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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:08:12 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:08:12 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/37530-h.zip b/37530-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cd90cfa --- /dev/null +++ b/37530-h.zip diff --git a/37530-h/37530-h.htm b/37530-h/37530-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4b16f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/37530-h/37530-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1407 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of THE STORY OF AN OSTRICH by Edmund Nolcini. + </title> + <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.big {font-size: 150%;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: -1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:smaller; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; } + +img.cap { float:left; + margin: -0.5em 0.5em 0 0; + position:relative; } + +p.cap_1 { text-indent: -0.8em;} + +p.cap_2 { text-indent: -1em;} + +div.drop p:first-letter { color:Window; } + +div.drop p { margin-bottom:0; } + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of an Ostrich, by Judd Isaacs + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Story of an Ostrich + An Allegory and Humorous Satire in Rhyme. + +Author: Judd Isaacs + +Illustrator: Edmund Nolcini + +Release Date: September 25, 2011 [EBook #37530] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF AN OSTRICH *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Anna Hall and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p class="transnote"> +<span class="big">Transcriber's note:</span><br /> +Where the text and images were intertwined I've provided an image of the original page followed by a text version.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 445px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="445" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/i_002.jpg"><img src="images/i_002_s.jpg" width="400" height="600" alt="" title="" /></a> +</div> + +<h1>THE<br /> +STORY OF AN OSTRICH</h1> + +<p class="center">AN ALLEGORY<br /> +AND<br /> +HUMOROUS SATIRE<br /> +IN RHYME +</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Interpreted and Illustrated</span><br /> +BY<br /> +<span class="smcap">Edmund Nolcini</span></p> + +<p class="center">PUBLISHED BY THE<br /> +HAND PRINT BOOK FOLK,<br /> +BACK BAY, BOSTON, MASS. +</p> + +<p class="center">COPYRIGHTED, 1903,<br /> +BY THE<br /> +HAND PRINT BOOK FOLK, BOSTON, MASS.<br /> +</p> + +<p><br />ALL THE ILLUSTRATIONS HERE SHOWN, INCLUDING THE TITLE PAGE, ARE +REPRODUCED FROM PEN DRAWINGS MADE EXPRESSLY FOR THIS BOOK, AT GREAT +EXPENSE, AND ALL PERSONS ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED NOT TO REPRODUCE THEM +WITHOUT PERMISSION</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>PUBLISHER'S PREFACE</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/i_004.jpg" width="150" height="84" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Whatever</span> other merit may be discovered in this book, the publishers +desire to call attention to the fact that, as a whole, it is a +production altogether unique in a field of endeavor where something new +is being constantly sought, but seldom found.</p> + +<p>The poem is entirely hand-printed in large and legible letters, +designedly kept free from ornate fancies and, therefore, particularly +easy to read. The hand-printing accords with the adjoining illustrations +as angular and machine-made type never does, giving a pleasing and +harmonious effect to the entire page, a result not to be obtained by the +ordinary art of the printer.</p> + +<p>Attention is also called to the illustrations of the volume. Their +merely mechanical arrangement upon the page is in itself unusual, we +might almost say unknown to the reading public, while the imaginative +story that the artist has told in the illustrations that he has +contributed, is not only of the real and material world, but also of +powers behind the scenes, which offer the motives and even supply the +cues of most, if not all of the actors, who perform upon the great stage +of life. In this, too, the book is unusual, if not unique, and offers a +fertile field to the imagination of a discerning public in connection +with the delicious humor of the poem itself.</p> + +<p>While, therefore, fully conscious of how far short the volume falls from +what might be done in the direction in which it only points the way, the +publishers offer it as one of a series now in preparation, of similar +works which, it is believed, will be found worthy of more than a few +moments of the amused attention of the reader.</p> + +<p class="smcap right"> +The Hand Print Book Folk.</p> +<p> +<i>Back Bay, Boston, Mass., October, 1903.</i><br /> +</p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 330px;"><a href="images/i_005.jpg"> +<img src="images/i_005_s.jpg" width="330" height="496" alt="" title="" /> +</a></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>Artist's Announcement</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/i_006_a.jpg" width="150" height="75" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="drop"> +<img src="images/i_006_b.jpg" width="70" height="73" alt="I" title="" class="cap" /> +<p class="cap_1">IF the reader will pardon an unconventional obtrusion upon his attention +for a brief moment, he may be interested to follow somewhat the train of +thought in the artist's mind prior to his beginning to illustrate this +book.</p> +</div> + +<p>When "The Story of an Ostrich" was put into his hands, his first +impression was, "Here is a merely juvenile theme, to be treated with +light, conventional and ornamental drawings, as an adornment to a fairy +tale."</p> + +<p>As he read it, he gradually perceived a deeper significance concealed +beneath the laugh that must inevitably be aroused at the thought of the +ridiculous figure of the foolish ostrich pecking away at his homely +feet, under the delusion that they are not his own.</p> + +<p>The longer he studied and pondered over it, the more was he impressed +with the conviction that underneath the simple phraseology of the poem, +the author had conveyed a lesson that humanity might well pause and +heed.... In these days of "making many books," how welcome should be that +one whose story aims to raise the burden that weighs down the surcharged +heart, or seeks to still the fever coursing through the blood of men and +women struggling with the complicated problems of life!</p> + +<p>"The Story of an Ostrich" is so simple in its form that children may +read it with pleasure and profit, thereby drawing the simpler moral +from the tale; while there is also suggested a possible condition of +society that shall be attuned to the perfect chord of divine law, +through the subordination of individualism in such manner as to produce +complete harmony in all human affairs.</p> + +<p>In the pride and dominance of the head over the rest of the body, in its +scorn of the feet, equally indispensable with the head to the welfare of +the whole, the poem has struck at the discordant note of all our human +disaffection and rebellion.</p> + +<p>When the artist had thus searched and found between the lines the real +motive of the poem, it at once became pregnant with allusions and +references that suggested artistic elaboration, or pen analysis, of the +large area of social life, which the allegory, in its semi-humorous, +satirical vein, assumes to cover.</p> + +<p>If his pencil seems at times to wander far afield, either in elaboration +or disregard of the canon principles of art, his plea must be that the +interpretation he has given is according to his carefully studied +conception of what the author must have had in mind when writing "The +Story of an Ostrich."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/i_007.jpg" width="400" height="110" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a href="images/i_008.jpg"> +<img src="images/i_008_s.jpg" width="400" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</a></div> + +<p class= "center"><i>Thou sluggard in bonds to a vision of night,<br /> +Be not a king's fool, but a proud man of might:<br /> +Arise like a lord, that ye may not be slain,<br /> +No door shall imprison, no hope be in vain;<br /> +The world is for conquest, who seeks for such goal,<br /> +Will find the chain riven, the key in his soul!</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><i>The unknown spake out of the firmament, saying,—</i></p> + +<p><i>"Choose ye one instrument first, and then attune another one to it. This accomplished, +attune then a third instrument to them; after that a fourth, and so on; +and ye shall be all attuned alike."</i></p> + +<p><i>Thereupon, the musicians set to work, but could not agree as to whose +should be the first instrument.</i></p> + +<p><i>A pillar of fire descended from Heaven and stood in the midst of the +musicians; and in the centre of the pillar of fire there appeared an +instrument called the All Perfect. The instrument gave forth one note +and all the musicians attuned to it. The Voice said, "I have given the +keynote, find ye the rest!"</i></p> + +<p><i>The pillar of fire departed. The instruments thus attuned in harmony +played rapturously.</i></p> + +<p><i>This I perceive,—to make the man and wife one, to make the village +one, to make the state one, to make the empire one,—all in harmony as +one instrument, cannot be done without a Central Son, a Creator to +attune to. When a man is attuned to Him, and a woman is attuned to Him, +they will themselves be as one. When the family and the village are +attuned to Him, it is easy. Without Him harmony cannot be.</i></p> + +<p><i>He, the Creator, then, must be first in all things, first in all +places. He must be the nearest of all things, the nearest of all places. +In our rites and ceremonies, He must be the All Ideal Perfection, the +embodiment of a Perfect Person.</i>—Book of Saphah.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h2>The Story of an Ostrich</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 355px;"><a href="images/i_010.jpg"> +<img src="images/i_010_s.jpg" width="355" height="471" alt="" title="" /> +</a></div> + +<p class="center">BY<br /> + +<span class="big">JUDD ISAACS,</span> + +<span class="smcap">Formerly Editor of the Yankee Blade, +New England Magazine, Nickell Magazine.</span> +</p> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 411px;"><a href="images/i_011.jpg"> +<img src="images/i_011_s.jpg" width="411" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</a></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="center">The Story of an Ostrich.</span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A robust old ostrich, with head little bigger<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than that of some creatures of far frailer figure,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With two legs complete, and a speed very fleet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Once caught a short peep at his feet, in the street.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So far from his head did they seem to be located,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He failed to take note that upon each were notated<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scales, warts and abrasions, nails, ossification,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which proved them a part of his own corporation.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He noticed, however, wherever he went,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They came along, too, and he asked what it meant?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though he walked through the town, or he stalked o'er the heath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He observed they remained, always, right underneath.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He thrust out his bust and inside he just cussed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When they strode along and kept kicking up dust;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But in vain did he feign to abstain from disdain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As he dined with the twain in the wind and the rain;<br /></span> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<i>Copyrighted by the Hand Print Book Folk, Boston, Mass.</i> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 405px;"><a href="images/i_012.jpg"> +<img src="images/i_012_s.jpg" width="405" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</a></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Or stared around therein, while wearing a bear-grin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Evincing an evident, ill-concealed chagrin.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So very ungainly were they, like a tumor,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ostrich, at last, got in very bad humor;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, failing to recognise them as his own,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made a peck with his beak that went clear to the bone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which gave all his nerves such a terrible thrill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He quick pecked another hard peck with his bill;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With each peck a quiver, his frame shook with shivers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if his limp liver were pierced with slim slivers,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till both his great feet with his heart's blood were red,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oozing out on the ground, as he'd painfully tread.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It was strange that his feet, thus, he blindly maltreated,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Debased his escheat and his comfort defeated!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a matter of fact, he never had noticed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How he'd got around; and he'd not the remotest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Idea that his own high position depended<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On two ugly feet that his good taste offended.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>The Undertone</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/i_006_a.jpg" width="150" height="75" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h3><i>I.</i></h3> + +<div class="drop"> +<img src="images/i_014_s.jpg" width="70" height="66" alt="T" title="" class="cap" /> +<p class="cap_2">The thoughtful student of modern, social, and economic conditions, who +reads the accompanying rhymed satire, "The Story of an Ostrich," will +discover in it much more than the mere words would ordinarily convey, +and will read into it such measure of philosophy as his own experience +and critical study of the problem of human existence may have prepared +him for.</p> +</div> + +<p>When, ten thousand years ago, the owl sat in the light of the moon and +unknown deities spat wisdom into the philosophies of Hermes and +Zoroaster and their more or less erudite predecessors, the earliest +gods, with their bird-like heads and male bodies, were yet vehicles of +truth, elevating the frail stock of humanity over which they threw their +benign influences.</p> + +<p>Since recorded history began, the world has had many gods, and many +books concerning them have been written, determining by much labor of +the head which should be worshiped, rather than impressing the heart +with sincere desire to travel in divinely appointed ways. As "the mere +grasses," priests and kings have trampled upon the masses—have been at +once their masters, their deities and interpreters of deity. Their rank +materialism has always complacently overrated itself, while the world, +which labors and runs, has ever been chained to and crushed beneath it. +Man knew not the power of God within himself.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 418px;"><a href="images/i_017.jpg"> +<img src="images/i_017_s.jpg" width="418" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</a></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Although, from his youth up, they'd always been going,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His mental inertia prevented his knowing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That all lofty heads must have good understanding,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To retain, out of hand, a position commanding;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So, he would still peck, though it hurt, and despise them,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And swear, by the gods, he would not recognise them!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But those homely feet, which for long had done duty:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mid lowly conditions, lay'ng no claim to beauty<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of pinion, or plume, yet upholding together<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The framework of bone, with its blood, flesh and feather,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The which makes an ostrich of wit and assurance,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At last reached the limit of patient endurance.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They turned about, then,—the proverbial worm,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And punched his head hard,—to use a slang term;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So forceful and rapid they got in their work,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ostrich, in agony, let out a "quirk!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As, weakened by suff'ring, disheartened by pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A hint of the truth dawned upon his dull brain.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;"><a href="images/i_018.jpg"> +<img src="images/i_018_s.jpg" width="420" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</a></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Self-centred, astounded, indignant, demented,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ostrich, not yet half acquainted, resented<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The silent upheaval, he'd felt, of the masses,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He'd, heretofore, held to be as the mere grasses;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They having objected, he'd make no contention,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though he wondered how he'd interpose intervention<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enough to protect him from any more kicking<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like that, which was, now, in his mem'ry still sticking.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Overwhelmed with emotion he could not command,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hurt ostrich buried his head in the sand,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Away from his sight shut his two mangled feet out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest they his own ostrich fool brains should quite beat out,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus hiding himself, as he thought, in his shame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the world, though he still stood revealed just the same.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Twas then a near neighbor, who'd watched with close scrutiny,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The clumsy feet operate during the mutiny,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Interfered to propose they adopt arbitration,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And settle their difference with more moderation.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h3><i>II.</i></h3> + +<p>Many unthinking as well as vicious men, in both ancient and modern +times, who have by accident of birth and condition been set in authority +over their fellows, or, who have by their own efforts been raised to +positions of power and responsibility in the state and among the great +captains of industry, have thought to ignore their dependence upon the +lower orders of society for the very altitude they have enjoyed—the +head refusing, as it were, to consider the feet as a part of the body +corporate and entitled to no more than the pleasure of mere existence. +Such heads apply no healing balms to weak and wounded +extremities, but proffer, instead, the scourge, <i>i.e.</i>, starvation, long +days of poorly remunerated toil, squalid surroundings,—in ancient times +the guillotine, the gallows and the rack; in modern days, ostracism, the +prison and the electric chair. The blood of Christ's divinity flowed +that love and mercy might be exemplified, but it cannot sprinkle the +world with saving grace, so long as its own herald, the church, +continues to say, "Amen!" to the master, and "Peace, be still!" to the +slave.</p> + +<p>When there crept into the world the first dull, unreasoning sense of +injury,—when the underlings of humanity first began to assimilate from +the common vein of intelligence that made them one with the body, a +sensible desire for recognition on the ground of equality, they were +promptly denied any part whatsoever in the material and spiritual +accretions of generations of labor; and then was inaugurated the revolt +that has been prolific through all past time, of war and misery, of +violence, pillage and murder.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.</i></h3> + +<p>In the light of experience the heads of humanity have seldom profited by +the tutelage of whips and blood and torture. Without respect for rights +and demands when opposed to their selfish material interests, they have +held not their Bibles in their hands, where the light might illumine its +pages, but have placed the sacred book under their feet while making +prayers to stocks and bonds.</p> + +<p>But the knights-errant are in the saddle, and with the true spirit of +knighthood they may be found in the thick of the politic battle, where +they are making clear the path for greater powers that shall follow with +purging force to cleanse the great body and through a long and cruel +strife establish the contentious parts in truth and unity.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.</i></h3> + +<p>Mighty powers of the state are asleep at the post of duty, when, lo! an +issue arises,—the mice are in the government meal-bag,—the spirits of +fire and distraction are abroad; wealth and power are being attacked +from beneath! The great hand of the law reaches forth to seize upon the +offender and to snuff out his little, palpitating human life, that, far +from being the cause, is only a symptom of the real malady. The cause +still exists, the cancer of the state still invites new vermin to feed +upon its sore. +The knight prophesies and expostulates in the public ear, but Uncle Sam +still sleeps, though perchance with uneasy dreams. The great forces +which evolve the tramp and the ignorant emigrant are still at work, +while the devil holds the match to the combustible elements of soulless +greed. Bye and bye there will be a great hue and cry of fire, with much +ringing of bells.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 416px;"><a href="images/i_023.jpg"> +<img src="images/i_023_s.jpg" width="416" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</a></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Observe," said the neighbor, "your gesticulations,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your dearth of debate and gymnastic gyrations<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Encroach, with a frequency highly alarming,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon my estate, which I value for farming;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If your two extremities keep on contending,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bye and bye, we shall have nothing left worth defending."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The plan was considered by all the combatants,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In silence the feet, by the head's usual blatance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which presently muttered, "I may yet surprise you!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mentally uttered, "I'll not recognize you!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But agreed, after all, with becoming alacrity,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Despite the bald fact that both feet were still there, gritty<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And soiled with innumerable days of hard working,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Transporting their load overland without shirking.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then a toad, a sly fox, a snail, peacock and hatter,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turned-to to investigate what was the matter;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Selecting a sand-pit within which to meet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They invited the ostrich to come,—with his feet,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 415px;"><a href="images/i_024.jpg"> +<img src="images/i_024_s.jpg" width="415" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</a></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And tell how it happened the quarrel arose,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which, they'd been informed, culminated in blows.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The peacock was asked to preside at the hearing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Decide the disputes, in despite of the jeering<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, betimes, with his rulings, increased to a gale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When he, perchance, winked with the eyes of his tail.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The ostrich appeared and made the assertion,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In voluble language of animadversion,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, while he'd been, quietly, minding his business,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His damp, dirty feet had occasioned him dizziness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Obtruding each, vulgarly, on his attention,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thereby, in so doing, creating contention—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"I' faith, 'pon my word," the ostrich said, squawking,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"I fear me, each wants a kid shoe and silk stocking."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">At this point, the peacock his tail feathers flaunted;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ostrich, however, continued undaunted,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"I know of no reason for this state of things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor why my two feet should expect, by their flings,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h3><i>V.</i></h3> + +<p>Uncle Sam is now awake and doing in earnest. The rankness of materialism +breeding from the earth, a thing of great and dreaded power, of craft +and slime, recoils upon the land of which it has been begotten and now +boldly erects its head to encompass the state in its death-constricting +coils.</p> + +<p>Even the old lady, who is wont to knit her stockings in peace by a +hardwood fire, or by the glowing coals of an open grate, in city or +town, alike, peaceful and content, and without consideration of the +vexing problems of supply and demand, awakens suddenly to the fact that +even a comfortable competence is no surety against want and cold, when +the serpent has dragged himself into the garden and garner house of +God.</p> + +<p>The farmer is aroused and indignant, but when he makes his protest, the +serpent flies pursuit, and with a changing policy under the guise of a +great, foolish bird and a well assumed air of innocence, buries its +small and crafty head for a season in the sand.</p> + + +<h3><i>VI.</i></h3> + +<p>Really, it seems ridiculous that this incessant warfare of man against +man should go on,—the head casting aspersions upon the feet, and the +feet kicking against their own head, to the mutual affliction of +themselves and the great body that holds them together in the firm +compact of common life.... This is not God's law, but man's supreme +selfishness,—his disobedience and his curse. After all, kid shoes and +silk stockings are not elective privileges; and poorer humanity, turning +under its cross and chains, appeals to Heaven, not in vain, if we read +aright the signs of the times. The air resounds with optimistic +teachings and words of love and cheer that, as yet, have no guarantee in +actual deeds. In contra-distinction to the Christian creed, "we must +look out for ourselves," is the rasping gospel of our latter-day faith. +But there are those who work as well as preach, and to such may yet be +recorded the service of universal peace.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 418px;"><a href="images/i_029.jpg"> +<img src="images/i_029_s.jpg" width="418" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</a></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To dictate to me with whom I shall travel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Annoy me by constantly scratching the gravel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And trench on my courtesy, when I decline,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For reasons sufficient, to treat them as mine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Please notice, your honors, their mode of attack,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I hold they've no grievance and shouldn't kick back!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While the ostrich was talking, in tones hoarse and wheezy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His feet, from their pecking still sore, grew uneasy;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unfitted by nature to talk, they, by grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In eloquent silence presented their case.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The judges, thrown now on their own wisdom, turned<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To next take account of how much they had learned;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The peacock, as chairman, assuming dominion,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Invited from each a judicial opinion;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereupon, in his turn, each his own views expressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then sat down and looked around, wise, at the rest.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The fox was the first to arise to his feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To announce that his own mind was made up complete;<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 433px;"><a href="images/i_030.jpg"> +<img src="images/i_030_s.jpg" width="433" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</a></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He seized the occasion his own reputation<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To clear of a cloud of ill-got defamation<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alleging that he had habitually crept<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Round henroosts, at midnight, when honest folk slept;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which libel had darkened his whole life's existence,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And made it much harder to gain a subsistence;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He thought it a shame that a poor tempted sinner,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like him, should thus suffer for getting his dinner.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While he spake, his eyes rested, in manner abiding,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the slim neck of the peacock presiding,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which ruffled its feathers and spread out its tail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though feeling itself round the gills growing pale.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The next to express an opinion, invoked<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the peacock presiding, the toad gruffly croaked<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His belief that beneath stillest tongue there lay hid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Most often, the softest and tenderest quid;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For his part, he thought that the ostrich inclined<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To lay too much stress on his power of mind;<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h3><i>VII.</i></h3> + +<p>In solemn convocation met, stand the mighty men of our realm, with the +policy of the bull, of the bear, of the wolf and of the fox, each +animal, according to the nature of its disposition, awaiting the +opportunity of power and spoliation, by which he may grasp and hold to +himself, as his own personal increment, all that can be wrested from the +state and humanity at large. The state, itself, in principle wise, +majestic and supreme, petitions peace of the leering devil, who +constantly juggles with the tape of human selfishness, as waiting angels +record the devious courses that nations and individuals take.</p> + +<p>Behold, how pressed on all sides is the man of the hour in the grasp of +the huge, overbrooding, material powers of self-interest.</p> + + +<h3><i>VIII.</i></h3> + +<p>Confusion still reigns, but labor has risen from the cross and comes to +legislation. He dreams of conquests that are chimerical, where the +shadowy knight of honor contests the field with the disgruntled spirit +of melancholy, who pessimistically broods the unhatched egg of +arbitration. Agitators and agitations still hold sway, while Satan in +their midst dominates the human idea of progress and reform with the +accursed principle of Self, that is in itself Self-destroying.</p> + + +<h3><i>IX.</i></h3> + +<p>When, now, the monster spirit of protest begins to show its gigantic +figure, high, low, and middle classes are alarmed. Prices fluctuate, +business goes down, work and bread are scarce. Behold, in the heavens +appear the gruesome phantoms of war. But so far, in every crisis, +messengers from worlds beyond have sanctified the impending woe to the +world's welfare.</p> + +<p>The tides of progress are in the hands of the Infinite, who measures +from cycle to cycle their ebb and flow; while the ever rising tide-mark +signifies the ultimate inundation of the millenium. How great is God! +How small is man in his own councils!</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 425px;"><a href="images/i_035.jpg"> +<img src="images/i_035_s.jpg" width="425" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</a></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Its all very well for them as can do it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To strive after learning and try to construe it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But an ostrich's presumption is, clearly, mere shoddy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His head is too small for the size of his body."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The snail next emerged from his shell, to announce<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His opinion, in words he could scarcely pronounce;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He spake without grace and his voice was not strong,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While his sentences dragged themselves slowly along;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"An estredge," he said, "is er monstrus big creeter,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who'd kill you all dead, as you'd kill er muskeeter;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ef he stepped his gret foot on your body and shell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'm sure you would never, again, feel so well;"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The snail then withdrew to his shell's deep recesses,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the same staid demeanor he ever possesses.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The hatter essayed, now, to speak, in his turn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In serious words, that evinced his concern,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest justice miscarry and leave their decision<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A subject for mirth, if not open derision.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 435px;"><a href="images/i_036.jpg"> +<img src="images/i_036_s.jpg" width="435" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</a></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"My friends," he began, "I'm pleased with your brevity,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But you treat the matter with far too much levity;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its plainly the duty of those of our station,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To recomend that which deserves commendation;"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The world is a large one, and all who are in it<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should join in this principle, this very minute,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That nature, or Providence, made no mistake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In giving an ostrich a head that will ache,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In order that when he slips off from his trolley,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some well sustained kicks may reveal him his folly."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I perceive in this case a well defined principle,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Divinely appointed, eternal, invincible,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To wit,—adaptation of means to an end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By reason of which, all effect and cause blend,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which gave the dumb feet an integument bony,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To travel in dirt and o'er ground rough and stony,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And set in the head, held aloft in the main,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The delicate eye for the convolute brain,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h3><i>X.</i></h3> + +<p>By the loss of men and money mighty men are upset, and the wise among +them are made to look grave. In +the day of judgment, in the overturning of the kingdom and principles of +the world they inhabit, no one knows what to think. Apprehension and +gloom are on all the faces that meet in the populous thoroughfares of +trade; but the public school, the pen, and the power of the press have +so raised the standard of common intelligence, that there is a steady +advance and progress, animated by its inspiring, though still shackled +Spirit of Protest. It has entered of its own volition into the service +which makes for the unity of powers working jointly in Heaven and upon +the earth, and our beautiful flag shows only the transfigured light of +the stars.</p> + + +<h3><i>XI.</i></h3> + +<p>To separate the head from the feet, labor from capital, or to inaugurate +war between them, brings about such confusion and distress as can only +be likened to the great body of humanity being continually brewed by +Satan in an enormous caldron kept hot by the fires of revolution. All +evil being ultimate good, the process, though one of renovation and +purification, is bitterly painful to the innocent as well as to the +guilty. In the determined revolt of the feet of humanity against the +head, it has always been discovered that the head was too small for the +size of the body; and that the bulky feet carry with them, when aroused +to action along the lines of self-defence, a tremendous barbaric force +and cruelty. Witness the fearful revolts of society that have brought +the issue to a test. In the cosmical alembic of human jurisprudence, +there must be mixed with lofty and divine sentiments a recognition of +our mutual dependence and accountability, not of man to man, only, but +to something higher than his humanity, a perfect and divine law to which +that humanity may be harmoniously attuned. God, dominant in love that is +not calculating, but universal and free as the air we breathe and +without taint of prejudice, can alone amalgamate the differences of +these varying tones,—wielding them together into a perfectly melodious +theme.</p> + +<p>He is, indeed, the tuning fork that shall put the instruments into +perfect tune.</p> + + +<h3><i>XII.</i></h3> + +<p>The age has reached a point of reason so far as councils may serve to +settle the differences between the head and the feet; and the waiting +world stands with attentive ear +to hear the judgment of such councils of mankind; great and small are +its representatives, and progress will be made only so far as the +religious idea proclaimed in Judea shall be allowed to influence the +pride and passions of men.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 428px;"><a href="images/i_041.jpg"> +<img src="images/i_041_s.jpg" width="428" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</a></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To detect at a distance impending disaster,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fulfilling the duties assigned to the master,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of guiding the feet toward smooth paths, every day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And making as easy as may be their way."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The peacock had listened with bated emotion,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While each indicated and stated his notion;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when they were done, he screeched out with a flout,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"You, none of you, know what you're talking about!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With which allegation he gravely begun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To strut up and down, back and forth, in the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spread out his frail and great, glimmering tail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till it shone like a beautiful, shimmering veil.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Excuse me," he said, in tones harsh and discordant,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ill-concealing a feeling sarcastic and mordant<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That listeners all noted, "if, I implore you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I perambulate gorgeously round here before you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To show you that beauty of plumage and figure<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have nothing in common with prosaic vigor;<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 407px;"><a href="images/i_042.jpg"> +<img src="images/i_042_s.jpg" width="407" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</a></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Creation, which wisely decreed that the feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were made to be used in the dust of the street,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has, also, ordained that they shall sustain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Superior cellular tissue and brain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Above and away from the gross things of earth,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Evincing, thereby, a superlative birth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And why should I be, then, so terribly blamed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If I, of my feet, am a good deal ashamed;"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As he ended, the floor of the sand-pit he spurned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And abruptly announced arbitration adjourned.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Although no agreement was reached, as a whole,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Discussion is generally good for the soul;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ostrich, ere adjudication was through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unconsciously passing his acts in review,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had arrived, independently, at the decision,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That he'd been a fool; and he laughed in derision,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To think he'd permitted his weak self-conceit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To lead him to pecking his own faithful feet.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h3><i>XIII.</i></h3> + +<p>The waiting knight, emblem of the new manhood just entering upon its +estate of resolution and responsibility, is the type of a generation now +setting forth in quest of high and honorable adventure. Satan is at his +back, thrusting forward a bag of gold and counselling the pursuit of +wealth; "Put money in thy purse!" saith the devil; "all else counts but +little,—put money in thy purse!" At his left hand stands the priest in +his splendid robes of office, proffering the symbol of suffering and +self-renunciation. The knight sees the frozen church with ascetic and +veiled superstition as its hand-maidens; the star of Bethlehem still +shines out of the dark upon a mighty hand reaching out of the clouds to +shake to its foundations the edifice of Christ, emblazoned with the +letter and the creed, but supported by the pomp and pride of a purely +material world. "The zeal of his house hath eaten him up," and in the +majestic temple sits the money changer, absorbed in his trade and his +material enterprises. Before him kneels the imploring angel of Freedom, +raising the flag of the great republic, with all its portents and +promises, symbolically arrayed in its stripes and stars. Uncle Sam is +but a puzzled and quizzical spectator of future events.</p> + + +<h3><i>XIV.</i></h3> + +<p>The battle between the head and the feet results, at last, in the fall +of Satan, that is, Self, under the God-principle of self-renunciation, +working in all human creeds and canticles, foreshadowing the unity of +the race in the power of the religious idea that has, at last, become +dominant in the head. The cross, no longer an emblem of suffering but of +power, unites with the crown in a final union of church and state. Here +behold the wedded bliss of the long divorced pair, presaging a new and +glorified race of man. Then, indeed, the baptismal story of man's hoary +and ancient glory in Eden shall usher in that gracious day, when the +lamb and the lion shall gambol together, and there shall be in all the +earth neither murder, nor theft, nor plunder, nor war. </p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 426px;"><a href="images/i_047.jpg"> +<img src="images/i_047_s.jpg" width="426" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</a></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thereafter, the ostrich, with feet and head sore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Resolved he would not peck his feet any more;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He's learned by experience, virtue superior<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lies, often, concealed under coarsest exterior;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That modest and unostentatious assumption,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Betimes, will outweigh overweening presumption;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That the feet of an ostrich, no less than his head,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though that be, perchance, more or less better bred<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And adapted by nature to study astronomy,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are important two members of ostrich economy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With which no wise bird, be his head ere so comely,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should quarrel, because they are dirty and homely.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Having reached this conclusion, our ostrich became<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A modified ostrich in all but the name;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From old misconceptions of merest mendacity,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He grew to be kindly and lost his loquacity,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More humble in spirit, imbued with true charity,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which, under the sun, is the thing of most rarity.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 408px;"><a href="images/i_048.jpg"> +<img src="images/i_048_s.jpg" width="408" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</a></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lest any imagine this measure devoid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of meaning they'd quicker detect unalloyed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It is meet to observe that 'twas writ with design,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Well knowing wise men its intent will divine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By the ostrich is meant mankind, great and small,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weak and strong, rich and poor, thin and fat, short and tall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let loose for awhile, in earth's paddock confined,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An attempt of the gods to rear more of their kind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I infer the experiment still is in doubt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For very few gods have, as yet, been hatched out.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But some men, there are, with great purposes fraught,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who have pushed back afar the world's frontier of thought;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And others, whose deeds, speaking louder than words,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Show how much of God human nature affords,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Foretelling of Heaven,—e'en giving a glimpse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of seraphim, cherubim, angels and nymphs,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till the heart of humanity, lifted up, sings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In tune with the Infinite nature of things.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The End.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="transnote"> +<span class="big">Transcriber's note:</span><br /> +"wifh ail its portents and promises" has been corrected to "with all its portents and promises". +</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of an Ostrich, by Judd Isaacs + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF AN OSTRICH *** + +***** This file should be named 37530-h.htm or 37530-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/5/3/37530/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Anna Hall and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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b/37530.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b85864b --- /dev/null +++ b/37530.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1216 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of an Ostrich, by Judd Isaacs + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Story of an Ostrich + An Allegory and Humorous Satire in Rhyme. + +Author: Judd Isaacs + +Illustrator: Edmund Nolcini + +Release Date: September 25, 2011 [EBook #37530] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF AN OSTRICH *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Anna Hall and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + THE + STORY OF AN OSTRICH + + AN ALLEGORY + AND + HUMOROUS SATIRE + IN RHYME + + INTERPRETED AND ILLUSTRATED + BY + EDMUND NOLCINI + + + PUBLISHED BY THE + HAND PRINT BOOK FOLK, + BACK BAY, BOSTON, MASS. + + + COPYRIGHTED, 1903, + BY THE + HAND PRINT BOOK FOLK, BOSTON, MASS. + + +ALL THE ILLUSTRATIONS HERE SHOWN, INCLUDING THE TITLE PAGE, ARE +REPRODUCED FROM PEN DRAWINGS MADE EXPRESSLY FOR THIS BOOK, AT GREAT +EXPENSE, AND ALL PERSONS ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED NOT TO REPRODUCE THEM +WITHOUT PERMISSION + + + + +PUBLISHER'S PREFACE + +[Illustration] + + +Whatever other merit may be discovered in this book, the publishers +desire to call attention to the fact that, as a whole, it is a +production altogether unique in a field of endeavor where something new +is being constantly sought, but seldom found. + +The poem is entirely hand-printed in large and legible letters, +designedly kept free from ornate fancies and, therefore, particularly +easy to read. The hand-printing accords with the adjoining illustrations +as angular and machine-made type never does, giving a pleasing and +harmonious effect to the entire page, a result not to be obtained by the +ordinary art of the printer. + +Attention is also called to the illustrations of the volume. Their +merely mechanical arrangement upon the page is in itself unusual, we +might almost say unknown to the reading public, while the imaginative +story that the artist has told in the illustrations that he has +contributed, is not only of the real and material world, but also of +powers behind the scenes, which offer the motives and even supply the +cues of most, if not all of the actors, who perform upon the great stage +of life. In this, too, the book is unusual, if not unique, and offers a +fertile field to the imagination of a discerning public in connection +with the delicious humor of the poem itself. + +While, therefore, fully conscious of how far short the volume falls from +what might be done in the direction in which it only points the way, the +publishers offer it as one of a series now in preparation, of similar +works which, it is believed, will be found worthy of more than a few +moments of the amused attention of the reader. + +THE HAND PRINT BOOK FOLK. + +_Back Bay, Boston, Mass., October, 1903._ + +[Illustration] + + + + +Artist's Announcement + +[Illustration] + + +If the reader will pardon an unconventional obtrusion upon his attention +for a brief moment, he may be interested to follow somewhat the train of +thought in the artist's mind prior to his beginning to illustrate this +book. + +When "The Story of an Ostrich" was put into his hands, his first +impression was, "Here is a merely juvenile theme, to be treated with +light, conventional and ornamental drawings, as an adornment to a fairy +tale." + +As he read it, he gradually perceived a deeper significance concealed +beneath the laugh that must inevitably be aroused at the thought of the +ridiculous figure of the foolish ostrich pecking away at his homely +feet, under the delusion that they are not his own. + +The longer he studied and pondered over it, the more was he impressed +with the conviction that underneath the simple phraseology of the poem, +the author had conveyed a lesson that humanity might well pause and +heed.... In these days of "making many books," how welcome should be that +one whose story aims to raise the burden that weighs down the surcharged +heart, or seeks to still the fever coursing through the blood of men and +women struggling with the complicated problems of life! + +"The Story of an Ostrich" is so simple in its form that children may +read it with pleasure and profit, thereby drawing the simpler moral +from the tale; while there is also suggested a possible condition of +society that shall be attuned to the perfect chord of divine law, +through the subordination of individualism in such manner as to produce +complete harmony in all human affairs. + +In the pride and dominance of the head over the rest of the body, in its +scorn of the feet, equally indispensable with the head to the welfare of +the whole, the poem has struck at the discordant note of all our human +disaffection and rebellion. + +When the artist had thus searched and found between the lines the real +motive of the poem, it at once became pregnant with allusions and +references that suggested artistic elaboration, or pen analysis, of the +large area of social life, which the allegory, in its semi-humorous, +satirical vein, assumes to cover. + +If his pencil seems at times to wander far afield, either in elaboration +or disregard of the canon principles of art, his plea must be that the +interpretation he has given is according to his carefully studied +conception of what the author must have had in mind when writing "The +Story of an Ostrich." + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + + _Thou sluggard in bonds to a vision of night, + Be not a king's fool, but a proud man of might: + Arise like a lord, that ye may not be slain, + No door shall imprison, no hope be in vain; + The world is for conquest, who seeks for such goal, + Will find the chain riven, the key in his soul!_ + + + + +_The unknown spake out of the firmament, saying,--"Choose ye one +instrument first, and then attune another one to it. This accomplished, +attune then a third instrument to them; after that a fourth, and so on; +and ye shall be all attuned alike."_ + +_Thereupon, the musicians set to work, but could not agree as to whose +should be the first instrument._ + +_A pillar of fire descended from Heaven and stood in the midst of the +musicians; and in the centre of the pillar of fire there appeared an +instrument called the All Perfect. The instrument gave forth one note +and all the musicians attuned to it. The Voice said, "I have given the +keynote, find ye the rest!"_ + +_The pillar of fire departed. The instruments thus attuned in harmony +played rapturously._ + +_This I perceive,--to make the man and wife one, to make the village +one, to make the state one, to make the empire one,--all in harmony as +one instrument, cannot be done without a Central Son, a Creator to +attune to. When a man is attuned to Him, and a woman is attuned to Him, +they will themselves be as one. When the family and the village are +attuned to Him, it is easy. Without Him harmony cannot be._ + +_He, the Creator, then, must be first in all things, first in all +places. He must be the nearest of all things, the nearest of all places. +In our rites and ceremonies, He must be the All Ideal Perfection, the +embodiment of a Perfect Person._--Book of Saphah. + + + + + The Story of an Ostrich + + [Illustration] + + BY + JUDD ISAACS, + FORMERLY EDITOR OF THE YANKEE BLADE, + NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE, NICKELL MAGAZINE. + + + + +[Illustration] + +The Story of an Ostrich. + + + A robust old ostrich, with head little bigger + Than that of some creatures of far frailer figure, + With two legs complete, and a speed very fleet, + Once caught a short peep at his feet, in the street. + + So far from his head did they seem to be located, + He failed to take note that upon each were notated + Scales, warts and abrasions, nails, ossification, + Which proved them a part of his own corporation. + + He noticed, however, wherever he went, + They came along, too, and he asked what it meant? + Though he walked through the town, or he stalked o'er the heath + He observed they remained, always, right underneath. + He thrust out his bust and inside he just cussed, + When they strode along and kept kicking up dust; + But in vain did he feign to abstain from disdain, + As he dined with the twain in the wind and the rain; + +_Copyrighted by the Hand Print Book Folk, Boston, Mass._ + +[Illustration] + + Or stared around therein, while wearing a bear-grin, + Evincing an evident, ill-concealed chagrin. + + So very ungainly were they, like a tumor, + The ostrich, at last, got in very bad humor; + And, failing to recognise them as his own, + Made a peck with his beak that went clear to the bone, + Which gave all his nerves such a terrible thrill, + He quick pecked another hard peck with his bill; + With each peck a quiver, his frame shook with shivers, + As if his limp liver were pierced with slim slivers,-- + Till both his great feet with his heart's blood were red, + Oozing out on the ground, as he'd painfully tread. + + It was strange that his feet, thus, he blindly maltreated, + Debased his escheat and his comfort defeated! + As a matter of fact, he never had noticed + How he'd got around; and he'd not the remotest + Idea that his own high position depended + On two ugly feet that his good taste offended. + + + + +The Undertone + +[Illustration] + + +_I._ + +The thoughtful student of modern, social, and economic conditions, who +reads the accompanying rhymed satire, "The Story of an Ostrich," will +discover in it much more than the mere words would ordinarily convey, +and will read into it such measure of philosophy as his own experience +and critical study of the problem of human existence may have prepared +him for. + +When, ten thousand years ago, the owl sat in the light of the moon and +unknown deities spat wisdom into the philosophies of Hermes and +Zoroaster and their more or less erudite predecessors, the earliest +gods, with their bird-like heads and male bodies, were yet vehicles of +truth, elevating the frail stock of humanity over which they threw their +benign influences. + +Since recorded history began, the world has had many gods, and many +books concerning them have been written, determining by much labor of +the head which should be worshiped, rather than impressing the heart +with sincere desire to travel in divinely appointed ways. As "the mere +grasses," priests and kings have trampled upon the masses--have been at +once their masters, their deities and interpreters of deity. Their rank +materialism has always complacently overrated itself, while the world, +which labors and runs, has ever been chained to and crushed beneath it. +Man knew not the power of God within himself. + + +_II._ + +Many unthinking as well as vicious men, in both ancient and modern +times, who have by accident of birth and condition been set in authority +over their fellows, or, who have by their own efforts been raised to +positions of power and responsibility in the state and among the great +captains of industry, have thought to ignore their dependence upon the +lower orders of society for the very altitude they have enjoyed--the +head refusing, as it were, to consider the feet as a part of the body +corporate and entitled to no more than the pleasure of mere existence. +Such heads apply no healing balms to weak and wounded + + +[Illustration] + + Although, from his youth up, they'd always been going, + His mental inertia prevented his knowing + That all lofty heads must have good understanding, + To retain, out of hand, a position commanding; + So, he would still peck, though it hurt, and despise them, + And swear, by the gods, he would not recognise them! + + But those homely feet, which for long had done duty: + Mid lowly conditions, lay'ng no claim to beauty + Of pinion, or plume, yet upholding together + The framework of bone, with its blood, flesh and feather,-- + The which makes an ostrich of wit and assurance,-- + At last reached the limit of patient endurance. + + They turned about, then,--the proverbial worm,-- + And punched his head hard,--to use a slang term; + So forceful and rapid they got in their work, + The ostrich, in agony, let out a "quirk!" + As, weakened by suff'ring, disheartened by pain, + A hint of the truth dawned upon his dull brain. + +[Illustration] + + Self-centred, astounded, indignant, demented, + The ostrich, not yet half acquainted, resented + The silent upheaval, he'd felt, of the masses, + He'd, heretofore, held to be as the mere grasses; + They having objected, he'd make no contention, + Though he wondered how he'd interpose intervention + Enough to protect him from any more kicking + Like that, which was, now, in his mem'ry still sticking. + + Overwhelmed with emotion he could not command, + The hurt ostrich buried his head in the sand,-- + Away from his sight shut his two mangled feet out, + Lest they his own ostrich fool brains should quite beat out,-- + Thus hiding himself, as he thought, in his shame, + From the world, though he still stood revealed just the same. + + 'Twas then a near neighbor, who'd watched with close scrutiny, + The clumsy feet operate during the mutiny, + Interfered to propose they adopt arbitration, + And settle their difference with more moderation. + + +extremities, but proffer, instead, the scourge, _i.e._, starvation, long +days of poorly remunerated toil, squalid surroundings,--in ancient times +the guillotine, the gallows and the rack; in modern days, ostracism, the +prison and the electric chair. The blood of Christ's divinity flowed +that love and mercy might be exemplified, but it cannot sprinkle the +world with saving grace, so long as its own herald, the church, +continues to say, "Amen!" to the master, and "Peace, be still!" to the +slave. + +When there crept into the world the first dull, unreasoning sense of +injury,--when the underlings of humanity first began to assimilate from +the common vein of intelligence that made them one with the body, a +sensible desire for recognition on the ground of equality, they were +promptly denied any part whatsoever in the material and spiritual +accretions of generations of labor; and then was inaugurated the revolt +that has been prolific through all past time, of war and misery, of +violence, pillage and murder. + + +_III._ + +In the light of experience the heads of humanity have seldom profited by +the tutelage of whips and blood and torture. Without respect for rights +and demands when opposed to their selfish material interests, they have +held not their Bibles in their hands, where the light might illumine its +pages, but have placed the sacred book under their feet while making +prayers to stocks and bonds. + +But the knights-errant are in the saddle, and with the true spirit of +knighthood they may be found in the thick of the politic battle, where +they are making clear the path for greater powers that shall follow with +purging force to cleanse the great body and through a long and cruel +strife establish the contentious parts in truth and unity. + + +_IV._ + +Mighty powers of the state are asleep at the post of duty, when, lo! an +issue arises,--the mice are in the government meal-bag,--the spirits of +fire and distraction are abroad; wealth and power are being attacked +from beneath! The great hand of the law reaches forth to seize upon the +offender and to snuff out his little, palpitating human life, that, far +from being the cause, is only a symptom of the real malady. The cause +still exists, the cancer of the state still invites new vermin to feed +upon its sore. + + +[Illustration] + + "Observe," said the neighbor, "your gesticulations, + Your dearth of debate and gymnastic gyrations + Encroach, with a frequency highly alarming, + Upon my estate, which I value for farming; + If your two extremities keep on contending, + Bye and bye, we shall have nothing left worth defending." + + The plan was considered by all the combatants,-- + In silence the feet, by the head's usual blatance, + Which presently muttered, "I may yet surprise you!" + And mentally uttered, "I'll not recognize you!" + But agreed, after all, with becoming alacrity, + Despite the bald fact that both feet were still there, gritty + And soiled with innumerable days of hard working, + Transporting their load overland without shirking. + + Then a toad, a sly fox, a snail, peacock and hatter, + Turned-to to investigate what was the matter; + Selecting a sand-pit within which to meet, + They invited the ostrich to come,--with his feet, + +[Illustration] + + And tell how it happened the quarrel arose, + Which, they'd been informed, culminated in blows. + + The peacock was asked to preside at the hearing, + Decide the disputes, in despite of the jeering + That, betimes, with his rulings, increased to a gale, + When he, perchance, winked with the eyes of his tail. + + The ostrich appeared and made the assertion, + In voluble language of animadversion, + That, while he'd been, quietly, minding his business, + His damp, dirty feet had occasioned him dizziness, + Obtruding each, vulgarly, on his attention, + Thereby, in so doing, creating contention-- + "I' faith, 'pon my word," the ostrich said, squawking, + "I fear me, each wants a kid shoe and silk stocking." + + At this point, the peacock his tail feathers flaunted; + The ostrich, however, continued undaunted,-- + "I know of no reason for this state of things, + Nor why my two feet should expect, by their flings, + + +The knight prophesies and expostulates in the public ear, but Uncle Sam +still sleeps, though perchance with uneasy dreams. The great forces +which evolve the tramp and the ignorant emigrant are still at work, +while the devil holds the match to the combustible elements of soulless +greed. Bye and bye there will be a great hue and cry of fire, with much +ringing of bells. + + +_V._ + +Uncle Sam is now awake and doing in earnest. The rankness of materialism +breeding from the earth, a thing of great and dreaded power, of craft +and slime, recoils upon the land of which it has been begotten and now +boldly erects its head to encompass the state in its death-constricting +coils. + +Even the old lady, who is wont to knit her stockings in peace by a +hardwood fire, or by the glowing coals of an open grate, in city or +town, alike, peaceful and content, and without consideration of the +vexing problems of supply and demand, awakens suddenly to the fact that +even a comfortable competence is no surety against want and cold, when +the serpent has dragged himself into the garden and garner house of +God. + +The farmer is aroused and indignant, but when he makes his protest, the +serpent flies pursuit, and with a changing policy under the guise of a +great, foolish bird and a well assumed air of innocence, buries its +small and crafty head for a season in the sand. + + +_VI._ + +Really, it seems ridiculous that this incessant warfare of man against +man should go on,--the head casting aspersions upon the feet, and the +feet kicking against their own head, to the mutual affliction of +themselves and the great body that holds them together in the firm +compact of common life.... This is not God's law, but man's supreme +selfishness,--his disobedience and his curse. After all, kid shoes and +silk stockings are not elective privileges; and poorer humanity, turning +under its cross and chains, appeals to Heaven, not in vain, if we read +aright the signs of the times. The air resounds with optimistic +teachings and words of love and cheer that, as yet, have no guarantee in +actual deeds. In contra-distinction to the Christian creed, "we must +look out for ourselves," is the rasping gospel of our latter-day faith. + + +[Illustration] + + To dictate to me with whom I shall travel, + Annoy me by constantly scratching the gravel, + And trench on my courtesy, when I decline, + For reasons sufficient, to treat them as mine; + Please notice, your honors, their mode of attack,-- + I hold they've no grievance and shouldn't kick back!" + + While the ostrich was talking, in tones hoarse and wheezy, + His feet, from their pecking still sore, grew uneasy; + Unfitted by nature to talk, they, by grace, + In eloquent silence presented their case. + + The judges, thrown now on their own wisdom, turned + To next take account of how much they had learned; + The peacock, as chairman, assuming dominion, + Invited from each a judicial opinion; + Whereupon, in his turn, each his own views expressed, + Then sat down and looked around, wise, at the rest. + + The fox was the first to arise to his feet, + To announce that his own mind was made up complete; + +[Illustration] + + He seized the occasion his own reputation + To clear of a cloud of ill-got defamation + Alleging that he had habitually crept + Round henroosts, at midnight, when honest folk slept; + Which libel had darkened his whole life's existence, + And made it much harder to gain a subsistence; + He thought it a shame that a poor tempted sinner, + Like him, should thus suffer for getting his dinner. + + While he spake, his eyes rested, in manner abiding, + Upon the slim neck of the peacock presiding, + Which ruffled its feathers and spread out its tail, + Though feeling itself round the gills growing pale. + + The next to express an opinion, invoked + By the peacock presiding, the toad gruffly croaked + His belief that beneath stillest tongue there lay hid, + Most often, the softest and tenderest quid; + For his part, he thought that the ostrich inclined + To lay too much stress on his power of mind; + + +But there are those who work as well as preach, and to such may yet be +recorded the service of universal peace. + + +_VII._ + +In solemn convocation met, stand the mighty men of our realm, with the +policy of the bull, of the bear, of the wolf and of the fox, each +animal, according to the nature of its disposition, awaiting the +opportunity of power and spoliation, by which he may grasp and hold to +himself, as his own personal increment, all that can be wrested from the +state and humanity at large. The state, itself, in principle wise, +majestic and supreme, petitions peace of the leering devil, who +constantly juggles with the tape of human selfishness, as waiting angels +record the devious courses that nations and individuals take. + +Behold, how pressed on all sides is the man of the hour in the grasp of +the huge, overbrooding, material powers of self-interest. + + +_VIII._ + +Confusion still reigns, but labor has risen from the cross and comes to +legislation. He dreams of conquests that are chimerical, where the +shadowy knight of honor contests the field with the disgruntled spirit +of melancholy, who pessimistically broods the unhatched egg of +arbitration. Agitators and agitations still hold sway, while Satan in +their midst dominates the human idea of progress and reform with the +accursed principle of Self, that is in itself Self-destroying. + + +_IX._ + +When, now, the monster spirit of protest begins to show its gigantic +figure, high, low, and middle classes are alarmed. Prices fluctuate, +business goes down, work and bread are scarce. Behold, in the heavens +appear the gruesome phantoms of war. But so far, in every crisis, +messengers from worlds beyond have sanctified the impending woe to the +world's welfare. + +The tides of progress are in the hands of the Infinite, who measures +from cycle to cycle their ebb and flow; while the ever rising tide-mark +signifies the ultimate inundation of the millenium. How great is God! +How small is man in his own councils! + + +_X._ + +By the loss of men and money mighty men are upset, and the wise among +them are made to look grave. In + + +[Illustration] + + Its all very well for them as can do it, + To strive after learning and try to construe it, + But an ostrich's presumption is, clearly, mere shoddy, + His head is too small for the size of his body." + + The snail next emerged from his shell, to announce + His opinion, in words he could scarcely pronounce; + He spake without grace and his voice was not strong, + While his sentences dragged themselves slowly along; + "An estredge," he said, "is er monstrus big creeter, + Who'd kill you all dead, as you'd kill er muskeeter; + Ef he stepped his gret foot on your body and shell, + I'm sure you would never, again, feel so well;" + The snail then withdrew to his shell's deep recesses, + With the same staid demeanor he ever possesses. + + The hatter essayed, now, to speak, in his turn, + In serious words, that evinced his concern, + Lest justice miscarry and leave their decision + A subject for mirth, if not open derision. + +[Illustration] + + "My friends," he began, "I'm pleased with your brevity, + But you treat the matter with far too much levity; + Its plainly the duty of those of our station, + To recomend that which deserves commendation;" + + "The world is a large one, and all who are in it + Should join in this principle, this very minute,-- + That nature, or Providence, made no mistake + In giving an ostrich a head that will ache, + In order that when he slips off from his trolley, + Some well sustained kicks may reveal him his folly." + + "I perceive in this case a well defined principle,-- + Divinely appointed, eternal, invincible,-- + To wit,--adaptation of means to an end, + By reason of which, all effect and cause blend,-- + Which gave the dumb feet an integument bony, + To travel in dirt and o'er ground rough and stony, + And set in the head, held aloft in the main, + The delicate eye for the convolute brain, + + +the day of judgment, in the overturning of the kingdom and principles of +the world they inhabit, no one knows what to think. Apprehension and +gloom are on all the faces that meet in the populous thoroughfares of +trade; but the public school, the pen, and the power of the press have +so raised the standard of common intelligence, that there is a steady +advance and progress, animated by its inspiring, though still shackled +Spirit of Protest. It has entered of its own volition into the service +which makes for the unity of powers working jointly in Heaven and upon +the earth, and our beautiful flag shows only the transfigured light of +the stars. + + +_XI._ + +To separate the head from the feet, labor from capital, or to inaugurate +war between them, brings about such confusion and distress as can only +be likened to the great body of humanity being continually brewed by +Satan in an enormous caldron kept hot by the fires of revolution. All +evil being ultimate good, the process, though one of renovation and +purification, is bitterly painful to the innocent as well as to the +guilty. In the determined revolt of the feet of humanity against the +head, it has always been discovered that the head was too small for the +size of the body; and that the bulky feet carry with them, when aroused +to action along the lines of self-defence, a tremendous barbaric force +and cruelty. Witness the fearful revolts of society that have brought +the issue to a test. In the cosmical alembic of human jurisprudence, +there must be mixed with lofty and divine sentiments a recognition of +our mutual dependence and accountability, not of man to man, only, but +to something higher than his humanity, a perfect and divine law to which +that humanity may be harmoniously attuned. God, dominant in love that is +not calculating, but universal and free as the air we breathe and +without taint of prejudice, can alone amalgamate the differences of +these varying tones,--wielding them together into a perfectly melodious +theme. + +He is, indeed, the tuning fork that shall put the instruments into +perfect tune. + + +_XII._ + +The age has reached a point of reason so far as councils may serve to +settle the differences between the head and the feet; and the waiting +world stands with attentive ear + + +[Illustration] + + To detect at a distance impending disaster, + Fulfilling the duties assigned to the master, + Of guiding the feet toward smooth paths, every day, + And making as easy as may be their way." + + The peacock had listened with bated emotion, + While each indicated and stated his notion; + But when they were done, he screeched out with a flout, + "You, none of you, know what you're talking about!" + With which allegation he gravely begun + To strut up and down, back and forth, in the sun, + And spread out his frail and great, glimmering tail, + Till it shone like a beautiful, shimmering veil. + + "Excuse me," he said, in tones harsh and discordant, + Ill-concealing a feeling sarcastic and mordant + That listeners all noted, "if, I implore you, + I perambulate gorgeously round here before you, + To show you that beauty of plumage and figure + Have nothing in common with prosaic vigor; + +[Illustration] + + Creation, which wisely decreed that the feet + Were made to be used in the dust of the street, + Has, also, ordained that they shall sustain + Superior cellular tissue and brain + Above and away from the gross things of earth,-- + Evincing, thereby, a superlative birth; + And why should I be, then, so terribly blamed, + If I, of my feet, am a good deal ashamed;" + As he ended, the floor of the sand-pit he spurned, + And abruptly announced arbitration adjourned. + + Although no agreement was reached, as a whole, + Discussion is generally good for the soul; + The ostrich, ere adjudication was through, + Unconsciously passing his acts in review, + Had arrived, independently, at the decision, + That he'd been a fool; and he laughed in derision, + To think he'd permitted his weak self-conceit, + To lead him to pecking his own faithful feet. + + +to hear the judgment of such councils of mankind; great and small are +its representatives, and progress will be made only so far as the +religious idea proclaimed in Judea shall be allowed to influence the +pride and passions of men. + + +_XIII._ + +The waiting knight, emblem of the new manhood just entering upon its +estate of resolution and responsibility, is the type of a generation now +setting forth in quest of high and honorable adventure. Satan is at his +back, thrusting forward a bag of gold and counselling the pursuit of +wealth; "Put money in thy purse!" saith the devil; "all else counts but +little,--put money in thy purse!" At his left hand stands the priest in +his splendid robes of office, proffering the symbol of suffering and +self-renunciation. The knight sees the frozen church with ascetic and +veiled superstition as its hand-maidens; the star of Bethlehem still +shines out of the dark upon a mighty hand reaching out of the clouds to +shake to its foundations the edifice of Christ, emblazoned with the +letter and the creed, but supported by the pomp and pride of a purely +material world. "The zeal of his house hath eaten him up," and in the +majestic temple sits the money changer, absorbed in his trade and his +material enterprises. Before him kneels the imploring angel of Freedom, +raising the flag of the great republic, with all its portents and +promises, symbolically arrayed in its stripes and stars. Uncle Sam is +but a puzzled and quizzical spectator of future events. + + +_XIV._ + +The battle between the head and the feet results, at last, in the fall +of Satan, that is, Self, under the God-principle of self-renunciation, +working in all human creeds and canticles, foreshadowing the unity of +the race in the power of the religious idea that has, at last, become +dominant in the head. The cross, no longer an emblem of suffering but of +power, unites with the crown in a final union of church and state. Here +behold the wedded bliss of the long divorced pair, presaging a new and +glorified race of man. Then, indeed, the baptismal story of man's hoary +and ancient glory in Eden shall usher in that gracious day, when the +lamb and the lion shall gambol together, and there shall be in all the +earth neither murder, nor theft, nor plunder, nor war. + + +[Illustration] + + Thereafter, the ostrich, with feet and head sore, + Resolved he would not peck his feet any more; + He's learned by experience, virtue superior + Lies, often, concealed under coarsest exterior; + That modest and unostentatious assumption, + Betimes, will outweigh overweening presumption; + That the feet of an ostrich, no less than his head,-- + Though that be, perchance, more or less better bred + And adapted by nature to study astronomy,-- + Are important two members of ostrich economy, + With which no wise bird, be his head ere so comely, + Should quarrel, because they are dirty and homely. + + Having reached this conclusion, our ostrich became + A modified ostrich in all but the name; + From old misconceptions of merest mendacity, + He grew to be kindly and lost his loquacity, + More humble in spirit, imbued with true charity,-- + Which, under the sun, is the thing of most rarity. + +[Illustration] + + Lest any imagine this measure devoid + Of meaning they'd quicker detect unalloyed, + It is meet to observe that 'twas writ with design, + Well knowing wise men its intent will divine. + + By the ostrich is meant mankind, great and small, + Weak and strong, rich and poor, thin and fat, short and tall, + Let loose for awhile, in earth's paddock confined, + An attempt of the gods to rear more of their kind; + I infer the experiment still is in doubt, + For very few gods have, as yet, been hatched out. + + But some men, there are, with great purposes fraught, + Who have pushed back afar the world's frontier of thought; + And others, whose deeds, speaking louder than words, + Show how much of God human nature affords, + Foretelling of Heaven,--e'en giving a glimpse + Of seraphim, cherubim, angels and nymphs,-- + Till the heart of humanity, lifted up, sings + In tune with the Infinite nature of things. + + The End. + + + Transcriber's note: + "wifh ail its portents and promises" has been corrected to "with all its portents and + promises". + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of an Ostrich, by Judd Isaacs + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF AN OSTRICH *** + +***** This file should be named 37530.txt or 37530.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/5/3/37530/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Anna Hall and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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