I love old books. I love their soft, yellowed pages with the ragged, uneven edges. I love their smell, and I love reading them, especially those that never made it into the "classics" category. One never knows what one might find.
A while back, a friend generously offered to let me look through her late father's library and take whatever I wanted, and I came away with a boxful. One was The Short Stories of James T. Farrell. This morning, I picked it up and opened it to a random page. The story, published in 1937, is called "Can All This Grandeur Perish?" Here's what I saw on that random page:
"Well, sirs, one of the causes of hard times is over-capitalization, particularly of buildings. Here in Chicago, the bankers loaned out money right and left, on buildings, and mortgages were granted on them once they were put up. We have too many hotels, too many office buildings, too many
apartment buildings, and they can never pay for themselves. The banks are getting in a bad way because they can't collect. We, in our business, get private reports on banks we deal with so we know when to withdraw our money in time, and I know that the banks are in a bad way. Soon they'll be owning all kinds of buildings, and they won't be able to liquidate. Well, sirs, when somebody asks you why are there hard times, you just tell them what I just told you."
"Isn't that so! Conditions are just as Mr. Gregory has described them," Charles Moses said ingratiatingly.
"Mr. Gregory's a great man. You don't want to miss a word he says," O'Brien said to Fred Van Duym, looking daggers at Charles Moses as he spoke.
"I think that Mr. Gregory has told us something very instructive," Charles Moses said.
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