Opis: Ave Maria (Classic Reprint) - Author Unknown

Excerpt from Ave Maria

It suddenly occurred to him, as the priest spoke, that perhaps it would be well to know the poor and what they considered their needs before prescribing for them.

John Longworthy was forty years of age and a bachelor. There had been a romance in his life ten years ago. He had admired intensely a young Italian girl, but religious differences had been an insuperable barrier to their marriage. This experience made him graver in tone than he had been. Being moderately well off, he travelled much in out-of-the-way places. He had written two books - on "The Science of Politics" and on "Social Questions and their Solution." It was the prestige of these volumes which had earned for him many invitations to the Twilight Club. He had gone thither in search of light on questions which - his books said - he had already answered. Somehow he felt that he was outgrowing these volumes, although they continued to sell. He had in contemplation an article for the North American Review, in which he would show that the essence of all religions was to be the religion of the future, and that this essence was reverence for age and love of little children. Apart from those feelings possible of cultivation in every breast, and which should be cultivated by the State, religion was a collection of ancient odds and ends, barnacles, - roba di Roma, and other effete places. Reverence for the old and love for the young should be cultivated by perfect plumbing, annual poetical celebrations, good music, and the introduction of Longfellow's poems as a text-book in all schools. He had determined to find out who said "I love God and little children," and to put it - if it happened to have been written by Jean Paul Richter - at the head of his paper. It meant really the essence of all religion, - for of course "God" stood for the forces of nature.

All this ran through Longworthy's mind as he walked up Broadway in the rain. To passers-by he was a tall, well-dressed man, in a hurry. If you had seen him in the Herald office - into which he dropped to give an advertisement to the clerk at the desk - you would have seen that he was a man with a high forehead, a healthy color, kindly blue eyes, a rather long blond beard and mustache. His eyes were grave eyes with a latent spark in them; he carried a light overcoat over his arm; he wore a dark frock-coat, gray trousers, and a silk hat; a bunch of violets in his lapel did not distinguish him particularly, for the New Yorker has become as fond of flowers as the ancient Roman. He paid for his advertisement - he wanted a copyist, -and turned away from the desk, forgetting his umbrella. The clerk called after him, but Longworthy did not hear him. It had ceased to rain. Before the clerk could get out from behind his rampart, Longworthy had jumped into a coup which happened to be passing.

The clerk looked at the umbrella curiously. It was a good one, with a handle of some foreign polished wood, and the initial "L" on a little silver plate. The clerk thought with complacency that his own name was "Long." He went back to his work, feeling that the day had been a lucky one; for a man who was capable of leaving an umbrella behind him on a damp night would in all probability not remember where he left it. The clerk reflected that a man who could afford to take a coup when he felt like it, and to wear a nosegay of Parma violets in December, would not miss his umbrella much; and he examined the engraved "L" again, with a certain feeling that virtue, in his case, had been rewarded. A newsboy who had watched the clerk congratulated him, and said 'the bloke that lost that umbril was his uncle, and that the property ought to be given to him to take home.'

The driver of the coup stopped at Canal Street. Longworthy had told him to drive to the Union League Club, where he expected to meet his publisher, and be introduced to a member of Parliament who had read his "Social Questio

Szczegóły: Ave Maria (Classic Reprint) - Author Unknown

Nazwa: Ave Maria (Classic Reprint)
Autor: Author Unknown
Wydawnictwo: FB &c Ltd
Kod paskowy: 9781331184270
Języki: angielski
Ilość stron: 634
Format: 15.2x22.9cm
Oprawa: Miękka

Recenzje: Ave Maria (Classic Reprint) - Author Unknown