Frank Harris

“ I showed them that sin with its curiosities widened the horizons of life. Prejudices and prohibitions are mere walls to imprison the soul. Indulgence may hurt the body, Frank, but nothing except suffering hurts the spirit; it is self-denial and abstinence that maim and deform the soul."
"Then they knew you as a great talker even at Oxford?" I asked in some surprise.
"Frank," he cried reprovingly, laughing at the same time delightfully, "I was a great talker at school. I did nothing at Trinity but talk, my reading was done at odd hours. I was the best talker ever seen in Oxford." ”

“ Instinctively the old man began to choke him off but the son exclaimed:
"'Don't, father, don't, for God's sake! it may be hard on you, but it'll be the making of the pup'. So my examination, I thought, might be hard on Mr. Harris; but it would be the making of him."
The Court roared and I applauded merrily. Judge Stevens continued: "I desire, however, to show my self not an enemy but a friend of Mr. Harris whom I have known for some years. Mr. Hutchings evidently thinks that Mr. Harris must wait two years in order to become a citizen of the United States. ”

“ The funeral services of Mrs. Harris were conducted in the Presbyterian church at La Crescent, the same building in which [Pg 132] services were held for her husband, at which there were present from our society as representatives Mr. J. M. Underwood, the late Wyman Elliot, and the writer. Her body was laid to rest beside that of her husband in Prospect Hill Cemetery at La Crescent.
Mrs. Harris is survived by four children, ten grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. Frank I. Harris, one of the two sons, is well known to our membership who attend the annual meetings or the state fair ”

“ I can see a signal flying, like a handkerchief tied to a pole. But who can it be? If it is one of our people, why does he not come over? O Frank, how I wish brother and cousin Harold were here."
"Let us fire off the gun, sister," Frank replied, "that will bring them back."
They took the gun, loaded by Robert for the purpose, and fired it repeatedly. Mary then took another peep through the glass, and cried out--"He sees us, Frank, whoever it is; he is waving his flag. He must have heard our guns, or seen their smoke. ”

“ I asked.
"It is impossible, Frank, and ridiculous; why should I give up my friends for Queensberry?"
"I should like to see Queensberry's letter," I said. "Is it possible?"
"I'll bring it to you, Frank, but there's nothing in it." A day or two later he showed me the letter, and after I had read it he produced a copy of the telegram which Lord Alfred Douglas had sent to his father in reply. Here they both are; they speak for themselves loudly enough:
Alfred,—
It is extremely painful for me to have to write to you in the strain I must ”

“ I lent him books and he read them, and his mind opened from week to week like a flower, till in a short time, a few months, he became an exquisite companion and disciple. Frank, no girl grows like that; they have no minds, and what intelligence they have is all given to wretched vanities, and personal jealousies. There is no intellectual companionship possible with them. They want to talk of dress, and not of ideas, and how persons look and not of what they are. How can you have the flower of romance without a brotherhood of soul? ”

“ He took his gun, called his dog, and gave a look to Frank, in the expectation that he also would come. But Frank had listened quietly to the preceding conversation, and had as quietly made up his mind not to go. He sat beside the cage, watching the opossum, and took no notice of dog, gun, or look.
"Jump, Frank," said Robert, in a cheering tone; "I am ready to go. Let us see if we cannot find a deer."
"No, I thank you," he soberly replied; "I do not love to get lost. It does not feel pleasant. I had rather stay at home and pour water on cousin Harold's foot." ”

“ I'm much afraid, Frank, in spite of all his efforts, he will die before he reaches the level from which writers start. It's a pity because he has certainly a little real talent. He differs from Symons in that he has an Ego, but his Ego has five senses and no soul."
"What about Bernard Shaw?" I probed further, "after all he's going to count."
[Pg 476]
"Yes, Frank, a man of real ability but with a bleak mind. Humorous gleams as of wintry sunlight on a bare, harsh landscape. He has no passion, no feeling, and without passionate feeling how can one be an artist? ”

“ The breathless excitement of the good Deacon changed gradually as he realized that his hearers were not in sympathy with him, and his speech became almost solemn in its impressiveness as he continued. “See here! This ain’t a thing to waste. Ten thousand dollars a year to start with, an’ the best church in Chicago, you can’t expect to do better than that. Though you’re young still, when the chance comes, it should be gripped.”
“Oh, pshaw!” broke in Mrs. Hooper irritably, twining her fingers and tapping the carpet with her foot, “Mr. Letgood doesn’t want to leave Kansas City. ”

“ The Masters all called me and I went up to the platform and accepted the cheque, smiling with delight, and when the Cambridge Professor shook hands with me and would have further excused himself, I whispered shyly, "it's all right, Sir, I'm glad that you decided as you did". He laughed aloud with pleasure, put his arm round my shoulder and said: "I'm obliged to you, you're certainly a good loser, or winner perhaps I ought to have said, and altogether a remarkable boy. Are you really under sixteen?" ”

“ Sister Mary, is there anything I can do to help you?"
"Cousin," said Harold, uniting quickly in the effort to shame Frank out of his strange caprice, "I wish you would let me too help you in some way. You are always so ready to do everything you can for us, that we are glad whenever we can do anything for you."
Mary needed nothing, except to have the kettle lifted to its place upon the fire. Frank was all this time warming his hands and feet, as if he was desperately cold. In reading the Scriptures, and repeating the Lord's Prayer, his voice could scarcely be heard ”

“ For who knows but some old bear or panther may come after sister or me yet, before we get away."
"O, as for bears," Robert maliciously remarked, "I think you will never need a gun. I think you will always find a tree."
Frank's face reddened as he returned, "I don't care if I did, sir. Cousin Harold knows that I did exactly right. Didn't I, cousin?" ”

“ Letgood?” said the Deacon cordially. “I’m glad to see you, sir, as you are too, I’m sartin,” he added, turning to his wife and putting his arms round her waist and his lips to her cheek in an affectionate caress. “Take a seat, won’t you? It’s too hot to stand.” As Mrs. Hooper sank down beside him on the sofa and their visitor drew over a chair, he went on, taking up again the broken thread of his thought. “No one thinks more of you than Isabelle. She said only last Sunday there warn’t such a preacher as you west of the Mississippi River. ”

“ Harris is a compactly-built gentleman of medium size, hav- ing a full face and a twinkling, pleasant eye. Although he is a single man, he is not at all averse to the sweet links of matrimony, and when the proper young lady comes along we expect that he may become one of the "blessed." He is at present engaged in the ice manufacturing business, being the se- nior partner in the well-known firm of Harris & Salmon. ”

“ It would be like him, for he was among the most modest and retiring of men, as there are many amusing anecdotes to indicate. Once when some one had persuaded him to attend a large dinner in New York, they say, he got as far as New York, but as the dinner hour approached could not bear to face the adulation awaiting him, and incontinently fled back to Atlanta.
Frank L. Stanton, poet laureate of Georgia, and of [Pg 375] the "Constitution," joined the "Constitution" staff through the efforts of Mr. Harris, one of whose closest intimates he was. Speaking of Mr. Harris's gift for negro dialect, Mr. ”

“ Sam had by this time come from his shed-room and made the fire for breakfast, and Robert and Harold, awaked by Frank's call for help, dressed themselves and made their appearance. They all wished Frank a pleasant birthday, and hoped he might have as many as would be for his good.
"Now, Master Frank," said Harold, while they were sitting together, "what would you have us do for you today? We are all your humble servants, and ready to do whatever we can for your pleasure." ”

“ Ere proceeding more than a few steps, however, Robert stopped to say, "Harold, we shall not need the dogs. Let us leave them for protectors to Mary and Frank. True, there is no danger; but they will feel safer for having them at hand. Frank, bring me Mum's chain. Here, Mum! Here, Mum!"
Mum came rather reluctantly; for dog though he was, he appeared to apprehend the state of the case. Mary observing this, exclaimed, "Cousin, I do believe that Mum understands what brother says. Only see how disappointed he looks!"
"O, yes," returned Harold; "dogs understand more than most people suspect. ”

“ Well, master Frank, I see you are at your old tricks again. And since you show such an aptitude for putting people into good humour, there will be reason to think you are in fault, if you ever put them out. Harold, has your aunt ever told you how Frank once kissed himself out of a scrape with her? ”

“ Harris as if he had been in the State of New York; for surely Kansas too has come of age and its inhabitants cannot wish to be humored as inferiors.
“This whole affair”, he went on, “reminds me of a story told in the east of a dog-fancier. The father lived by breeding and training bull-dogs. One day he got an extraordinarily promising pup and the father and son used to hunker down, shake their arms at the pup and thus encourage him to seize hold of their coat-sleeves and hang on. ”

“ When Robert entered their room to see how they fared, he discovered them seated on a trunk, wrapped in their father's cloak, and sheltered by that very umbrella which Frank had been provident enough to bring. They rolled up their bedding and clothes, and protected as best they could whatever seemed most in danger from the wet. They sat on boxes and trunks, and wrapped themselves in cloaks and blankets; but it was in vain; they could not guard themselves at the same time from the rain above and the driven water from below. ”

“ Didn't Sophocles give me Antigone, the prototype of the new woman for all time, in her sacred rebellion against hindering laws and thwarting conventions, the eternal model of that dauntless assertion of love that is beyond and above sex, the very heart of the Divine!
And the Socrates of Plato led me to that high place where man becomes God, having learned obedience to law and the cheerful acceptance of Death ”

“ HARRIS, ABRAM L. The black worker. SEE Spero,
Sterling D.
HARRIS, ALAN, tr.
England, the unknown isle. SEE
Cohen-Portheim, Paul.
HARRIS, FRANK. Bernard Shaw. © 27Nov31;
A46919. Edgar Mitchel Ross
(PPW) ; 19Jan59; R229429.
HARRIS, JOEL CHANDLER. Uncle Remus, his songs and sayings.
With illus. by A. B. Frost.
Edited by M. Aline Bright.
© on introd. & appendix; 3Jul31;
A39284. Appleton-Century-Crofts,
Inc. (PWH) ; 4Feb59; R229881.
HARRISON CO. 1931 supplement to Van Epps-Akin-Stevens-Gillen index-digests. ”

“ Mary and Frank needed no persuasion to go upon this excursion, after the glowing description given by the boys on their return from the beach. Robert preferred to remain with Sam. The others set off--Harold with his gun, which, for reasons of policy, was an inseparable companion, Mary with a basket, and Frank with his dog and hatchet. On arriving at the beach, down which they were to pass for a mile or more, the youngsters amused themselves for a time with writing names, or making grotesque figures in the hard smooth sand ”

“ From time to time he sighed heavily, and his leaden dejection gradually infected all of us. I was not sorry, for I wanted to get him away early; by ten o'clock we had left the house and were in the Cromwell Road. He preferred to walk: without his noticing it I turned up Queen's Gate towards the park. After walking for ten minutes I said to him:
"I want to speak to you seriously. Do you happen to know where Erith is?"
"No, Frank."
"It is a little landing place on the Thames," I went on, "not many miles away: it can be reached by a fast pair of horses and a brougham in a very short time. ”

“ What is the food of passion, Frank, but beauty, beauty alone, beauty always, and in beauty of form and vigour of life there is no comparison. If you loved beauty as intensely as I do, you would feel as I feel. It is beauty which gives me joy, makes me drunk as with wine, blind with insatiable desire.... ”

“ Without this blessed conviction how could I ever have undergone the labor or endured the shame or faced the loneliness of the Garden, or carried the cross of my own Crucifixion; for every artist's life begins in joy and hope and ends in the shrouding shadows of doubt and defeat and the chill of everlasting night. ”

“ Mad as you make me with your love-thrusts, for at one moment I am hot and dry with desire, the next wet with passion, bathed in love, I could live with you all my life without having you, if you wished it, or if it would do you good. ”

“ In fact, his father was my next-door neighbor in Knoxville, and I used to see Frank reading old Brownlow's paper."
"Don't think ut!" replied the Irishman, and with that all joined in the conversation and I heard more of the perilous adventures and hair-breadth escapes of Captain Frank Leroy than you could put in a book. It seemed that his identity was a mystery, but he was none the less a hero in men's minds because his very existence had been called in question; for people will hug delusions to their bosoms in the face of religion itself, as we all know. ”