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

~ NE Of the pleasures Of living In
New York is that one can get
~ on a train and go somewhere
else: and I wanted to go some
where else. New York was a wilder
ness Of snow heaps and glaciers. The
street cars could not run. The taxi
cnbs wallowed in the snow. Traffic was
dead. IL was "A silent city. Nothing
was heard but the chirping OF the
Mayor and the twittering Of his feath-
cred commissioners. tThey were prais-
ing each other in bright. eager, STAG
cato voices.) And meanwhile the streets
were choked and silent.
Here and there was a hole in the
ground into which one could descend.
There one found files OF trains creep
ing through the dark long intestines Of
the city. And the trains were crowded
with men who had neither patience nor
taciturnity. In loud rude voices they
cursed the eager little Mayor and his
chipping commissioners and spoke harsh
words OF "reform''--as though that poor,
tattered wenCh OF the ideal had any
thing to do with efficiency. And they
talked Of big Bill' as though he were
some sort OF tribal god, who had once
been good to New Workers. OF is a
city of strange godsp
At last | emerged from the dark In
testine. A black man In a red cap led
me. And We came to a piIlared temple
which had started out to be the Parthe
non and then decided to go on and be
n hundred of them. ! know, Of course,
he principle on which New York archi-
lecture Is based. when New Yorker
builds a church. for instance he tries
10 make IL look like "A music hall or "a
grotto OF sardine box or anything that
ISN'T q church. when he erects q bank
building his idea OF aesthetic fitness is
to make IL look like the church OF the
Madeleine. q went into a cosey office
building the other day and was con-
sronted By the great staircase OF the
opera house IN Paris--done small 80 as
not to take up valuable space)
SO. knowing that all New York archi-
tects are mad. | was sure the temple
was something else. But what II was
couldn't imagine. ! looked up at the
towering pillars. II was too big for a
bank and yet what save money could
one worship in this hugh sanctuary?
Boldly the black man in the red cap
went in: and ! followed.
An immense hall, with great steps
going down at the further end, along
the sides were little bright shops with
fruit and flowers and sweets and books
and musical instruments. and we walked
on--I and the black man-past the
shops and down the stairs and on and
on, until ! stopped him and said
Brother. for all men are brothers. and
your dark hue does not offend me. will
you kindly tell me what this monrrous
temple, without affairs and without
priests, is used for now? What tribal
god was worshlpped here, wha, Big
Bl?"
And he said: Dis am de- Pennsyvanny
Station
And II really was a railway station.
don't know what architect conceived
that noble idea. but | should like TO
meet him and lift the oval dome of MS
! pcrfumed head and stare down into his
brain cells and watch them go round
ana round. Perhaps then I should learn
why he lancied 4 railway station, a place
where one goes to miss trains and buy
newspapers, Is an opera house or q
! Pa.ais Bourbon or a temple, into which
one enters as into "a mysterious domain
Of faith. II is. or should be. a railway
station. with infinite patience and at
great cost We are building up massive
Jokes Of steel and granite-and how our
little sons will roar at them twenty years
from now, Al the Roman arches and
ogival chapels and Turkish domes
perched on the tall, aTronting sardine
hoNes.)
My black brother bought me a tickle,
and led me down IA narrow iron ladder
and put me on q train and in a few
U l.