| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: word sharp, well timed, efficient.
Imagine, then, Hortense staring wide-eyed and puzzled at a
floundering, hesitating, absent-minded Mrs. McChesney--a Mrs.
McChesney strangely starry as to eyes, strangely dreamy as to
mood, decidedly deficient as to dictation. Imagine a Hortense
with pencil poised in air a full five minutes, waiting until Mrs.
McChesney should come to herself with a start, frown, smile
vaguely, pass a hand over her eyes, and say, "Let me see--where
was I?"
" `And we find, on referring to your order, that the goods you
mention----' " Hortense would prompt patiently.
Emma McChesney & Co. |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: the vast machinery of system by which the bodies of workmen are
governed, that goes on unceasingly from year to year. The hands
of each mill are divided into watches that relieve each other as
regularly as the sentinels of an army. By night and day the
work goes on, the unsleeping engines groan and shriek, the fiery
pools of metal boil and surge. Only for a day in the week, in
half-courtesy to public censure, the fires are partially veiled;
but as soon as the clock strikes midnight, the great furnaces
break forth with renewed fury, the clamor begins with fresh,
breathless vigor, the engines sob and shriek like "gods in
pain."
Life in the Iron-Mills |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Heap O' Livin' by Edgar A. Guest: The big heart of him, an' I'm willing to swear
That to-day he is one of the richest up there.
ANSWERING HIM
"When shall I be a man?" he said,
As I was putting him to bed.
"How many years will have to be
Before Time makes a man of me?
And will I be a man when I
Am grown up big? I heaved a sigh,
Because it called for careful thought
To give the answer that he sought.
A Heap O' Livin' |
