I sat and discussed the question.
And tears came to my eyes,
But my tears were wept for another reason.


PHOTOGRAPHS

I had ordered the photographs of the prima donna.
They are lovely and beautiful to behold and they are printed before me in magazine.
Her madonna like face sheds radiance on the prospective box-office patron;
He is dazzled by her sun-like head of hair;
He loses his heart and his pocket-book when he glances on them.
I felt happy that I changed photographers.
I felt that my discovery of a new artisan of the sensitized plate
Would bring glory and money to many.
I sit by the rolltop desk and pull out again the objects of my praises.
The telephone bell rings and awakens me from my reveries,--
It is the voice of the beautiful prima donna herself;
But the melodious notes the critics have praised are changed.
There is a raucous, strident tone in the voice;
It sounds like the rasping bark of the harpies.
"How dare you use those terrible photographs?"
"What do you mean by insulting my beauty?"
There is a slam down of the telephone receiver,--
I turn to my work of writing an advertisement about the prima donna's voice.




SAMUEL HOFFENSTEIN