Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-12-09
AMERICAS PULSTG ENERGY
Strenuous Life in New York Considered the
COuntry'I Type
HIGHEST MANIFESTATION OF eET-THtRE
Emphatic Impressions of n Member Of
the British Parliament Noted n
During q visit 20 the
Metropolis.


New York, Boston and Philadelphia and
gives the readers OF his London paper his
impressions Of Americas gigantic activities
as reflected by life In New York City. In
part, he says:
1 will never forget the first meal took
in a hotel on the evening OF the day 1
landed in America as a member Of the
Irish delega ton in the interests Of home
rule.
Imagine a room Of glaring white marble;
imagine a brilliant nay a dazzling and
binding, electric light pouring down its
rays Of almost Port Arthur searchlight in
tensty on all this white marble; then
imagine q band playing in this room OF
dazzling color and light; and. finally, let
there come into the room from outside a
tumult and a tempest OF noises which sug-
gest a compound OF an earthquake and a
gigantic locomotive factory. and you have
some idea Of what felt as 1 sat down to
that meal Outside there was not merely
a single set Of street cars, but, apparently,
on that particular spot there were functions
and partings, comminglings, ard combina-
tons Of all the tramway systems of New
York. There was changing OF bells, as
though a hundred belfries were shouting
out their evening summons to prayers and
warnings to sinners; there was. besides. a
cataclysm Of sounds as though the earth
were being tortured or uplifted by some
fierce tornado Of force and sound; in short,
1t was pandemonium outside; and inside in
this room, heated to an appalling tempera-
ture, the loud band played and the electric
light blazed on the white marble walls and
floor.
Eating Quietly Amid Great Noise.
/ looked around with the feeling that
either 1 was abnormal or everybody around
me was abnormal Either they were luna
tics or l. For to sit down and eat calmly,
as IL nothing were occurring, in the heart
and core Of this earth shaking tumult, ana
amid this crash Of elements, seemed to me
about as unexpected as IT, at the worst
hour Of the San Francisco earthquake, you
found your women and men making
eyes at each other as they passed on the
opposite sides OF street into which cupolas
and domes were topping, and there was a
! crash Of elemental furies. But I looked
around at my fellow guests in the res
taurant, and there they were, talking in
the low, soft tones which are so charac-
/ teristic OF the American-at least at home;
eating their food slowly and TRANQUILITY,
/ and after the sober fashion 80 character
/ istic largely OF Americans; and, in short,
/ conducting themselves as II the conditions
were normal instead Of being the horror,
tumult. and chaos which they seemed to
me 10 be. 1 felt inclined to pinch my
self as l swallowed the oysters that came
up on their bed OF snow white ice, and
/ ask myself whether II was really true
that 1 was seated at a dinner table and
eating and drinking quietly as though
nothing unusual were occurring when at
every second 1 felt the whole building
CULVER under the reverberations of the
tramways outside and when the glare Of
the light and the. marble suggested not
the life Of everyday reality but some wild
and magnificent and frenEied spectacle in
a great melodrama or perhaps panto-
mime.
swifter Tide of Life in America.
And this sense Of people living their ordi-
nary lives in the midst of an environment
that to me suggested earthquake, eclipse,
some mighty disturbance of nature. was the
feeling that 1 carried with me in my inner
most mind all through the days l spent in
New York. 1t is true that l gradually and
even swiftly began to accommodate my
mind to its environment; that I also be-
came deaf to the anarchic music and blind
to the dazzling light; but I never entirely
lost the feeling that / was living under
conditions that had no more resemblance to
those Of ordinary life than as II were
thrown on a volcanic eruption or a city
in the throes Of some mighty catastrophe
To compare the tide OF life as Il runs in
London is TO compare the swirl Of some
mountain stream with the roar and fury
OF the unbounded ocean.
Travel on the subway.
Take the question Of locomotlon. We have
our underground railway; we had II twenty
TO thirty years before II was ever thought
OF IN New York. and remember well the
first time ever Travelled upon that under
ground railway, and how coming from 50
small and quiet a provincial capital as
Dublin. was overwhelmed by the sight az
a symbol OF the might and glory OF this
wonderful new land into which had beer
cast by fate But the underground with us
: has as much resemblance to the under.
ground-they call # in New York the sub.
way-as the slow crawling Of a suburban
= line has TO the speed and splendor OF the
= Flying Dutchman or the Irish express
Again and again. when travelling in IN,
! subway, I had this overwhelming sense NJ
wonder why people conducted themselve,
e in extraordinary conditions as II they wer,
= witnessing or doing nothing in particular
Q or out OF the way. You get in the train a
: Twenty-eighth street You have Just barrel,
q time 70 jump into the carriage when II /,
I on again. Nobody stops; nobody talks
| nobody hesitates; every person-man o
woman, or even child-makes for that trail
at once. al once takes a seat, and in ,
second II is driving onward again Blu
this is not enough You have passed tw,
or three stations when you come 20 -Four
teenth street and then you get out an,
. jump into another train. This Is the ex
i press. Instead OF stopping at every sta
ton 1t runs right through half a doze1
stations and two or three miles at a spec
that almost makes you dizzy. People VII
are going in the other direction do exactl
the same thing. They also get out at -Four
q teenth street: they also are carried in tn
: opposite direction at lightning speed, pass
: ing station after station without stoppinr
n and getting over two or three miles in al
/. most as many minutes.
4 Like victims of Destiny.
Ia This mad rush Of speed and its enc,
n upon you cannot be fully realized unlel
you can manage 70 get into your ears. ,
you read these lines, the almost sppanin
noise amid which all this rush backwar,
o. and forwards Of trains takes place Evel
three minutes almost you hear the rush
~ one train following another into the san
station As you ny past, three other trail
,e ny past, too; and all this noise oOmbinl
and cOmmingies until you feel that Il