fighting against cavalry. The grips are the following: The one hand grasps
the handle, the thumb of the other hand is on the upper spring so that I
can fool the wind, if it gets too strong, by collapsing the umbrella.—Now
we will do battle. This pastime is also an extremely beneficial form of exer-
cise because one must make the most unusual leaps.”
Displaying the foolish zeal of the tabloid press, the journal also attends
gatherings of the famous. And the not-so-famous, for example, the journal
provides a detailed summary of a dinner party given by an association of
night watchmen. They meet in broad daylight and thus have to close the
shutters and place lighted candles on the tables so as to have it look like a
proper evening dinner party. No less irrelevant is what can be read under
the heading “News Bulletins” concerning what happened to a wholesaler
named Marcussen in Badstuestræde: “At the dinner table, however, there
was an accident in which the wholesaler came to spill a gravy bowl on
himself and on the lady sitting next to him at table. It happened like this.
At the very moment that the servant held out the gravy bowl, the wholesaler
wished to stand up and offer a toast. With a movement of his arm he struck
the servant and the gravy bowl. This is the historical truth. We are well
aware that there is in circulation a rumor that recounts the story differently,
according to which it was supposedly the lady who struck the servant with
a movement of her head. But this is only a rumor and has no official status.
The name of the lady has not yet been brought to our attention. Some
name Miss Lindvad, others say that it was Gusta Jobbe. As soon as we learn
who it was, we will report it immediately, for the name is of immense
importance, since of course for the next eight days nothing else will be
spoken of in all of Copenhagen, and thus in all of Denmark.”
Exit Heiberg
Reasonable people can disagree about whether and, if so, to what extent
Kierkegaard was intensifying or dissipating his gifts as a writer by working
on something as trivial asWriting Samplesat the same time that he was
writingStages on Life’s Way, but in any event A.B.C.D.E.F. Goodhope and
company never made it off the drawing board. And even though the bile
elicited by Heiberg, with whichPrefaceswas positively awash, also dripped
on the pages ofWriting Samples(where Heiberg’s astronomical interests are
treated with particular irony, and readers are provided with a copy of a
receipt for a newly purchased telescope), Kierkegaard knew very well that
Heiberg did not take note of that sort of frivolity—indeed, he took no
notice whatever.