E. H. Harriman, the railroad magnate, has a big country place
in Virginia--a hunting-box, he calls it, but it is more like a
hunting Waldorf-Astoria. One morning Mr. Harriman arose early
and was sitting on one of the porches.
A milkman drove up and got out to bring in some milk. The
milkman started in the front door.
“Here, you,” snapped Harriman. “Take that milk around the back
way. What do you mean by bringing it in this way?”
“Mean?” said the milkman. “I mean that I am a Virginia
gentleman, and I am not accustomed to be talked to in this
manner, suh. I shall deliver this milk where I please, suh. If
you do not like it you have a means of obtaining satisfaction,
suh. No No’therner like you can talk to me like that, suh.”
Harriman retired. Next morning, when the same milkman arrived,
Harriman greeted him with a low bow. “You are right,” he said.
“Take the milk in the front way and leave it on the piano.”
(Text.)
(2504)
* * * * *
Recently I read the experience of a yachting party on the
Mediterranean. A sudden storm had come up and threatened to
overwhelm the boat. One of the two women on board lost her head
completely and seemed crazed by fear. Suddenly she cried out to
the other woman sitting calmly beside her: “You know you are as
frightened as I am. Why don’t you show it, too?” “Oh, yes, I am
frightened,” replied the other woman, “for I know the danger we
are in. But, if we are going to die, do let us at least die like
ladies.” And that appeal to pride wrought a complete change in
the frightened woman, she became calm and even spoke words of
encouragement to the others.--M. O. SIMMONS.
(2505)
* * * * *
There was once a proud little Icicle who stood all alone out
in the cold. She wore a dress that sparkled like diamonds, but
for all that, no one cared to go near her. The snowflakes were
having a game of tag in the sky. Nearer and nearer the earth
they played until some of them espied Miss Icicle.
“Do come and play with us!” they cried.
But the proud Icicle shook her head. “No,” she said, “you are
entirely too common to play with me; I am a princess.”
“I’ll show the world what you are, you silly thing,” called
Grandfather Sun from his cloud chariot. So he sent some of his
children, the Sunbeams, to breathe on Miss Icicle’s head. This
made her feel so sick that she wept great tears. The more she
wept the thinner she grew, till at last a tiny pool of water was
all that was left. (Text.)
(2506)
* * * * *
A gourd wound itself around a lofty palm, and in a few weeks
climbed to its very top. “How old mayest thou be?” asked the
gourd. “About a hundred years,” was the reply. “A hundred years
and no taller! Only look, I have grown as tall as you in less
than a hundred days,” said the puffed-up gourd. The stately
palm calmly replied: “I know that well. Every summer of my life
a gourd has climbed up my body and spread over my branches, as
proud as thou art, and as short-lived as thou shalt be.”
(2507)
See VANITY.