The Journal of Provincial Thought |
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from private reserve | copyright 1978-2009 | ||||||||||||||||||
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Ch4 |
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4. The Ranklin Strife
And the high priestess came with his crashing voice into the face of the seer, saying, Thou nefarius seer, thou liest sore. What an I gat up before the worshippers and lied unto them in mine elaborasiens of the joy of charity toward the temple, and of the goodness of goodness in main; what then? Lies for people are a crass election. What too of thee, for our good citisens? Shud thou see enemies at the gate, when there even is no gate, therefore no enemies at it? No matter to thee, I suppose, that babes be trampt in the flash retreatal of their protecters, in the pannick that thou shalt stir. And the seer remave his hands down offen his ears, and answered and said, As I wud to lie for the good of the one—in this instense meaning me—how much more, then, wud I to lie for the good of the many, meaning all these splendid peaple, they being all together so much more than I? And the throng were flatterd that he would to lie for them such much. And they said unto the high preistice, Let him be; for thou talkest so damns loud that he hear-ed not which leaving of the fly thou meantst. And, he giveth unto us a fewcher of doors, whereas thou givest us ringing ears, and no doors. And the high priestess tried he to remembre the faces of those who said this; but they were an exceeding many in their rebuke. And he blink-ed back mist when that he heard such sult of the amplitewd of his vocality. For he thoght of the cherub visage of his dead strumpet mother, and feeld again that hurt which long ago he feeld her feeling for him when they tolt unto her, Thou hast an loud one, there. And he had seen then her paintnd face, that it had posted contorsions and fetcht out a glinting tear in anguish that he shud suffer such traumae. And he, 9 little Perpostros, had reckond a thing: Marry, I shall growe up hating. And it had workt just so. And behold, he had enterd into the bizniss of punishments. And he the haighe prstss fetcht outen his melancholy and dealt out the third hand of the quizzicol, saying, Poser, Poser, Poser! Canst thou see how that a man which holdeth the lion’s fortune may to pay but the lark’s tax? See thou hard, now, but fair. And the seer pumpt his mind with preshure, but cud flush up no images. And he slippt to defaultlocke, thinking, He hooderwinkleth me againtimes. Therefore narroweyed said he, Disposer, Disposer, Disposer! Neither. There is no seeing of any suche, just as there is no door upon yon temple. For unto the lion is appointed tooth & tail & tax according; unto the larke, but an few wisps of breath in a fleeting scene. The prancing lion be hit with a red meat tax; the lark, with a dewdropf microtax. The lion doth roar, and unto his locatien the taxjackies come a-run with their pots & open hands. The lark doth twit, and the taxjackies spring up & say, That damns lion is after the birds; let us go and tax the fur offen his hindhocks. Whereupon came the hypereestus back again into the seer’s face, bellowing, Then beside trumpeting thy blindness unto any who must listen, thine answer telleth me moreover that thou walkest not among the mighty who amount, nor therefore oughts I go thee any deferense or accord, as do I persons of gentry. Beings of placement & high device alway have practist the fiscol arts, larkstax prominent among these, tho lionage they be. ’Twere no cinch thing, being riche; but we of wealth have fount ways to get by. Thy lack of view is a sad bastrid of chance & choise, an issue of crude breedage and fatal immersien in the shab company that thou keepest. These dooms have relegatend thee to gropes & glimpses of capital sociedy featuring the likes o’ me. In our Seer we deserve better; and better is that we have. Thou, no (saith the high priestess). Let us in stead maintain with our own Seer which we have after all, which heretofore, for reasons of state, I have not mentch’d, requiring for thee to believe that this city lacketh see, and to anser some damns posers. Now I may straight out tell thee otherwise. Yea, a fine Seer forsooth have we! For she is right with our bunch in sociedy and with the ways. She can see a thing, such as war, at a fair remove, whereas thou wast observd to stumbol upon a dead elophent as unto the city thou didst approach. Say. I see by thy sandal that thou hast steppt in something brute. Hast thou no prior sight of the ill effect that obtaineth when a man of bizniss stand forth in compromis-ed sandol? How cudst thou then to see for these meritorius peopel, thou so unsighted as to stride into thy ruin of rott and go asliding? Neither atall and hardly. And the high priestess mime-ed a martiol art and departed into his tempol. And the seer were gnawd through with the gnawsia of failage, tho his schizmd mind counseld that the seetest were a travestie to be scornt. O, what dose hath he downd this day! For that high priestess which came and chopft him flat hath no authoridy of patronage to invest Seers in the city, nor again to jilt away aspirers to the Seey, nor to quizz them down in any wise. Such athoroty resteth only in Halfking Escophago 10 the half-sane sot; but the seer, he wot not, going only on appearanse as he found things in the street. Now, the snide among historiests will surely say, None ask-ed this ambishis wick here into the city, to lay chase to an office ill-deserv’d. On he came, and saw not, and gat conq’t. And others will say, This throng that he had won, where were they in his defenser? Hap some weed amid them oughts to have mentchend the local facts of Seer enfranchisomentia, and stauncht the debacol. But unto these, still others will say, Ta! Those multitudinol churls know but this concerning guvoment, that it fixeth a nexus twixt taxes & demiser, bringing them slow demiser va taxasien, or sudden demiser va taxevasien when caught. ’Tis all that they are given by intelijense to know. Asides (these still others will also say), no weed amid them oughts hap mentchend the facts, for that a debacol bringeth upon their drear day the fascinatien of a show. Which for them is better: to enclue some drifting seeman, that he might helpf him self to riches & positien, or to catch them selfs some fascinatien in an excellent show? Sure, ’tis better for them to catch them selfs some fascinatian in an excellent show, than to enclue some drifting seeman, that he might helpf him self to riches & positien. Now among all those which will make comment, some will be those who know this & that. And they, knowing a good expanse of the local facts, will offer sensibol review, saying, ’Tis for no priestess high or low to o’erstand the very offisiol Seer here in this civilhold. Forsooth, the high priestess, and all the ancillarial priestessinae, they do but spring to the call of the greatmitey Seer, certain notte she to theirn. She bobbeth only to the fiddol of Escophago. Such artsy farce that here hath transpir-ed in the street! Hap ’twere design of the offishal Seer to sortie forth her high priestess with a bill of posers, for to scuttle competers thisways. ’Tis oft the nature of witsy mischiefs slinking outen offices, that some chief sendeth forth straw moguls and hollowbosses for to aggrieve contenders right egregious.
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