The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-03-01

full pictures and post cards ana In the
NTH shop you get your pdotosfaph
taken. That II all
After you have been photo6raphed
you 60 on, In regular order. ana buy
more kwelry and more Turkish rugp
and more candy and more post car0h
and then you get photographers anew
and start again on the Same pieasaet
journey. It Is amazing the satisfautlqn
to be got out OF this simple life. A4A
in the rooms above the shops dwell TIE
astroiogers and palnnistS. They otO
large, fat women with melauchQly eyes.
Time passes. You arc pumped out
with candy. You trail yards OF Turkish
rugs. You tinkie and sparaie With
jewelry as you walk. You have been
photographed seventeen uncs and you
know your "future."
mine is a blond lady Of great dociiity
and extreme wealth, but ! must beWare
a dark man who Is coming over see or
the fat will be In the nre,)
And then? What does one DO next 2
I put these questions 70 my rolling
chair man. lie was a black brother In
n bowler hat and a sweater and onCs
upon tme--unless he boasted--he
worked In New York. PROUD man.
'They's young lady, jss ,stxtesn,"
he said, who makes q eighty foot dive
into the wattah. Most serangsrs =
GURUS to see that young iAdy." =,
refused: what with that dark zen.
tleman coming over sea I could take
no chances with the blond lady whose
wealth and docility wers In my future"
4 My black brother In the bowler looked
at me apprahingly. At last he decided
what I needed.
| "ouah ayyangelist's 4 mighty powfui
ayvangehst he said; end he led me to
the evangelist. ~
We sat in IN oblons hall; We were all
men; no high diving girls distracted
| our attention. from serious things; no
one sold us rugs or smeralds or post
cards; and the evangelist was saying:
| In 1904 was disowned BY my par
| ents and lived for. nothing but drink.
| ! was contemplating suicide In the East
River when by the grace of God"
This was more dramatic than any
thing the astrologer had told me. and /
found ! was listening TO "E. G. Mercer.
the college evangelist" The statistics
he gave about college men made me
doubt the probity OF figures was so
beaten upon by disbelief that 7 sQuattei
down among the dismal atheists who
have lost the faith In arithmetic For
what he said was: There are now
l.4O0 college men who are tramps or
criminals in the city Of New York. I
have seen 100 at one time in the bread
line. l met Yale man the other day
sweeping the streets In New York.
There were 200 college bred men at the
dinners which Miss Helen Gould gave to
the poor shortly before her marriage"
Bang went another ideal
Fourteen hundred men from the col.
leges who are either crimtXals or beg
cars In the streets Of New York. 1t is
too large a proportion. / went out into
the open air to think II over. Anyway
my black brother was paid by the hour
and might as we'll be rolling a chair)
IL isan astounding proportion OF ne'er-
do-weils II what IL true OF New York
~ true OF the rest OF the population you
would have some 100000 college bred
tramps and criminals wandering the
highways and climbing the second story
porohes OF the country--an unbelievable
! thing. Perhaps New York gets more
than her fair share OF them. Perhaps
the drunken and crime loving collegians
all come to New York. Hut even at that
|
show that the American aristocracy Is
sasging under the weight OF scholar
ship. For MS queer thing that--in
New York at ieast-a college education
seems 10 be kind Of title that men
wear boastingly. one New Yorker says
to another: whats your college?" as
one crusader might have asked another
for his coat Of arms.
I'm Yale" says the other; It is a
nag. gonfalon. a pennant; It flaps In
the air.
I'm Harvard" says the one; Il is
plume, a ribbon. a lace edging.
They look at each other with occult
approval. as though they We're bottles
Of rare wine. They have erected the
perfectly plain matter OF getting an
education into kind Of pitifui aristoc.
racy. Now 1t is a sad and certain thing