Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-04-17

TTNHERE is a blue sky over Paris-so clear
L and Cloudless that IL any Zeppelin came
before the night 1t would be seen mile high,
as silver ship, translucent from stem to
stern, sailing in an azure sea- One would
not be scared by one of these death-ships
on such a day as this, nor believe, until the
crash came, that 1t would drop down de-
struction upon this dream city, all agltter
in gold and white, with all it's towers and
spires clean-cut against the sky.
1t is hard to think of death and war; be-
cause spring has come to Paris, with its
promise of life. There is a thrill of new
vitality throughout the city. Listen, and
you seem to hear the sap rising in tho trees
along the boulevards. Or is 1t only the wind
plucking at invisible harp strings, or visible
telephone wires, and playing the spring song
in Partisan ears?
In the Tuilerles gardens, glanclng aslant
the trees. one sees the first green of the
year as the buds are burgeonlng and break
ing into tiny leaves. The white statues of
Eoddesses-a little crumbled and weather.
stained after the winter-are bathed in
pale sunshine. Psyche stretches out her
arms, still half asleep, but waking at the
call of spring. Pomona offers her fruit to a
young student who gazes at her with his
black hat pushed to the back of his pale
LOielCiu' w NoLldhHOOu, WIFI ali neT Deduly
carved in stone, in laughing and tragic
moods, in the first grace of glrlhood, and in
full maturity, stands poised here in the gar
dens of the Tulleries, and seems alive and
vibrant with this new thrill of life which Is
pulsing in the moist earth and whispering
through the trees, because spring has come
to Paris.
Through Perfumed Streets
There Is no doubt about II Tho
girls who had been early to Les Haes came
up the Rue Royale this morning with bas-
kets full of violets that all the street
was perfumed as though great ladies' were
passing and waiting scent in their wake
Even the old "cocher who drove me down
the Rue Cambon had put on new white
hat. He had heard the glad tidlngs this old
wrtnkled man, and he claclied his whip to
let others know, and gave the glad eye-a
watery. wicked old eye-to half dozen
mIdlnettes who came dancing along the Rue
st. Honore. They knew-wlthout the white
hat, and the clack of his whip. The ichor of
the air had got into their blood They
laughed without the reason for a Jest, and
ran. in'ia skipping way, because there was
the spring song in their feet
Along the Champs Elysees there is the
pathway OF the sun. Through the Arc de
Triomphe there is glamourous curtain of
cloth OF gold, and arrows of light strike and
break upon the golden figures of Alexander's
bridge. Looking back one sees the dome of
the lnvalides suspended in space like a
cloud in the sky. 1t was painted over to
battle the way of hostile aircraft, but the
paint is wearing off, and the gold shows
through again, glnting and flashing in the
air waves
The Seine is like molten liquid today and
the bridges which span 1t dozen times or
more between Notre Dame and the Pont de
PAlma are as white as snow. and insubstan-
tial as though they brdged the CULTS of
dreams. Even the great blocks of stone and
the bulks of timber which lie on the mud
banks below the Quai dOrsay-it is where
the bodies of suicides float up and bring
new tenants to the Morgue-are touched
with the beauty of this Lady day, and in
vite an artists brush.
The Eihel Tower hangs a eobweb in the
sky. Its wires have been thrilling To the
secrets of war, and this signal station is
barricaded so that no citizen may go near,
or pass the sentries pacing there with
loaded rifles. But today it is receiving other
messages, not of war. The wireless opera
tor, with the receiver at his ears, must have
heard those whispers coming from the earth:
Il am spring. The earth is
waking. I am coming with the
beauty of life. / am gladness
and youth"
Perhaps even the sentry. pacing up and
down the wooden barricade, heard the an
proaeh OF some unseen presence when he
stood still this morning and peered
through the morning sunlight HIATT
who goes thereY "A friana~
Pass. friend ana give the coun-
tersign"
The eounteFsign vas Spring and where