FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169  
170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   >>   >|  
sville, Wisconsin, I took the manuscript with me, intending to do the final work of revision on the train. All went well on the journey, the lecture had been given with no special tokens of disapproval on part of the audience, and I was on board the early morning train that leaves for Chicago. And as my mind is usually fairly clear in the early hours, I began work retouching the good manuscript. We were nearing Beloit when I bethought me to go into the Buffet-Car for a moment. When I returned the manuscript was not to be seen. I looked in various seats, and under the seats, asked my neighbors, inquired of the brakeman, and then hunted up the porter and asked him if he had seen my manuscript. He did not at first understand what I meant by the term "manuscript," but finally inquired if I referred to a pile of dirty, dog-eared sheets of paper, all marked up and down and over and crisscross, ev'ry-which-way. I assured him that he understood the case. He then informed me that he had "chucked the stuff," that is to say, he had tossed it out of the window, as he was cleaning up his car, just as he always did before reaching Chicago. I made a frantic reach for the bell-cord, but was restrained. A sympathetic passenger came forward and explained that five miles back he had seen the sheets of my precious manuscript sailing across the prairie. We were going at the rate of a mile a minute and the wind was blowing fiercely, so there was really no need of backing up the train to regain the lost goods. "I hope dem scribbled papers was no 'count, boss!" said the porter humbly, as I stood sort of dazed, gazing into vacancy. I shook myself into partial sanity. "Oh, they were of no value--I was looking for them so as to throw them out of the window myself," I answered. "Brush?" said he. "Yes," said I. I placed the expected quarter in his dusky palm, still pondering on what I should do. To reproduce the matter was impossible, for I have no verbal memory--something must be written, though. I decided to leave Chicago in an hour by the Lake Shore Railroad, and have the copy ready for the Roycroft boys when I reached home. This I did, and as I had no reference-books, maps or memoranda to guide me, the matter seems to lack synthesis. I say seems to lack--but it really doesn't, for the facts will all be found to be as stated. Still the form may be said to be slightly colored by the environment, so some explanation is
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169  
170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
manuscript
 

Chicago

 

inquired

 

matter

 

sheets

 
window
 
porter
 

intending

 
sanity
 

partial


answered

 

pondering

 
quarter
 

expected

 
gazing
 

backing

 
regain
 
blowing
 

fiercely

 

revision


humbly

 

scribbled

 

papers

 

vacancy

 

impossible

 

sville

 

synthesis

 

Wisconsin

 

memoranda

 

colored


environment

 
explanation
 

slightly

 

stated

 

reference

 
written
 

decided

 
minute
 

verbal

 
memory

Roycroft
 

reached

 
Railroad
 
reproduce
 

understand

 

tokens

 
disapproval
 

leaves

 
morning
 

audience