Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-26
THE CHAFFING DISH

upon painted ocean, and all his words
will tell no tale.
Wordess and amazing. the seven lay
all that they are at the doors of the city
yet all her people shun this drab priceless
street and seek the romance of the world
in bright-covered paper.
Every day the tide sets seaward, winds
blow, and Delaware avenue tells old secret
things and bright truth.
ON THE way down to the river one buys
~ paper and turns to the shipping news
Here are an introduction and table OF con-
tents to Delaware avenue. The sun and
tides at Reedy Island and the Brealtwater
are given for the day and one begins to
live in a world where these things matter
greatly. The ships passing in and out of
the lonely, grey-green eXpanse of the Break
water suddenly move in a world of reality
We know the salt swish of water about their
bows. The bells of distant buoys clang
sadly through the mist, a gull flaps through
the grey, as the liners wait for sun and tide
Like the sow-turning pages of an old.
forgotten book the port of Philadelphia is
opening to us.
The list of the names of the ships arrived
and cleared is rich in color and suggestion
of strange ports and far coasts. They
breathe of old days on the, forgetful sea. of
the glory of waste places, of hard. tradition
and the eternal enterprise and restlessness
of men. Kameslt, Ligonier, Lake Flume,
Iver Heath from Liverpool and Fonduce
from Spain, Santa Teresa, Evelyn and Aral,
liner and tramp and tanker wanderers over
the world bearing changing crews over the
familiar seas, they bring to Delaware avenue
all the casual and dsregarded wonder of
the seven oceans, and give to her rumbing
dullness a passing gleam of high enterprise
and far, clean spaces.
On Delaware avenue itself each pier holds
a story or the memory of one that is whis-
pered again at quiet hours by the tapping
oily waters and the insinuating give of
.planking.
S ONE walks north or south from Market
"A street on the far side of the broad cob
bled way, close to the water there appear
in sudden succession, like pictures set deep
in box frames the ships, quietly listing be-
side the long arms of piers Their stirring
names leap out like flames from dingy bows,
on their decks men move in a high crowded
world of rough wonder and the whole strik-
ing reality of these soiled amazing ships come
up from the sea, calls up romance that is
hard and true and undying.
here at the wharves one catches a breath
of the sea blown landward, brackish gust
bearing all the sounds and smells of the
tossing world of ships. In this dock tramp
is lying up for repairs. Her scraped sides
reek of red lead and from her comes the
old strong smell of pitch. There are pungent
odors that stir restlessness and worid-wonder
in landsinen and call to seamen who have
lived little while ashore until they remem-
ber and return to the sea- ,..,
At the next wharf but one lies the Zirkel
clean grey liner, with high freeboard, lean
hull and neat superstructure, clean masts
and booms, She has just finished unloading,
her decks are still wet from washing down,
| and all her bright work CLEANS She Is a
| ship to dream of. cutting through blue bays
| and level, MINDLESS water, or pounding her
| way through slaty swells, rolling. trembling,
! winning through the ugly passion of the sea.
| High above her decks the watch strikes five
/ bells.
| TNIIE stories of Delaware avenue have none
J. of the strained romance of print, no color
| that can be heightened or lost by any words.
| Theirs is the high, clear tang of glorious and
| unspeakable life, of work that is gay and
| brutal of improbabilites and laughter and
| the quick harsh sweep of time across the
sea and land They are irresistible because
| they are made of the secret vagaries and the
| open strength and weaknesses of rowing
| men They catch the eye with great blotches
| of bright truth because they are bizarre and
| unsuspectng. They are epic because they
simply and gloriously are. .........
| Come Again, n. 81
We are greatly pleased to know who wrote
| f'Street Closed" II was III. y. Macauley
| Of 0S42 0gontz avenue, SOcRATEE