Hey Rub-a-dub-dub: A Book of the Mystery and Wonder and Terror of Life — John Shaqi
Hey Rub-a-dub-dub: A Book of the Mystery and Wonder and Terror of LifeDreiser, Theodore
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Hey Rub-a-dub-dub: A Book of the Mystery and Wonder and Terror of Life
Dreiser, Theodore
American essays -- 20th century
(1) A girl falls in love with a boy to whom the father takes an instant
dislike. The father is not better than the lover, just different. The
girl and boy are aflame (no chemical law of their invention, mind you),
and when the father opposes them they wed secretly. Result, rage. A weak
temperament on the part of the father (no invention of his own) causes
him to drink. On sight, in liquor, he kills the youth. The law says he
must be hung unless justified. A lie on the part of the girl defaming
the lover-husband will save the father. On which side now do right,
truth, justice, mercy stand?
(2) A man has a great trade idea. He sees where by combining fourteen
companies he can reduce cost of manufacture and sell a very necessary
product to the public at a reduced rate, the while he makes himself
rich. In the matter of principle and procedure (right, truth, justice,
etc.), since his competitors will not sell out, he is confronted by the
following propositions: (a) forming a joint stock company and permitting
them all to share in the profits; (b) giving them the idea, asking
nothing, and allowing them to form a company of their own, so helping
humanity; (c) making a secret combination with four or five and
underselling the others and so compel them to sell or quit; (d) doing
nothing, letting time and chance work and the public wait. Now it so
happens that the second and fourth are the only things that can be done
without opposition. He is a man of brains and ideals. What are his
rights, duties, privileges? Where do justice, mercy, truth, fit in here,
and how?
(3) A man’s son has committed a crime. The man realizes that owing to
deficiencies of his own he has never been able to give the boy a right
training or a fair chance. The law demands that he give up his son, even
though he loves him dearly and feels himself responsible. Where do
right, justice, mercy work here, and can they be made harmonious and
consonant?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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