American Thumb-prints: Mettle of Our Men and WomenStephens, Kate
History
American Thumb-prints: Mettle of Our Men and Women
Stephens, Kate
National characteristics, American; University of Kansas; Women -- Social conditions
Moving among them you would readily see signs of that “possession of
the god” the Greeks meant when they said ἐνθουσιαμóς. Characteristic
marks of it were at every turn. There was the mobile body--nervous,
angular, expressive--and a skin of fine grain. There was the longish
hair, matted, if very fine, in broad locks; if coarse, standing about
the head in electric stiffness and confusion--the hair shown in the
print of John Brown, in fact. There were eyes often saddened by the
sleeplessness of the idealist--eyes with an uneasy glitter and a vision
directed far away, as if not noting life, nor death, nor daily things
near by, but fixed rather upon some startling shape on the horizon.
The teeth were inclined to wedge-shape and set far apart. There was a
firmly shut and finely curved mouth. “We make our own mouths,” says Dr.
Holmes. About this people was smouldering fire which might leap into
flame at any gust of mischance or oppression.
This describes the appearance in later decades of the corporate man of
the fifties and early sixties--
“to whom was given
So much of earth, so much of heaven,
And such impetuous blood.”
A sky whose mystery and melancholy, whose solitary calm and elemental
rage stimulate and depress even his penned and grazing cattle, has
spread over him for more than a generation. With his intensity and his
predisposition to a new contrat social he and his descendants have been
subjected to Kansas heat, which at times marks more than one hundred in
the shade, and to a frost that leaves the check of the thermometer far
below zero. He and his children, cultivators of their rich soil, have
been subject to off-years in wheat and corn. They have endured a period
of agricultural depression prolonged because world-wide. They have been
subject, too, to the manipulation of boomers.
Most lymphatic men--any Bœotian, in fact, but it is long before his fat
bottom lands will make a Bœotian out of a Kansan--most lymphatic men
ploughing, planting, and simply and honestly living would be affected
to discontent by the thunder of booms and their kaleidoscopic deceit.
Clever and sometimes unprincipled promoters representing more clever
and unprincipled bond-sellers in Eastern counting-houses sought to
incite speculation and lead the natural idealist by the glamour of
town-building, and county-forming booms, railway and irrigation booms,
and countless other projects.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account