Winesburg, Ohio: The Philosopher

He always wore a dirty white waistcoat out of the pockets of which protruded a number of the kind of black cigars known as stogies.

He seemed intent upon convincing the boy of the advisability of adopting a line of conduct that he was himself unable to define.

He began to admire the fat unclean-looking man and, in the afternoon when Will Henderson had gone, looked forward with keen interest to the doctor's coming.

"Use up food that you wouldn't otherwise sell. It makes no difference to me. I am a man of distinction, you see. Why should I concern myself with what I eat."

And then again he was convinced that they contained the very essence of truth.

My father had been insane for a number of years. He was in an asylum over at Dayton, Ohio.

My mother loved my brother much more than she did me, although he never said a kind word to either of us and always raved up and down threatening us if we dared so much as touch the money that sometimes lay on the table three days.

The few dollars I stole from my brother's pile I spent on myself, you know, for trifles, candy...

There had been some negligence, some carelessness, you see, when father was ill.

The superintendent of the asylum and some of his helpers came in and stood about looking sheepish.

It seemed to the boy that the man had but one object in view, to make everyone seem despicable.

"I want to fill you with hatred and contempt so that you will be a superior being," he declared.

From the crowd someone had run to the office of Doctor Parcival who had bluntly refused to go down out of his office to the dead child.

"I have a presentiment," he declared emphatically. "It may be that what I am talking about will not occur this morning. It may be put off until tonight but I will be hanged..."

"I have a presentiment," he declared emphatically.