Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: DESIRABLE MANSIONS. " The Widow Douglas, she took me for her son, and allowed she would civilise me ; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways ; and so when I couldn't stand it no longer I lit out."—textit{Mark Twain. After all, why should we rail against the rich ? I think if anything they should be pitied. In nine cases out of ten it is not a man's fault. He is born in the lap of luxury, he grows up surrounded by absurd and impossible ideas about life, the innumerable chains of habit and circumstance tighten upon him, and when the time comes that he would escape, he finds he cannot. He is condemned to flop up and down in his cage for the remainder of his days—a spectacle of boredom, and a warning to gods and men. I go into the houses of the rich. In the drawing- room I see chill weary faces, peaked features of ill- health ; downstairs and in the kitchen I meet with rosy smiles, kissable cheeks, and hear sounds of song and laughter. What is this ? Is it possible that the real human beings live with James below-stairs ! Often as I pass and see in suburb or country some " desirable mansion " rising from the ground, I think: That man is building a prison for himself. So it is—a prison. I would rather spend a calendar month in Clerkenwell or Holloway than I would in that desirable mansion. A young lady that I knew, and who lived in such a mansion, used with her sisters to teach a class of factory girls. Every now and again one of the girls would say, " Eh, Miss, how I would like to be a grand lady like you ! " Then she would answer, " Yes, but you wouldn't be able to do everything you liked ; for instance, you wouldn't be allowed to go out walking when you liked.1' " Eh, dear !" they would s... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.