Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-02-11

llnd In an almost oriental background are per-
haps several families seated half out upon the
street. and among them somewhere Is music
Here, there and everywhere upon the houSetops.
among luXuriant gardens, are merry crowds, sing
Ing, playing, or dancing. The half lights OF tie
night hide and reveal. sound and light and
shadow mingic until the ear and sight are ravished
by what Is heard and seen, and what IS listened
for and heard in thought. Melody In word, laugh
and song, and from musical instruments Of every
nature and In every place-nOthing loud and sonO-
rouS, but everything sort and dreamrul-pulSes in
harmonious chords above and over and through
the streets. You may be alone and not OF II, as
am, but 1t Is ali-compassing and 1t possesses you
You know IL not; yet 1t has In the loving famiIi-
arity or the universal voice OF m1rth and music
IL Is In strange tongue; yet 1t is plain TO you
as the untaught JOY Of childhood. For you are
within the influence and charm OF three hundred
thousand souls given up wholly to delicious
daliance, melodiouS words and sounds to the
haif-tones OF cOquettish pleasure to the elOQuence
OF bright eyes, and the passionate passiveness OF
night IN tropic land, where nature CLOVIS beneath
as glow the stars above.
THE CITY AT NIGHT
The whole city is as fairy land at night It Is
the more bewildering to the beholder because
there are In 1t Onemindedness and One-heartedness
we'll conditioned, but as truly within the grimy
walls u the charcOal-mans little stall; down at
the watersde among the swarthy bOteros; over
their In Regla with the t0il-ScOurged stevedOres
and iancheros; up Balquarte Way among the labor
bent lavenderaS; and In every odd and mOldy cor.
ner where human life lasts In airs It lights up all
tins comes TO you, and you know the fact. You
leave those who like TO quarrel over the involved
ethics. But all this time, when an entire great
city has suddenly resolved itseifinto vast pleas.
ure garden so completely that its influence seems
even 10 have touched and transformed, withou,
exception, the direst conditions, the gayef and
more restless elements swarm the paseoS and
plazas, and DO European city presents mort
brilliant scenes. For instance, in Paris, on sun.
day afternoon and evening, the Champs Elysees
may furnish tho gayest pictures In the world.
OF an evening the boulevards are nlled with vast
thronga Down In tue Place de Ia COncOrde you
may md half a hundred thousand souls But or
the Champs, Dives rides, and Lazarus walks, this
once a week; In the bouevards are simply crowds
OF the worlds everybodies with whom Paris Il
always niied; while in the Place de la Concorde
the wild throngs are lowly bOurge0ise and villain
Gus canaille, In whose faces you md hate and
worse. But In this one city OF the world, this
single rich blossom OF the tropics all Its people In
these hours are pleasure giyers and pleasure
receivers: and that. too, whatever the individual
condition. There is none so high and naughty, Of
low and stess as TO Think or dare refusal OF this
individual concession, or gift OF word and way, Il
this universal something We would be quick 70 call
among our own good selves true evidence OF true
lghJ-heartedness ana Joy. ! do not believe the
world has elsewhere sucn . condition and study.