Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-09-19
THE CHAFFING DISH

before that entrance, and we came to the
best part of the theatre which contained
all the most comfortable seats. An at
tendant came up to me and asked for my
ticket. I replied I had not got ticket,
but wished to buy one. The answer seemed
to come from far, far away: THAT is too
late now! All these seats are taken. If
you have no reserved seat you ought to
have waited at the other entrance with the
crowd and taken your chance. But that
is also too late now. for there is no seat
left there either. You'll have to walk out !"
So / went out into the dusk of the dying
day and found myself on a hillside with a
wide view toward the evening sky, which
was all in haze of deep, dark crimson
color A warning voice said on my right
hand side do you see the doom?" I
looked round and saw an old man with
fine but very serious face and a long
white beard pointing toward the sky And
then it flashed through my mind that the
curious color of the sky could not be caused
by the sun, but that there must be n great
fire somewhere, and l asked. Where does
1t come from?" He replied from Germany"
I said, But surely one cannot see a fire
so far off?'' He shook his head and an
swered, This is not fire. Look! And
as he spoke the mists dispersed and the
setting sun became visible; but one could
see at once that it was a dying sun. 1t
had lost almost all its luster and looked a
hot metal with cracks all over its surface
Small parts had split off and become molten
and now formed tiny balls adhering to the
largo one like drops Of quicksilver. l was
terror-stricken, and it some time until
/ found words: But If the sun ceases to
be, the earth or at least all life on it must
perish, for there will be eternal night and
FROST" Then his face became like the face
of God on the pictures of the Last Judg-
ment, and he said in an awe-inspring
voice: Eyes. the end of all things has
come"
Meanwhile the color of the sun underwent
marvellous changes. There was a deep
metallic blue of an intensity l had never
seen before, and many other colors, mag
nificent but of sinister and gloomy por-
tent. Suddenly, while I was lost in con-
temptation, 1 heard different VOICE the
soft, sad voice of a woman: YES, there
will be no tomorrow I looked and beheld
a beautiful face like Love incarnate. Then
I took courage and said: But If there are
only few hours left, cannot I have these
few hours together with her I love?" An
unspeakably sad smile fitted over her
features as she answered: YES you shall.
She will be here with you soon; for when
I knock and call, every one has to come"
With these words she left me. and 1
woke up.
Speaker Clark, in addressing Genera
Pershing, remarked that Grim visaged wal
hath smoothed her wrinkled 'front.'" thus
making feminine what Shakespeare had de
scribed as masculine.
This was unchivalrous of the Speaker. NJ
lady's front ever gets wrinkled
"Chickens were frying in the cabin, but
that was the only sign of life," says a bandit
story from the wilds of West Chester.
A sign of a pretty pleasant kind of life
say we, after having often looked amorousl,
at a Maryland fry listed on the menu ant
passed on farther down the list.
DAnnunzio is to be starved out, we read
1t may take some time to do it, for mos
real poets have undergone stiff course o
meatlessDess in their youth. 1t was Carlyl
Cor was it George Gissing?) who used :,
say of certain plump writers 'The,
haven't starved enough"
But hunger is a hard foe. D'Annunzi
may have $4,000 men, but if he has NJ
menu the end is near He may scorn tn
league of nations, but the league of ration
will get him.
Scrapple, oysters, and punkin pie-th
heart of the world is not broken yet.
SOCRATES.