--
. . . the twofold luxury of meditation and a whisky, in company with my friend, D. Sinister, in his little back library, or book-closet, in the basement, No. 38, Ludlow Street, in the Lower East Side. For one hour at least we had maintained a profound silence; while each, to any casual observer, might have seemed intently and exclusively occupied with the curling eddies of smoke that oppressed the atmosphere of the chamber. For myself, however, I was mentally discussing certain topics which had formed matter for conversation between us at an earlier period of the evening; I mean the affair of THE BLIND MAN IN THE DARK ROOM, and the mystery attending to his LOOKING FOR THE BLACK CAT THAT ISN'T THERE. I looked upon it, therefore, as something of a coincidence, when the door of our apartment was thrown open and admitted our old acquaintance, Mr. Huberman, the Curator of the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis.
We gave him a hearty welcome; for there was nearly half as much of the entertaining as of the contemptible about the man, and we had not seen him for several years. We had been sitting in the dark, and Sinister now arose for the purpose of lighting a lamp, but sat down again, without doing so, upon H.'s saying that he had called to consult us, or rather to ask the opinion of my friend, about some official business which had occasioned a great deal of trouble.
"If it is any point requiring reflection," observed Sinister, as he forbore to enkindle the wick, "we shall examine it to better purpose in the dark."
"That is another one of your odd notions," said the Curator, who had the fashion of calling everything "odd" that was beyond his comprehension, and thus lived amid an absolute legion of "oddities."
"Very true," said Sinister, as he supplied his visitor with a pipe, and rolled toward him a comfortable chair.
--
Please come to
Dexter Sinister
38 Ludlow Street, Basement (between Hester & Grand)
on this Saturday night, September 26
at 8:30 pm
where Anthony Huberman and Dexter Sinister will account
FOR THE BLIND MAN IN THE DARK ROOM LOOKING FOR THE BLACK CAT THAT ISN'T THERE
(an exhibition currently on view at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis)
http://www.contemporarystl.org/
