LEONARD KRIEGEL
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reputation as any respectable retailer. Investments in reputation must be
earned . " You got to understand, " my uncle explains .
"They
got to win .
They know it . It 's always a percentage on a season for them . The long run . So
what is Pete? A runner. Their telephone man. Him they don ' t need . Him
they buy and sell like my boss buys skins . You understand , it 's percentage?
Theygot to beat me. I know it . But if! think they're going to take my money
even when I beat them , when I give their man a horse and after the horse
comes home he tells me he couldn 't phone the bet in , am I going to bet with
their man if they do that? Like hell! Am I crazy? Business is business . When
you come down to it, they're more honest than any manufacturer I've ever
known . Listen , they can afford to be . They got to win. ' ,
There are motions of the spirit here , too. On the corner of 206th and
Bainbridge , America is doing its work, tightening our souls, molding,
shaping, branding , stamping us . I can understand the hunger which sends
them scurrying to the ttotters at Yonkers evening after evening . They are
Americans now .
