"It makes me cross to see mesilf settin' here takin' a post grajate
coorse in our cillybrated univarsity iv th' Wicked Wur-ruld an' watchin'
th' freshmen comin' in. How happy they are, but how seeryous. How sure
they are iv ivrything. Us old fellows are sure iv nawthin'; we laugh but
we are not cheerful; we have no romance about th' colledge. Ye don't
hear us givin' nine long cheers f'r our almy matther. We ain't even
thankful f'r th' lessons it teaches us or th' wallops it hands us whin
we f'rget what we've been taught. We're a sad lot iv old la-ads, hatin'
th' school, but hatin' th' grajation exercises aven more.
"But 'tis a rale pleasure to see th' bright faced freshmen comin' in an'
I welcome th' last young fellow fr'm Harvard to our vin'rable
institution. I like to see these earnest, clear-eyed la-ads comin' in to
waken th' echoes iv our grim walls with their young voices. I'm sure th'
other undhergrajates will like him. He hasn't been spoiled be bein' th'
star iv his school f'r so long, Charles seems to me to be th' normal
healthy boy. He does exactly what all freshmen in our university do whin
they enther. He tells people what books they shud read an' he invints a
new relligon. Ivry well-ordhered la-ad has to get these two things out
iv his system at wanst. What books does he advise, says ye? I haven't
got th' complete list yet, but what I seen iv it was good. Speakin' fr
mesilf alone, I don't read books. They are too stimylatin'. I can get
th' same wrong idees iv life fr'm dhrink. But I shud say that if a man
was a confirmed book-reader, if he was a man that cudden't go to sleep
without takin' a book an' if he read befure breakfast, I shud think that
Doctor Eliot's very old vatted books are comparatively harmless. They
are sthrong it is thrue. They will go to th' head. I wud advise a man
who is aisily affected be books to stick to Archibald Clavering Gunter.
But they will hurt no man who's used to readin'. He has sawed thim out
carefully. 'Give me me tools,' says he, 'an' I will saw out a five-foot
shelf iv books.' An' he done it. He has th' right idee. He real-izes
that th' first thing to have in a libry is a shelf. Fr'm time to time
this can be decorated with lithrachure. But th' shelf is th' main thing.
Otherwise th' libry may get mixed up with readin' matther on th' table.
Th' shelf shud thin be nailed to th' wall iliven feet fr'm th' flure an'
hermetically sealed.
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