Evening star., 1925-11-30
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Union Station at night is different
depot from Union Station during the
day.
Shadows Of evening, casting their
lengths over the far end Of the um
brella sheds, in the corners of the
concourse, along dimly lit tracks
prlng that sense Of the unusual dear
TO all human beings.
Why darkness should remain un
usual to us, after all these centuries
is almost as much a mystery as the
night itself, unless il is that human
beings were never meant to be VI
later than twilight.
Perhaps Nature intended us to &c
to bed with the chickens, az they
really used to do In the country, and
somehow, we feel our guilt. we OF the
cities. we who stay up until all hours
priding ourselves upon 1t.
The night still strikes us as out OF
the ordinary.
Even the hardest rounder of them
all never gets entirely used to the
shadows. He may make a great play
OF life. turning night into day. az he
says, but deep in his somewhat sinful
heart remains a sense OF something
out Of the ordinary.
We are animals of the sun, we hu.
mans, living in 1t. drinking 1t into our
systems, living on foods in which sun.
shine is stored away as in packages
SO that our familiarity with the night
Is mostly pretense.
Darkness. dusk, night, shades
shadows. gloom, these are terms
which mankind long ago ascribed 70
features of living hostile to him. At
night everything takes on aspects
new, strange. The imagination Is let
loose.
AT night anything may happen!
~
This guilt Of mankind. in particular
and general in daring the night and
the unknown, perhaps is responsible
for the crimes committed when dark
ness covers the face of our portion OF
the earth, when churchyards yawn
as Shakespeare says, and hell Itself
garbs for evil.
At Union Station artificial light
strikes compromise with the engulf
Ing darkness, in a way more dramatic
than in the street or the theater. Here
where the great trains come roaring
out Of the darkness. to deposit their
human freight, hour after hour. light
welcomes the returning traveller ant
sends the fearful on their way.
AS II TO break the darkness to the
returning one by three easy stages
there are few lights under the um
brella sheds. In the concourse itself
huge. almost empty in its bigness
three rows Of light. hung high under
the shed. do somewhat better for those
who come through the gates.
The light is still dim, however. &C
that one has to look close at a ticket
as he goes through. Lights close over
the train blackboards and at the mag.
azine stand make bright spots in the
otherwise dimly lit concourse.
The home conner. stepping into the
station waiting rooms. comes at once
into n soft radiance that is perhaps
one OF the finest jobs of the so-called
indirect lighting in the world.
There is plenty of light In here.
Yet there is no glare. Even when
one sits in the wide. roomy benches
with their high backs, and allows his
eyes to wander TO the source Of the
light, cleaning there somewhere be-
hind the enormous statues, one after
the other, alternately alike, he does
not feel his eyes wink at what he sees
Rather a sense of comfort Is his
as he watches the play Of light and
shadow. and realizes the enormous
Wattage Of the concealed lights, lights
so carefully, so cleverly shielded that
there Is no sense of binding power
at all. Neither are there any evi
dent shadows. such as one might sup
pose would result from such a system