Library / Literature & Fiction
The Lamplighter
- Pages
- about 25
- Category
- Literature & Fiction
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 28 min at 250 wpm
From the opening
‘IF you talk of Murphy and Francis Moore, gentlemen,’ said the
lamplighter who was in the chair, ‘I mean to say that neither of ’em ever
had any more to do with the stars than Tom Grig had.’
‘And what had he to do with ’em?’ asked the lamplighter who officiated
as vice.
‘Do you mean to say you don’t believe in Murphy, then?’ demanded the
lamplighter who had opened the discussion.
‘I mean to say I believe in Tom Grig,’ replied the chairman. ‘Whether I
believe in Murphy, or not, is a matter between me and my conscience; and
whether Murphy believes in himself, or not, is a matter between him and
his conscience. Gentlemen, I drink your healths.’
The lamplighter who did the company this honour, was seated in the
chimney-corner of a certain tavern, which has been, time out of mind, the
Lamplighters’ House of Call. He sat in the midst of a circle of
lamplighters, and was the cacique, or chief of the tribe.
If any of our readers have had the good fortune to behold a lamplighter’s
funeral, they will not be surprised to learn that lamplighters are a
strange and primitive people; that they rigidly adhere to old ceremonies
and customs which have been handed down among them from father to son
since the first public lamp was lighted out of doors; that they
intermarry, and betroth their children in infancy; that they enter into
no plots or conspiracies (for who ever heard of a traitorous
lamplighter?); that they commit no crimes against the laws of their
country (there being no instance of a murderous or burglarious
lamplighter); that they are, in short, notwithstanding their apparently
volatile and restless character, a highly moral and reflective people:
having among themselves as many traditional observances as the Jews, and
being, as a body, if not as old as the hills, at least as old as the
streets.
A short sample. Read the whole book
More to read
- "Captains Courageous": A Story of the Grand BanksRudyard KiplingLiterature & Fiction191 pages
- "Captains Courageous": A Story of the Grand BanksRudyard KiplingLiterature & Fiction191 pages
- "I Say No"Wilkie CollinsLiterature & Fiction428 pages
- "Miss Lou"Edward Payson RoeLiterature & Fiction409 pages
- "Speaking of Operations--"Irvin S. CobbLiterature & Fiction37 pages
Public-domain text from Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks or a similar open source. Copyright differs between countries. Rights holder? See our takedown process.