Arthur Stanwood Pier

“ Man Thinking is man alert, versatile, living,—which is to say, finding constantly new interest in the things and beings about him, and developing himself more and more by the contact. From the ranks of Man Thinking emerge most of the strong and virile, the men of burly laughter, observing and remembering eye, and careless, wide-ranging talk; the unhoarded, chance-flung anecdote, the unconsciously graphic phrase, the crisp expression of a truth shrewdly seen drop from the lips of Man Thinking, not from those of Mere Thinker. ”

“ The little girl looked up with her beguiling childish seriousness—as if she was surprised too and wondered about it all the time.
Madelaine stood off and viewed the statue, walked slowly round it, examining it; and in her eyes the approving light grew warm and on her lips the smile lingered wistfully.
The bees hummed and a yellow-throat sang in the plum tree. It was a fine, drowsy morning. One might sit down again under the plum tree and drowse; or one might be energetic and go after one's knitting. ”

“ All the preliminary cheering and singing, the figures of the bareheaded cheer leaders leaping about in front of the sections, brandishing megaphones and making every movement of arm and leg and body in a kind of fanatical, frenzied unison, one with another—all before a single athlete had put in an appearance—did not strike either Ruth or David as ridiculous. ”

“ Lydia murmured. "His wife did not do justice to him either, Floyd. But his little boy—who never can remember him—shall be brought up to do justice to his memory."
The tender light in her eyes, the sacred feeling in her voice as she said this, revealed to Floyd the source of her serenity. The manner of her husband's death had given her an ideal which she must impress upon her son as his by inheritance, to be guarded proudly as an inheritance, to be kept untarnished in his soul; and she could never have made this ideal so personal to her boy if her husband had not died. ”

“ Kramer scoffed at her, called Witherspoon an old fool and Blakeley a whipper-snapper, and declared that Dr. Deever was all right and would pull the baby through. But his heart was less confident than his words, and when he looked at the baby, their only child, he felt with a chill and silencing conviction that its life was doomed; its white and waxen face was death-like. Images that the thought of death evoked—the white hearse, the little child in the white coffin, the closed carriage with his wife by his side—invaded the mind of the unimaginative, sordid man and terrified him ”

“ The care with which he considers his diet, the attentiveness with which he grooms his body, the absorbed interest that he gives to all details of breathing and sleeping and exercising are, in comparison with his thoughtlessness about all that lies beyond, touching and ludicrous; the very simplicity of him in his engrossed self-study wins the smiling observer. And if he is a good-hearted boy or man, as one so healthy and so single-minded usually is, and is responsive to the admiration of others as well as of himself, he confers much happiness. ”

“ Stanley leaped to his feet; and while the supporters behind him were yapping out taunts and jeers at Harvard, he swung his arms as if he was leading a multitude, and cried out all alone the real Yale cheer. The Harvard people turned to look; some of them smiled at him a little wistfully, and because he was so clearly a Yale man they clapped him when he sat down.
"Why don't you cheer for Stanley?" asked the schoolboy next to him in a resentful voice. "He's the whole Yale team." ”

“ Now are you fellows going to be pig-headed and make trouble, or are you going to give in when nine tenths of the society show you that you're in the wrong?"
"I told Tom Albree I'd get him elected; he wants to join," Frank Windsor muttered stubbornly.
"Oh, that's it!" exclaimed Harry, in a sort of exasperated despair. "And now you don't like to own up to him that you can't do what you promised!" He thought a moment, and then he said, "I tell you what, Frank. If I go to Tom Albree myself, and explain how it is, and so let you and Bruce out, will you agree not to blackball Stoddard?" ”

“ The generous spirit which warmed the heart of a true British boxer shone forth with its sterling brilliancy; all selfishness was set aside; and no sooner was the standard of charity unfurled than every man who could wield a fist, from the oldest veteran to the youngest practitioner, rushed forward, anxious and ardent to evince the feelings of his soul and to lend his hand in the work of benevolence. ”

“ The rattle of talk and laughter was suddenly submerged in applause; ten little First Formers, clad in white gymnasium suits and carrying, each one, a pair of tiny Indian clubs, emerged from the stairway at the left and trotted forward in front of the rowing-machines. Then they began swinging their clubs, all keeping time together, their small bare arms twinkling, their chests out, some of them with smiling faces, some of them serious and intent. ”

“ The professor was laying the parachutes carefully out upon the ground,—slack folds of canvas, attached on opposite sides to the bottom of the balloon. A hush of expectancy descended on the crowd; instead of the shrill shouting of boys, and the chatter and laughter, there was suddenly a low, subdued murmur of talk.
"Oh, how does anybody ever do it!" exclaimed Miss Folwell under her breath. "How does anybody ever do it the first time!"
"Why not?" asked Harry; he kept his eyes on the professor. ”

“ They walked slowly to the building in which David had his room, climbed the stairs, and sat down by the window. Dr. Ives looked out in silence for a time, wishing to fix in his mind the view that was to become so familiar to his son—the grassplots bounded by stone posts and white rail fences, the roadways, lined with maple trees, the clustered red-brick buildings above which rose the lofty chapel tower in the sunlight of the warm September day.
“This should be a good place to study in, David,” he said. “It’s in the quiet places that a man can prepare himself best.” ”

“ He always had liked him, for Scarborough had never given any trouble; he seemed more mature than most of the boys, more mature even than Louis Collingwood. He was not so popular, because he maintained a certain dignity and reserve; even Westby seemed to stand somewhat in awe of Scarborough. He was, as Irving understood, the best oarsman in the school, captain of the school crew, besides being the crack shot-putter and hammer-thrower; if he and Collingwood had together chosen to throw their influence against a new master, life would indeed have been hard. ”

“ The newcomer in the garden stood where the terraces began; beside her were the wide stone steps which descended to the lake.
Madelaine regarded the bit of sculpture for a while with amused, approving eyes, and then for a while with eyes more wistful and quite as tender. She rose and walked towards the marble image, her slender figure moving along the grassy path with the noiselessness of light. Beside the figure of the little girl she stopped; she looked at it and smiled. "You are a dear little thing," she said. "I'm surprised that a man could have made you." ”

“ If he has not the weaknesses, but is stanch and strong, a walk with him in the open air, whether in the biting winds of March or over the sunlit fields of May, or a talk with him before the winter fire, may put vigor, as well as the first sense of peace, into the soul. ”

“ Stewart's imagination, grasping hastily one possibility after another, carried him far afield. He was conscious of a power to express himself in burning words, whether on paper or in speech; once let him gain the ear of the people, and they would be glad to listen. Dreaded by the benighted satraps with whom he had once consorted, beloved by the common people for whom his sympathy had always been deep and tender, though hitherto undemonstrative, ready speaker, wise thinker, public-spirited man, he might eventually be caught up in popular enthusiasm and raised to high office ”

“ Most of you fellows who are here to-night are prominent in the life of St. Timothy's School. The fact that you are here is an indication of prominence. And prominence is not a crime; it need not be a misfortune. It means that you are having a larger opportunity to live than other boys—a larger opportunity to work and to play, a larger opportunity to befriend those who are more obscure, more weak, more unsatisfied and unhappy than yourselves. You have the opportunity for leadership; and leadership means a good deal more than walking at the head of the procession. ”

“ Lady Mary was manœuvred to position directly before her mistress's eye.
"She stands beautifully," declared Harry. "If she'll only hold that position, she ought to get the blue."
"She's more likely to jump out of her skin," replied Miss Folwell.
Ten mettlesome, beautiful horses in shining harness were ranged before the grandstand,—all of them except Lady Mary restless, champing their bits or tossing their heads or pawing impatiently in the mud. Only Lady Mary stood quiet, looking straight ahead with mild and well-bred inquiry. ”

“ Barclay did not at once dispute this statement, and Irving was beginning to feel hurt.
“The point is,” said Barclay at last, “that to be liked by boys you’ve got to like them. If you hold off from them and distrust them and try to wrap yourself up in a cloak of dignity or mystery, they won’t like you because they won’t know you. If you show an interest in them and their interests, you can be as stern with them as justice demands, and they won’t lay it up against you. But if you don’t show an interest—why, you can’t expect them to have an interest in you.” ”

“ The insatiate appetite for competition begets in a man a corroding egotism. In the prideful desire to display one's self at the expense of others, to win the plaudits and the prize, one grows impatient of all but the showy hours. From the repeated excursions to match one's strength gallantly in contest, one returns with reluctance to the intervals of obscurity in which most of the genuine and permanently productive work is done. The further testing and demonstration of one's powers before an audience becomes a more imperative desire; the impulse to perform patient creative labor languishes. ”

“ There was in Floyd a ruthless, unscrupulous hardness of character, an insensitiveness of disposition, a view of other men, even friends and dependents, as merely impersonal agents to be used and cast aside, a disregard of all the claims to which a man of sympathy and kindness would be most responsive. The men of New Rome were suffering now at Floyd's hands as Stewart himself had suffered—locked out, deprived of their rights, hampered and cramped in their effort, denied the recognition for which they had striven and to which, no doubt, they were entitled. ”

“ Often she would follow the direction of his eyes and look across beyond the fountain, where the robins were flirting their wings, and beyond the roses and the foxgloves, where the bees were launching themselves from flower to flower. The Buddha had his eyes fixed on the red brick wall that bounded the garden on the farther side; it was high and partly overgrown with grapevines, and against it some prosperous young peach trees were planted. But the object on which, as it seemed to Madelaine, the Buddha concentrated his gaze, was not the grapevine or the peach trees or the slowly seasoning wall. ”

“ The reverberating noises of the mills, the scream of steam, the slow, perpetual unfurling of smoke, the trundling cars of stone and ore without visible hand to guide or control, the swinging of huge cranes and beams,—and then in comparison the tininess, the unimportance of the scattering human forms passing in the mill-yards, made it seem as if mighty forces had been put in operation and then abandoned to their fate. ”

“ Westby’s aim missed, his sponge-tipped lance slid past Collingwood’s shoulder, and the next instant Collingwood’s sponge—well weighted with water—smote Westby full in the chest and hove him overboard. For one moment Carroll struggled to keep the canoe right side up, but in vain; it tipped and filled, and with a shout he plunged in head foremost after his comrade.
They came up and began to push their canoe ashore; the two other canoes drew alongside and assisted, Scarborough and Morrill paddling, while Irving and Collingwood laid hold of the thwarts. ”

“ Where does labor come in?"
"In a thousand ways," declared Colonel Halket. "My dear Floyd, you seem to have the uneducated theory of most men—that if something is done for the profit of the capitalist, it is at the expense of the laborer. Not at all; the prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the other. It is true that my plan provides for the realizing of large profits immediately by those who enter into it; but it is also true that in the larger, ultimate sense the great benefits resulting from its adoption will fall to labor. ”

“ They may not win so many or so varied experiences and gifts from life as the reckless and ranging adventurer; theirs is not often the genius that builds the greatest and most enduring monuments; yet nearly all that has the charm of fine and perfect workmanship, nearly all that is subtly and beautifully conceived and exquisitely wrought, in manufactures, in machinery, in painting and music and literature, bears testimony to the serene vision, the unremitting toil of the quiet man. ”

“ The steady red glow of open furnaces, the red shuttling of beams on the rollers in the plate-mills and of rods in the rod-mills, and the gigantic flow of molten metal at blast furnaces and converter made a spectacular and dramatic display that appealed deeply to Stewart. "Oh, but this is the real thing!" he exclaimed at last. "I had no idea it was so gorgeous and magnificent. If a man could only paint this—but he'd need a mile of canvas! But parts of it—there, those three figures down there in the light of that furnace, Floyd! ”

“ Stewart and Lydia were living life in its fullness; he was not. The man who had no wife to cherish, no children to train and love, was a petty, pinching fellow; inglorious middle age would wait upon his wasted youth, and would in turn be followed by lonely and unblest senility. Hitherto there had been a certain pride with which Floyd had measured himself up to the stature of one whom Lydia might have loved; now he was of a humble mind.
Colonel Halket was mildly interested at hearing the news from Floyd. ”

“ When I come to New Rome and observe its commodious and well-kept homes, and see the bright, happy faces of its women and children, and mark upon its streets the confident, manly tread of its men, and note the many elevating and refining influences with which it has been supplied by the admirable spirit of its citizens, can I wonder that your prosperity is dear to you, and that you must view with suspicion any policy that might tend to derange it? ”

“ Do you think that mercenaries like these, who live by the sword, will be careful of human life? They are sent that the works may be opened by force of arms—and that means slaughter. Why, the most innocent demonstration that any two or three of you may make, one irresponsible outcry by some one in a crowd, may be the signal for a rifle volley. Once the first shot is fired, who may forecast the bloodshed and murder that will follow? And when by force of arms you are crushed, out comes Uriah from the hospital, marches boldly into the works with his gang, and claims his reward. ”

“ When the tight jam swung slowly upon an axis until it burst apart into two reeling, fighting bodies, Floyd helped to rally the host and incite it to a fresh onset. The freshmen were driven against the walls of brick buildings, tripped over low wire fences that lurked for their unfamiliar feet; but they rose to rush more lustily, shouting with delirious affection the numerals of their class. In the brief intervals of rest, Floyd looked for Stewart, but there was no finding any one in such a crowd. ”

“ The triumphant clear-headedness of this analysis brought Stewart into sudden contemplation of a course of action. The impulse with which he had painted the pictures of Labor was revived, the sympathy which Floyd so reprehensibly lacked grew once more incandescent in his soul. Here in Avalon, where the sinister influences of pride and avarice and lust of power prevailed in detestable completeness, there was a noble work for a man who had wealth and education and the high purpose of a gentleman, and who dared for the right to demolish the idols of his friends. ”

“ Conquest would not be his at once, but it would be attained; he had the consciousness of utter desire which is the consciousness—or the delusion—of the ultimate power. Yet his lips were sealed and his power was chained in his breast, and his love must beat itself to death in his brain—all because a man lived whom he had plucked from the depth of the sea. ”

“ He knew that her gratitude for what Floyd had done years before had been enshrined in her heart as a sacred sentiment and that a word in Floyd's disparagement was not to be easily drawn from her lips. That a woman should be reluctant to admit a flaw in the character of one to whom she owed all and to whom she had been steadfast in her loyalty, was fitting—especially when the man was he whose name she had given to her own little son. The delicacy of such reluctance was a feminine quality that Stewart prized. ”

“ Floyd sat overlooked in a corner of the room, absorbed in a slow, burning wonder and disgust. Nineteen men, who had for years been reasonably honest, single-minded producers of useful materials, were being transformed before his eyes into as many chaffering hucksters whose only aim was to find for what multiple of its worth they might sell their property to the ignorant and gullible. His grandfather and the banker had evidently arranged even small details of the scheme; it was hardly the fault of the other men that they should exhibit such eagerness to profit by it. ”