Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-01-27
CHAPTER IN

TN THE squalid Hotel Europe Gerry
j occupied a large room that overlooked
the quay Even if there had been bet
ter hotel in town he would not have
moved Here he looked out on a scene
OF never-ccaSing movement and color.
The setting changed with the varying
light. The false rains of the midsummer
season came up in black horses of cloud
driven by a furious wind. They passed
with a Whirl and vertable Clatter of
heavy drops hurled against the earth in
a splendid volley. The long strip of the
quay cmptied at the first wet shot. The
tatterdemalion crowd invaded every door
way and nook of shelter with screams
and laughter. Then the sun again. and
back came the throng to the fresh-washcd
quay.
At night life was still there. Boatmen
slept face down on the stones Long,
lugger-rigged craft crawled heavily by
on the outward tide. Smaller boats, their
lateen rigging creaking with every pun
OF air, slipped by them, Trailer but more
eager to face the dangers of the seas
crashing beyond the reef Last and most
wonderful of all came the fleet of tiny
catamarans-tive long poles pinned to-
gethcr and CentrebOard. Above boom
less sail towering to a point. On such
fimsy contraptions did the little brown
fishermen head for the deep sea- far out
VI sIbnl u ldlu, run OF itl unUNbSllOtlnB
iaith in the landward breeze at night to
bring them home
They did not love work, these men, but
they loved the long loafing after a good
haul. AS on the sea so on land. Through
out the great, filthy, succeed city to its
widespread muddy skirts, where mud
walled, grassthatched houses dotted
huhdred twninS valleys, nobody worked
for competence. They worked for their
nd N,rI,ar -
they turned with light hearts to cigar
cites and the juice of the. cane-time-
servers who denied the very existence of
their overload
Gerry was not lonely. He wandered
interested through all the struggling city.
It's bridges, It's twisted lines of bright
coored houses; its StencheS, its ludiCrous
street cars drawn by jac.:-rabhit mules
or puffy miniature steam engines: its
wonderful suburbs, where great, many
Wlndowed houses raised their tiled roofs
ABOVE long blank walls. glass-crested
ana oVerhung with rioting hibiscus,
climbing fuchsia and blazing bougain-
vlllea, and, looming above ALL the cool
PACK domes of giant mango trees-these
things gave him a thousand new and
delicate sensations. He was discOverer.
Martian come to earth, and he forgot
Ito look back
When he was too lazy TO go to the city
- S"' III tue plttdflOuS balcony OF MS
room and watched the city come to him.
The long quay with its huge plane trees
was the maelstrom of the city's life. 1t
was, not the market but, nevertheless,
hett one could buy anything from a
called saddle horse to queen ant
dressed up as a doll. Piles of fruit dotted
the shade. Golden pineapples lay in a
pool or their own juice The giant manga
rosa largest most beautiful and most
,,hsteless of manSoes. nestled in banana
eaVes twisted to form basket,' its
cheeks or glowing pink turned up to
Satch the eye of the. ignorant or the
ueNolee OF beauty without worth Lesser
nlahsoes were heaped i'm pyramids on the
oate stones. Around these gathered con-
holsseurs, barefooted, bareheaded and
WIN no more clothes than the law de-
ulahus, nut each provided with n long
pointed knife deftly handled Land of
tHe Knife, the more temperate sections
9i the South had named this sister state
Lion OF the North they called themselves
and cheerfully supported prison island
sshefe 100 OF their fellows were in durance
for murder.
threading through piles of fruit and the
rays or vendors OF a dozen forms of
mahdoic came COW with her calf tied
70 heF tail. A shrewd Portuguese attend
su her Customers got their milk fresh,
Sut II was mostly foam, drove of
surheys IN charge of a man with a whip
PASSED by Chickens I'm wicker baskets
siuhg at the ends of a pole; parrots In
nuhdfeds, sure bait for the sailors
money; trays of stuffed humming birds;
!aIs OF dried green beetles; marmosets,
monkeys, macaWs toucans, snakes,
ssepliVe raceoon, each in turn held Gerry
tor It's allotted time
Ihe better classes, Brazilans dressed
ss though they had stepped off the boule-
serds OF Paris and linen-clad merchants
halt-a-dozen nations did not interest
nlin' They We're merely familiar back
st9sld TO the things tnat We're new.
gerry missed his club, but for that he
iolnd substitute.
Slunys, next door to the hotel, was
strange hall OF conviyial pleasure
massive square door, whose masonry cen-
lufles had hardened and blackened TO
stone, gave on TO long hallway that end
81 IN a wider dungeon. Here stood bar
ana half dozen teak tables The floor
va all OF stone flags.
fhe clientele had the cleavage OF OIL
ana water One section stood 10 their
aiink al the bar. had IL and went out.
ne other sat TO their glasses AT the
saples and sat late Among these was
psle thin man of about Gerry's age
Nith a mouth slightly twisted to humor
eapl toward evening drink loosened Il 70
.bsle weakness. one afternoon he NODDED
g Gerry and Gerry left the bar Tor the
tables Aftrr that they sat together' ihe
+aan was an Ameriean-the American