The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-09-23
The Quality of Cities.

II one were TO analyZe the qualities
Of cities what widely varying coneep
lions would come. Each one has dis
tinct soul. what the Greeks would have
termed Its ethos. that could be sum
med up In a single word.
When one thinks of London one
thinks of power. It Ia the heart OF
the British empire. Lord Beaconsfield
was right when he declared that the
capital OF India was not Calcutta, Del
hi or Benares, but London. and this
holds true of all divisions and subdivi-
sions of that mighty force whose drum
beat Is heard around the world
Whether beside the swift Saskatchewan,
the sluggish Ganges, along the Rhode
sian yeldt, In the depths Of the eucalyp-
tus forests Of GIppsland, the teak woods
of Gippsland or by the long, low wash
OF Australasian seas" the heart OF the
native turns to London with the hope
and expectation Of one day treading
Cheapside, Piccadilly Circus or the
Thames embankment.
One could sum up the soul of Paris
in tho one word-beauty. Beauty spread
with n lavish hand. not scattered in
wee bits here and there. but covering
the city like the smile of God. II. as
Oliver Wendell Holmes has declared.
Good Americans when they die, go to
Paris" they are fully compensated for
their trials on earth. From the Won
derful Place de la Concorde. the gem
like PARE Monceau and the worlds
most beautiful street. the Champs Ely
sees, to the stately, venerable cathedral
"A miracle in stone that was old when
Peter the Hermit preached the cru
sades- Paris calls to the beauty starved
world to como and feast-and never
calls in vain.
Rome voices antiquity-that is, II you
get away from the garish newness Of
the Via Del Popolo and the crudeness
Of the hideous brickness spreading from
the Via Mazzni like a blight, but in
the Coliseum by moonlight o. by the
templt " Saturn. under the all-wise
stars or along the Via Appta, alone
with the eloquent tombs and an in
curing mind, IT is then that Rome
speaks, the Rome Of Virgil and Horace,
Of IAvy. Cicero, Terence Juvenal and
Plautus, and her voice il never for
gotten,
The life of Athens may be summed
up in the word-ntellect From tho
Acropolis, where the cell OF Socrates
| stnl may be seen. TO the Hill wherein
| Plato walked and taught. the pride and
opulence Of intellectual power may he
dIscerned Though the "Ctty OF the
| Violet Crown" is but a shadow Of her
former self yet through the power Of
intellect that reared the rarthcnon,
| wove deathess songs and approached
as -. II the mystery Of Immortality as
mortal may dare She draws and ever
viii draw the intellect Of mankind,
Jerusalem. despite It's fifth and squat
or; It's blatant materialism its hodge
hodge Of the new and old; It's GIN
crack "Brummagem" ourios for sale
Of all places along tho Via Dolorosa
its cake and koumiss stands near the
waiting Place and the rival caves ~
the Holy sepuleher, hrcathes the very
soul Of ideanty Ideals that have taken
hold upon mankind and taught them
that, though their bodies are brothers
OF tho dust, their souls are sisters OF
the spheres.
New York breathes the very essence
of change. All Ia turmoil and tumult
where the shouting never dies. PeopI,
running rcstlossly to and fro, on tner
island ant Hill. Streets always being
torn up or rnlaid, houses being tori
down to make way for stores and stores
being replaced by hotels and hotels civ.
ing way to lofts, A striving ana a striv
ing, and permanence nowhere save il
the silent cities Of the dead
Memphis personItlcs energy. Intel
Hgent, wen-directed energy. From th'
huge buildings In the heart Of the CITY
to the humble bungalow in the suburb
there radiatea force that is surely an,
resistlessly calling into being a cit,
that will he n world-force and a bless
ing 10 countless generations yet u
cogne Every loyal Memphtan feels tina
this city has future boundless In It
scope and transforms that thought Int
deeds We are but on the threshold {
tho great things we are yet to dc
, Memphian spirit transformed by Mem
phlan energy win do It