The New York herald., 1920-01-11
By BENJAMIN DE CASSERES.
= OUTWARD, no! the five star En-
: pire Of. Thirst takes Its way!

More tnan one Huhuioo ''ioA"
Americans have deported themselves
to Havana up to date.
What is the physical and psychological
secret involved in this fact?
There is Cambodian in the woodpii5
aomewhere. There is Il puss in the bag.
There is milk in this cocoanut-or--si,-h-h- !.
lis the milk alcohol?
IT was just three hundred years ago that
the Pilgrim Fathers came here to find
place to air their prejudices and plant the
acorn that finally blossomed into the
t'pas oak called the Eighteenth Amend
Hlent to my alcoholic constitution.
Today, as il to celebrate that rnomertous
event with that touch of irony for whicn
History and its wet nurse. Madam Clio,
are famous, whole armada of Mayflow-
'rs is speeding south from our more or
less open ports to Havana
The Mayflower was loaded with a God
1earing, roughneck bunch of goodly long
hairs who. fear. loved life we'll, but not
wisely They had rather grotesque ideas
ABOUT pleasure, amuselnents and freedom.
Jhey had Old Adam in chains down in the
ans aaggis. Aphrodite, made over into
M1s. Grundy, darned the socks for the
crew. Bacchus, with his carmine nose
tainted lily white. was water boy.
But on the Mayflower's heading Cuba
ysrd today there is quite another crowd
nd quite another bunch Of seagoing gods.
DID Adam stands on the bridge. Bacchus
runs the bar. Aphrodite does the "shim-
N.Y. in the social hall" O. nights Jack
talstaff strolis the main deck arm in arm
with Lncullus. 1t is a bad. mad glad
bunch. The New Plymouth Rock Is only
tour days away. Peter Pan, or the soul
OF eternal youth. is in the lookout, up in
the crows nest; and a little after leaving
lorida behind he sings out. Eureka .''--
which is 1920 for Havana.
All for the Open.
All mankind aspires to the Open City.
Maeterlinck may try to put over on US
that all mankind aspires to ghosts. The
Socialists may yawp that all mankind
aspires 70 Justice. Don Marquis may
hammer away day in and day out that
al mankind aspires to Archiehood. James
Huneker may use up all the ink in Flat
bush trying to make us believe that man
sind aspires to John Sebastian Bach.
&Jayor Hylan can wheeze along forever
sbout the proper study OF mankind be-
ing subways. Windy word chefs may
try to convince us that the heart OF man
kind is near to Dustin over definite and
Indefinite Articles j, XI or XII. It's all
ia Of iy,a flat oil y
brew. It's carrying oil to Rockefeller.
Mankind in all ages, consciously or uncon-
sciously. has had but one aspiration--the
OLen City.
The proper study of mankind is lids.
The whole history OF man on this son
OF a bent-light universe has been battle
against archaeological lids, aesthetic
lids, moral lids. legal lids, Blue Law lids,
respectable lids. movie" lids, injunction
lids. love lids. Lusk lids, one O'Clock lids.
cabaret ids. Who will write the book OF
the ages, Mankind VS.. Lids?"
Sir Oliver Lodge. Maurice Maeterlinck
Camille Flammarion and Professor Hys-
Top are trying their ouija board best 20
lift lid-the tombstone. Mankind can dc
ii will not stand for lid. Which proves
that man. il not a spiritual animal. is al
least a sprituous one He doesn't wan,
to be any more moral than he has got to
BE- New York seconds the motion.
The real human human knows that the
lid carpenters are not far removed from
the coffin carvers. He knows that q lid
covers multitude of healthy instincts. He
would rather be lidless than be President
All lid hammerers are sicklied DER with
the pale cast of Bryan. All lid lifters come
with the bay and laurel. They are like
cheques that follow in the mail after the
eviction notice.
History the Proof.
Look at history again. All the gods ano
ereat men that man reveres are lid lift
.rs. There was old Prometheus. who lifted
the lid off Zeus' game of keep 'em down. "
There was Cain-who never got his proper
due-who lifted the lid off Abers lamt
.,ou There was Moses. who lifted the
lid Of Phsraoh's Society for the suppress
sion of Free Speech George Washing
+on Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther
Victor Hugo, Georges Clemenceau, Wall
whitman. Tom Paine, Francois Villon
..,rin,- shine-all lit lifters; the list would
,,u the Pantheon. The man that lifts the
,,a oss New York again will have a statu,
erected to him next to the old duenna dowr
on Bedloe's Island.
All the Utopias--whether dreamed Of b,
sir Thomas More or Rabelais when III
wrote in letters of bronze over tho door
Of the Abbey of Thelemc do as thot
c,,,.r, are variants of the instinct Of mar
For the Open Town.
Havana is not place. IL is an instinct