n I permit myself to be annoyed a slight headache
almost invariably ensues.

The concert began at the appointed hour. When the chairman announced me,
I advanced to the place reserved for those taking part and faced an
expectant and smiling assemblage. It was my intention to deliver the
well known address of Spartacus to the Gladiators. From the best
information on the subject we glean that Spartacus was in figure tall,
with a voice appreciably deep. I am not tall, nor burly, although of
suitable height for my breadth of frame. Nor can I, without vocal
strain, attain the rumbling bass tones so favoured by many
elocutionists. But I have been led to believe that a sonorousness of
delivery and a nice use of gesticulation and modulation compensate in me
for a lack of bulk, creating as it were an illusion of physical
impressiveness, of brawn, of thew and sinew. I bowed to the chairman,
and to the assemblage, cleared my throat and began.

You will recall, Mr. President, the dramatic opening phrase of this
recitation: "Ye call me chief and ye do well to call me chief." I had
reached the words, "and ye do well to call me chief----" when I became
aware of a startling manifestation upon the part of the flooring beneath
my feet. It was as though the solid planks heaved amain, causing the
carpeting to rise and fall in billows. I do not mean that this
phenomenon really occurred but only that it seemed to occur. I paused to
collect myself and began afresh, but now I progressed no further than,
"Ye call me chief----"

At this precise juncture I realised that I was rapidly becoming acutely
unwell. I could actually feel myself turning pale. I endeavoured to
utter a hurried word or two of explanation, but so swift was the
progress of my indisposition that already I found myself bereft of the
powers of sustained and coherent speech. I reeled where I stood. A great
and o'ermastering desire came upon me to go far away from there, to be
entirely alone, to have solitude, to cease for a time to look upon any
human face. Pressing the hem of a handkerchief to my lips, I turned and
blindly fled. Outside upon the deserted deck I was met by a steward who
ministered to me until such a time as I was able to leave the rail and
with his help to drag my exhausted frame to the privacy of my stateroom
where I remained in a state of semi-collapse, and quite supine, for the
greater part of the ensuing forty-eight hours.

I did not feel myself to be entir