Guy Wetmore Carryl

“ It is apt to pass in silence, for a newly lit cigar is like a newly married wife: a man is deliberately oblivious to all else. The moment, too, is one of readjustment, of hasty mental survey of the chatter that has passed, and of preparation for the essentially dissimilar talk to come. ”

“ Every man’s turn is sure to come — why not one way as well as another? But what I am thinking of is the result upon the lives of these people whom I’ve made, as surely as if I were another Creator. And McGrath’s another Beelzebub! There’s a fight on between us for the salvation of a little world of four thousand souls! But I’m not God! I can’t act with the conviction of omniscience. I’ve been the most independent of men. I’ve made my own fortune with my own brains. I’ve done as I saw fit, and the results have seemed to indicate that I’ve been oftener right than wrong. ”

“ Colonel Broadcastle was a diplomat as well as a disciplinarian. By some unknowable system of suggestion and example it came, little by little, to be regarded in Kenton City as “the thing” to belong to the Ninth. Before the capital was aware of the transformation, every company roster read 103, the field and staff had been reorganized and perfected, and the Ninth Regiment, N. G. A., was what it remained thereafter: a magnificent fighting machine, ably drilled, perfectly equipped, a credit to the state, to the credit of which there stood so little else. ”

“ With men of the mental calibre of the three here assembled this opportunity is sacred to some of the gravest and most vital thoughts which they exchange. Peter Rathbawne, in particular, whenever he reviewed the paramount conversations of his life, seemed to find their significance indissolubly fused with the fragrance of Havana cigars and the taste of kümmel or yellow Chartreuse.
His eyes dwelt thoughtfully upon his companions during the pause which followed. First, on Broadcastle. He could depend upon him as he could depend upon no other man on earth. ”

“ I’ve given in, over and over again, in one way or another, sometimes against my convictions, and oftener against my will. But one thing I’ve stuck to, and that’s my right to discharge a hand when I see fit, without dictation from the Union or anybody else. In the past, this has been comparatively easy sailing. One man, now and again, isn’t a ripple on the surface of four thousand employees. ”

“ It is one thing to trust a man implicitly, and another thing entirely to try to tell him so. For silence is most golden in the specification of friendship, and when employed in the particularizing of intimate emotion the silver of speech is apt to turn to veriest tinsel. ”

“ Broadcastle was saying even now, as he did full justice to the celery mayonnaise, “I should say we were made for each other.”
“Since two single people may be made for each other,” laughed Mrs. Wynyard, “I wonder if two married people can’t be unmade for each other. ”

“ The citizens of Kenton City were not accustomed to discovering things in which they could take pride. The exact contrary was more apt to be the case. When, therefore, they discovered the rehabilitated Ninth, and its redeemer in the person of its commanding officer, they had a deal to say, and said it with unexampled arrogance and satisfaction. Thenceforward, Alleghenia meant much to Colonel Broadcastle, and Colonel Broadcastle considerably more than much to Alleghenia. ”

“ It’s not the men I’m thinking of so much. They ought to be able to make their own way, as I’ve made mine. It’s the women and children dependent upon them — the women and children who have no voice in the matter, and yet who are bound to suffer most by a strike. ”