FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   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   >>   >|  
ed? One perfect month of loaferdom, to be remembered above all others and the night of the visit to Chitor, to be remembered even when the month is forgotten. Also the sad knowledge that of all the fair things seen, the inept pen gives but a feeble and blurred picture. Let those who have read to the end, pardon a hundred blemishes. FROM SEA TO SEA FROM SEA TO SEA MARCH-SEPTEMBER, 1889 No. I OF FREEDOM AND THE NECESSITY OF USING HER. THE MOTIVE AND THE SCHEME THAT WILL COME TO NOTHING. A DISQUISITION UPON THE OTHERNESS OF THINGS AND THE TORMENTS OF THE DAMNED. When all the world is young, lad, And all the trees are green, And every goose a swan, lad, And every lass a queen,-- Then hey for boot and horse, lad, And o'er the world away-- Young blood must have its course, lad, And every dog its day. After seven years it pleased Necessity, whom we all serve, to turn to me and say: "Now you need do Nothing Whatever. You are free to enjoy yourself. I will take the yoke of bondage from your neck for one year. What do you choose to do with my gift?" And I considered the matter in several lights. At first I held notions of regenerating Society; but it appeared that this would demand more than a year, and perhaps Society would not be grateful after all. Then I would fain enter upon one monumental "bust"; but I reflected that this at the outside could endure but three months, while the headache would last for nine. Then came by the person that I most hate,--a Globe-trotter. He, sitting in my chair, discussed India with the unbridled arrogance of five weeks on a Cook's ticket. He was from England and had dropped his manners in the Suez Canal. "I assure you," said he, "that you who live so close to the actual facts of things cannot form dispassionate judgments of their merits. You are too near. Now I--" he waved his hand modestly and left me to fill the gaps. I considered him, from his new helmet to his deck-shoes, and I perceived that he was but an ordinary man. I thought of India, maligned and silent India, given up to the ill-considered wanderings of such as he--of the land whose people are too busy to reply to the libels upon their life and manners. It was my destiny to avenge India upon nothing less than three-quarters of the world. The idea necessitated sacrifices,--painful sacrifices,--for I had to become a Globe-trotter, with a helmet and deck-shoes
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   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   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

considered

 
helmet
 

Society

 

trotter

 

remembered

 

manners

 
things
 
sacrifices
 

unbridled

 

arrogance


discussed

 

endure

 

months

 

monumental

 

reflected

 
headache
 

person

 
sitting
 

grateful

 

actual


people

 

wanderings

 

maligned

 
thought
 

silent

 

libels

 

necessitated

 

painful

 
quarters
 

destiny


avenge

 

ordinary

 
dropped
 

England

 

assure

 

dispassionate

 
judgments
 
perceived
 

merits

 

modestly


ticket
 

NECESSITY

 

FREEDOM

 

MOTIVE

 

hundred

 

pardon

 

blemishes

 
SEPTEMBER
 

SCHEME

 
THINGS