Today's Stichomancy for W. C. Fields
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: weaned, by the secretary-general of the enterprise, who freed his mind
of its swaddling-clothes, showed him the dark holes of the business,
taught him its dialect, took the mechanism apart bit by bit, dissected
for his instruction the particular public he was expected to gull,
crammed him with phrases, fed him with impromptu replies, provisioned
him with unanswerable arguments, and, so to speak, sharpened the file
of the tongue which was about to operate upon the life of France.
The puppet amply rewarded the pains bestowed upon him. The heads of
the company boasted of the illustrious Gaudissart, showed him such
attention and proclaimed the great talents of this perambulating
prospectus so loudly in the sphere of exalted banking and commercial
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: ecclesiastic succumbs, like King Herod, to the fascination of a
dancer.
It is not usually known in England that a young French naval
officer, unaware that Dr. Strauss was composing an opera on the
theme of Salome, wrote another music drama to accompany Wilde's
text. The exclusive musical rights having been already secured by
Dr. Strauss, Lieutenant Marriotte's work cannot be performed
regularly. One presentation, however, was permitted at Lyons, the
composer's native town, where I am told it made an extraordinary
impression. In order to give English readers some faint idea of the
world-wide effect of Wilde's drama, my friend Mr. Walter Ledger has
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: Although often annoyed, and sometimes outraged, by this prejudice
against color, I am indebted to it for many passages of quiet
amusement. A half-cured subject of it is sometimes driven into
awkward straits, especially if he happens to get a genuine
specimen of the race into his house.
<311 AMUSING SCENE>
In the summer of 1843, I was traveling and lecturing, in company
with William A. White, Esq., through the state of Indiana. Anti-
slavery friends were not very abundant in Indiana, at that time,
and beds were not more plentiful than friends. We often slept
out, in preference to sleeping in the houses, at some points. At
 My Bondage and My Freedom |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: gauntlet, which protects the shoulder, arm, and elbow, with the hand
engaged in holding the reins, being so constructed as to extend and
contract; in addition to which it covers the gap left by the corselet
under the armpit. The case is different with the right hand, which the
horseman must needs raise to discharge a javelin or strike a blow.
Here, accordingly, any part of the corselet which would hinder action
out to be removed; in place of which the corselet ought to have some
extra flaps[6] at the joints, which as the outstretched arm is raised
unfold, and as the arm descends close tight again. The arm itself,[7]
it seems to us, will better be protected by a piece like a greave
stretched over it than bound up with the corselet. Again, the part
 On Horsemanship |
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