Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-29
THE CHAFFlNC DISH
On Burning the Candle
at Both Ends
IF A man devotes the same intense pas

IF man devotes the same intense pas
L sion to his work that he does to his
play he is said to burn the candle at
both ends" Almost all philosophers, and
some employers. decry this.
And yet burning the candle at both ends
has, its advantages. If a man takes his
recreations seriously enough there is al.
ways a chance that his seriousness may
carry on, by kind Of momentum, into his
work at the office.
Consider the notable examples in the
world today of those who have attained
fame and fortune by burning their tallow
both east and west simultaneously. Hin
denbure for instance. There Is no other
man who has made such success of
being alive and dead at the sames time
Whenever Foch makes a gain. Hindy Is
lying doggo, dead as curates egg. But
when the Germans advance a little It is
always Hindy who gets the credit.
Let your intellect beam for an instant
upon Lenine and Trotsky. Their situation
has been a difticult one they have seen
meals tBolshevictuals are scarce in Rus
sh) But by insisting on both eating theiE
cake and having it., by offering non
resistance to their enemies and declara.
tions Of war to their friends, they have
successfully burned their taper both top
and bottom. II they aren't snlothered by
the melting wax they may yet come
through Fearing that Russia would be
displayed before the world III state OF
unidentified dshabille. all the Allies have
been hustling to hook her UP the back
(preferably somewhere in Siberia). but Le-
nine and Trotsky seem to think the game
is hardly worth the scandal.
And of course the Kaiser! His candles
are Roman candles. They eject all manner
of colored stars firing from both ends
but generally singeng the German people
no matter in what direction they are
aimed The Kaisers method Of double
burning his candle was to be both pacif1st
and militarist in the same breath. Drill
ing his enormous Armies and preparing
them to feed on the raw and bleeding
flesh Of other nations, he also proclaimed
himself the greatest peacemaker in the
world He reminds us of Ny. Chesterton's
remark about thieves. II must not be
, supposed said Chesterton, that thieves
have no respect for property. On the
contrary. he cried roarins with mirth).
they wish TO make it their own so that
they may more perfectly respect it.
So with Wilhelm Feeling in his bosom
this flaming zeal for peace, he wishes no
one else to have anything whatever to do
with her except on his own terms. He
sees a vision Of so perfect peace passing
all Anglo Saxon understanding. a peace
so eloquent with gutturals and good disci-
pline and grain from the East, that he is
willing to set the earth in flames for ,its
contamination. Surely, as he has sacri-
feed more for his conception of peace
than any other man in the world, he may
logically call himself the prince of paciflsts.
There is a young poet, Miss Edna st.
VINCENT Millay, who has whimsically given
expression to the beauty of the double
candle philosophy. She says:
My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night
But ah, my foes, and, oh, my friends
II gives lovely light!
That, in dogged and subconscious way,
is Just what the Kaiser feels The Ger
man people and the German Gott are
only the guttering wax of his ambitious
candle. He is burning it out furiously,
both East and West The fact that the
illumination is provided by the anguish
of a world ir flames bothers him not at all.
He likes light both lime and cannon.