Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-08-21
The Cosmopolite and the Provincial


TT IS reported that a gentleman once en-
tered the breakfast room of his club in
state of utter observation-disclosures as well as
otherwise insufIicently clad. Suddenly awak-
enng to the deficiencies of his toilet, he re-
marked to the attentive and silent servant
somewhat deprecatingly
John, did you observe that had forgot
anything this morning."
"Since you mention 1t, sir, ! believe ala
notice that you hadn't put on your coat,
sir--or your trousers"
The story is less credible as to any gentle
man." British or other, than as to the serv-
ant though no one can claim to be well
bred who has not cultivated, n we'll
disciplined blind side In London one sunday
afternoon at the Tate Picture Gallery, few
years ago, a great hulking fellow stalked
about coatess, in a "shirtwaist" which would
have been called shamelessly decollete had a
woman worn it, his hairy legs bare to the
knees, sans shoes or even sandals; but no
one in the crowd turned eye or lorgnette to
look at him. You may walk the streets OF
London in the costume of Benjamin Frank
lin, shadbelly waistcoat and all, or In that
Of Pericles, as Isadora Duncan's eccentric
brother actually did, and even the coster-
mongers won't notice you. This it Is to be
metropolitan. cosmopolitan.
rTNHE provincial, not to the manner born, is
II
detachment. The Gownsman remembers an
afternoon at the home, in Golder's Green, OF
that genial and kindly English gentleman, eX-
cellent author and scholar. Ernest Rhys The
company was interesting and drawn from the
four quarters of the globe. An Indian prin-
cess, or grandessa at the least-if there is
such a thing as a feminine grandee and the
word is applicable outside of Spain---fell to
your modest Gownsman'S lot. She was mot
fair as other maidens be-" though her fea-
aPPreSSiNaly
young In complexion to be accurate. verify
she darkened the lady of Shakespeare's SON.
nets and all other "black ladies'" She was
cultivated and voluble in perfect English
protesting a warm personal solicitude for
the poet Arthur Symons, who at the time
lay dangerously i'll. and talking fiat treason
respecting British rule in India. But what
troubled the Gownsman most were the lady
dusky arms and ankles especially her ankles,
which were garnished with prodigiously
sparkling ankets - and bracelets - from
which even the gorgeous costume. clothing
an admirable figure, could not wholly entice
| the curious provincial eye. The Gownsman,
thanks to primeval initiative instinct, Is
| happy to say that he achieved. on this occa-
| sion, a. mien of sufficiently blase and WELL
| bred indifference; just as If dusky, treason
| able risque Indian grandessas were, more or
less, a daily matter Of course with him. But
he still wonders whether 1t might not have
| been worth his reputation as cosmopolite
| to have yielded to temptation when she
passed him later. so as to have seen just
how an Indian princess looks en- passant.
| Perish the thought that princess could have
| had the slightest curiosity as to the rear
| ward of a gownless Gownsman from beyond
| the western sea. But how can he now tell?
| OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES once noted
| ~ a popularity characteristic, he declared
| of every New England town with which he
| had ever been acquainted; the axis of the
| earth sticks out visibly in the center of that
| town and the rest of the earth moves more
or less in the manner of satellite about it.
| 1t is doubtful II this popularity is wholly a
| gives it as his private opinion that the tower
Of City Hall is only built up SO high and SC
| hideously to hide that whiring axis whereor
| the world swings, with our Billy Penn fit
| tinRly screwed onto the obtrudng end As
| YOU stand in the yard you can hear the
whirr-if your ears are long enough; ant
| the accident that the tower stands a littlt
| north of center-notce 1t as you pass-give.
| that preponderating social and politica
| weight to Walnut street, Spruce street anC
| South street. to say nothing of the Neck
| which all observers have noted as peculiar
| 10 the Philadelphia variety of provincialsm
| II is this ecliptic-to use a learned term
| which accounts, too. for our Variability, 8,
to speak. in politics as we'll as for some othe
local portents.
| rrtfIE Germans are the most provincial peo
Il il pie In the modern world. II provincIalisn
5ncann q pie-headed insbility to see thing
n an any uofDt e IioW except your own