The Natives Of The Quarter
Stand In Rows In The Background, Drinking Beer Or Nothing At All;
But The Distinguished Stranger Sits At A Front Table And Is Served
With Champagne, And Champagne Only.
It is inferior champagne; but
because it is labeled American Brut - what ever that may denote - and
because there is a poster on the bottle showing the American flag
in the correct colors, he pays several times its proper value for
it.
From far corners and remote recesses coryphees and court
jesters swarm forth to fawn on him, bask in his presence, glory
in his smile - and sell him something. The whole thing is as
mercenary as passing the hat. Cigarette girls, flower girls and
bonbon girls, postcard venders and confetti dispensers surround
him impenetrably, taking him front, rear, by the right flank and
the left; and they shove their wares in his face and will not take
No for an answer; but they will take anything else.
Two years ago at a hunting camp in North Carolina, I thought I had
met the creature with the most acute sense of hearing of any living
thing. I refer to Pearl, the mare. Pearl was an elderly mare,
white in color and therefore known as Pearl. She was most gentle
and kind. She was a reliable family animal too - had a colt every
year - but in her affiliations she was a pronounced reactionary.
She went through life listening for somebody to say Whoa! Her ears
were permanently slanted backward on that very account.
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