WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.960 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.960 --> 00:00:03.060 align:middle line:84% A little later skip just a minute, 00:00:03.060 --> 00:00:05.700 align:middle line:90% this is his one good work. 00:00:05.700 --> 00:00:11.430 align:middle line:84% A little later, he decides to be a nice guy for an episode. 00:00:11.430 --> 00:00:14.280 align:middle line:84% Of all the people on the block, the man whom Jacob pitted most 00:00:14.280 --> 00:00:16.320 align:middle line:90% was Aegon the fruit peddler. 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:19.080 align:middle line:84% Aegon reminded him in many ways of his father 00:00:19.080 --> 00:00:20.730 align:middle line:90% as best he could remember him. 00:00:20.730 --> 00:00:24.450 align:middle line:84% He was old before his time, sad, and profoundly embittered, 00:00:24.450 --> 00:00:27.240 align:middle line:84% needing it seemed only sackcloth and ashes 00:00:27.240 --> 00:00:29.370 align:middle line:84% in a ruined wall somewhere in order 00:00:29.370 --> 00:00:32.159 align:middle line:84% to become a perfect model of atonement 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:35.580 align:middle line:84% for the sin of having ever drawn his first breath. 00:00:35.580 --> 00:00:39.210 align:middle line:84% Yet tenaciously, crying, clawing with brittle and dirty 00:00:39.210 --> 00:00:41.940 align:middle line:84% fingernails merely to survive, Aegon 00:00:41.940 --> 00:00:44.610 align:middle line:84% had advanced inexorably forward and upward 00:00:44.610 --> 00:00:48.240 align:middle line:84% from a small rattling pushcart to his very own fruit 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:51.960 align:middle line:84% stand with a faded awning over a part of the sidewalk. 00:00:51.960 --> 00:00:55.200 align:middle line:84% Evidently, this slow change, this manifested example 00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:59.460 align:middle line:84% of what sociologists are want to call upward mobility 00:00:59.460 --> 00:01:02.370 align:middle line:90% was small consolation to Aegon. 00:01:02.370 --> 00:01:04.800 align:middle line:84% Thinking of this Quirk wrote in his journal. 00:01:04.800 --> 00:01:06.900 align:middle line:90% Here we go with Quirk again. 00:01:06.900 --> 00:01:10.170 align:middle line:84% In our age, anything less than the shocking lightning bolt 00:01:10.170 --> 00:01:12.210 align:middle line:90% followed by thunder rolls. 00:01:12.210 --> 00:01:17.520 align:middle line:84% Oh, kettle drums conducted by Leonard Bernstein of success 00:01:17.520 --> 00:01:20.110 align:middle line:90% must be regarded as failure. 00:01:20.110 --> 00:01:23.730 align:middle line:84% Failure is our great tragedy, our sickness. 00:01:23.730 --> 00:01:28.020 align:middle line:84% The failure our modern witches burned daily metaphorically 00:01:28.020 --> 00:01:31.980 align:middle line:84% in joyous abandon throughout the land from coast to coast. 00:01:31.980 --> 00:01:34.750 align:middle line:84% Failure is our leprosy, maybe failure 00:01:34.750 --> 00:01:38.700 align:middle line:84% should be required to wear bells like lepers in the Middle Ages. 00:01:38.700 --> 00:01:42.510 align:middle line:84% All failures will henceforth and ever after world without end, 00:01:42.510 --> 00:01:45.990 align:middle line:84% wear bells to warn other decent citizens of their coming 00:01:45.990 --> 00:01:47.370 align:middle line:90% and going. 00:01:47.370 --> 00:01:51.000 align:middle line:84% What a charming idea, but let us assume 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.550 align:middle line:84% that it could be enforced what would happen then. 00:01:53.550 --> 00:01:56.400 align:middle line:84% Next morning, following the posting of the notices, 00:01:56.400 --> 00:02:00.450 align:middle line:84% bright and early, the streets would begin to sing maddens. 00:02:00.450 --> 00:02:03.600 align:middle line:84% Before noon, millions and millions of little bells 00:02:03.600 --> 00:02:05.550 align:middle line:90% would be cheerfully ringing. 00:02:05.550 --> 00:02:07.500 align:middle line:84% Then the great and the proud, the captains, 00:02:07.500 --> 00:02:11.460 align:middle line:84% and the kings suddenly urgently and palpably aloof and separate 00:02:11.460 --> 00:02:15.060 align:middle line:84% from the rest of mankind would come forth too. 00:02:15.060 --> 00:02:18.420 align:middle line:84% Also wearing bells, silver, and gold, and jeweled ones 00:02:18.420 --> 00:02:21.930 align:middle line:84% to be sure and all protesting a multitude of secret failures 00:02:21.930 --> 00:02:23.790 align:middle line:84% in their lives, which thus entitled 00:02:23.790 --> 00:02:27.630 align:middle line:84% them to rejoin the human race, in short it wouldn't work. 00:02:27.630 --> 00:02:28.900 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:28.900 --> 00:02:30.990 align:middle line:84% But what a swell time to be in the bell business? 00:02:30.990 --> 00:02:31.615 align:middle line:90% [CLEARS THROAT] 00:02:31.615 --> 00:02:34.320 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:34.320 --> 00:02:36.390 align:middle line:84% Quirk believe that Aegon the fruit-- 00:02:36.390 --> 00:02:39.030 align:middle line:84% what Aegon, the fruit better needed above all things 00:02:39.030 --> 00:02:41.490 align:middle line:90% was a Penny's worth of love. 00:02:41.490 --> 00:02:43.320 align:middle line:84% I better say something about this writing, 00:02:43.320 --> 00:02:44.880 align:middle line:84% I think those of you who are writers 00:02:44.880 --> 00:02:47.790 align:middle line:84% can see something that was happening coming out 00:02:47.790 --> 00:02:52.260 align:middle line:84% of the Raleigh book, but the writer, as well as Quirk 00:02:52.260 --> 00:02:57.630 align:middle line:84% of this is a rather odd character. 00:02:57.630 --> 00:03:01.590 align:middle line:84% And you'll see some not that he does try to be a bad writer, 00:03:01.590 --> 00:03:04.600 align:middle line:84% but there's a narrator, a reporter talking along 00:03:04.600 --> 00:03:08.207 align:middle line:84% and I suddenly realized he sounds strange. 00:03:08.207 --> 00:03:10.290 align:middle line:84% Quirk believe that Aegon, the fruit peddler needed 00:03:10.290 --> 00:03:12.450 align:middle line:84% above all things was a Penny's worth of love 00:03:12.450 --> 00:03:14.550 align:middle line:84% or if that was too much to ask a few trading 00:03:14.550 --> 00:03:17.550 align:middle line:84% stamps redeemable for some slight occasional signs 00:03:17.550 --> 00:03:18.900 align:middle line:90% of affection. 00:03:18.900 --> 00:03:21.330 align:middle line:84% Yet, because of his bitterness, his sour tight 00:03:21.330 --> 00:03:22.830 align:middle line:84% lipped disposition the very best, 00:03:22.830 --> 00:03:24.510 align:middle line:84% the most he could hope for was to die 00:03:24.510 --> 00:03:27.120 align:middle line:84% solving enough to afford a decent band 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:29.550 align:middle line:84% of professional mourners for his funeral. 00:03:29.550 --> 00:03:33.210 align:middle line:84% And until then, he was condemned to be irascible choleric given 00:03:33.210 --> 00:03:36.510 align:middle line:84% to violent vain, pulsing black faced, deep breathing, rages 00:03:36.510 --> 00:03:38.940 align:middle line:84% against children who Stole apples. 00:03:38.940 --> 00:03:40.560 align:middle line:84% Housewives, who poked and fiddled 00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:43.620 align:middle line:84% with fruit, policemen, tax collectors, 00:03:43.620 --> 00:03:46.110 align:middle line:84% the barber next door, a hearty man 00:03:46.110 --> 00:03:49.560 align:middle line:84% forever shouting Beaver at the first sight of Aegon's bushy 00:03:49.560 --> 00:03:50.700 align:middle line:90% beard. 00:03:50.700 --> 00:03:52.940 align:middle line:84% Aegon's only solace was to call down curses 00:03:52.940 --> 00:03:55.440 align:middle line:84% on the heads of them one and all in a language, most of them 00:03:55.440 --> 00:03:57.210 align:middle line:90% couldn't understand anyway. 00:03:57.210 --> 00:03:59.910 align:middle line:84% And so instead-- instead of a small measure of love, 00:03:59.910 --> 00:04:02.460 align:middle line:84% he received hatred and ridicule, not 00:04:02.460 --> 00:04:04.980 align:middle line:84% often directly for he was feared, 00:04:04.980 --> 00:04:08.310 align:middle line:84% mostly they spat on his shadow after he passed and felt 00:04:08.310 --> 00:04:10.410 align:middle line:90% better for doing it. 00:04:10.410 --> 00:04:12.060 align:middle line:84% This is wrong, Jacob Quick thought 00:04:12.060 --> 00:04:14.660 align:middle line:84% and he waited for a chance to do something about it. 00:04:14.660 --> 00:04:17.160 align:middle line:84% One day, Aegon had to leave the neighborhood for a few hours 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:19.690 align:middle line:84% to visit some relatives and we had not seen for many years 00:04:19.690 --> 00:04:21.540 align:middle line:90% on the other side of the city. 00:04:21.540 --> 00:04:23.460 align:middle line:84% No doubt it was the funeral of a patriarch 00:04:23.460 --> 00:04:25.460 align:middle line:84% of a wedding of a youngster, which drew him away 00:04:25.460 --> 00:04:28.440 align:middle line:84% from this familiar arena of anger and shame. 00:04:28.440 --> 00:04:30.270 align:middle line:90% No one knew or cared. 00:04:30.270 --> 00:04:32.580 align:middle line:84% As soon as Aegon had safely descended into the subway 00:04:32.580 --> 00:04:35.310 align:middle line:84% entrance and disappeared, Jacob Quirk 00:04:35.310 --> 00:04:38.730 align:middle line:84% transformed himself and reappeared as Aegon. 00:04:38.730 --> 00:04:40.670 align:middle line:90% Aegon changing his mind. 00:04:40.670 --> 00:04:43.620 align:middle line:84% Aegon coming back again without really going. 00:04:43.620 --> 00:04:46.470 align:middle line:84% Aegon pulling some kind of a sneaky trick. 00:04:46.470 --> 00:04:49.110 align:middle line:84% All this to the intense consternation, dismay, 00:04:49.110 --> 00:04:51.870 align:middle line:84% and horror of two underpaid, and harassed 00:04:51.870 --> 00:04:55.950 align:middle line:84% little boys who have been left to watch over the fruit stand. 00:04:55.950 --> 00:05:00.910 align:middle line:84% Every inch Aegon, Quirk entered quietly, tiptoed the back, 00:05:00.910 --> 00:05:04.270 align:middle line:84% and found the boy stuffing themselves with bananas. 00:05:04.270 --> 00:05:06.220 align:middle line:84% We thought you were gone Mr. Aegon, sir? 00:05:06.220 --> 00:05:09.640 align:middle line:84% They both go simultaneously leaving to their feet. 00:05:09.640 --> 00:05:13.660 align:middle line:84% I changed my mind, he said quietly. 00:05:13.660 --> 00:05:17.770 align:middle line:84% Then with a pleasant smile, the boys like my bananas. 00:05:17.770 --> 00:05:19.690 align:middle line:84% We'll pay, we'll pay, they cried. 00:05:19.690 --> 00:05:22.750 align:middle line:84% We'll work it out in overtime, we promise. 00:05:22.750 --> 00:05:25.060 align:middle line:84% Bananas are very good for growing boys. 00:05:25.060 --> 00:05:27.520 align:middle line:84% They fill you up, they make you fat. 00:05:27.520 --> 00:05:29.560 align:middle line:90% Help yourselves. 00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:31.570 align:middle line:84% The two boys looked at each other and abrupt 00:05:31.570 --> 00:05:34.788 align:middle line:84% startled doubting profile, like a pair of perfectly matched 00:05:34.788 --> 00:05:35.830 align:middle line:90% Alfred E Neuman bookends. 00:05:35.830 --> 00:05:37.390 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:05:37.390 --> 00:05:41.140 align:middle line:84% But he seemed to be serious, very instructed them that today 00:05:41.140 --> 00:05:44.020 align:middle line:84% was to be a holiday told him to go forth on the block 00:05:44.020 --> 00:05:45.970 align:middle line:84% and make the announcement to everyone. 00:05:45.970 --> 00:05:48.700 align:middle line:90% Free fruit for everybody. 00:05:48.700 --> 00:05:51.490 align:middle line:84% A harvest celebration like the celebration 00:05:51.490 --> 00:05:53.230 align:middle line:84% of the pressing of grapes into wine 00:05:53.230 --> 00:05:54.760 align:middle line:90% in certain older countries. 00:05:54.760 --> 00:05:58.030 align:middle line:84% An orgy of wonderful fresh fruit grapes and plums, 00:05:58.030 --> 00:06:00.820 align:middle line:84% oranges and tangerines, bananas, melons, grapefruits, 00:06:00.820 --> 00:06:03.520 align:middle line:84% nectarines, strawberries, apples, and oh, 00:06:03.520 --> 00:06:07.180 align:middle line:84% everything good and fine from the rich gardens of the world. 00:06:07.180 --> 00:06:09.910 align:middle line:84% Baffled still apprehensive and doubtful, 00:06:09.910 --> 00:06:12.610 align:middle line:84% they knew at least to do what he told them to. 00:06:12.610 --> 00:06:14.590 align:middle line:84% So for a few short hours, the whole block 00:06:14.590 --> 00:06:16.450 align:middle line:90% was itself transformed. 00:06:16.450 --> 00:06:21.160 align:middle line:84% Becoming briefly a place of joy and singing a happy island, 00:06:21.160 --> 00:06:23.800 align:middle line:84% albeit surrounded by a sea of clenched fists 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:25.780 align:middle line:90% and an ocean of curses. 00:06:25.780 --> 00:06:29.440 align:middle line:84% Lips and hands were stained and sticky with sweetness, 00:06:29.440 --> 00:06:32.020 align:middle line:90% and the world seemed new again. 00:06:32.020 --> 00:06:34.690 align:middle line:84% When Aegon returned from his visit, 00:06:34.690 --> 00:06:37.480 align:middle line:84% he was greeted with love and admiration everywhere 00:06:37.480 --> 00:06:38.470 align:middle line:90% he looked. 00:06:38.470 --> 00:06:41.080 align:middle line:84% Women kissed him and complained that his beard tickled men 00:06:41.080 --> 00:06:43.810 align:middle line:84% shook his hand, children made up rhymes about him 00:06:43.810 --> 00:06:45.730 align:middle line:90% to insert in the street games. 00:06:45.730 --> 00:06:48.790 align:middle line:84% Even the barber embraced him like a French general 00:06:48.790 --> 00:06:50.417 align:middle line:90% hugging a hero. 00:06:50.417 --> 00:06:52.000 align:middle line:84% Though, he never quite understood what 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:53.680 align:middle line:90% happened during his absence. 00:06:53.680 --> 00:06:56.260 align:middle line:84% He managed to restrain his natural suspicion, 00:06:56.260 --> 00:06:58.750 align:middle line:84% he took it simply as a sign perhaps 00:06:58.750 --> 00:07:01.870 align:middle line:84% the work of some careless angels who had singled him out. 00:07:01.870 --> 00:07:04.570 align:middle line:84% Choosing Aegon from among countless thousands 00:07:04.570 --> 00:07:06.940 align:middle line:84% of others as lonely and sad as himself 00:07:06.940 --> 00:07:09.130 align:middle line:90% to receive the gift of love. 00:07:09.130 --> 00:07:11.380 align:middle line:84% And all that was required of him henceforth 00:07:11.380 --> 00:07:15.220 align:middle line:84% was to play as best he could, the smiling and popular role 00:07:15.220 --> 00:07:18.190 align:middle line:84% of the angel-- that the angel had created for him. 00:07:18.190 --> 00:07:19.780 align:middle line:84% He decided that though he might die 00:07:19.780 --> 00:07:22.330 align:middle line:84% too poor to afford professional mourners, 00:07:22.330 --> 00:07:26.710 align:middle line:84% there was a fair chance he would not need them anyway. 00:07:26.710 --> 00:07:28.720 align:middle line:84% Needless to say, Jacob Quirk also 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:32.890 align:middle line:84% soon found occasions to serve the cause of secular justice. 00:07:32.890 --> 00:07:35.980 align:middle line:84% Once still early in the stage of advancement of his art, 00:07:35.980 --> 00:07:37.870 align:middle line:84% he was wandering the streets of the city 00:07:37.870 --> 00:07:41.260 align:middle line:84% away from his own neighborhood late at night. 00:07:41.260 --> 00:07:43.660 align:middle line:84% And for his own amusement, he had turned himself 00:07:43.660 --> 00:07:46.930 align:middle line:84% into a old fashioned cartoon caricature 00:07:46.930 --> 00:07:51.160 align:middle line:84% of a rich man, clothed in contentment with a top hat, 00:07:51.160 --> 00:07:53.620 align:middle line:84% and-- and cane, a big belly, and a cigar. 00:07:53.620 --> 00:07:56.020 align:middle line:84% He was enjoying himself thoroughly more or less 00:07:56.020 --> 00:07:59.230 align:middle line:84% minding his own business, until a surly young man 00:07:59.230 --> 00:08:02.710 align:middle line:84% armed with a very sharp knife, stepped out of a shadowy alley, 00:08:02.710 --> 00:08:04.840 align:middle line:90% and attempted to rob him. 00:08:04.840 --> 00:08:06.710 align:middle line:84% This is a foolish thing, Quirk said. 00:08:06.710 --> 00:08:08.050 align:middle line:90% Don't do it. 00:08:08.050 --> 00:08:09.700 align:middle line:90% Why not? 00:08:09.700 --> 00:08:11.620 align:middle line:84% I'm only pretending to be rich, the truth 00:08:11.620 --> 00:08:13.720 align:middle line:90% is I have very little money. 00:08:13.720 --> 00:08:16.730 align:middle line:84% Well, I don't give a blank, the young robber said. 00:08:16.730 --> 00:08:20.500 align:middle line:84% If you've got a dime, you're blinking better off than I am. 00:08:20.500 --> 00:08:21.940 align:middle line:90% You'll be sorry, Quirk said. 00:08:21.940 --> 00:08:23.800 align:middle line:90% Crime does not pay well. 00:08:23.800 --> 00:08:27.700 align:middle line:84% Shut up, you blinking fact creep, the young man replied. 00:08:27.700 --> 00:08:30.610 align:middle line:84% Knocking Quirk flat to the pavement. 00:08:30.610 --> 00:08:32.860 align:middle line:84% All the while he was trying to dissuade this young man 00:08:32.860 --> 00:08:34.179 align:middle line:90% from crime. 00:08:34.179 --> 00:08:36.580 align:middle line:84% Quirk had been carefully studying him. 00:08:36.580 --> 00:08:38.890 align:middle line:84% So first thing the next morning, Quirk 00:08:38.890 --> 00:08:41.830 align:middle line:84% became the spitting image of his assailant 00:08:41.830 --> 00:08:45.205 align:middle line:84% and proceeded to rob a large, busy, and very crowded bank. 00:08:45.205 --> 00:08:48.328 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:08:48.328 --> 00:08:49.750 align:middle line:90% 00:08:49.750 --> 00:08:52.610 align:middle line:84% All of the young man's alibis and explanation, 00:08:52.610 --> 00:08:55.150 align:middle line:84% all circumstances of mitigation and extenuating 00:08:55.150 --> 00:08:57.880 align:middle line:84% proved useless after he was arrested by police 00:08:57.880 --> 00:09:00.970 align:middle line:84% and confronted with the unshakeable testimony of dozens 00:09:00.970 --> 00:09:02.350 align:middle line:90% of eyewitnesses. 00:09:02.350 --> 00:09:04.630 align:middle line:84% He was given a fair and speedy trial 00:09:04.630 --> 00:09:06.100 align:middle line:84% and sent off to jail to serve out 00:09:06.100 --> 00:09:08.410 align:middle line:90% a long sentence of hard labor. 00:09:08.410 --> 00:09:12.160 align:middle line:84% Quirk never once conceived of this little trick as motivated 00:09:12.160 --> 00:09:15.880 align:middle line:84% by a need for revenge, to revenge the insult of the blow 00:09:15.880 --> 00:09:18.340 align:middle line:84% to his head or indeed as retribution 00:09:18.340 --> 00:09:21.040 align:middle line:84% for the $2.45, which he happened to have 00:09:21.040 --> 00:09:22.810 align:middle line:90% in his pockets at the time. 00:09:22.810 --> 00:09:26.140 align:middle line:84% As he noted in his journal, "I do not ever 00:09:26.140 --> 00:09:28.840 align:middle line:84% intend to use my gifts for petty considerations, 00:09:28.840 --> 00:09:31.630 align:middle line:84% for personal gain or self-satisfaction. 00:09:31.630 --> 00:09:33.550 align:middle line:90% It is perfectly reasonable. 00:09:33.550 --> 00:09:36.400 align:middle line:84% On the basis of all the evidence to assume that 00:09:36.400 --> 00:09:39.370 align:middle line:84% this young man was bound to end up in jail sooner or later 00:09:39.370 --> 00:09:40.780 align:middle line:90% anyway. 00:09:40.780 --> 00:09:44.680 align:middle line:84% I have not changed his destiny, I've only introduced it to him 00:09:44.680 --> 00:09:46.210 align:middle line:90% early." 00:09:46.210 --> 00:09:49.960 align:middle line:84% Thus, allowing him a rare perhaps invaluable opportunity 00:09:49.960 --> 00:09:53.830 align:middle line:84% to know and come to terms with his eventual manifest destiny. 00:09:53.830 --> 00:09:57.190 align:middle line:84% Few men are ever so blessed and so early in life. 00:09:57.190 --> 00:09:59.050 align:middle line:84% And at a time when other less fortunate 00:09:59.050 --> 00:10:03.010 align:middle line:84% young men have done more to do than imagine, prodigious feats, 00:10:03.010 --> 00:10:07.150 align:middle line:84% miraculous adventures, countless conquests, eternal youth, et 00:10:07.150 --> 00:10:08.350 align:middle line:90% cetera, et cetera. 00:10:08.350 --> 00:10:11.297 align:middle line:84% Someday, he may even thank me for this. 00:10:11.297 --> 00:10:12.880 align:middle line:84% So I do feel it prudent to deprive him 00:10:12.880 --> 00:10:14.740 align:middle line:90% of that opportunity. 00:10:14.740 --> 00:10:17.350 align:middle line:84% I have never been able to accept the open gift 00:10:17.350 --> 00:10:20.140 align:middle line:84% of simple gratitude and embarrasses me. 00:10:20.140 --> 00:10:22.720 align:middle line:84% Now, he has three square meals a day 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:25.480 align:middle line:84% and plenty of wholesome exercise in labor 00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:28.450 align:middle line:84% to keep him from indulging in self-pity. 00:10:28.450 --> 00:10:31.540 align:middle line:84% And above all, he has the consolation 00:10:31.540 --> 00:10:35.350 align:middle line:84% of knowing that in the case of the particular crime for which 00:10:35.350 --> 00:10:38.350 align:middle line:84% he has been convicted and is now being punished. 00:10:38.350 --> 00:10:43.000 align:middle line:84% He is perfectly innocent, spotless as a young lamb, 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:45.280 align:middle line:90% this too is a very rare thing. 00:10:45.280 --> 00:10:48.500 align:middle line:84% How many of us can enjoy such a feeling? 00:10:48.500 --> 00:10:49.000 align:middle line:90%