Do his thinking in prose and wear
A
crimsoncravat, a far-away look
And a head of hexameter hair.
Be thin in your thought and your body'll be fat;
If you wear your hair long you needn't your hat.
SUFFRAGE, n. Expression of opinion by means of a
ballot. The right
of
suffrage (which is held to be both a
privilege and a duty) means,
as
commonly interpreted, the right to vote for the man of another
man's choice, and is highly prized. Refusal to do so has the bad name
of "incivism." The incivilian, however, cannot be
properly arraigned
for his crime, for there is no
legitimate accuser. If the accuser is
himself
guilty he has no
standing in the court of opinion; if not, he
profits by the crime, for A's abstention from voting gives greater
weight to the vote of B. By
femalesuffrage is meant the right of a
woman to vote as some man tells her to. It is based on
femaleresponsibility, which is somewhat
limited. The woman most eager to
jump out of her
petticoat to
assert her rights is first to jump back
into it when threatened with a switching for misusing them.
SYCOPHANT, n. One who approaches Greatness on his belly so that he
may not be commanded to turn and be kicked. He is sometimes an
editor.
As the lean leech, its
victim found, is pleased
To fix itself upon a part diseased
Till, its black hide distended with bad blood,
It drops to die of surfeit in the mud,
So the base sycophant with joy descries
His neighbor's weak spot and his mouth applies,
Gorges and prospers like the leech, although,
Unlike that
reptile, he will not let go.
Gelasma, if it paid you to devote
Your
talent to the service of a goat,
Showing by forceful logic that its beard
Is more than Aaron's fit to be revered;
If to the task of honoring its smell
Profit had prompted you, and love as well,
The world would benefit at last by you
And
wealthy malefactors weep anew --
Your favor for a moment's space denied
And to the nobler object turned aside.
Is't not enough that
thrifty millionaires
Who loot in
freight and spoliate in fares,
Or, cursed with
consciences that bid them fly
To safer villainies of darker dye,
Forswearing
robbery and fain, instead,
To steal (they call it "cornering") our bread
May see you groveling their boots to lick
And begging for the favor of a kick?
Still must you follow to the bitter end
Your sycophantic disposition's trend,
And in your
eagerness to please the rich
Hunt hungry
sinners to their final ditch?
In Morgan's praise you smite the sounding wire,
And sing hosannas to great Havemeyher!
What's Satan done that him you should eschew?
He too is reeking rich -- deducting _you_.
SYLLOGISM, n. A
logicalformula consisting of a major and a minor
assumption and an inconsequent. (See LOGIC.)
SYLPH, n. An immaterial but
visible being that inhabited the air when
the air was an element and before it was fatally polluted with factory
smoke, sewer gas and similar products of
civilization. Sylphs were
allied to gnomes, nymphs and salamanders, which dwelt, respectively,
in earth, water and fire, all now insalubrious. Sylphs, like fowls of
the air, were male and
female, to no purpose,
apparently, for if they
had progeny they must have nested in
accessible places, none of the
chicks having ever been seen.
SYMBOL, n. Something that is
supposed to typify or stand for
something else. Many symbols are mere "survivals" -- things which
having no longer any
utility continue to exist because we have
inherited the
tendency to make them; as funereal urns carved on
memorial monuments. They were once real urns
holding the ashes of the
dead. We cannot stop making them, but we can give them a name that
conceals our helplessness.
SYMBOLIC, adj. Pertaining to symbols and the use and interpretation
of symbols.
They say 'tis
conscience feels compunction;
I hold that that's the stomach's function,
For of the
sinner I have noted
That when he's sinned he's somewhat bloated,
Or ill some other
ghastly fashion
Within that bowel of compassion.
True, I believe the only
sinnerIs he that eats a
shabby dinner.
You know how Adam with good reason,
For eating apples out of season,
Was "cursed." But that is all symbolic:
The truth is, Adam had the colic.
G.J.
T
T, the twentieth letter of the English
alphabet, was by the Greeks
absurdly called _tau_. In the
alphabetwhence ours comes it had the
form of the rude corkscrew of the period, and when it stood alone
(which was more than the Phoenicians could always do) signified
_Tallegal_, translated by the
learned Dr. Brownrigg, "tanglefoot."
TABLE D'HOTE, n. A caterer's
thriftyconcession to the universal
passion for irresponsibility.
Old Paunchinello,
freshly wed,
Took Madam P. to table,
And there deliriously fed
As fast as he was able.
"I dote upon good grub," he cried,
Intent upon its throatage.
"Ah, yes," said the neglected bride,
"You're in your _table d'hotage_."
Associated Poets
TAIL, n. The part of an animal's spine that has transcended its
natural limitations to set up an independent
existence in a world of
its own. Excepting in its foetal state, Man is without a tail, a
privation of which he attests an
hereditary and
uneasy consciousness
by the coat-skirt of the male and the train of the
female, and by a
marked
tendency to
ornament that part of his
attire where the tail
should be, and indubitably once was. This
tendency is most observable
in the
female of the
species, in whom the
ancestral sense is strong
and
persistent. The tailed men described by Lord Monboddo are now
generally regarded as a product of an
imagination unusually
susceptible to influences generated in the golden age of our pithecan
past.
TAKE, v.t. To
acquire, frequently by force but preferably by stealth.
TALK, v.t. To
commit an indiscretion without
temptation, from an
impulse without purpose.
TARIFF, n. A scale of taxes on imports, designed to protect the
domestic
producer against the greed of his consumer.
The Enemy of Human Souls
Sat grieving at the cost of coals;
For Hell had been annexed of late,
And was a
sovereign Southern State.
"It were no more than right," said he,
"That I should get my fuel free.
The duty, neither just nor wise,
Compels me to economize --