicular standpoint, I give the Irish the top half and the English\u003cbr\u003ethe bottom half; I’d rather let the English have the running half\u003cbr\u003eanyway.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo far the name Emmett hasn’t done me much good, I’ve only used it nine\u003cbr\u003eor ten times since I had it, thrice at political speeches, a couple of\u003cbr\u003eFourth of July addresses, once on Decoration Day, once at a church\u003cbr\u003ewrangle, and a few times when I was mad. I find it doesn’t help me much\u003cbr\u003eon bank cheques, they get turned down as quickly with the Emmett signed\u003cbr\u003eas without it. If the name is ever going to do me any good I wish it\u003cbr\u003ewould hurry up and be a progressive or I will be compelled to think\u003cbr\u003efather was impartial and talked mother out of her rightful one-half\u003cbr\u003einterest.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter the ordeal of naming me had been fairly or unfairly dealt with, I\u003cbr\u003ewas told I was a free born American citizen and some day I might be\u003cbr\u003ePresident and have absolute dominion over the blue room, where I suppose\u003cbr\u003ethe chief executive goes when he has the “Blues.” I never considered\u003cbr\u003ethis encouragement very seriously, for, as I have read in some almanac,\u003cbr\u003ethere is only one chance in eighteen million, the odds are against the\u003cbr\u003eslim chance and it’s sort of a blue skim milk proposition or a church\u003cbr\u003eraffle affair, and if it’s the only time that opportunity is going to\u003cbr\u003eknock at my door I don’t think I’ll be at home, I’ll let Wilson do the\u003cbr\u003ebest he can and let some live Republican Progressive have my chance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf Wilson would only hurry up and get the Government to make those loans\u003cbr\u003ethey’ve been talking so long about and loan it, at about four per cent,\u003cbr\u003eto citizens like myself, irrespective of names and nationality, and not\u003cbr\u003ehave the principal come due too quickly, but in periods, like twenty\u003cbr\u003eyear franchises, I believe he ought to have a second term; but if he\u003cbr\u003edoesn’t get some loans placed pretty soon I don’t know what hard working\u003cbr\u003emen like myself are going to do.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe only thing I ask Wilson to be careful about when he loans the money\u003cbr\u003eis the rate. I don’t want to see the rate on loans as high as it was\u003cbr\u003eduring Cleveland’s second administration.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI borrowed eighteen dollars in 1894 to settle up a partnership fanning\u003cbr\u003edeal with a Methodist preacher. It seems that outside of the banks no\u003cbr\u003eone had any money, and you had to call on the gentleman banker, get down\u003cbr\u003eon your knees and have tears as large as pullet eggs rolling down your\u003cbr\u003ehollow cheeks, if you succeeded in your desires. Somehow the bankers\u003cbr\u003eknew they had a good thing; they not only got the fat and tallow but\u003cbr\u003ethey stripped you clear to the bone.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47147462459632,"sku":"2940013158290","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013158290_p0.jpg?v=1763577570","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013158290","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}