The Wreck of the South Pole and Other Strange Tales — page 74: what you’re looking at

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

The Wreck of the South Pole. 67 saving or a labor-saving machine, what was to keep some other fellow from stealing my idea before it was per- fected? Or, suppose I should write a beautiful poem. There is no law in this country for copyrighting one’s thoughts, and so any one who was keeping tab on me could write the same poem and either get it printed first or claim mine was a forgery. You see the difficulties which meet a talented young man in this country.” I intimated that I did. “So, in early life, as I observed a few minutes ago, I decided to put my wits to work to outwit every other man in the land. It was a big undertaking, but I did it by concentrating my will and learning to think one thing when I meant something exactly opposite, and learning to think of half a dozen things at the same time. Thus, when IJ have been planning any particular work of devil- ment, I give it only a moment’s thought at a time, and then let my mind wander off into the paths of virtue. Unless I happen to be under the surveillance of the police, the chances are one in a thousand that any one should be reading my mind at the exact time that thought flashes through it. And if they do, as it is succeeded almost im- mediately by the most beautiful and virtuous thoughts, they take it as merely a temptation of the evil one which I have nobly driven away. In this manner I have no doubt I have often won the respect and regard of those high up in morals and the state. “Then I cultivated the habit of jumbling up my thoughts into the worst mess you could imagine, and Connicloool SS (SO)