romine (02/24/83)
Gadsby was walking back from a visit down in Branton Hills' manufacturing district on a Saturday night. A busy day's traffic had had its noisy run; and with not many folks in sight, His Honor got along without having to grasp a hand, or talk; for a Mayor out of City Hall is a shining mark for any politician. And so, coming to Broadway, a booming bass drum and sounds of singing, told of a small Salvation Army unit carrying on among Broadways's night shopping crowds. Gadsby, walking towards that group, saw a young girl, back towards him, just finishing a long, soulful oration, saying: -- "... and I can say this to you, for I know what I am talking about; for I was brought up in a pool of liquor!!" As that army group was starting to march on, with this girl turning towards Gadsby, His Honor had to gasp, astonishingly: -- "Why! Mary Astor!!" "Oh! If it isn't Mayor Gadsby! I don't run across you much, now-a-days. How is Lady Gadsby holding up during this awful war?" --- From the 1939 novel Gadsby, by Ernest Vincent Wright. The entire 50,000 word novel was written without a single word containing the letter `e'.