Movies Have Silent Grocery Bags And 14 More Strange Facts

The official on the podium was tall and dark—the sort who are always described as having a certain dignity. He wore a blue serge suit, with gold epaulettes, a red-and-gold-trimmed black silk scarf at his throat, and an old black felt hat that had once been very much the fashion, and which is now worn by men whose only hope is to hide the fact that they do not know any more about it than a child does. A long white moustache, cut low, and grey whiskers of the same length, curled up on either side of the jaw, completed his appearance of dignity. His hair—what was left of it—was brushed straight back from a broad forehead; his eyebrows were high and dark, and his nose thin. But he looked as though he would have made quite a handsome man if it had been possible for him to sometimes stop being serious.

He opened his mouth and the audience watched expectantly, the loud conversation instantly dying to a low murmur. He then began recounting, with precise diction, a list of facts that went: