Pleiades Club

“ For Genius is child of the very air
One breathes at the cheap table d’hote—Come in!
“Oh, wonderful things you’ll discover there
In the midst of the clatter and smoke and din.”
Out of the smoke there are statues carved,
And daring dreamers their day-dreams spin;
For never a poet’s soul has starved
On the notes of a table d’hote violin. ”

“ The player is one who loves, and understands, nature. To do so he must feel, in the highest sense, the emotions of the artist, the poet and kindred spirits, because from each he must cull the choicest petals—the inspiration of the poet, that he may portray the character; the genius of the artist, that he may imbue it with life, and the passion of the bard, and to this the sympathy of a Madonna, the tenderness of an angel, the love of a mother and the strength of a giant. ”

“ Music will make all sacrifice for men. At the cost of fearful pains of growth, she will change her nature with their growing, or even their perverse needs. Let her living sons but call upon her to forsake her earlier nature to sympathize with the broader and deeper consciousness which they have wrung from life in their battle with circumstance, and unhesitatingly she responds. She will indulge a prodigal Strauss or a Debussy, even to his own harm, and she yields her best only to him whose sympathy has made him one with the deep and simple heart of humanity. ”

“ A woman may conceal her faults, but a decollete gown is less deceptive.
The blush of a bashful girl is a flush that takes any hand—and heart.
“The cup of happiness” with men of experience has a siphon on the side.
Every woman has a horror of old age, but not so much as of young death.
Women are never satisfied. First they want a voter and then they want a vote. ”

“ To the immortal genius of Shakespeare does the world owe its inexpressible appreciation of the artistic development, realizing to the fullest degree the possibilities, and subsequently the mastery, of the art, placing it at once on the highest pinnacle of achievement and according to it the laurel of universal popularity.
To this genius is added that of others, each attaining a greater degree of appreciation, until to-day the art of the player encompasses the highest attributes of the allied arts. ”

“ The philosopher said a woman could not argue—he was too wise to say that she could not talk.
The reason so many men find marriage unattractive is because life was so attractive before marriage.
It isn’t a hard matter for a woman to make a man love her. The difficulty is in making him keep it up.
A woman can make up two things at the same time—her face and her mind; but her face lasts longer.
The world has no sympathy to waste on those reckless enough to wed when both have been married before.
If a man does not tell a woman he loves her she thinks him impossible ”

“ Is it not a great thing that she can shine so radiantly upon the Earth and make so many happy? And if there were no Sun, what would the poor little Flowers do, and the Birds and the Beasts? My little light cannot do much good, but I can do my best to keep it bright, and if it reaches to Earth but faintly I shall be grateful. I had rather light one soul onward and upward than to have a choir of Angels sing my praises ”

“ The greatest disappointment after marriage comes to a man when he realizes that his wife does not look like the models in the shop windows during a white-goods sale.
A man can protect himself from the things said about him by the women who don’t love him. It’s the things said about him by the woman who does love him that keep him worried.
Women, says a sage, are like books: No man can judge the inside by what is displayed on the outside. It is a poor rule that won’t work both ways. Women are unlike books: When one has finished with a book it can be closed up. ”

“ While there is an engagement there’s hope—of liberty.
Men can persuade a woman to do anything she wants to.
Men can be classified; women cannot even be pacified.
A woman’s idea of happiness is to be ideally miserable.
A woman will break a heart as readily as she will crack a smile.
No married man ever was a fool without being told of the fact.
The grass widow is not alone in making hay while the sun shines. ”

“ A bachelor is a man who has given serious thought to matrimony.
Bachelors form their opinion of marriage by experience—of others.
There is nothing new under the sun except hat styles for women.
“A woman imagines she can cover up her imperfections by pointing out those of other women.”
Every girl would love to be a thing of beauty and a boy forever.
When a woman proves equal to all a man expects she is a sur-prize.
It isn’t nearly so hard to be a fool over a widow as not to be one.
Every woman secretly admires the wisdom of the man who flatters her. ”

“ Sometimes there is more truth than sentiment when a man tells a woman a thing is as plain as the nose on her face.
No one has ever yet discovered why a woman is afraid of a mouse and tackles a six-foot man with confidence.
A woman will start a flirtation in fun and then wonder why a man won’t follow her when she gets serious.
If a man wants to make a fool of himself he can find many opportunities, but the surest way is over a woman. ”

“ The one thing that has characterized all literature, even before the art of printing was known, no matter what may be the definition of the word, is this: Whatever has pith, human interest, originality and action, however slowly it may have worried its way through the tired or befuddled brain of those persons whose privilege it is to see the matter before publication, will be quick to catch the eye of an ever alert public. ”

“ In America’s present need of songs breathing the freedom and courage of the New World, Music, the all-mother, is present and watchful, and will stand by her latest son until he is full grown and strong. ”

“ Some men are born to trouble, while others merely achieve it by marriage.
There is but one kind of love, yet every woman has a different idea about it.
Men, manners and morals change, but woman, never—from the changeable.
A man may be “out front” at the opera and yet be able only to “see back”—if he is with her.
Every woman expects a man to think for her, and then she reverses his opinion.
When it comes to singing the praises of another, most women have a sore throat.
Man’s principal safeguard against matrimony is that widows are made, not born. ”

“ This is quite as true of literature in general as of one part. When we reflect for an instant we must acknowledge that in every thinker’s life there are periods that differ materially in the attitude towards reading; that some special line is apt to predominate, even in one who is known to be a general reader: it may vary with time, place, conditions—in fact, under almost all conceivable circumstances—but there is never a time when there are not more readers in any line than there are books worth while to meet their needs, or to satisfy their demands ”

“ When a woman says that all she wants is what she deserves she really means she deserves all she wants.
When a girl reaches that uncertain age and is yet unmarried, she is often worse than she paints herself. ”

“ Men often find it necessary to choose between the inconstant and the unattractive woman.
A woman keeps a man running all the time—first it is after her and then it is from her.
If women did not know that men could overcome their resistance they would seldom resist.
There are two ways in which a woman may win a man: Her own brilliancy and his inanity.
When a man is at the feet of woman it is pretty sure that another woman threw him there.
Every woman wants a man to be real devilish before marriage and real angelic afterwards. ”

“ If a man really wants to start something with himself, let him try to love a woman just as a woman wants to be loved.
The best way to find out what a girl who is in love with a man thinks of woman suffrage is to find out what he thinks.
A man may escape the measles, or automobiles, or even being indicted, but no man has ever been known to escape a widow.
No woman ever told a man she hated him without meaning it; some women have told men they loved them and meant it.
Rather than a man should be right and belong to another woman, a woman would have him wrong and belong to her. ”

“ A girl will gaze for three hours and a half at the moon and then wonder why she hasn’t time to sew a button on her brother’s vest.
The happiest man is he who will take a woman’s protestations like he does a dose of medicine—with celestial faith in the giver. ”

“ When a woman fails to see an opportunity to be generous to another woman it is not necessarily a sign of defective eye-sight.
Don’t misunderstand a man when he tells a woman she is sweet enough to eat—maybe he is thinking of the forthcoming restaurant-check.
Between the ages of sixteen and thirty a woman is a general practitioner in the field of love; after that she is satisfied to become a specialist.
A man is willing to worship at the shrine of a woman with whom he is in love until he meets another woman—then he changes his religion. ”

“ Black clouds skurried here and there across the Heavens, and low mutterings were heard. The Stars had revolted!
Venus, her cold beauty marred by a frown of discontent, was the center of a murmuring group, to whom she spoke in words of passion:
“Let us take a firm stand. Why should we go on shining, shining through countless ages? We are not appreciated. We never receive any praise. There are so many of us and our light is so feeble, who cares whether we shine or not? The Moon comes along and takes away our glory ”

“ The development of the art of the player records the development of civilization itself. The player and his art obtains wherever there is civilization. In its highest form it is at once Literature, Art and Music in harmonious arrangement. ”

“ HERE was once a Sagacious Youth, with a High Brow, who Opined that the World owed him a Living.
“It is all very well,” he reflected, “for Ordinary Dubs who have not been blessed with a Superabundance of Gray Matter as I have, to Strain on the Collar in the Tread Mill of Business, but the very thought of Work makes me Tired, and I apprehend that there are Easier ways of getting the Pelf than by Earning it.
“It is, of course, a Good Thing that not every one is as Brilliant as I am, for if they were the world would blow up with Spontaneous Combustion. ”

“ Men have found many antidotes for a woman, but the surest of all is another woman.
A woman spends one-half of her time telling lies for men and the other half to them.
Women often know a man is in love with them when the man never discovers the fact. ”

“ If you had displayed as much Imagination in writing Fiction as you have in Telling Lies that deceive no one, you would have received an Honorary Degree from Yale instead of the Double Cross from your Fellow Creatures, and if you had worked as hard at some Honest Calling as you have in trying to Rob Others you would be a Millionaire instead of a Tramp. It is my observation that the Beater always gets Beaten in the end. ”

“ The inhabitants are indeed a weird race, including unrecognized geniuses, earnest hopers, chronic grouches, back files and innocent bystanders; also single gentlemen who are believed to have had what is known as A PAST, and who are suspected of leading the dissipated life because they come in of an evening with the odor of rum and Business Men’s Lunch on their breath ”

“ Art is always the same; temperaments differ and become warped. The academician’s temperamental glass is ruled off into formal geometrical patterns, and he sees nature as a kind of problem in perspective. The rabid “impressionist” looks within himself, and away from nature, and “sees things” which don’t exist for anyone else. The true artist gazes straight out upon nature, and forgets himself, and art comes to him “as easily as lying.”
“What the poet writes. ”

“ A boarder is often likened to a worm. And this is a proper comparison if it is a tapeworm that is meant, because a tapeworm always knows in advance what it is going to have for dinner, and so does a boarder. ”

“ And men and women merely players.”
The profession of the player is one of the oldest recognized and in its growth and achievement stands foremost of all the arts.
In its crudest form little is known, but as a profession it may properly date from the Chinese and Grecian periods, when players were chosen from among the infant slaves and trained to the art by masters, not unlike the painter and the bard. ”

“ HAT is most important? The rich man says, “Wealth!”
The sick man cries feebly, “Ah, no! it is ‘Health!’”
Inventor and poet contend it is “Fame”;
The worldly want “Titles” prefixed to their name.
The preacher chants solemnly, “It is the ‘Soul!’”
Ambition says, “Power and Place” is man’s goal;
“’Tis ‘Pleasure’ we seek!” laughs the crown-sceptre throng,
“The world to amuse us—Wine, Woman and Song!”
What is most important? “’Tis ‘Love!’” cries the lover ”

“ The common recreations of The Boarderland are rushing the washstand-duck in a dress-suit case; wondering how the other boarders can afford the clothes they wear; progressive knocking and raising scandals from the slip. The prevalent disease is Furnished Rheumatism, brought on by living in a single-breasted apartment, and is marked by a cramped, choking sensation, the symptoms being almost identical with those of Harlem Flatulency. ”

“ Personally, my tastes are not Domestic, and I prefer Single Blessedness to Double Wretchedness, but it is clear that it will be less Fatiguing to hold a Lady’s Hand than to call Stations in the Subway ”