"I Killed Him As a Matter of Principle"

LONG BEFORE beatniks, hippies, goths, and their echoes, there were the aesthetes, for whom ordinary life was crass, crude, and stifling; they were the ones who lived on . . .

"The Outposts of Reason."

By John Ramsden (?-?).

First appearance: Pearson's Magazine, August 1919.

Illustration by E. Verpilleux (1888-1964; Wikipedia HERE).

Novelette (8 pages).

Online at Hathi Trust (HERE; go to text page 143.)

(Note: Text smudged, making reading difficult.)

   "Our friend in the pond became the perfect diner."

IN A MOVIE Brandon Shaw and Phillip Morgan reached for perfection in crime; Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb actually did strive for it in real life. Likewise, in today's story two men share the same lofty ambition, to create something meaningful through destruction—even if that means murder . . .

Main characters:

~ Thomas Earle ("He fell and lay, a loose bag of bones, the limbs sprawling"), Roger Hendriks ("In reality, I was simply a reflection of the expectations of other people"), Richard Merle ("Suffice it that I came from the gloomy ranks of the aristocracy"), and the policeman ("I've got yer. Yer can't get away").

Personification can be helpful:

  "The moon gazed down with an imbecile grin."

  "A fleecy cloud had tangled the moon; here and there a star winked."

References:

- "At Cambridge" (HERE)

- "I could quote Homer" (HERE) "or Horace" (HERE)

- "what the Socialists are tilting at" (HERE)

- "the blazing insolence of St. Paul's" (HERE)

- "talking in Regent's Park" (HERE)

- "a demonstration in the House of Commons" (HERE)

- "walk naked down Piccadilly" (HERE)

- "some of Wilde's books" (HERE)

- "the perfect type of an Incroyable" (HERE)

- "a wife and dirty family in a garret in Soho" (HERE)

- "in the courts of the kings of Persia" (HERE)

- "the thoughts of an anarchist" (HERE).

Resource:

- "The Outposts of Reason" seems to be the only short fiction produced by John Ramsden.

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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