Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-01
A Sub Elevated Sonnet

WITH unrespousive rib and callous corn,
w With knees as adamant and elbows steel,
The native rider of the "El'' is born
And never knows the wounds that others
feel.
But we. by fair stenographers insphered,
by portly men and powder serried round,
We scratch ourselves upon our neighbor's
While curses mix with corsets under
ground
For thirty minutes dream we deep OF ease,
OF great armchairs, and meals, and good
cigars,
OF Late again :" and, in the stuffy cars,
See Chestnut street futter in the breeze.
In hopes of girls and heaven, fears of hell,
We daily ride who take the morning lei.
ALEC B. STEVENSON.
Our observant client, Wilson jefferson
has sent us an interesting little essay about
riding in street cars. We have not space to
print all of it, but tile following is too good
to miss
We teH into an Interesting tax With an
old coIored mam & o reGt tcn bfoehs bat
ioho managed to contide to us that the good
old-tqshtoned .ohite peoP%se pc are s ~dgsng RS Ge 3
sides not dying, "ure grot0tng mighty sassy
and ambiguous
We start the Christmas season in high
good humor. All our most pleasant suspi-
cions about the amount of latent kindness
in the breasts of our Clients is hcmologated
by the arrival of a box of lady apples and
large jug of cider from our admirable friend,
Charles G. Bell, of Boonville, Mo. Mr..
Bell leads what we think must be the most
agreeable life possible lie raises apples
and he lives in the town that is sacred to the
corncob pipe industry. And having lived
through Civil War days and good
deal of rough and tumble in his time, he IS
not disposed to undue alarm about the hor-
rible plight of this country at the present
time as a good many of our younger think
ers are.
Judging by the way our colleague, the
Soothsayer, is tackling this sparkling Mis-
souri, cider, we estimate that the jug will
hold out until sunset tomorrow.
As the old joke has it, in the midst of
| life we are in debt. Another delightful
present has come our way, one that will last
! longer than the Boonville cider. One day
| last spring we mentioned the quaint little
| Jungle of back gardens, old brick angles,
| dormer windows and tall chimneys to be seen
| along orange street, Jlt lllJlc hllcy JHdb
| off Seventh Just below Washington Square.
| We said that this little vista seemed to cry
for perpetuation by the cunning hand of Mr..
| Frank H. Taylor, the veteran and we'll
loved artist whose drawings of old Phila
delphia byways will give Immortality to
many a picturesque scene that may not last
much longer Mr.. Taylor went down to
Orange street. fell in love with it (as we
knew he would and has drawn delightful
picture of the view as seen from the rear
windows of the Dreer warehouse, including
Nicholas Biddle's bathtub which lies in the
backyard of the Catholic Historical Society.
| lie has just given us an autographed print
of the drawing, which we dearly prize. Mr..
/ Taylor has done hundreds o. charming
drawings of old Philadelphia scenes and we
hope that he is going to do hundreds more,
for surely there is no other artist who has
quite his affectionate feeling for the lights
and shadows of those queer and humble
prospects that the rambler love7.