Arab Americans -- Fiction; Immigrants -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction
Shades of Whitman! But Whitman, thou Donkey, never weeps. Whitman, if
that goblin tried to silence him, would have wrung his neck, after he
had ridden upon it. The above, nevertheless, deserves the space we
give it here, as it shadows forth one of the essential elements of
Khalid's spiritual make-up. But this slight symptom of that disease we
named, this morbidness incident to adolescence, is eventually overcome
by a dictionary and a grammar. Ay, Khalid henceforth shall cease to
scour the horizon for that vague something of his dreams; he has
become far-sighted enough by the process to see the necessity of
pursuing in America something more spiritual than peddling crosses and
scapulars. Especially in this America, where the alphabet is spread
broadcast, and free of charge. And so, he sets himself to the task of
self-education. He feels the embryo stir within him, and in the
squeamishness of enceinteship, he asks but for a few of the fruits of
knowledge. Ah, but he becomes voracious of a sudden, and the little
pocket dictionary is devoured entirely in three sittings. Hence his
folly of treating his thoughts and fancies, as he was treated by the
goblin. For do not words often rob a fancy of its tongue, or a thought
of its soul? Many of the pieces Khalid wrote when he was devouring
dictionaries were finally disposed of in a most picturesque manner, as
we shall relate. And a few were given to Shakib, of which that Dream
of Cyclamens was preserved.
And Khalid's motto was, "One book at a time." He would not encumber
himself with books any more than he would with shoes. But that the
mind might not go barefoot, he always bought a new book before
destroying the one in hand. Destroying? Yes; for after reading or
studying a book, he warms his hands upon its flames, this Khalid, or
makes it serve to cook a pot of _mojadderah_. In this extraordinary
and outrageous manner, barbarously capricious, he would baptise the
ideal in the fire of the real. And thus, glowing with health and
confidence and conceit, he enters another Park from which he escapes
in the end, sad and wan and bankrupt. Of a truth, many attractions and
distractions are here; else he could not forget the peddling-box and
the light-heeled, heavy-haunched women of Battery Park. Here are
swings for the mind; toboggan-chutes for the soul; merry-go-rounds for
the fancy; and many devious and alluring paths where one can lose
himself for years. A sanitarium this for the hebephreniac. And like
all sanitariums, you go into it with one disease and come out of it
with ten. Had Shakib been forewarned of Khalid's mind, had he even
seen him at the gate before he entered, he would have given him a few
hints about the cross-signs and barbed-cordons therein. But should he
not have divined that Khalid soon or late was coming? Did _he_ not
call enough to him, and aloud? "Get thee behind me on this dromedary,"
our Scribe, reading his Al-Mutanabbi, would often say to his comrade,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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