Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-10
THE GOWNS MAN

Nov, Of organizations that we have
~ thrust upon us the chefest are char.
table and literary. For nineteen centuries
good men have been deeply concerned in
the saving Of their own souls; now we are
the conduct, the nutrition and the manner
OF getting born of other people. Charity
is dead: it decayed with Charles Lambs
beggars of the metropolis and has long
since been literally organized into a late
and dishonored grave. Has the Gownsman
a reader so demoralized that he would
throw penny to beggar or a bone to
dog? Or If he has been guilty of such an
indscretion, will he not see to 1t that the
next beggar receives a soup ticket or an
investigation slip or something equally
proper and organized and that the next
wandering cur is caught by the authorities
therefor provided and sent to the bourne
whence no puppy has ever returned?
LITERARY and learned societies are
- the very fungi of the worlds intellec-
tual activity. Like the fungi they spring
up over night in almost any close, warm
atmosphere and flourish in a variety of
form, color and attractiveness. And, like
the fungi once more, it Is next to impossi-
BILE to know of which one dare partake
and which do flourish merely "for delecta-
ton unto the eye, albeit they be rank unto
them which have not strong stomachs."
1t must be conceded that the gregarious-
ness of literary folk far exceeds that Of
sheep. Has the reader ever noticed that
sheep are apt to feed all headed one way,
scenting the air of morning as a flock,
turned tail-if sheep have tails-to biting
wind ensemble? This today is one Of the
ways of literary societies which are wont
to lubricate-fne worldly program, to
study together, knit their brows in thought
together and meet and discuss in ordered
wise. Especially do literary and learned
folk eat together: for, like every sheep,
every member of such a society whom the
Gownsman has been onored to know eats
well.
Some also drink
A GENTLEMAN of middle years and
\ anxious ways once called upon the
Gownsman ito interest you. sir, In an i'm.
portant movement which am now setting
on foot"
Hoping against hope for something new,
the Gownsman bade his guest be seated
and to go on.
Now come from the West, where, you
know, we do things"
The Gownsman nodded assent to the
first, an obvious truism
In my native town we have a literary
society, sir, 700 strong. I find nothing like
that in Philadelphia. Sir, it is crying
need / want to interest you in the foun-
dation of a literary society in which Phila.
delphians can begin the study, sir, mind
you, the serious study, of poetry"
But my dear sir, there are already forty
such, of twenty or more of which am a
reluctant member, or officer for aught I
know to the contrary"
And only modesty prevents the Gowns
man from reeling off the list of honors of
this kind which are his
May modesty, begone; who cares? The
Gownsman cut his eye teeth in the
Browning Society, which in his day beat
out our western pioneer with member.
ship of 993 women and seven men, The
Philadelphia Shakespere Society - mark
well the distinctive speling-had read
twenty Of the plays of Shakespeare and,
making a menu card out of quotations
from each, had dined on II before the State
from which our Westerner- came was even
founded Is 1t for nothing that BENJAMIN
Franklin, who founded the Franklin Inn,
the PUBLIC LEDGER. Hogg Island and the
Northern Opera up at Poplar street, also
founded the American Philosophical So