whom he interrogated, had heard nothing. Nobody came, and all remained still. Then he thought he would look after the thing himself. So he walked out, and walked and walked until he got to the arsenal. There he found the doors all open, and not a soul to guard them. Anybody might have gone in and helped himself to the arms. There was perfect solitude and stillness all around. Then he walked back to the White House without noticing the slightest sign of disturbance. He met a few persons on the way, some of whom he asked whether they had not heard something like the boom of a cannon. Nobody had heard anything, and so he supposed it must have been a freak of his imagination. It is probable that at least a guard was sent to the arsenal that evening. (Text.)
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Aptitude—See Capacity, Original.
Arch, The—See Ancient Art.
Architecture Imitating Nature—See Nature
A Model.
ARGUING FOR TRUTH
To illustrate the extraordinary argumentativeness
of the Scots there is a story of a
Scotchman who lay dying in a London hospital.
A woman visitor wanted to sing to
him some hymns, but he told her that he
had all his life fought against using hymn
tunes in the service of God, but he was
willing to argue the question with her as
long as his senses remained. I say that when
a man in the face of death is willing to
stand for the truth as it has been taught
to him, it is out of such stuff that heroes
are made. (Text.)—John Watson.
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Argument, Ineffectual—See Docility, Spiritual.
ARISTOCRACY, ABSURDITIES OF
It is common to find in American novels
such expressions as "great families," "best
society," "long descended," and we also hear
of the "exclusiveness" of the "fastidious"
American aristocracy, who think as much of
their positions as the haughtiest vieille noblesse in Europe. "A patrician crush" is,
according to one writer, the synonym of what
another calls "a tony gathering." These
crushes and gatherings have, however, little
of the aristocratic element in their composition.
They are, for the most part, but fashionable
circles in which prevails "the
milliner's estimate of life." It is into this
society that the young lady makes her "dew-bew,"
as debut is startlingly pronounced in
America. In no other English-speaking community
do the plebeians stickle so for the
titles of "gentleman" and "lady." I was told
by an Irish-American laundress that "the lady
what did the clear-starching got twelve dollars
a week." And I have heard of a cabman
who asked, "Are you the man as wants
a gentleman to drive him to the depot?"
During an investigation concerning the Cambridge,
Mass., workhouse, one of the witnesses
spoke of the "ladies' cell." And a
newspaper reporter writing of a funeral had
occasion to say how "the corpse of the dead
lady" looked. The plebeian who, by dint of
hard work, has accumulated wealth, often
aspires to patrician distinction. Tiffany, of
New York, is said to have a pattern-book of
crests, from which the embryo nobleman
may choose an escutcheon emblematic either
of his business or of some less worthy
characteristic. A shirt-maker of Connecticut,
having made a fortune by an improved cutting-machine,
announced his intention of
getting a coat of arms. An unappreciative
commoner asked him if the design would be
a shirt rampant. "No," he gravely replied,
"it will be a shirt pendant and washerwoman
rampant."—Harold Brydges, Cosmopolitan.
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ARISTOCRACY, INGRAINED
Tolstoy says:
Speaking of my past I condemn myself
unreservedly, for all my faults and errors
were the natural result of my aristocratic
birth and training, which is the worst thing
that can befall a man, as it stifles every
human instinct. Turgenef wrote to me:
"You have tried for many years to become
a peasant in conduct as well as in ideas, but
you nevertheless are the same aristocrat.
You are good-hearted and have a charming
personality, but I have observed that in all
your practical dealings with the peasants you
remain the patronizing master who likes to
be esteemed for his benefactions and to be
considered the bounteous patriarch," in which
he was very right.
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Ark, Noah's Seaworthy—See Bible Re-*enforced.
Armament, Costly—See War, After
Effects of.
