Prehumous

There are certainly the portraits of men among them who, like the bad king that, according to his prehumous epitaph, never did a good thing, and therefore have no business in the good company in which we find them.

S. Hartley.—The reading public is only too prone to give posthumous laurels to those to whom it would hardly give prehumous bread. As far as his fame is concerned, William Maccall has the misfortune not to be in his grave. Many run out into the wilderness to meet B. V., and, behold, a greater than B. V. is here, although B. V. is undoubtedly great.

He [William Wilson Corcoran] is a rare instance of prehumous liberality, having given away in his lifetime, it is said on good authority, at least $5,000,000.

From the prehumous correspondence of Mr. Tarkington which was brought to light by the whole sad business, Mr. Corbin concluded that the creator of Penrod, like the creator of Long John Silver, considered the drama an inferior form of expression.

“Aye aye, sir,” said Weems gloomily. “A beach room without beer, blondes or any berserkity.” / “That’s my boy,” said the commander approvingly. “Your posthumous awards will make history, John.” / “I prefer prehumous beer and blondes,” Weems said, and cut the motor and they glided[…]

“Who’s Mike Dunham?” / “Me,” he said calmly. “You see, I’m a painter—or will be one of these days. Probably after I’m dead. But I can’t wait till then to enjoy it. So I figure a little prehumous appreciation of the fact is in order.”

When a friend warned Paul Kayser, president of El Paso Natural Gas Co., that his blistering pace would one day make him “fly apart like a watch spring,” the 68-year-old Kayser coolly replied: “Hell, when I die I’ll run 15 years on momentum.” / Last week Paul Kayser increased his prehumous momentum. The Federal Power Commission authorized El Paso to go into a $194 million expansion program, including construction of a 413-mile pipeline from Colorado and New Mexico’s San Juan Basin to the Arizona-California border.

This award, which turned out to be prehumous, had an odd result.