Well, I’ll always take a brandy when it’s kindly offered, so I fastened onto the glass and gulped a mouthful down.
Flash For Freedom!, p.145, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.
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Friday, 27 February 2009
Kindly offered
Well, I’ll always take a brandy when it’s kindly offered, so I fastened onto the glass and gulped a mouthful down.
Flash For Freedom!, p.145, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.
Thursday, 26 February 2009
No doubt significant
She fussed over me in a way none of the others – wife, aunts, mistresses, whores, legions of them – had ever done. It’s strange, and no doubt significant, that the warmest leave-taking I remember should be from a bawdy-house.
Flash For Freedom!, p.143, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.
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Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Still in its infancy
It was plain to see that outside New Orleans, fornication was still in its infancy.
Flash For Freedom!, p.139, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.
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Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Where would Flash be?
I kept my whiskers, of course – where would Flash be without his tart-catchers?
Flash For Freedom!, p.136, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.
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Monday, 23 February 2009
A tropical Paris
Indeed, it was sometimes not unlike a kind of tropical Paris, but without those bloody Frogs. New Orleans, of course, is where they civilized the French.
Flash For Freedom!, p.136, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.
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Friday, 20 February 2009
The noble art of survival
It was touch and go at this point whether I launched myself head first through the open window or not; for a moment it seemed that the wiser course might well be headlong flight. But then I steadied. I cannot impress too strongly on young fellows that the whole secret of the noble art of survival, for a single man, lies in knowing exactly when to make your break for safety.
Flash For Freedom!, p.132-33, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.
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Thursday, 19 February 2009
Conclusive proof
‘Sir,’ says I, trying to sound furious, with my legs on the point of giving way, ‘I fail to understand you. I am a British officer and, I hope, a gentleman. . .’
‘Oh, I don’t doubt it,’ says he, ‘but even that isn't conclusive proof that you’re a rascal…
Flash For Freedom!, p.132, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.
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British officer, 
rascal.
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
Like a jack-rabbit
…and who doesn’t even hesitate before jumping up like a jack-rabbit when his Queen’s health is proposed.
Flash For Freedom!, p.13, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.
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Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Words versus axe-handles
‘Well, you can handle a team, surely?’ cries the merry Senator. ‘Why not make your fortune out of axe-handles?’
‘Well, sir, I’ll tell you,’ says Lincoln, and everyone listened, grinning. ‘I’ve just put the return on axe-handles at one thousand per centum. But I’m a politician, and sometime lawyer. Axe-handles aren’t my style; my stock-in-trade is spoken words. You may believe me, words can be obtained wholesale a powerful sight cheaper’n axe-handles – and if you take ’em to the right market, you’ll get a far richer return for ’em than a thousand per centum. If you doubt me – ask President Polk.’
Flash For Freedom!, pp.130-31, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.
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Monday, 16 February 2009
Making gold in a gold rush
‘You are the cynic, Abraham,’ says one. ‘What will the Tennessee wiseacres say of the New Eldorado?’
When the laughter died down, Lincoln shook his head. ‘If they are real Tennessee wiseacres, Senator, they won’t “say nuthin’”. But what they’ll do – if they’re real wiseacres – is buy themselves up every nail, every barrel-stave, every axe-handle, and every shovel they can lay hold on, put ‘em all in a cart with as many barrels of molasses as may be convenient, haul ‘em all up to Independence of the Kanzas, and sell them to the fortunate migrants at ten times their value. That’s how to make gold out of a gold strike.’
Flash For Freedom!, p.130, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.
gold rushFriday, 13 February 2009
Ready-made from Cincinnati
‘No,’ says Lincoln. ‘He was a man of principle and conscience. His only mistake lay in his inability to perceive that I have both commodities also, but I didn’t buy mine ready-made from Cincinnati, and I don’t permit either to blind me to reality, I hope.
Flash For Freedom!, p.130, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Strange talk
‘Your conscience is troubling you,’ says someone.
‘By thunder, there is no lack of people determined to make my conscience trouble me,’ says Lincoln. ‘as though I can’t tend my own conscience, they must be forever running pins into it. There was this gentleman the other day, a worthy man, too, and I was ill-advised enough to say to him much what I’ve said tonight: that nigras, while deserving our utmost compassion and assistance, were nevertheless, a nuisance. I said they were the rock on which our nation had been splitting for years, and that they could well assume, the proportions of a national catastrophe – through no fault of their own, of course. I believe I concluded by wishing the whole parcel of them back to Africa. He was shocked: “Strange talk this,” says he, “from the sponsor of a bill against slavery.” “I’d sponsor a bill to improve bad drains,” says I. “They’re a confounded nuisance, too.” A thoughtless remark, no doubt, and a faulty analogy, but I paid fro it. “Good God,” cries he, “you’ll not compare human souls with bad drains, surely.” “Not invariably,” says I, but I got no further, because he stalked off in a rage, having misunderstood me completely.’
Flash For Freedom!, p.129, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Disciples of Jesus
‘I tell you, sir, to listen to some of our friends, I could believe every plantation and barracoon from Florida to the river is peopled by the disciples of Jesus. Reason tells me this is false; the slave being God’s creature and a human soul, is no better than the rest of us. But if I said as much to Cassius Clay he would try to prove me wrong at the point of his bowie knife.’
Flash For Freedom!, p.129, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.
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Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Strange in the twentieth century
I also carried away from that table an impression of Mr Lincoln’s views on slaves and slavery which must seem strange in the twentieth century since it varies somewhat from popular belief. I recall, for example, that at one point he described the negroes as ‘the most confounded nuisance on this continent, not excepting the Democrats’.
Flash For Freedom!, p.128, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.
Monday, 9 February 2009
A good dissembler
I said it had been, but fortunately I was a good dissembler.
‘You must be,’ says he. 'And I speak as a politician, who knows how difficult it is to fool people.’
‘Well,’ says I, ‘my own experience is that you can fool some people all the time – and all the people sometimes. But I concede that it’s difficult to fool all the people at the same time.’
Flash For Freedom!, p.128, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.
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