Alfoxden was a slight, Mephistophelian man ... with bushy, red eyebrows.
And he was totally bald, except for the upper part of his neck, which
was fiery with red hair. He had a large knowledge of the Rabelaisan in
literature ... had in his possession several rather wild effusions of
Mark Twain in the original copy, and a whole MSS. volume of Field's
smutty casual verse....
* * * * *
But I was in the lumber camp, cooking for the "boys."...
"Hank," Spalton's youngest son (there was a second son, whose name I
forget ... lived with his mother, Spalton's divorced wife, in Syracuse,
and was the conventional, well-brought-up, correct youth)--Hank worked
in the camp, along with the other lumber-jacks.
The boy was barely sixteen, yet he was six feet two in his stocking feet
... huge-shouldered, stupendous-muscled, a vegetarian, his picture had
appeared in the magazines as the prodigy who had grown strong on "Best
o' Wheat," a prepared breakfast food then popular.
I asked him if the story that he had built his growth and strength on it
was a fake.
"Yes. I never ate 'Best o' Wheat' in my life, except once or twice," he
answered, "I like only natural food ... vegetables ... and lots of milk
... but I draw the line at prepared, pre-digested stuff and baled
breakfast foods."
"Then why did you lend them the use of your name?"
"Oh, everybody that has any prominence does that .
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