The Wreck of the South Pole and Other Strange Tales — page 73: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

66 The Wreck of the South Pole. SONG TO WINNIE. Dear gracious hand I bend o’er thee With reverence deep as ever knee Was bent before the virgin’s shrine By devotee of her divine. With reverent heart I bend over thee, Dear gracious hand so kind to me, And love’s sweet kiss on the impress; I dare no more, I can no less. Dear gracious hand of fairest shape, O dear, white hand, whose fingers tape; May that day come, full soon, I pray, When you may never slip away. One day I called upon the Great Dissembler and in the course of our conversation asked him: “How have you succeeded in eluding the surveillance of the police and the judges of the inner court?” I saked of the dissembler. He laughed lightly and replied: “It is almost suicidal for me to tell you, for in order to do so it will be necessary for me to keep my mind on the business, in which case the officers who may have their minds directed to me may read the whole story. But I will chance it. JI am known as the Great Dissembler be- cause no one has ever yet been able to make out what I was thinking of or what I proposed doing. My plan is this: Early in life I saw that for a bright young man to succeed in this benighted country, it would be necessary for him to have his wits about him, and to be able to dis- semble his thoughts. For, suppose I should invent a life- EGomichbooks.com