Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-04-02
Travels in Philadelphia
A Stroll Down Maiden Lane

casks, butts and hogsheads Of every
fashion and hue-painted oil barrels
with smooth rounded sides and open
bungholes, waiting for their next trip to
England or France, old black tar bar.
rels that smell heavily of the sea, and
tall rough cylindrical tubs bound with
split saplings. At the corner Of the
yard is a noisy factory laboring to pro-
duce still more barrels to coop up some
part of the wealth and labor of the town
and send IL out over the earth.
On west over the little bridge that
spans the railroad track, at Wharton
street, came on region Of little
houses whose fronts were all enlivencd
with intimate portraits and personal
inscriptions in white and yellow chalk.
True to the spirit of spring the pre-
vailing accent of these wall decorations
is always on one of the moods of love.
Johnnie Fisher is Ida's fellor' fur
nishes the keynote Of them all. and
more dramatic encounters are hintcd at
in such open letters as MARY. | seen
you kiss Freeman Makbride--Joe, :"
which was followed on the bricks below
by this sharp rejoinder in round girl
ish hand, II dispies you Joe-Nfary."
The portraiture is mainly Egyptian,
save here and there where an inspired
sketched in ample areas Of mouth and
eyes, constructs five pointed star
where the nose might be and labels the
confectioD, MY teacher"
7 TURNED down Thirty third street
walking by the edge of SINGERS
Park, until l came to point where a
block of red brick houses lay facing
the open fields. The people were all out
on the front stoops, and several small
babies in elaborate perambulators were
enjoying the warm air while their
mothers stood gossiping or staring at
the passing stranger. At this block $
end the brick pavement turns the cor
ner and l stepped on along a soft dirt
path that ran beside country road.
called Maiden lane. The city had ended
after that last effort to assert its power
and traditions in the little row of closely
built houses, and as | passed on
heard before me the cluck of innumer
able hens and the bark of host of
barnyard dogs.
TNHE farmhouses down Maiden lane
L are all Of old red brick well used to
the ground. They still seem to be the
outbOsts of settlement. and still boast
windows Of country seats. The barns
are rarely larger than the houses and
the modern farm tradition of cramping
the human walls to save bricks for the
cattle had no place in the minds of their
builders.
As ! passed along the fences by these
ancient doors, the dogs charged up to
the gates. the young kids and lambs
trotted over to notice me, and the air
was shrill with the raucous challenges
Of roosters out strutting in the sun.
Your full grown rooster is an of
fensive animal. for he is superior to
all creation. As | leaned over the gate
in front of a shed where a gang Of farm
hands were smoking after their dinner,
/ was much taken down by the insolent
gaze of one tall white Leghorn. who
crowed up into my face In n magnifi-
cent defiance of ali the offensive powers
of man. Beside him there scratched
along three hens. two black as coal, the
other a dusty reddish white. Hardly
had the male bird thrown out his head
to sfrill at me when the cry was taken
up from behind little clump of shrub
berry along the fence, and out dashed a
rival GROWER of that resplendent coloring
of blended scarlets, purples. black and
vermilon known as Rhode Island Red.
His blazing neck feathers spread out like
chrysanthemum petals. He rufflod his
tail and tapped his dark wings, all the
while bearing down on the white rooster
who affected to take no notice, and stood
gazing insolently up into my face.
Then. with swoop like the flash OF
hawk, the dark bird was upon his
victim. There was wild ear splitting
! sQuawk. and the white rooster. all dig
/ nifty forsaken, scuttled off in a shower
| Of pale feathers. He ran on down a
plow track without daring to glance be
hind, but numbering after him. still
faithful in that darkest hour. waddled
that lone white hen. The other two
heartless opportunists as they were
clucked up and pecked for worms al
the very feet of the victor.
EURTHER on, by an old tall house
l. with an observatory on the roof
Maiden lane takes a sharp turn to the
east. Southward, beyond this turning
rises a congeries of the strangest forms
that ever vexed a city's skyline. With {
little stretch of fancy one may behold
down here the architecture of the plane
Mars or. when the twilight falls. may
believe himself to be gazing off into
city Of the year 10000 A. ID. Tall col.
umns. row on row, with huge boxes or
their heads. like the ruins of some tire
mendous Hypostyle in the wastes of 9
future Karnac, or off to the right
where a row of decks, red stacks. spar.
and bridges stretches out westward will
men scrambling about on the upper
works or climbing down the spindly lad
ders, with no stretch of fancy at al
one may conceive q new type of build
ing that has grown up out of the sea
for the thing seems veritable oceaI
steamship up high and dry on the land
All these are merely pressure stills o.
the Atlantic Refinery. but l refuse t,
have my wonder dashed by a prosai
name. Whatever they are they are
none the less. strange things to behold
That" shifts a jaded young The
ban in the days of Alanepthah, lis onl!
our latest temple" "Oh--only you,
latest temple" drawls his Nubiar
cousin. Bother all that! Let US g
fishing in the Nile"
DEHIND these curious forms rise thu
ID tall red reservoirs of the gas works
which have grown as familiar to ou
eyes as trees and chimneys or, indeed
more familiar, for ! scarcely noticed
; them at all as my eyes swept bacl
over the fields among the scattered oil
|, brick houses.
AS went down the lane toward tn,
~ city faced the stilted bulbou
domcs of the orthodox Greek Church
whose five gold crucifixes. each with it
triple bar. struck the sunlight into m!
, eyes. Then to the southward stretche,
out region of gray ash dumps; 1t will
hardly be believed, ] suppose, that ther
,,,oro sc ,,ybita Voats hrowsinP at thei