Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-02-12
THE GOWNSMAN
The Snow

daaces you off of the sidewalk with vicious
| whirl from behind an ice coated pavement
concealing its slitherliness beneath an inno-
| cent looking coverlid of snow, deceiving the
unwary who tread too uprightly; mushy
| slush that insinuates its ooze and slime into
| the defective perfoctions of your SIT shoes
and bespatters your cxorbitantly costly
cheap overcoat-are these things in the
nature of winter sports? There is pride
| of the flesh. the. Gownsman doubts not, in
breastng Boreas with open throat la
Walt Whitman and streaming beard-if
one possesses one to stream There is
gamblers delight. very likely to such as bt
gamblers, in traipsing ankle deep in new
snow, spread impartally on ice. i'll that It
is matter for divination to forctell the angle
of your next lurch forward. -sidewse or
backward or to prognosticate to any degree
of uncertainty where anatomically you are
likely to strike when you fall next. And
there are likewise joys of winter which only
the commuter knows and over which charity
would fain draw veil,
THE snow? All yes, there is the beau
l. tiful driving, dancing, scurrying, piling
snow; covering the millonaire's outside
window greenery and other folks ash cans
and garbage pals with an impartial blanket
of white, concealing alike the untidinesses
of householders and the iniquities of con
tractors who only contract See how 1t is
drifting across the street onto your side.
Look how it swirls off of every roof in the
neighborhood except your own, which 1T
overburdens to the prospective enrichment
of roofers. And that pavement-dd you
realize how huge it is? You have just paid
a brigand with shovel a new 81 bill to
clean it off, and he has escaped with the
Job half done and the bill wholly pocketed.
And now it is showing again; and with In
credible devotion to duty the policeman
politely reminds you of your obligation as
householder to keep the footway clear. In
desperation you arm for the fray an old
comforter, a pair of moth eaten mittens-
if you are so fortunate as to find them
that short discarded. misft overcoat---if
Mary has not given it away-the heater
shovel which. accustomed to warmth and
the handling of the black stuf-which some
people call coal-deve'ops an unaccountable
decrepitude in the frigid job of handling
snow. You are not proud; but somehow
you don't just manage to get at it until
toward nightfall, and soon as you are
unmistakably at work your arlstocratic
next door neighbor, who always comes home
about half past 3 o'clock and in meeting
whom YOU usually put on airs, arrives late
man! Glad to see you taking a little exer-
else" And that fashionable Mrs. the
| Swim, with whom you had Irritation be-
| fore YOU met Mary. rolls by in her limousine
and recognizes you only too unmistakably
| alas.
| T1HERE is q certain exhilaration about a
l. snowstorm none the less; it expands
the heart and loosens the tongue. Good
| morning to the postman is said with an un
| usual cordiality, with a word about the
! hardship of his job. You forgive the belated
milkman his belatedness. this time, and the
scores of empty bottles which he leaves un =
gathered in his diligence, thereby increasing
the cost of milk--to you. You even step
into n snowdrift for the charwoman-rare
| creature to cnndescend to work in these days
of opulence-and. with YOUR best Sir Wal
! ter Raleigh manner on, speak pleasantly
| dissembler that you are. You keep your
temper and turn it off 1ippantly when the
plumber-lordly parsonage that he is and
| now comes after tenth summoning to lin
spect' that burst water pipe that is flood
| ing the cellar-is compelled to send back
| his assistant for the third time for a
wrench. which never came in kit but must
be personally conducted alone and in state
from the shop to your house, time running
while.
| rTAS the reader noticed the difference
! II which a snowstorm makes in the usual
sounds of the city? The deep general un
dertone of traffic, which vibrates the
street and through the ground, has ceased,
muf1ed and stifed in its tracks, and il
nlace of it one hears with peculiar distinct
ness individual sounds. Trains which are
usually scarcely audible in the general roar
now go their way putting into the distance
or drawing nearer and nearer as they glide
over bridges to STOP footing for signals tC
nroceed The trolley lines, quieted as tc
noise upon the track. make it up in vocifer
ous changing of bells that wayfarers who
have taken to the middle of the road may
hurry into drifts for safety. Voices seen
to carry further in the snow laden air, anC
| conversations are bawled out across the
street and continued as the speakers draw
away in opposite directions.
TIME Gownsman knows not why. but t.
l. him a graveyard has always seemed
something pre- eminently weird and signif
cant in the time of a fall of snow. Ever!
tomb and obelisk has received its bit or it
mass of added whteness, lodging in strang
places. distorting monuments of pride int
shapes odd and bizarre, festooning the tree
and drapng the shrubbery as with a ney
and impressive mourning and spreading
pail of purity, as with the equal hand @
grace and benediction, on the graves o
saints and sinners alike
A ND now the sun is out once more an
n the white world smiles. Every boug
will lose its feathery spray and every tire
will shed its wintry blossoms, and the pur
gift of the skies will be trodden in til
footways and ground in the streets. carted
dumped and polluted; smoke will sully eve
the whiteness of the roofs We are strang
creatures, we of the cities, living forever i
the CRIME Wherefore let US speed the goin
! of the snow
Since Lord AstOr took his seat in tn
British House of Lords on Tuesday and Lad
Astor will rise from hers in the Brits