From Pillar to Post; Leaves From a Lecturer's Note-Book [Paperback]

John Kendrick Bangs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 2012

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1916. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... EMERGENCIES QUICK thinking on and off the platform is quite essential to the happiness of the man on the road. The sniping fates are always after him, in small ways as well as in large, and he must keep himself in a state of constant readiness either to dodge their flying shafts, or with some suddenly devised shield of resourcefulness to render himself arrow proof. Sometimes the successful warding off of a flying missile sped from the bow of some malign goddess of mischance becomes the making of the man, as in a case once reported to me by a gentleman in Montana when after my lecture at Billings he and I were laughing over the complete capture of my audience by a big gray tomcat that had entered the lists against me. This privileged creature had leaped into the chair immediately behind me, and begun massaging his face in true feline fashion, to the intense delight of a most amiable gathering. I suppose that if I had known what was going on behind me, I should have tried to rise to the occasion on the spur of the moment; but not knowing it I read on, in blissful unconsciousness of the fact that a series of living pictures was flashing across the vision of my audience directly to the rear. The only sensation experienced at the time by my innocent self was one of supreme pleasure and satisfaction that my audience had at last awakened to the beauty of my discourse, and was manifesting in most gratifying fashion its appreciation of even the subtlest of my points. When at the close of the reading the real truth was revealed to me I merely smiled, and never for a moment let on that until the chairman spoke of the animal I had not suspected its presence. "We admired your composure, Mr. Bangs," said the chairman. "A good many men would have been rattled by such ...

Product Details

• Paperback: 116 pages
• Publisher: General Books LLC (January 8, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0217216218
• ISBN-13: 978-0217216210
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)