"You
think this city is rich and powerful--but what's the use of its being
rich and powerful? They don't teach the children any more in the
schools because the city is rich and powerful. They teach them more
than they used to because some people--not rich and powerful people--
have thought the thoughts to teach the children. And yet when you've
been reading the paper I've heard you objecting to the children being
taught anything except what would help them to make money. You said
it was wasting the taxes. You want them taught to make a living, but
not to live. When I was a little boy this wasn't an ugly town; now
it's hideous. What's the use of being big just to be hideous? I mean
I don't think all this has meant really going ahead--it's just been
getting bigger and dirtier and noisier. Wasn't the whole country
happier and in many ways wiser when it was smaller and cleaner and
quieter and kinder? I know you think I'm an utter fool, father, but,
after all, though, aren't business and politics just the housekeeping
part of life? And wouldn't you despise a woman that not only made her
housekeeping her ambition, but did it so noisily and dirtily that the
whole neighborhood was in a continual turmoil over it? And suppose
she talked and thought about her housekeeping all the time, and was
always having additions built to her house when she couldn't keep
clean what she already had; and suppose, with it all, she made the
house altogether unpeaceful and unlivable--"
"Just one minute!" Sheridan interrupted, adding, with terrible
courtesy, "If you will permit me? Have you ever been right about
anything?"
"I don't quite--"
"I ask the simple question: Have you ever been right about anything
whatever in the course of your life? Have you ever been right upon
any subject or question you've thought about and talked about? Can
you mention one single time when you were proved to be right?"
He was flourishing the bandaged hand as he spoke, but Bibbs said only,
"If I've always been wrong before, surely there's more chance that I'm
right about this.
Pages:
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319