W. L. Alden

The Professor's Jump (1895)

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Quotes from The Professor's Jump (W. L. Alden)

W. L. Alden,  The Professor's Jump (1895)

“ I admitted that the Professor was logical in his remarks, but my faith in his invention was beginning to be a little shaken. When a man has got to reduce himself to a quadruped before he can accomplish what he sets out to do, it doesn't seem to me that the game is worth the candle. However, the Professor was a mighty clever man, and a truthful one, so far as his devotion to science would allow him to be. So I had no doubt that he would be able to jump a distance of fifty feet, and do it in a way that wouldn't be disastrous to his legs and trousers. ”
Source: Wikisource

W. L. Alden,  The Professor's Jump (1895)

“ Van Wagener, could have desired, but for all that it was a good invention. Now I'm going to set to work to invent a way by which man can show his superiority to the flea, and if betting was not a grossly unscientific thing, I'd be willing to bet you that I will succeed.'
"Well, Van Wagener set to work, as he said he would, and he must have spent pretty much the whole of the next two months on that invention, for the greater part of that time he was both lame and black and blue, as any man who tries to jump in competition with a flea would naturally be. ”
Source: Wikisource

W. L. Alden,  The Professor's Jump (1895)

“ It was that standard old paragraph about the strength of a flea—the one which mentions that he can jump about seven hundred and thirty-two times his own length. I can't understand why that paragraph is so popular. What has the flea ever done for us that we should be for ever advertising him, and calling attention to his superiority in the matter of jumping? It just stimulates his ambition, and sets him to trying to break the record, which is so much the worse for us. ”
Source: Wikisource

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