Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 1444-h.htm or 1444-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/4/1444/1444-h/1444-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/4/1444/1444-h.zip) THE VOICE OF THE CITY Further Stories of the Four Million by O. HENRY Author of "The Four Million," "The Trimmed Lamp," "Strictly Business," "Whirligigs," "Sixes and Sevens," Etc. 1919 CONTENTS I. THE VOICE OF THE CITY II. THE COMPLETE LIFE OF JOHN HOPKINS III. A LICKPENNY LOVER IV. DOUGHERTY'S EYE-OPENER V. "LITTLE SPECK IN GARNERED FRUIT" VI. THE HARBINGER VII. WHILE THE AUTO WAITS VIII. A COMEDY IN RUBBER IX. ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS X. THE DEFEAT OF THE CITY XI. THE SHOCKS OF DOOM XII. THE PLUTONIAN FIRE XIII. NEMESIS AND THE CANDY MAN XIV. SQUARING THE CIRCLE XV. ROSES, RUSES AND ROMANCE XVI. THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT XVII. THE EASTER OF THE SOUL XVIII. THE FOOL-KILLER XIX. TRANSIENTS IN ARCADIA XX. THE RATHSKELLER AND THE ROSE XXI. THE CLARION CALL XXII. EXTRADITED FROM BOHEMIA XXIII. A PHILISTINE IN BOHEMIA XXIV. FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS ABILITY XXV. THE MEMENTO I THE VOICE OF THE CITY Twenty-five years ago the school children used to chant their lessons. The manner of their delivery was a singsong recitative between the utterance of an Episcopal minister and the drone of a tired sawmill. I mean no disrespect. We must have lumber and sawdust. I remember one beautiful and instructive little lyric that emanated from the physiology class. The most striking line of it was this: "The shin-bone is the long-est bone in the hu-man bod-y." What an inestimable boon it would have been if all the corporeal and spiritual facts pertaining to man had thus been tunefully and logically inculcated in our youthful minds! But what we gained in anatomy, music and philosophy was meagre. The other day I became confused. I needed a ray of light. I turned back to those school days for aid. But in all the nasal harmonies we whined forth from those hard benches I could not recall one that treated of the voice of agglomerated mankind. In other words, of the composite vocal message of massed humanity. In other words, of the Voice of a Big City. Now, the individual voice is not lacking. We can understand the song of the poet, the ripple of the brook, the meaning of the man who wants $5 until next Monday, the inscriptions on the tombs of the Pharaohs, the language of flowers, the "step lively" of the conductor, and the prelude of the milk cans at 4 A. M. Certain large-eared ones even assert that they are wise to the vibrations of the tympanum produced by concussion of the air emanating from Mr. H. James. But who can comprehend the meaning of the voice of the city? I went out for to see.