Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-06-29

"No,' said Gerry, drawing roll of
bills. 'Hcw much is the passage to
PERI ambuco?"
Tie purser fdgeted. ''This is irreg-
ular. SIR
as it," said Gerry, indiferentIy.
Il have no ticket FORMS" said the
purser, weakening.
Il don't want ticket" said Gerry.
~ want good room and three square
meals q day"
Long, quiet days on a quiet sea are
a master sedatiye to troubled mind.
Gerry had a great deal to think
through. He sat by the hour with
hands loosely clasped, his eyes far out
on the ocean. tracing the course of his
married life and measuring the
grounds for Alix' arraignment. Gerry
was just and generous TO others faults
but not to his own. He had forgotten
the sting of Alix' words and. TO his
growing amaZement, saw in himself
their justification. A time-server. he
certainly had been. But he reviewed
the lives Of many other men in his
own leisurely class and decided that
he was not without company. After
all, what was there in America for
such men to do except make more
money?
For the first time he was struck by
the narrOWness of American life.
There was only one line of effort
The whole people thronged a single
causeway. They made a provincial
demand that all should dress alike.
look alike, think alike. They pressed
on in a body to the single goal of
wealth and when they got there they
were lost.
1ndiyidualtsts We're rare and unwel-
come. Boys stoned Cinnamon because
they were different; they followed
turbaned Asiatic, strayed to an I'm
friendly shore, with jeers; an astOund-
ed Briton, faultleSsly dressed, found
his spats the sensation of a street.
Each of these incidents Gerry had wit
messed with amusement and dismissed
without a thought. Now they became
so many Weather-vanes all pointing
the same way. How was it Alan had
summed up the history of America?
Men, machinery, machinesr'
With the thought of Alan his brow
puckered. Here he felt no impulse to
indulgence. Some day he would meet
Alan and when he did he would break
him. The sc0rn he had expressed to
AliX for Alan and Alan's nature was
without understanding but it was gen
u1ne. He knew there were such men
and he ascribed all their acts to a de
basement beyond regeneration and
none to temperament. From moral
laxtty there was no appeal beyond the
sin itself.
The landfall of Pernambuco awoke
him from reverfes and 1ntrospectiOn.
He did not look upon this palm-strewn
coast as a land of new beginnings-he
sought merely a Lethean shore
The ship crawled in from an oily
sea to the long strip of harbor behind
the reef. Above, the sun blazed from
a bowl of unbroken blue; on land,
the multicOlored houses spread like
rainbow under a dark cloud of brown
tiled roofs. Giant plane trees cast blOts
of shade on the cobbled esplanade
of the boat quay. In their shelter a
negress squatted behind her basin of
CONSCIOUS and another before a tray
Of fried fish. Around them lounged
ragged crew, boatmen, stevedores
and riffraff, black, brown and white.
Beyond the trees was a line of high
succeed houses, each painted a diff
ferent color, all weather-stained, and
some with rusted balconies that threat
ened to topple on to the passer-by.
One bore the legend, Hotel d'Europe."
There Gerry installed himself.