Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-05
SINCE YOU INSIST
A Talk With Ajax

friend Ajax as we met him crossing
Market street where do we go from
here?"
Underneath this motortruck, unless you
look sharp" replied Socrates; II am sorry
to see that you cross the street without
phore.'
II know a nearby groggery," said Ajax,
where I will blow il you will condescend
to impart some of your philosophical con-
fusion"
mo man ever needs to speak to me
twice in that tone of voice." retorted
Socrates, and the pair made their way to
a modest cathedral down a by-street.
AJAX-Well, my dear, throw your lip
over this What have you been doing?
SOCRATES-How can you ask? Here's
luckO Watching the map. The British
are only seven miles from Cambria. In
fact, they are said to have reached the
Breberes Moeuvres switch, as the military
writer's call it.
AJAX-A few more OF those switches
and Hndenburg will be backed into the
roundhouse.
sOCRATEs-How envy you your high
spirits, Ajax.
AJAX We all have our weaknesses,
Socrates
SOCRATES-That Is true. myself
cannot trim the nails on my right hand;
! have to get Xantppe to do it for me.
AJAX-I see in the paper that the
Crown Prince has given the German peo
oil Of
that the word victory means that we in
tend to hold our own and not let ourselves
be vanquished"
SOCRATES-He seems to speak with
the convincing assurance of a suburban
husband returning to his wife after an
evening at the club.
AJAX-But, Socrates, did not buy you
drink merely to hear your light waggish.
ness. Save that stuff for your column.
Do not waste it on me-
SOCRATES - What is on your mind,
dear boy?
AJAN-I have been wondering whether
humanity is really competent to solve the
problems that confront it,
SOCRATES-Of course not. Ny friend,
| If you ever find humanity a bit boastful
about it's ability to conduct it's affairs, just
| refer it to the Lost and Found department
| of any newspaper. Do you not think that
! is a sufficient indictment of modern civ
| ilization?
| AJAN-Ah, Socrates, you give the mat
ter a sprightly turn. But it is the lost
hearts and hopes of humanity that trouble
| me: not the umbrellas and mouse-traps
| dropped in the subway.
| SOCRATES-My poor fellow, you have
been riding in the subway again? No
wonder you are depressed.
AJAX-Not at all. I have been think.
ing what believe must have come to many
men recently You know 1 am included
| in this new draft, and as I have no chill
| dren and my wife is we'll provided for 1
do not doubt I shall speedily be called
| upon.
| SOCRATES-And quite right too.
AJAN-Very true; and l shall be glad
to do my part. But what I have been
thinking is, how little we appreciate the
beauty and interest of our daily life until
we are about to part from it.
| SOCRATES - No man appreciates the
discomforts of home until he loses them.
| AJAX-Please don't misunderstood me-
| Neither l nor any able-bodied man will
| be sorry to do his duty in any way posi-.
BILE. But now that l realize that I may
| be taken out of the habitual routine of
my life it saddens me to see hJw pitiably
l missed the lovely and enhancing and
| fascinating phases of existence that were
all around me and which 1 took as a mat
| ter of course.
sOCRATES-My dear Ajax. think you
| boa, ba hot
is due it. I remember your telling me
how charming the profile of your stenog-
rapher was when silhoueted against your
office filing cases.
| AJAX-I look along the streets, l see
life that flows about us, infinite in color
and form, in joy and perplexity, and I tell
you it grieves me to think how pale and
shallow has been my appreciation of it all.
Do you realize how many aspects of beauty
| surround our humdrum life? Think of the
| blue flame of the kitchen gas burners !!
Never, until last night, did I understand
their hilarious beauty of color. And the
slver-green simmer of water in my por-
celain bathtub there is a big poplar tree
Just outside our bathroom window, which
lends green reflection to the water in the
tubt-how marvelously beautiful that is!
1 watch the shop windows and the faces
Of people in trolley cars, and think with
poignant regret how much of the signif
canoe of life | missed.
SOCRATES-1t is very unfair to Pro-
vost Marshal Crowder if you go and get
yourself in a morbid state Of mind just
before he drafts you.
| AJAX-You are very unfeeling. But
there again is a thought that troubles me
You know I love my wife dearly, but we
have had our little squabbles. I should
hate to think, if anything happens to me
that her second husband might treat hel
better than l have.
SOCRATES-It is you who are unfeel