Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, Vol. 2. No. 13, October, 1920: America's Magazine of Wit, Humor and FilosophyVarious
General
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, Vol. 2. No. 13, October, 1920: America's Magazine of Wit, Humor and Filosophy
Various
American wit and humor -- Periodicals
Doubtless she would; but perhaps not exactly as she means it. Wandering
“unclothed into people’s parlors,” if police vigilance could be eluded,
might be a way of seeing ourselves as others see us, since the owners of
the parlors would probably be startled into candid comment, instead of,
as usual, waiting until the unclad back of the visitant was turned. It
would be a happy arrangement if only the truly symmetrical would indulge
in semi-nudity. Such exhibitions are a form of female vanity; but if the
average woman will but realize it, she owes any admiration she may excite
to the saving graces of clothes. If she is wise she will foster the
illusion. As a poet of another era expressed it, “Oh, the little less,
and what worlds away!”
_In the Grip of a Dream_
The dreamer is with us. From early youth there comes anon a time when the
sense of great loneliness and mysticism leads one out to the wilderness
of the Dream God. Conceptions of dreams and of love are two difficult
tasks, but Robert W. Chambers seems to have made greater headway than
other authors. In his book, “The Danger Mark,” he thus describes the
feelings that passed over poor, troubled Geraldine:
“We’re pretty young yet, Geraldine.... I never saw a girl I cared for
as I might have cared for you. It’s true, no matter what I have done,
or may do.... But you’re quite right, a man of that sort isn’t to be
considered,” he laughed and pulled on one glove, “only--I knew as soon
as I saw you that it was to be you or--everybody. First, it was anybody;
then it was you--now it’s everybody. Good-bye.”
“Good-bye,” she managed to say. The dizzy waves swayed her; she rested
her cheeks between both hands and, leaning there heavily, closed her eyes
to fight against it. She had been seated on the side of a lounge; and
now, feeling blindly behind her, she moved the cushions aside, turned
and dropped among them, burying her blazing face. Over her the scorching
vertigo swept, subsided, rose, and swept again. Oh, the horror of
it!--the shame, the agonized surprise. What was this dreadful thing that,
for the second time, she had unwittingly done? And this time it was so
much more terrible. How could such an accident have happened to her? How
could she face her own soul in the disgrace of it?
Fear, loathing, frightened incredulity that this could really be herself,
stiffened her body, and clinched her hands under her parted lips. On them
her hot breath fell irregularly.
Rigid, motionless, she lay, breathing faster and more feverishly. Tears
came after a long while, and with them relaxation and lassitude. She felt
that the dreadful thing which had seized and held her was letting go its
hold, was freeing her body and mind; and as it slowly released her and
passed on its terrible silent way, she awoke and sat up with a frightened
cry, to find herself lying on her own bed in utter darkness.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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