Now that the last belated bill for services professionally rendered has
been properly paid and properly receipted; now that the memory of the
event, like the mark of the stitches, has faded out from a vivid red to a
becoming pink shade; now that I pass a display of adhesive tape in a drugstore
window without flinching--I sit me down to write a little piece about
a certain matter--a small thing, but mine own--to wit, That Operation.
For years I have noticed that persons who underwent pruning or
remodeling at the hands of a duly qualified surgeon, and survived, like to
talk about it afterward. In the event of their not surviving I have no
doubt they still liked to talk about it, but in a different locality. Of all the
readily available topics for use, whether among friends or among strangers,
an operation seems to be the handiest and most dependable. It beats the
Tariff, or Roosevelt, or Bryan, or when this war is going to end, if ever, if
you are a man talking to other men; and it is more exciting even than the
question of how Mrs. Vernon Castle will wear her hair this season, if you
are a woman talking to other women.