E-text prepared by Stephen Schulze
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
SHANDYGAFF
BY
CHRISTOPHER MORLEY
A number of most agreeableInquirendoes upon Life & Letters, interspersedwith Short Stories & Skits, the whole most Diverting tothe Reader
1918
Photo by Charles H. Davis
CHRISTOPHER MORLEY,
AUTHOR OF SHANDYGAFF, WHERE THE BLUE BEGINS,
THUNDER ON THE LEFT, ETC.
TITLES AND DEDICATIONS
I wanted to call these exercises "Casual Ablutions," in memoryof the immortal sign in the washroom of the British Museum, but myarbiter of elegance forbade it. You remember that George Gissing,homeless and penniless on London streets, used to enjoy thelavatory of the Museum Reading Room as a fountain and a shrine. Butthe flinty hearted trustees, finding him using the wash-stand forbath-tub and laundry, were exceeding wroth, and set up thenotice
| THESE BASINS ARE FOR CASUAL ABLUTIONS ONLY |
I would like to issue the same warning to the implacable reader:these fugitive pieces, very casual rinsings in the great basin ofletters, must not be too bitterly resented, even by theirpublishers. To borrow O. Henry's joke, they are more demitasso thanTasso.
The real purpose in writing books is to have the pleasure ofdedicating them to someone, and here I am in a quandary. So manydedications have occurred to me, it seems only fair to give themall a chance.
CLAYTON SEDGWICKCOOPER
The Laird ofWestcolang
TWO BEST BOOK SHOPS IN THEWORLD
Blackwell's in Oxfordand
Leary's inPhiladelphia
THE 8:13TRAIN
EDWARD PAGEALLINSON
The Squire of Town'sEnd Farm
Better known as MifflinMcGill
In affectionate memoryof
Many unseasonablejests
PROFESSOR FRANCIS B.GUMMERE
From an erringpupil
FRANCIS R.BELLAMY
Author of "TheBalance"
Whose Talent IRevere,
But Whose Syntax IDeplore
JOHN N. BEFFEL
My First Editor
...