THE MAN WITH THE TRUMPET

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THE MAN WITH THE TRUMPET

I stated it as definitely as I could. I was in a room with them.

They had tongues like me, and hair and eyes.

I got up out of my chair and said it as definitely as I could.

Their eyes wavered. Something slipped out of their grasp. Had I been
white and strong and young enough I might have plunged through walls,
gone outward into nights and days, gone into prairies, into distances--
gone outward to the doorstep of the house of God, gone to God's throne
room with their hands in mine.

What I am trying to say is this--

By God I made their minds flee out of them.

Their minds came out of them as clear and straight as anything could
be.

I said they might build temples to their lives.

I threw my words at faces floating in a street.

I threw my words like stones, like building stones.

I scattered words in alleyways like seeds.

I crept at night and threw my words in empty rooms of houses in a
street.

I said that life was life, that men in streets and cities might build
temples to their souls.

I whispered words at night into a telephone.

I told my people life was sweet, that men might live.

I said a million temples might be built, that doorsteps might be
cleansed.

At their fleeing harried minds I hurled a stone.

I said they might build temples to themselves.

THE MAN WITH THE TRUMPET [Sherwood Anderson's short story]

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