| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: remained, it would still have been a cut-throat quarrel. But when
the consulate appeared to be concerned, when the war-ships of the
German Empire were thought to fetch and carry for the firm, the
rage of the independent traders broke beyond restraint. And,
largely from the national touchiness and the intemperate speech of
German clerks, this scramble among dollar-hunters assumed the
appearance of an inter-racial war.
The firm, with the indomitable Weber at its head and the consulate
at its back - there has been the chief enemy at Samoa. No English
reader can fail to be reminded of John Company; and if the Germans
appear to have been not so successful, we can only wonder that our
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: some mysterious tribute to a magnificent young man with a waxed mustache,
and a shirtfront adorned with diamond buttons, who every now and
then dropped an absent glance over their multitudinous patience.
They were American citizens doing homage to a hotel clerk.
"I'm glad he didn't tell us to go there," said one of our Englishmen,
alluding to their friend on the steamer, who had told them so many things.
They walked up the Fifth Avenue, where, for instance, he had told
them that all the first families lived. But the first families
were out of town, and our young travelers had only the satisfaction
of seeing some of the second--or perhaps even the third--
taking the evening air upon balconies and high flights of doorsteps,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: bottom who knows at all WHAT he's doing? When you most think
you're doing things, they're being done right over your head.
YOU'RE being done--in a sense. Take a hundred-to one chance, or
one to a hundred--what does it matter? You're being Led."
It's odd that I heard this at the time with unutterable contempt,
and now that I recall it--well, I ask myself, what have I got
better?
"I wish," said I, becoming for a moment outrageous, "YOU were
being Led to give me some account of my money, uncle."
"Not without a bit of paper to figure on, George, I can't. But
you trust me about that never fear. You trust me."
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