IV
Babbitt promised to become a recognized orator. He entertained
a Smoker of the Men's Club of the Chatham Road
presbyterian Church with Irish, Jewish, and Chinese dialect
stories.
But in nothing was he more clearly revealed as the Prominent
Citizen than in his lecture on "Brass Tacks Facts on
Real Estate,'' as delivered before the class in Sales Methods
at the Zenith Y.M.C.A.
The Advocate-Times reported the lecture so fully that
Vergil Gunch said to Babbitt, "You're getting to be one of
the classiest spellbinders in town. Seems 's if I couldn't pick
up a paper without reading about your well-known eloquence.
All this guff ought to bring a lot of business into your office.
Good work! Keep it up!''
"Go on, quit your kidding,'' said Babbitt feebly, but at this
tribute from Gunch, himself a man of no mean oratorical fame,
he expanded with delight and wondered how, before his vacation,
he could have questioned the joys of being a solid citizen.
