Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-08
Continued from Yesterdays Starr
INSTALLMENT XXXIII.

UT the crowd itself was the great
- err phenomenon. Here were
thousands upon thousands of
~ people! She had not guessed
that there were so many in the
| whole city. And a strange crowd
| it was! Used as she had become to
some of the changes in men and their
ways that had been effected by the new
element in their lives, she had seen no
such massed evidence as this
Nearly everybody was on foot! Where
at such a gathering few weeks or
months ago there would have been
thousands of motors. here were dusty
men, women, and children dependent
upon their own muscles for making
their way to and from their destina-
tions-and eagerly forgetful, it seemed,
of all discomfort. Like country circus
entrance gates. Except that there was
little jolity or laughter among them.
Van Wrinkle OWNED some of her
thoughts. "Chauffeurs are scarce these
days" he said, land it's hard to get
cars repaired-or even supplied"
But the faces Phyllis saw fascinated
her. She found it impossible to single
them out and scan them separately.
Perhaps 1t was the dust; some Of them
seemed masked with it, as it settled OH
sweating skins. Besides, 1t was the mass
effect that continually forced itself upon
her. The tremendous scene had unity
of its own, that refused to divide tn
the eye or to the mind. The people
were not people-they were drove,
herd, a hundred thousand animals OF
the same mold and markings-of the
same temper and intenti They moved
alike, they carried themselves alike, they
looked alike. It was as If some vital
inner resemblance of each to all and all
to each had turned its way to the sur
face of every individual, obliterating all
insignificant personality! Merely hui
man. all of them--cut to fashion, like
their clothes. AS like as manikins! So
many skins stretched upon so many
sets of bones, upon so many skulls, vary
ing only where Slight inaccuracies
CHANGED, tiny mischances and insists!
Or as toys-wooden toys turned on
the same lathe, to the same form,
smoothed in tumbler, painted with
stencil.
She seemed to see men as Nature
saw then1-a swarm, In which nothing
mattered but preservation and propaga-
ton of the species as species-where
the individual was nothing! So might
a Creator look upon them, who swept
them hither and yon by crowd passions.
crowd curiosity, crowd epidemic, crowd
madness-who welded them as a
plastic mass, forming Of them some
whole in which the crushing Of one or
any to conformity was Of no moment
was necessity, part Of the plan!
It was stunning, dazing thing, that
onward sweep of the multitude like the
whitening rush of surf. Bubbles were
no more alike than heads! The plunge
of waves, driven by forces over which
they had no control and OF which they
had no cognizance seemed no more blind
than the incoming of this tide! Who
but its Creator might dare to NEEDLE
with its ebb and flow?
Within the gigantic arena-it was
nothing less-waS a great penned sea!
Organization of sort was here.
There was authority, direction. But the
multitude was docile-so long as there
was O continuous channel in which to
flow. In streams 1t divided and swept
In many ways and filled in where the
vast basin was not already utterly full.
But Phyllis became part OF 1t, and
forgot for the time that she nursed
delusion of separateness. She Won
dered momentarily If the seats to which
she and her companion were guided
were not the only ones reserved. But
there expectancy seized her like fever,
as she looked down into that great
valley of humanity, in the center OF
which was but small open space.
ST suppose you understand" said Van
Wrinkle, at her side, that Brainard
has a new trick of releasing records
She turned to him.