Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-05

New demands arose and people bat
tened on them. But food was gam
cred for the hungry in order tnat CIie
gatherers might possess neans/o1 I'M
mediate spending. Markets ana great
| houses of supply gave place 10 HGCle
booths and stands City streets became
| like fairs. where people, were spending
the day and not the year. ana con-
startly the booths changed 11ands. In
great centers of population 1t was 6aIo
there was suffering, but information
came as spasmodically and 1nadequately
as it had formerly come by motion pic
ture news reels. Vicarion views OF New
York showed sandwich and fruit ana
vegetable stands on Broadway. Filth
avenue was deserted. Stores, shops ana
hotels were empty; theaters were
thronged. But for once New Workers
we're attending their own shows, WINE
former transient patrons stayed at nome
with theirs. And neither class did any
thing else!
But nobody wanted to look at mere
streets or mere crowds. Tt was the
great rough, hot moment of passion
greed. hate, fury, love!-that they
wanted. They got it. And the more
they got of it, the more crazed was
the demand. No one could analyze
the situation, no one could predict. the
outcome. No one tried. it, seemed. 1t
was uncomfortable that there was not
somewhere authority that could inter-
fere. But government is, after all. OF
and by and for the people. Officialdom
was swept aside like wisp before a
mighty referendum. Never in all his
tory had there been such an object les
son in government, but no one paused
to observe. Kings, councils, congresses
or creeds-they WELD nothing If not the
PEOPLES will! And the people willed to
live in the deeds of the past! And so
they lived.
On a day-she had no idea what day.
whether a fortnight or a month after
she had seen him last-Phyllis found
Radley in his private Office. He was
strangely shaven and sleek. So many
men were not now! But to her vision
his lips we're steel and his eyes fire.
She hardly knew what she said to him
her thoughts spoke. >
How are people going to live, Rad
ley?" she asked.
He understood. There has always
been food enough in the world If the
race would only recognize it." he an
Swered, grain, fruit. nuts, herbs. game!
Everything we eat was once a weed or
an eater of weeds. When my world
grows hungry, I'll turn it out to grass"
His world! Joking still.
"But-cities full"
There's enough In cold storage to
support this generation" he told her,
grinning why worry about the next?
Maybe there won't be any next. And II
there isn't, I'll be the great benefactor
of the race: shall have put them out
of their misery"
He left her with some excuse she did
not hear and he did not come back.
She found herself later wandering in
the halls of the building-at the door
of multiple-unit room. Organization
was still here, apparently. Attendants
were on duty-she wondered how Brain
ard kept them there But If he could
enslave nation. he could command in
dividuals and groups. IT
But the employees were more nearly
normal than the men and women WHO
came and went. A girl passed her
whom she had known as one OF the
gayest of the young society buds that
Spring, Evelyn Candlar, eating an apple
or vegetable or a sandwich out OF
hand. A woman she knew as a leader
in club work came in looking assif she
had slept since she had combed her
hair. A man came out of booth as
if after a night of debauch, his hair
matted, his chin grizzled with craving
beard, his unwashed skin waxy, his
mouth scarlet and dry. -
She stood aside and watched. Here
were tops and butterflies who had
dropped out of the social parade-for-
getting to shave and to dresSi Decency
was bedraggled. Pretense was pune
tured, as in the presence of a public
disaster. But If the youngsters startled
her, the older ones were tragic. 1t was
middle age that paid high for sensa-
tons. Boys and girls were jaded; their
fathers and mothers were sapped. She
saw men drink from TASKS, alone. in
the presence of others. She saw women
sip at small walls. unashamed. They
did not talk to each other; they slipped
into booths and lay down, to draw hoods
over their faces-and the curtains fell
upon their surrender People who had
gone to underground dens in days past
for their drugs had had the grace to get
out of sight But nobody here seemed
conscious of observation.
A woman came from a booth, her
face wet with emotional tears, and de-