Little Poems in Prose

XL THE MIRROR A SHOCKINGLY ugly man comes in and looks at himself in the glass. “Why do you look at yourself in the mirror, since you cannot see yourself there but with displeasure?” Sir Ugly answers me, “Sir, ac- cording to the immortal principles of the year ‘89, all men have equal rights; ergo, I possess the right of looking at myself,—whether with pleasure or chagrin is no one’s business but my own.” In the name of good sense, I was doubtless right; but from a legal standpoint he was cer- tainly not wrong.