“We were just recollecting how speech in strange tongues came to men in the Bible days.”

Connecting an unexpected gift of speech with an ancient sacred memory · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Faith
• Memory
• Truth

“He doesn't know! he can't explain it. He says it was a miracle, his talk. He says he knows he couldn't do it again, even if he tried.”

Leaving inspired speech suspended between psychology and miracle · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Faith
• Hope
• Truth

“However, I caught the captain and the Senator whispering under their flags, and I heard them laugh softly, a little like two wondering boys.”

Ending public solemnity with a private moment of wonder and fellowship · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Childhood
• Friendship
• Joy

“That was a pretty good speech for a fellow who never before uttered a real paragraph of English.”

Measuring eloquence by its effect rather than polished fluency · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Art
• Truth

“For a moment the captain and the crowd gazed into each other.”

Imagining understanding as a moment of mutual recognition · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Friendship
• Truth

“I cannot speak, but you will understand.”

Trusting shared feeling to bridge imperfect language · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Friendship
• Hope
• Truth

“Ze world is like ze barrel of apples—not any apple is safe if zer is one rotten apple in ze barrel.”

A homely metaphor for danger spreading through a connected world · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Truth
• War

“For no man lives in ze small town any more. Each man lives in ze world.”

A fictional speaker's declaration of global human interdependence · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Friendship
• Truth
• War

“But I am telling the truth that this man who could not speak English did speak it—with earnest, uplifted simplicity, and without any halting.”

Framing sincere speech as a transformation that exceeds technical fluency · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Hope
• Truth

“As the shouting died, words were born to the captain.”

Portraying speech as something created at the edge of silence · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Art
• Hope
• Truth

“Leave it to a crowd to catch the real dramatics of a gesture!”

A wry observation on collective instinct and theatrical meaning · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Art
• Truth

“Unconsciously he had symbolized whatever speech he could make, whatever speech he could wish to make.”

Showing how a gesture can become the equivalent of eloquence · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Art
• Truth

“If only I could talk to you! If only I could make you understand!”

Distilling the anguish of failed communication · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Despair
• Hope
• Truth

“He did sway toward the crowd hungrily, with something like eagerness and sadness in his eyes.”

Joining the desire for connection with the pain of being unable to speak · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Despair
• Hope
• Truth

“A real man can speak to real men with something besides words!”

Asserting that presence and sincerity can communicate beyond language · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Friendship
• Hope
• Truth

“Almost imperceptibly, but certainly, the crowd swayed toward it.”

Capturing the quiet force by which music redirects attention · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Music
• Truth

“From a dance-hall somewhere up the street floated insidious rag-time.”

Using distant music to suggest distraction and shifting mood · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Art
• Music

“And all pretense was gone, and any barrier of tongue.”

Marking the moment urgency dissolves social and linguistic barriers · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Friendship
• Truth

“It will take a bigger man than me to move them now.”

Recognising the limits of one's own influence · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Hope
• Truth

“I haven't been able to put over the deep necessity.”

Expressing the frustration of failing to communicate an urgent truth · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Despair
• Truth

“They see the illogicalness of my position.”

A rare moment of political self-awareness · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Truth

“Those boys are neither fools nor leaves of an aspen, to bend to my will.”

Acknowledging the independence of an audience resistant to pressure · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Nature
• Truth

“He put himself through all the conventional gestures; his vocabulary through every pace, from flowery oratory to good U. S. A. slang.”

Observing the theatrical range demanded by public persuasion · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Art
• Truth

“He let his voice range from fortissimo through tremolo and back again.”

Describing public speech through the expressive language of music · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

• Art
• Music