an honest profession

"Author: Sir, why did you become a publisher? We shall have the answer by return mail. But permit me to say one thing in advance. I figure in your records as number 27. You have published five of my books; in other words, you have put your money five times on number 27. I am sorry that number 27 did not prove a winner. Incidentally, you took only coupled bets. Only because I come next to your lucky number 28 . . . Now you know why you became a publisher. You might just as well have entered an honest profession, like your esteemed father."

~~ from One-Way Street by Walter Benjamin