One night Jackson lured Herrick into New York
to a dinner and a music hall. He invited also one Kelly, a mutual
friend of a cynical and combative disposition. Jackson liked to
hear him and Herrick abuse each other, and always introduced
subjects he knew would cause each to lose his temper.
But, on this night, Herrick needed no goading. He was in an
ungrateful mood. Accustomed to food fresh from the soil and the
farmyard, he sneered at hothouse asparagus, hothouse grapes, and
cold-storage quail. At the music hall he was even more difficult.
In front of him sat a stout lady who when she shook with laughter
shed patchouli and a man who smoked American cigarettes. At these
and the steam heat, the nostrils of Herrick, trained to the odor
of
balsam and the smoke of open wood fires, took offense. He refused
to be amused. The monologue artist, in whom Jackson found
delight,
caused Herrick only to groan; the knockabout comedians he hoped
would break their collar-bones; the lady who danced Salome, and
who
fascinated Kelly, Herrick prayed would catch pneumonia and die of
it.
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