WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.910 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.910 --> 00:00:01.690 align:middle line:90% We're leaving. 00:00:01.690 --> 00:00:07.760 align:middle line:84% And I must say that I haven't actually timed this whole thing 00:00:07.760 --> 00:00:09.305 align:middle line:90% all the way through. 00:00:09.305 --> 00:00:10.550 align:middle line:90% I timed parts of it. 00:00:10.550 --> 00:00:13.340 align:middle line:84% So I'm not sure just how long we may be here-- 00:00:13.340 --> 00:00:14.720 align:middle line:90% or some of us, anyway. 00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:17.530 align:middle line:90% 00:00:17.530 --> 00:00:20.020 align:middle line:84% I have already decided that I'd better 00:00:20.020 --> 00:00:22.720 align:middle line:84% forgo reading this selection, despite that, that as much 00:00:22.720 --> 00:00:24.860 align:middle line:90% as I would like to read that. 00:00:24.860 --> 00:00:27.700 align:middle line:84% So if it was on the program, it would be read. 00:00:27.700 --> 00:00:30.280 align:middle line:90% 00:00:30.280 --> 00:00:34.840 align:middle line:84% From one of my most favorite works in the 20th century, 00:00:34.840 --> 00:00:41.740 align:middle line:84% John Dos Passos's "Trilogy USA," there's a statement that 00:00:41.740 --> 00:00:44.217 align:middle line:84% I'd like to use to kind of preface the reading 00:00:44.217 --> 00:00:45.675 align:middle line:84% for the authors that I've selected. 00:00:45.675 --> 00:00:48.510 align:middle line:90% 00:00:48.510 --> 00:00:51.330 align:middle line:84% And it goes, "USA is a slice of a continent. 00:00:51.330 --> 00:00:54.480 align:middle line:84% USA is a group of holding companies, some aggregations, 00:00:54.480 --> 00:00:57.420 align:middle line:84% unions, a set of laws bound in casts, 00:00:57.420 --> 00:01:00.720 align:middle line:84% a radio network, a chain of moving picture theaters, 00:01:00.720 --> 00:01:03.440 align:middle line:84% a column of stock quotations rubbed out and written 00:01:03.440 --> 00:01:07.080 align:middle line:84% in by Western Union boy on a blackboard, a public library 00:01:07.080 --> 00:01:09.840 align:middle line:84% full of old newspapers and dog-eared history books 00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:12.780 align:middle line:84% with protests scrawled on the margins in pencil. 00:01:12.780 --> 00:01:15.780 align:middle line:84% USA is the world's greatest river valley fringed 00:01:15.780 --> 00:01:17.790 align:middle line:90% with mountains and hills. 00:01:17.790 --> 00:01:21.270 align:middle line:84% USA is a set of big-mouthed officials with too many bank 00:01:21.270 --> 00:01:22.440 align:middle line:90% accounts. 00:01:22.440 --> 00:01:26.250 align:middle line:84% USA is a lot of men buried in their uniforms 00:01:26.250 --> 00:01:28.650 align:middle line:90% in Arlington Cemetery. 00:01:28.650 --> 00:01:32.280 align:middle line:84% USA is the letters at the end of an address when you were away 00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:34.020 align:middle line:90% from home. 00:01:34.020 --> 00:01:38.340 align:middle line:84% But mostly, USA is the speech of the people. 00:01:38.340 --> 00:01:41.070 align:middle line:84% It is in a mother's word telling about long ago, 00:01:41.070 --> 00:01:43.890 align:middle line:84% and a father telling about when I was a boy, 00:01:43.890 --> 00:01:45.540 align:middle line:84% and the kidding stories of uncles, 00:01:45.540 --> 00:01:48.432 align:middle line:84% and the lies that kids told at schools. 00:01:48.432 --> 00:01:51.650 align:middle line:84% And it's the workmen's yawns, the tall tales 00:01:51.650 --> 00:01:54.110 align:middle line:90% told after taps in barracks. 00:01:54.110 --> 00:01:57.200 align:middle line:84% It is the heat that clings to the ears, 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:00.380 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] that tingles in the blood-- 00:02:00.380 --> 00:02:02.450 align:middle line:90% USA." 00:02:02.450 --> 00:02:07.520 align:middle line:84% And that's pretty much the way I feel about my country. 00:02:07.520 --> 00:02:11.360 align:middle line:84% As Shaw said in one of his plays, 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:14.390 align:middle line:84% they haven't spoken English over there for about two centuries. 00:02:14.390 --> 00:02:17.770 align:middle line:90% 00:02:17.770 --> 00:02:22.510 align:middle line:84% And I think that the authors that I want to read here 00:02:22.510 --> 00:02:26.860 align:middle line:84% are writing and speaking in an American speech-- 00:02:26.860 --> 00:02:29.200 align:middle line:84% the words, some of which, most of which, 00:02:29.200 --> 00:02:31.540 align:middle line:90% we share with Great Britain. 00:02:31.540 --> 00:02:35.150 align:middle line:84% But this is the language of our country. 00:02:35.150 --> 00:02:39.460 align:middle line:84% And despite all these anglophilic constructions 00:02:39.460 --> 00:02:42.170 align:middle line:84% at the university level in this country, 00:02:42.170 --> 00:02:46.090 align:middle line:84% we do have a literature worth listening to, I think. 00:02:46.090 --> 00:02:51.130 align:middle line:84% First, I want to read from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, 00:02:51.130 --> 00:02:53.650 align:middle line:84% as it was called by Washington Irving. 00:02:53.650 --> 00:02:55.270 align:middle line:84% This was written about 150 years ago. 00:02:55.270 --> 00:02:59.710 align:middle line:84% And it tells about how he felt as an American toward Europe. 00:02:59.710 --> 00:03:02.230 align:middle line:84% And I don't know how you may receive this. 00:03:02.230 --> 00:03:04.956 align:middle line:84% But it seems to me to be still pretty accurate. 00:03:04.956 --> 00:03:08.080 align:middle line:90% 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:10.330 align:middle line:84% "Never need an American go beyond his own country 00:03:10.330 --> 00:03:12.790 align:middle line:84% for the sublime and beautiful of natural scenery. 00:03:12.790 --> 00:03:15.400 align:middle line:84% But Europe held forth the terms that stared 00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:17.500 align:middle line:90% in political association. 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:19.750 align:middle line:84% There were to be seen the masterpieces of art, 00:03:19.750 --> 00:03:22.450 align:middle line:84% the refinements of highly cultivated society, 00:03:22.450 --> 00:03:26.200 align:middle line:84% the quaint peculiarities of ancient and local customs. 00:03:26.200 --> 00:03:28.930 align:middle line:84% My native country was full of youthful promise. 00:03:28.930 --> 00:03:33.250 align:middle line:84% Europe was rich and accumulated treasures of age put very real 00:03:33.250 --> 00:03:35.410 align:middle line:84% and told the history of times gone by. 00:03:35.410 --> 00:03:38.320 align:middle line:84% And every moldering stone was a chronicle. 00:03:38.320 --> 00:03:41.540 align:middle line:84% I longed to wander over the seas of renowned achievement, 00:03:41.540 --> 00:03:44.410 align:middle line:84% declared, as it were, in the footsteps of antiquity, 00:03:44.410 --> 00:03:46.510 align:middle line:84% to loiter about the ruined castle, 00:03:46.510 --> 00:03:49.240 align:middle line:84% to meditate on the fallen power, to escape, 00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:52.030 align:middle line:84% in short, from the commonplace realities of the present 00:03:52.030 --> 00:03:55.680 align:middle line:84% and lose myself among the shadowy branches of the past. 00:03:55.680 --> 00:03:58.030 align:middle line:84% None but those who have experienced that 00:03:58.030 --> 00:04:01.420 align:middle line:84% can form an idea of the delicious throng of sensations 00:04:01.420 --> 00:04:03.850 align:middle line:84% which rush into an American when he first 00:04:03.850 --> 00:04:06.230 align:middle line:90% comes in sight of Europe. 00:04:06.230 --> 00:04:09.770 align:middle line:84% There is a volume of associations with the very name. 00:04:09.770 --> 00:04:13.220 align:middle line:84% It is the land of promise, teeming with everything 00:04:13.220 --> 00:04:15.170 align:middle line:84% with which his childhood has heard, 00:04:15.170 --> 00:04:18.506 align:middle line:84% or on with his studious years have pondered. 00:04:18.506 --> 00:04:20.245 align:middle line:84% If you're an American visiting Europe, 00:04:20.245 --> 00:04:22.620 align:middle line:84% the long voyage you have to make is an excellent portrait 00:04:22.620 --> 00:04:25.200 align:middle line:84% of the temporary absence of worldly things 00:04:25.200 --> 00:04:27.990 align:middle line:84% and employment produces a state of mind peculiarly suited 00:04:27.990 --> 00:04:30.540 align:middle line:84% to receive new and vivid impressions. 00:04:30.540 --> 00:04:33.450 align:middle line:84% The vast space of waters that separates the hemispheres 00:04:33.450 --> 00:04:35.860 align:middle line:84% is like a blank page in existence. 00:04:35.860 --> 00:04:38.460 align:middle line:84% There is no gradual transition by which, as in Europe, 00:04:38.460 --> 00:04:40.620 align:middle line:84% the features and population of one country 00:04:40.620 --> 00:04:43.915 align:middle line:84% blend almost imperceptibly with those of another. 00:04:43.915 --> 00:04:46.290 align:middle line:84% From the moment you lose sight of the land you have left, 00:04:46.290 --> 00:04:50.730 align:middle line:84% all is vacant sea until you step on the opposite shore and are 00:04:50.730 --> 00:04:55.080 align:middle line:84% launched at once into the hustle of novelty of another world." 00:04:55.080 --> 00:04:59.760 align:middle line:90% 00:04:59.760 --> 00:05:03.360 align:middle line:84% The question that comes next by James 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:06.720 align:middle line:84% is also about how an American who, 00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:12.327 align:middle line:84% like Irving, was an expatriate, felt some years later-- 00:05:12.327 --> 00:05:14.160 align:middle line:84% I think the date of The American, the novel, 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:18.120 align:middle line:84% it comes from, was 1876, something like that-- 00:05:18.120 --> 00:05:26.925 align:middle line:84% how he felt about meeting a fat duchess in Paris in 1876. 00:05:26.925 --> 00:05:29.550 align:middle line:84% Now, he's-- you need to know a little bit about the scene here. 00:05:29.550 --> 00:05:32.340 align:middle line:84% His name is Newman, the American. 00:05:32.340 --> 00:05:35.310 align:middle line:90% 00:05:35.310 --> 00:05:41.760 align:middle line:84% He's just become engaged to a very high-born French woman, 00:05:41.760 --> 00:05:44.520 align:middle line:84% young woman, who he loves very, very much, 00:05:44.520 --> 00:05:48.390 align:middle line:84% called Madame, a princess who's been married once before. 00:05:48.390 --> 00:05:52.620 align:middle line:84% And her brother, Monsieur de Bellegarde, 00:05:52.620 --> 00:05:56.490 align:middle line:84% as he is referred to in this passage, and also the Marquis, 00:05:56.490 --> 00:05:58.590 align:middle line:84% as he's also referred to, is introducing 00:05:58.590 --> 00:06:01.920 align:middle line:90% Newman at a coming out party. 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:02.610 align:middle line:90% Fool you not. 00:06:02.610 --> 00:06:05.280 align:middle line:90% 00:06:05.280 --> 00:06:06.900 align:middle line:84% "Newman found himself in the presence 00:06:06.900 --> 00:06:09.150 align:middle line:84% of a lady of monstrous proportions 00:06:09.150 --> 00:06:12.750 align:middle line:84% in a very capacious armchair, with several persons standing 00:06:12.750 --> 00:06:14.850 align:middle line:90% in a semicircle around her. 00:06:14.850 --> 00:06:18.158 align:middle line:84% This little group had divided as the Marquis came up. 00:06:18.158 --> 00:06:19.950 align:middle line:84% And Monsieur de Bellegarde stepped forward. 00:06:19.950 --> 00:06:23.580 align:middle line:84% And he stood for an instant silent and obsequious, 00:06:23.580 --> 00:06:26.220 align:middle line:84% with the brim of his hat raised to his lips, 00:06:26.220 --> 00:06:29.280 align:middle line:84% as Newman had seen some gentlemen stand in churches 00:06:29.280 --> 00:06:31.530 align:middle line:90% as they entered their pews. 00:06:31.530 --> 00:06:34.860 align:middle line:84% The lady indeed bore a very fair likeness to a reverend effigy 00:06:34.860 --> 00:06:39.360 align:middle line:84% at some idolatrous shrine who was monumentally 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:42.630 align:middle line:90% stout and indescribably serene. 00:06:42.630 --> 00:06:45.580 align:middle line:84% Her aspect was, to Newman, almost formidable. 00:06:45.580 --> 00:06:47.820 align:middle line:84% She had a troubled consciousness of a triple chin, 00:06:47.820 --> 00:06:52.260 align:middle line:84% and small piercing eyes, a vast expanse of uncovered bosoms, 00:06:52.260 --> 00:06:56.400 align:middle line:84% a nodding and twinkling tiara of plumes and gems, 00:06:56.400 --> 00:07:00.180 align:middle line:84% and an immense circumference of satin petticoat. 00:07:00.180 --> 00:07:01.950 align:middle line:84% With her little circle of beholders, 00:07:01.950 --> 00:07:06.990 align:middle line:84% this remarkable woman reminded him of the fat lady at a fair. 00:07:06.990 --> 00:07:11.580 align:middle line:84% She fixed her small, unwinking eyes at the newcomers. 00:07:11.580 --> 00:07:14.850 align:middle line:84% Dear Duchess, said the Marquis, let 00:07:14.850 --> 00:07:17.950 align:middle line:84% me present you our good friend, Newman, of whom 00:07:17.950 --> 00:07:19.800 align:middle line:90% you have heard us speak. 00:07:19.800 --> 00:07:23.160 align:middle line:84% Wishing to make Mr. Newman known to those who are dear to us, 00:07:23.160 --> 00:07:26.460 align:middle line:84% I could not possibly fail to begin with you. 00:07:26.460 --> 00:07:31.260 align:middle line:84% Charmed, dear friend, charmed, monsieur, said the duchess, 00:07:31.260 --> 00:07:34.410 align:middle line:84% while Newman executed his obeisance. 00:07:34.410 --> 00:07:36.360 align:middle line:84% I came on purpose to see monsieur. 00:07:36.360 --> 00:07:38.670 align:middle line:84% I hope he appreciates the compliment. 00:07:38.670 --> 00:07:41.490 align:middle line:84% You have only to look at me to do so, sir, 00:07:41.490 --> 00:07:43.740 align:middle line:84% she continued, sweeping her person 00:07:43.740 --> 00:07:46.350 align:middle line:90% with a much-encompassing glance. 00:07:46.350 --> 00:07:50.580 align:middle line:84% Newman hardly knew what to say, though it seemed to him 00:07:50.580 --> 00:07:53.190 align:middle line:84% that a duchess who joked about her corpulence, one 00:07:53.190 --> 00:07:54.870 align:middle line:90% might say anything. 00:07:54.870 --> 00:07:57.480 align:middle line:84% On hearing that the duchess had come on purpose to see Newman, 00:07:57.480 --> 00:07:59.700 align:middle line:84% the gentleman who surrounded her turned a little 00:07:59.700 --> 00:08:01.620 align:middle line:84% and looked at him with sympathetic curiosity. 00:08:01.620 --> 00:08:04.620 align:middle line:84% The Marquis, with supernatural gravity, 00:08:04.620 --> 00:08:07.980 align:middle line:84% mentioned to him the name of each, while the gentleman who 00:08:07.980 --> 00:08:10.590 align:middle line:90% bore that name bowed. 00:08:10.590 --> 00:08:14.370 align:middle line:84% They were all what are called in France bonhommes. 00:08:14.370 --> 00:08:18.180 align:middle line:84% Newman, I wanted extremely to meet you, the Duchess went on. 00:08:18.180 --> 00:08:20.310 align:middle line:90% C'est positif. 00:08:20.310 --> 00:08:22.680 align:middle line:84% In the first place, I am very fond of the person 00:08:22.680 --> 00:08:23.640 align:middle line:90% you are going to marry. 00:08:23.640 --> 00:08:26.610 align:middle line:84% She is the most charming creature in France. 00:08:26.610 --> 00:08:30.210 align:middle line:84% Mind you, treat her well, or you shall hear some news from me. 00:08:30.210 --> 00:08:32.039 align:middle line:84% But you look as if you were good. 00:08:32.039 --> 00:08:33.750 align:middle line:84% I am told you are very remarkable. 00:08:33.750 --> 00:08:37.490 align:middle line:84% I heard all sorts of extraordinary things about you. 00:08:37.490 --> 00:08:39.270 align:middle line:90% Voyons, are they true? 00:08:39.270 --> 00:08:41.940 align:middle line:84% I don't know what you heard, said Newman. 00:08:41.940 --> 00:08:43.679 align:middle line:90% Oh, you have your légende. 00:08:43.679 --> 00:08:47.370 align:middle line:84% We have heard that you have had quite a career, the most 00:08:47.370 --> 00:08:49.245 align:middle line:90% checkered, the most bizarre. 00:08:49.245 --> 00:08:53.160 align:middle line:84% What is this about you having founded a city some 10 years ago 00:08:53.160 --> 00:08:56.820 align:middle line:84% in the great West, a city that contains today half a million 00:08:56.820 --> 00:08:58.710 align:middle line:90% of inhabitants? 00:08:58.710 --> 00:09:00.720 align:middle line:84% Isn't it half a million, monsieur? 00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:04.290 align:middle line:84% You are exclusive proprietor of this flourishing settlement, 00:09:04.290 --> 00:09:06.630 align:middle line:84% and are consequently fabulously rich. 00:09:06.630 --> 00:09:08.340 align:middle line:84% And you would be richer still if you 00:09:08.340 --> 00:09:12.480 align:middle line:84% didn't grant lands and houses free to those who promised not 00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:15.570 align:middle line:90% to smoke cigars for 10 years. 00:09:15.570 --> 00:09:17.760 align:middle line:84% At this game in three years, you are 00:09:17.760 --> 00:09:21.930 align:middle line:84% going to be made president of the United States. 00:09:21.930 --> 00:09:24.780 align:middle line:84% The duchess recited this amazing legend 00:09:24.780 --> 00:09:26.670 align:middle line:84% with a smooth self-possession which 00:09:26.670 --> 00:09:29.640 align:middle line:84% gave a speech to Newman's mind, the royal beam 00:09:29.640 --> 00:09:31.770 align:middle line:84% and amusing dialogue in a play delivered 00:09:31.770 --> 00:09:34.200 align:middle line:90% by a veteran comic actress. 00:09:34.200 --> 00:09:35.670 align:middle line:84% Before she had finished speaking, 00:09:35.670 --> 00:09:39.870 align:middle line:84% he had burst into loud, irrepressible laughs. 00:09:39.870 --> 00:09:43.470 align:middle line:84% Dear Duchess, dear Duchess, the Marquis 00:09:43.470 --> 00:09:45.660 align:middle line:90% began to murmur soothingly. 00:09:45.660 --> 00:09:47.970 align:middle line:84% Two or three persons came to the door of the room 00:09:47.970 --> 00:09:51.180 align:middle line:84% to see who was laughing at the duchess. 00:09:51.180 --> 00:09:54.060 align:middle line:84% But the lady continued with a soft, serene assurance 00:09:54.060 --> 00:09:55.860 align:middle line:84% of a person who, as a duchess, was 00:09:55.860 --> 00:09:59.130 align:middle line:84% certain of being listened to, and as a garrulous woman, very 00:09:59.130 --> 00:10:02.010 align:middle line:84% independent of the pulse of her auditors. 00:10:02.010 --> 00:10:04.080 align:middle line:84% But I know you are very remarkable. 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:05.970 align:middle line:84% You must be to have endeared yourself 00:10:05.970 --> 00:10:08.790 align:middle line:84% to this good Marquis and his admirable mother. 00:10:08.790 --> 00:10:10.860 align:middle line:84% They don't disturb their scheme in all the world. 00:10:10.860 --> 00:10:12.300 align:middle line:90% They are very exacting. 00:10:12.300 --> 00:10:14.790 align:middle line:84% I, myself, am not very sure at this hour 00:10:14.790 --> 00:10:15.870 align:middle line:90% of really possessing it. 00:10:15.870 --> 00:10:17.400 align:middle line:90% Eh, Bellegarde? 00:10:17.400 --> 00:10:21.780 align:middle line:84% To please, you, I see, one must be a millionaire. 00:10:21.780 --> 00:10:25.540 align:middle line:84% But the real science, my dear sir, is pleasing the countess. 00:10:25.540 --> 00:10:28.260 align:middle line:84% She is as difficult as a princess in a fairy tale. 00:10:28.260 --> 00:10:30.010 align:middle line:90% Your success is a miracle. 00:10:30.010 --> 00:10:31.480 align:middle line:90% What is your secret? 00:10:31.480 --> 00:10:33.960 align:middle line:84% I don't ask you to reveal it before all these gentlemen. 00:10:33.960 --> 00:10:35.305 align:middle line:90% But come and see me some day. 00:10:35.305 --> 00:10:36.930 align:middle line:84% And give me a specimen of your talents. 00:10:36.930 --> 00:10:39.480 align:middle line:90% 00:10:39.480 --> 00:10:43.140 align:middle line:84% The secret is with Madame de Cintré, said Newman. 00:10:43.140 --> 00:10:44.970 align:middle line:90% You must ask her for it. 00:10:44.970 --> 00:10:48.840 align:middle line:84% It consists in her having a great deal of charity. 00:10:48.840 --> 00:10:50.760 align:middle line:90% Very pretty, said the duchess. 00:10:50.760 --> 00:10:52.740 align:middle line:84% That is a very nice specimen to begin with. 00:10:52.740 --> 00:10:56.010 align:middle line:84% What, Bellegarde, are you taking away this monsieur already? 00:10:56.010 --> 00:10:59.040 align:middle line:84% I have a duty to perform, dear friend, 00:10:59.040 --> 00:11:01.340 align:middle line:84% said the Marquis, pointing to the other group. 00:11:01.340 --> 00:11:04.020 align:middle line:84% Ah, for you, I know what that means. 00:11:04.020 --> 00:11:07.290 align:middle line:84% Well, they don't want [INAUDIBLE]. 00:11:07.290 --> 00:11:08.980 align:middle line:90% Well, I have been with you. 00:11:08.980 --> 00:11:10.530 align:middle line:90% That is what I wanted. 00:11:10.530 --> 00:11:12.940 align:middle line:84% He can't persuade me that he isn't very clever. 00:11:12.940 --> 00:11:15.210 align:middle line:90% Farewell. 00:11:15.210 --> 00:11:17.730 align:middle line:84% As Newman passed on with his host, 00:11:17.730 --> 00:11:20.760 align:middle line:90% he asked who the duchess was. 00:11:20.760 --> 00:11:24.414 align:middle line:84% The greatest lady in France, said the Marquis." 00:11:24.414 --> 00:11:28.150 align:middle line:90% 00:11:28.150 --> 00:11:32.590 align:middle line:84% My Romanian grand dame accent is the same as my French. 00:11:32.590 --> 00:11:37.180 align:middle line:84% So don't ask me about my Czech, and my British, 00:11:37.180 --> 00:11:39.310 align:middle line:90% and the whole works. 00:11:39.310 --> 00:11:44.920 align:middle line:84% The next one concerns also, in a sense, traveling. 00:11:44.920 --> 00:11:48.280 align:middle line:84% The trip, this time a slip of the mind, 00:11:48.280 --> 00:11:51.220 align:middle line:84% and some Walden by Henry David Thoreau. 00:11:51.220 --> 00:12:04.550 align:middle line:90% 00:12:04.550 --> 00:12:10.310 align:middle line:84% "In the winter of '46-'47, 100 Irish men with Yankee overseers 00:12:10.310 --> 00:12:14.420 align:middle line:84% came from Cambridge to Walden to get out the ice. 00:12:14.420 --> 00:12:16.940 align:middle line:84% They divided it in cakes by methods too well-known 00:12:16.940 --> 00:12:17.997 align:middle line:90% to require description. 00:12:17.997 --> 00:12:19.580 align:middle line:84% And these, being sledded to the shore, 00:12:19.580 --> 00:12:23.240 align:middle line:84% were rapidly hauled off onto an ice platform in rows 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:26.990 align:middle line:84% by grappling irons and block and tackle, lifting onto a stack 00:12:26.990 --> 00:12:29.555 align:middle line:84% as surely as so many barrels of flour. 00:12:29.555 --> 00:12:32.360 align:middle line:84% And they were placed evenly side by side and row 00:12:32.360 --> 00:12:35.990 align:middle line:84% upon row, as if they formed the solid base of an obelisk 00:12:35.990 --> 00:12:38.330 align:middle line:90% designed to pierce the clouds. 00:12:38.330 --> 00:12:40.010 align:middle line:84% They told me that, in a good day, 00:12:40.010 --> 00:12:42.260 align:middle line:84% they could get out a thousand tons, which was 00:12:42.260 --> 00:12:45.000 align:middle line:90% the yield of about one acre. 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:50.780 align:middle line:84% Thus, for 16 days, I saw from my window 100 men at work, 00:12:50.780 --> 00:12:54.050 align:middle line:84% like busy husbandmen, with teams, and horses, 00:12:54.050 --> 00:12:56.170 align:middle line:84% and apparently all the implements of farming, 00:12:56.170 --> 00:13:00.080 align:middle line:84% like the picture we'd see in the first page of the Almanac. 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:04.070 align:middle line:84% And now, they are all gone, and in 30 days, more, probably. 00:13:04.070 --> 00:13:08.690 align:middle line:84% I have to look out to my window on the pure, blue-green Walden 00:13:08.690 --> 00:13:12.380 align:middle line:84% water there, reflecting the clouds and the trees 00:13:12.380 --> 00:13:15.980 align:middle line:84% and sending up its evaporation in solitude. 00:13:15.980 --> 00:13:20.150 align:middle line:84% And no traces will appear that man has ever stood there. 00:13:20.150 --> 00:13:22.340 align:middle line:84% Perhaps I could hear a solitary loon laugh 00:13:22.340 --> 00:13:24.020 align:middle line:84% as he dives and plumes himself, where 00:13:24.020 --> 00:13:25.730 align:middle line:84% it does see a lonely fisher in his boat 00:13:25.730 --> 00:13:28.530 align:middle line:84% like a floating leaf, beholding his form reflected 00:13:28.530 --> 00:13:34.070 align:middle line:84% in the waves, where lately, 100 men labored securely. 00:13:34.070 --> 00:13:36.590 align:middle line:84% Thus, it appears, that the sweltering inhabitants 00:13:36.590 --> 00:13:40.730 align:middle line:84% of Charleston and New Orleans, of Madras, and Bombay, 00:13:40.730 --> 00:13:44.930 align:middle line:90% and Calcutta, drink at my well. 00:13:44.930 --> 00:13:47.620 align:middle line:84% In the morning, I bathed, my intellect 00:13:47.620 --> 00:13:52.820 align:middle line:84% in a stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita. 00:13:52.820 --> 00:13:55.160 align:middle line:90% Years of the gods have elapsed. 00:13:55.160 --> 00:13:59.030 align:middle line:84% And in comparison with this, our modern world and its literature 00:13:59.030 --> 00:14:01.220 align:middle line:90% seem puny and trivial. 00:14:01.220 --> 00:14:02.930 align:middle line:84% And I vowed, with that philosophy, 00:14:02.930 --> 00:14:05.390 align:middle line:84% it must be referred to a previous state of existence, 00:14:05.390 --> 00:14:09.320 align:middle line:84% so remote is its sublimity from our conceptions. 00:14:09.320 --> 00:14:12.860 align:middle line:84% I lay down the book, the Bhagavad Gita, 00:14:12.860 --> 00:14:14.330 align:middle line:90% and go to my well for water. 00:14:14.330 --> 00:14:16.040 align:middle line:84% And lo, there, I meet the servant 00:14:16.040 --> 00:14:18.560 align:middle line:84% of a Brahmin priest of Brahma, and Vishnu, 00:14:18.560 --> 00:14:21.650 align:middle line:84% and Indra who still sits in his temple on the Ganges 00:14:21.650 --> 00:14:24.380 align:middle line:84% reading the Vedas, where dwells at the root of a tree 00:14:24.380 --> 00:14:25.730 align:middle line:90% with his crust and water jug. 00:14:25.730 --> 00:14:28.370 align:middle line:84% I meet his servant come to draw water for his master. 00:14:28.370 --> 00:14:31.370 align:middle line:84% And our buckets, as it were, grate together in the same well. 00:14:31.370 --> 00:14:34.430 align:middle line:84% The pure Walden water is mixed with the sacred water 00:14:34.430 --> 00:14:35.750 align:middle line:90% of the Ganges. 00:14:35.750 --> 00:14:38.760 align:middle line:84% With favoring winds, it is wafted past the sites 00:14:38.760 --> 00:14:42.350 align:middle line:84% of the fabulous islands of Atlantis and Hesperides, 00:14:42.350 --> 00:14:46.310 align:middle line:84% makes the periplus of Hanno, and floating by Ternate and Tidore 00:14:46.310 --> 00:14:47.810 align:middle line:84% in the mouth of the Persian Gulf, 00:14:47.810 --> 00:14:50.210 align:middle line:84% melts in the tropic gales of the Indian seas, 00:14:50.210 --> 00:14:54.890 align:middle line:84% and is landed in ports of which Alexander only heard the names." 00:14:54.890 --> 00:15:07.578 align:middle line:90% 00:15:07.578 --> 00:15:11.230 align:middle line:84% Now, that's a very different kind of free planning 00:15:11.230 --> 00:15:12.430 align:middle line:90% than the other men did. 00:15:12.430 --> 00:15:16.086 align:middle line:90% 00:15:16.086 --> 00:15:23.090 align:middle line:84% Now, skipping the poetry, in A Man at War, but as a scene, 00:15:23.090 --> 00:15:25.440 align:middle line:84% I think I know there must be a concrete poet down here. 00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:28.216 align:middle line:90% You all have read about comics. 00:15:28.216 --> 00:15:33.770 align:middle line:84% Jack had public writing and publishing poetry in a warship 00:15:33.770 --> 00:15:34.850 align:middle line:90% in '46. 00:15:34.850 --> 00:15:39.740 align:middle line:84% We'll save that for another occasion today. 00:15:39.740 --> 00:15:41.870 align:middle line:84% The next thing here is more or less 00:15:41.870 --> 00:15:45.020 align:middle line:84% in honor of my office mate, Roger Bowen, who 00:15:45.020 --> 00:15:48.800 align:middle line:84% is from Falmouth, England, where Pendennis Castle is, 00:15:48.800 --> 00:15:52.130 align:middle line:84% and where this sketch actually takes place. 00:15:52.130 --> 00:15:55.190 align:middle line:84% And this is from Herman Melville's historical novel 00:15:55.190 --> 00:16:00.110 align:middle line:84% called Israel Potter and a Mirror of His 40 Years' Exile. 00:16:00.110 --> 00:16:04.370 align:middle line:84% And this is a novel about the American Revolution. 00:16:04.370 --> 00:16:08.000 align:middle line:84% And Israel Potter in this scene is only an observer, 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:10.230 align:middle line:90% or as it were, a listener. 00:16:10.230 --> 00:16:15.980 align:middle line:84% And the scene is, really, as I said about another man, who 00:16:15.980 --> 00:16:19.130 align:middle line:84% characterizes himself as a Christian, a gentleman, 00:16:19.130 --> 00:16:20.840 align:middle line:90% and an American. 00:16:20.840 --> 00:16:22.560 align:middle line:90% "I had an uncle-- 00:16:22.560 --> 00:16:25.516 align:middle line:90% his name was Bob-- 00:16:25.516 --> 00:16:27.530 align:middle line:84% who I went hunting with when I was boy. 00:16:27.530 --> 00:16:30.110 align:middle line:84% And ever since those days, I've always 00:16:30.110 --> 00:16:32.600 align:middle line:84% appreciated a man who can swear well, 00:16:32.600 --> 00:16:37.090 align:middle line:84% because he had some of the most marvelous round things he said, 00:16:37.090 --> 00:16:40.670 align:middle line:84% like you red-wifted, Presbyterian, letter-headed son 00:16:40.670 --> 00:16:42.860 align:middle line:90% of a bitch. 00:16:42.860 --> 00:16:45.140 align:middle line:84% So this passage has been selected 00:16:45.140 --> 00:16:49.970 align:middle line:84% because Ethan Allen possesses that talent in spades. 00:16:49.970 --> 00:16:51.840 align:middle line:90% It gets a little loud sometimes. 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:57.590 align:middle line:90% 00:16:57.590 --> 00:16:58.790 align:middle line:90% Next day was Sunday. 00:16:58.790 --> 00:17:00.980 align:middle line:84% And about noon, Israel, with others, 00:17:00.980 --> 00:17:03.800 align:middle line:84% was allowed to go ashore from the step for a stroll. 00:17:03.800 --> 00:17:04.746 align:middle line:90% The town was quiet. 00:17:04.746 --> 00:17:06.329 align:middle line:84% Seeing nothing very interesting there, 00:17:06.329 --> 00:17:09.107 align:middle line:84% he passed out alone in the fields along shore, 00:17:09.107 --> 00:17:10.940 align:middle line:84% and suddenly found himself climbing a cliff, 00:17:10.940 --> 00:17:13.940 align:middle line:90% whereon stood Pendennis Castle. 00:17:13.940 --> 00:17:17.180 align:middle line:84% As he stepped upon a short, crisp lawn under its walls, 00:17:17.180 --> 00:17:20.030 align:middle line:84% he started at a violent sound from within, 00:17:20.030 --> 00:17:22.550 align:middle line:84% as though the roar from a tormented lion. 00:17:22.550 --> 00:17:24.710 align:middle line:84% Soon, the sound became articulated. 00:17:24.710 --> 00:17:26.810 align:middle line:84% And he heard the following words bayed out 00:17:26.810 --> 00:17:29.030 align:middle line:84% with an amazing vigor-- brag no more, old England. 00:17:29.030 --> 00:17:30.980 align:middle line:90% Consider you are but an outland. 00:17:30.980 --> 00:17:33.380 align:middle line:84% Order back your broken battalions home. 00:17:33.380 --> 00:17:36.590 align:middle line:84% And repent in ashes long enough that your hired tories 00:17:36.590 --> 00:17:39.170 align:middle line:84% across the sea forgotten the lord, their god, 00:17:39.170 --> 00:17:41.900 align:middle line:84% and bowed down to Howe and Kniphausen-- the Hessian. 00:17:41.900 --> 00:17:44.990 align:middle line:84% Hands up, you red-skinned jackal, wearing the king's plate 00:17:44.990 --> 00:17:45.560 align:middle line:90% as I do. 00:17:45.560 --> 00:17:48.380 align:middle line:84% I have treasures of wrath against you British. 00:17:48.380 --> 00:17:50.780 align:middle line:84% Then came a clanking, as of a chain, 00:17:50.780 --> 00:17:53.390 align:middle line:84% many vengeful sounds all confusedly together 00:17:53.390 --> 00:17:54.320 align:middle line:90% with struggling. 00:17:54.320 --> 00:17:56.420 align:middle line:90% Then, again, the voice-- 00:17:56.420 --> 00:17:58.670 align:middle line:84% you brought me out here from my dungeon to this green, 00:17:58.670 --> 00:18:01.190 align:middle line:84% a sunny round Sabbath sun, to see how a rebel looks. 00:18:01.190 --> 00:18:03.920 align:middle line:84% But I'll show you how a true gentleman and Christian can 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:06.080 align:middle line:90% conduct in adversity, bat dogs. 00:18:06.080 --> 00:18:09.050 align:middle line:84% Respect a gentleman and a Christian, though he be in rags 00:18:09.050 --> 00:18:11.783 align:middle line:90% and smell of bilge water. 00:18:11.783 --> 00:18:13.700 align:middle line:84% Filled with astonishment of these words, which 00:18:13.700 --> 00:18:16.400 align:middle line:84% came from over a massive wall and enclosing 00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:18.680 align:middle line:84% what seemed an open parade space, 00:18:18.680 --> 00:18:20.570 align:middle line:84% Israel pressed forward and soon came 00:18:20.570 --> 00:18:22.910 align:middle line:84% to a black archway leading far within and underneath 00:18:22.910 --> 00:18:26.960 align:middle line:84% the grassy track, through a tower, like two boar's tusks. 00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:29.690 align:middle line:84% Two sentries stood on guard at either side of the opening 00:18:29.690 --> 00:18:31.190 align:middle line:90% jaws of the arch. 00:18:31.190 --> 00:18:33.230 align:middle line:84% Scrutinizing our adventurer a moment, 00:18:33.230 --> 00:18:36.260 align:middle line:84% they signed him to make an entrance. 00:18:36.260 --> 00:18:39.080 align:middle line:84% Arrived at the end of the archway where the sun shone, 00:18:39.080 --> 00:18:41.180 align:middle line:84% Israel stood transfixed at the scene. 00:18:41.180 --> 00:18:43.910 align:middle line:84% Like some baited bullring, crouched 00:18:43.910 --> 00:18:48.590 align:middle line:84% the Patagonian-looking captive, handcuffed as before, 00:18:48.590 --> 00:18:51.740 align:middle line:84% the grass of the green trampled and gored up all around him 00:18:51.740 --> 00:18:54.620 align:middle line:84% both by his own movements and those of the people around. 00:18:54.620 --> 00:18:56.990 align:middle line:84% Except some soldiers and sailors, 00:18:56.990 --> 00:18:59.390 align:middle line:84% these seemed mostly townspeople collected there out 00:18:59.390 --> 00:19:01.100 align:middle line:90% of curiosity. 00:19:01.100 --> 00:19:03.300 align:middle line:84% The stranger was outlandishly arrayed 00:19:03.300 --> 00:19:06.320 align:middle line:84% in the sorry remains of a half-Indian, half-Canadian sort 00:19:06.320 --> 00:19:09.620 align:middle line:84% of a dress, consisting of a fawn skin jacket with fur outside 00:19:09.620 --> 00:19:14.030 align:middle line:84% and hanging in ragged tufts, a half-rotten, bark-like belt 00:19:14.030 --> 00:19:17.300 align:middle line:84% of wampum, aged breeches of sagathy, 00:19:17.300 --> 00:19:20.140 align:middle line:84% bedarned worsted stockings on the knees-- 00:19:20.140 --> 00:19:23.090 align:middle line:84% to the knees, old moccasins riddled with holes. 00:19:23.090 --> 00:19:25.160 align:middle line:84% There were metal tags yellowed with salt water 00:19:25.160 --> 00:19:27.710 align:middle line:84% rust, a faded red woolen bonnet, not 00:19:27.710 --> 00:19:31.160 align:middle line:84% unlike a Russian nightcap, or a portentous, ensanguined full 00:19:31.160 --> 00:19:35.090 align:middle line:84% moon, all soiled and stuck along and about 00:19:35.090 --> 00:19:38.230 align:middle line:90% with bits of half-rotted straw. 00:19:38.230 --> 00:19:41.930 align:middle line:84% He seems just broken from the dead leases in David's outlawed 00:19:41.930 --> 00:19:43.490 align:middle line:90% Cave of Adullam. 00:19:43.490 --> 00:19:47.120 align:middle line:84% Unshaved, bearded, and matted, and profuse 00:19:47.120 --> 00:19:49.700 align:middle line:84% as a cornfield beaten down by hailstorms, 00:19:49.700 --> 00:19:53.240 align:middle line:84% his whole marred aspect was that of some wild beast, 00:19:53.240 --> 00:19:57.080 align:middle line:84% but of a royal sort, and unsubdued by the cage. 00:19:57.080 --> 00:19:58.503 align:middle line:90% Aye, stare, stare. 00:19:58.503 --> 00:20:00.170 align:middle line:84% Though but last night they had bowed out 00:20:00.170 --> 00:20:03.290 align:middle line:84% the ship's hold like a smutty tierce, and this morning, 00:20:03.290 --> 00:20:05.510 align:middle line:84% out of your littered barracks here like a murderer. 00:20:05.510 --> 00:20:09.110 align:middle line:84% For all that, you may well stare at Ethan Ticonderoga 00:20:09.110 --> 00:20:12.650 align:middle line:84% Allen, the unconquered soldier, you son of a bitches. 00:20:12.650 --> 00:20:15.295 align:middle line:84% You Turks never saw a Christian before. 00:20:15.295 --> 00:20:15.970 align:middle line:90% Stare on. 00:20:15.970 --> 00:20:20.080 align:middle line:84% I am he who, when your Lord Howe wanted to bribe a patriot 00:20:20.080 --> 00:20:23.710 align:middle line:84% to fall down and worship him by an offer of a major generalship 00:20:23.710 --> 00:20:27.595 align:middle line:84% and 5,000 acres of choice land in old Vermont. 00:20:27.595 --> 00:20:30.940 align:middle line:84% Ha, three times three, for glorious old Vermont 00:20:30.940 --> 00:20:32.380 align:middle line:90% and my Green Mountain Boys. 00:20:32.380 --> 00:20:34.990 align:middle line:90% Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah. 00:20:34.990 --> 00:20:37.900 align:middle line:84% I am he, I say, who answered your Lord Howe. 00:20:37.900 --> 00:20:41.050 align:middle line:90% You, you offer our land. 00:20:41.050 --> 00:20:42.640 align:middle line:84% You are like a devil in scripture 00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:46.510 align:middle line:84% offering all the kingdoms of the world, you bastard. 00:20:46.510 --> 00:20:48.330 align:middle line:84% He had not a corner lot on Earth. 00:20:48.330 --> 00:20:50.890 align:middle line:90% [AUDIO OUT] 00:20:50.890 --> 00:20:53.920 align:middle line:84% Look, you rebel-- this is the British who's talking to him. 00:20:53.920 --> 00:20:56.620 align:middle line:84% Look, you rebel, you had best heed how you 00:20:56.620 --> 00:20:58.990 align:middle line:90% talk against General Lord Howe. 00:20:58.990 --> 00:21:02.560 align:middle line:84% Here said a thin wasp-waisted, epauletted officer 00:21:02.560 --> 00:21:05.560 align:middle line:84% of the castle, coming near and flourishing his sword 00:21:05.560 --> 00:21:07.420 align:middle line:90% like a schoolmaster's ferule. 00:21:07.420 --> 00:21:08.970 align:middle line:90% General Lord Howe? 00:21:08.970 --> 00:21:13.390 align:middle line:84% Heed how I talk to that toad-hearted king's lick spittle 00:21:13.390 --> 00:21:16.990 align:middle line:84% of a scarlet poltroon, the vilest wriggler in God's 00:21:16.990 --> 00:21:18.190 align:middle line:90% wormhole below? 00:21:18.190 --> 00:21:20.890 align:middle line:84% I tell you, the herds of red-haired devils 00:21:20.890 --> 00:21:24.770 align:middle line:84% are impatiently snorting to lay the Lord Howe with all his gang, 00:21:24.770 --> 00:21:29.740 align:middle line:84% you included, into the sweeniest syrup atop a flame. 00:21:29.740 --> 00:21:32.710 align:middle line:84% At this blast, the wasp-waisted officer 00:21:32.710 --> 00:21:35.680 align:middle line:84% was blown backwards, as from the sudden burst 00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:37.600 align:middle line:90% head of a steam boiler. 00:21:37.600 --> 00:21:39.490 align:middle line:84% Staggering away with snapped spine, 00:21:39.490 --> 00:21:42.520 align:middle line:84% he muttered something about it being beneath his dignity 00:21:42.520 --> 00:21:46.786 align:middle line:84% to bandy words further with a low-lived rebel. 00:21:46.786 --> 00:21:49.840 align:middle line:84% Come, come, Colonel Allen, here said 00:21:49.840 --> 00:21:52.090 align:middle line:84% a mild-looking man, clerical in dress. 00:21:52.090 --> 00:21:56.290 align:middle line:84% Respect the day, better than to talk thus of what lies beyond. 00:21:56.290 --> 00:21:58.570 align:middle line:84% Were you to die this hour, or what 00:21:58.570 --> 00:22:02.980 align:middle line:84% is more probable, be hanged next week at Tower Wharf, you may not 00:22:02.980 --> 00:22:06.800 align:middle line:84% what might become, in eternity, of yourself. 00:22:06.800 --> 00:22:12.700 align:middle line:84% Reverend sir, with a mocking bow, when not better employed 00:22:12.700 --> 00:22:15.580 align:middle line:84% braiding my beard, I have a little dabbled 00:22:15.580 --> 00:22:17.350 align:middle line:90% in your theologies. 00:22:17.350 --> 00:22:19.960 align:middle line:84% And let me tell you, reverend sir, 00:22:19.960 --> 00:22:23.260 align:middle line:84% that as to the world of spirits of which you hint, 00:22:23.260 --> 00:22:25.930 align:middle line:84% though I know nothing of the mode or manner of the world 00:22:25.930 --> 00:22:28.325 align:middle line:84% no more than do you, yet I expect 00:22:28.325 --> 00:22:29.950 align:middle line:84% when I shall arrive there to be treated 00:22:29.950 --> 00:22:32.890 align:middle line:84% as well as any other gentleman of my merit-- 00:22:32.890 --> 00:22:35.290 align:middle line:84% that is to say, far better than you British know 00:22:35.290 --> 00:22:39.190 align:middle line:84% how to treat an American officer and meek-hearted Christian 00:22:39.190 --> 00:22:40.980 align:middle line:90% captured in honorable war. 00:22:40.980 --> 00:22:44.540 align:middle line:84% Christ, everyone tells me, as you yourself just breathe, 00:22:44.540 --> 00:22:47.560 align:middle line:84% in a crossing the sea every billow dinged into my ear 00:22:47.560 --> 00:22:50.800 align:middle line:84% that I, Ethan Allen, am to be hung like a fool. 00:22:50.800 --> 00:22:55.120 align:middle line:84% If I am, the great Jehovah, at a mental Congress, 00:22:55.120 --> 00:22:57.100 align:middle line:90% shall avenge me. 00:22:57.100 --> 00:22:59.530 align:middle line:84% While I, for my part, shall show you even 00:22:59.530 --> 00:23:02.530 align:middle line:84% on the tree, how a Christian gentleman can die. 00:23:02.530 --> 00:23:06.700 align:middle line:84% Many a time, sir, if you are the clergyman you look, 00:23:06.700 --> 00:23:10.810 align:middle line:84% act out to conciliatory function by getting an unfortunate 00:23:10.810 --> 00:23:14.320 align:middle line:84% Christian gentleman about to die a bowl of punch." 00:23:14.320 --> 00:23:26.430 align:middle line:90% 00:23:26.430 --> 00:23:30.240 align:middle line:84% And this next one is also invective, 00:23:30.240 --> 00:23:32.100 align:middle line:84% but at a very, very different time. 00:23:32.100 --> 00:23:34.290 align:middle line:84% And this is written by Melville's friend, 00:23:34.290 --> 00:23:38.940 align:middle line:84% Daniel Hawthorne in his book known to all of you 00:23:38.940 --> 00:23:40.020 align:middle line:90% as The Scarlet Letter. 00:23:40.020 --> 00:23:45.360 align:middle line:84% It's from a little essay that he called "The Custom House." 00:23:45.360 --> 00:23:48.780 align:middle line:84% And he was very mad because he had 00:23:48.780 --> 00:23:53.550 align:middle line:84% lost a cushy job at the Custom House 00:23:53.550 --> 00:23:56.640 align:middle line:84% when the political parties came to an election. 00:23:56.640 --> 00:24:01.305 align:middle line:84% And he also expressed-- discusses in this essay 00:24:01.305 --> 00:24:05.610 align:middle line:84% and decided to explain his words with polite-leaning words 00:24:05.610 --> 00:24:13.080 align:middle line:84% the politics of his time and the kind of people that hold office. 00:24:13.080 --> 00:24:14.910 align:middle line:84% He expressed a great deal of bitterness 00:24:14.910 --> 00:24:17.820 align:middle line:84% towards his hometown of Salem and said 00:24:17.820 --> 00:24:21.300 align:middle line:84% how much he hated being the child 00:24:21.300 --> 00:24:23.370 align:middle line:84% of the great, great grandson of one 00:24:23.370 --> 00:24:26.940 align:middle line:84% of the founding fathers of that place. 00:24:26.940 --> 00:24:29.850 align:middle line:84% And in "The Custom House," we find this passage, 00:24:29.850 --> 00:24:34.350 align:middle line:84% which I think is kind of a model for putting the knife in slowly 00:24:34.350 --> 00:24:39.280 align:middle line:84% and steadily, rather than taking it off suddenly. 00:24:39.280 --> 00:24:42.660 align:middle line:84% "And the father of the Custom House, the patriarch, 00:24:42.660 --> 00:24:45.360 align:middle line:84% not only would be of this little squad of officials, 00:24:45.360 --> 00:24:48.330 align:middle line:84% but I am bold to say, as a respectful body of tide-waiters 00:24:48.330 --> 00:24:52.370 align:middle line:84% all over the United States, as a certain permanent inspector. 00:24:52.370 --> 00:24:54.435 align:middle line:84% And this inspector, when I first knew him, 00:24:54.435 --> 00:24:56.850 align:middle line:84% was a man of four score years or thereabouts 00:24:56.850 --> 00:24:59.610 align:middle line:84% and certainly one of the most wonderful specimens of these 00:24:59.610 --> 00:25:02.850 align:middle line:84% that he would be likely to discover in a lifetime spent. 00:25:02.850 --> 00:25:05.320 align:middle line:84% With his florid cheeks, his compact figure, 00:25:05.320 --> 00:25:07.800 align:middle line:84% smartly arrayed in a bright and buttoned blue coat, 00:25:07.800 --> 00:25:11.140 align:middle line:84% with brisk and vigorous steps, and a sure and hearty aspect, 00:25:11.140 --> 00:25:13.830 align:middle line:84% altogether he seemed, not young, indeed, 00:25:13.830 --> 00:25:16.200 align:middle line:84% but a kind of new contrivance of mother nature 00:25:16.200 --> 00:25:19.830 align:middle line:84% in the shape of a man whom age and infirmity 00:25:19.830 --> 00:25:21.900 align:middle line:90% had no business to touch. 00:25:21.900 --> 00:25:24.000 align:middle line:84% His voice and laugh, which perpetually 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:25.500 align:middle line:84% echoed through the Custom House, had 00:25:25.500 --> 00:25:28.440 align:middle line:84% nothing of the tremulous flavor and cackle of an old man's 00:25:28.440 --> 00:25:29.340 align:middle line:90% utterance. 00:25:29.340 --> 00:25:32.730 align:middle line:84% They came spreading out of his lungs like the crow of a cock 00:25:32.730 --> 00:25:34.800 align:middle line:90% or the blast of the crane. 00:25:34.800 --> 00:25:37.110 align:middle line:84% Looking at him merely as an animal, 00:25:37.110 --> 00:25:39.720 align:middle line:84% and there was very little else to look at, 00:25:39.720 --> 00:25:41.640 align:middle line:84% he was a most satisfactory object 00:25:41.640 --> 00:25:44.730 align:middle line:84% that from the feral helpfulness and wholesomeness of the system 00:25:44.730 --> 00:25:46.530 align:middle line:84% in his capacity, at his extreme age 00:25:46.530 --> 00:25:50.070 align:middle line:84% to enjoy all or nearly all of the delights 00:25:50.070 --> 00:25:52.560 align:middle line:84% that he had ever aimed at or conceived of. 00:25:52.560 --> 00:25:54.600 align:middle line:84% The careless security of his life 00:25:54.600 --> 00:25:56.387 align:middle line:84% in the Custom House on a regular income, 00:25:56.387 --> 00:25:58.470 align:middle line:84% and with such flighting and frequent apprehensions 00:25:58.470 --> 00:26:00.480 align:middle line:84% of removal, had no doubt contributed 00:26:00.480 --> 00:26:03.360 align:middle line:90% to make time to come over him. 00:26:03.360 --> 00:26:05.350 align:middle line:84% The original and more potent causes, 00:26:05.350 --> 00:26:08.940 align:middle line:84% however, lay in the rare perfection of his animal nature, 00:26:08.940 --> 00:26:10.920 align:middle line:84% the moderate proportion of intellect, 00:26:10.920 --> 00:26:14.160 align:middle line:84% and the very trifling admixture of moral and spiritual 00:26:14.160 --> 00:26:15.810 align:middle line:90% ingredients-- 00:26:15.810 --> 00:26:18.585 align:middle line:84% these latter qualities, indeed, being 00:26:18.585 --> 00:26:21.210 align:middle line:84% barely enough to make it to keep the old gentleman from walking 00:26:21.210 --> 00:26:23.880 align:middle line:90% on all fours. 00:26:23.880 --> 00:26:26.425 align:middle line:84% He possessed no power of thought, no depth of feelings, 00:26:26.425 --> 00:26:28.050 align:middle line:84% no troublesome sensibilities-- nothing, 00:26:28.050 --> 00:26:30.120 align:middle line:84% in short, but a few commonplace instincts, 00:26:30.120 --> 00:26:33.648 align:middle line:84% which aided by the terrible temper which he inevitably had. 00:26:33.648 --> 00:26:35.190 align:middle line:84% His physical well-being did duty very 00:26:35.190 --> 00:26:39.900 align:middle line:84% respectably, and in general, acceptance in lieu of a heart. 00:26:39.900 --> 00:26:42.270 align:middle line:84% He had been the husband of three wives all along since. 00:26:42.270 --> 00:26:43.650 align:middle line:84% He had the father of 20 children, 00:26:43.650 --> 00:26:45.750 align:middle line:84% most of whom at every age of childhood or maturity 00:26:45.750 --> 00:26:47.360 align:middle line:84% had likewise returned to the dust. 00:26:47.360 --> 00:26:50.310 align:middle line:90% 00:26:50.310 --> 00:26:52.740 align:middle line:84% Here, one would suppose might have been sorrow enough 00:26:52.740 --> 00:26:54.510 align:middle line:84% to imbue the sunniest disposition 00:26:54.510 --> 00:26:58.200 align:middle line:84% through and through with a sable skin tinge. 00:26:58.200 --> 00:27:01.440 align:middle line:84% Not so with our old inspector, one big sigh 00:27:01.440 --> 00:27:03.870 align:middle line:84% could suffice to carry off the entire burden 00:27:03.870 --> 00:27:05.670 align:middle line:90% of these dismal pursuits. 00:27:05.670 --> 00:27:07.980 align:middle line:84% The next moment, he was ready for sport 00:27:07.980 --> 00:27:10.380 align:middle line:84% as any unbruised infant, far readier 00:27:10.380 --> 00:27:13.020 align:middle line:84% than the collector's junior clerk, who at 19 years, 00:27:13.020 --> 00:27:16.230 align:middle line:84% was much the older engraver of the two. 00:27:16.230 --> 00:27:19.290 align:middle line:84% One point in which he had vastly the advantage 00:27:19.290 --> 00:27:22.110 align:middle line:84% over his four-footed brethren was his ability 00:27:22.110 --> 00:27:24.570 align:middle line:84% to recollect the good dinners which 00:27:24.570 --> 00:27:28.530 align:middle line:84% had been no small portion of the happiness of his life to eat. 00:27:28.530 --> 00:27:31.680 align:middle line:84% And his gourmand was a highly agreeable trait. 00:27:31.680 --> 00:27:33.330 align:middle line:84% And to hear him talk of roast meat 00:27:33.330 --> 00:27:37.010 align:middle line:84% was as appetizing as a pickle or an oyster. 00:27:37.010 --> 00:27:40.140 align:middle line:84% As he possessed no higher attribute, and neither sacrifice 00:27:40.140 --> 00:27:42.660 align:middle line:84% nor exhibited any spiritual endowment 00:27:42.660 --> 00:27:45.000 align:middle line:84% by devoting all of his energies and ingenuity 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.530 align:middle line:84% to serve the delight and profit of his maw, 00:27:49.530 --> 00:27:51.840 align:middle line:84% it was always pleasing and satisfying for me 00:27:51.840 --> 00:27:54.780 align:middle line:84% to hear him expiate on fish, poultry, and butcher's meat, 00:27:54.780 --> 00:27:58.110 align:middle line:84% and the most eligible method of preparing them for the table. 00:27:58.110 --> 00:28:00.240 align:middle line:84% His reminiscences of good here, however 00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:02.670 align:middle line:84% ancient the date of the actual banquet, 00:28:02.670 --> 00:28:04.620 align:middle line:84% seemed to bring the savor of pitted turkey 00:28:04.620 --> 00:28:06.450 align:middle line:90% under one's very nostrils. 00:28:06.450 --> 00:28:09.330 align:middle line:84% There were flavors on his that lingered there not less than 60 00:28:09.330 --> 00:28:15.510 align:middle line:84% or 70 years and was still apparently as fresh as that 00:28:15.510 --> 00:28:18.720 align:middle line:84% of the mutton chop which he had just devoured for his breakfast. 00:28:18.720 --> 00:28:20.700 align:middle line:84% I have heard him smack his lips over dinners, 00:28:20.700 --> 00:28:22.620 align:middle line:84% every guest of which, except himself, had long 00:28:22.620 --> 00:28:25.185 align:middle line:90% been food for worms. 00:28:25.185 --> 00:28:28.213 align:middle line:84% It was marvelous to observe how the ghosts of bygone meals 00:28:28.213 --> 00:28:30.380 align:middle line:84% were continually rising up before-- and not in anger 00:28:30.380 --> 00:28:32.625 align:middle line:84% or retribution, but as just grateful for his form 00:28:32.625 --> 00:28:36.660 align:middle line:84% of appreciation, and thinking to reduplicate 00:28:36.660 --> 00:28:40.740 align:middle line:84% an endless series of enjoyment, at once shadowy and insensible. 00:28:40.740 --> 00:28:43.830 align:middle line:84% A tenderloin of beef, a hind quarter of veal, 00:28:43.830 --> 00:28:46.170 align:middle line:84% a spare rib of pork, a particular chicken, 00:28:46.170 --> 00:28:48.150 align:middle line:84% or a remarkably praiseworthy turkey, 00:28:48.150 --> 00:28:51.090 align:middle line:84% which had perhaps to join his board in the days of the elder 00:28:51.090 --> 00:28:54.720 align:middle line:84% Adam would be remembered, while all the subsequent experience 00:28:54.720 --> 00:28:57.210 align:middle line:84% of our race and all the events that brightened or darkened 00:28:57.210 --> 00:28:59.250 align:middle line:84% his individual career had gone over him 00:28:59.250 --> 00:29:02.646 align:middle line:84% with as little permanent effect as a passing breeze. 00:29:02.646 --> 00:29:05.460 align:middle line:84% The chief tragic event of the old man's life, 00:29:05.460 --> 00:29:09.490 align:middle line:84% as far as I could judge, was his mishap with a certain goose, 00:29:09.490 --> 00:29:11.520 align:middle line:84% which lived in some 20 or 40 years 00:29:11.520 --> 00:29:14.370 align:middle line:84% ago, a goose of most promising figure, 00:29:14.370 --> 00:29:17.250 align:middle line:84% but which at table, proves so inveterately 00:29:17.250 --> 00:29:18.900 align:middle line:84% tough that the carving knife would make 00:29:18.900 --> 00:29:20.280 align:middle line:90% no impression on its carcass. 00:29:20.280 --> 00:29:22.830 align:middle line:84% And it had to be divided with an ax and a hand saw." 00:29:22.830 --> 00:29:29.620 align:middle line:90% 00:29:29.620 --> 00:29:35.385 align:middle line:84% Now, that's a tough enough bit of a big turmoil. 00:29:35.385 --> 00:29:36.760 align:middle line:84% But you know, when people write-- 00:29:36.760 --> 00:29:38.845 align:middle line:84% I mean this is written about an actual living man. 00:29:38.845 --> 00:29:42.090 align:middle line:90% 00:29:42.090 --> 00:29:45.190 align:middle line:84% So Hawthorne wrote a little preface 00:29:45.190 --> 00:29:46.900 align:middle line:84% to the second edition of Scarlet Letter. 00:29:46.900 --> 00:29:48.310 align:middle line:90% It goes like this first quote. 00:29:48.310 --> 00:29:55.580 align:middle line:84% And I think for exquisite, you know, politeness and scorn, 00:29:55.580 --> 00:29:58.330 align:middle line:90% this same place applies. 00:29:58.330 --> 00:30:01.360 align:middle line:84% "Much to the author's surprise, and if you may say so 00:30:01.360 --> 00:30:04.480 align:middle line:84% without additional offense, considerably to his amusement, 00:30:04.480 --> 00:30:07.240 align:middle line:84% he finds that his sketch of official life introduction 00:30:07.240 --> 00:30:09.160 align:middle line:84% to the Scarlet Letter has created 00:30:09.160 --> 00:30:11.680 align:middle line:84% an unprecedented excitement in the respectable community 00:30:11.680 --> 00:30:13.262 align:middle line:90% and immediately around him. 00:30:13.262 --> 00:30:15.220 align:middle line:84% It could hardly have been more violent, indeed, 00:30:15.220 --> 00:30:18.400 align:middle line:84% had he burned down the Custom House 00:30:18.400 --> 00:30:20.440 align:middle line:84% and clinched its last smoking ember 00:30:20.440 --> 00:30:22.540 align:middle line:84% in the blood of a certain venerable personage 00:30:22.540 --> 00:30:24.820 align:middle line:84% against whom he was supposed to carry out 00:30:24.820 --> 00:30:26.590 align:middle line:90% a particular malevolence. 00:30:26.590 --> 00:30:30.010 align:middle line:84% As the public just approbation would weigh very heavily on him, 00:30:30.010 --> 00:30:32.020 align:middle line:84% were he conscious of deserving it, 00:30:32.020 --> 00:30:35.020 align:middle line:84% the author begs leave to say that he has carefully 00:30:35.020 --> 00:30:38.590 align:middle line:84% read over the introductory pages with a purpose to alter or shun 00:30:38.590 --> 00:30:41.050 align:middle line:84% whatever might be found in it and in its best 00:30:41.050 --> 00:30:43.450 align:middle line:84% reparation in his power for the atrocities of which he 00:30:43.450 --> 00:30:44.920 align:middle line:90% has been a judge guilty. 00:30:44.920 --> 00:30:47.950 align:middle line:84% But it appears to him that the only remarkable features 00:30:47.950 --> 00:30:50.560 align:middle line:84% of this sketch are expressed in genuine good humor 00:30:50.560 --> 00:30:52.960 align:middle line:84% in the general accuracy with which he 00:30:52.960 --> 00:30:56.160 align:middle line:84% has conveyed his sincere impression of the characters 00:30:56.160 --> 00:30:57.370 align:middle line:90% therein described. 00:30:57.370 --> 00:30:59.170 align:middle line:84% That's the immaterial feeling that 00:30:59.170 --> 00:31:03.190 align:middle line:84% any time, personal or political, he utterly disdains such motive. 00:31:03.190 --> 00:31:06.055 align:middle line:84% That such might, perhaps, have been wholly omitted, 00:31:06.055 --> 00:31:08.830 align:middle line:84% without any loss to the public, or detriment to the book. 00:31:08.830 --> 00:31:10.930 align:middle line:84% But having undertaken to write it, 00:31:10.930 --> 00:31:12.490 align:middle line:84% he concedes that it could not have 00:31:12.490 --> 00:31:17.560 align:middle line:84% been done in a better, or a kindly spirit, nor so 00:31:17.560 --> 00:31:22.060 align:middle line:84% far as his ability to avail with a lively effect of truth. 00:31:22.060 --> 00:31:24.340 align:middle line:84% The author is constrained, therefore, 00:31:24.340 --> 00:31:27.245 align:middle line:84% to republish this introductory sketch without the change 00:31:27.245 --> 00:31:27.745 align:middle line:90% of a word." 00:31:27.745 --> 00:31:40.300 align:middle line:90% 00:31:40.300 --> 00:31:45.370 align:middle line:84% The next election is a serious short study, all 00:31:45.370 --> 00:31:48.580 align:middle line:90% with one theme, the Civil War. 00:31:48.580 --> 00:31:53.950 align:middle line:84% And it comes from what I think was a very fine book, one 00:31:53.950 --> 00:31:57.520 align:middle line:84% of the very truly human books that I've ever read, 00:31:57.520 --> 00:32:02.070 align:middle line:84% Walt Whitman's autobiography called Specimen Days. 00:32:02.070 --> 00:32:05.230 align:middle line:84% And it tells about the war in chronological order. 00:32:05.230 --> 00:32:08.360 align:middle line:84% He uses one word in here, I suspect, 00:32:08.360 --> 00:32:12.160 align:middle line:84% which is a strong term in the 1850s for someone who is 00:32:12.160 --> 00:32:15.970 align:middle line:84% a southerner, in fact, someone from a seceding state. 00:32:15.970 --> 00:32:18.580 align:middle line:90% 00:32:18.580 --> 00:32:21.580 align:middle line:84% Some of these states, some of them have titles. 00:32:21.580 --> 00:32:24.850 align:middle line:84% And when they do have basic titles, I'll read that. 00:32:24.850 --> 00:32:29.380 align:middle line:84% Where they don't, I just pause between them. 00:32:29.380 --> 00:32:32.680 align:middle line:90% "The start of the war. 00:32:32.680 --> 00:32:34.338 align:middle line:84% Even after the bombardment of Sumter, 00:32:34.338 --> 00:32:36.880 align:middle line:84% the gravity of the revolt and the power and will of the slave 00:32:36.880 --> 00:32:39.043 align:middle line:84% states with strong, continued military resistance 00:32:39.043 --> 00:32:40.960 align:middle line:84% to national authority, they not at all realize 00:32:40.960 --> 00:32:43.330 align:middle line:90% that the North is up by a few. 00:32:43.330 --> 00:32:45.820 align:middle line:84% I remember that a couple of companies in the 13th Brooklyn 00:32:45.820 --> 00:32:47.345 align:middle line:84% Regiment who ran the rule of city. 00:32:47.345 --> 00:32:49.780 align:middle line:84% I remember when it started at 30 days 00:32:49.780 --> 00:32:53.080 align:middle line:84% and then were all provided with pieces of rope conspicuously 00:32:53.080 --> 00:32:55.810 align:middle line:84% tied to their musket barrel, with instruction to bring back 00:32:55.810 --> 00:32:58.000 align:middle line:84% each man a prisoner from the audacious South 00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:01.000 align:middle line:84% to be ensnared in a noose on our men's early and triumphant 00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:03.298 align:middle line:90% return. 00:33:03.298 --> 00:33:04.840 align:middle line:84% All this sort of feeling was destined 00:33:04.840 --> 00:33:07.630 align:middle line:84% to be arrested and reversed by a terrible shock. 00:33:07.630 --> 00:33:11.140 align:middle line:84% The Battle of First Bull Run, certainly as we now know, 00:33:11.140 --> 00:33:13.780 align:middle line:84% is one of the most singular fights on record. 00:33:13.780 --> 00:33:16.393 align:middle line:84% All battles and their results are far more matters of action 00:33:16.393 --> 00:33:17.560 align:middle line:90% than it's generally thought. 00:33:17.560 --> 00:33:20.770 align:middle line:84% But this one was thoroughly throughout a casualty at hand. 00:33:20.770 --> 00:33:23.620 align:middle line:84% Each side is supposed to be the last moment one had, and point 00:33:23.620 --> 00:33:26.110 align:middle line:84% of fact that the same right to be routed as the other. 00:33:26.110 --> 00:33:27.940 align:middle line:84% By a fiction or a series of fictions, 00:33:27.940 --> 00:33:30.880 align:middle line:84% the National forces, at the last moment, exploded in a panic 00:33:30.880 --> 00:33:32.860 align:middle line:90% and fled from the field. 00:33:32.860 --> 00:33:36.070 align:middle line:84% The defeated troops commenced pouring into Washington over 00:33:36.070 --> 00:33:40.930 align:middle line:84% the long bridge at daylight on Monday, 22nd of July, 00:33:40.930 --> 00:33:44.430 align:middle line:84% gray drizzling all throughout with rain. 00:33:44.430 --> 00:33:46.420 align:middle line:84% The men appear at first start saying, 00:33:46.420 --> 00:33:48.550 align:middle line:84% it seems safe enough, then thicker 00:33:48.550 --> 00:33:50.200 align:middle line:90% in the streets of Washington. 00:33:50.200 --> 00:33:52.030 align:middle line:84% But here, in Pennsylvania Avenue, 00:33:52.030 --> 00:33:54.400 align:middle line:84% and on the steps and basements of entrances, 00:33:54.400 --> 00:33:56.060 align:middle line:84% they come along in disorderly mobs, 00:33:56.060 --> 00:33:58.990 align:middle line:84% some in squads, stragglers, companies, occasionally 00:33:58.990 --> 00:34:02.620 align:middle line:84% a rare resident in perfect order with its officers, some gap 00:34:02.620 --> 00:34:06.870 align:middle line:84% dead, the two brave marching in silence with lowered faces 00:34:06.870 --> 00:34:10.210 align:middle line:84% stern, years of thinking, all black and dirty. 00:34:10.210 --> 00:34:12.850 align:middle line:84% But every man with his musket's been stepping alive. 00:34:12.850 --> 00:34:15.250 align:middle line:90% But these are the exceptions. 00:34:15.250 --> 00:34:17.620 align:middle line:84% Sidewalks of Pennsylvania Avenue, 14th Street, 00:34:17.620 --> 00:34:21.370 align:middle line:84% and so on, crowded jammed with citizens, darkies, clerks, 00:34:21.370 --> 00:34:25.090 align:middle line:84% everybody, lookers on, women in the windows glancing at some 00:34:25.090 --> 00:34:31.179 align:middle line:84% faces as those swarms of dirt-covered returned soldiers 00:34:31.179 --> 00:34:35.139 align:middle line:84% there, will they never end, moved by. 00:34:35.139 --> 00:34:37.840 align:middle line:90% But nothing said, no coming. 00:34:37.840 --> 00:34:41.199 align:middle line:84% Half our lookers on to threat of the most venomous kind. 00:34:41.199 --> 00:34:44.469 align:middle line:84% They say nothing, but the Devil snickers in their faces. 00:34:44.469 --> 00:34:47.500 align:middle line:84% During the forenoon, Washington gets all over motley, 00:34:47.500 --> 00:34:50.500 align:middle line:84% as these defeated soldiers clear looking out with strange eyes 00:34:50.500 --> 00:34:51.920 align:middle line:90% and faces drenched-- 00:34:51.920 --> 00:34:54.040 align:middle line:84% the steady rain drizzles on all day-- 00:34:54.040 --> 00:34:58.330 align:middle line:84% and fearfully worn, hungry, haggard, blistered in the feet. 00:34:58.330 --> 00:35:00.790 align:middle line:84% Good people, but not over many, either, 00:35:00.790 --> 00:35:02.830 align:middle line:84% hurry up something for their grub. 00:35:02.830 --> 00:35:06.100 align:middle line:84% They put black kettles on the fire to heat the coffee. 00:35:06.100 --> 00:35:07.930 align:middle line:90% They set tables on the sidewalk. 00:35:07.930 --> 00:35:13.930 align:middle line:84% Wagon-loads of bread are toasted swiftly, cut into stout chunks. 00:35:13.930 --> 00:35:16.990 align:middle line:84% And with a deep excitement, crowd, emotion, 00:35:16.990 --> 00:35:18.550 align:middle line:84% and desperate eagerness, it seems 00:35:18.550 --> 00:35:21.970 align:middle line:84% strange to see many, very many, of the soldiers sleeping 00:35:21.970 --> 00:35:24.190 align:middle line:84% in the midst of all, sleeping soundly. 00:35:24.190 --> 00:35:27.670 align:middle line:84% They drop down anywhere-- on the steps of houses, up close bunks, 00:35:27.670 --> 00:35:30.910 align:middle line:84% or fences on the sidewalk, outside on some vacant lot 00:35:30.910 --> 00:35:33.390 align:middle line:90% on Beechwood Street. 00:35:33.390 --> 00:35:36.220 align:middle line:84% Meantime in Washington, among the great persons 00:35:36.220 --> 00:35:39.550 align:middle line:84% and their entourage, a mixture of awful consternation, 00:35:39.550 --> 00:35:42.610 align:middle line:84% uncertainty, rage, shame, helplessness, and stupefying 00:35:42.610 --> 00:35:45.640 align:middle line:84% disappointment, the worst is not only imminent, but already 00:35:45.640 --> 00:35:47.913 align:middle line:84% here in a few hours, perhaps before the next meal, 00:35:47.913 --> 00:35:50.080 align:middle line:84% the success generals with their victorious foreheads 00:35:50.080 --> 00:35:51.220 align:middle line:90% will be upon us. 00:35:51.220 --> 00:35:53.350 align:middle line:84% The dream of humanity, the vaunted union 00:35:53.350 --> 00:35:55.450 align:middle line:84% we fought so strong, so impregnable, 00:35:55.450 --> 00:35:58.990 align:middle line:84% lo, it seems already smashed like a china plate. 00:35:58.990 --> 00:36:02.020 align:middle line:84% One bitter, bitter hour, perhaps proud America 00:36:02.020 --> 00:36:04.330 align:middle line:84% will never again know such an hour. 00:36:04.330 --> 00:36:06.760 align:middle line:84% We must pack and fly, no time to spare. 00:36:06.760 --> 00:36:09.970 align:middle line:84% Those white palaces, the dome crowned capital there 00:36:09.970 --> 00:36:11.560 align:middle line:84% on the hill so stately over the trees, 00:36:11.560 --> 00:36:14.440 align:middle line:84% shall they be left or destroyed first? 00:36:14.440 --> 00:36:17.307 align:middle line:84% For it is certain that the talk among certain of the magnates, 00:36:17.307 --> 00:36:19.390 align:middle line:84% and officers, and clerks, and officials everywhere 00:36:19.390 --> 00:36:21.820 align:middle line:84% for 24 hours in and around Washington 00:36:21.820 --> 00:36:24.730 align:middle line:84% after Bull Run was loud and undisguised, 00:36:24.730 --> 00:36:28.180 align:middle line:84% were yielding out and out, and substituting 00:36:28.180 --> 00:36:30.970 align:middle line:84% with Southern rule and Lincoln promptly 00:36:30.970 --> 00:36:33.130 align:middle line:90% abdicating and departing. 00:36:33.130 --> 00:36:36.400 align:middle line:84% If the success officers and forces had immediately followed, 00:36:36.400 --> 00:36:38.200 align:middle line:84% and by a bold Napoleonic movement 00:36:38.200 --> 00:36:41.050 align:middle line:84% had entered Washington the first day or even the second, 00:36:41.050 --> 00:36:43.570 align:middle line:84% they could have had things their own way 00:36:43.570 --> 00:36:47.830 align:middle line:84% and a powerful fashioned North to back them. 00:36:47.830 --> 00:36:51.190 align:middle line:84% But the hour, the day, the night passed. 00:36:51.190 --> 00:36:55.610 align:middle line:84% And whatever returned, an hour, a day, 00:36:55.610 --> 00:36:58.990 align:middle line:84% a night like that can never return to the day. 00:36:58.990 --> 00:37:03.640 align:middle line:84% The president recovered himself, began that very night sternly, 00:37:03.640 --> 00:37:06.730 align:middle line:84% rapidly set about the task of reorganizing his forces 00:37:06.730 --> 00:37:09.670 align:middle line:84% and placing himself in positions for future and sure work. 00:37:09.670 --> 00:37:11.800 align:middle line:84% If there was nothing else of Abraham Lincoln 00:37:11.800 --> 00:37:13.510 align:middle line:84% for his chief of staff and whip, it 00:37:13.510 --> 00:37:15.550 align:middle line:84% is enough to send him with this leak 00:37:15.550 --> 00:37:17.620 align:middle line:84% to the memory of all future times 00:37:17.620 --> 00:37:22.310 align:middle line:84% that he endured that hour, that day, bitterer then gall, indeed, 00:37:22.310 --> 00:37:26.500 align:middle line:84% a crucifixion day, that it did not conquer him, 00:37:26.500 --> 00:37:30.970 align:middle line:84% that the unflinchingly extended and resolved to lift himself 00:37:30.970 --> 00:37:32.290 align:middle line:90% and the Union out of it. 00:37:32.290 --> 00:37:35.420 align:middle line:90% 00:37:35.420 --> 00:37:38.630 align:middle line:84% Down at the front, Falmouth, Virginia, 00:37:38.630 --> 00:37:43.580 align:middle line:84% opposite Fredericksburg, December 21, 1862, 00:37:43.580 --> 00:37:45.770 align:middle line:84% began my visit among the camp hospitals 00:37:45.770 --> 00:37:47.302 align:middle line:84% in the Army of the Potomac, spending 00:37:47.302 --> 00:37:49.010 align:middle line:84% the good part of the day in a large brick 00:37:49.010 --> 00:37:50.930 align:middle line:84% mansion on the banks of the Rappahannock, 00:37:50.930 --> 00:37:53.027 align:middle line:84% used as a hospital since the battle, 00:37:53.027 --> 00:37:54.860 align:middle line:84% seems to have received only the worst cases. 00:37:54.860 --> 00:37:56.810 align:middle line:84% Outdoors at the foot of a tree within 10 00:37:56.810 --> 00:37:59.090 align:middle line:84% yards of the front of the house, I 00:37:59.090 --> 00:38:02.270 align:middle line:84% noticed a heap of antiquated feet, legs, arms, hands, 00:38:02.270 --> 00:38:05.468 align:middle line:84% and so forth, a full wagonload for a one-horse cart. 00:38:05.468 --> 00:38:07.010 align:middle line:84% Several dead bodies lying there, each 00:38:07.010 --> 00:38:09.080 align:middle line:84% covered with its brown woolen blanket 00:38:09.080 --> 00:38:11.300 align:middle line:84% in the bare yard towards the river of fresh graves, 00:38:11.300 --> 00:38:14.450 align:middle line:84% most of them officers, their names on pieces of barrel 00:38:14.450 --> 00:38:15.950 align:middle line:84% and broken boards stuck in the dirt. 00:38:15.950 --> 00:38:18.960 align:middle line:90% 00:38:18.960 --> 00:38:22.290 align:middle line:84% But for such brave, the ground soldiers 00:38:22.290 --> 00:38:25.050 align:middle line:84% are not comprised in those of one side any more 00:38:25.050 --> 00:38:26.280 align:middle line:90% than the other. 00:38:26.280 --> 00:38:27.990 align:middle line:84% At the war department a few days ago, 00:38:27.990 --> 00:38:30.670 align:middle line:84% I witnessed the presentation of captured flags 00:38:30.670 --> 00:38:32.250 align:middle line:90% to the Secretary of War. 00:38:32.250 --> 00:38:35.530 align:middle line:84% Among others, a soldier named Grant in 104th Ohio volunteers 00:38:35.530 --> 00:38:38.610 align:middle line:84% to hold a Battle Flag, which one of the officers stated to me was 00:38:38.610 --> 00:38:41.340 align:middle line:84% born through the mouth of our cannon and planted there 00:38:41.340 --> 00:38:45.420 align:middle line:84% by a boy but 17 years of age, who actually endeavored to stop 00:38:45.420 --> 00:38:47.670 align:middle line:84% the muzzle of the gun with bent rails. 00:38:47.670 --> 00:38:49.180 align:middle line:90% He was killed in the effort. 00:38:49.180 --> 00:38:52.480 align:middle line:90% 00:38:52.480 --> 00:38:57.760 align:middle line:84% Abraham Lincoln-- I see the president almost every day, 00:38:57.760 --> 00:39:01.330 align:middle line:84% as I happen to live where he passes to or from his lodgings 00:39:01.330 --> 00:39:02.620 align:middle line:90% out of town. 00:39:02.620 --> 00:39:05.290 align:middle line:84% He never sleeps at the White House during the hot season, 00:39:05.290 --> 00:39:08.170 align:middle line:84% but has quarters at a healthy location some three miles north 00:39:08.170 --> 00:39:11.170 align:middle line:84% of the city, the soldiers' home, a United States Military 00:39:11.170 --> 00:39:12.340 align:middle line:90% establishment. 00:39:12.340 --> 00:39:15.550 align:middle line:84% I saw him this morning about 8:30 coming into business, 00:39:15.550 --> 00:39:18.190 align:middle line:84% riding on Vermont Avenue near L Street. 00:39:18.190 --> 00:39:20.410 align:middle line:84% He always has a company of 25 or 30 00:39:20.410 --> 00:39:22.930 align:middle line:84% cavalry with sabers drawn and held up right 00:39:22.930 --> 00:39:24.460 align:middle line:90% over their shoulders. 00:39:24.460 --> 00:39:26.860 align:middle line:84% They say this guard was against his personal wish, 00:39:26.860 --> 00:39:29.350 align:middle line:84% but he let his counselors have their way. 00:39:29.350 --> 00:39:32.770 align:middle line:84% The party makes no great show in uniform or horses. 00:39:32.770 --> 00:39:34.750 align:middle line:84% Mr. Lincoln on the saddle generally rides 00:39:34.750 --> 00:39:36.670 align:middle line:84% a good-sized, easygoing gray horse 00:39:36.670 --> 00:39:39.333 align:middle line:84% who's dressed in plain black, somewhat rusty, and wears 00:39:39.333 --> 00:39:41.875 align:middle line:84% a black, stiff hat, and looks about as ordinary in his attire 00:39:41.875 --> 00:39:43.930 align:middle line:90% and so on as the commonest man. 00:39:43.930 --> 00:39:46.300 align:middle line:84% A lieutenant with yellow staff rides to his left, 00:39:46.300 --> 00:39:47.860 align:middle line:84% and following behind, two by two, 00:39:47.860 --> 00:39:50.690 align:middle line:84% from the cavalrymen in their yellow striped jackets. 00:39:50.690 --> 00:39:52.990 align:middle line:84% They are generally going at a slow trot, 00:39:52.990 --> 00:39:56.470 align:middle line:84% as that is the pace set them by the one they wait upon. 00:39:56.470 --> 00:39:58.030 align:middle line:84% The sabers and accoutrements plant 00:39:58.030 --> 00:40:01.360 align:middle line:84% an entire unornamental cortege as it trots toward Lafayette 00:40:01.360 --> 00:40:03.490 align:middle line:90% Square arouses no sensation. 00:40:03.490 --> 00:40:06.880 align:middle line:84% Only some curious stranger stops and gazes. 00:40:06.880 --> 00:40:09.730 align:middle line:84% I see very plainly Abraham Lincoln's dark brown face, 00:40:09.730 --> 00:40:11.650 align:middle line:84% with the deep cut lines, the eyes 00:40:11.650 --> 00:40:15.220 align:middle line:84% always continue with a deflating sadness and expression. 00:40:15.220 --> 00:40:17.410 align:middle line:84% We have got so that we exchange vows. 00:40:17.410 --> 00:40:19.090 align:middle line:90% And there's coarser ones. 00:40:19.090 --> 00:40:22.186 align:middle line:84% Sometimes the president goes, and comes, in an open barouche. 00:40:22.186 --> 00:40:25.660 align:middle line:84% The cavalry always accompanies him with drawn sabers. 00:40:25.660 --> 00:40:27.670 align:middle line:84% Often, I notice that he goes out evenings. 00:40:27.670 --> 00:40:30.310 align:middle line:84% And sometimes, in the morning, when he returns early, 00:40:30.310 --> 00:40:33.280 align:middle line:84% he turns off and halts at the lodge and handsome residences 00:40:33.280 --> 00:40:36.220 align:middle line:84% of the Secretary of War on 3rd Street and holds conference 00:40:36.220 --> 00:40:36.775 align:middle line:90% there. 00:40:36.775 --> 00:40:39.735 align:middle line:84% If in his barouche, I can see him from my window. 00:40:39.735 --> 00:40:41.910 align:middle line:84% And he does not alight to sit in with Mr. 00:40:41.910 --> 00:40:44.080 align:middle line:90% Stanton and that contingent. 00:40:44.080 --> 00:40:46.420 align:middle line:84% Sometimes, one of his sons, a boy of 10 or 12, 00:40:46.420 --> 00:40:49.240 align:middle line:84% accompanies him, riding on his right on a pony. 00:40:49.240 --> 00:40:52.030 align:middle line:90% 00:40:52.030 --> 00:40:53.596 align:middle line:90% Some specimen cases. 00:40:53.596 --> 00:40:56.200 align:middle line:90% June 19. 00:40:56.200 --> 00:40:58.600 align:middle line:84% In one of the hospitals, I find Thomas Haley, company 00:40:58.600 --> 00:41:01.150 align:middle line:84% in Fourth New York cavalry, a regular Irish boy, 00:41:01.150 --> 00:41:03.520 align:middle line:84% a fine specimen of useful physical manliness, 00:41:03.520 --> 00:41:05.920 align:middle line:84% came over to this country from Ireland to enlist. 00:41:05.920 --> 00:41:08.440 align:middle line:84% He has not a single friend or acquaintance here. 00:41:08.440 --> 00:41:10.240 align:middle line:84% He sits in silence at this moment, 00:41:10.240 --> 00:41:11.920 align:middle line:90% that is, his place of death. 00:41:11.920 --> 00:41:15.075 align:middle line:84% He had a bullet hole straight through the lung. 00:41:15.075 --> 00:41:18.680 align:middle line:84% J.T.L. of company F, Ninth New Hampshire lies in Bed 37, 00:41:18.680 --> 00:41:21.490 align:middle line:84% ward I. He's very fond of tobacco. 00:41:21.490 --> 00:41:23.547 align:middle line:84% I furnished him some, also for a little money 00:41:23.547 --> 00:41:24.880 align:middle line:90% he had gained during the defeat. 00:41:24.880 --> 00:41:28.450 align:middle line:84% It's a pretty bad case, and surely will they be told. 00:41:28.450 --> 00:41:31.180 align:middle line:84% He's a regular specimen of an old-fashioned, rude, hardy New 00:41:31.180 --> 00:41:33.190 align:middle line:90% England countryman. 00:41:33.190 --> 00:41:35.590 align:middle line:84% That pre-war armor has a great hankering 00:41:35.590 --> 00:41:37.415 align:middle line:90% for pickles, something pungent. 00:41:37.415 --> 00:41:39.040 align:middle line:84% After consulting the doctor, I gave him 00:41:39.040 --> 00:41:43.180 align:middle line:84% a small bottle of horseradish, also some apple, also a book. 00:41:43.180 --> 00:41:44.830 align:middle line:84% Some of the nurses are excellent. 00:41:44.830 --> 00:41:48.370 align:middle line:84% The woman nurse in this ward, I like very much, Mrs. Wright. 00:41:48.370 --> 00:41:50.920 align:middle line:84% A year afterwards, I found her in a mansion house hospital, 00:41:50.920 --> 00:41:52.090 align:middle line:90% Alexandria. 00:41:52.090 --> 00:41:54.550 align:middle line:90% She is a perfect girl. 00:41:54.550 --> 00:41:57.910 align:middle line:84% In one bed a young man, Marcus Small, company K, 7th Maine, 00:41:57.910 --> 00:41:59.590 align:middle line:84% sick with dysentery and typhoid fever. 00:41:59.590 --> 00:42:00.550 align:middle line:90% I talk with him often. 00:42:00.550 --> 00:42:02.020 align:middle line:90% He thinks he will die. 00:42:02.020 --> 00:42:03.760 align:middle line:90% Looks like it, indeed. 00:42:03.760 --> 00:42:07.150 align:middle line:84% I write a letter for him home to East Livermore, Maine. 00:42:07.150 --> 00:42:09.370 align:middle line:84% I let him talk to me a little, but not much, 00:42:09.370 --> 00:42:13.120 align:middle line:84% advise him to keep very quiet, do most of the talking myself. 00:42:13.120 --> 00:42:16.570 align:middle line:84% Stay quite a while with him as he holds on to my hand. 00:42:16.570 --> 00:42:20.050 align:middle line:84% Talk to him in a clearing, but slow, low, and natured manner, 00:42:20.050 --> 00:42:22.600 align:middle line:84% talk about his furlough, and going home as soon 00:42:22.600 --> 00:42:25.480 align:middle line:90% as he is able to travel. 00:42:25.480 --> 00:42:28.480 align:middle line:84% This afternoon, I spent a long time with Oscar F. Wilber, 00:42:28.480 --> 00:42:32.380 align:middle line:84% company G, 154th New York, low with chronic diarrhea and a bad 00:42:32.380 --> 00:42:33.520 align:middle line:90% wound also. 00:42:33.520 --> 00:42:36.130 align:middle line:84% He asked me to read him a chapter in the New Testament. 00:42:36.130 --> 00:42:37.870 align:middle line:84% I complied and asked him what I could do. 00:42:37.870 --> 00:42:39.820 align:middle line:90% He said, make your own choice. 00:42:39.820 --> 00:42:42.580 align:middle line:84% I opened it to closed one of the first books, the Evangelist, 00:42:42.580 --> 00:42:45.520 align:middle line:84% and read the chapters describing the latter hours of Christ 00:42:45.520 --> 00:42:47.320 align:middle line:84% and the scenes of the crucifixion. 00:42:47.320 --> 00:42:50.470 align:middle line:84% Poor, wasted, young man asked me to read the following chapter, 00:42:50.470 --> 00:42:53.500 align:middle line:90% also, how Christ rose again. 00:42:53.500 --> 00:42:55.630 align:middle line:84% I read very slowly for Oscar this fable. 00:42:55.630 --> 00:42:57.370 align:middle line:90% It pleased him very much. 00:42:57.370 --> 00:42:59.040 align:middle line:84% He got the tears going in his eyes. 00:42:59.040 --> 00:43:00.730 align:middle line:84% He asked me if I enjoyed religion. 00:43:00.730 --> 00:43:03.670 align:middle line:84% I said, perhaps not, my dear, in the way you mean. 00:43:03.670 --> 00:43:05.620 align:middle line:84% And yet, maybe it is the same thing. 00:43:05.620 --> 00:43:09.100 align:middle line:84% He said, it is my truthful honor. 00:43:09.100 --> 00:43:11.090 align:middle line:84% He talked of death and said he did not fear. 00:43:11.090 --> 00:43:13.423 align:middle line:84% And I said, why, Oscar, don't you think you'll get well? 00:43:13.423 --> 00:43:15.820 align:middle line:84% He said, I may, but it is not probable. 00:43:15.820 --> 00:43:17.520 align:middle line:84% He spoke calmly, with convictions. 00:43:17.520 --> 00:43:18.580 align:middle line:90% The wound was very bad. 00:43:18.580 --> 00:43:20.320 align:middle line:90% It just stirred him up. 00:43:20.320 --> 00:43:22.220 align:middle line:84% Then the diarrhea had crossed over to him. 00:43:22.220 --> 00:43:25.780 align:middle line:84% And I felt that he was living there in a state of dying. 00:43:25.780 --> 00:43:27.650 align:middle line:84% He's a whole gained man and affectionate. 00:43:27.650 --> 00:43:29.140 align:middle line:90% With this, I gazed in his eyes. 00:43:29.140 --> 00:43:31.630 align:middle line:84% About leaving, he returned fourfold. 00:43:31.630 --> 00:43:34.240 align:middle line:84% He gave me his mother's address, Mrs. Sally D. Wilber, 00:43:34.240 --> 00:43:37.720 align:middle line:84% Alleghany post office, Cattaraugus County, New York. 00:43:37.720 --> 00:43:39.980 align:middle line:84% I had several such interviews with him. 00:43:39.980 --> 00:43:42.075 align:middle line:84% He died a few days after knowing just the same. 00:43:42.075 --> 00:43:45.080 align:middle line:90% 00:43:45.080 --> 00:43:48.290 align:middle line:90% My preparation is for visits. 00:43:48.290 --> 00:43:50.000 align:middle line:84% In my visits to the hospitals, it 00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:52.550 align:middle line:84% was in a simple matter of personal presence 00:43:52.550 --> 00:43:55.130 align:middle line:84% and emanating ordinary care and magnetism 00:43:55.130 --> 00:43:56.990 align:middle line:84% that I succeeded and helped more than 00:43:56.990 --> 00:44:00.320 align:middle line:84% by medical nursing, or delicacies, or gifts of money, 00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:01.940 align:middle line:90% or anything else. 00:44:01.940 --> 00:44:05.850 align:middle line:84% During the war, I suggest the perfection of physical health. 00:44:05.850 --> 00:44:08.180 align:middle line:84% My habit, when practicable, was to prepare 00:44:08.180 --> 00:44:11.660 align:middle line:84% for starting out on one of the daily or nightly tours 00:44:11.660 --> 00:44:15.710 align:middle line:84% of some couple for four or five hours by fortifying myself 00:44:15.710 --> 00:44:19.980 align:middle line:84% with previous dress, a bath, clean clothes, a good meal, 00:44:19.980 --> 00:44:21.680 align:middle line:84% and as careful as there it was possible. 00:44:21.680 --> 00:44:24.960 align:middle line:90% 00:44:24.960 --> 00:44:28.590 align:middle line:84% A silent night ramble, October 20th-- 00:44:28.590 --> 00:44:30.960 align:middle line:84% tonight, after leaving the hospital at 10 o'clock, 00:44:30.960 --> 00:44:33.360 align:middle line:84% I had been on self-imposed duty some five hours 00:44:33.360 --> 00:44:36.660 align:middle line:84% pretty closely confined, I wandered a long time 00:44:36.660 --> 00:44:37.860 align:middle line:90% around Washington. 00:44:37.860 --> 00:44:41.160 align:middle line:84% The night was very sweet, very clear, sufficiently cool, 00:44:41.160 --> 00:44:44.340 align:middle line:84% a voluptuous half moon, slightly golden, the space 00:44:44.340 --> 00:44:47.430 align:middle line:84% mirrored of a transparent blue-gray tinge. 00:44:47.430 --> 00:44:50.120 align:middle line:84% I walked up Pennsylvania Avenue, and then to 7th Street, 00:44:50.120 --> 00:44:53.790 align:middle line:84% and a long while along by the office. 00:44:53.790 --> 00:44:56.130 align:middle line:84% Somehow, it looked the beautifully song, 00:44:56.130 --> 00:44:58.290 align:middle line:84% majestic here in delicate moonlight, 00:44:58.290 --> 00:45:01.320 align:middle line:84% the sky, the planets, the constellations all so bright, 00:45:01.320 --> 00:45:05.100 align:middle line:84% so calm, so successively silent, so soothing 00:45:05.100 --> 00:45:07.440 align:middle line:90% after those hospital scenes. 00:45:07.440 --> 00:45:11.340 align:middle line:84% I wandered to and fro, till moist moon set long 00:45:11.340 --> 00:45:12.030 align:middle line:90% after midnight. 00:45:12.030 --> 00:45:16.900 align:middle line:90% 00:45:16.900 --> 00:45:20.530 align:middle line:90% A glimpse of war as hell scene-- 00:45:20.530 --> 00:45:22.398 align:middle line:84% after the battles of Columbia, Tennessee, 00:45:22.398 --> 00:45:24.940 align:middle line:84% where we were passed about a store of vehement rebel charges, 00:45:24.940 --> 00:45:26.815 align:middle line:84% they left a great many wounded on the ground, 00:45:26.815 --> 00:45:28.235 align:middle line:90% mostly within our range. 00:45:28.235 --> 00:45:29.860 align:middle line:84% Whenever one of these wounded attempted 00:45:29.860 --> 00:45:32.260 align:middle line:84% to move away by any means, generally by crawling off, 00:45:32.260 --> 00:45:35.440 align:middle line:84% our men, without exception, brought them down by a bullet. 00:45:35.440 --> 00:45:40.200 align:middle line:84% They let none fall away, no matter what his condition. 00:45:40.200 --> 00:45:41.950 align:middle line:84% In one of the late movements of our troops 00:45:41.950 --> 00:45:43.575 align:middle line:84% in the Valley near Upperville, I think, 00:45:43.575 --> 00:45:45.130 align:middle line:84% a strong force of Moseby's mounted 00:45:45.130 --> 00:45:47.530 align:middle line:84% guerrillas attacked a chain of wounded, then 00:45:47.530 --> 00:45:49.840 align:middle line:84% the guard of cavalry convoy and men. 00:45:49.840 --> 00:45:51.520 align:middle line:84% The ambulances contained about 60 00:45:51.520 --> 00:45:53.983 align:middle line:84% wounded, quite a number of them officers of rank. 00:45:53.983 --> 00:45:55.150 align:middle line:90% The rebels were in strength. 00:45:55.150 --> 00:45:57.640 align:middle line:84% And the captain and his parked guard, after a short snap, 00:45:57.640 --> 00:45:59.290 align:middle line:90% were effectively accomplished. 00:45:59.290 --> 00:46:00.782 align:middle line:84% No sooner had our men surrendered, 00:46:00.782 --> 00:46:02.740 align:middle line:84% the rebels instantly commenced robbing the team 00:46:02.740 --> 00:46:05.110 align:middle line:84% and murdering their prisoners, even the wounded. 00:46:05.110 --> 00:46:07.120 align:middle line:84% Here is the scene example of it-- 00:46:07.120 --> 00:46:10.510 align:middle line:84% 10 minutes, all through, among the wounded men 00:46:10.510 --> 00:46:12.700 align:middle line:84% in the ambulances were one of the 10 00:46:12.700 --> 00:46:14.410 align:middle line:84% of the regulars in another fire rank. 00:46:14.410 --> 00:46:16.743 align:middle line:84% These two were dragged down on the ground on their backs 00:46:16.743 --> 00:46:19.360 align:middle line:84% and were now surrounded by the guerrillas, a demonic crowd, 00:46:19.360 --> 00:46:21.490 align:middle line:84% each member of which was stabbing them 00:46:21.490 --> 00:46:23.030 align:middle line:84% in different parts of their bodies. 00:46:23.030 --> 00:46:25.540 align:middle line:84% One of the officers had his feet pinned firmly to the ground 00:46:25.540 --> 00:46:28.690 align:middle line:84% by a bayonet stuck through him and thrust into the ground. 00:46:28.690 --> 00:46:30.550 align:middle line:84% These two officers were afterwards found, 00:46:30.550 --> 00:46:32.740 align:middle line:84% on examination, had received about 20 sets, 00:46:32.740 --> 00:46:35.560 align:middle line:84% with some of them through the mouth, face, tail. 00:46:35.560 --> 00:46:38.680 align:middle line:84% The wounded had all been dragged to give a better chance, also, 00:46:38.680 --> 00:46:40.347 align:middle line:90% for plunder out of the wagon. 00:46:40.347 --> 00:46:42.430 align:middle line:84% Some had been effectively dispatching their bodies 00:46:42.430 --> 00:46:44.290 align:middle line:84% or lying there, lifeless and bloody. 00:46:44.290 --> 00:46:46.360 align:middle line:84% Others not yet dead, but horribly mutilated, 00:46:46.360 --> 00:46:47.470 align:middle line:90% were moaning and groaning. 00:46:47.470 --> 00:46:50.260 align:middle line:84% Of our men who surrendered, most had 00:46:50.260 --> 00:46:52.150 align:middle line:90% been documented as slaughtered. 00:46:52.150 --> 00:46:55.690 align:middle line:84% At that instant, a force of our cavalry, 00:46:55.690 --> 00:46:57.790 align:middle line:84% who had been following the chain at some interval, 00:46:57.790 --> 00:46:58.945 align:middle line:90% suddenly tried to set-- 00:46:58.945 --> 00:47:12.080 align:middle line:90% 00:47:12.080 --> 00:47:14.060 align:middle line:84% Opened his eyes to have a better chance, 00:47:14.060 --> 00:47:15.967 align:middle line:84% also, for plundering out of the wagon. 00:47:15.967 --> 00:47:18.050 align:middle line:84% Some had been effectively dispatching their bodies 00:47:18.050 --> 00:47:19.850 align:middle line:84% or lying there, lifeless and bloody. 00:47:19.850 --> 00:47:21.910 align:middle line:84% Others not yet dead, but horribly mutilated 00:47:21.910 --> 00:47:23.000 align:middle line:90% were moaning and groaning. 00:47:23.000 --> 00:47:26.180 align:middle line:84% Of our men who surrendered, most had been left 00:47:26.180 --> 00:47:27.620 align:middle line:90% maimed and slaughtered. 00:47:27.620 --> 00:47:31.100 align:middle line:84% At this instance, a force of our cavalry 00:47:31.100 --> 00:47:33.590 align:middle line:84% who had been following the train at some interval, suddenly 00:47:33.590 --> 00:47:35.630 align:middle line:84% tried to harness the suspect's captors, who 00:47:35.630 --> 00:47:38.180 align:middle line:84% proceeded at once to make the best escape they could. 00:47:38.180 --> 00:47:39.140 align:middle line:90% Most of them got away. 00:47:39.140 --> 00:47:41.270 align:middle line:84% But we dabbled two officers and 17 men 00:47:41.270 --> 00:47:42.947 align:middle line:90% in the very active ground. 00:47:42.947 --> 00:47:45.530 align:middle line:84% The fight was one which admitted as little discussion as maybe 00:47:45.530 --> 00:47:46.030 align:middle line:90% imagined. 00:47:46.030 --> 00:47:47.600 align:middle line:84% The 17 captured men and two officers 00:47:47.600 --> 00:47:49.058 align:middle line:84% were put under guard for the night. 00:47:49.058 --> 00:47:51.733 align:middle line:84% But it was decided there and then that they should die. 00:47:51.733 --> 00:47:53.150 align:middle line:84% The next morning, the two officers 00:47:53.150 --> 00:47:54.950 align:middle line:84% were taken in the town, separate places, 00:47:54.950 --> 00:47:56.780 align:middle line:84% put in the center of the street, and shot. 00:47:56.780 --> 00:47:59.640 align:middle line:84% The 17 men were taken out to open ground, a little to one 00:47:59.640 --> 00:48:00.140 align:middle line:90% side. 00:48:00.140 --> 00:48:01.610 align:middle line:84% They were placed in hollows, half 00:48:01.610 --> 00:48:05.000 align:middle line:84% encompassed by two of our cavalry regiment, one of which 00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:06.573 align:middle line:84% regiments had three days before found 00:48:06.573 --> 00:48:08.240 align:middle line:84% the bloody corpses of three of their men 00:48:08.240 --> 00:48:11.300 align:middle line:84% hamstrung and hung up by heels to limbs of trees 00:48:11.300 --> 00:48:12.560 align:middle line:90% by Moseby's guerillas. 00:48:12.560 --> 00:48:14.930 align:middle line:84% And the other had not long before 00:48:14.930 --> 00:48:16.530 align:middle line:84% had 12 men, after surrendering, shot 00:48:16.530 --> 00:48:18.530 align:middle line:84% and then hung by the neck on the limbs of trees. 00:48:18.530 --> 00:48:20.840 align:middle line:84% And hearing and stripping them the breath, 00:48:20.840 --> 00:48:22.220 align:middle line:90% one of the corpses was-- 00:48:22.220 --> 00:48:23.990 align:middle line:90% been a sergeant. 00:48:23.990 --> 00:48:27.470 align:middle line:84% Those three and those 12 had been found, I'd say, 00:48:27.470 --> 00:48:30.590 align:middle line:90% by the environment regiment. 00:48:30.590 --> 00:48:33.260 align:middle line:84% Now, with revolvers, they formed a green cordon 00:48:33.260 --> 00:48:34.735 align:middle line:90% of the 17 prisoners. 00:48:34.735 --> 00:48:37.110 align:middle line:84% The latter were placed in the midst of the hollows square 00:48:37.110 --> 00:48:37.700 align:middle line:90% and fastened. 00:48:37.700 --> 00:48:39.740 align:middle line:84% And the ironical remarks made to them 00:48:39.740 --> 00:48:42.770 align:middle line:84% that they were now to be given a chance to themselves. 00:48:42.770 --> 00:48:44.450 align:middle line:90% A few ran for it. 00:48:44.450 --> 00:48:45.380 align:middle line:90% But what use? 00:48:45.380 --> 00:48:47.990 align:middle line:84% From every side, the deadly kills came. 00:48:47.990 --> 00:48:51.200 align:middle line:84% In a few minutes, the 17 corpses strewed the hollows square. 00:48:51.200 --> 00:48:53.810 align:middle line:84% I was curious to know whether some of the Union soldiers, 00:48:53.810 --> 00:48:57.350 align:middle line:84% some skewed, some one or two of at least the youngsters, 00:48:57.350 --> 00:49:01.790 align:middle line:84% did not abstain from shooting on helpless men, not one. 00:49:01.790 --> 00:49:04.670 align:middle line:84% It was no exploitation, very little said, 00:49:04.670 --> 00:49:06.590 align:middle line:84% yet every man contributed his style. 00:49:06.590 --> 00:49:11.580 align:middle line:90% 00:49:11.580 --> 00:49:12.990 align:middle line:90% The capital by gaslight-- 00:49:12.990 --> 00:49:15.475 align:middle line:90% 00:49:15.475 --> 00:49:17.850 align:middle line:84% tonight, I have been wondering for a while in the Capitol 00:49:17.850 --> 00:49:19.740 align:middle line:90% Building, which is all lit up. 00:49:19.740 --> 00:49:22.240 align:middle line:84% The illuminated rotunda looks fine. 00:49:22.240 --> 00:49:26.190 align:middle line:84% I like to stand aside and look a long, long while up at the dome. 00:49:26.190 --> 00:49:28.440 align:middle line:90% It comforts me somehow. 00:49:28.440 --> 00:49:30.940 align:middle line:84% The House and Senate were both in session until very late. 00:49:30.940 --> 00:49:32.940 align:middle line:84% I looked in upon them, but only a few moments. 00:49:32.940 --> 00:49:36.090 align:middle line:84% They were hard at work on tax and appropriation bills. 00:49:36.090 --> 00:49:39.270 align:middle line:84% I wandered through the long and rich corridors and apartments 00:49:39.270 --> 00:49:40.920 align:middle line:84% under the Senate, an old habit of mine, 00:49:40.920 --> 00:49:44.910 align:middle line:84% former winters, and now, more satisfactory than ever. 00:49:44.910 --> 00:49:47.100 align:middle line:84% Not many persons down there-- occasionally, 00:49:47.100 --> 00:49:50.010 align:middle line:84% a splitting figure in the distance. 00:49:50.010 --> 00:49:52.180 align:middle line:84% As I came out of the Capitol, I heard 00:49:52.180 --> 00:49:56.820 align:middle line:84% slow, and clear, deliberate notes of a bugle coming up out 00:49:56.820 --> 00:50:00.390 align:middle line:84% of the silence, sounding so good through the night's mystery-- 00:50:00.390 --> 00:50:04.560 align:middle line:84% no hurry, but firm and faithful, floating along, rising, 00:50:04.560 --> 00:50:07.740 align:middle line:84% falling easily, just here and there along notes. 00:50:07.740 --> 00:50:10.560 align:middle line:84% The bugle, well played, sounding cap too, 00:50:10.560 --> 00:50:12.810 align:middle line:84% in one of the army hospitals near here, 00:50:12.810 --> 00:50:15.120 align:middle line:84% where the wounded, some of them personally dear to me, 00:50:15.120 --> 00:50:16.732 align:middle line:90% are lying in their cots. 00:50:16.732 --> 00:50:18.690 align:middle line:84% And then you have six boys come down to the war 00:50:18.690 --> 00:50:24.150 align:middle line:84% from Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, all lost in the war. 00:50:24.150 --> 00:50:29.117 align:middle line:84% Lincoln's inauguration ball, March 6, 1865-- 00:50:29.117 --> 00:50:31.200 align:middle line:84% I've been up to look at the dance and supper rooms 00:50:31.200 --> 00:50:33.120 align:middle line:84% for the inauguration ball at the patent office. 00:50:33.120 --> 00:50:34.537 align:middle line:84% And I could not help thinking what 00:50:34.537 --> 00:50:37.800 align:middle line:84% a different scene they presented to my view a while since, filled 00:50:37.800 --> 00:50:40.020 align:middle line:84% with a crowded mass of the worst wounded of the war 00:50:40.020 --> 00:50:42.900 align:middle line:84% brought in from the second battle of Bull Run, Antietam, 00:50:42.900 --> 00:50:44.670 align:middle line:90% and Fredericksburg. 00:50:44.670 --> 00:50:47.160 align:middle line:84% Tonight, beautiful women, perfumes, 00:50:47.160 --> 00:50:49.590 align:middle line:84% the violin's sweetness, the folk there in the ball. 00:50:49.590 --> 00:50:53.790 align:middle line:84% Then the amputation, the blue face, the groan, the glassy eye, 00:50:53.790 --> 00:50:56.190 align:middle line:84% the dying, the clotted rag, the odor of wounds 00:50:56.190 --> 00:50:58.500 align:middle line:84% and blood, and many a mother's son amidst 00:50:58.500 --> 00:51:01.440 align:middle line:84% strangers passing away unattended there, 00:51:01.440 --> 00:51:04.380 align:middle line:84% for the crowd of the badly hurt was great, and much for nurse 00:51:04.380 --> 00:51:06.715 align:middle line:90% to do, and much disturbance. 00:51:06.715 --> 00:51:09.830 align:middle line:90% 00:51:09.830 --> 00:51:12.480 align:middle line:84% To the stiffening at the end of the war-- 00:51:12.480 --> 00:51:15.240 align:middle line:84% when Sherman's army, long after they left Atlanta, 00:51:15.240 --> 00:51:17.400 align:middle line:84% were marching through South and North Carolina 00:51:17.400 --> 00:51:19.920 align:middle line:84% after leaving Savannah, the news of Lee's capitulation 00:51:19.920 --> 00:51:22.620 align:middle line:84% having been received, the men never moved a mile without, 00:51:22.620 --> 00:51:25.290 align:middle line:84% from some part of the line sending up continued and spirit 00:51:25.290 --> 00:51:26.460 align:middle line:90% in the South. 00:51:26.460 --> 00:51:29.850 align:middle line:84% At intervals all day long sounded out the wild music 00:51:29.850 --> 00:51:31.860 align:middle line:90% of those peculiar army cries. 00:51:31.860 --> 00:51:34.620 align:middle line:84% They would be commenced by one regiment or brigade immediately 00:51:34.620 --> 00:51:37.230 align:middle line:84% taken up by others, and at length, whole corps, an army 00:51:37.230 --> 00:51:39.777 align:middle line:84% to join in these wild, frantic choruses. 00:51:39.777 --> 00:51:41.610 align:middle line:84% It was one of the characteristic expressions 00:51:41.610 --> 00:51:43.710 align:middle line:84% of the Western troops and became a habit 00:51:43.710 --> 00:51:45.750 align:middle line:84% serving as a relief and outlet to men, 00:51:45.750 --> 00:51:49.500 align:middle line:84% events for their feelings of victory returning to the song. 00:51:49.500 --> 00:51:52.010 align:middle line:84% Morning, noon, and afternoon, spontaneous, for occasion 00:51:52.010 --> 00:51:55.320 align:middle line:84% or without occasion, these huge, strange crowds, 00:51:55.320 --> 00:51:57.930 align:middle line:84% different from any other echoing through the open air for many 00:51:57.930 --> 00:52:00.300 align:middle line:84% a mile, expressing youth, joy, wildness, 00:52:00.300 --> 00:52:04.080 align:middle line:84% irrepressible strength, and the ideas of advance and conquest, 00:52:04.080 --> 00:52:06.520 align:middle line:84% founding along the swamps and uplands of the South, 00:52:06.520 --> 00:52:08.910 align:middle line:90% flowed through the sky. 00:52:08.910 --> 00:52:12.630 align:middle line:84% This exuberance continued till the army's arrives at Raleigh. 00:52:12.630 --> 00:52:15.600 align:middle line:84% News of the president's murder was received. 00:52:15.600 --> 00:52:19.110 align:middle line:84% Then no more South to yell, the hush and silence 00:52:19.110 --> 00:52:20.460 align:middle line:90% pervaded all of the army. 00:52:20.460 --> 00:52:24.260 align:middle line:90% 00:52:24.260 --> 00:52:30.080 align:middle line:84% May 21, 1865 saw General Sheridan and his cavalry stay. 00:52:30.080 --> 00:52:32.420 align:middle line:84% Strong across the site, the men were mostly young, 00:52:32.420 --> 00:52:33.770 align:middle line:90% a few middle aged. 00:52:33.770 --> 00:52:36.260 align:middle line:84% Superb-looking fellows, brown, stare a team 00:52:36.260 --> 00:52:38.120 align:middle line:84% with well-worn clothing, many with pieces 00:52:38.120 --> 00:52:40.910 align:middle line:84% of waterproof sport around their shoulders hanging down. 00:52:40.910 --> 00:52:42.950 align:middle line:84% They dashed along pretty fast in wide, 00:52:42.950 --> 00:52:46.730 align:middle line:84% closed ranks, all splattered with mud, no holiday soldiers, 00:52:46.730 --> 00:52:48.410 align:middle line:90% brigade after brigade. 00:52:48.410 --> 00:52:50.780 align:middle line:90% I could have watched for a week. 00:52:50.780 --> 00:52:53.180 align:middle line:84% Sheridan stood on a balcony under a big tree, 00:52:53.180 --> 00:52:55.340 align:middle line:90% coolly smoking a cigar. 00:52:55.340 --> 00:52:58.470 align:middle line:84% His looks and manner impressed me thoroughly there. 00:52:58.470 --> 00:53:02.000 align:middle line:84% May 22, I had been taking a walk along Pennsylvania Avenue 00:53:02.000 --> 00:53:03.020 align:middle line:90% and 7th Street North. 00:53:03.020 --> 00:53:05.750 align:middle line:84% The city is full of soldiers running around loose 00:53:05.750 --> 00:53:08.180 align:middle line:84% with officers everywhere of all grades. 00:53:08.180 --> 00:53:10.820 align:middle line:84% All have the weather-beaten look of practical service. 00:53:10.820 --> 00:53:12.620 align:middle line:90% It is a sight I never tire of. 00:53:12.620 --> 00:53:17.090 align:middle line:84% All the army's out here now, or portions of them. 00:53:17.090 --> 00:53:18.890 align:middle line:84% For two days now, the broad spaces 00:53:18.890 --> 00:53:22.430 align:middle line:84% of Pennsylvania Avenue along the Treasury Hill, and so by detour, 00:53:22.430 --> 00:53:24.110 align:middle line:84% around the president's house, and show 00:53:24.110 --> 00:53:26.600 align:middle line:84% up to Georgetown, and across the Aqueduct Bridge 00:53:26.600 --> 00:53:29.300 align:middle line:84% have been alive with a magnificent sight-- 00:53:29.300 --> 00:53:31.070 align:middle line:90% the returning army. 00:53:31.070 --> 00:53:33.980 align:middle line:84% In their wide ranks, stretching clear across the Avenue, 00:53:33.980 --> 00:53:37.370 align:middle line:84% I watched them march or ride along at a brisk pace through 00:53:37.370 --> 00:53:41.960 align:middle line:84% two whole days, infantry, cavalry, artillery, 00:53:41.960 --> 00:53:46.440 align:middle line:90% some 200,000 men. 00:53:46.440 --> 00:53:49.499 align:middle line:84% And that's the end of Specimen Days. 00:53:49.499 --> 00:53:59.560 align:middle line:90% 00:53:59.560 --> 00:54:02.570 align:middle line:84% I'm sorry that now, for various reasons, 00:54:02.570 --> 00:54:03.690 align:middle line:90% there's not more poetry. 00:54:03.690 --> 00:54:06.320 align:middle line:84% I thank the sponsors for sponsoring this evening. 00:54:06.320 --> 00:54:08.530 align:middle line:84% But it just kind of worked out that way 00:54:08.530 --> 00:54:09.870 align:middle line:90% for other considerations. 00:54:09.870 --> 00:54:11.140 align:middle line:90% I've had to make some choices. 00:54:11.140 --> 00:54:14.780 align:middle line:84% But certainly, we wouldn't want to make any representation 00:54:14.780 --> 00:54:16.960 align:middle line:84% of, I suspect, the American [INAUDIBLE] 00:54:16.960 --> 00:54:18.080 align:middle line:90% without Emily Dickinson. 00:54:18.080 --> 00:54:21.820 align:middle line:84% Anyway, I know when I was an undergraduate 00:54:21.820 --> 00:54:24.023 align:middle line:84% and a graduate student, I always had 00:54:24.023 --> 00:54:25.690 align:middle line:84% the idea that she was a repressed woman, 00:54:25.690 --> 00:54:28.300 align:middle line:84% never touched man, had been touched by a man, 00:54:28.300 --> 00:54:33.315 align:middle line:84% and talked to people around corners, and things like that. 00:54:33.315 --> 00:54:37.090 align:middle line:84% These poems that she wrote about being a wife I 00:54:37.090 --> 00:54:38.710 align:middle line:90% call her epithalamium poems. 00:54:38.710 --> 00:54:41.860 align:middle line:84% An epithalamium, as you know, are married poems, 00:54:41.860 --> 00:54:44.170 align:middle line:90% poems about being married. 00:54:44.170 --> 00:54:46.190 align:middle line:84% And I think they're pretty remarkable poems. 00:54:46.190 --> 00:54:51.740 align:middle line:84% And I think they effectively dispel any idea of her somebody 00:54:51.740 --> 00:54:56.575 align:middle line:90% who was all bottled up inside. 00:54:56.575 --> 00:54:57.910 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:54:57.910 --> 00:55:00.940 align:middle line:90% 00:55:00.940 --> 00:55:05.695 align:middle line:84% None of them have titles, so I'll just read in sequence. 00:55:05.695 --> 00:55:08.560 align:middle line:84% And then we have three other poems by her 00:55:08.560 --> 00:55:11.140 align:middle line:84% also on the subject, plenty of love. 00:55:11.140 --> 00:55:14.590 align:middle line:90% 00:55:14.590 --> 00:55:18.925 align:middle line:84% "I'm wife, I think that that other state, 00:55:18.925 --> 00:55:22.300 align:middle line:90% I'm czar, woman now. 00:55:22.300 --> 00:55:24.400 align:middle line:90% It's safer so. 00:55:24.400 --> 00:55:29.770 align:middle line:84% How odd the girl's life look behind this soft eclipse. 00:55:29.770 --> 00:55:33.100 align:middle line:84% I think that Earth feels so that folks in heaven 00:55:33.100 --> 00:55:39.200 align:middle line:84% now would just bring comfort when, at other times it came. 00:55:39.200 --> 00:55:40.810 align:middle line:90% But why compare? 00:55:40.810 --> 00:55:42.580 align:middle line:90% I'm wife, stop there." 00:55:42.580 --> 00:55:46.782 align:middle line:90% 00:55:46.782 --> 00:55:48.883 align:middle line:84% And this poem's used the word soft. 00:55:48.883 --> 00:55:51.300 align:middle line:84% And it's used in another one of these other epithalamiums. 00:55:51.300 --> 00:55:54.965 align:middle line:84% And soft, you know, presumes the marriage vow, 00:55:54.965 --> 00:55:58.460 align:middle line:90% as in I pledge myself. 00:55:58.460 --> 00:56:02.600 align:middle line:84% "There came a day at summer's full, entirely for me. 00:56:02.600 --> 00:56:07.130 align:middle line:84% I thought that such were for the saints where resurrections be. 00:56:07.130 --> 00:56:11.120 align:middle line:84% The sun, as common, went abroad, the flowers, accustomed, 00:56:11.120 --> 00:56:14.750 align:middle line:84% blew, as if no soul, the solstice passed, 00:56:14.750 --> 00:56:17.480 align:middle line:90% that maketh all things new. 00:56:17.480 --> 00:56:21.500 align:middle line:84% The time was scarce profaned by speech, the symbol of a word 00:56:21.500 --> 00:56:25.460 align:middle line:84% was needless as at our sacrament, 00:56:25.460 --> 00:56:29.840 align:middle line:84% the wardrobes of our lord, which was to each the sealed church. 00:56:29.840 --> 00:56:33.290 align:middle line:84% Permitted to commune this time lest we too awkward 00:56:33.290 --> 00:56:36.020 align:middle line:90% show at supper of the Lamb. 00:56:36.020 --> 00:56:38.570 align:middle line:84% The hours slid fast, as hours will, 00:56:38.570 --> 00:56:43.640 align:middle line:84% clutched tightly by greedy hands, so faces on two decks 00:56:43.640 --> 00:56:47.600 align:middle line:84% look back, bound to opposing lands. 00:56:47.600 --> 00:56:52.520 align:middle line:84% And so when all the time had me, without external sound, each 00:56:52.520 --> 00:56:57.950 align:middle line:84% bound the other's crucifix, we gave no other bond-- 00:56:57.950 --> 00:57:01.190 align:middle line:84% sufficient troth that we shall rise, 00:57:01.190 --> 00:57:05.120 align:middle line:84% disposed at length the grave, to that new marriage, 00:57:05.120 --> 00:57:08.690 align:middle line:84% justified through Calvaries of love. 00:57:08.690 --> 00:57:13.700 align:middle line:90% 00:57:13.700 --> 00:57:18.740 align:middle line:84% Title divine is mine, the wife without the sign, 00:57:18.740 --> 00:57:24.860 align:middle line:84% acute degree conferred on me, emperess of cavalry, royal, 00:57:24.860 --> 00:57:29.240 align:middle line:84% all but the crown, whose, without swoon free God sends us 00:57:29.240 --> 00:57:36.860 align:middle line:84% women, when you hold, garnet to garnet, gold to gold, born, 00:57:36.860 --> 00:57:42.320 align:middle line:84% bridled, sprouted in a day, cry victory. 00:57:42.320 --> 00:57:46.100 align:middle line:84% My husband, women say, stroking the melody. 00:57:46.100 --> 00:57:47.860 align:middle line:90% Is this the way? 00:57:47.860 --> 00:57:52.900 align:middle line:90% 00:57:52.900 --> 00:57:56.710 align:middle line:90% We arranged a white affection. 00:57:56.710 --> 00:58:00.670 align:middle line:84% When they dislocate my brain, amputate my freckled bosom, 00:58:00.670 --> 00:58:03.790 align:middle line:84% make me bearded like a man, blush 00:58:03.790 --> 00:58:07.930 align:middle line:84% my spirit, in thy fastness, blush my unacknowledged clay, 00:58:07.930 --> 00:58:12.760 align:middle line:84% seven years of troth have taught me more than wifehood ever may. 00:58:12.760 --> 00:58:16.000 align:middle line:84% Love that never leaped its socket, trust entrenched 00:58:16.000 --> 00:58:19.900 align:middle line:84% in narrow pain, constantly through fire awarded, 00:58:19.900 --> 00:58:25.780 align:middle line:84% anguish born of anodyne, burdens borne so far triumphant and none 00:58:25.780 --> 00:58:30.760 align:middle line:84% suspect me of the crown, for I wear the thorns till sunset, 00:58:30.760 --> 00:58:33.180 align:middle line:90% then my diadem put on. 00:58:33.180 --> 00:58:36.700 align:middle line:84% Bid my secrets, but it's bandaged. 00:58:36.700 --> 00:58:41.590 align:middle line:84% It will never get away till the day its weary keeper leads it 00:58:41.590 --> 00:58:43.150 align:middle line:90% to the grave to thee." 00:58:43.150 --> 00:58:46.629 align:middle line:90% 00:58:46.629 --> 00:58:49.440 align:middle line:84% I read this, this is one of her-- 00:58:49.440 --> 00:58:51.520 align:middle line:84% this is not an epithalamium poem, 00:58:51.520 --> 00:58:55.390 align:middle line:84% with the metaphor of white as the principal motif. 00:58:55.390 --> 00:58:58.930 align:middle line:90% This is a simple one. 00:58:58.930 --> 00:59:03.640 align:middle line:84% This person has a typical tone of hers, a kind of wittiness, 00:59:03.640 --> 00:59:07.630 align:middle line:84% a kind of almost playful mocking of her-- 00:59:07.630 --> 00:59:08.770 align:middle line:90% "Heart, 00:59:08.770 --> 00:59:11.560 align:middle line:84% we will forget him, you and I, tonight. 00:59:11.560 --> 00:59:15.430 align:middle line:84% You may forget the warmth he gave, I will forget the light. 00:59:15.430 --> 00:59:19.330 align:middle line:84% When you have done, pray tell me, then I may straight begin. 00:59:19.330 --> 00:59:22.540 align:middle line:84% Haste, less while you're lagging, I remember him." 00:59:22.540 --> 00:59:25.830 align:middle line:90% 00:59:25.830 --> 00:59:27.810 align:middle line:84% This one here uses two words, also, 00:59:27.810 --> 00:59:31.135 align:middle line:84% that were not part of my vocabulary, 00:59:31.135 --> 00:59:33.120 align:middle line:84% and certainly might have been part of yours. 00:59:33.120 --> 00:59:34.680 align:middle line:90% They're both kinds of cloth. 00:59:34.680 --> 00:59:37.230 align:middle line:90% Plush is a deep piled cloth. 00:59:37.230 --> 00:59:40.020 align:middle line:84% And it has, I think, connection in the way she uses it, 00:59:40.020 --> 00:59:43.530 align:middle line:90% a definite sexual energy to it. 00:59:43.530 --> 00:59:46.770 align:middle line:84% I think you can stitch things down in pile. 00:59:46.770 --> 00:59:54.324 align:middle line:84% And dimity is a sheer, thin, vaporous kind of top cloth. 00:59:54.324 --> 00:59:58.380 align:middle line:84% And I notice the scorn for women, a certain kind 00:59:58.380 --> 01:00:01.110 align:middle line:90% of woman in this poem. 01:00:01.110 --> 01:00:06.000 align:middle line:84% "What soft, cherubic creatures these gentle women are, 01:00:06.000 --> 01:00:10.020 align:middle line:84% one would has soon assault a plush or violate a star. 01:00:10.020 --> 01:00:13.920 align:middle line:84% Such dimity convictions, a horror so refined that supple 01:00:13.920 --> 01:00:18.570 align:middle line:84% human nature, of deity ashamed, it's such a common glory, 01:00:18.570 --> 01:00:22.410 align:middle line:84% a fisherman's degree, redemption, brittle lady, 01:00:22.410 --> 01:00:23.810 align:middle line:90% be so ashamed of thee." 01:00:23.810 --> 01:00:27.290 align:middle line:90% 01:00:27.290 --> 01:00:33.150 align:middle line:84% And this last one, I think, in the rhythm of the poem, 01:00:33.150 --> 01:00:39.620 align:middle line:84% bespeaks her experience of her love. 01:00:39.620 --> 01:00:42.980 align:middle line:84% The first line of it is a word, wild-- 01:00:42.980 --> 01:00:45.890 align:middle line:90% the word wild night. 01:00:45.890 --> 01:00:48.650 align:middle line:84% "Wild nights, wild nights, were I with thee, 01:00:48.650 --> 01:00:51.290 align:middle line:90% wild nights could be our luxury. 01:00:51.290 --> 01:00:55.250 align:middle line:84% Futile the winds to a heart in port, done with the compass, 01:00:55.250 --> 01:00:57.410 align:middle line:90% done with the chart. 01:00:57.410 --> 01:01:01.960 align:middle line:84% Rowing in Eden, ah, the sea, might I but moor, 01:01:01.960 --> 01:01:03.830 align:middle line:90% tonight in thee." 01:01:03.830 --> 01:01:13.430 align:middle line:90% 01:01:13.430 --> 01:01:21.120 align:middle line:84% The last selection I've got here is an author that is also-- 01:01:21.120 --> 01:01:24.390 align:middle line:84% those poems, by the way, were written during the same year 01:01:24.390 --> 01:01:25.890 align:middle line:84% that the Civil War was being fought. 01:01:25.890 --> 01:01:29.600 align:middle line:90% 01:01:29.600 --> 01:01:32.750 align:middle line:84% Kind of an amazing thing that the Civil War might have taken 01:01:32.750 --> 01:01:38.550 align:middle line:84% place on another planet, as far as Emily Dickinson is concerned. 01:01:38.550 --> 01:01:42.310 align:middle line:84% And last selection is from Mark Twain, whose work-- 01:01:42.310 --> 01:01:43.690 align:middle line:90% Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 01:01:43.690 --> 01:01:46.250 align:middle line:84% And it's one of the arguments that several arguments 01:01:46.250 --> 01:01:49.420 align:middle line:84% that him and Huck have when they drift down the river on a raft. 01:01:49.420 --> 01:01:51.550 align:middle line:84% And this one concerns the question 01:01:51.550 --> 01:01:54.070 align:middle line:84% of why the Frenchman can't talk like a man. 01:01:54.070 --> 01:01:57.430 align:middle line:84% And Huck has gotten hold of a book. 01:01:57.430 --> 01:02:00.460 align:middle line:84% And he's not a bookish person, you know. 01:02:00.460 --> 01:02:04.360 align:middle line:84% But he's telling him all about the lives of things in which he 01:02:04.360 --> 01:02:06.370 align:middle line:90% knows not a damn thing, really. 01:02:06.370 --> 01:02:10.050 align:middle line:84% But he's full of the authority of having read this book. 01:02:10.050 --> 01:02:12.315 align:middle line:84% "I read considerable to Jim about kings and earls 01:02:12.315 --> 01:02:14.190 align:middle line:84% and dukes and such, and how dowdy they dress, 01:02:14.190 --> 01:02:16.440 align:middle line:84% and how much style they put on, and called each other Your 01:02:16.440 --> 01:02:18.232 align:middle line:84% Majesty, and Your Grace, and Your Lordship, 01:02:18.232 --> 01:02:21.930 align:middle line:90% so on, instead of Mister. 01:02:21.930 --> 01:02:24.940 align:middle line:84% And Jim's eyes bugged out and he was interested. 01:02:24.940 --> 01:02:27.690 align:middle line:84% He says, I didn't know there were so many of them. 01:02:27.690 --> 01:02:29.270 align:middle line:84% I hadn't heard about none of them, 01:02:29.270 --> 01:02:31.080 align:middle line:84% especially, but old King Solomon, 01:02:31.080 --> 01:02:35.610 align:middle line:84% unless you count them things that's in the pack of cards. 01:02:35.610 --> 01:02:37.860 align:middle line:90% How much do a king get? 01:02:37.860 --> 01:02:41.100 align:middle line:84% That, I say, why, they get $1,000 a month. 01:02:41.100 --> 01:02:42.840 align:middle line:84% They can have just as much as they want. 01:02:42.840 --> 01:02:45.000 align:middle line:90% Everything belongs to them. 01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:46.890 align:middle line:90% Ain't that good? 01:02:46.890 --> 01:02:49.920 align:middle line:90% And what they got to do, Huck? 01:02:49.920 --> 01:02:52.410 align:middle line:84% They don't do nothing, why, how you talk? 01:02:52.410 --> 01:02:53.730 align:middle line:90% They just sit around. 01:02:53.730 --> 01:02:54.930 align:middle line:90% No, is that so? 01:02:54.930 --> 01:02:55.680 align:middle line:90% Of course it is. 01:02:55.680 --> 01:02:58.580 align:middle line:84% They just sit around, except maybe when there's a war. 01:02:58.580 --> 01:02:59.580 align:middle line:90% Then they go to the war. 01:02:59.580 --> 01:03:02.130 align:middle line:84% But other times, they just lazy around. 01:03:02.130 --> 01:03:05.670 align:middle line:84% I went to talking about other things and told about Louis 16th 01:03:05.670 --> 01:03:07.980 align:middle line:84% that got his head cut off in France a long time ago, 01:03:07.980 --> 01:03:11.160 align:middle line:84% and about his little boy the Dauphin, 01:03:11.160 --> 01:03:13.990 align:middle line:84% that would have been a king, but they took and shut him up 01:03:13.990 --> 01:03:14.490 align:middle line:90% in jail. 01:03:14.490 --> 01:03:18.060 align:middle line:84% And some say he died there, poor little chap, Jim said. 01:03:18.060 --> 01:03:20.610 align:middle line:84% But some says he got out, and got away, and come to America. 01:03:20.610 --> 01:03:21.420 align:middle line:90% That's good. 01:03:21.420 --> 01:03:23.700 align:middle line:84% But it'll be pretty lonesome here. 01:03:23.700 --> 01:03:25.630 align:middle line:84% There ain't no king here, is there, Huck? 01:03:25.630 --> 01:03:28.020 align:middle line:84% No, then he can't get no position. 01:03:28.020 --> 01:03:29.910 align:middle line:90% What he going to do? 01:03:29.910 --> 01:03:32.430 align:middle line:84% Well, I don't know, some of them gets on the police. 01:03:32.430 --> 01:03:35.320 align:middle line:84% And some of them learn people to talk French. 01:03:35.320 --> 01:03:38.600 align:middle line:84% Why, don't the French people talk the same way we does? 01:03:38.600 --> 01:03:39.820 align:middle line:90% No, Jim. 01:03:39.820 --> 01:03:43.310 align:middle line:84% You couldn't understand a word they said, not a single word. 01:03:43.310 --> 01:03:45.420 align:middle line:90% Well, Huck, how did that come? 01:03:45.420 --> 01:03:46.880 align:middle line:90% I don't know, but it's so. 01:03:46.880 --> 01:03:49.592 align:middle line:84% I got some of their jabber out of a book. 01:03:49.592 --> 01:03:51.050 align:middle line:84% Suppose a man wants to come to here 01:03:51.050 --> 01:03:54.230 align:middle line:90% and say parlez-vous francais? 01:03:54.230 --> 01:03:55.483 align:middle line:90% What would you think? 01:03:55.483 --> 01:03:56.525 align:middle line:90% I wouldn't think nothing. 01:03:56.525 --> 01:04:00.501 align:middle line:84% I'd part and bust him over the head. 01:04:00.501 --> 01:04:02.690 align:middle line:90% That is, if he weren't white. 01:04:02.690 --> 01:04:06.610 align:middle line:84% I wouldn't allow no nigger to talk to me like that. 01:04:06.610 --> 01:04:08.480 align:middle line:84% Shucks, it ain't calling you anything. 01:04:08.480 --> 01:04:10.520 align:middle line:84% It's only saying, you know how to talk French? 01:04:10.520 --> 01:04:12.487 align:middle line:90% Well then why can't he say it? 01:04:12.487 --> 01:04:13.820 align:middle line:90% What do you mean just saying it? 01:04:13.820 --> 01:04:16.100 align:middle line:84% That's the Frenchman's way of saying it. 01:04:16.100 --> 01:04:18.020 align:middle line:84% Well, it's a plenty ridiculous way. 01:04:18.020 --> 01:04:20.030 align:middle line:84% And I don't want to hear no more about it. 01:04:20.030 --> 01:04:21.500 align:middle line:90% There ain't no sense in it. 01:04:21.500 --> 01:04:22.940 align:middle line:90% Look here, again. 01:04:22.940 --> 01:04:24.680 align:middle line:90% Does a cat talk like we do? 01:04:24.680 --> 01:04:26.510 align:middle line:90% No, a cat don't. 01:04:26.510 --> 01:04:28.080 align:middle line:90% Well, does a cow? 01:04:28.080 --> 01:04:29.660 align:middle line:90% No, a cow don't, neither. 01:04:29.660 --> 01:04:32.900 align:middle line:84% Does a cat talk like a cow or a cow talk like a cat? 01:04:32.900 --> 01:04:34.343 align:middle line:90% No, they don't. 01:04:34.343 --> 01:04:37.010 align:middle line:84% It's natural and right, then, to talk different from each other, 01:04:37.010 --> 01:04:37.520 align:middle line:90% ain't it? 01:04:37.520 --> 01:04:38.510 align:middle line:90% Course. 01:04:38.510 --> 01:04:41.060 align:middle line:84% And ain't it natural and right for a cat and a cow 01:04:41.060 --> 01:04:42.410 align:middle line:90% to talk different from us? 01:04:42.410 --> 01:04:44.690 align:middle line:90% Why, most surely it is. 01:04:44.690 --> 01:04:47.690 align:middle line:84% Well, then, why is it natural and right 01:04:47.690 --> 01:04:49.760 align:middle line:84% for Frenchman to talk different from us? 01:04:49.760 --> 01:04:51.740 align:middle line:90% You answer me that. 01:04:51.740 --> 01:04:54.040 align:middle line:90% Is a cat a man, Huck? 01:04:54.040 --> 01:04:54.910 align:middle line:90% No. 01:04:54.910 --> 01:04:58.480 align:middle line:84% Well, then there ain't no sense in a cat talking like a man. 01:04:58.480 --> 01:05:00.040 align:middle line:90% Is a cow a man? 01:05:00.040 --> 01:05:01.540 align:middle line:90% Or a cow a cat? 01:05:01.540 --> 01:05:03.070 align:middle line:90% No, they ain't either of them. 01:05:03.070 --> 01:05:06.760 align:middle line:84% Well then, he's got no business to talk like either one of them 01:05:06.760 --> 01:05:07.510 align:middle line:90% or the other. 01:05:07.510 --> 01:05:08.950 align:middle line:90% Is a Frenchman a man? 01:05:08.950 --> 01:05:09.490 align:middle line:90% Yes. 01:05:09.490 --> 01:05:13.090 align:middle line:84% Well then, god damn it, why don't he talk like a man? 01:05:13.090 --> 01:05:15.950 align:middle line:90% You answer me that. 01:05:15.950 --> 01:05:18.540 align:middle line:84% I see it wasn't no use wasting words. 01:05:18.540 --> 01:05:20.160 align:middle line:84% You can't learn a nigger to argue. 01:05:20.160 --> 01:05:21.896 align:middle line:90% So I quit." 01:05:21.896 --> 01:05:25.382 align:middle line:90% [CLAPPING] 01:05:25.382 --> 01:05:28.370 align:middle line:90% 01:05:28.370 --> 01:05:29.060 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 01:05:29.060 --> 01:05:40.510 align:middle line:90% 01:05:40.510 --> 01:05:42.670 align:middle line:90% Kind of medium long. 01:05:42.670 --> 01:05:48.640 align:middle line:90% And it's by Melville. 01:05:48.640 --> 01:05:52.540 align:middle line:84% It's not the thing like something else. 01:05:52.540 --> 01:05:54.842 align:middle line:84% So it's from the same book, from White-Jacket. 01:05:54.842 --> 01:05:56.550 align:middle line:84% And I think, if any of you have to leave, 01:05:56.550 --> 01:05:58.842 align:middle line:84% want to leave, feel like you're going to leave, please, 01:05:58.842 --> 01:05:59.800 align:middle line:90% don't be shy about it. 01:05:59.800 --> 01:06:01.092 align:middle line:90% I know this is a fourth encore. 01:06:01.092 --> 01:06:06.800 align:middle line:90% 01:06:06.800 --> 01:06:10.520 align:middle line:84% After 100 years of hearing only readings of [INAUDIBLE], 01:06:10.520 --> 01:06:14.274 align:middle line:84% I think we deserve an extra ending for the day. 01:06:14.274 --> 01:06:19.175 align:middle line:84% This is from chapter 51 of White-Jacket. 01:06:19.175 --> 01:06:23.500 align:middle line:84% The title of the chapter is "The Surgeon of the Fleet." 01:06:23.500 --> 01:06:27.940 align:middle line:84% "Cadwallader Cuticle, M.D., an honorary member 01:06:27.940 --> 01:06:30.160 align:middle line:84% of the most distinguished colleges of surgeons, 01:06:30.160 --> 01:06:34.250 align:middle line:84% both in Europe and America, was our surgeon of the fleet. 01:06:34.250 --> 01:06:35.990 align:middle line:84% Nor was he at all blind to the dignity 01:06:35.990 --> 01:06:37.550 align:middle line:84% of his position, to which, indeed, he 01:06:37.550 --> 01:06:39.920 align:middle line:84% was rendered peculiarly competent, 01:06:39.920 --> 01:06:42.543 align:middle line:84% if the reputation he enjoyed was deserved. 01:06:42.543 --> 01:06:44.960 align:middle line:84% He had the name of being the foremost surgeon in the navy, 01:06:44.960 --> 01:06:46.580 align:middle line:84% a gentleman of remarkable science, 01:06:46.580 --> 01:06:48.690 align:middle line:90% and a veteran practitioner. 01:06:48.690 --> 01:06:52.850 align:middle line:84% He was a small, withered man, merely perhaps 60 years of age. 01:06:52.850 --> 01:06:55.190 align:middle line:84% His chest was shallow, his shoulders bent, 01:06:55.190 --> 01:06:57.800 align:middle line:84% his pantaloons hung round skeleton legs, 01:06:57.800 --> 01:07:00.170 align:middle line:84% and his face was singularly attenuated. 01:07:00.170 --> 01:07:02.660 align:middle line:84% In truth, the corporal vitality of this man 01:07:02.660 --> 01:07:05.580 align:middle line:84% seemed, in a good degree, to have died out of him. 01:07:05.580 --> 01:07:09.020 align:middle line:84% He walked abroad a curious patchwork of life and death 01:07:09.020 --> 01:07:12.800 align:middle line:84% with a wig, one glass eye, and a set of false teeth, 01:07:12.800 --> 01:07:14.540 align:middle line:84% while his voice was husky and thick, 01:07:14.540 --> 01:07:17.180 align:middle line:84% but his mind seemed undebilitated 01:07:17.180 --> 01:07:20.180 align:middle line:84% as he seemed as undebilitated as in his youth. 01:07:20.180 --> 01:07:25.010 align:middle line:84% It shone out of his remaining eye with basilic brilliancy. 01:07:25.010 --> 01:07:27.110 align:middle line:84% Like most old physicians and surgeons 01:07:27.110 --> 01:07:29.540 align:middle line:84% who have seen much service and have been promoted 01:07:29.540 --> 01:07:32.030 align:middle line:84% to high official place for their scientific attainment, 01:07:32.030 --> 01:07:35.090 align:middle line:84% this Cuticle was an enthusiast in his calling. 01:07:35.090 --> 01:07:37.833 align:middle line:84% In private, he had once been heard to say confidentially 01:07:37.833 --> 01:07:39.500 align:middle line:84% that he would rather cut off a man's arm 01:07:39.500 --> 01:07:42.470 align:middle line:84% than dismember the wing of the most delicate pheasant. 01:07:42.470 --> 01:07:44.840 align:middle line:84% In particular, the department of morbid anatomy 01:07:44.840 --> 01:07:46.130 align:middle line:90% was his peculiar love. 01:07:46.130 --> 01:07:48.980 align:middle line:84% And in his statement below, he had a most unsightly collection 01:07:48.980 --> 01:07:51.800 align:middle line:84% of Parisian cast in plaster and wax, 01:07:51.800 --> 01:07:55.670 align:middle line:84% representing all imaginable malformation human members, 01:07:55.670 --> 01:07:59.090 align:middle line:84% both organic and induced by disease. 01:07:59.090 --> 01:08:02.450 align:middle line:84% Well knowing the enthusiasm of the surgeon for all specimens 01:08:02.450 --> 01:08:05.000 align:middle line:84% of morbid anatomy, some of the wardroom officers 01:08:05.000 --> 01:08:07.760 align:middle line:84% used to play upon his credulity, though in every case, 01:08:07.760 --> 01:08:10.940 align:middle line:84% Cuticle was not long in discovering their deceptions. 01:08:10.940 --> 01:08:14.240 align:middle line:84% Once, when they had had some sago pudding for dinner, 01:08:14.240 --> 01:08:16.609 align:middle line:84% and Cuticle had chanced to be ashore, 01:08:16.609 --> 01:08:20.000 align:middle line:84% they made up a neat parcel of this bluish-white, firm, 01:08:20.000 --> 01:08:22.250 align:middle line:84% jelly-like preparation and placed it 01:08:22.250 --> 01:08:25.279 align:middle line:84% in a tin box carefully sealed with wax. 01:08:25.279 --> 01:08:27.500 align:middle line:84% They deposited it on the gun room table, 01:08:27.500 --> 01:08:30.649 align:middle line:84% with a note purporting to come from an eminent physician in Rio 01:08:30.649 --> 01:08:33.020 align:middle line:84% connected with the Grand National Museum, 01:08:33.020 --> 01:08:36.319 align:middle line:84% begging leave to present the scientific horror of Cuticle 01:08:36.319 --> 01:08:38.870 align:middle line:84% with the donor's compliments and uncommonly fine 01:08:38.870 --> 01:08:41.899 align:middle line:90% specimen of a cancer. 01:08:41.899 --> 01:08:45.368 align:middle line:84% Descending to the wardroom, Cuticle spied the note, 01:08:45.368 --> 01:08:46.910 align:middle line:84% and no sooner read it than, clutching 01:08:46.910 --> 01:08:49.933 align:middle line:84% the case, he opened it and exclaimed, beautiful, splendid! 01:08:49.933 --> 01:08:51.350 align:middle line:84% I have never seen a finer specimen 01:08:51.350 --> 01:08:53.797 align:middle line:84% of this most interesting disease. 01:08:53.797 --> 01:08:55.380 align:middle line:84% What have you there, Sergeant Cuticle? 01:08:55.380 --> 01:08:56.547 align:middle line:90% said a lieutenant advancing. 01:08:56.547 --> 01:08:57.450 align:middle line:90% Why, sir, look at it. 01:08:57.450 --> 01:08:58.890 align:middle line:90% Did you see more exquisite? 01:08:58.890 --> 01:09:00.149 align:middle line:90% Very exquisite, indeed. 01:09:00.149 --> 01:09:02.670 align:middle line:84% Let me have a bit of it, will you, Cuticle? 01:09:02.670 --> 01:09:04.660 align:middle line:84% Let you have a bit of it? shrieked the surgeon, 01:09:04.660 --> 01:09:05.770 align:middle line:90% starting back. 01:09:05.770 --> 01:09:07.290 align:middle line:90% Let you have one of my limbs. 01:09:07.290 --> 01:09:10.020 align:middle line:84% I wouldn't mark so large a specimen for $100. 01:09:10.020 --> 01:09:11.529 align:middle line:90% But what do you want of it? 01:09:11.529 --> 01:09:13.290 align:middle line:90% You are not making collections. 01:09:13.290 --> 01:09:16.140 align:middle line:84% I'm fond of the article, said the lieutenant. 01:09:16.140 --> 01:09:19.050 align:middle line:84% It's a fine, cold relish to bacon or ham. 01:09:19.050 --> 01:09:21.300 align:middle line:84% You know I was in New Zealand last cruise, Cuticle, 01:09:21.300 --> 01:09:23.670 align:middle line:84% and got into sad dissipation there among the cannibals. 01:09:23.670 --> 01:09:26.130 align:middle line:84% So let's have a bit, if it's only a mouthful. 01:09:26.130 --> 01:09:29.460 align:middle line:84% Why, you infernal Fiji, shouted Cuticle, 01:09:29.460 --> 01:09:31.590 align:middle line:84% eyeing the other with a confounded expression. 01:09:31.590 --> 01:09:33.870 align:middle line:84% You don't really mean to eat a piece of this cancer? 01:09:33.870 --> 01:09:36.600 align:middle line:84% Hand it to me and see whether I will not was the reply. 01:09:36.600 --> 01:09:38.609 align:middle line:84% In God's name, take it, cried the surgeon, 01:09:38.609 --> 01:09:40.649 align:middle line:84% putting the case into his hand and then standing 01:09:40.649 --> 01:09:42.090 align:middle line:90% with his own uplifted. 01:09:42.090 --> 01:09:44.399 align:middle line:84% Steward, cried the lieutenant, the castor, quick. 01:09:44.399 --> 01:09:47.430 align:middle line:84% I always use plenty of pepper with this dish, surgeon. 01:09:47.430 --> 01:09:49.018 align:middle line:90% It's oyster-y. 01:09:49.018 --> 01:09:52.500 align:middle line:84% Ah, this is really delicious, he added, smacking his lips 01:09:52.500 --> 01:09:53.189 align:middle line:90% over a mouthful. 01:09:53.189 --> 01:09:56.010 align:middle line:84% Try it now, surgeon, and you'll never see such a fine dish 01:09:56.010 --> 01:09:58.200 align:middle line:84% as this lying uneaten on your hands 01:09:58.200 --> 01:10:01.170 align:middle line:90% as a mere scientific curiosity. 01:10:01.170 --> 01:10:03.090 align:middle line:84% Cuticle, his whole countenance changed. 01:10:03.090 --> 01:10:04.860 align:middle line:84% And slowly walking up to the table, 01:10:04.860 --> 01:10:06.870 align:middle line:84% he put his nose close to the tin case, 01:10:06.870 --> 01:10:09.940 align:middle line:84% then touched its contents with his fingers and tasted it. 01:10:09.940 --> 01:10:10.680 align:middle line:90% Enough. 01:10:10.680 --> 01:10:13.575 align:middle line:84% Buttoning up his coat in all the trimmings of an old man's rage, 01:10:13.575 --> 01:10:15.700 align:middle line:84% he burst from the wardroom and, calling for a boat, 01:10:15.700 --> 01:10:19.260 align:middle line:90% was not seen for 24 hours." 01:10:19.260 --> 01:10:20.040 align:middle line:90% Now, I will quit. 01:10:20.040 --> 01:10:23.390 align:middle line:90% [CLAPPING] 01:10:23.390 --> 01:10:30.000 align:middle line:90%