As he persuades
himself against the latter till it arouses and shakes down a city, so
does he persuade himself against the former until it shakes him out
of his dreaming and he stands undisguised, a brute like any other
brute.
Starve him, let him miss six meals, and see gape through the veneer
the hungry maw of the animal beneath. Get between him and the female
of his kind upon whom his mating instinct is bent, and see his eyes
blaze like an angry cat's, hear in his throat the scream of wild
stallions, and watch his fists clench like an orang-outang's. Maybe
he will even beat his chest. Touch his silly vanity, which he exalts
into high-sounding pride--call him a liar, and behold the red animal
in him that makes a hand clutching that is quick like the tensing of
a tiger's claw, or an eagle's talon, incarnate with desire to rip and
tear.
It is not necessary to call him a liar to touch his vanity. Tell a
plains Indian that he has failed to steal horses from the
neighbouring tribe, or tell a man living in bourgeois society that he
has failed to pay his bills at the neighbouring grocer's, and the
results are the same.
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