When one considers how keenly London,
like all large cities, resents physic-
al exercise, unless taken with some
practical and immediately utilitarian
object in view, this young man's calm,
as he did this peculiar thing, was a-
mazing.. The whole thing affords a re-
markable object lesson of what a young
man can achieve with patience and per-
severance.
I found myself outside in
plain view, so to speak,
in taking on a new bit of
reading in which I knew I
should be unable to inter-
est a soul. This is from
the opening paragraphs of
a text I opened last night,
published a hundred years
ago. London has grown more
tolerant of public calis-
thenics, if rather less of
unutilitarian, much less
escapist research in print.
Yet I predict the same even-
ing of the score, that comes
with cashmere sweats, for a
reader who's willing to com-
mute his Saturday sentence
to 100 refreshing reps.
Even the little children who infested
the [square] forbore to scoff, and the
customary cat rubbing itself against
the railings rubbed on without a glance.
P.G. Wodehouse
Something Fresh
1915
Overlook Press, 2005©
