Produced by Al Haines
1914
Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1913
Reprinted March, 1914.
Listen! If but women were
Half as kind as they are fair
There would be an end to all
Miseries that do appal.
Cloud and wind would fly together
In a dance of sunny weather,
And the happy trees would throw
Gifts to travellers below.
Then the lion, meek and mild,
With the lamb would, side by side,
Couch him friendly, and would be
Innocent of enmity.
Then the Frozen Pole would go,
Shaking off his fields of snow,
To a kinder clime and dance
Warmly with the girls of France.
These; if women only were
Half as kind as they are fair.
He had a high nose. He looked at one over the collar, so to speak.His regard was very assured, and his speech was that short bundle ofmonosyllables which the subaltern throws at the orderly. He had neverbeen questioned, and, the precedent being absent, he had neverquestioned himself. Why should he? We live by question and answer,but we do not know the reply to anything until a puzzled comradebothers us and initiates that divine curiosity which both humbles anduplifts us.
He wanted all things for himself. What he owned he wished to owncompletely. He would give anything away with the largest generosity,but he would share with no one—
"Whatever is mine," said he, "must be entirely mine. If it is alive Iclaim its duty to the last respiration of its breath, and if it is deadI cannot permit a mortgage on it. Have you a claim on anythingbelonging to me? then you may have it entirely, I must have all of itor none."
He was a stockbroker, and, by the methods peculiar to that mysteriousprofession, he had captured a sufficiency of money to enable him toregard the future with calmness and his fellow-creatures withcondescension—perhaps the happiest state to which a certain humanitycan attain.
So far matters were in order. There remained nothing to round his lifeinto the complete, harmonious circle except a wife; but as a statedincome has the choice of a large supply, he shortly discovered a ladywhose qualifications were such as would ornament any, however exalted,position—She was sound in wind and limb. She spoke grammar with theutmost precision, and she could play the piano with such skill that itwas difficult to explain why she played it badly.
Th