THE
STORY OF AN OSTRICH

AN ALLEGORY
AND
HUMOROUS SATIRE
IN RHYME

Interpreted and Illustrated
BY
Edmund Nolcini

PUBLISHED BY THE
HAND PRINT BOOK FOLK,
BACK BAY, BOSTON, MASS.

COPYRIGHTED, 1903,
BY THE
HAND PRINT BOOK FOLK, BOSTON, MASS.

ALL THE ILLUSTRATIONS HERE SHOWN, INCLUDING THE TITLE PAGE, ARE REPRODUCED FROM PEN DRAWINGS MADE EXPRESSLY FOR THIS BOOK, AT GREAT EXPENSE, AND ALL PERSONS ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED NOT TO REPRODUCE THEM WITHOUT PERMISSION

PUBLISHER'S PREFACE

Whatever other merit may be discovered in this book, the publishers desire to call attention to the fact that, as a whole, it is a production altogether unique in a field of endeavor where something new is being constantly sought, but seldom found.

The poem is entirely hand-printed in large and legible letters, designedly kept free from ornate fancies and, therefore, particularly easy to read. The hand-printing accords with the adjoining illustrations as angular and machine-made type never does, giving a pleasing and harmonious effect to the entire page, a result not to be obtained by the ordinary art of the printer.

Attention is also called to the illustrations of the volume. Their merely mechanical arrangement upon the page is in itself unusual, we might almost say unknown to the reading public, while the imaginative story that the artist has told in the illustrations that he has contributed, is not only of the real and material world, but also of powers behind the scenes, which offer the motives and even supply the cues of most, if not all of the actors, who perform upon the great stage of life. In this, too, the book is unusual, if not unique, and offers a fertile field to the imagination of a discerning public in connection with the delicious humor of the poem itself.

While, therefore, fully conscious of how far short the volume falls from what might be done in the direction in which it only points the way, the publishers offer it as one of a series now in preparation, of similar works which, it is believed, will be found worthy of more than a few moments of the amused attention of the reader.

The Hand Print Book Folk.

Back Bay, Boston, Mass., October, 1903.

Artist's Announcement

IF the reader will pardon an unconventional obtrusion upon his attention for a brief moment, he may be interested to follow somewhat the train of thought in the artist's mind prior to his beginning to illustrate this book.

When "The Story of an Ostrich" was put into his hands, his first impression was, "Here is a merely juvenile theme, to be treated with light, conventional and ornamental drawings, as an adornment to a fairy tale."

As he read it, he gradually perceived a deeper significance concealed beneath the laugh that must inevitably be aroused at the thought of the ridiculous figure of the foolish ostrich pecking away at his homely feet, under the delusion that they are not his own.

The longer he studied and pondered over it, the more was he impressed with the conviction that underneath the simple phraseology of the poem, the author had conveyed a lesson that humanity might well pause and heed.... In these days of "making many books," how welcome should be that one whose story aims to raise the burden that weighs down the surcharged heart, or seeks to still the fever coursing through the blood of men and women struggling with the complicated problems of life!

"The Story of an Ostrich" is so simple in its form that children may read it with pleasure and profit, thereby drawing the simpler moral from the tale; while there is also suggested a possible condition of society that shall be attuned to the perfect chord of divine law, through the subordination of individualism in such manner as to produce complete harmony in all human affairs.

In the pride and dominance of the head over the rest of the body, in its scorn of the feet, equally indispensable with the head to the welfare of the whole, the poem has struck at the discordant note of all our human disaffection and rebellion.

When the artist had thus searched and found between the lines the real motive of the poem, it at once became pregnant with allusions and references that suggested artistic elaboration, or pen analysis, of the large area of social life, which the allegory, in its semi-humorous, satirical vein, assumes to cover.

If his pencil seems at times to wander far afield, either in elaboration or disregard of the canon principles of art, his plea must be that the interpretation he has given is according to his carefully studied conception of what the author must have had in mind when writing "The Story of an Ostrich."

Thou sluggard in bonds to a vision of night,
Be not a king's fool, but a proud man of might:
Arise like a lord, that ye may not be slain,
No door shall imprison, no hope be in vain;
The world is for conquest, who seeks for such goal,
Will find the chain riven, the key in his soul!

The unknown spake out of the firmament, saying,—

"Choose ye one instrument first, and then attune another one to it. This accomplished, attune then a third instrument to them; after that a fourth, and so on; and ye shall be all attuned alike."

Thereupon, the musicians set to work, but could not agree as to whose should be the first instrument.

A pillar of fire descended from Heaven and stood in the midst of the musicians; and in the centre of the pillar of fire there appeared an instrument called the All Perfect. The instrument gave forth one note and all the musicians attuned to it. The Voice said, "I have given the keynote, find ye the rest!"

The pillar of fire departed. The instruments thus attuned in harmony played rapturously.

This I perceive,—to make the man and wife one, to make the village one, to make the state one, to make the empire one,—all in harmony as one instrument, cannot be done without a Central Son, a Creator to attune to. When a man is attuned to Him, and a woman is attuned to Him, they will themselves be as one. When the family and the village are attuned to Him, it is easy. Without Him harmony cannot be.

He, the Creator, then, must be first in all things, first in all places. He must be the nearest of all things, the nearest of all places. In our rites and ceremonies, He must be the All Ideal Perfection, the embodiment of a Perfect Person.—Book of Saphah.

The Story of