From The Topeka State Journal, February 11, 1914. By Roy K. Moulton.
When he made just three plunks a week
He thought if he made five
He’d surely be the happiest
Young business man alive.
He finally got five a week,
But wasn’t happy then.
He never would be satisfied
Until he pulled down ten.
When he got ten a week he thought
His compensation mean;
He knew he’d reach his heart’s desire
If he could get fifteen.
He got his fifteen, then he knew
A person could not thrive
In this expensive day and age
On less than twenty five.
He finally got twenty five,
The sum he’d thought so nifty,
But found he couldn’t be content
And live on less than fifty.
He got his fifty one fine day,
And then he found out that
He never could be happy quite
Without one hundred flat.
He made some wise deals after that
And gathered in a million.
But was he happy? No, indeed,
He had to have a billion.
And it is safe to say that if
He really got his billion,
Old age could find him fighting to
Accumulate a trillion.