Polk County news. [volume] (Benton, Tenn.) 191?-1983, 1920-09-30

summer evenings. An occa'
sional pair of strollers, en-
braced in the shadows OF the great
Orders, a solitary man whom years
have taught a love Of peaceful places,
a group of small boys lured by the ad'
venture that beckOns from boats ana
moving waters, a duo of schoolgirls,
giggling over secrets Otherwise you
may have the bridge and the quiet
grandeur of the view to yourself, says
n writer in the Christian Science Mon
itOr.
The best time for your visit is that
indefinable quarter of an hour be-
tween sunset and the beginning Of
twilight the hour of color, when COM
monplace objects appear in the rich
tones that fade into dim color under
the intenser light of day.
This evening the blue of the sky
was Just beginning it's dissolution into
twilights gray when l came up the
long approach to the bridge. Family
greenish, it stretched above and be-
hind the great superstructure, which
has the eccentric cuTves of Siamese
temple roofs, with pairs of delicate
needle-spires shooting up from the
gables.
Il am on the bridge, and the city
lies before me.
How can / describe what l seer
Far below is broad flowing river,
with the rich olives and yellow browns
of n moss Jade. To the left, as lean
on the southern parapet, is Queens.
it's low-lying factories and work-yards
now redeemed from their insignlh-
canoe by the rusty browns and yell
lows that they wear. Nearer IS the
symbolic geometry of BlackwelFs is
land, its grass plots emerald with new
grass. To the right, and curving INTO
the background. is Manhattan, rich
in color and, built haphazard as 1t is,
amazingly inevitable in composition.
Brick factories and brick and
brOWnstOne houses built in the SOS
line the shore in the near-foreground
Tonight they glow with incredible
reds and russell browns. The suns
touch fingers in them, and in the warm
grays and yellOws purple, shadowed,
Of the city that rises behind them.
A City on a Hill.
Seen from the greensboro bridge
New York is a city on hill. From
the low buildings that line the shore
touched once with the green OF will
lows that have been miraculously
spared by the tramping city, there is
gradual rise to the heights OF
"down town" The graceful twin
towers of ST. Patrick's, the medieval
bell tower of the Grand Central ter
minal Madison Tower, the Singer
building-I can find them all, though
they are vested from my vantage
with an unaccustomed romance. They
are part of a beautiful painting, mar
monious in color and composition. In
the background. the Williamsburg
bridge stretches In delicate outline,
and beyond it is Brooklyn bridge, a
vague, graceful garland in the fading
light.
The shadows are deepening now,
The towers are blue against the pale
sky, Just sinking into gray, and the
buildings along the shore are losing
their identity. Evening, careful
shopkeeper, is laying gray-blacE
cover over them. Curiously the city Is
seen now in three distinct planes, the
dark shore line forming one, the group
of higher buildings a few blocks back
n second. all In black and white, the
long line of Broadway, blue and pur-
ME Swallowed. the center of the third
In the Evening Shadows.
Ten minutes of tenderly reminiscent
hines and grays. with lights appearing
one Inv one. Wall street Is a town or
n hilltop now, with hundred lighted
windows. Brooklyn bridge is a neck
lace of topazes. My thoughts go a
wandering among the street markets
Of the lower East side, down familiar
WAYS marked out by rows OF lights
And then, Puck-llke, 1t is In Broadway
over which there hangs n delicate gnlo
en- haze. fnta morganis
The supcrslructure Of the bird, is
no longer merely a wonderfui mechan
ism. II has II mystery. It's masses
black and full Of shadows. have taken
on a subtle flavor of antiquity They
nre not steel Orders, erected by meT
with whom one rubs shoulders In the
subway. They are something reared