Here are the quotations for next week, 4th to 10th February.
1. …There was as much groaning and straining as ever, but it was not so loud
or squeaky in tone; and when the ship quivered she did not jar stiffly, like
a poker hit on the floor, but gave with a supple little waggle like a
perfectly balanced golf-club.
'We have made a most amazing discovery,' said the stringers, one after the
other. 'A discovery that entirely changes the situation. We have found, for
the first time in the history of ship-building, that the inward pull of the
deck beams and the outward thrust of the frames locks us, as it were, more
closely in our places, and enables us to endure a strain that is entiraly
without parallel in the records of marine architecture.'…
2. …At each jarring bump he believed an axle had smashed, and he took the
eighty-foot bridge without the guard-rail like a hunted cat on top of a
fence. Then a wet leaf stuck against the glass of his headlight and threw a
flying shadow on the track, so that he thought it was some little dancing
animal that would feel soft if he ran over it; and anything soft underfoot
frightens a locomotive as it does an elephant. But the men behind seemd
quite calm...
3. …he took the lantern and dived under the drive-wheels, where he lay face
up, investigating among spurts of hot water.
"Doocid plucky", said the subaltern. "I shouldn't like to do that myself.
What's gone wrong ?"
"Cylinder-head blown off, coupler-rod twisted, and several more things. She
is very badly wrecked. Oah yes, she is a tottal wreck," said young Ottley
between the spokes of the right-hand driver.
"Awkward," said the subaltern…
________________________________
Last week's quotations were all from speeches by RK at various functions,
collected in 'A Book of Words'.
1. A Royal Academy Dinner in May 1906.
2. The Royal Literary Society in June 1926.
3. McGill University in Montreal in October 1907
_________________________________
Best wishes to all, John R
|