One of the first to join, after our florist3 friend and the great hostess of Springfield, is John Fletcher, a Doubter. He is a person in whom we place much confidence in practical affairs. He is high authority in the financial circles of Springfield. He is religious, on Sunday only, from eleven till twelve-thirty, when he sits in his pew. He represents the present State House view which takes for granted that the fewer ideas men have the better, if only the crowd in power “get theirs.” The general assumption is:—politics is business and business is politics and the only worth while citizens are those that “get the money,” and, of course, those others who keep it safely and who correctly add the accounts till the money is wanted. They hate any new current in any party. And they hate the idea of any clan4 wanting anything 11except established well-dressed bank accounts to rule the city. Children are sent to universities to polish their manners, but not to bring back any changed thoughts on these subjects.
The gentleman who incarnates5 this dream lives in the north, is therefore a Republican. He is quite sure the Emancipation6 Proclamation meant that millionaires are exempt7 from criticism, except from other millionaires or their shrewedest lackeys9, and that the Emancipation Proclamation was sent forth10 into the world to establish more thoroughly11 the lackey8, the toady12, the tuft hunter, the snob13, the bootlicker, and the parasite14, in the service of the stupidest holders15 of money and land. He will defend this position quite ardently16, almost in those terms, and he is quite sure that anyone who protests against his views is a “red.” And “red,” “radical17,” “anarchist,” and “liberal” are absolutely synonymous, according to his thinking. He is sure that anyone who does not want to be a millionaire or serve one well is contemplating18 arson19. He is quite sure that every large bank account is automatically moral, that every small one is almost moral, and the one crime is to be without money. He is quite convinced that Abraham Lincoln died to establish such ideals 12more firmly in the Republican Party, and when he is in the South he maintains that Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson lived and toiled20 and suffered to establish them in the Democratic Party, and did it with eminent21 success: that all other notions have been recently imported from the shameful22 streets of Russia. When he sent his son to college he urged him to spend money on the conservative professors and their sons and daughters, and to put the radical professors in bad odor with the “best fellows,” and get them fired as soon as the trustees would listen to one so young.
All this point of view is in my friend’s tone of voice and gesture. He has inherited part of his money, and married the rest, and the income pays for a good caretaker. He himself is a physician for the most extensively landed families in central Illinois. He dresses well, so people think he knows all about medicine. He is squarely set, has a heavy jaw23, a steadying manner, a kindly24 disposition25, pays the best salaries to his office boy and secretaries and the people who work his farms. He has the greatest aversion to oaths, bad manners, adultery, and has a literary turn. Though he looks like an old prize fighter with a touch of deacon-sleekness, he reads Montaigne, 13Lord Chesterfield, Thackeray, Shakespeare, and the like. He enjoys discussing in the most sympathetic way every human trait that has to do with purely27 domestic dramatic and personal emotions. His wife is a valiant28 Daughter of the American Revolution and his daughter belongs to the most snobbish29 sorority to be discovered for miles. He has been “right in the wagon” whenever a bit of near royalty30 has passed through Springfield, and his manner though blunt, was deferential31. His wildest turn is for radical painters, and he has the best collection west of the Hudson of the now forgotten cubists.
Of far different sort is the next member of our Club. She is of the fine nerved creatures of this world, a spring beauty in whose conversation I take delight. She is a teacher in one of the Springfield ward32 schools, and a sober little reader of The Atlantic Monthly, and we quarrel a bit about that. But her taste there represents her desire for fine grained English whatever the thought conveyed. When Clara Horton takes delight in life, it comes in a flash that sets her friends aflame. The school marm is gone. She ceases to admonish33 me. The imaginary eyes of her censorious pupils are banished34, and I am no longer a pupil, and 14she is the daughter of a nymph of the most delicate mood and a faun of the gentlest sort. Her whole physical fabric35 is aglow36 with the idea of the book or the event or the mere37 day’s sunshine or tomorrow’s movie. Her skin shows the whiteness of a stock that has been too inbred for many generations for complete vigor38, the gentle nymph and the gentle faun met too often, and there were not quite enough bullies39 or peasants among her far European ancestors. Her people have been for many generations in America. Every line of her family, north and south, has been remembered with the greatest comprehension of every taste and impulse. She gets her silky black hair from one grandmother, and her thousand dimples from another no doubt. She openly hates the complacency of our “first families.” Ideas go pouring through her head, all the time.
As for the families representing the defended and entrenched40 fortunes of Springfield, theirs is still the practice of keeping their children out of public school, for fear of contamination with teachers who read such papers as The Atlantic Monthly, and other vulgar publications. The children must be sent off to teachers who flatter and flatter and flatter. 15But we do not talk about these matters generally. We talk about New Springfield.
The Prognosticators discover that still others have been dreaming joyfully41 all alone of the future of Springfield. One fiery42 artist of our town brings in quite definite testimony43. He was born in the village of Rochester, near to Springfield, but has no sign in his manner of being a citizen of the United States. Quite an old man, Gregory Webster has the ways of boulevard heroes of Paris who swung their canes44 like swashbucklers, among the cafes, in 1876. He speaks English with a French accent. Yet he has been a tremendous force for good in the history of American Art. Thousands upon thousands of pupils have passed through his studios. He has been a courageous45 patron of young artists. With infallible taste he has purchased their best pictures, as soon as their pictures were good, thereby46 giving them reputations twenty years sooner, and himself “going broke.” He has championed the most elegant craftsmanship47. In torrents48 of tireless language, with an unflagging zeal49 and animation50, he has talked down and out the cheap and popular conception of the uses of art. He has exalted51 the great portrait masters. He has exalted brushwork and drawing into a ritual, and 16good color into a finality of the soul. He has been marvelously generous in his sympathy and his patience with budding talent, and therefore the artists’ aspiration52 of America for a whole generation has come to his front door. He is, in actual subject matter, in his own pictures an unimaginative creature. He is able to paint fishes better than men and rabbits better than women, and yet, since he painted fishes and rabbits with Olympian finality, they have been enshrined in the highest galleries of the world next to portraits of human creatures by Rembrandt and Hals and Velasquez.
A stranger to these others comes to me. Nathan Levi, son of one of the Rabbis of our tiny Springfield Ghetto53. He at once wins my heart. I have always found myself in peculiar54 sympathy with the Jews. Once past the moment of shyly seeking my confidence, he is full of the Jewish expressiveness55 and demonstration56. He is astonished beyond measure to discover a double consciousness within himself. In this century he is as orthodox as his father, and a young man devoted57 to the routine of the pawn58 shop. In 2018 he is in a hundred ways opposite.
Another newcomer, Margaret Evans, is a 17Christian Science Reader. She is beautiful, in this day, and though she does not speak of her mirror in 2018, as does the headlong Jewish boy, I know she will always be beautiful in body and soul. She has fathomed59 the holy grace and immortal60 gladness of her teaching, and I can well believe she is immortal in this place, under our oak and apple trees.
Still another is a Springfield Negress who is a preacher among her own people. She has not a single Caucasian contour to her face or figure, yet all the world must admit that Daisy Pearl Johnson is beautiful as she is divinely young. She is “black but comely,” according to the scripture61. And she is eager in all the matters of the mind and spirit.
Another prophet, Nathaniel Davidson, gathers several denominations62 under one temporary roof, and preaches to them about hell. He was once a Y. M. C. A. physical director, and he ranges in attributes from Caliban to higher things, and looks much like Douglas Fairbanks and William. A. Sunday. He receives an invitation to join the Prognosticator’s Club.
Then there is a woman who was a welfare worker in France. Ruth Everett has such a sleek26 and sophisticated grace, and her face is so snobbish yet so Alexandrian Greek 18that I have often called her “The Daughter of Lysippus.” In every line is the elegance63 that old sculptor64 might have loved. In pomp, upon her throne, and she makes any chair her throne, she is like “Sara Siddons as the Tragic65 Muse” as painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
And here you have men and women who see the vision, each in a strange and mystical fashion.
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1
disciple
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| n.信徒，门徒，追随者 | |
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parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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florist
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| n.花商；种花者 | |
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clan
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| n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派 | |
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incarnates
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| v.赋予（思想、精神等）以人的形体( incarnate的第三人称单数 )；使人格化；体现；使具体化 | |
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emancipation
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| n.（从束缚、支配下）解放 | |
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exempt
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| adj.免除的；v.使免除；n.免税者，被免除义务者 | |
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lackey
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| n.侍从；跟班 | |
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lackeys
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| n.听差( lackey的名词复数 )；男仆（通常穿制服）；卑躬屈膝的人；被待为奴仆的人 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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toady
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| v.奉承；n.谄媚者，马屁精 | |
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snob
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| n.势利小人，自以为高雅、有学问的人 | |
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parasite
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| n.寄生虫；寄生菌；食客 | |
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holders
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| 支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物 | |
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ardently
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| adv.热心地，热烈地 | |
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radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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arson
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| n.纵火，放火 | |
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toiled
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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sleek
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| adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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valiant
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| adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人 | |
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snobbish
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| adj.势利的，谄上欺下的 | |
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royalty
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| n.皇家，皇族 | |
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deferential
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| adj. 敬意的，恭敬的 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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admonish
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| v.训戒；警告；劝告 | |
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banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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aglow
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| adj.发亮的；发红的；adv.发亮地 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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bullies
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| n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负 | |
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entrenched
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| adj.确立的，不容易改的(风俗习惯) | |
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joyfully
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| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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44
canes
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| n.（某些植物，如竹或甘蔗的）茎( cane的名词复数 )；（用于制作家具等的）竹竿；竹杖 | |
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45
courageous
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| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
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thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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craftsmanship
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| n.手艺 | |
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torrents
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| n.倾注；奔流( torrent的名词复数 )；急流；爆发；连续不断 | |
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49
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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51
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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52
aspiration
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| n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出 | |
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ghetto
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| n.少数民族聚居区，贫民区 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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expressiveness
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| n.富有表现力 | |
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demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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pawn
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| n.典当，抵押，小人物，走卒；v.典当，抵押 | |
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fathomed
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| 理解…的真意( fathom的过去式和过去分词 )； 彻底了解； 弄清真相 | |
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immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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scripture
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| n.经文，圣书，手稿；Scripture:(常用复数)《圣经》，《圣经》中的一段 | |
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62
denominations
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| n.宗派( denomination的名词复数 )；教派；面额；名称 | |
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elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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sculptor
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| n.雕刻家，雕刻家 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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