The Project Gutenberg EBook of This Simian World, by Clarence Day

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Title: This Simian World

Author: Clarence Day

Release Date: August 11, 2008 [EBook #26260]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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ALSO BY _CLARENCE DAY_

THE CROW'S NEST
THOUGHTS WITHOUT WORDS
GOD AND MY FATHER
IN THE GREEN MOUNTAIN COUNTRY
SCENES FROM THE MESOZOIC
LIFE WITH FATHER

THIS SIMIAN _WORLD_

_by_

CLARENCE DAY

_With Illustrations by the Author_

_New York & London_
ALFRED.A.KNOPF
1936

COPYRIGHT 1920, BY CLARENCE DAY

_All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a
reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a
magazine or newspaper._

_Published May 22, 1920_
_Reprinted Nine Times_
_Eleventh Printing, March, 1936_

_Manufactured in the United States of America_

"How I hate the man who talks about the 'brute creation,' with an ugly
emphasis on _brute_.... As for me, I am proud of my close kinship with
other animals. I take a jealous pride in my Simian ancestry. I like to
think that I was once a magnificent hairy fellow living in the trees,
and that my frame has come down through geological time via sea jelly
and worms and Amphioxus, Fish, Dinosaurs, and Apes. Who would exchange
these for the pallid couple in the Garden of Eden?"

W. N. P. BARBELLION.

_THIS SIMIAN WORLD_

_ONE_

Last Sunday, Potter took me out driving along upper Broadway, where
those long rows of tall new apartment houses were built a few years
ago. It was a mild afternoon and great crowds of people were out.
Sunday afternoon crowds. They were not going anywhere,--they were just
strolling up and down, staring at each other, and talking. There were
thousands and thousands of them.

"Awful, aren't they!" said Potter.

I didn't know what he meant. When he added, "Why, these crowds," I
turned and asked, "Why, what about them?" I wasn't sure whether he had