Excerpt from The Importance of Being a Roughneck: A Burlesque The rising curtain reveals the studio of Mr. Eustace Cardell. The apartment is furnished in the manner of the moment. There are Japanese tassels, cylindric sofa cushions, a decorated fish bowl, a yellow bird-cage with a red wooden occupant, a floor lamp, etc., etc and several really interesting paintings in the school of Matisse. If it is true that the home reveals the man, you would say that the owner of the studio possessed a small amount of personality entirely surrounded by Vogue. There is a large window at the back of the room, and, beyond, a cherry tree sheds pale pink petals against a Belasco sunset. Eustace cardell - our hero, as it were - lies full length on a couch of mild magenta silk, strumming Debussy on a lute. He would tell you, if asked, that he is playing the Second Arabesque, but you would be apt to think that Debussy is being used to cover a multitude of phonetic indiscretions. Eustace is the sort of man who wears a velvet house coat. You make him out to be a languid young idler of twenty four or five; good-looking, cynical and well groomed, with a latent sense of humor in his straightforward eyes. The only thing he really needs is two years military training. You feel, somehow, that he has read too much Henry James and not enough Conrad. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.