Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-11
TIME Gownsman will not sa

Wherefore, fencing for time, he inquired in
tone intended to convey the innocency of
untutored childhood "Now just what may
you mean, may l ask, by keeping up with
the times?' But she was wiser than her
years and parred: '"Tben you have not
received our iterature?" "Your literature
And are you. then, one of those notable
people who write books?' said the Gowns
man ooh, no''-this with great superior
ity-'T follow up our literature by a per-
sonal call, to explain, and--well, to take
orders'' The murder was out; this nice
girl was one of the loathly kind, after all,
"a book soliciter,' n road-that is book
agent masquerading in youth, and the
Gownsman bethought himself of how he had
once rid himself of one of the kind by
brazenly affirming that his education had
been neglected in his youth and that to him
had never been impaired "the mystery of
alphabetic letters;'' and how, in another
/ case, he-or the book agent, man in this
instance and he forgets which-had leaped
out of q window.
DUT soon he was admonished that there is
- literature and literature And his
visitor pointed accusingly to a circular still
unwrapped on the Gownsman's dsorderly
table. "There," she said, "there is some
of our literature. Don't you even open
your mail, sir?'' ''Not always" the
Gownsman somewhat hastily replied. And
there it was, beautiful pamphlet of many
pages, in blue printing and garnished with
yellow, with envelopes, order blanks, re-
ducton in club rates inclosed and a list
of glowing testimonials, to say nothing of
the pictures. "The Crest of the Wave"
an international epitome of epitomes, the
newest news, the newest views. Appraise-
ment of the now; prognostication of the to
be; no reviews, no has -beens; why look
backward? Why burden your children with
school books on history, English, economics,
politics, civics or sociology? Use '"rhe
Crest of the Wave in the schools and keep
abreast of the times And the pictures dis
closed happy families and joyful groups of
intelligent boys and girls, sitting on the
school steps, a copy of 'The Crest of the
Wave in each happy hand or grouped in
numbers enormous. Before taking The
Crest of the Wave l was mudded about the
league of nations mystitied as to bolshevism
and mixed as to D'Anpunzio and Fiume.
Since taking this elixir of knowledge all
these things have become to me absolutely
luminous, and I am writing in the style of
Mr. Hergesheim, Mr.. Drnkwater or Lord
deTabley at will. Yours contemporaneously,
Maize Middleton" ooh, sir" exclaimed the
pleasant young woman, ''you haven't any
idea what beautiful editorials our Mr..
Pshaw, the editor, writes!' "Ah, yes,"
said the Gownsman meditatively, land
Addison and De Quincy and poor Charles
Lamb and Macaulay used to write beauti
full editorials" eyes, sir" said that
pleasant young woman, 'it is true, but
then, they are all dead" And whether she
hn editorials pr oDlv thnce uyho
penned them, the Gownsman knows not even
to the present day.
ITO KEEP up with the timesr to ride on
the crest of the wave, to despise the past
and learn nothing of it, to be strictly con-
temporaneous, up to date and distrustful of
theories, nervous in the presence of ideals
here is the essence of Philistinism and
Philistinism is the enemy of civilization.
Neither do we or our children stand in any
need of being brought up to date There is
nothing so hard to escape as the present
moment with its incessant claims its trivial
obligations, its inanities, it's inroads on
time, patience, taste, sense and strength.
Out of the past we can pick and choose
our acquaintance, our book, the very pas
sage in it. AS to the future, we may
dream But there is no choice in the pres
ent and few dreams. Think of those intelli-
gent children, so vividly pictured with ''The
Crest of the Wave" held docilely in the
hand of each, doomed to read, week after
week, ''the beautiful editorials" of Mr..
Pshaw, to be ever on the trigger, momen-
tarily in the nick of time With every re-
spect for MIR. Pshaw-who the Gownsman
is informed is not George Bernard-can we
| expect these children to remain intelligent? :?
"A sands of contemporary opinion, it is
| never safe to be too sure-eyen of yourself {;
| and above all things is it unwise for any
man to patronize his grandfather. The old
| fellow lived in his present as we live in ours
| and saw about as far without his spectacles
| as we see without ours. AS to the thing
\ we call the present, it is somewhat discon
certing to realize that this sentence as it is
writing is already in part thing of the
past. And never has a doctrine been SO
| abused and misapplied as that of evolution
| with the corollary that the grade of human
betterment and advance is at the angle OF
an ascending rocket. 1t is a daring idea
this of ''The Crest of the Wave,' to pit its
beautiful editorials as subjects and
sources for the study of history, language
politics and the like against the literature
and the history of the world and the world
commentary on all these things besides. II
is almost admirable in its : complacepcy
But come, let's go back into the past some
where and play awhile; let's not keep ur
with the times.