Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-03-07
TRAVELS IN PHILADELPHIA
A SLICE OF SUNLIGHT
By. Christopher Morley

ABOUT quarter to in the morning.
"A at this time of year, a slice of our
pale primrose-colored' March sunlight cuts
the bleak air across the junction of Broad
and Chestnut streets and falls like a shin
ing knife blade upon the low dome Of the
Girard Trust Building. Among those tow!
ering cliffs of masonry it is hard to see
just where this shaving of brightness slips
through. burning in the gray-llac shadows
Of that stone valley. But there it is, and
it always sets me thinking.
MAN has travelled far in kis strange pill
AV1 grimage and solaced himself with
many lean and brittle husks 1t is, curious
to think how many of his ingenious .inven:
tions are merely makeshifts to render toll
cradle the hardships and limitations he has
imposed upon himself in the name of
civilization How often his greatest.
cunning Is expended in devising some pa
thetic substitute for the joy that once was
his by birthright He shuts himself up in
beet]pg gibraltars of concrete, and thinks:
with pride of the wires, fans and pipes
that bring him light, air and warmth.
And yet sunshine and sky and the glow of
blazing faggots were once common TO all!
He talks to his friends by telephone, tele-
graph or machine written letters instead
of in the heLrt-easing face.to-face of more
leisured times. He invents printing presses
to do his thinking for him. reels of trans
lucent celluloid to thrill him with vicarious
romance. Not until the desire of killing
other men came upon him. did he perfect
the loveliest of his toys-the airplane. How
far in his perverse fight from the natural
sources of joy has his love Of trouble.
brought him! ..- >
So 1t is that one poor, thin, thwarted
flament of sunlight. falling for few pre-.
cious minutes across a chasmed city street.
seems so dazzling a boon and surprise that
he passes enchanted on his darkened pave
ment. Man, how easily you are pleased!
rs THERE any one, in our alternate
L moods Of baffiement and exultation, who
has not brooded on this queer divergence
Of Life and Happiness? Sometimes we feel
that we have been trapped: that Life.
which once opened vista SO broad and
golden, has somehow ,jostled and hurried
us into corner into a narrow treadmil
or meaningless gestures that exhaust our
spirit and our mirth. In recent years all
humanity has been herded in one vast cage
of confusion and dread from which there
seemed no egress. Now We are slowly,
bitterly, perplexedly cropping our way out
OF It.. And perhaps In the dificult years of
rebuilding each man will make some effort
to architect his existence anew creeping
humbly and hopefully little closer TO the
fountains of beauty and strength that lie
all about us. When did we learn to cut
ourselves apart from esrth's miracles OF
refreshment? To wall ourselves I'm from
the suns great laughter. TO forget the
hamboyant pageantry of the world? Earth
has wisdom for all our. folies. healing for
ali our wounds, dusk and music for all
our peeyishness. Who taught us that we
could do without her? Can you hear the
skyiark through a telephone or catch that
husky whisper OF the pines In dicto-