By Clarence Day (1874 - 1935), the author of “Life With Father,” “Life With Mother,” “The Crow’s Nest,” “This Simian World,” etc.
Clarence Day, Jr., writing with affection and gentle humor, gives us a snapshot of an affluent family in New York City in the 1880s. The times were prosperous and the nation strong, in Clarence Day, Sr.’s view largely because he willed it thus. His prayers reflected this; they turned to shouting matches if God failed to act on schedule.
This, the first in the trio of memoirs about the Day family, describes Father Day’s dealings with church-attendance and with religion in general. He is a church-going man, but when his wife discovers he has never been baptized, the battle is joined...
An excerpt:
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I never saw Father kneel in supplication on such occasions. On the contrary he usually talked with God lying in bed. My room was just above Father’s, and he could easily be heard through the floor. On those rare nights when he failed to sleep well, the sound of damns would float up - at first deep and tragic and low, then more loud and exasperated. Fragments of thoughts and strong feelings came next, or meditations on current bothers. At the peak of these, God would be summoned. I would hear him call “Oh God?” over and over, with a rising inflection, as though he were demanding that God should present himself instantly, and sit in the fat green chair in the corner, and be duly admonished. Then when Father seemed to feel that God was listening, he would begin to expostulate. He would moan in a discouraged but strong voice: “Oh God, it’s too much. Amen . . . I say it’s too damned much . . . No, no, I can’t stand it. Amen.” After a pause, if he didn’t feel better, he would seem to suspect that God might be trying to sneak back to Heaven without doing anything, and I would hear him shout warningly: “Oh God! I won’t stand it! Amen, Oh damnation! A-a-men.” Sometimes he would ferociously bark a few extra Amens, and then, soothed and satisfied, peacefully go back to sleep . . .
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No illustrations (I believe these may have been illustrated when first published, if anyone knows of a source, please do let me know.) Decorative fonts for chapter-heads, tail decorations, and drop-caps. Large-cap version also available.
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