Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1909-09-02

the city of New York. IONS of brew
have been consumed over theories to
account for it.. Some have conjectured
hastily that all southerners in town
HE themselves to cafes at nightfall.
This applause of the rebel air in a
northern city does puzzle a little. but
it is not insolvable. The war with
Spain, many years generous mint and
watermelon crops, Il few long shot
winners ut the New Orleans race track
and the brilliant banquets given by the
Indiana and Kansas citizens who com
pose the North Carolina society have
made the south rather a fad" in Man
haitian. Your manicure will lisp softly
that our left forefinger reminds her
so much of Il gentleman's In Rich
mond, Va. Oh, certainly. But many
a lady has to work now-the war. YOU
know.
When "Dixie" was being played a
dark haired young man sprang up
from somewhere with a Mosby gucr-
rilla yell and waved frantically his
soft brimmcd hat. Then he strayed
through the smoke, dropped into the
vacant chair at our table and pulled
out cigarettes.
The evening vas at the period when
reserve is thawed. One Of us men
toned three Wurzburgers to the wait
or. The dark haired young man ac-
knowledged his inclusion in the order
by a smile and a nod. l fastened to
ask him a question because l wanted
to try out a theory l had.
"Would you mind telling me-" 1 be-
gan. whether you are from''-
The fist of E. Rushmore Coglan
banged the table, and l was Jared into
silence.
Excuse me-" said he, "but that's a
question l never like to hear asked.
What does it matter where a mar is
from? Is it fair to judge a man by his
postoffice address? Why, I've seer
Kentuckians who hated whisky, Vir-
ginians who weren't descended from
Pocahontas, %Indianians who hadn't
written a novel, Mexicans who didn't
wear velvet trousers with silver dol
lars sewed along the seams, funny
Englishmen, spendthrift Yankees, cold
blooded southerners, narrow minded
westerners and New Workers who
were too busy to stop for an hour on
the street to watch a one armed gro
GERS clerk do up cranberries in paper
bags. Let a man be a man and don't
handicap him with the label of any
section"
pardon me-" 1 said, "but my curios-
ity was not altogether an idle one. l
know the south, and when the band
plays Dixie l like to observe. l have
formed the belief that the man who
applauds that air With special violence
and ostensible sectional loyalty is in
variably a native of either Secaucus,
y. j., or the district between Murray
Hill lyceum and the Harlem river. New
York. l was about to put my opinion to
the test by inquiring of this gen
tleman when you interrupted with
your own-largcr theory, l must con-
fess."
And now the dark haired young man
spoke TO me, and it became evident
that his mind also moved along it's
w set Of grooves.
81 should like to be a periwinkle."
said he mysteriously, ION the top of a
valley and sing too-ralloo-ralloo."
This was clearly too obscure. so l
turned again to Coglan.
give been around the world twelve
times" said he. ~ know an Eskimo
in Upernavik who sends to Cincinnati
for his neckties. and l saw a golt
herder in Uruguay who Won a prize in
a Battle Creek breakfast food puzzle
competition. l pay rent on a room in
Cairo, Egypt. and another in Yoko-
hama all the year around. I've got
slippers waiting for me in a tea house
in Shanghai. and ! don't haze to tell
EN- how to cook my eggs in Rio janet
70 or Seattle. It's a mighty little
world. What's the use of Dragging
about being from the north, or the
south, or the old manor house in the
dale, or Euclid avenue, Cleveland, or
Pixies peak, or Fairfax county, Va, or
Hooligan's flats, or any place? It'll
be a better world when we quit being
fools about some widowed town or
ten acres of swamp land just because
We happened to be born there"
"You appear to be a genuine cosmop-
olite." l said admiringly. But it
also seems that you would decry pa
triotism."
"a relic of the stone age" declared
Coglan warmly. 1--WE are all brothers
Cinnamon. Englishmen. Zulus. Pata-
gonians and the people in the bend of
the Kaw river. Some day all this
petty pride in ones city or state or
section or country will be wiped out
and We'll all be citizens Of the world,
as we ought to be-"
But while you are wandering in
foreign lands" I persisted, edo not
your thoughts revert to some spot
some dear and"-
"Nary a spot" interrupted e. r.
Coglan flippantly. "The terrestrial.
globular, planetary hunk of matter
slightly fattened at the poles and
known as the earth is my abode. I've
met a good many object bound citi.