#29 The Coming Out of Maggie- O.Henry
It’s O.Henry-Friday again, another week has
passed. I’ve almost spent a month on
this short story project, so far so good.
It’s Saturday night in O.Henry’s New York and that means the
weekly dance at the local Irish social and athletic club. Dance night for the ladies and usually fight
night for the gentlemen. Maggie, usually
a third wheel for Anna and Jimmy Burns, has finally announced that she has a fella
to escort her this week. The tall
strapping young man, Terry O’Sullivan, being a stranger to the club is
immediately the envy of all the woman and a target for all the men, especially
the Club’s machismo leader Dempsey Donavan. How about those names for turn of
the century NYC Irishman? Naturally the two men square off.
“They were enemies by the law written when the rocks were
molten. They were each too splendid, too mighty, too incomparable to divide
preeminence. One only must survive.”
Turns out that the outsider, having given himself away by
breaking the Irish cub’s code of fight ethics by brandishing a knife, is
actually an Italian. Gasp.
Word of the day: Encomiums: noun-formal- a
speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly.
Notable Passage: "And though our tropes of fairyland be mixed
with those of entomology they shall not spill one drop of ambrosia from the
rose-crowned melody of Maggie’s one perfect night."
No comments:
Post a Comment