When Mr. Holmes visited Alaska recently, he carried with him a phonograph. This was exhibited to an old chief who had never seen a talking machine before.
When the machine was started, and the sound of a human voice came from the trumpet, the Indian was much interested.
He listened gravely for a time, then approached and peered into the trumpet.
When the machine finished its cylinder and stopped, the Indian pointed at it, and smiling an expansive smile, remarked, "Huh! Him canned white man."
14. The End of a Paragraph.—Occasionally you will find that it is convenient to put at the end of a paragraph a sentence that will sum up your whole idea in a few words. Such a sentence is particularly useful when no topic sentence has been used.
Examples:—
1. The great error in Rip's composition was a strong dislike of all kinds of profitable labor. It could not be from the want of perseverance; for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even though he should not be encouraged by a single nibble. He would carry a fowling piece on his shoulder for hours together, trudging through woods and swamps, and up hill and down dale, to shoot a few squirrels or wild pigeons. He would never refuse to assist a neighbor even in the roughest toil, and was a foremost man at all country frolics for husking Indian corn, or building stone fences; the women of the village, too, used to employ him to run their errands, and to do such little odd jobs as their less obliging husbands would not do for them. In a word, Rip was ready to attend to anybody's business but his own; but as to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible.—Washington Irving: Rip Van Winkle.
2. I was fatigued with traveling, rowing, and want of rest; I was very hungry, and my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar and about a shilling in copper. This latter I gave the people of the boat for my passage, who at first refused it on account of my rowing; but I insisted on their taking it. A man is sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of being thought to have but little.—Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography.
3. We are a part of the public, and help to make its opinions and give it its power. Laws are practically useless unless the general sentiment of the community sanctions them. The rules of great corporations prohibiting the use of liquor by employees are now enforced as they could not have been a few years ago. They can be enforced now because of a growth of the belief that intoxicants are harmful, and a growing demand that those intrusted with human lives and with great interests shall be clear of brain and reliable of hand. Public opinion is a power, and it is one that we should help to form and help to use.
Exercise 34.—Make notes for paragraphs suggested by the following summary sentences:—