Wealth & Money Quote by William Christopher Handy

"The name of my ailment was longing, and it was not cured till I finally went to the department store and counted out the money in small coins before the dismayed clerk. When I came to the house, I held up the instrument before the eyes of the astonished household"

William Christopher Handy, Musician

About this Quote

Longing, here, isn`t a poetic abstraction; it`s a diagnosable itch with a price tag. William Christopher Handy frames desire as an "ailment" that only modern commerce can treat, and the cure is deliberately unglamorous: a trip to the department store, payment in small coins, a clerk made "dismayed" by the slow, public counting. That detail matters. Handy is staging aspiration as both painstaking and a little humiliating, the way ambition often is for working artists who don`t have credit, patrons, or the luxury of effortless purchase. The coins are proof of labor, not just currency.

The department store is doing double work as setting and symbol. It`s the early 20th-century temple of possibility: mass-produced instruments, democratic access, and the subtle indignity of being measured by what you can pay today. Handy`s longing gets translated into a consumer transaction, but the scene refuses the fantasy of instant transformation. You can feel the tension between reverence for the object and awareness of how the marketplace polices who gets to participate.

Then comes the switch from private ache to public reveal: he returns home and "held up the instrument" before an "astonished household". That`s not just a proud unveiling; it`s a claim. The instrument becomes a visible argument that his desire is serious enough to reorganize the family`s expectations and resources. Subtextually, Handy is capturing a blues-era truth: art isn`t born only from suffering; it also comes from the audacity to invest in yourself when everyone around you is bracing for disappointment.

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About the Author

William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 - March 28, 1958) was a Musician from USA.

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