The Youth of Parnassus, and Other StoriesSmith, Logan Pearsall
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The Youth of Parnassus, and Other Stories
Smith, Logan Pearsall
Short stories; University of Oxford -- Fiction
All at once, in the midst of the sleeping village, there appeared in
front of him a square red building, with brightly lighted windows.
Curious to know what was going on, he rode his machine up to one of the
windows, and, looking through the glass, misty from the heat and
perspiration within, he saw vague rows of dark figures, and an upright
shape moving its arms at the end of the hall. What could it be? Around
at the door, whither he wheeled himself, there was a big poster, partly
torn, with the word "Temperance" on it, and something else pinned across
it. "That's right, that's right!" the Sub-Warden exclaimed, "that's the
way to cut the ground from under the Radicals! Philpotts was right; it's
a question of drink, not of politics."
And so he got down from his tricycle and went in for a moment. Dazed by
the heat and light, he stood still and stared about. The orator also
stopped and stared at him. There were bright texts of Scripture and
temperance mottoes on the walls; but the Sub-Warden kept gazing at these
words, "The Lord is at Hand," hung in large letters over the orator's
head. But this orator was Thomas Woolley, his own pupil! Soon it all
seemed clear to him. Woolley was known as a Temperance speaker, and here
he had come to hold a meeting in a little village. The Sub-Warden
applauded, and Woolley began to speak again. But as he gasped a good
deal, and stuttered, the Sub-Warden could only catch phrases here and
there--cold remnants, they seemed to be, of what must have been written
as a fiery peroration. "The down-trodden--I mean the inactive ... the
great heart of humanity--and--and--things--.... Now is the time for
hand to join in hand, and rush to the banner--I mean, it would be better
if you would sign your names."
("That's the pledge-book," the Sub-Warden thought. "Yes, I dare say it's
right; you could not preach moderate drinking to labourers.")
"Deliver yourself from the classes--that--that profit by your
weakness...."
("That's the public-house keepers," the Sub-Warden reflected. "But why
does he call them classes?")
Woolley stared hard at the notes which he gripped in his hand, and then
he turned and pointed at a place at the back of the platform, which he
called "the Future," and began to speak about a model dwelling, a cow,
and a vine and fig-tree; then his voice sank, and he wavered and sat
down.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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