Post Impressions Part 16

First Lion: I wouldn't touch it for the world-- Now what are you doing?

Are you afraid?

Second Lion: Who's afraid?

First Lion: What made you back into me like that and growl when she waved her upper limbs and stepped forward?

Second Lion: Purely reflex action. Do you think she's hungry?

First Lion: For heaven's sake, don't say that. What makes you think so?

Second Lion: She has her mouth wide open and she emits prolonged howls.

I wish she wouldn't move forward so abruptly.

First Lion: And I wish you wouldn't back into me like that without warning.

Second Lion: Perhaps she howls because she's afraid.

First Lion: Whom would she be afraid of?

Second Lion: The man outside who is turning the handle of the picture-machine.

First Lion: He has a red face.

Second Lion: He must be juicy. I could fetch him in two leaps if I were feeling just right.

First Lion: There you go again. You'll be backing me against the bars before you know it.

Second Lion: Can't one stretch when one feels bored?

First Lion: The red-faced man must be the new keeper.

Second Lion: Probably, and she is howling for something to eat. I wonder how long this will last.

First Lion: I wonder. This is worse than the circus with nothing between you and a crowd. What is it now?

Second Lion: She's come nearer again and she is stretching out her upper limbs in our direction. Suppose she's hungry and the red-faced man refuses to let her have anything.

First Lion: For heaven's sake, don't speak like that.

x.x.x

THE PACE OF LIFE

(AS RECORDED BY THE FILM DRAMA AND TIMED BY A DOLLAR WATCH)

From love at first sight to end of successful courts.h.i.+p, 2-1/2 minutes.

Breakfast, 45 seconds.

Ascent of the Jungfrau, 5 minutes.

A riot, 1 minute, 45 seconds.

A wedding, 1-1/2 minutes.

A conflagration, 55 seconds.

A night of restless tossing on a bed of pain, 35 seconds.

From discovery of wife's faithlessness to attempt at suicide, 50 seconds.

Reconciliation between life-long enemies, 1 minute.

Trust monopolist converted to endow a hospital and reorganise business on a profit-sharing basis, 1-1/2 minutes.

A piano recital, 30 seconds.

A battle in Mexico, 1-1/2 minutes.

A major abdominal operation, 19 seconds.

Establis.h.i.+ng ident.i.ty of long-lost heir, 6 seconds.

Buy your hats at O'Grady's--they're different, 2 minutes.

Getting Central on the telephone, instantaneous.

Central gives the right connection, 2 seconds. (Incidentally it may be remarked that the film drama can never hope to reproduce the most powerful comic device of the legitimate stage. This consists in saying to Central, "Yes, I want two-four-six-thr-r-re-e," the most notable advance in dramatic art since the invention of the inflated bladder.)

Restoration of lost memory and discovery of hiding-place of lost doc.u.ments, 10 seconds.

Orator sways hostile audience, 15 seconds.

Detailed plan for robbing Metropolitan Museum formulated by six conspirators, 15 seconds.

Twenty years pa.s.s, 2 seconds.

x.x.xI

MARCUS AURELIUS, 1914