The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1909-07-18


the city of New York. Tons 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 nightfal.
This applause of the rebel air in q
northern city does puzzle a little, but
1t is not insolvable The war with
Spain, many years generous mint and
watermelon crops, a few long shot
winners at 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 your left forefnger reminds her
SO much Of gentleman's in Rich
| mond. Va. Oh, certainly! But many
lady has to work now-the war, you
know
When "Dixie" was being played a
dark haired young man sprang up
from somewhere with Mosby guer-
rilla yell and waved frantically his
soft brimmed hat. Then he strayed
| through the smoke, dropped into the
vacant chair at our table and pulled
out cigarettes.
The evening was at the period when
reserve is thawed. One of us men
toned three Wurzburgers to the wait
err. The dark haired young man ac-
knowledged his inclusion in the order
| by smile and a nod. l FASTENED to
| ask him question because | wanted
| to try out theory 1 had.
would you mind telling me,' / be-
gan. whether you are from
The fSA of e. Rushmore Coglan
banged the table, and was Jared into
| silence.
Excuse me-" said he, but that's a
| question / never like to hear asked
What does it matter where man is
from? Is it fair to judge man by his
/ postoffice address? Why, I've seen
| 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 q man be man and don't
handicap him with the label of any
section
Pardon me" l said, ''but my cun'ios-
ity was not altogether an idle one. |
know the south, aud when the band
plays Dixie I like to observe. I have
formed the belief that the man who
applauds that air with special violence
and ostensible sectional loyalty is in
variably native of either Secaucus,
N. J., or the district between Murray
Hill lyceum and the Harlem river, New
/ York was about to put my opinion to
the test by fnquiring of this gen
tleman when you interrupted with
| your own-larger theory, | must con-
fess''
And now the dark haired young man
spoke to me, and it became evident
/ that his mind also moved along its
own set Of grooves.
II should like to be a periwinkle. :"
said he mysterfously, "on the top of a
valley and sing too-railoo-ralloo."
This was clearly too obscure. so l
turned again to Coglan.
.rve been around the world twelve
tines said he II know an Eskimo
| In Upernavik who sends to Cincinnati
for his necktfes, and / saw goat
herder In Uruguay who won a prize in
Battle Creek breakfast food puzzle
competition. / 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 tea house
in Shanghai. and don't have to tell
'em how to cook my eggs in Rio janet
70 or Seattle. It's 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 better world when we quit being
fools about some mildewed town or
ten acres of swamp land just because
we happened to be born there.
"You appear to be genuine eosmop-
olite.r l said admiringly But it
also seems that you would decry pa
triotism'
"a relic of the stone age" declared
Coglan warmly "We are all brothers
-Chinamen. Englishmen. ZuIus. 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 viii be wiped out
and wen all be citizens of the world
as we ought to be-"
| ''Eut while you are wandering in
foreign lands" / persisted, do not
| your thoughts revert to some spot
some dear and
4Nary a spot = interrupted e. r
Coglan fiippantly. 1.-THE terrestrial,
| globular, planetary hunk Of matter
slightly flattened at the poles and
| 41,<N go. To- NV ~