The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-12-05
NYM cRINKLE ON FLATS.
Climbing Into the CIouds-A Funeral In the
Family and the Elevator Out of Order.


When we see man eaten ND by secret sor-
row we ask hir how many feet above the level
of the sea.
We used to climb into the clouds for poetic
sensation; now we go there for domestic comfort.
l have got to tell you some of the awful moral
effects of the fat-house. and you must
understand at tart that a modest, wayfarine
man now lives n an ediice whose stupendous
magnitude and splendor make the architecture
of royal palaces look Insignificant. When
plaingone book keeper is housed In such pile
as the Dacota, or the Choctaw, or the Ojiboway,
you must see tina. the measureless miehtiness OF
his abode has terrible moral influence on his
character. All the real duties of his workdav
life, the struggle for existence the contest with
capital, the demands of commercial and political
existence. sink into trivial incidents beside the
the overpowerng effect of his domicile.
Picture the hardy son Of toll after his days
labor in some stuffy office manufacturing bar
racks, or narrow workshop, returning TO the
bosom of his family.
It is not so much that the bosom of his family
has reached an altitude that makes the head
swim, but that his approach to the family altar
is like the approach to the great pyramid. The
magnitude of his home Expresses him unc0n-
sciously. he is sensible that he is a man of mod
crate means aud moderate aspirations, and as he
draws near his home, IL begins to loom up like
buckingham Palace. He can't quite adjust the
awful difference between his vocation and lis
domestic environment. He works in shed, but
ne dwells In the ALEXANDRIA. He is about to seek
the hum bic retirement OF his heartEstone, and
he sees towers battlements bastions, vast Moor
ish minarets Elizabethan facades and tri-
umphal arches rising before him. He is
able to have four rooms and bath-tub,
which shelter him from the rude world
aud he sees polished columns, Greco Roman
pilasters, marble halls, encaustic corridors
and stored windows lifting TO the skies with en-
awful welcome He passes in silently through
the Etruscan portal, wipes his feet on the
Arabian rug, looks at his pale face in the pol
ished mahogany, takes his hat off to the grim
and judicial janitor, bows meekly TO the Ger
berus of The elevator, holds his breath and is
soon lost to the world In the bowels Of archi-
lecture. All we know of him Tow with certainty
is that he is being lifted above the level of the
earths surface, that he will wander stealthy
through vast upper reaches of mural magnihcence
and finally drop into some far-away niche that
he calls his home.
Can it be doubted that mans surro findings
affect his disposition and character, and that the
appalling magnitude of the New York home
wears into the sinew of his soulf
This is plainly seen every day now in the
marked difference of demeanor in the man who
is working and the man who is homeward wend-
ing his weary way.
All day long the genteel middle class fellow.
the shop-keeper, the bank clerk, the young
broker. tho editor, the butcher, the baker and
candestick- maker may be seen down town bliths-
ly toing. These men work with light hearts
They scheme, they plod, they buy and sell each
other They sweat and strive, and Joy sits
throned upon their faces. But as the hour APP
proaches to go home a change takes place. Their
jocuno manner disappears They seem to be op-
pressed with something. You see them on the
cars, slent, moody AM weighted down. The OPP
pressiveness OK their approaching domicile shows
slightly nervous They have an inclination to
stare upward vaguely into the air and begin to
betray a little obseQuiousness, as If everybody
who spoke to them might be ianitor in dis
guise.
know a worthy couple who live in the Choc-
taw. Some of their friends once organized an
exploring expedition and went in search of them.
They found a written notice pasted the
marble entrances: 'All Who Enter Here Leave
Home Behind" And the satire frightened them
off.
This couple began domestic life with the FAIR
est promises. They made their nest in the arch
itectural wilderness of the Choctaw very much
as Caryle's fly must have made his in the frieze
of the Parthenon In six months the sense Of
their own insigni6cance had so overcome them
that didn't know them.
The house that Jack lived In Jack was his
name) made driveling idiot Of him. He never
could quite reconcile the immensity of the estab.
liShment with his own modesty, and the strur-
gle broke him all up. / saw him one day sitting
in an open lot, looking up at the Choctaw very
much as have seen an agricultural patriot from
the heart of Texas sitting open outhed In 'front.'
of the Capitol at Washington.
He would rub his hands across his brow, az if
to clear up his faculties, and mutter: YES
live there. 1t lie no Dream
He had grown prematurely bald, and had ac-
quired quick, apprehepsive start, AS if he con-
tinually heard q janitor approaching. While
stood there saw men stealthily come out of the
Choctaw on tlptoe, and stink away if they
were trying to escape from their own magnif-
cence. asked Jack if there were no children
in the house. He shook his head pa:hetically.
NO." he said. ''the ianitor copfscated them for
playing on the sidewalk"
This gave me an enlarged view of the ianitor,
and began to perceive that as factor in mod
ern social life he could not be overlooked. It
was not the magnifcence of the establishments
alone that was slowly undermining the morale
OF the community, but the combined magnif-
cence of the house and the janitor. SpaldinR
said to me the other day: "Cowper never would
have written that line % for lodge In some
our day, for he could have got 1t for $50 a
month He caught ne by the buttonhole. and
pa!ld look of horror came over his face, as ne
directed his gaze upward like an astronomer.
people die up there he said with slight
quaver in his voice.
never had thought of this before, but il was
undoubtedly true People must die in The
Choctaw.
They certainly do" continued Spalding, and
then with wild look he added, ''and have frr
neras, too"
NO" I gasped, incredulous!y. "Are there
cemeteries on the roof"
Listen. fought the janitor Heaven alone
knows what madness seized me, but I did
spoke unexpectedly to him. / even went so
far in my infatuation as to speak of my rights as
tenant Why not struck down in my
reckless course Icannot understand. But heaven
sometimes preserves men only for more condinn
justice. There was death in my family. IL
was my mother n-law. She died at the age of
fifty eight and an ELEVATION Of 600 feet see
her now, said Spalding. holding his hands over
mis- eyes to shield them from the sun. and gazing
at the meridian, ''She was a self sacrificing
angel and liked a straight path. There was
laroa assemhlaca of friandg. When it was all