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From The Wit and Humor of America, edited by Marshall P. Wilder, Volume IV, New York and London: Funk and Wagnalls and Company, 1911; p. 642.


642

A MODERN ADVANTAGE

BY CHARLOTTE BECKER

One morning, when the sun shone bright
     And all the earth was fair,
I met a little city child,
     Whose ravings rent the air.

“I lucidly can penetrate
     “The Which,” I heard him say, —
“The How is, wonderfully, come
     To clear the limpid way.

“The sentence, rarely, rose and fell
     From ceiling to the floor;
Her words were spotlessly arranged,
     She gave me, strangely, more.”

“What troubles you, my little man?”
     I dared to ask him then, —
He fixed me with a subtle stare,
     And said, “Most clearly, when

“You see I’m occupied, it’s rude
     To question of my aims —
I’m going to the adverb school
     Of Mr. Henry James!”











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