“DEAR SOUL!”
March 18.
Spent yesterday in recreation intellectual—and otherwise. I like to see everything, and I have no objection to entering a dime museum. I went to one yesterday morning, and saw a bearded lady, a calf with two heads, a gorilla (stuffed), a girl with no arms, and other freaks of nature. The bearded lady had very, very masculine features, but honi soit qui mal y pense. I could not help thinking of one of General Horace Porter’s good stories. A school-master asks a little boy what his father is.
“Please, sir, papa told me not to tell.”
“Oh, never mind, it’s all right with me.”
“Please, sir, he is the bearded lady at the dime museum.”
From the museum I went to the free library in the City Hall. Dime museums and free libraries—such is America. The attendance at the free libraries increases rapidly every day, and the till at the dime museums diminishes with proportionate rapidity.
| “THE BEARDED LADY.” |