| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: note. Ere long there will be merry doings in Tenoctitlan.'
He was right. Within a week Montezuma was treacherously seized by
the Spaniards and kept a prisoner in their quarters, watched day
and night by their soldiers. Then came event upon event. Certain
lords in the coast lands having killed some Spaniards, were
summoned to Mexico by the instigation of Cortes. They came and
were burned alive in the courtyard of the palace. Nor was this
all, for Montezuma, their monarch, was forced to witness the
execution with fetters on his ankles. So low had the emperor of
the Aztecs fallen, that he must bear chains like a common felon.
After this insult he swore allegiance to the King of Spain, and
Montezuma's Daughter |
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 Buttered Side Down by Edna Ferber: remark huskily to his companion:
"The hook for him. R-r-r-rotten! That last one was an old
Weber'n Fields' gag. They discarded it back in '91. Say, the good
ones is all dead, anyhow. Take old Salvini, now, and Dan Rice.
Them was actors. Come on out and have something."
Does the short-story writer felicitate himself upon having
discovered a rare species in humanity's garden? The Blase Reader
flips the pages between his fingers, yawns, stretches, and remarks
to his wife:
"That's a clean lift from Kipling--or is it Conan Doyle?
Anyway, I've read something just like it before. Say, kid, guess
Buttered Side Down |
