| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: He is floating back from Cloud-Land now,
Borne by the fragrant air.
Spread wide your leaves, that he may choose
The flower he deems most fair."
Then the wild rose glowed with a deeper blush,
As she proudly waved on her stem;
The Cowslip bent to the clear blue waves,
And made her mirror of them.
Little Houstonia merrily danced,
And spread her white leaves wide;
While Daisy whispered her joy and hope,
Flower Fables |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Whirligigs by O. Henry: depicted a vast animal of unfamiliar species. In the act
of firing upon this monster is represented an unobtrusive
human levelling an obtrusive gun, once the colour of
bright gold. Now the legend above the picture is faded
beyond conjecture; the gun's relation to the title is a
matter of faith; the menaced animal, wearied of the long
aim of the hunter, has resolved itself into a shapeless blot.
The place is known as "Antonio's," as the name, white
upon the red-lit transparency, and gilt upon the windows,
attests. There is a promise in "Antonio"; a justifiable
expectancy of savoury things in oil and pepper and wine,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: "And if there's nothing at the theatres and everything else fails, you
can always go to one of the restaurants and hear the Americans eat."
There you have them, my anecdotes. They are chosen from many. I hope and
believe that, between them all, they cover the ground; that, taken
together as I want you to take them after you have taken them singly,
they make my several points clear. As I see it, they reveal the chief
whys and wherefores of friction between English and Americans. It is also
my hope that I have been equally disagreeable to everybody. If I am to be
banished from both countries, I shall try not to pass my exile in
Switzerland, which is indeed a lovely place, but just now too full of
celebrated Germans.
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