Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-01-27
TRAV VELS IN PHILADELPHIA
By Christopher Morley

water and spread out snowy napkin. In
| another moment here is the coffee, with the
generous jug of cream. You splash in a
large lump of ice to make it cool enough to
drink Perhaps the seat next you is empty,
and you put your books and papers on it,
thus not having to balance them gingerly on
your knees. All round you is u lusty SAVIOR
of satisfaction, the tinkle of cash registers,
! napkins f1uttering and flashing across the
counters, colored walters dartng to and fro,
great clouds of steam rising where the big
dishcoVers are raised on the cooking tables
You see the dark brown coffee gently quiv-
ering in the glass gauge of the nickel boiler.
Then, here come the wheatcakes. Nowhere
else on earth, l firmly believe, are they
cooked to just that correct delicacy of golden
brown color; nowhere else are they SO soft
and light of texture, SO hot, so beautifully
overlaid with a smooth, almost intangible
suggestion of crispness. Two golden butter
pats salute the eye, and jug of syrup. 1t
is now :3S.
A s EVERY one knows, the correct thing
is to start Immediately on the first
cake, using only syrup. The method of deal
ing with the other two is classic. One lifts
the upper one and places whole pat of but
ter on the lower cake. Then one replaces
the upper cake upon the lower, leaving the
butter to it's fate. In that hot and enviable
| itself, gently amounting the field of coming
action. Upon the upper shield one smilingly
| distributes the second butter pat, knitted off
| into small slices for greater speed of melt
| ing. BY the time the first cake hes been
| eaten, with the syrup, the other two will be
| ready for manifest destiny. The butter will
| be docile and submissive. Now, after again
making sure of the time e 4O) the syrup
| is brought into play and the palate has the
| al Na1I, I.Na
| added delight of melting butter outweighs
the greater holiness and primal thrill of the
first cake which was CLOSED with syrup only.
You drain your coffee to the dregs gaze
| pityingly on those rushing in to snap up
| breakfast before the O'Clock leaves for New
| York. pay your check and saunter out to the
! train. 1t is Z :43.
| TNHIS, to be sure, is only the curtain
l. raiser to the pleasures to follow. This
has been a physical and carnal pleasure.
| Now follow delights of the. mind. In the
| great gloomy shed watts and twists of thick
steam are jetting upward, heavily coiled in
| the cold air. In the train you smoke two
pipes and read the morning paper. Then you
are set down at Haverford. 1t is like a
fairyland of unbelief. Trees and shrubbery
are crusted and sheathed in crystal, lucid
like chandeliers in the fat, thin light
marvel at the scarlet berries in the hedge,
cleaning through the CLASSY ribs of the
bushes. The old willow tree by the Conklin
gate is etched against the sky like Japa-
nese drawing-it has curious greenish color
beneath that gray sky. There is some mys-
terry in all this. 1t seems more beautiful
than merely mortal earth vexed by sinful
men has any right to be. There is some ice
palace in Hans Andersen which is something
like it. In little grove, the bcughs, bent
down with their shining gaziery, creak
softly as they sway in the moving air. The
evergreens are clotted with humps and bags
of transparent icing, their fronds sag to the
ground. A pale twinkling blueness sifts over
distant vistas. The sky whitens in the south
and points of light leap up to the eye as the
wind turns a loaded branch.
A CERTAIN seriousness of demeanor is
n noticeable on the generally unfurrowed
brows of student friends. AIidyears are on
and one sees them walking, freighted with
precious and perishable eruditon toward the
halls of trial. They seem a little oppressed
with care, too preoccupied to relish the en-
trancing pallor of this crystallized Eden.
One carries, gravely, cushion and an
alarm clock Not such bad theory of life
perhaps-to carry in the crises of existence
cushion of philosophy and an alarum Of
resolution.