The Trimmed Lamp, and Other Stories of the Four Million — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Trimmed Lamp, and Other Stories of the Four Million
John Stuart Mill · en
In an hour Stuffy leaned back with a battle won. “Thankee kindly, sir,”
he puffed like a leaky steam pipe; “thankee kindly for a hearty meal.”
Then he arose heavily with glazed eyes and started toward the kitchen.
A waiter turned him about like a top, and pointed him toward the door.
The Old Gentleman carefully counted out $1.30 in silver change, leaving
three nickels for the waiter.
They parted as they did each year at the door, the Old Gentleman going
south, Stuffy north.
Around the first corner Stuffy turned, and stood for one minute. Then
he seemed to puff out his rags as an owl puffs out his feathers, and
fell to the sidewalk like a sunstricken horse.
When the ambulance came the young surgeon and the driver cursed softly
at his weight. There was no smell of whiskey to justify a transfer to
the patrol wagon, so Stuffy and his two dinners went to the hospital.
There they stretched him on a bed and began to test him for strange
diseases, with the hope of getting a chance at some problem with the
bare steel.
And lo! an hour later another ambulance brought the Old Gentleman. And
they laid him on another bed and spoke of appendicitis, for he looked
good for the bill.
But pretty soon one of the young doctors met one of the young nurses
whose eyes he liked, and stopped to chat with her about the cases.
“That nice old gentleman over there, now,” he said, “you wouldn’t think
that was a case of almost starvation. Proud old family, I guess. He
told me he hadn’t eaten a thing for three days.”
THE ASSESSOR OF SUCCESS
Hastings Beauchamp Morley sauntered across Union Square with a pitying
look at the hundreds that lolled upon the park benches. They were a
motley lot, he thought; the men with stolid, animal, unshaven faces;
the women wriggling and self-conscious, twining and untwining their
feet that hung four inches above the gravelled walks.
Were I Mr. Carnegie or Mr. Rockefeller I would put a few millions in my
inside pocket and make an appointment with all the Park Commissioners
(around the corner, if necessary), and arrange for benches in all the
parks of the world low enough for women to sit upon, and rest their
feet upon the ground. After that I might furnish libraries to towns
that would pay for ’em, or build sanitariums for crank professors, and
call ’em colleges, if I wanted to.
Women’s rights societies have been laboring for many years after
equality with man. With what result? When they sit on a bench they must
twist their ankles together and uncomfortably swing their highest
French heels clear of earthly support. Begin at the bottom, ladies. Get
your feet on the ground, and then rise to theories of mental equality.
Hastings Beauchamp Morley was carefully and neatly dressed. That was
the result of an instinct due to his birth and breeding. It is denied
us to look further into a man’s bosom than the starch on his shirt
front; so it is left to us only to recount his walks and conversation.