Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
349
The Journal of a Disappointed Man
·
W. N. P. Barbellion
183
I
stopped
next
at
a
stall
containing
nothing
but
caps,--"any
size,
any
colour,
any
pattern,
a
shilling
apiece--now
then!"
This
show
was
being
run
by
two
men--a
Jew
in
a
fur
cap
on
one
side
of
the
stall
and
a
very
powerful-looking
sort
of
Captain
Cuttle
on
the
other--a
seafaring
man,
almost
as
broad
as
he
was
long,
with
a
game
leg
and
the
voice
of
a
skipper
in
a
hurricane.
Both
these
men
were
selling
caps
at
a
prodigious
pace,
and
with
the
insouciance
of
tradesmen
sure
of
their
custom.
The
skipper
would
seize
a
cap,
chuck
it
across
to
a
timid
prospective
purchaser,
and,
if
he
dropped
it,
chuck
him
over
another,
crying,
with
a
"yo-heave-ho"
boisterousness,
"Oh!
what
a
game,
what
a
bees'
nest."
Upon
the
small
head
of
another
customer,
he
would
squash
down
his
largest
sized
cap
saying
at
once,--
"There,
you
look
the
finest
gentleman--oh!
ah!
a
little
too
large."
At
which
we
all
laughed,
the
customer
looked
silly,
but
took
no
offence.
"Try
this,"
yells
the
skipper
above
the
storm,
and
takes
off
his
own
cap.
"Oh!
ye
needn't
be
afraid--I
washed
my
hair
last--year."
(Laughter.)
Then
to
his
partner,
the
Jew
on
the
other
side
of
the
stall,
"Oh!
what
a
face
you've
got.
Here!
6d.
for
any
one
who
can
tell
me
what
it
is.
Why
not
take
it
to
the
trenches
and
get
it
smashed
in?"
The
Jew
wore
spectacles
and
had
a
soft
ingratiating
voice
and
brown
doe-like
eyes--a
Jew
in
every
respect.
"Oh!"
says
he,
in
the
oleaginous
Semitic
way,
and
accurately
taking
up
his
cue
(for
all
this
was
rehearsed
patter),
"my
wife
says
'my
face
is
my
fortune.'"
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
