This Simian World

by: Clarence Day Jr.


"How I hate the man who talks about the 'brute creation,' with
an ugly emphasis on /brute/. . . . As for me, I am proud of my
close kinship with other animals. I take a jealous pride in my
Simian ancestry. I like to think that I was once a magnificent
hairy fellow living in the trees, and that my frame has come down
through geological time via sea jelly and worms and Amphioxus,
Fish, Dinosaurs, and Apes. Who would exchange these for the
pallid couple in the Garden of Eden?"

W. N. P. Barbellion.



I


Last Sunday, Potter took me out driving along upper Broadway, where
those long rows of tall new apartment houses were built a few years
ago. It was a mild afternoon and great crowds of people were out.
Sunday afternoon crowds. They were not going anywhere,--they were
just strolling up and down, staring at each other, and talking.
There were thousands and thousands of them.

"Awful, aren't they!" said Potter.