Peripatetic Meditations 



Men of common sense have a hard time of it 

 in this world, the earth is so full of people 

 lacking it; but this is not the only vexatious 

 condition that is met. Before the perversity of 

 inanimate objects that of the semi-idiot pales 

 to utter insignificance. I am not to be convinced 

 by the mere telling that a hammer does not dis- 

 criminate between my fingers and a nail and 

 hits the former maliciously and lets the nail's 

 head go unscathed. Madam's pin cushion is 

 peculiar and pins and needless make it a point 

 to point outwardly and finger ends are notor- 

 iously blind. Buttons and button holes, collars 

 and collar buttons, I know, and hooks and eyes, 

 I am told, are perpetually at odds, and when 

 their differences are set at naught by man or 

 woman, they vent their spite by parting com- 

 pany when their close association is most de- 

 sired. Who has not known the recalcitrant stud 

 which rolls to that precise point where it knows 

 the human heel will be most impatiently plant- 

 ed? Never the living creature breathed that 

 could not be provoking upon occasion, but how 

 trivial, after all, is its perversity when com- 

 pared with such familiar objects as chairs 

 where you least expect them and half-opened 



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