| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: press wagon. Your thousand dollars is further off
than ever, Johnny."
"Oh, you're welcome to it," said Kernan, with a
lordly air. "I'd be willing to call the debt off, but
I know you wouldn't have it It was a lucky day
for me when you borrowed it. And now, let's drop
the subject. I'm off to the West on a morning train.
I know a place out there where I can negotiate the
Norcross sparks. Drink up, Barney, and forget your
troubles. We'll have a jolly time while the police
are knocking their heads together over the case.
The Voice of the City |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: He saw the world of civilization then more plainly than ever he
had seen it before; a world in which nothing counted but brutal
might, an order devised by those who possessed it for the
subjugation of those who did not. He was one of the latter; and
all outdoors, all life, was to him one colossal prison, which he
paced like a pent-up tiger, trying one bar after another, and
finding them all beyond his power. He had lost in the fierce
battle of greed, and so was doomed to be exterminated; and all
society was busied to see that he did not escape the sentence.
Everywhere that he turned were prison bars, and hostile eyes
following him; the well-fed, sleek policemen, from whose glances
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: to say? But this is an old sore, and we need not rub it. If you
would not share with me in Paris, I hope you will yet scarce deny
your elder brother a corner of the fire at Durrisdeer?"
"That is very idle speech," replied Mr. Henry. "And you understand
the power of your position excellently well."
"Why, I believe I do," said the other with a little laugh. And
this, though they had never touched hands, was (as we may say) the
end of the brothers' meeting; for at this the Master turned to me
and bade me fetch his baggage.
I, on my side, turned to Mr. Henry for a confirmation; perhaps with
some defiance.
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