The Journal of Arthur Stirling : the Valley of the Shadow by Upton Sinclair
page 15 of 310 (04%)
page 15 of 310 (04%)
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My heart leaps when I think of my one big step. I have put those pages away--I shall not look at them again for a month. Then I can judge them. * * * * * April 13th. A cable-car conductor and a poet! I think that will be a story worth telling. I have tried many and various occupations, but I have not found one so favorable to the study of poetry as my last. I should have made out very well--if I had not been haunted by The Captive. With everything else you do you are more or less hampered by having to sell your brain; and also by having to obey some one. But a cable-car is an unlimited monarchy; and all you have to do is to collect fares and pull the bell, both of which duties are quite mechanical. And besides that you receive princely wages--and can live off one-third of them, if you know how; and that means that you need only work one-third of the time, and can write your poetry the rest of it! This sounds like jesting, but it is not. I have only been a cable-car conductor six months, but in that time I have taught myself to read Greek with more than fluency. All you need is good health and spirits, a will of iron, and a very tiny note-book in the palm of your hand, full of the words you wish to learn. And then for ten or twelve hours a day you go about running a car with your body--and with your mind--hammering, hammering! It is excellent discipline--it is fighting all day, "_Pous, podos_, |
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