Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-11-02
SINCE you INSIST



No man knows what awaits him wher
he opens a door. Even the most familia,
| room, where the clock ticks and the hearth
glows red at dusk, may harbor surprises
The plumber may actually have called
while you were ouO and fixed that leak.
Ing faucet. The cook may have had nj
OF the vapors and demanded her passports
The wise man opens his front door with
humility and a Spirit of acceptance.
b Which one of us has not sat in some
anteroom and watched the inscrutable
panels of a door that was full Of mean
Ing? Perhaps you were waiting to apply
for Job; perhaps you had some deal
you were ambitious to put over. You
watched the confidential stenographer fit
in and out, carelessly turning that mystic
portal which. to you, revolved on hinges Of
fate. And then the young woman said,
"Mr. Cranberry will see you now" As
you grasped the knob the thought flashed.
when open this door again, what will
have happened?"
THERE are many kinds of doors. Re-
l. volvng doors for hotels, shops and pub
lie buildings These are typical of the
brisk, bustling ways of modern life. Can
you imagine John Milton or William Penn
skipping through a revolving door? Then
there are the curious little slated doors
that swing outside barrooms and extend
only from shoulder to knee. There are
trapdoors, sliding doors, double doors, stage
DOORS prison doors, glass doors. But the
symbol and mystery of a door resides in
it's quality of concealment. A glass door
is not a door Nat all, but a window. The
inside; to keep the heart in suspense.
n LSO, there are many ways of opening
DOORS There Is the CHEEKY push of
elbow with which the waiter shoves open
the kitchen door when he bears in your
tray of supper. There is the suspicious
and tentative withdrawal of a door before
the unhappy book agent or peddler. There
is the genteel and carefully modulated re-
cession with which footmen swing wide
the oaken barriers of the great. There is
the sympathetic and awful silence of the
dentists maid who opens the door into the
operating room and, without speaking,
implies that the doctor is ready for you.
There is the brisk cataclysmic opening of
a door when the nurse comes in very early
in the morning-"It's a boy!"
nOORS are the symbol of privacy, or re.
~ treat, of the minds escape into blissful
quietude or sad secret struggle. room
without doors is not room but a hallway
No matter where he is, a man can make
lit
mind works best behind closed DOORS Men
are not horses to be herded together. Dogs
know the meaning and anguish of doors
Have you ever noticed puppy yearning
at shut portal? 1t is a symbol of human
life.
THE opening of doors Is mystic act:
L it has in it some flavor Of the unknown,
some sense of moving into new moment,
a new pattern of the human rigmarole.
1t includes the highest glimpses of mortal
gladness: reunions, reconciliations, the
bliss of lovers long parted. Even in sad
ness. the opening of door may bring
relief: it changes and redistributes human
forces. But the closing of doors is far
more terrible. 1t is a confession of finality.
Every door closed brings something to an
end. And there are degrees of. sadness in
the closing Of doors. A door slammed is
a confession of weakness. "A door gently
shut is often the most tragic gesture in
life. Every one knows the seizure of
anguish that comes just after the closing
of a door, when the loved one is still near,
within sound of voice, and yet already far
away.
TNHE opening and closing of doors is a
L part of the stern fiuency of life Life
will not stay still and let us alone. We
are continually. opening doors with hope,
closing them with despair Life las.s not
much longer than a pipe of tobacco, and
destiny knocks us out like the ashes.
The closing Of door is irrevocable. 1t
snaps the packthread OF the heart. 1t is
no avail to reopen, to go back. Pinero
spoke nonsense (but, as usual, brilliant
nonsense) when he made Paula Tanqueray
say, 1.-The future is only the past entered
through another gate" Alas. there is no
other gate When the door is shut, 1t Is
shut forever. There Is no other entrance
to that vanished pulse of time. "The
moving finger writes, and having writ
FTNHERE is a certain kind of door-shut.
L ting that will come to us all. The kind
of doorshutting that is done very quietly.
with the sharp click of the latch to break
the stiffness. They will think then, one
hopes, of our unfulfilled decencies rather
than of our pluperfected misdemeanors.
Then they will go out and close the door.
Skip This
The only lasting bays that Wilhelm will
get out of the war will be the baize where
the Versailles council is sitting.
Where They Bit
Turkey signed the armistice on the
island of IIAmmons=NeW York Herald