Cover of Tiki-Tok of Oz (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tik-Tok of Oz is the eighth Land of Oz book written by L. Frank Baum. Published in 1914, the book actually has little to do with Tik-Tok and is primarily the quest of the Shaggy Man (introduced in The Road to Oz) to rescue his brother, and his resulting conflict with the Nome King. Alas, I have only recently finished this episode in my 2013 quest to read all of the official Oz cannon. Perhaps because my reading of this Baum book has been so spread out, I am struggling to remember some of the early passages which so impressed me in September. Although students of Baum often say that he was not a populist, this book certainly seems to have a populist flavor. His suffragist support continues to shine through in this book.
There are inconsistencies with some of the earlier books, and sometimes the plot suffers in fits in starts. All in all, though, it fascinated me. I even enjoyed his precursor to our cell-phones. But I especially loved his tributes to the common man.
Here are a few favorite passages:
“One can be ugly in looks, but lovely in disposition.”
“If we didn’t want anything, we would never get anything, good or bad. I think our longings are natural, and if we act as nature prompts us we can’t go far wrong.”
“When Queen Ann spoke to this young man Files, who was both intelligent and ambitious, he said he thought it would be great fun to conquer the world. But he called her attention to the fact that he was far superior to the other men of her army. Therefore, he would not be one of her Generals or Colonels or Majors or Captains, but claimed the honor of being sole Private.”

“Don’t you love me, Gardy?” asked Shaggy, carelessly displaying the Magnet.  “I do. I dote on thee!” answered the Gardener earnestly; “but no true man will neglect his duty for the sake of love. My duty is to drive you out, so—out you go!”

“Don’t call it a ‘hollow’ Tube, please,” exclaimed the Peculiar Person in an irritated tone of voice. “If it’s a tube, it’s sure to be hollow.”

“Most noble Private Soldier, I must inform you that by the laws of our country anyone who comes through the Forbidden Tube must be tortured for nine days and ten nights and then thrown back into the Tube. But it is wise to disregard laws when they conflict with justice, and it seems that you and your followers did not disobey our laws willingly, being forced into the Tube by Ruggedo. Therefore the Nome King is alone to blame, and he alone must be punished.”

The Queen told the strangers all about this beautiful land, which is one of the chief residences of fairies who minister to the needs of mankind. So many important fairies lived there that, to avoid rivalry, they had elected as their Ruler the only important personage in the country who had no duties to mankind to perform and was, in effect, a Private Citizen. This Ruler, or Jinjin, as was his title, bore the name of Tititi-Hoochoo, and the most singular thing about him was that he had no heart. But instead of this he possessed a high degree of Reason and Justice and while he showed no mercy in his judgments he never punished unjustly or without reason. To wrong-doers Tititi-Hoochoo was as terrible as he was heartless, but those who were innocent of evil had nothing to fear from him.