FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27  
28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   >>   >|  
ptown, afraid only that the park squirrels might club together to corner me. There are corners in grain. Why not in--but let that pass. I took the park wall in front of the great Mr. Carnegie's cottage at a single bound. He stood on his terrace and shouted, "Police!" He was quite logical. The Equal Franchise Society was having a May party in the park near the Harlem Mere. They had chosen the Honorable William Jennings Bryan as Queen of the May. He wore low congress-gaiters and white socks; he was walking under a canopy, crowned with paper flowers, his hair curled over his coat collar, the tips of his fingers were suavely joined over his abdomen. The moment he caught sight of me he shouted, "Police!" He was right. The cabinet lacked only me. And I might have consented to tarry--might have allowed myself to be apprehended for political purposes, had not a nobler, holier, more imperative duty urged me northward still. Though all Bloomingdale shouted, "Stop him!" and all Matteawan yelled, "Police!" I should not have consented to pause. Even the quackitudinous recognition spontaneously offered by the Metropolitan Museum had not been sufficient to decoy me to my fellows. I knew, of course, that I could find a sanctuary and a welcome in many places--in almost any sectarian edifice, any club, any newspaper office, any of the great publishers', any school, any museum; I knew that I would be welcomed at Columbia University, at the annex to the Hall of Fame, in the Bishop's Palace on Morningside Heights--there were many places all ready to receive, understand and honour me. For a sufficiently crippled intellect, for a still-born brain, for the intellectually aborted, there is always a place on some editorial, sectarian, or educational staff. Try It! But I had other ideas as I galloped northward. The voiceless summons of the most jealous of mistresses was making siren music in my ears. That coquettish jade, Science, was calling me by wireless, and I was responding with both legs. And so, at last, I arrived at the Bronx Park and dashed into the Administration Building where everybody rose and cheered me to the echo. I was at home at last, unterrified, undismayed, and ready again as always to dedicate my life to the service of Truth and to every caprice and whim of my immortal mistress, Science. But I don't want to marry her. _Magna est veritas! Sed major et longinquo reverentia._ CONTENTS The
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27  
28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Police

 
shouted
 
sectarian
 

consented

 

places

 

Science

 

northward

 

editorial

 
Palace
 

Bishop


welcomed

 

Columbia

 

museum

 

educational

 

Morningside

 

office

 

sufficiently

 

publishers

 

honour

 

edifice


receive
 

understand

 
University
 

crippled

 

aborted

 

school

 

intellectually

 

Heights

 

intellect

 

newspaper


calling

 

caprice

 

mistress

 
immortal
 

service

 

unterrified

 

undismayed

 
dedicate
 

longinquo

 

reverentia


CONTENTS

 

veritas

 

cheered

 

coquettish

 

wireless

 

making

 

summons

 

voiceless

 

jealous

 

mistresses